Had the first Christians considered the 4th commandment as religi ously obligatory on them, it must have been thought to be so in all its parts; and they would not have deemed themselves at liberty to have altered the sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week, without a specific command or warrant; which does not appear to have been given.

Mr. P. says, however, we have what is nearly equivalent to a command; we have the practice of the first Christians' but this docs not create a solemn obligation; it only proves their views of the propriety and expediency of such a practice.

Mr. Palmer's answers to other objections are equally unsatisfactory. In his chapter on the manner in which the Sabbath ought to be kept, there are some good hints, to which all pious Christians will chearfully attend: but he is rather too precise and dictatorial. He allows only a walk in a garden, or retired place, on a Sunday;' this makes the rigour of the institution more severe under grace than under the law, for the Jews had a sabbath day's journey, and our Saviour's example justifies a walk in the common fields.

On this subject, we think it best not to descend to minute directions*. If Mr. P.'s argument, drawn from the 4th commandment, have any foundation, it will, it must, carry hi farther than he intends; if it be defective, the whole must rest on the general ground of expediency and utility, on the laws of our country and the appointment of the Church.

MISCELLANEO U S.

Att. 45. Letters written from various parts of the Continent, between the years 1785 and 1794 containing a variety of Anecdotes relative to the present State of Literature in Germany, and to celebrated German Literati. With an Appendix. In which are included Three Letters of Gray's, never before published in this country. Translated from the German of Frederick Matthisson, by Anne Plumptre, Translator of several of Kotzebue's plays. 8vo. pp. 544 8s. Boards. Longman and Rees. 1799.

Having noticed the original of this work in our Appendix to vol. xxiii. N. S. p. 522. it remains that we should say a few words respecting the translation. On the whole, it does not seem to be ill executed; and the remarks which Miss Plumptre has annexed are in general pertinent, though they ought to have been more numerous ; especially in letters xi. xxv. xxix. &c. She observes, p. 301. Literature, which for a long series of years was greatly neglected in Germany, has now become a rage, and every body turns author.' We never understood that, since the revival of letters, literature had at any time been neglected in that country: but it is well known that the Germans have not, till within these fifty or eighty years, paid much attention to their language, nor to German literature. Baron

*Who can help smiling at having it intimated to them by this writer, that the going a greater distance than is necessary, even to public worship,' is a species of sabbath breaking which good Christians should avoid?

Riesbeck,

Riesbeck, whose travels have been translated into English by Maty, was certainly an intelligent man:, but Miss Plumptre ought not to believe him implicitly when he speaks of Göthe, whom he treats rather illiberally. We might adduce some other inaccuracies in the text, as well as the notes: but they are not of moment. We select the following passages as specimens of Miss Plumptre's

'translation:

The quantity of bones in the charnel-house at Murten has, from various causes, been for some years visibly diminishing. In the first place, almost every traveller who visits them takes some away as a souvenir; but what consumes them much more rapidly is, that on account of their extraordinary whiteness they are now much employed in turnery ware, particularly in making handles for knives. The post-boys of Geneva, to whom credit is due for discovering this new Branch of trade, carry them away in large quantities, in order to make money of them in their native town: Bonstetten assured me, that ten years ago this heap of bones was at least some feet higher. In antient times, it was a frequent practice among the inhabitants of Burgundy to come hither, for the purpose of carrying away as many as possible of these remains of their unhappy countrymen, that they might transport them over the borders and bury them in their native soil. But more curious was the fate of two skulls which the cele brated naturalist Hebenstreit took with him on his journey to Africa: before Tunis, where a religious bigotry prohibits the keeping of any human remains, they were discovered by the people who searched his chest, and thrown into the sea.'

From the Monastery of the Grand Saint-Bernard.

As the ground for a considerable extent round the monastery is solid rock, the dead are collected together in a chapel, lying on its eastern side, which is made to admit a thorough draught of air, by openings in the walls guarded by large iron bars, as in the charnelhouse at Murten. The sight of so many unfortunate persons, probably collected from various parts of the world, yet howsoever remote from each other in life, brought hither by an unfortunate similarity of fate to rest together in death, affected my inmost soul. They are all covered with palls; and as in this frozen region no exanimate body moulders, but only gradually shrivels and dries away, so the features in the face remain undisfigured for a considerable length of time, and some have even been recognized by friends and relations after having lain here for two or three years. The bodies are not disposed one over the other, but are all placed upright, and each fresh corpse leans his head on the breast of the former: this disposition has something familiar in it, and gives them the semblance of being united only in a general slumber. Four rows of these slumberers already rest here, from the faces and hands of many of whom the palls have slipped: off and left them uncovered: these have all a perfect mummy-like appearance.'

According to our judgment, Miss Plumptre has not been happy in -her translation of the stanzas on the lake of Geneva. This little piece is in the original one of the most sublime and beautiful picces of

poetry

poetry that the Germans possess; in English, it is spiritless, and even below mediocrity. To translate poetry must ever be an excessively arduous and often an ungrateful task: but Mickle's Lusiad, Roscoe's Nurse, Sotheby's Oberor, and a few other instances, prove that it is possible to produce copies which equal and even surpass their originals.

Art. 46. Elements of Elocution: in which the Principles of Reading and Speaking are investigated; and such Pauses, Emphasis, and. Inflexions of Voice, as are suitable to every variety of Sentence, are distinctly pointed out and explained; with Directions for strengthening and modulating the Voice, so as to render it varied, forcible, and harmonious. To which is added, a complete System of the Passions, showing how they affect the Countenance, Tone of Voice, and Gesture of the Body, exemplified by a copious Selection of the most striking Passages of Shakespeare. The whole illustrated by Copper-plates, explaining the Nature of Accent, Emphasis, Inflection, and Cadence. The Second Edition, with Alterations and Additions. By John Walker, Author of the Critical Pronouncing Dictionary, &c. 8vo. pp. 400. Price marked. Robinsons, &c. 1799.

No

In our Reviews for August and September 1781, vol. Ixv. we gave an account of the first edition of this work, and expressed our approbation of the ability and ingenuity of the author. We also made such copious extracts, that it is unnecessary for us to enlarge on the present edition: but the following observations, respecting the pause at the end of every line in blank verse, appear to be sensible and judicious; and, as the subject is curious, they may be gratifying to some of our readers.

Rule V. At the end of every line in poetry must be a pause proportioned to the intimate or remote connection subsisting between the two lines.

Mr. Sheridan, in his Art of Reading, has insisted largely on the necessity of making a pause at the end of every line in poetry, whether the sense requires it or not, which he says has hitherto escaped the observation of all writers on the subject; and this, he observes, is so necessary, that without it we change the verse into prose. It is with diffidence I dissent from such an authority, especially as I have heard it approved by persons of great judgment and taste *. I must own, however, that the necessity of this pause, where the sense does not require it, is not so evident to me as to remove every doubt about it; for, in the first place, if the author has so united the preceding and following lines in verse, as to make them real prose, why is a reader to do that which his author has neglected to do; and indeed

*I asked Dr. Lowth, Mr. Garrick, and Dr. Johnson, about the propriety of this pause, and they all agreed with Mr. Sheridan. Had I been less acquainted with the subject, and seen less of the fallibility of great names upon it, I should have yielded to this decision; but great names are nothing where the matter in question is open to experiment; and to this experiment I appeal.'

seems

seems to have forbidden by the very nature of the composition? In the next place, this slight and almost insensible pause of suspension does not seem to answer the end proposed by it; which is, that of making the ear sensible of the versification, or of the number of accentual impressions in every line. For this final pause is often so small, when compared with that which precedes or follows it in the body of the line, and this latter and larger pause is so often accompanied with an inflexion of voice which marks the formation of perfeet sense, that the boundaries of the verse become almost, if not utterly imperceptible, and the composition, for a few lines, falls into an harmonious kind of prose. For it is evident, that it is not a small pause at the end of a line in verse, which makes it appear poetry to the ear, so much as that adjustment of the accented syllables which forms a regular return of stress, whether the line be long or short. Accordingly, we find, that those lines in blank verse, which have a long pause in the middle, from a conclusion of the sense, and a very short one at the end, from the sense continuing, are, in spite of alt our address in reading, very prosaical. This prosaic air in these lines may have a very good effect in point of expression and variety, but if too frequently repeated, will undoubtedly render the verse almost imperceptible; for, as was before observed, the ear will measure the lines by the greatest pauses, and if these fall within, and not at the end of the line, the versification will seem to be composed of unequal hines, and will want that measure which the ear always expects in verse, and never dispenses with, but when sense, variety, or expression is promoted by it.-EXAMPLE.

Deeds of eternal fame

Were done, but infinite; for wide was spread

That war, and various; sometimes on firm ground
A standing fight; then soaring on main wing,
Tormented all the air; all air seem'd then
Conflicting fire: long time in even scale
The battle hung'-

Milton.

The pauses at the end of these lines are so small when compared wich those in the body of the lines, that an appeal may be made to every ear for the truth of what has been just observed. This disproportion in the pauses cannot, however, be said to reduce the composition to prose; nay, even if we were to use no pauses at all at the end of the lines, they would not, on this account, entirely lose their poetic character; for, at worst, they might be called numerous or harmonious prose; and that the greatest part of blank verse is neither more nor less than this, it would not be difficult to prove.'

Art. 47. Impartial Strictures on the Poem called "Pursuits of Literature and particularly a Vindication of the Romance of "The Monk." 8vo. 3s. Bell, Oxford-street.

While this author professes that his design is merely to give some general strictures on the style and manner of the Pursuits, with observations on a few of the most striking passages, &c.' it seem's to us not improbable that his principal object was the defence

of

of Mr. Lewis's Novel above-mentioned: a work which, with all its allowed Genius, has been justly censured for its impurity.

We have no idea who may be the author of these Strictures. He is undoubtedly a writer of good ability: but we are of opinion that he has failed in his attempts to defend the work of Mr. Lewis, against the vigorous attacks which have been made on it.

With respect to the other purposes of these strictures, viz. to shew that the avowed objects of the Pursuits are completely at variance with each other; as well as to expose a few instances of the illiberal abuse, the personal invective, and the gross misrepresentation, &c. in following the critic through this long and varied investigation, we meet with frequent occasions of applauding his candid and moderate tone of investigation, and his readiness to do justice to the Pursuer, wherever his intentions appear to be laudable. He does not seem to be, in any instance, under the smallest influence of personal pique or resentment; and therefore, whatever may be thought of the weight of his strictures in some points, he fairly claims to be ranked among the foremost of ingenuous controvertists.

CORRESPONDENCE.

We should be glad to assist a person in the circumstances in which B—C— of Plymouth Dock represents himself, but we, really have not leisure to wander so far out of the path of our duty.

The packet from J. D. of Charleston, South Carolina, the postage of which is about six times the price of the inclosure, can be of no use to us.

The work mentioned by R. A. Hoxton Square, never came into our hands; and we wish now to be excused from noticing it. The world is greatly overstocked with such publications, and we are weary of examining them.

Where will the writer, who signs Verbum, find good authority for the adverb earlily?

R. B. points out a mistake in the last Review, p. 404. copied from Mr. Middleton's Survey of Middlesex, where the total population should be 3,584,600, instead of 3,674,600.-We fear that unavoidable haste will not allow us to remedy the other complaint of R. B.

We thank Jeremy Sea; whose corrections would have been still more acceptable, had they arrived before our table of Errata in the last volume had been printed: see the Appendix.

In the Review for December, p. 363. 1. 12. for of Euxine,” r. of the Euxine.-P. 393. 1. 28. for Gay,' r. Gray.

The APPENDIX to Vol. xxx. of the Monthly Review is published with this Number.