Lo, while yon mighty billows onward boom,See, how the lightning gilds their snowy foam ! With livid lustre lights their vast abyss, While furious winds around their summits hiss! Then bursts the rattling thunder-clap on highAnd, thron'd on brazen chariots, rolls along the sky! Where beats about the gallant Rosalband, Dread is the struggle thou must pass to-day! endure! Mark how the captain, pacing yon high deck,-Sunk is his fiery eye, and blanch'd his cheek! His tight lip quivers,-but his step is firm; His bold heart quails-yet nervous is his arm! But look:-he stamps-vehement clasps his hand And swears-"I'll perish with thee, gallant Down crash the masts upon the boiling deep; in scorn; Another peal! the blustering sea derides in turn! Heard ye the wail of yon poor maid's despair? Wild o'er her brow streams her dishevell'd hair: Quench'd is the lustre of her bright black eye, One hour ago, in pleasure's glittering reign, The labour'd cosmetics from off thy varying face! No careful shroud shall fold thy beauteous clay, No matron hand shall lave thee; but the spray Shall bubble coldly o'er thy pallid face, Clasp'd in no lover's, but a rock's embrace: Ay-and thy dainty bosom, fall and white, The fierce devouring fish to banquet shall invite! Now o'er their deck bursts the tremendous wave; Awhile they drift above their yawning grave "All hands on deck!"-the captain calls :—and why? Fate peals the frightful answer-'tis to die! What sound was that?-It was a knell of death! Of writhing-choking, agony beneath! Then shudder to behold that dreadful band— Jamm'd in the rocks, or smother'd in the sand! They did but die-a doom thyself must share; Yet cease: thy grief in manly silence bear: But how!-devout, we ask thee, God on high! Nor roaring tumults agitate the scene: Q.Q. Q. REVIEW.-"Friendship's Offering," a Literary Album, edited by Thomas K. Hervey, 12mo. pp. 413. London. Lupton Relfe, Cornhill, 1826. THIS volume is of the same class with the "Amulet," which we reviewed in our number for December, and with "Forget me Not," which appears in the present month. All are decorated with external splendour, having fine paper, gilt edges, beautiful plates, and miscellaneous variety, and appearing as rivals in the market of taste and elegant display. The contents, however, vary considerably. The Amulet contains articles exclusively of a moral and a religious nature."Forget me Not," abounds in tales, incidents, and poetical effusions; and "Friendship's Offering," is amusing and entertaining, without exacting from intellect any severe contributions. In this volume there are thirteen highly finished copper-plate engravings, connected with subjects that occupy some of its pages. The articles are ninety-six in number, the greater part of which bear the names of their respective authors, many of whom are well known in the literary world. As compositions, they are such as might be expected from their pens,-full of vivaicty, and furnishing strong evidence of genius; and amidst the amusement which they cannot fail to afford, we have found nothing at which virtue can take alarm, or that will tinge the cheek of modesty with a blush. Some of the tales are highly interesting, and by youthful readers, they will be perused with those conflicting emotions, which incidents of rare occurrence are calculated to excite. It cannot be denied, that "The Wife," "The Dream," and a few others, are evidently written with an eye to dramatic effect. They contain the vicissitude, without the catastrophe which the reader was prepared to expect; and by well contrived transitions, anticipations of horror and sadness are turned either into an unforeseen channel, or into a burst of sudden joy. The writer who takes his stand in the suburbs of fiction, has a difficult task to perform. To blend the marvellous with the probable, without betraying any symptoms of the unnatural association, requires a delicacy of touch to which few are competent. 85.-VOL. VIII. Several attempts appear in the volume before us, but the authors have in general been unsuccessful. Some articles will indeed be admitted with but much on the romantic, that improbalittle inquiry, but others border so bility, awakening suspicion, puts the reader on the alert. Yet, perhaps, this circumstance, among a certain class may increase the number of its admirers, and even enhance its value in their estimation. REVIEW.-" Forget me Not," a Christmas and New-year's Present for 1826, 12mo. pp. 394. Ackermann, London. THIS is the fourth annual volume which has appeared under the above title, each of which has been distinguished for the beauty of its plates, the excellence of its typography, and the neatness of its execution in every department. The volume before us contains fourteen graphic embellishments, finished in a superior style of elegance, and displays as much taste in the design, as beauty in the engraving. In both of these respects, the plates cannot fail to give universal satisfaction. The exterior of this book has a very attractive appearance. The cover is decorated with delicate emblems, and the case in which it is enclosed, keeps it from being soiled, and preserves the uniformity. The paper is fine and good, the edges of the leaves are gilt, and no expense has been spared to give it a most inviting aspect. The articles which it contains are forty-eight in number, of which the greater part is prose; but, in several poetical compositions, the muse has been consulted with considerable advantage. To most of these articles, the names of their respective authors are annexed, and among them we find some of the more celebrated writers of the day. As literary productions, the style of each is worthy of the publication, nor have we found any thing that can offend either the eye or the ear of the nicest delicacy. The subjects, as it is natural to suppose, furnished by so many authors, are highly diversified; but although completely miscellaneous they all partake of one common character, including description, incident, F narrative, historical and biographical sketches, and entertaining stories. Taken in the aggregate, they are, however, better calculated to afford amusement than real instruction; nor can it be said that they furnish a fair delineation of real life. For this, several pieces border too much on the romantic; but to such readers as delight to expatiate in artificial existence, this will prove an additional recommendation. In a work of this description, we should not expect to find any thing profound, but we cannot avoid thinking, that it might have mounted a few degrees higher in the regions of intellect, without suffering any disadvantage. from the narrative, that, fired with heroic ardour, he repaired in early life to India, where he attained an exalted military rank; that, on retiring from the army, he returned to his native land, in which he still resides; that the mental conflicts which this volume records, took place chiefly while he was abroad; and that, from a profane and blasphemous infidel, he is become a humble follower of Jesus Christ. That this memorial contains a genuine picture of the author's mind, during its various and diversified stages of conflict, cannot for a moment be doubted. In every paragraph we perceive decisive marks of authenticity; the operations of the heart are ingenuously unfolded; and truth beams upon us without embellishment, and without disguise. A work like this, is beyond the reach of fabrication. It is also obvious, that the author is a man of powerful feelings, of a warm and lively imagination, inflexible in his decisions, prompt in all his actions, and incapable of doing any thing by halves. The same mental vigour which rendered him enterprising when a soldier, is visible in his spiritual speculations. There can be no doubt, that when its degree of elevation was taken, it was calculated on a meridian to please the youth of both sexes, and in this there can be no danger that it will amply succeed. But, in addition to these, the elegance and respectability of the volume point it out as a handsome present for friendship, when both the givers and the receivers have passed their teens. It is on these distinct grounds that the situation of the authors appear peculiarly delicate. To cater in the same work for tastes so diversified as the readers of" ForHaving acquired an intimate acget me Not" can hardly fail to possess, quaintance with Euclid, and perceived is a task of almost insuperable diffi- the beauty of mathematical principles culty. It is a soil in which axioms and reasoning, he formed the romantic and definitions will not flourish, and idea, of making moral truth, and even in a publication of this kind, nothing revelation itself, subservient to a simicould atone for the absence of spright-lar process. To him analogy lends liness and vivacity. her light in almost every thing; and so acute is the author's power of discernment, that he can discover coincidences, where, to all besides, the resemblance would perhaps be invisible. The following paragraph will confirm this statement. It would be easy to give extracts from many pages of this elegant memento, but they would furnish no fair criterion of the work. On perusing the whole, the reader will find much innocent entertainment, and we envy not the morbid sensibility of any one, who, having examined its prose and verse, will close the book with a gloomy countenance. REVIEW.-Memoirs of a Deist, being a In this very singular performance, we "I then concluded from innumerable analo gies, that the law of right reason, being fixed, forth by the elements of geometry, as in Euclid's and immutably proportionate, was shadowed elements; and that the unsearchable laws of the imagination and the heart, being altogether variable, and fluctuating between good and evil, were represented truly and accurately by the doctrine of fluxions and attractions; and that the comprehensive aud universal expressions of algebra, were nothing more or less than the emblems of the respective natures and relative operations of good and evil, virtue and vice, truth and falsehood, which in like manner That man was placed as it were in the centre, were eternally plus and minus to each other. between the negative and positive scales, which might be expressed by two triangles, formed by the intersection of two straight lines, their equidistant bases being the extreme of good and evil, and of course, at the greatest distance from each other; while man, at the point of intersection, had both before him, and was free to choose either the one or the other, being in equilibrio." p. 103, 4. Such theories may furnish amusement, but we fear it will be at the expense of real instruction. If the author had confined himself to the memoirs of his life, and delineated the change wrought in his heart, without giving to us geometrical Christianity, and algebraic morals, we have no doubt that his book would be rendered more extensively beneficial, than it is likely to prove in its present form. REVIEW.-The Fruits of Faith, or If these are the fruits of faith, we fear Mr. C.'s stock of piety is very unproductive, or at least is fruitful only in garbage. The preface is a diatribe on the Religious Tract Society, who refused the offer of printing, for general distribution, the "Fruits of Faith ;”—and they were in the right of it. To us, the perusal of the whole volume has been work "weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable;" and we doubt not it will be so to all those of our readers who are foolish enough to expend their money on this foolish volume. We are startled, moreover, by an advertisement on the last page, which | threatens the infliction on the public of two more volumes: "Duty and Love," and "Trials and Triumphs." If the author be as unsuccessful in these embryo poems as in the one under review, we would advise him to Parnassus, and confine his pen to the cease attempting the flowery hill of legitimate objects of his engrossing profession.-Verbum sapienti! REVIEW.-The Evangelical Rambler. 1825. THIS volume, like the two that have The On the subject of Negro emancipation, in four parts, a strong and powerful appeal is made to the British public, on behalf of this much injured race; but against unfeeling villany, justice and humanity seem to plead in vain. A moment, however, may arrive when the slaves will liberate themselves, and we then expect to see their wrongs retaliated with tenfold vengeance on their white oppressors. REVIEW.-The Lost Spirit, a Poem, WE frankly confess that we took up And deem'd thee more than mortal. We seem'd unearthly beings, light as wind with the splendour of Mr. Lawson's | My sonl did tremble with its weight of bliss. imagery, that we concluded the per- Inspir'd with awe, I reverenc'd thy form, usal of the poem at two sittings. Every line of it stamps the writer as a man of splendid powers; but we fear he allows in many places, too great scope to his rampant imagination. The conception of the poem is very powerful, and its execution is brilliant. We read the volume before us under a high degree of excitement; perhaps bordering on a state of mental intoxication. Instead of presenting the reader with a cold and calm abstract of this masterly production, we will extract one or two of the finest passages; when we think he will allow that our panegyric is not hyperbolical. -oh ethereal spirit," Smile once as thou didst smile, when roaming At even-tide, where, peaceful as the moon or shell-blast, like faint The threshold of the truth that spake thee mine. Cream-white and proud. So in the clouds of Prancing upon the golden precipice, skies Were in our path, and sapphire mountains rose In his grand course the sun, scattering abroad Amarant dropp'd her purple-cluster'd stars, roses, |