and Norwich, are nearly the mean decrements between thofe in great towns and in country parifhes and villages; confequently, as the fociety affures town and country lives indifcriminately, these are the obfervations by which it fhould be guided. Perhaps the Doctor ought to have added-if the number of lives which it affures in country parifhes be equal, or nearly fo, to the number of lives which it affures in town; for if this be not the cafe, the refults of calculations made from those tables may be very favourable or very detrimental to the interefts of the fociety.

What follows must be understood with the fame reftriction.

But, fays our Author, obfervations more proper for the use of this fociety than even those above mentioned may now be obtained. I mean thofe furnished by the Register of mortality established a few years ago at Chester, under the direction of the ingenious Dr. Haygarth.-Chefter is an old and very healthy town, of moderate fize, which has continued much the fame as to populousness for a long courfe of years; and these are circumftances which render it a fituation particularly fitted for fhewing the true law that governs the waste of human life in all its ftages. The regifter which has been established there is more minute and correct than any other; and is, perhaps, the only one which gives the difference between the chances of living among males and females, and from which it is poffible to compute, with any degree of precision, the values of lives before five and after leventy years of age. Tables, therefore, of the values of life annuities, affurances, and reverfions, calculated from this register, would be a valuable acquifition, not only to the fociety more immediately under confideration, but alio to the public in general.

Dr. Price goes on to obferve, that it would greatly affift and expedite the business of the fociety, and at the fame time do confiderable fervice to this branch of fcience, if tables of the values of two, and alfo three joint lives were computed, agreeable to the best obfervations, true to three decimal places at leaft: for without fuch tables it is impoffible to find, in many cafes, the true values of affurances, and particularly of affurances on survivorships for terms. He obferves, that there are now no fuch tables extant. Mr.Simpfen's table in the Select Exercises, p. 266, is adapted only to London; and gives the values only to one place of decimals. And the table in his own Treatife on Reverfionary Payments, p. 328, is calculated from M. De Moivre's hypothefis, which, although it agrees nearly with the Breflaw and Northampton observations in the middle ftages of life, differs fo widely from all real obfervations before twenty and after feventy years of age, as to be totally improper for ufe. He therefore earneftly recommends it to the fociety to direct that such tables as are here REV. June, 1780. defcribed,

Gg

defcribed, may be calculated; and obferves, that the expence of fuch calculations can be no object to them, notwithstanding in doing it they will not only contribute greatly towards the speedy and accurate execution of their own bufinefs, but confer also a very great obligation on the Public at large. He adds fome other obfervations, but which, though they are of very confiderable importance to the interests and well-being of the fociety, as they in no wife relate to the Public, we shall forbear to men

tion.

We should next have proceeded to give some account of the very curious and interefting Essay on the prefent State of Population in England and Wales, which is annexed to this performance, had we not observed that the Doctor has announced the reprinting of it with fome additions in a feparate publication. We fhall therefore take fome future opportunity of laying an account of it before our Readers; and conclude what we have to fay at prefent with obferving, that Mr. Morgan's performance is one of those many laudable, and we may add, fuccessful attempts which have been lately made towards ftripping the more useful parts of learning and fcience of their terrifying and difgufting appearance, caufed chiefly by the use of technical terms, and profeffional phrafes; which have hitherto deterred fo many from attempting them.

ART. VI. Eastern Eclogues: Written during a Tour through Arabia, Egypt, &c. in 1777. 4to. 2 s. 6d. Dodfley. 1780.

PEREANT qui ante nos noftra dixerunt! was an exclama

tion of one who could find no image in the ftorehouse of imagination, but what had been pre-occupied by fome former writer. Indeed, while a writer confines himself to fubjects that have been treated before, or defcribes fcenes already known, it will be difficult to introduce fentiment or imagery that shall be totally original. In poetry, this difficulty is peculiarly obvious. It too frequently happens that poets attempt to paint what they never faw, and to defcribe what they never felt. Hence they are in a great measure confined to general ideas, fuch as will in fome degree occur to every one. When, therefore, we found

it had been the fortune of our Traveller to be tempted, by a hear approach to the fcenes which he has defcribed, to sketch from the life,' we formed expectations very different from what generally accompany the fight of a new publication. Sorry are we to fay, that our expectations have by no means been gratified. There is nothing either in the fentiments or imagery which feems peculiar or appropriate to the characters or scenes which he has defcribed. Nor do we meet with any thing, if the opening of the third eclogue be excepted, which

might not have occurred to a writer whofe knowledge had been collected merely from books. We fay not this, however, as paffing an indifcriminate cenfure on his performance. It certainly has merit; but not of that kind which we expected. The verfification is elegant and harmonious, and the fentiments are fenfible and juft.

The eclogues are four in number: the title of the first is Alexis: or, The Traveller. Scene, the Ruins of Alexandria. Of the fecond, Selima: or, The Fair Greek. Scene, a Seraglio in Arabia Felix. In this eclogue the Writer has made confiderable ufe of Lady M. W. Montague's defcription of the amufements of the Haram. The title of the third eclogue is Ramah: or, The Bramin. Scene, the Pagoda of Conjeveram. It opens with fome degree of fublimity.

High on the top of that religious fane,

Whofe fpires from far attract the zealot train,
Pride of Gentoos! mid fuperftition's night
Which fhines a beacon to the Pagan's fight,
A Bramin ftood-expos'd to ev'ry eye,
The roof his bed, his canopy the sky;
For three long days he here the clime defy'd,
Revenge his ftudy, and diftrefs his pride.
O'er woes impending runs his lab'ring mind,
And omens thicken in the coming wind!'-

"Ye Gods! protectors of the Indian race,
Now trembles not your empire to its bafe?
Say, on what fpot your altars fhall be found,
While mad Ambition walks his guilty round?
Lo! by the Ganges' confecrated flood

The facred Cow diftains the earth with blood;
Selected form of purity divine!

Mute interceffor at your holy fhrine!
I fee! I fee! the fated ruin spread,

The ftream polluted at the fountain-head!
Religion changing thro' the land her vow;
The Mofque afpiring o'er the Pagod's brow:
But chief the holy temples of Tanjore

Defil'd, where Mahomet ne'er trod before !"
The remaining part of the eclogue is not fo fpirited or striking.
Ramah, towards the conclufion, harangues more like an Euro-
pean politician than an Afiatic devotee. The laft eclogue is,
The Efcape: or, The Captives. Scene, the fuburbs of Tunis.
Time, Midnight. If we were to give the preference to any of
thefe pieces, it should be this. The characters are Sebaftian and
Perez, two Spanish captives.

Perez began. A virgin was his theme,
Bright as her orb, yet cold as Cynthia's beam!

O thou! to whom my youthful vows belong,
Strength of my fword; and goddess of my fong!

Gg 2

Who

Who oft my chivalry with fmiles haft paid,
And deign'd to grace the midnight ferenade:
Be thou propitious to this teeming hour,
Which gives a captive to thy boundless pow'r.
Love, more than freedom, tempts him o'er the wave,
To own his tyrant, and refume the flave:
To him all thoughts of liberty were vain,
Who, fcap'd from bondage, feeks a stronger chain !
Let Marcia then her Perez' claim approve,
His truth perfuade her, and his fuff'rings move.
And you, my rivals! who that claim difdain'd,
Scoff'd at my lot, and by my abfence reign'd;
Or in the lifts, or in your am'rous fuit,
For love and honour Perez will difpute.
In vain you poize the lance, or breathe the vow-
The fair-one twines the wreath for Perez' brow!"
Sebaftian then. Him fills a dearer name,
Soft as her light, and chafte as Dian's fame!

"And will to thee Sebastian be restor❜d,
With fmiles be welcom'd, as with fighs deplor'd!
Will love o'erpay thee with a late embrace,
Wife of my choice! and guardian of my race!
See, if the thought diffolve me not to tears,
My manhood shake, and waken all my fears.
No babes, perhaps, may lifp a fire's return-
The mother's truft tranfmitted to an urn!
Or if fo hopeless, fo fevere my fate,

Those children now may weep their orphan ftate!” Had all the defcriptive parts of these Eclogues been equal to the concluding lines of this, the cenfure that was paft at the beginning of this article had been unneceffary.

He faid; and faw the object in his reach:
The friendly galley ftrikes upon the beach.
Swift by the cord the Captives downward glide-
The bark drops filent with the ebbing tide.
Now, unobserv'd, the lower fort they gain,
Now fhoot the narrow outlet to the main.
To crown their hopes the wind from Tunis blows!
They pass the Cape where ancient Carthage rofe:
Onward their courfe with toil unceasing ply,
"Till Murcia's mountains faintly tinge the sky.
Touch'd at the fight they cast their cares behind,
While all their country rushes on their mind!

There is fomething in the fourth line,

The bark drops filent with the ebbing tidethat is uncommonly defcriptive.

We are rather difpofed to think, that where this Writer has failed, it has been owing more to that diffidence which young poets fometimes feel in going out of a beaten track, than to any want of poetical ability: and in this opinion, we are will

ing to hope our. Readers will concur with us, especially when they have read, what is certainly a model of tenderness and elegance, his Dedication

To Mrs. IRWIN.

Lamp of my life! and fummit of my praife!
The bright reward of all my toilfome days!
After unnumber'd ftorms and perils brav'd,
The port in which my fhipwreck'd hopes were fav'd;
Who, when my youth had pleasure's round enjoy'd,
Came to my craving foul, and fill'd the void.
To thee, whofe feeling heart and judgment chaste,
Give thee of fancy's luxuries to tafte;

To thee I dedicate thefe rambling lays,
And hold thy fmiles beyond a monarch's bays!
See, on our blifs the nuptial year decline,
And ftill the fun which lit it, feems to fhine!
Crown'd is our union with a smiling boy,
And thou ftill courted like a virgin coy.
Ye fhades of lovers! witness what we feel-
To modern couples vain were the appeal!

Tho' human joys are ever on the wing,
Tho' fmall the scope of life's enchanted ring;
Tho' Time advances with a courfer's pace,
And ftill muft rob thee of fome charm or grace;
No fights ungrateful can falute our eyes,
Who ufe no optics but what love fupplies!
Who but in this betray a partial fide,

Still each to each, the bridegroom and the bride!

I s. 6d.

ART. VII. Political Conferences between several Great Men of the laft and prefent Century. With Notes by the Editor. 8vo. Cadell, 1780.

HIS fenfible tract confifts of dialogues between men who THI once acted an important part, and fhone with diftinguished luftre on the political theatre of this country. In or der to give the Reader, who has made a particular study of English hiftory, an idea of the fubjects to which the conferences relate, it is fufficient barely to mention the names of the perfons introduced in them. The firft is between Lord Strafford and Mr. Pym; the fecond introduces Sir Harry Vane and Mr. Whitlock; the third, Oliver Cromwell and Waller the poet; the fourth, William Lenthal, Speaker of the Long Parliament, and Sir Edward Hyde, afterwards Earl of Clarendon; the fifth, Lord Danby, Lord Devonshire and Lord Delamere; the fixth, Robert Earl of Oxford and Mathew Prior; the feventh, Sir Robert Walpole and Mr. Pelham. These great men are made, in the work before us, to fpeak like themselves; their characters are described with equal impartiality and difcernment. As a fpecimen of the ftyle, which is eafy and agreeable, we shall

Gg 3

infert