ART. XII. Llangollen Vale, with other Poems. By Anna Seward. 4to. 48 pp. 48 pp. 3s. 3s. 1796.

THE

HE name of Anna Seward has a claim upon us for early and diftinguished notice, and we haften to take this first opportunity which has offered of enrolling her compofitions in the principal and more important part of our publication. At a time when the Genius of Poetry feems almoft to have taken his departure from our country, it is an act of wifdom no lefs than of gratitude to fhow marked attention to his favourites; and when we have not the opportunity of venerating the thoughts that breathe, and words that burn," we may well be content with good fenfe, harmony, and polished tafte. We will take Mifs Seward's poems in their order. The firft is a defcription of the Vale of Llangollen, honoured by the refidence of Lady Eleanor Butler and Mifs Ponfonby, two ladies who refigned the allurements of elevated life, for the charms of friendhip, and pleafures of retirement. With an animated defcription of the natural beauties of the place, Mifs Seward blends what makes it memorable from hiftory, and concludes with a warm and affectionate tribute to the females to whom it is addreffed. The following are among the best stanzas of this poem :

"Mid the gay towers on fleep Din's Branna's cone,
Her Hoel's breaft the fair Mifanwy fires.-

O! Harp of Cambria, never haft thou known
Notes more mellifluent floating o'er the wires*,
Than when thy Bard this brighter Laura fung,
And with his ill-ftarr'd love Llangollen's echos rung.
Tho' Genius, Love, and Truth, infpire the strains,
Thro' Hoel's veins tho' blood illuftrious flows,
Hard as th' Eglwyfeg rocks her heart remains,
Her finile a fun-beam playing on their fnows;
And nought avails the Poet's warbled claim,
But, by his well-fung woes, to purchase deathlefs fame.
Thus confecrate to Love, in ages flown-
Long ages fled Din's-Branna's ruins fhow,
Bleak as they ftand upon their steepy cone,

The crown and contraft of the Vale below;

That, fcreen'd by mural rocks, with pride difplays
Beauty's romantic pomp. in every fylvan maze.
Now with a veftal luftre glows the Vale,

Thine, facred Friendship, permanent as pure,

In vain the fern Authorities affail,

In vain Perfuafion fpreads her filken lure,
High-born, and high-endow'd, the peerless Twain,
Pant for coy Nature's charms 'mid filent dale and plain.

N. B. Wires are not used for harps. Rev.

Thro'

Thro' Eleanora, and her Zara's mind,

Early tho' Genius, Tafte, and Fancy flow'd,
Tho' all the graceful Arts their powers combin'd,
And her laft polifh brilliant Life bestow'd,

The lavish Promifer, in Youth's foft morn,

Pride, Pomp, and Love, her friends, the fweet Enthufiafts fcorn.
Then rofe the Fairy Palace of the Vale,

Then bloom'd around it the Arcadian bowers;
Screen'd from the ftorms of Winter, cold and pale,
Screen'd from the fervors of the fultry hours,
Circling the lawny crefcent, foon they rofe,
To letter'd eafe devote, and Friendship's bleft repofe.
Smiling they rofe beneath the plaftic hand
Of Energy and Tafte-nor only they,
Obedient Science hears the mild command,

Brings every gift that fpeeds the tardy day,
Whate'er the pencil fheds in vivid hues,

Th' hiftoric tome reveals, or fings the raptur'd Mufe." P. 5. Mifs S. muft, however, excufe us if we think that in this Poem there is fometimes a want of perfpicuity, fometimes of fenfe, and more than one mark of affectation. We by no means approve of the frequent pofition of the verb before the nominative cafe, a liberty, or rather licentioufnefs, very feldoni to be found in authors of good authority. Thus, in p. 3. "Gleams the wan morn," et paffim. The following wants at leaft perfpicuity:

Now with a vestal luftte glows the Vale,

Thine, facred Friendship, permanent as pure;

And again, The dear minute Lyceum of the Dome" is very affected; nor do we think "What strains Æolian thrill the dark expanfe," very correct. Confecrate to Glory, and confecrate to Love," follow clofe upon each other. In p. 10, in defiance, we think, of fenfe, Mifs S. has thefe lines:

But the grim Idol vainly lafhed the hours

That dragged the mute and melancholy day:

The next is a poem on Wrexham, and the inhabitants of its environs, in which are fome very charming lines, and where we particularly admire the following compliment to Mrs. Price:

And friendly Price, as happy, free, and gay,
As when in life and beauty's rofy May,

She thone the Hebe of her green retreat,
With half the youth of Cambria at her feet,"

"Hoyle Lake" is addreffed to Sir John Stanley, and is written in the elegiac form; the beginning of this poem is fomewhat profaic, but it contains much to pleafe, if not to delight. The following are the beft lines:

"When fear ftruck feamen 'mid the raging flood,
Hear thundering fhipwreck yell her dire decrees;
See her pale arm rend every fail and shroud,
And o'er the high maft lift her whelming feas.

"If to thy quiet harbour, gentle Hoyle,
The fhattered navy thro' the tempest flies,
Each joyous mariner forgets his toil,

And carols to the vainly angry fkies."

The tranflation, or rather, as Mifs S. calls it, bold paraphrafe, on an ancient Norfe Poem, called Herva, a Ruric Dialogue, has more true poetic fpirit, in our opinion at least, than any other compofition in this collection. It would be injurious to infert only a part of this, and we have not room for the whole. The tribute to Eyam, the place of the author's nativity, does great honour to her fenfibility and tenderness, and the fame obfervation may truly be applied to the " Verses on Time paft," which conclude thus:

"Affection, Friendship, Sympathy, your throne
Is winter's glowing hearth; and ye were curs;
Thy finile, Honora, made them all our own:
Where are they now? alas! their choiceft powers
Faded at thy retreat; for thou art gone,
And many a dark long Eve I figh alone,
In thrill'd remembrance of the vanish'd hours,
When storms were dearer than the balmy gales,

And Winter's bare bleak fields, than green luxuriant vales.”

Mifs Seward finishes the prefent publication with fome elegant fonnets, one of which we gladly infert. They form a part of a Centenary of Sonnets," which the author, at fome future period, propofes to publifh collectively.

"SONNET,

"Yes, thou fhalt fmile again!-Time always heals,
In youth, the wounds of forrow.-O! survey
Yon now-fubfided deep, thro' night a prey
To warring winds, and to their furious peals
Surging tumultuous-Yet, as in dismay,

The fettling billows tremble-Morning feils
Grey on the rocks; and foon, to pour the day
From the freak'd eaft, the radiant orb unveils
In all his pride of light. Thus fhall the glow
Of beauty, health, and hope, by foft degrees,

Spread

Spread o'er thy breaft;-difperfe thefe ftorms of woe:
Wake with foft Pleasure's fenfe, the wish to please,
Till from thofe eyes the wonted luftres flow,

Bright as the Sun, on calm, and cryftal Seas." P. 45.

On the whole, we have been agreeably amufed by these clegant effufions. But we think that Mifs S. difcovers a fond partiality for particular words and modes of expreffion inconfiftent with the pride and dignity of genius. Some of thefe we have particularized, and cannot help remarking that the word thrill feems perpetually prefent to the author's mind, and fo familiar to her pen, as not always to be introduced with felicity-thrill'd on Sorga's bank, p. 4-thrill the dufk expanfe, p. 9the laft trumpet thrills its murky gloom, p. 14, in which two laft paffages it is nonfenfe.-Rites of thrilling power, p. 23thrill'd remembrance, p. 39, where it is not much better than nonfenfe.-thrill'd remembrance again, p. 42. Notwithstanding thefe little blemishes, the lovers of poetry will be highly gratified by thefe productions of Mifs Seward's pen, and look with much impatience of curiofity for more..

ART. XIII. A general View of the Establishment of Phyfic as a Science in England, by the Incorporation of the College of Phyfitians, London, together with an Inquiry into the Nature of that Incorporation, in which it is demonftrated, that the Exclufion of all Phyficians, except the Graduates of Oxford and Cambridge, from the corporate Privileges of the College, is founded on Ufurpation, being contrary to the Letter and Spirit of its Charter. By Samuel Ferris, M. D. F. S. A. 8vo. 168 pp. 35. 6d. Johnfon. 1795.

THE object of this piece, as the title in part expresses, is to

fhow that all perfons pafling an examination before the College of Phyficians, and approving themfelves qualified to engage in the practice of phyfic, have a right to demand a seat in the College, and to be participators in the rights and privileges of that corporation. This fubject has been frequently agitated; and, in the year 1771, was argued before the Court of King's Bench: but from fome informality on the part of the licentiates, they were nonfuited. The caufe is now renewed by a fall number of the licentiates, and as they have avoided the informalities in the former application, they hope to bring the question before the court in fuch a fhape, as to have it finally fettled. The author of this tract, who is one

of the members affociated for the purpofe, appears to have taken great pains to establish his pofition. He begins by giving a hiftory of the foundation of the College, and examining all the changes and alterations that have been made in the byelaws, as far as he has been able to trace them; and endeavours to fix the time when the diftinction was first made between the fellows, and permifli, or licentiates. This appears however to have been very retmote, as he finds them so described as early as the year 1555*. But the antiquity of this regulation ought not, the author obferves, to have any weight, if he can prove that it is diametrically oppofite to the fpirit and intention of the charter under which they were incorporated. To afcertain this point, he enters into a minute investigation of that inftrument, and concludes by ftating it as his opinion, that no power was given, or intended to be given to the College, to confine the privilege of admiflion into their body, to the graduates of Cambridge or Oxford, or to any other class of students; but that it was open to all men properly qualified, wherefoever educated, if not otherwife incapacitated by the laws of the country. As there is fome ambiguity in the wording of the charter, which is evident, from the frequent difputes to which it has given rife, it would tend much to clear up difficulty, if we could recur to the practice of the College immediately after it was incorporated; laws being generally more ftrialy executed when firft made, as ftreams run more clear and pure the nearer their fountain. But few documents of this period are to be found, the archives of the College having been probably burnt with their houfe in Great Knight-Riderftreet. Dr. Aikin, who intended to have given a general biography of the medical practitioners of this country, after a long and laborious refearcht, was obliged to confine himself to a few sketches, from which very little light is thrown upon this queftion. Chriftopher Haughtont, who lived at this period, although he appears to have had a competent fhare of knowledge, does not call himfelf member of the College of Physi cians. The fame may be obferved of Thomas Reynold, who in the year 1545, published a tranflation of Eucharius Rhodius's book De Partu hominis. From these inftances it is apparent, that not all who were allowed to practice phyfic, even

* See p. 76.

+ See preface to Biographical Memoirs of Medicine, by J. Aikin. See his Introduction to Phyfic, with an univerfal Diet, no date, and his Treatife de Principalibus Medicine Partibus, 1548. The former book, in a manufcript note in our copy, is dated 1521.