The reader engross'd by Lorenzo's high fame,
Or dwelling on Leo, tenth Pope of that name.

Lorenzo de Medici, and Pope Leo the tenth, will stand the test of nicest criticism; it is that species of writing to the which nothing can be added or retrenched; for, as in the perusal of the Letters of Junius, every reader, from the beautiful and easy flow of language, conceives himself capable of producing a similar composition, so is it with the works of this gentleman, whose fine talents and classical acquirements are only discovered when an attempt is made at imitation. The writer cannot refrain from extending this note, in order to state that the son of Mr. Roscoe, at an early age, published a most promising poem founded on the ancient ballad of Chevy Chace; a specimen of which is annexed, to evince the warm fancy of a youth capable of eliciting such figurative beauties.

"Fair art thou, midst thy realms of air,
Son of the morning! thou art fair,
As rolling back the mists of night,

With conquering floods of crimson light,
Thou marchest forth, in godlike state,
From out thy golden eastern gate,
Like a strong giant flush'd with wine,
To run that heavenly race of thine.

A Cor on the page of true merit finds place, (e)
And Duppa descants well on Angelo's race;

(e) The account of the Kings of Spain, by Mr. Cox, is a novel and entertaining production, and is possessed of additional interest from the close alliance which has lately existed between this country and the Peninsula. Duppa's account of Michael Angelo is not only gratifying to the admirers of the arts, but, considered as the delineation of the life of one of the greatest men that ever blazoned the annals of painting, it is a valuable piece of biography to every admirer of general literature.

While Fox in his Annals of Stuarts was dull, (ƒ) The clamour though great, yet producing no wool.

(f) Few works ever excited such general interest in the republic of letters as the late Mr. Fox's Annals of the Stuart family, prior to its being issued from the press; and never, perhaps, was public expectation more disappointed. So justly was this statesman venerated for his shining oratorical powers, that it was thought next to impossible that any thing of a secondary class could emanate from his mind; the result however proved otherwise, which is a sufficient testimony of the fallacy attending all human judgment. With regard to Mr. Trotter's work; being a narrative of the close of this revered statesman's earthly career, although there are parts which cannot fail to interest, yet the minute particulars recorded by that gentleman are sometimes of a nature to turn the solemn into farce; nor can any sober-minded individual for a moment hesitate to condemn those enthusiastic admirers of Mr. Fox, who could suffer childish ebullitions as the following to be blazoned forth in different periodical publications.

LINES BY MR. FOX.

How can I at ought repine

While my dearest Liz is mine?

Can I feel a pain or woe

While my Lizzy loves me so?

A friend of our statesman from fame was fast

Trotter,

Whose temple around him did nothing but totter.

Where's the sorrow that thy smile
Knows not sweetly to beguile?

Sense of pain and danger flies,
From the looks of those dear eyes;
Looks of kindness, looks of love,
That lift my mental thoughts above.
While I view that heavenly face,

While I feel that dear embrace,

While I hear that soothing voice,

Tho' maim'd or crippl'd, life's my choice:
Without them, all the fates can give

Has nought would make me wish to live.
No! could they foil the power of time,
And restore youth's boasted prime;
Add, to boot, fame, power, and wealth,
Undisturb'd and certain health.
Without thee 'twould nought avail,
The source of every joy would fail;
But lov'd by thee, by thee caress'd,
In pain and sickness I am blest.

In Godwin's dull life of a Chaucer (g) we view

The pond'rous compiler, with nought that is new: A Gifford instructs in the life of a Pitt; (h)

Lee Lewis may boast the reverse of true wit. (¿)

(g) Mr. Godwin has in two instances exerted his talents as a biographer; first, in delineating the Memoirs of Mary Wolstonecraft, which, from certain statements therein contained, it would have been preferable that the public should not have seen; and with respect to his second production, denominated the Life of Chaucer, it lays no claim whatsoever to the title it bears, which should rather have been an Essay on the Manners, Customs, Architecture, &c. &c. of the reigns of Richard the second and Henry the fourth, with the little that is extant appertaining to Geoffry Chaucer, and his munificent friend and patron John of Gaunt.

(h) Gifford's Life of Pitt is written with a masterly hand, and the narrative affords a convincing proof that the writer possessed the most undoubted sources for rendering his pages the correct portraiture of that great statesman's public career.

(i) In the pages of Lee Lewis are to be found a few amusing anecdotes, beyond which the volumes are not deserving any further comment. Raymond's Dermody, like the Anecdotes