ART. XII. Edwy and Elgiva, and Sir Everard; two Tales, by the Rev. Robert Bland. 12mo. 194 pp. Longman, Hurft, Rees, and Orme. 1808. MR. R. Bland, the ingenious author of thefe poems, obtained confiderable credit with us, and, as it fhould feem, with the public, by his tranflations from the Greek Anthology, (then anonymous) of which fee an account in the British Critic, vol. xxviii. p. 275. His original intention was to have published a collection of tales in verfe, but as he juftly obferves, the fuccefs of authorship is doubtful, and general opinion can feldom be anticipated by that of private friendship, he has for the prefent printed two only as the forerunners of others, if thefe fhall experience a gracious reception. We think that he may venture to purfue his original plan to its accomplishment, for he certainly poffeffes a great fhare of true poetical feeling and ability. We have read these two poems with real gratification, and have no hesitation in promifing the lovers of poetry, that they will here meet with fome very beautiful paffages, and two very interefting and spirited compofitions, The first is a melancholy tale founded on a portion of Saxon hiftory, in this the epithalamium, or the marriage of Edwy and Elgiva, is extremely melodious, containing fome beautiful paffages, which denote that the author had in his · recollection that elegant ode of Johannes Secundus, Hora fuavicula et voluptuofa, &c. That our commendation of Mr. Bland's poetical tafte and talent is not overcharged, will fufficiently appear from the following animated defcription of the Danifh hoft, and the preparation for a human facrifice to propitiate the God of War. "Then firft the pagan war-note ftruck their ear Were cruel Harfagar had made a stand Y 2 With With equal hafte the rival fquadrons rage, That fwell'd with Pagan and with Chriftian gore. "A green ifle rifes pleasant to the gaze But late with hopeful love and fweetest promife warm. Thus to the god of arms arose their prayer : "God of the brave! that look'ft on things below From thy bleak throne on Skiddaw's gloomy brow, Great king of power to ope Valhalla's door Thro' clang of bucklers fought, and bath of gore, Revive thy wolves of carnage when they fail, When thick and dark defcends the battle's hail. So fhall no mercy at our hands be known, No woman's feeling for the captive's groan, But where our hoft thy fable raven bears, Shall ftream the widow's and the orphan's tears. Panic in front, and all our march behind "Thus while they hymn'd and pray'd, the warrior crowd The victors preff'd with Edwy at their van; Strong and more strong the conqu'ring prefs increaf'd, The fecond tale, of Sir Everard, has perhaps more fancy and invention, and is of more pleafing termination. Some notes are added, in part illuftrative, and partly introduced as a vehicle for fome well executed tranflations from the Greek, in particular of Admetus's farewell to Alceftis, and the noble foliloquy of Electra on taking the urn of Oreftes in her hand. If we fay that we prefer the author's poetry to his profe, we only mean that he seems to have cultivated the one talent rather than the other; but the following paffage feems rather paradoxical, and indeed is not to us perfectly intelligible. "Such defcriptions, if put into the hands of our youth, might tend to extinguish that cold and calculating felfishness, that artful and venomous malignity which are gaining daily ftrength in this nation; verging, as it is, nearer and nearer to the two evils, Commerce and Methodifm. For the caufe of morality, they would do more than twenty treatifes of ethics (which are now held in fuch high efteem), with all their vapid definitions of right and wrong, and their abortive endeavours at reducing to a form, or term of expreffion, that which defies definition, and reigns fenfibly, though undefined, in the breaft of every man who has the hardihood to question his own motives for action." P. 162. There is furely fomething very fingular, in thus joining commerce and methodifm, as equal and fimilar evils. We fhall be very happy to fee more of Mr. Bland's tales, and perhaps their impreffion will not be diminished by his occafionally diversifying the metre. ART. XIII. An Enquiry into the Seat and Nature of Fever; as deducible from the Phenomena, Caufes, and Confequences of the Difeafe, the Effects and Remedies, and the Appearances on Diffection. In two Parts. Part the Firft, containing the general Doctrine of Fever. By Henry Clutterbuck, M.D. Member of the Royal College of Physicians, London. 8vo. 440 pp. 98. Boofey, &c. 1807. UNDISMAYED by the difficulties which unavoidably meet every enquiry into the nature of fever, the prefent writer advances to the charge fortified with perseverance, and armed with confiderable erudition. Like an able general, he has anticipated oppofition, and fent out pioneers to clear the way, that his main force may be brought up without obftruction. In the firft chapter, the laws of the fyftem in health, and the nature of disease are confpicuously explained; though it is not without much ingenuity that they are adapted to support some opinions detailed in a fubfequent part of the work. Thus the author, having to eftablish that fever is a local difeafe, confifting in inflammation, and that its feat is the brain, fcarcely names the nervous fyftem as being fubject to morbid change; and altogether overlooks its general and direct influence upon the conflitution: while he confiders "the vascular fyftem, including arteries, veins, and absorbents, as the principal agent by which all the great changes, natural, as well as morbid, that take place in the living body, are brought about." In the third fection he advances a ftep further, and the ufual divifion of difeafes into general or univerfal, and local, is deemed incorrect; all difeafes being regarded as local in their origin, or affections of fome particular parts or organs, and never of the entire fyftem. The author is fufficiently aware, that this is in direct oppofition to generally received opinion, and contrary to the higheft medical authority. It is a point of the utmoft moment, not fo much from its affecting the theory of difeafes, as by its influencing the practice of cure; and we do think that Dr. Clutterbuck, in juftice to himself, and to those who may embrace his opinions, fhould have advanced fome ftronger proofs of his affertion than he has thought proper to adduce. He has, indeed, referred the reader to a fubfequent part of his work for proofs, that the febres and exanthemata are local difeafes, but our fearch for them was in vain. The failure of eftablithing this point is unfortunate, becaufe it is evidently alfumed as a propofition, which being admitted, might faci /litate the conclufion arrived at in the next chapter; that the primary feat of fever is the brain; and its phenomena dependent on inflammation of that organ. The author next enumerates the fymptoms of fevers in general, as described by Dr. Fordyce; of the flow nervous fever, or typhus mitior, and of the putrid, malignant, and petechial fevers, and plague, by Drs. Huxham, Lind, De Mertens, &c. &c. From all which it is inferred, "that fevers of all defcriptions, from the low nervous fever, to the plague itself, are characterized by the fame effential fymptoms, differing only in degree. Thefe fymptoms," he adds, " may all, as it appears to me, be referred without difficulty to a topical morbid affection of the brain as its fource; as will be feen by tracing their relation to the particular functions of this organ." Proceeding with this investigation, the author ably defcribes the derangement of the animal functions, which accompanies every ftage of fever, and after fome interefting practical obfervations, concludes" that the animal functions, as they have been called, to wit, fen fation and voluntary motion, and likewife the powers of he mind, all of which depend immediately on the brait, an vary with every variation in the ftate of this, are conftantly and greatly deranged in every cafe of proper fever." The vital functions, refpiration and the circulation of the blood are flated to be affected in a fecondary way, only in confequence of their connection with, and dependence on the brain. The author, however, does not regard increased action of the vascular fyftem as a neceffary fymptom of fever. He quotes feveral writers to prove, that in fome fevers the pulfe is even flower than natural, and that "in a great many others, and thofe often of the moft malignamt character, it fcarcely varies from the healthy ftandard." Here we think Dr. C. has been induftrious in fearching for anomalous fymptoms, which are always to be found in the written hiftories of difeafes; whilft, if he had ftated his own experience, we have no hesitation in affuming, that it would have been in favour of increased action of the vascular system, being one of the moft general and univerfal fymptoms of fever; and its oppofite flate of diminished action, or fever with the pulfe flower than in health, a most unusual phenomenon. The natural functions are next fhown to be only fecondarily affected; and the ftate of the ftomach is particularly confidered. The author contends, that no affection of the ftomach per fe could occafion fuch fymptoms as head-ach or vertigo, nor conftitute the immediate caufe of apoplexy or palfy: all these are manifeftly affections of the brain and its functions." |