nature.-I, therefore, felt myself justified in making trial of a Medicine in itself harmless, the effects of which more than answered my expectations.'

In consequence of this speculation, iron was employed both externally and internally, in some cases of what were supposed to be cancerous affections, and a part of which had existed for a considerable length of time and had baffled various remedies: when on all of them the effect of the iron was highly beneficial.

After an account of his experiments, the author enters into an examination of the opinions both of the antients and moderns; respect. ing the nature of cancer. He thinks that the idea suggested by Dr. Adams is alone worthy of attention: but, although he coincides with that Gentleman in his conclusion as to the independent existence of cancer, he adopts the opinion on other grounds, and differs from the Doctor with respect to what he considers as the essential part of the cancerous substance. It is not to the cysts containing the greenish fat, but to the substance resembling cartilage, with its annexed bands and roots,' that he attaches the property of independent vitality but the arguments, by which he supports his conjecture, are in our estimation extremely feeble. They consist in a fancied resemblance between the structure of cancers and that of some of the polypi; in an unfounded assumption that cancerous affections are chiefly found in parts which possess the lowest degree of life, and that such parts are particularly suited for the existence of parasitical animals; and in other conjectures equally vague and unsatisfactory. It is not a little remarkable that, in enumerating the arguments in favour of the independent vitality of cancer, the author uses the one which was employed by Dr. Adams, although he had previously declared that he regarded it as without foundation. Notwithstanding the complete futility of Mr. C.'s hypothesis, however, we think that his practice deserves a fair trial. Even if the affections which he treated were not actually cancerous, which indeed we apprehend to be the case, still we may entertain some hopes of acquiring a new and powerful remedy in a class of diseases which are both dangerous and

untractable.

II.

Art. 29. The Metaphysic of Man; or, the pure Part of the Physiology of Man: containing, I. Fundamentals of the Metaphysic of Nature in general, particularly of the Organized Part; as an Introduction for a Basis of a scientifical System of Medicine. The Organography of Man: or a Description of the organical Modifications, in Space. III. The Proper Metaphysic of Man; or the Explication of an ideal Athletic Health; as a Description of Man in Time; from the Moment of his Origin, to that when he ceases to be. With Fifteen Tables, and an Engraving. Translated from the German (recently published) of J. C. Goldbeck, By S.F. Waddington, M.D. 8vo. 6s. Boards. Highley. In his preface, Dr. Waddington speaks of the merits of this treatise in the highest terms of commendation; he informs us that it contains many discoveries of the first importance in practice; he is even inclined to compare them with the introduction of vaccination,

in respect to the probable advantages which mankind may derive from them; and he does not scruple to rank them with Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood.-Although no great admirers of German metaphysics, we were thus induced to enter on the work with considerable eagerness: but, notwithstanding our utmost exertions, we were absolutely unable to comprehend either its general scope and design, or the meaning of its individual parts. All that we can detect is, that the author sets a high value on mathematics, despises chemistry, and is an enthusiastic admirer of Kant.

If, however, we have it not in our power to give our readers an abstract or analysis of this performance, we can at least present them with a specimen of it; and for this purpose, we quote a passage from the commencement of the essay.

Introduction. The Phenomenology of Nature in general.-Addition and Explication.

If we admit that every thing in the world consists of a simple substance or matter, as the real part of space; and that space and time are merely forms of imaginary objects, it will be found, that all the phenomena, that we can conceive such matter to give, are described within two points; the one as punctum unitas, and the other, the punctum multiplicitas.

Addition.There is but one matter, or substance, that fills space; it is usually termed raw. Every thing that has been observed in nature, is a substance formed from this matter, which by the fundamental forms of our imaginary view of objects, time and space appears differently modified.

Explication. This matter, when considered merely as filling up space, gives an idea of the raw matter. When this idea of the raw matter is connected with the idea of time, phenomena are perceived in the matter, which are formed by us into attributes, and magnified by the possibility of an opposite point, produce other attributes in consequence. Thus, an enlivened universe is produced, in which, properly speaking, no raw matter can be conceived. From such enlivened matter, the form arises; viz. an explicative, firm absolute necessity of succession, of several other attributes of the enlivened matter, in a distinct order. This form must always be considered as enlivened, as being produced by the enlivened matter; and which, without space and sime, cannot be conceived at all. From these enlivened forms it is, that we, the self forms, can attain our ideas.'

POETRY and the DRAMA.

Art. 30. The Invisible Girl; a Piece in One Act, as performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Written by Theodore Edward Hook. 8vo. Is. 6d. C. and R. Baldwin.

Art. 31.

Catch him who can. A musical Farce, in Two Acts. By Theodore Edward Hook. 8vo. Is. 6d. C and R. Baldwin. These two little pieces may be classed together, as possessing no claim on a reader's attention. In the representation, they might perhaps have given room for an actor to shew the versatility of his

powers,

powers, or have afforded opportunities for the warbling of a melodious voice.

Art.

32. The Laughable Lover. A Comedy, in Five Acts. By Carol O'Caustic. 8vo. 23. 6d. Symonds. Carol O'Caustic fancies that he is very satirical, and deals about his blows with great fury: but, unluckily, in his own performance, he gives his antagonists too many occasions for revenge: like an unskilful fowler, determined on murder, who rams down a double charge into his barrel, and is knocked backwards by the recoil of his piece.

Art. 33. Poems. By Henry Fox Cooper. 8vo. 45. Cadell and

Davies

Our readers will probably be amused by the following extract from poems in this collection, intitled the Suicide:'

one of the

'Oh Death! how many victims bow,

To thy cold arms consign'd,
Some by the die are soon laid low
And some not sound in mind.

Full sorrows often gorge thy tomb,
And turn which way we will,
We find that oft in time's big womb
Injustice dooms to kill.

To prove that friendship's but a name,
As our sweet bard has sung,
And "follows nought but wealth and fame,"
Should through the land be rung,

• A Fact I'll tell which late occurred
And came within my view,
Which when unfolded and is heard
Must shew the bard sung true.

• A crowd had gather'd on a bank
Where ..... waters play,

Which evening's shade had made quite dank
Just at the close of day.

Then instant to the place I ran

And saw what made me feel,

Just from the river-drawn a man

And held up by the heel.

'Pale was his face, and swell'd his form

Though genteel was his make,

And pity each one's breast did warm

That life should him forsake,' &c. &c. &c.

We are ready to allow that many of Mr. C.'s performances rise nearer to mediocrity than the specimen just given: but they also furaish instances of greater improprieties of language and versification.

Art. 34. Poems, chiefly descriptive of the softer and more delicate Sensations and Emotions of the Heart; original and translated, or imitated from the works of Gesner. By Robert Fellowes, A.M. Oxon. 12mo. 4s. 6d. Boards. Mawman.

Some persons will probably be not a little surprised at seeing a grave divine, who has been recently occupied on the sombre subject of Death, now employed in

"Sporting with Amaryllis in the shade

Or with the tangles of Neæra's hair;"

(Milton.)

but Mr. Fellowes perhaps would say that, while life continues, whether for a longer or a shorter date, it is wise to sweeten it with love; and that he is sanctioned by the example of Horace, who urges the circumstance of Death as a motive for losing no time in cultivating the soft emotions of the heart. In our court, Mr. F. will not be asked to give a reason for being in love, or for expressing his passion in numbers: we shall not object to his endeavours to enliven his pursuits by cultivating poetry; but he must forgive us if we express our concern at discovering that the dancing Muse is not so propitious to his fame as the sedate matron Theology. From bloated and unnatural phraseology,' his pieces are certainly free, and so also are those of Sternhold and Hopkins: but Mr. F. seems to have forgotten a maxim of Horace, "In vitium ducit culpa fuga, si caret arte." It is not sufficient to constitute good poetry that the writer avoids the extremes of affectation and bombast; he must also shun with equal care those of tameness and negligence. Verse should be elevated above prose both in thought and expression; while it ought not to be stiff and inflated, it should be elegant and polished; and it is not a sufficient apology for a prosaic and drawling rhimer, that it has been his aim to be natural and easy. When lines creep along on monosyllabic feet, when the natural construction is inverted for the sake of the metre, and when, in what is called poetry, neither grace nor cffect is manifested, we cannot suspend the task of criticism because the writer has not been guilty of bloated phraseology.' We had not read many pages before we saw that Mr. F.'s ideas of poetry were yery unlike our own; and, as we proceeded, our dissatisfaction increased. Few ballad verses are, we believe, inferior to the following;

To thee this vase I vow, if thou❜lt agree,

What I for Mary feel to make her feel for me.'

In the longest poem of the collection, intitled, "The first seaman, or
Love teaching the art of Navigation,' which, as bordering on the
Epic, claims some majesty of verse, the same ease appears as in the
smaller poems. Take these couplets as specimens:

With patient skill I'll scoop the hollow tree
Till it is capable of holding me.'

Few days had lapsed when the hollow tree
Shap'd by his art, a boat began to be."

Sure 'twould be folly, nay, rank madness be,
In such a crazy back to put to sea.'

'See, cries the youth, my life, my love, there see

The hollow trunk that brought me safe to thee.'

Mr. F. assumes to himself the merit of having been studious of perspicuity: but, if he has not embarrassed the reader by the sesquipedalia verba, he obliges him to think twice to find the meaning of his inverted language.-The couplet,

Does not the tamest sheep which I possess

Rejoice with me than with his fellows less,'

is not a more striking instance of words transposed from their natural order, for the sake of the verse, than the line

"And he will me home take"

in Sternhold's and Hopkins's version of the Psalms.

The virtuous, when the virtuous love,

That love is form'd to last.'

Here Mr. F. has begun a sentence, but, not having finished it, the lines are incapable of construction.

The Elegy, in which the author takes a glance at his personal situation, interested us in the perusal, though the last lines of the 5th and 15th stanzas are very imperfect. We transcribe two stanzas ;

For he, whom Nature with fine taste befriends,
Who, sensitive to beauty's impulse glows,
Appropriates all wherein his sight extends,
His is the landscape wheresoe'er he goes.

• Much have I suffer'd on life's rugged way;
Treach'ry has pierc'd me with her barbed dart;
But when I look on Nature's prospect gay

A balmy softness steals o'er all my heart."

A truth important to Genius is expressed in the first of these stanzas. The great may have the nominal possession of the earth, but only men of taste can enjoy it.

The version of the French triolet, p. 52. is rendered incomplete by the omission of the Name,

P 4

POLITICS