Had he been one of us, he would have made We now return to the castle Manfred. The Abbot of St. Maurice having heard of Manfred's converse with beings of the forbidden world, comes to offer him some ghostly admonition. Manfred receives the holy father with all due courtesy. But on his disclosing his office, he returns, I hear thee. This is my reply: whate'er I may have been, or am, doth rest between Heaven and myself. I shall not choose a mortal To be my mediator. The prelate receives this rebuke with great meekness, disclaims all interested motives, and simply entreats to be allowed to smooth the path from sin Would make a hell of heaven---can exorcise The Abbot urges that it is not too late to repent, and obtain pardon and peace. He anxiously inquires Hast thou no hope? 'Tis strange---even those who do despair above, Yet shape themselves some phantasy on earth, To which frail twig they cling, like drowning And yet not cruel; for I would not make, To elude the importunity of the priest, Manfred withdraws. The Abbot, though for the present defeated in his purpose, exclaims This should have been a noble creature: he We follow Manfred to his chamber, where he apostrophizes the setting sun, as the -material God, And representative of the unknown-- The scene changes, and we find ourselves with Herman, Manuel, and other dependents of Manfred, without the castle of Manfred on a terrace before a tower. These servants, as usual, begin to make their remarks on the demeanour of their master. Herman observes, that he has seen some strange things within these walls, Her. Come, be friendly; Relate me some to while away our watch: member 'Twas twilight, as it may be now, and such Hush! who comes here? It is the Abbot, who interrupts their confabulation. He insists upon seeing Manfred again, and is admitted to his presence. Manfred begs him to retire, and warns him of approaching danger. The monk is unmoved. But whilst they are yet speaking, 'a dark and awful figure' rises, Like an infernal god from out the earth. This fiend summons Manfred to follow him. Mortal! thine hour is come---Away! I say. Man. I knew, and know my hour in corne. but not 1 To render up my soul to such as thee: The spectre, on this, calls other Spirits to his aid. The Abbot attempts to exorcise them. They listen very respectfully to his injunctions, but inform him that they have their mission. Manfred continues to defy them. The demon reproaches him with pusillanimity in so closely hugging life. Manfred retorts Thou false fiend, thou liest! My life is in its last hour-that I know, In knowledge of our fathers---when the earth Spi. But thy many crimes Have made thee- I have not been thy dupe, nor am thy prey--- And thy breast heaves---and in thy gasping throat The accents rattle---Give thy prayers to heaven Pray--albeit but in thought---but die not thus. Man. 'Tis over---my dull eyes can fix thee not; But all things swim around me, and the earth Heaves, as it were, beneath me. Fare thee well--Give me thy hand. Abbot. [Manfred expires. Cold-cold---even to the heart--But yet one prayer--alas! how fares it with thee He's gone his soul hath ta'en its earthless flightWhither? I dread to think- -but he is gone. Such is the tragic catastrophe of this Dramatic Poem. Lord Byron, we suppose, has given this title to his piece to intimate, what is clear enough from a perusal of it, that it was not meant for the stage. We should have thought Mask a more apt designation of this composition, for we can scarcely imagine one that comes more decidedly within Johnson's definition of that species of entertainment. A Mask,' says Dr. Johnson, 'is a dramatic performance, written in a tragic style, without attention to rule or probability.' Manfred is, therefore, strictly a Mask. But we will not quarrel about names. Our concern is with the intrinsic merit of the work. The ample extracts we have made, will afford our readers fair grounds on which to form a judgment on this point. We shall trouble them with but few remarks. Plot to this drama there is none-unless the discovery of the nameless crime of Manfred, amount to a denouement. But even this is left only to conjectureand we are happy in the opinion, that such is the purity of most readers, that comparatively few, on a cursory reading, will discover it to be incest. Such, however, is the unavoidable inference. This is about the only crime which lord Byron had omitted to celebrate; and, we trust, it was reserved for the last, as being the last in turpitude. We do, indeed, hope that his lordship, having now sent his hero to the place of final retribution, will there leave him to be dealt with according to his deserts, and that we shall not be tormented by another metempsychosis. It would be in vain to inquire for the moral of this poem-none was designed to be conveyed. The fatal consequences of criminal conduct, are indeed vividly depicted; but the mind is vitiated even by being led to consider so horrible a deed possible, much more so, by regarding it as possible to be perpetrated by persons of such refined sentiment and intellect, as Manfred and Astarte, and to have grown, too, out of the excess of fraternal affection. An ancient legislator would enact no law against parricide, lest the suggestion of a crime of which the exist ence was unknown, might prompt its commission. It is not by studying the calendar of Newgate, that we shall improve in purity, though there be little alfurement in the exhibition of vice in its It is the bane of genuine deformity. lord Byron's writings that he makes all his diabolical heroes men of the most superior understanding, and the keenest sensibility. He endows them all too with an audacity which excites a degree of admiration. But for this single attribute, what were Manfred? A most despicable villain. In truth we do not think him far from it as it is. Fortitude like his could not, however, possibly have been united with such flagitiousness. The consciousness of so nefarious a deed and its horrid sequel, would have bowed the boldest spirit. Shame and horror would have triumphed over every other sentiment. Instead of insolently vaunting his superiority over the vulgar herd, one shrinking beneath the sense of so much baseness would own himself the vilest of the vile. The association of such qualities and such conduct are perfectly incongruous. In this falsehood lies the danger of lord Byron's romances. He has constantly combined elevation of mind and the most ardent sensibility to the grossest and most pernicious vices. Perhaps his lordship may be cited as himself an instance of this very union. We will confess, that, unless he is much misrepresented, he is by far the most striking example of it we have ever known. But lord Byron has none of that native strength of character which he has held up to admiration. He has his paroxysms of desperation, but they are succeeded by long intervals of despondency. We believe a candid history of his lordship's life might be read without any danger of seducing the uncorrupted by the enticements it would offer to follow in his footsteps; and, in fact, for aught we know, might prove the best antidote to the poison of his writings. To Manfred's arrogant assumption of super-human dignity we have already adverted. In this impudent pretension he only keeps pace with the noble author. Lord Byron has already told us in his own person, I have not loved the world, nor the world me, Nor coin'd my cheek to smiles,---nor cried aloud I am not of thy order, is his rude reply to the compassionate hunter. The same presumptuous claim is urged in every page. From my youth upward My spirit walk'd not with the souls of men, &c. I disdain'd to mingle with These are a few only of the passages which contain this endless repetition. We wish his lordship had sincerely that contempt for the world, which he is incessantly flinging in the face of his admirers, or that he entertained a more rational respect for its opinions. In the one with his crudities, in the other we might case we should be no longer annoyed expect from his lordship's talents, directed to a proper purpose, and aided by an honourable ambition, some production proudly boasts. Till he do offer somemore worthy of the genius which he so thing to sustain his jactitations, we shall continue to measure his powers by his efforts. ridiculous gallimaufry of mythology, ne- But we will not trespass longer on the Sovereign of Sovereigns! we are thine, And most things wholly so; still to increase And we are vigilant--thy late commands This is the very language of a waitingmaid. Similar tameness and insipidity are not rare in this poem. In fine, we look upon Manfred as the least creditable production of lord Byron's pen. We are ourselves at a loss for that irresistible charm which so many find in his lordship's poetry. If it be the gloominess of his pictures that is so attractive to congenial spirits, we must, indeed, concede the palmi to him. But if it be the awe with which even the least reverent treatment of solemn subjects fills the mind, the same sensation in a more exquisite degree may be awakened by reading the Night Thoughts; and we would urge it upon those of lord Byron's votaries, who have never read that incomparable poem, to seek a solace for their sombre feelings in the pages Rafinesque, of Dr. Young. His vigorous reasoning, informe, ingens, cui lumen ademptum, no Manfred, With Ate by his side, come hot from hell, may ramp in our path, what time we forsake the Parthenon to stray with the muses in the vale of Tempe. E. ART. 4. Flora Philadelphica Prodromus, or Prodromus of the Flora Philadelphica, exhibiting a list of all the plants to be described in that work which have as yet been collected. By Dr. William P. C. Barton. Philadelphia. 1815. 4to. pp. 100. A PRODROMUS is a work generally a needful arrangement, notwithstanding issued previous to the publication of a larger one on the same subject, and whose object is to inform the public of the. author's views, improvements or discoveries, by giving a succinct account of them; this last particular therefore distinguishes this performance from the Prospectus, which is merely intended to convey an idea of the plan of a subsequent work. This denomination has however been hitherto nearly confined to works on Natural History and Botany, and they have been sometimes issued without the intention of publishing another work on the same subject. They are often in fact works of great merit, worthy to stand isolated, and at all times of greater practical utility than expensive publications. The Prodromus Flora Nova Hollandia of Brown, the Prodromus Flora Grece of Smith, and the Prodromus Flora Capensis of Thunberg, may be mentioned as instances of able performances of this kind. But in order to render them eminently useful, their authors have generally had in view that they should answer the purpose of practical manuals, wherefore they have been printed in a diminutive size, and in a shape likely to include a great deal of matter within a small compass. It appears that the author of this Prodromus has entirely overlooked such that he professes the intention or wish that his work should become a manual to the Philadelphian Botanist. Whether this wish may ever be fulfilled is rather problematical, since besides handing us his Prodromus in a 4to. size, a very unusual shape for a pocket companion, it has been printed in transverse columns, which have a very uncouth and forbidding appearance; some of them are entirely useless and almost blank, while the whole matter might have been very easily included in a small volume of about 60 pages; and lastly, the localities of the plants are altogether omitted. This unaccountable omission renders the work of no value to the practical Botanist who may hereafter wish to search for the plants enumerated by the author. No local Flora, or Prodromus of a Flora can be deemed perfect, unless the student or Botanist is directed to the places where the plants were found. The omission of this necessary circumstance carries with it an ambiguous appearance, and a severe critic might insinuate that many plants are enumerated without the authority of personal evidence; but we are far from intending to intimate any such suspicion, and only wish, (and we expect every botanist will herein agree with us) that our researches for many rare plants mentioned in this Prodromus had been facilitated. Mean while we are merely told in the preface, that all the plants enumerated were found within 10 miles round Philadelphia, which includes of course part of Pennsylvania and part of New-Jersey. The transverse columns are eight in number. The first gives the generic and specific names of the plants, in the usual botanical language; here are often added some very useful synonymes. The second column includes the English and vernacular names of every plant; these last are particularly useful to the American reader. The third, which is merely taken up by the reference of genera to Jussieu's natural method, is nearly a blank, and might have been united with the first. The fourth and fifth describe the calyx and corolla of each genus, to which the useful appendage of the colour of the flower is added. In the sixth column a peculiar diagnostic definition of each species is given in Latin: although these definitions are sufficiently comparative to distinguish the species of this Prodromus, it is to be regretted, that they are often too short, and that they will probably be found defective when the Flora of Philadelphia shall be greatly enlarged. The seventh column describes only the fruit of each genus, and is very unnaturally severed from the 4th and 5th. The last acquaints us with the time of flowering of each species, a proper appendage to a local Flora. About 900 species are enumerated by the author; but many of them are cultivated plants, and they are classed according to the sexual system of Linnæus, which appears to be yet in fashion in the United States, because it is so in England! The cryptogamic plants are, as usual, omitted, except the Ferns. This defect in all special Floras of North America, is likely to last until a classical work on those plants be published, for the benefit of the science, or for the use of compilers. As many rare and valuable plants are here enumerated, not generally known as natives of the neighbourhood of Philadelphia, it may not be amiss to mention some of them; the following are therefore selected. *Gratiola aurea Mg. Utricularia cornuta Mx. Utricularia ceratophylla Mx. *Leptanthus gramineus Mx. Scirpus planifolius Mg. Scirpus acutus Mg. Cyperus phymatodes Mg. *Leersia virginica Mg. *Andropogon furcatus Mg. VOL. I. NO. V. *Trillium cernuum L. *Glycine peduncularis Mg. Raf. Mg. is used as an abbreviation of Muhlenberg. Mx. of Michaux. L. of LinnæWild. of Wildenow. us. Such as are noted thus*, have also been found by the writer of this article, near Philadelphia, and he can therefore attest the author's accuracy. This work having been published before the reception of Pursh's Flora of North America, is free from many blemishes which would have been probably copied on that authority-as, the wrong generic name of Smilacina might have been preferred to the better one of Majanthemum! &c. The omissions arising from not consulting Pursh's Flora are very trifling, and very few other errors have crept into it. There are some however; for instance, the Dianthus armeria of New-Jersey is a new species which Mr. C. S. Rafinesque called D. armerioides in his Precis des decouvertes Sp. 116. The Alisma plantago is either his Alisma subcordata (N. G. and Sp. of N. American plants in the Medical Repository,) or the 27 |