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London, England, 1842-05-09 00:00:00

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I,ITERATURE.
A RECORD OF THE PYRAMIDS.
Saunders and Otley, London, 1842. -
If Mr. Reade does not succeed as a poet, it will
certainly not be from any excess of diffidence on his
Part. • Indeed, we scarcely know an author who is so
little afflicted with this malady, or who—if we may
,judge from his preface to the present work—thinks so
highly of his own genius, and with so little reason.
Heeven congratulates himself on his unpopularity,
whkh he seems to think is an unerring test of his
desert; and quotes a passage from Montaigne to show
that the worst writers are frequently those who have
gained most applause. Mr. Reade is welcome to all
the consolation he can derive from this reflection, but
nevertheless it is our duty to assure him that he will
never win permanent reputation as a poet, for this
conclusive reason, that he is utterly deficient in origi-
nality. He is a mere mocking-bird—the very parrot
of Parnassus. Most of his best thoughts may be traced
to Lord Byron, of whose fourth canto of "Childe
he produced a servile imitation in his
"1ta13',9 with this only exception—namely, that the
spirit
-and feeling of the original were both most dili-
gentl omitted in the copy. In his present drama of
"`A Record of the Pyramids," instead of measuring
his strength with the illustrious Childe, he actually
eaters the lists against Eschylus, and furnishes us
with a new view of Prometheus, whom he represents
to
as ane Egyptian patriot, existing at an age subsequent
tthe p .
ramids, notwithstanding that poetic tradi-
iitiornb--ingandy who but our author would dream of dis--
such a legend ?—records him to have lived in
the very earliest and rudest periods of the world, cen-
istries before man had learned the art of making a
elc much less' a Pyramid ! Again, the Prometheus of
z,""
schyluS was a god-like Titan—a dweller in the Indian
`4lcasus ; the Prometheus of Mr. Reade is an Egyp-
fain twaddler; who discourses common-places about
&c., to the thick-skulled citizens of Mem-
phis. We protest against this new version of the
most sublime and irnaginatize legend of antiquity.
It iS bad taste—to say the leash of it—to tamper with
a fable " covered with the awful hoar of innumerable
ages" It was not thus that Shelley treated the sub-
ject. He took it as he found it, well knowing that
any attempt to alter its character would have been an
act of the grossest presumption. Had Mr. Reade
anything like sterling genius in his " Record
of the Pyramids," we might perhaps have forgiven
him for his hardihood in venturing to disturb our
faith in the Prometheus of Eschylus ; but, alas, on
Peru. sing his drama, we can detect nothing like
Poetic inspiration ; much melody of versification
there undoubtedly is, and not a few graceful and
liglay-wrought images ; but the "vision and the
lfaculty divine" are wholly wanting ; and many of the
best thoughts, sometimes even the very words, may
traced to the pages of Byron. Our author, in fact,
is merely a dexterous imitator, alive to the mechan-
an; but dead to the inspiration, of his art. He has a
taste but not a genius, for the poetic, and mistakes
his tinsel for gold, simply because it has a similar
glittr-,ders himsel.Fsom his preface, it is evident that he con-
falf a singing bird of the very highest order,
at, in speaking of one of his poems, he says, " I re-
sol
, Ted, :to, publish my book ; I knew the reality of the
44ths which I had, embodied ; I felt that I was sup-
by them ; that they would live of them-
he ard vas as such, if once recorded in print, and
'Bong the _few. I then receded from all
h `.tuer. effort, and returned to my seclusion, as
coVdent of results, as if they had al.
eeZ"l,l,lla,ppened." This tone of cool assurance is
minet,bnglY amusing—especially when we bear in
already for *the poem to which the author alludes, is
only asY forgotten, Or, if remmbe, remembered
fox. his a mere faint echo of "Childe Harold.' As
objection ruths," on which he lays such stress,,our
all ; that is, that his works contain no "truths" at
of v they are nothing more than adroit specimens
4elepersification,.devoid of thought, but abounding in
neies of diction. It is not a little singular that
i'.:atinls elaborate preface Mr. Reade twice quotes from
Latin authors, and that in one of his quotations he
turns verse into prOse and in the other leaves out the
il l hver..y word that gives its emphasis to the line. Thus
"!. famons sentiment of Terence, "Homo sum,
taieword i 1
,
humani ame alienum puto," he actually omits
" humati," without which the sentence has '
little or no meaning ; and in the passage from Horace, 1
4.
3i vie me flere,-doleadum-est
Primunt ipsi tibi."
lie substitutes " sit" for " est," thereby violating the
metre equally with the grammar. • But indeed Mr.
Reade is by no means remarkable for grammatical
accuracy—such considerations are beneath the dignity
of genius !—for, alluding to the vocation of the poet,
says,he"the of
sense the duty of his mission will lay
on him with the obligation of a moral law." We
should not omit to add that the "Record of the Pyra-
mids " is dedicated to Sir Robert Peel, who, our
author seems to think, bears an extraordinary resem-
blance to Prometheus 1 The Income-tax is certainly
a very Promethean species of impost !

TEE LIFE AND LABOURS OF ADAM
CLARKE.
Longman, London, 1842.
There is much that is exceedingly interesting
'n this biographical sketch of .Dr. Adam Clarke,
"vho, was one of the most learned men of his
tlaY, and bv far the most influential preacher.
theng the Wesleyan class of Dissenters. Unlike
celebrated Colonel Gardener, and many others
who have afterwards been distinguished by their
strict devotional habits, Dr. Clarke's religious im-
prssions were formed early in life, and remained
with him in unabated force down to the close of his
Y'nFE, useful, and honourable career. As a preacher,
147 s remarkable for the fervour of his manner, and
produlincedle!fti?nt emphatic eloquence of his style ; and
•
thoie cuects on his congregations second only to
w ieProduced by his celebrated predecessor, John
tio-nesf.Y•
his Yet he never made the slightest prepara-
sir, °I. sermons—never knew beforehand one
i EN sentence that he should utter ; notwithstand-
-311, which his discourses, we are assured,
de'rin, occupied less than one hour in the
as two
ellverY, and sometimes they occupied as much
11-
preaching.
A.is son thus describes his father's
effect' w'' The appearance of my father, and his
one in the pulpit upon a stranger would pro-
" ne one
like this—he would see a person
hairs mark, except that time had turned
is flan' to silver, and the calmness of fixed devotion
Save solemnity to his appearance. He spreads his
afterL. 'we before him, and opening his hymn-book, reads
lo
in a clear, distinct, full voice, a few verses,
. the singing of which he offers up a short prayer,
u!ch is immediately felt to be addressed to the
trlla.lest)7 of
be Heaven. The text is, proclaimed, and
11dISCOUrSe is begun. My father hardly ever
.I%)te.. e
.a line as a preparation for preaching.
av now in my possesion a slip of paper,
" .three inches long by one wide, containing
. ,e* tirst wor6 of a number of texts, and this was the
list of' memoranda on which he preached seven
i','eaional sermons in various parts of the country.
411:never entered the pulpit but with diffidence, and
_tk.ahriost a painful sensation of his responsibility
„, a Mesienger of the Gospel of Christ Jesus." Doctor
thy, was born in the obscure village of Moybeg, in
ccllnty. Londonderry, somewhere about 1760,
died of malignant cholera at Bayswater, in the
1184 st of 1832.

134, HE BOOK OF THE BASTILES.
G. 11'ythen Baxter, Author of " Humour and
Pathos," te.—Stephens, London.
is a most wonderful production, and will
{xtreact the fame of the author far and wide. It
45411,(1 to 609 pages in imperial octavo, is beautifully
Ett,t.nu, and contains no less than 2,870 extracts from
tatt!-Lastile speeches, and newspaper articles ; thus,
kiPli into account letters and encomiums on the author,
h‘lleing at least 5,000 witnesses against the atrocious
I,,,''rninent of the Somerst House Bashaws. The
/I`:ic is embellished by a full-length portrait of Mr.
kl.llter. The countenance evinces great intelligenee,
Rn,,, at the .same time, that kind, merciful, and
colil-Nus disposition, which would lead any person of
iS ;,,4cal observation to say, on the first glance, this
fatireq the man to face the tyrants—" bonum verum
Cpr4 erederes magnum libenter." He is, besides,
itcc,o„ 4 4 good race, being, according to his own
;4, a lineal descendant of the great Richard
vid4 author of the " Saint's Rest," and other
IleAth4enie works, thus verifying the words of the
ri Poet—
Fo
creantur fortibus et bonis,
vitwe !t...ll,juvencis, est in equis patrum virtus."
, 'llll leave the reader
, 11 few extracts. The lying Guardians of
-tq had- the impimpudence to advertise a table,
h
ot f ort the great saving which has occurred
11114.4 T introduction of the new Poor-law in those
176_ts 4diark how they are put down, at once by
figures :—" 1. Received of Mr. Baxter, poor-
tNlt the parish of St. Martin, in the city or
tii;sle:4l made the 9th of May, 1833, 4s. Signed
ass.-overseer. 2. Parish of St. Mar-
t4iiN Vord—llecd., the 29th of February, 1841, of
(14.4. lirt"B:kters, 96. 70. Lemuel Llewellyn, collr.7—
14,,11408- that the:poor-rates, in place of being
statehave been more than doubled by the new
' `via Swer was e angiven to this matter-of-fact
lit
174,144 t., and the author, therefore, with becoming
()de. ton, castigates the parish functionaries in the
den Sarcastic strain :—" It is needless to say the
throwni., down in this letter was not accept-
ige-tic,79icd too much like work for the capacities o.i. ear. er°t(l Guardians (eel geese), and they, with
1414,0 e -es- and on their beaded drumsticks,
Hold, enough! In a word, they
149 re look. on it again • they dared not, but,
h a 84i
1 ? f 11 h
ad b ve , confessed that their belly was u —t ey
?Pared td
ad their 1
grue • 14t what the Hereford Board
'ht.
,do (i. e. to prove truth to be a lie), that the
w4h,; Board dared to undertake. Yes, the pauper
of lewd, iiceritious, liberal Ledbury, stepped
e
441.01. scue of their Alalthusian brethren of the
OP the 1.6.,th....0f March, 1841, the'

-ChiiirnTan of-the-hedbnry Board, a clerk of no int-
' portance, having previously had an illicit intercourse
with the Assistant- Commissioner of the district, who,
under promise of marriage—no; but under promise of
sousing him up to his great red ears in the grease of a
fat living, had seduced and crammed him, was sud-
denly taken in labour of a praise-bare-bones poor-law
speech, and was delivered of the same (the aforesaid
Assistant-Commissioner acting as man-midwife), in
the presence of the assembled billy and bearded goats,
Guardians of the Ledbury Union. Brave Guardians
( vel geese) of Hereford, who have suffered many times
and oft from Baxter's lash, turn to him, the Chairman
of the Ledbury Board, who has thus so kindly kissed
your parts and made them well." With what delicacy
and tact he points out the very spot where his lash
had inflicted the red gushing wound ! The descrip •
tion altogether, is powerful and graphic in the extreme,
and reminds us of Brougham in his best days, when
painting to his astonished hearers the sufferings of
naked black women under the whip of a merciless and
shameless negro-driver. The author, however, does
not confine himself to this style of writing. At times
he is tender and plaintive, embodies his thoughts and
fancies in the most rich and mellifluous language, and
surpasses even the silvery-toned Wilberforce, or the
voluptuous Jean Jacques Rousseau. What, for in-
, stance, can exceed in these respects his description of
an author's dreams? "'Oh, the day dreams of an
author ! and oh, the night dreams ! (Having painted
the day dreams, which are rather common-place, he
thus launches forth in strains which, though in prose,
possess all the highest attributes of poetry). " Such
his day dreams, often, often realised, and his night
ones—his, when he sleeps—his, for beautiful fair ones,
girls of heaven, houris and angels, yet passionate and
female still, with rounded, rosy limbs—the blissful
visions of his own lovely imagination, to bend o'er his
slumbers, and, in delicious abandonment, play with
and twine round their small taper fingers his long
flowing hair, and with their mouths, pouting with
vermillion bloom, kiss—" but we can go no further—
the picture is too powerful to behold ; the sweetest of
all Roman poets, Ovidius Naso, falls far short of
this even in the sweetest of all his elegies, that begin-
ning with
" Estus 'rat, mediamque dies eaegerat horam ;
Adposui medio meuibra levanda toro."

If the author will swear that he has not com-
mitted an act of plagiarism, or even give his simple
affirmation that he has not read the ode, or merely say
that he has not taken the idea of " rounded, rosy
limbs" and something else, from two other lines, he
ought to be ranked as the first of living poets. These
lines are—

" Qum; humeros, quales vidi tetigique lacertos !
Quantum et quale latns ; quam juvenile femur."

But reader, mark how the language changes when
Mr. Baxter describes another bed-scene ; namely,
that in which a young thief of two-and-twenty sur-
prises Mr. Chadwick snoring in bed at one in the
morning, with his sweet spouse by his side, for we
are led to infer from the word " nightcaps" that
the worthy secretary is not alone. " Neither should
I calculate," says the author, " knowing your peace-
able temperatures, would you sneeze at such circum-
stances as some young thief of two-and-twenty, or
thereabouts, waylaying you at your front doors, or
when returning homewards, from your country walks,
laden with cowslips and 'long purples,' or as you
paced the gas-lighted streets of London, contem-
plating and smiling on the passing odalisques, with
their scarce petticoats; or as you lay prone, (the
' bell then beating one'.) playing pigs' overtures,
with variations, in your beds and blankets,
—for the self-same modest gentleman to stand over
your nightcaps, and with 'strange oaths' and sig-
nificant curses, flourishing right and left his damned
double-barrelled swords, and cut and thrust pistols,'
ease you of a greater quantity than would be con-
venient of your L.S.D. The initials are read back-
wards, according to the custom of the Jews, and
mean ' damned starvation ledgers.' " We suspect,
however, that our author has carried the joke a little
too far. Mr. Richard Martin made Blackwood, on
his ",Mended drumsticks," beg pardon for allowing
Christopher North to say, " why don't the Smithfield
drovers kill him ?" and here Mr. Baxter encourages
young blackguards of twenty-two, and thereabouts,
to commit burglaries in Somerset House,and perhaps
murder both the Poor-law Commissioners and their
poor Secretary, at one fell swoop. But we
must come to a close, and rest satisfied with

two more short extracts—the one in prose, and the
other in verse, describing in nervous and appropriate
language, the horrors which the Bishop of London,
the Somerset House despots, and the base Whigs,
have caused by the erection, not of one bastile, like
the King of France, but of hundreds throughout the
country. The first is from an Invocation, by the
author of " Humour and Pathos," "Don Juan,
Junior," &c. to the people of England, calling upon
them to come forward and raise subscriptions
for Mr. Oastler. " Yes, Richard Oastler, because
he dared be honest, dared be honourable, dared be
humane, dared he religious, dared shield you and
yours from the painless extinction' of Marcus,'
starvation, poisoned' skillies, coarser food,' dungeons,
sabre-cuts, and ball-cartridges; because dared—
when all hands were against you and all hearts—step
nobly forward, and with the eloquence of a god, de-
clare that your wives, sisters, and daughters, as vir-
tuous as they (the man-slayers and women-quellers
of the hostiles), yea, more so than many of the
satin-clad and diamond-gemmed wives, sisters, and
daughters—(vide the crun. con. trials)—of my
lords and gentlemen,' should not be handed over
an unauthorised prey to lust and brutality—that your
children, your pretty ones,' should not be torn from
your bosoms, and by Societies, miscalled Friendly,'
transported thousands of miles across the deep waters
to distant colonies ; that your limbs should not be
tied up and manacled, if at any time, in the bastile
prisons, you happened to converse with your wretched
relatih and friends ; that the bodies of your mur •
dered dead should not, without the decent ceremonial
of book, bell, and pall, be trundled into an un-

. ,
consecrated hole, like deceased dogs, cats, rats,
and stots." We can excuse this strong language,
if Mr. Baxter knows or believes that such things
are done in his part of the country, but we
have always understood that those who died in work-
houses were buried according to the rites of the
Church of England—that the beautiful service for

the burial of the dead was duly performed, and never
heard that ropes or manacles were used to restrain the
inmates, liked esperate malefactors. If such deeds

are committed in any union, •or if the chaplain is al-
lowed to neglect his duty, as here described, Mr.
Baxter would confer great benefit on the poor by lay-
ing the facts, properly authenticated, before Parlipn-
ment. We warrant him the Hereford Guardians
would not be allowed to 'commit such acts of abomi-

nation with impunity. The last eitraciVi;;;;;
(for Mr. Baxter is a poet also), taken from a work of
his, entitled " Don Juan, Junior," and here we
cannot help expressing our surprise that a descendant
of that pious man, Richard Baxter, should read such
books as Byron's " Don Juan," and Ovid's " Art of
of Love." We give the lines, however, without fur-
ther comment on that point, and merely call the at-
tention of the reader to the powerful effect of the
second and sixth. The second, in particular, exhi-
bits in perfection that wonderful quality which only
great poets possess—namely, the faculy of making
the sound an echo to the sense. No one can read it

without a gnashing of the teeth and an involuntary
shudder for the sufferings of those subjected to the
terrible engine. The author informs us that Mr.
Oastler took it as a "top piece" for his Anti-New
Poor-law letters.
AN ANTI-POOR-LAW TOP-KNOT.
" It's a pity 'tis pass'd, that pauper wo
So rife with murder, poisonings, hearts broke—rack
Authors of England why are ye so slow ?
Gentlemen of England why are ye so slack ?
Awake ! arise ! expose ! ward off the blow,

Ere yet it comes down thundeiing on your back—
Let its cruelties continue, and, grow like weeds,
And, I can only say, look to your title-deeds."
We thus take leave of Mr. Baxter, and seize this
opportunity of expressing great regret that his valua-
ble work had so long escaped the notice it deserved.
It lay all but a " sealed book," among many others of
a very different kind which had been duly honoured,
and might have remained there for months had not

our attention been roused by a short, .but powerful
letter which only such a writer could indite. May
he be rewarded for his labours ! "Maete nova virtute,

puer, sic itur ad astra."

FOX'S BOOK OF MARTYRS. Part 12.
Virtue, London, 1842.
A new edition, in cheap monthly parts, of a work
once highly popular, but scarcely worthy of republica-
tion, from its uniformly painful, and even repulsive
character.

CARPMAEL ON THE LAW OF PATENTS

The best panegyric on Mr. Carpmael's book ap-
pears on his own frontispiece, whereby the public
demand for his work has already caused it to arrive
at a third edition. The branch of law on which it
treats, unsatisfactory and insecure as it was of late
years, has by more recent decisions in our law and
equity courts, assumed validity and importance, as-
suring security, protection, and recompense to the
ingenuity of inventors. Twenty-one years appear to
have been the original term granted to patentees by
the Crown, as an exclusive privilege for their origi-
nation of new manufactures; but, after the reign of
James 1., this term was abridged to fourteen years,
in consequence of abuses. By careful specification
and right entitlement now, there can be no liability
of failure on the part of patentees at present. The
dictum of Lord Tenterden set the honourable quali-
fications of the patentee in their true light : " the
man," said his Lordship, " who makes an experiment
with a new material that is suCeesgful, though it is for
a purpose that is old, though it be with a tieW to pro-
duce that which has been produc—ea before; is entitled
to the protection of the Crown and to the thanks of
the public." To the recommendation that a com-
mission of scientific persclits, ordinarily from

, ;