"The flags and sea-weeds will awhile sustain "Devour thy little bark: I'll sit me down, "And sing to thee, sweet babe; thou canst not hear; "But 'twill amuse me, while I watch thy fate." The following passage, p. 45, 46, is out of nature. JOCHEBED. "But soft, does no one listen?-Ah! how hard, "And shapes imagin'd miseries into being." David's prayer, part iv. of DAVID and GOLIATH, is too long, abounding with repetitions and inconsistencies. In every line is an address, just like the prayer of the non-descripts, which is all a beginning, no middle, or body, and whose termination is God knows where. In short, it is not a prayer. The sacred dramas, or holy bible plays, is, I think, a burlesque of religion. What she has written under that title, is no illustration of the story, frequently a perversion of it. We feel, thereby, no virtue confirmed, no vice corrected, and yet there is a perpetual exertion in defence of virtue. H. More's merit consists in a power and ability to say much with much exertion; yet she has the misfortune, though she affords a little pleasure and amusement, of leaving no impression behind, just as it has been remarked of my brother Sir A. Elton's speeches, in which there is always a verbiage, a copia verborum, that when he has ended we remember nothing of what he has said, "Did I unjustly seek to build my name "The low deceit, th' unmanly calumny?" In the REFLECTIONS of KING HEZEKIAH, her measure is badly chosen, and she appears to be more than usually feeble, though the subject might have led her to higher strains. Blank verse would have suited the subject better, "Come and home" are false rhymes. I defy any man of judgment and sense to read her prologue, even were she a woman of considerable beauty, and to say, " that is the woman I would choose to marry." The man who marries wishes for simplicity and female accomplishments, not a 66 IT, HE, SHE Ccreature." "If she shou'd set her heart upon a rover, "And he prove false, she'd kick her faithless lover." That I may not be charged with injustice, I will here transcribe from David and Goliath, a passage containing one of her best descriptions. P. 101-2. DAVID. "Not so, O King! "This youthful arm has been imbru'd in blood, "Forth from the thicket rush'd upon the fold, "Seiz'd a young lamb, and tore their bleating spoil. From her BELSHAZZAR, p. 143. DANIEL. "Yes, Thou art ever present, Pow'r Supreme? "Not circumscrib'd by time, nor fix'd to space, "Confin'd to altars, nor to temples bound. "In wealth, in want, in freedom, or in chains, "In dungeons or on thrones, the faithful find thee! "E'en in the burning cauldron thou wast near "To Shadrach and the holy brotherhood: "The unhurt martyrs bless'd thee in the flames; 66 They sought, and found Thee; call'd, and Thou wast there." If her best friends can select from her works passages more favourable to her merit, I shall be glad to look at them. Her SEARCH after HAPPINESS she says she wrote in very early youth. Her experience then she acquired very early, for she writes like a matron. Experience, knowledge, innocence, are not attributes of the same person. H. More's experience, therefore, by her own account, was attained in very early youth. She wrote the prologue herself, from which I transcribe "No husband wrong'd who trusted and believ'd, "No libertine in glowing strains describ'd, "No lying chambermaid that rake had brib'd.” Who would wish to see his daughter or his sister speak this prologue, this succedaneum for "less pure" compositions, before a large company? "Whether we learn too well what we describe, "Or fail the Poet's meaning to imbibe; "In either case your blame we justly raise, "In either lose, or ought to lose, your praise.” Why the dramatic mode of discussing a didactic or protreptical subject was chosen, no reason can be given; but, as the Dean said, "Like every cock she must be treading.". The lady must be a universal genius. "I sigh'd (says she, p. 296) for fame, I languish'd for renown, "I would be flatter'd, prais'd, admir'd, and known. "To boast each. various faculty of mind, 66 Thy graces, Pope! with Johnson's learning join'd." An enquiry after happiness, in the form of a pastoral drama, sounds like a sermon in rhyme, or a dramatic homily, or a play in a church. But her genius is not of that gigantic strength which, like the sun contending with a dark and cloudy atmosphere, at length in its struggles bursts out, dispeling all surrounding vapours, into a clear and perfect day; or that forceth nature, or the rules of art founded in nature, to sink and disappear before her, and that calls into existence a new creation. Her strength consists in the faculty of casting the prose thoughts of others into rhyme, and thus hashed, made up and garnished, and seasoned with the sound of "Virtue and religion," the cook being a female, criticism lost its sting, and dropped her fastidiousness. The fecundity of this prolific lady is multifarious, and her numerous offspring might have passed from the cradle to the grave, had she not been blessed with a pair of good sparkling, wandering eyes, and a censer always smoking in her hand, which when perceived, disarmed the critics. Although it is not meant to deny her some literary merit, it is certain she is not entitled to the praise bestowed. Her literary reputation is principally factitious; and had she not made a noise about religion, merely to have a party, for she thought it was better to reign among them than serve elsewhere, she would have been, as now she is likely soon to be, entirely forgotten.Her popularity was acquired with a very small stock of original genius; and secured and retained by flattery and cunning. But that charm is now dissolved. Circumstances have occurred to be for ever lamented by her and her friends, which have made the world desirous of knowing more intimately a character which possessed address, with so humble a genius, to attract so much attention, |