shallow pate, soou completely unsettled was the scene of similar intrigues, both the too lively imagination of the other: in love and in politicks; every one here and thus I escaped the endless insipidity thought he was making a conspicuous which awaited me, in my intended jour. figure in the world; but, even the name ney to Stockholm, and to Copenhagen. I of these countries, disfigured under the ransomed myself, by entertaining one of appellations of Tartary, and the Crimea, these kings; and being entertained by is now completely forgotten! What a rethe other.

flection for moralizing men! Why, then, My son Charles married a pretty little I look around, and approve the laziness Polish lady. Her family gave us paper, of my good Mussulmen, who sit with instead of cash. They were claims on the arms folded, and legs crossed, squat and court of Russia. Passing through Poland, motionless on their flat roofs.' I found I made myself, or I was made, a Poland- among them an Albanese, who knew a er. A mad bishop (hanged since) uncle little of Italian. I desired him to ask them, to my daughter-in-law, conceited' that I whether they were happy ? if I could do was on terms of intimacy with the em- any thing for them? and if they knew that press, because he had learnt that she had they had been given to me by the emreceived me most favourably; and he press? They answered, that they knew imagined that I should be king of Poland, generally, that they had been allotted; were I but naturalized. “What a change, which they did not well understand ; that said he, 'in the face of European politicks! they had been happy till now; that if their What happiness for the Lignes, and for fate should change, they would embark the Masalskys. I laughed at him. But on board two vessels they themselves had I felt a fancy to please the nation then constructed, and seek a refuge among the assembled in diet, and by the nation I Turks in Romania. I bid the interpreter was applauded. I spoke Latin ; I kissed, tell them that I loved lazy people; but and I caressed mustachios ; I intrigued that I desired to know their means of for the king of Poland; who is himself living. They pointed at some sheep ly. an intriguer; like all kings who are suf. ing on the grass, like myself. Oh, how fered on the throne, only on condition of happy I accounted the lazy! They showed acting according to the will of their sub- me their fruit trees; and desired the in. jects, or that of their neighbours. lle is terpreter to tell me, that when the gathergoodnatured, amiable, insinuating; I gave ing season arrives, the Kaimakan comes him advice, and we became quite inti- from Baschisaria to take the half of the

produce. Each family sells fruit yearly, “ I arrived in Russia ; and the first thing to the value of two hundred livres [81.88.] I did was to forget the object of my jour and there are forty-six families in Parthe. ney; because it appeared to me rather in- pizza and Nitika, another small estate delicate to take advantage of the favour- belonging to me; the Grecian name of able reception I experienced every day, which signifies victory. Again I felicitato solicit favours. I was captivated by the ted the lazy! I promised to prevent their unreserved and alluring simplicity of Ca- being oppressed. They brought me buttharine the Great*; and by her genius I ter, cheese and milk ; not mares's milk, have been led to this enchanted abode. as among the Tartars. Once more I ac

counted the lazy happy! and I sunk again This is the famous Cape Parthenion, dis- into my meditations. tinguished by many events. On this spot

I estimate the world; I mythology exalted the imagination. All consider it as a kind of magick lantern, the talents in the retinue of the heathen till the moment, when I myself shall dis. deities had here established their empire. appear under the scythe of time. I then

If, for an instant, I leave fable for his recollect, as a dream, nine or ten camtory, I discover Eupatori, founded by Mi. paigns I have made :* a dozen of battles thritlates; I gather near this spot, in that or engagements, at which I have been old Cherson, fragments of alabaster co- present. I muse on the emptiness of glolumns ; I find the remnants of aquaducts, ry; which, unnoticed, is forgotten; which and of walls, which present a circumfea envious people attack, or dispute. And, rence more extensive than that of Lon- notwithstanding all that, I say to myself, a don and Paris together. Those two cities part of my life has been spent in risking shall disappear as this has done. This

miate.

that very life in pursuit of glory! I shall at hearing that I had determined they • not disparage my own bravery. It is, per- should have no other masters but them. haps, sufficiently brilliant; but I do not selves. find it sufficiently disinterested; it is al- “I then recalled my wandering spirits ; loyed with desire of being puffed up. II collected, as well as I could, my incohepay too much attention to the spectators. rent thoughts. I turned around with emo. I prefer the bravery of my dear, good tion to behold that beautiful spot, which Charles [his son] who does not mind I am never to visit again ; and to which whether he is seen or not. I again con- I am indebted for a day, the most delisult my own bosom. I discover nume- cious in all my life. A fresh breeze which rous faults within myself; I think after sprung up suddenly put me out of conceit wards on the inanity of ambition. Death with the boat which was to conduct me has already bereft, or soon will bereave, to Theodosia. I took a Tartar horse, and me of the favours of some great captains, my guide walking before me, I plunged or great sovereigns, while inconstancy, or again into all the horrours of darkness, of malice, may blast all my hopes. Intrigue bad roads, of torrents, to recross those setting me aside, the soldier shall soon famous mountains, and to meet at the end forget me.

of forty-eight hours their imperial majes. Without regretting the past, or ties, at Carassbazar." fearing the future, I commit my existence We could have wished to have to the impulse of my destiny.

presented our readers with some de“ After laughing heartily at my want of lineations of the moral character of merit, and at my courtly and military adventures, I congratulated myself on not

the Turks, drawn by the same able being worse than I am, and above all, I

hand; and with some of the lively applauded the grand talent I have of en- anecdotes contained in this publicajoying my portion of happiness.

tion, but our article has already been “And now the mantle of night began to protracted to an unusual length. For obscure the scenery. The sheep which this, the peculiar situation of Turwere grazing near my Turkey carpet, by key, as the object of political envy, their bleatings, called the Tartars ;

who

and Tilsit distribution, must plead gravely came down from their roofs, to lock them up near their wives, whom

The authority of this they have kept carefully concealed du. noble soldier supports opinions we ring the whole day. The criers, from the have ventured in favour of the Ottotop of the minarets, called the faithful to

But we must dismiss the the mosque. I felt with my left hand for

work, however reluctantly, recomthe beard which I had not; I laid my right hand on my breast; I poured out mending the perusal of it, as one of benedictions on the lazy, and I took my the most entertaining collections we leave of them, leaving them in equal asto- have lately seen. nishment at seeing me their master, and

our excuse.

mans.

FROM THE QUARTERLY REVIEW. Gertrude of Wyoming, a Pennsylvanian Tale, and other Poems. By Thomas Camp

bell, author of the Pleasures of Hope, &c. 4to. pp. 130. London, 1809.—New York, republished by D. Longworth, 12mo. pp. 132. $i. 1809.

WE open this volume with no counter more formidable than the ordinary impression of the delicacy extent of his own reputation. To and importance of the task which it decide on the merit of Gertrude of imposes on us, and the difficulty of Wyoming as the work of a poet hidischarging it at once with justice to therto undistinguished, would be the author and to that publick at comparatively easy. But we are un. whose bar we as well as Mr. Camp- avoidably forced upon comparing it bell must be considered to stand. It with Mr. Campbell's former pieces, is not our least embarrassment that, and while our judgment is embroiled in some respects, Mr. Campbell may by the predilections, prejudices, and be considered as his own rival ; and preferences, which the recollection in aspiring to extensive popularity of them has imprinted upon our ima. has certainly no impediment to en- gination, there are other peculiar

VOL. II.

a

circumstances which enhance expec- Campbell suffer the admiration ex. tation, and increase, proportionally, cited by his first essay to subside or the difficulty of affording it complete be forgotten. From time to time we gratification.

were favoured with exquisite lyrical The Pleasures of Hope, a poem effusions calculated rather to stimudear to every reader of poetry, bore, late than to gratify the publick appeamidst many beauties, the marks of tite. The splendid poems of Hohena juvenile composition, and received linden and Lochiel, manifesting high from the publick the indulgence due powers of imagination, and other to a promise of future excellence. short performances replete either Some license was also allowed for the with animation or tenderness, seemed didactick nature of the subject, which, to declare their author destined to prescribing no fixed plan, left the attain the very summit of the modern poet free to indulge his fancy in ex- Parnassus. By some this preemicursions as irregular as they are ele- nence was already adjudged to him, gant and animated. It is a conse while others only adjourned their quence of both these circumstances, suffrage until a more daring, extend. that the poem presents, in some de- ed, and sustained flight should make gree, the appearance of an unfinished good the promises of his juvenile picture. In gazing with pleasure on work and of his shorter detached its insulated groupes and figures, the poems. reflection will often intrude, that an It has for a considerable time been artist matured in taste and experience known that a new poem of some would have methodized his subject; length was in Mr. Campbell's confilled up the intermediate spaces; and templation, and when it was whis. brought to perfection a sketch of so pered that he who sung the doubtful much promise. The publick readily conflict of Hohenlinden and the car. made every allowance that could be nage of Culloden, had chosen for claimed on the score of youth-a his theme the devastation of Wyoseeming generosity often conferred ming, expectation was raised to its on the first essays of poets, painters, height. Desire was not too suddenly and orators, but for which a claim of quenched; and it is only after a long repayment, with usurious interest, is period of suspense that the work has regularly preferred against them up. been given to the publick. But it is on their next appearance. But the no easy matter to satisfy the vague hope of improvement was, in Mr. and indefinite expectation which susCampbell's case, hardly necessary to pense of this nature seldom fails to augment the expectation raised by excite. Each reader is apt to form the actual excellence of his first poem. an idea of the subject, the narrative, The beauties of a highly polished and the style of execution ; so that versification, that animated and vi. the real poem is tried and censured, gorous tone of moral feeling, that not upon its own merits, but for difturn of expression, which united the fering from the preconceived dream sweetness of Goldsmith with the of the critick's imagination. There strength of Johnson, a structure of are few who have not felt disappointlanguage alike remote from servile ment of a similar nature on visiting, imitation of our more classical poets, for the first time, any spot highly ceand from the babbling and jingling lebrated for its scenery. Expectation simplicity of ruder minstrels ; new, has not only exaggerated its beauties, but not singular ; elegant, but not but often sketched a landscape of its trite; justified the admirers of the own which the mind unwillingly exPleasures of Hope in elevating its changes even for the most splendid author to a preeminent situation reality. Perhaps, therefore, it is a naamong living poets. Neither did Mr. tural consequence of over-strained hope, that the immediate reception has judiciously selected a single of “ Gertrude of Wyoming" should groupe as the subject of his picture; be less eminently favourable than yet we have room to regret, that, in the intrinsick merit of the poem and some passages, at least, he has not exthe acknowledged genius of the au- tended his canvass to exhibit, in the thor appeared to ensure; and perhaps, back ground, that general scene of too, we may be able, in the course of tumult and horrour which might have our investigation, to point out other added force to the striking picture reasons which may, for a season, im- which he has drawn of individual pede the popularity of a poem con- misery. taining passages both of tenderness

The opening of the poem describes and sublimity, which may decline Wyoming in a state of more than comparison with few in the English Arcadian ease and happiness, where language.

exiles or emigrants from all quarters The tale of Gertrude of Wyoming of Europe met in peace, and conis abundantly simple. It refers to tended only which should best adorn the desolation of a beautiful tract of and improve their seat of refuge. country situated on both sides of the The following stanzas comprehend Susquehanna, and inhabited by co- this interesting description, and are, lonists whose primeval simplicity at the same time, a just specimen of and hospitality recalled the idea of the style and structure of the poem. the golden age. In 1778, Wyoming,

1. this favoured and happy spot, was

“On Susquehanna's side, fair Wyoming, completely laid waste by an incursion

Although the wild-flower on thy ruined

wall of Indians and civilized savages under And roofless homes a sad remembrance a leader named Brandt. The pretext bring was the adherence of the inhabitants of what thy gentle people did befall, to the provincial confederacy; but Yet thou wert once the loveliest land of

all the lust of rapine and cruelty which

That see the Atlantick wave their morn distinguished the invaders was such as to add double horrours even to civil Sweet land! may I thy lost delights reconflict.

call, We do not condemn this choice of And paint thy Gertrude in her bowers of a subject in itself eminently fitted for yore, poetry; yet feeling as Englishmen, Whose beauty was the love of Pennsylva

nia's shore ! we cannot suppress a hope that Mr.

II. Campbell will, in his subsequent

“ It was beneath thy skies that, but to. poems, choose a theme more honoura.

prune ble to our national character, than one His autumn fruits, or skim the light canoe, in which Britain was disgraced by the Perchance, along thy river calm at noon, atrocities of her pretended adherents. The happy shepherd swain had nought to

do We do not love to have our feelings From morn till evening's sweeter pastime, unnecessarily put in arms against the

grew; cause of our country. The historian Their timbrel, in the dance of forests must do his duty when such painful brown subjects occur; but the poet who may

When lovely maidens prankt in flowret choose his theme through the whole

new,

And aye, those sunny mountains half way unbounded range of truth and fiction

down excuse himself from select. Would echo flagelet from some romantick ing a subject dishonourable to his own land.

III. Although the calamity was general

• Then, where of Indian hills the daylight

takes and overwhelmed the whole settlement of Wyoming, Mr. Campbell His leave, how might you the flamingo

restore.

may we

town.

tree :

Disporting like a meteor on the lakes

VI. And playful squirrel on his nut grown

“ Here was not mingled in the city's pomp

Of life's extremes the grandeur and the And every sound of life was full of glee, gloom ; From merry mock-bird's song, or hum of Judgment awoke not here her dismal men,

tromp, While harkening, fearing nought their Nor sealed in blood a fellow creature's revelry,

doom, The wild deer arched his neck from glades, Nor mourned the captive in a living tomb. and then

One venerable man, beloved of all, Unhunted, sought his woods and wilder. Sufficed where innocence was yet in ness again.

bloom, IV.

To sway the strife, that seldom might be. “ And scarce had Wyoming of war or fall, crime

And Albert was their judge in patriarchal Heard but in transatlantick story rung; hall.”—p. 5 to 9. For here the exile met from every clime, This Albert, the judge and patri. And spoke in friendship every distant arch of the infant settlement, is an

tongue ; Men from the blood of warring Europe of the poem, is his only child. The

Englishman. Gertrude, the heroine sprung, Were but divided by the running brook ;

chaste and affecting simplicity of the And happy where no Rhenish trumpet following picture would furnish a sung,

beautiful subject for the pencil. On plains no sieging mine's volcano shook,

XIII. The blue-eyed German changed his sword “I may not paint those thousand infant to pruning hook.

charms; V.

(Unconscious fascination, undesigned!) “ Nor far some Andalusian saraband The orison repeated in his arms, Would sound to many a native rondelay. For God to bless her sire and all mankind, But who is he that yet a dearer land

The book, the bosom on his knee reclined; Remembers, over hills and far away? Or how sweet fairy-lore he heard her con, Green Albyn !* what though he no more

(The playmate ere the teacher of her survey

mind) Thy ships at anchor on the quiet shore, All uncompanioned else her years had Thy pellochs rolling from the mountain

gone

Till now in Gertrude's eyes their ninth Thy lone sepulchral cairn upon the moor, blue summer shone.”-p. 13. And distant isles that hear the loud Cor

An Indian, of a tribe friendly to brechtan roar!!

the settlers, approaches their cottage VI. “ Alas! poor Caledonia's mountaineer,

one morning, leading in his hand an That want's stern edict e'er, and feudal English boy grief

" of Christian vesture and complexion Had forced him from a home he loved so bright, dear!

Led by his dusky guide like morning Yet found he here a home, and glad re- brought by night.” lief,

The swarthy warriour tells Albert And plied the beverage from his own fair of a frontier fort occupied by the sheaf,

British which had been stormed and That fired his Highland blood with mickle destroyed by a party of Hurons, the

glee; And England sent her men, of men the allies of France. The Oneida chief chief,

who narrates the story hastened to Who taught those sires of empire yet to aid, but only arrived in time to avenge be,

its defenders. All had been massa. To plant the tree of life; to plant fair cred, excepting the widow of the freedom's tree!

commander of the garrison and her

son, a boy of ten or twelve years old. * Scotland.

The former, exhausted with fatigue † The great whirlpool of the Western and grief, dies in the arms of the IIebrides.

friendly Indians, and bequeaths to

bay;