dent expreffion in English; or from its peculiarity, might, in a modern language, feem flat, he has endeavoured to infpirit it, by collateral thoughts from other Poets; and where its colours were languid, to heighten them,-with what fuccefs, the Reader muft determine.'

This fubmiffion, to which all Writers are indifcriminately reduced, admonishes us to present our Readers directly with fome fpecimens of the work, from whence they may determine accordingly. The firft elegy, being tranflated by an ingenious friend of the Author's, will be excepted from any quotations, though it would admit of fome very pleafing ones.

The following description of the powers of a witch, feigned to be employed by Tibullus in an intrigue, is from the fecond elegy of the firft book.

By potent fpells, fhe cleaves the facred ground,
And fhuddering fpe&res wildly roam around!
I've seen her tear the planets from the sky!
Seen light'ring backward at her bidding fly!
She calls! from blazing pyres the corfe defcends,
And, re-enliven'd, clafps his wondering friends!
The fiends fhe gathers with a magic yell,
Then with afperfions frights them back to Hell!
She wills-glad fummer gilds the frozen pole !
She wills-in fummer wintry tempests roll!
She knows, ('tis true) Medea's awful fpell!
She knows to vanquish the fierce guards of Hell!
To me fhe gave a charm for lovers meet,

(Spit thrice, my Fair, and thrice the charm repeat.")
Us, in foft dalliance fhould your Lord furprize,

By this infatuate, he'd renounce his eyes!

But blefs no rival, or th' affair is known;
This incantation me befriends alone.

Tibullus' defcription of the golden age, which Dr. Grainger afferts Ovid has imitated (though no Poet, perhaps, had lefs occafion to borrow or imitate) has been efteemed very poetical and happy. It runs thus in the present Translation.

How bleft man liv'd in Saturn's golden days,
E'er diftant climes were join'd by length'ned ways.
Secure the pine upon the mountain grew,
Nor yet o'er billows in the ocean filew,

Then ev'ry clime a wild abundance bore,

And Man liv'd happy on his natal shore :

For then no steed to feel the bit was broke,

Then had no fteer fubmitted to the yoke:

No houfe had gates (bleft times!) and in the grounds
No fcanty landmarks parcell'd out the bounds:

N 3

From

From every oak redundant honey ran,
And ewes fpontaneous bore their milk to man:
No deathful arms were forg'd, no war was wag'd,
No rapine plunder'd, no ambition rag'd.

How chang'd alas! now cruel Jove commands,
Gold fires the foul, and falchions arin our hands:
Each day the Main unnumber'd live destroys,
And Slaughter, daily o'er her myriad. joys.

Neither of thefe tranflations feems unjust to the original, and the latter is particularly pleafing. The Tranflator's brief parenthefis (bleft times!) when houfes were without gates, may poffibly be inferted by him as characteristical of the intrigues and gallantry of Tibullus; who was probably, however, too intent on delineating his charming idea of primæval happiness, to think of the joke, at the fame time. If the contrast to the golden age (which doubtless poffeffed the leaft gold) corresponds but too exactly to the present scenes of war and carnage, it fuggefts at the fame time our comparative fecurity from it here, through our happy infular fituation.

The defcription of Elyfium, in the fame elegy, contains these two Latin lines, tranflated into these four English ones.

Hic juvenum feries teneris immixta puellis

Ludit, et affidue praelia mifcet amor.

But youths affociate with the gentle fair,
And ftang with pleasure to the fhade repair,
With them Love wanders wherefoe'er they stray.
Provokes to rapture, and inflames the play.

Which English verfes, we apprehend, would excite an idea that is rather too indelicate an extension of the praelia mifcet amor, as there is not the leaft word in Tibullus, to authorize the youth and fair in Elyfium repairing to the fhade. What can we think of the organical union (whence might refult a gravidation too) of fpirits or Ghofts! It is at least as grofs as Mahomet's paradife; and though a pagan Poet might perhaps imagine it, the notion of it (in Elyfium) fhould not be expressed in a more prurient and stinging manner than the text has it: but the Détor has credited his Readers with excellent conftitutions, and little Platonic love. By the way, the three withs in these four lines are by no means either melodious or elegant. The two Latin lines are remarkably fuch.

But as an exquifite degree of the belle paffion, and a delicate n: tu:al manner of expreffing it, were the portion and principal diftinction of Tibullus, it is time to produce a fpecimen of Dr. Grainger's Tranflation from fome part characteristical of his Author. For this purpote we have felected the third elegy

of

of the third book; which, as the Latin and English verfes are of the fame number, we may suppose to be a pretty exact one.

Why did I fupplicate the powers divine?
Why votive incenfe burn at every shrine?
Not that I marble palaces might own,

To draw fpectators, and to make me known;

Not that my teams might plough new purchas'd plains,
And bounteous Autumn glad my countlefs fwains:

I begg'd with you my youthful days to fhare,

I begg'd in age to clafp the lovely fair;
And when my stated race of life was o'er,
I begg'd to pafs alone the Stygian fhore.

Can treafur'd gold the tortur'd breast compose?
Or plains wide cultur'd footh the lover's woes?
Can marble-pillar'd domes, the pride of art,
Secure from Sorrow the poffeffor's heart?
Not circling woods, resembling facred groves,
Not Parian pavements, nor gay-gilt alcoves;
Not all the gems that load an eastern shore,
Not whate'er elfe the greedy Great adore,
Poffefs'd, can fhield the owner's breast from woe,
Since fickle fortune governs all below:
Such toys, in little minds, may envy raise;
Still little minds improper objects praise.
Poor let me be; for poverty can please

With you; without you, crowns could give no ease.
Shine forth, bright morn! and ev'ry blifs impart,
Reftore Neæra to my doating heart!

For if her glad return the gods deny,

If I follicit ftill in vain the sky,

Nor power, nor all the wealth this globe contains,
Can ever mitigate my heart-felt pains;
Let others these enjoy; be peace my lot,
Be mine Neæra, mine a humble cot!
Saturnia grant thy fuppliant's timid pray'r!
And aid me, Venus! from thy pearly chair!

Yet, if the Sifters, who o'er fate prefide,

My vows contemning, ftill detain my bride,
Ceafe, breaft, to heave! ceafe, anxious blood, to flow!
Come, Death! tranfport me to thy realms below.

We shall only obferve of this tranflation, that the greater part of it is elegant and commendable; and that fome part would have admitted a little more of the limae labor, a more thorough polishing. This is the cafe of feveral, not to say very many lines, that might be cited: and a compleat correct tranflation of Tibullus fhould not only be void of all afperity, but as gliding and mellifluous as language, ear, and genius could make it. We fhall take no notice of any objections that have

N 4

been,

been, for the greatest part, fufficiently diffipated: fuch a rough contraction, however, as occurs in the following verfe, vol. II. P. 239.

Alone thou merit! come ye tuneful choir!

And come, bright Phæbus! with thy plaufive lyre.

is perhaps unpardonable. Several lines alfo occur, in which the language that fhould, indeed, be easy, and fometimes familiar, is rather too crude and profaic for verse, viz,

By thefe I foolish hop'd to gain your love!
Who than Tibullus could more cautious prove?➡

-Owretched youth, how oft, when absent you

Such, though not very numerous, occur too often: and by the way, our Tranflator ought to have placed inverted commas at the following lines, vol. II. page 121, from Mr. Pope's ver ses to the memory of an unfortunate lady.

So may her grave with rifing flowers be dreft,
And the green turf lie lightly on her breast.

Some very antique words, ufed by our Tranflator, as runnels, firfled, &c. might have been attended with an explanation: -but the truth is, that it was wholly improper and obfolete to use them in this tranflation. The language of love is, to us, the prefent, not the antiquated, language: and it feems unlucky at least, that a gentleman who, in this work, fo frequently avows his admiration of the amiable Sex, fhould impose upon them the dry task of confulting old gloffaries.

The foodful corn, vol. II. p. 19, if it be a Pleonafm, is no very elegant one. Had the epithet been applied to the field, or earth, the alma tellus, which produces corn and most other food, it had been proper. But foodful might have been as elegantly applied to beef or mutton, whether raw or roafted; efpecially if it had been full-fed itfelf, in a living ftate.

We fuppofe, in the following line, vol. I. p. 95.

Tip me the wink, I'll dodge her to the fane,

dodge was us'd to avoid the vulgar unpoetical term of dogging: but the first word will not fignify tracking, or watching one's motions, as the laft does, metaphorically. Befide, the phraseology of the whole line being fufficiently humble, the dog, as a verb, might properly, and more. fignificantly, accompany it. Were any one to dodge, in the prefent cafe (which often fignifies to elude, or avoid) it fhould have been the lady, who was to be dogged, or vigilantly followed,

Thus

Thus have we made, or really intended to make, a just report of this tranflation, between the Public and the Tranflator: allowing it what merit appears to us, and fpecifying fome of its blemishes. The polite and induftrious Tranflator, who may often be juftly recommended, is certainly enamoured of the Muses. Their gratitude, at prefent, feems a little capricious; and reminds us, upon the whole, of a diftich we have fomewhere read,

As fome coy nymph, her lover's warm address,
Nor quite indulges, nor can quite repress,→→→

MONTHLY CATALOGUE,

For FEBRUARY, 1759.

POLITICAL.

Art. 1. A Letter to the right honourable William Pitt, Efq; from an officer at Fort Frontenac. 8vo. Is. Fleming.

T

HOUGH this letter is faid to be written from Fort-Frontenac, it may with some reason be questioned if ever the author was there. But though he advances nothing new, yet he seems well acquainted with the geography of that country, and has collected, into a very fmall compafs, feveral interefting confiderations that have been dispersed in some late pamphlets and papers on American affairs.

After a brief account of the taking of Frontenac, and the vast advantages of its fituation, with refpect to the trade of the fix nations, he hints at fome of the causes of the alienation of these nations from us, and represents a scene of brutality, of which, he says, he was a witness; though it were to be wished that he had suppressed that circumitance, if he really means that he was perfonally present.

In bis fhort defcription of the lake Ontario, he has fallen into a great mistake, in limiting its depth to between twenty and twenty-five fathom. It has been founded, many times, with a line of two hundred fathom, within five miles of the fhore, and no bottom could be found.

Our Author likewife over-rates the importance of Ofwego, confidered as a harbour for our cruizers; for though it is most commodioufly fituated as a trading place, by reafon of its easy communication with Hudson's river, yet having but eight feet water, it can receive no veffels, but what are too flat-bottomed to incommode the French veffels built at Frontenac or Niagara, where they have eighteen feet and upwards. We mult, therefore, have one or both of thefe places, before we can effectually break the communication be tween Louisiana and Canada; or fecure our frontiers and intereft with

the