The lines, when separated from those which precede them, and considered as forming the whole of the epitaph engraved on the unfortunate lady's tomb, are exquisitely beautiful and affecting: they also possess another excellence, when taken by themselves, which in an epitaph is always desirable, but to which in their combined form, as being a small part of the whole, they have no claim--BREVITY.

O thou who passest by with thoughtless speed,
Pause for a single moment here and read -
I, Homonæa, stripp'd of all my bloom,
Lie here enclosed within this narrow tomb,-
Yes, even I, who once, devoid of care,
Outstrove in beauty all the young and fair,
To whom the Papbian Queen and every Grace
Had giv'n a lovely form and charming face,
And to whose mind. Minerva did impart
Each noble virtue and each pleasing art:
My age had scarce attain'd its twentieth year,
Ere envious fate-whilst life was yet most dear-
Nipp'd all my bloom and laid me withering here.
But ah! I do not for myself complain;

My Atimetus' sorrows cause my pain;

For him, far more than for myself, I mourn,

For him, my spouse, from whose embrace I'm torn.

The last four lines of the epitaph, even when curtailed of its larger half, might (though in themselves certainly very beautiful) be omitted with advan tage for what, it may be enquired, has the passenger to do with the grief of Homonæa? and is not such an emotion inconsistent with that state of insensibility in which the dead are supposed to be?

Hoping that some one of your readers, more sensible to the beauties of poetry than myself, will refute my observations on the Latin epitaph, if they appear to him unfounded, and will favour the public with a translation of it more literal, and at the same time written more in the spirit of the original, I remain, Mr. Editor, yours, &c., MUSIS AMICUS.

THE GOLDFINCH,

Addressed to two Young Attornies.

"TWAS on the second morn of May,
The veil of mist was past away,
The roseate eastern clouds were fled,
One azure tint the heavens bespread,
O'er all the dale, from budding sprays,
From flower and blades, the sun's bright

rays

(Reflected with ten thousand dies

From trembling drops prismatic) rise.

The sober, lowing kinė, with haste
Unwonted, stop, once more to taste
The new-sprung grass; the foal first tries
Its speed, as round its dam it flies;
The lambs with gambols speak their bliss,
The lark on high proclaiming his :-
From every side-above, below-
The sights and sounds of rapture flow.

In unison my heart beat high;

I felt, and owned, the GIVER nigh.

On hedge-row poplar's topmast bough,
From breast of happy Gold-finch flow
Extatic notes:- his swelling heart
Seems almost bursting to impart
The bliss he feels;-beneath him sat,"
In holly bush, with joy elate;
On moss-built nest, intent to hatch
The' embryo brood, she who did catch
His every note,-her throbbing breast
Responsive beat.-As, thus, at rest,
She plied her pleasing tender task,
She felt she'd not a bliss to ask.
Hope gilt the halcyon days to come,
When, in her warm and happy home,
With care maternal, she should tend
Her callow young, and o'er them bend
The food to give, by him supplied

Whose aid and love were ne'er denied.

To him she raised affection's eye;

He saw-and felt that look supply

Unwanted powers; -more loud, more sweet, His notes he raised that look to greet; Whilst all his brilliant plumage gay

Glitter'd the brighter in the ray.

His pains are o'er!-Thine must last,
Poor widow'd bird, now his are past;
No mate to cheer, or bring thee food-
No father to protect his brood;
Thy orphan train in vain shall cry
For succour thou canst ne'er supply:
Soon must they perish;-thy poor breast,
Too, widow'd mourner, soon shall rest!

Ye thoughtless youths!-look here,-Whence, say,
Your right with bliss and life to play?
If in your office, with your quill,
You needs must torture, spoil, and kill,
That fatal tube might well suffice
To show your aim, how true, how nice.
You sure might breathe the morning air,
And father, mother, children spare ;
Or is the habit grown so strong,
That then you cannot walk along
Without another tube to slay,

And spread with death and woe your way.

O! check the vi lepropensity,

To sport with pain and misery!

MERCY-the brightest gem that's worn
By man-shines loveliest in his morn.

There are who grace the Law, I know,
Men, from whose breast this gem's bright glow

Reflected, shines on every side,

To warm and cheer, protect and guide;

Whose busy quill by all is blest,

Whose gun is harmless and at rest.

Like these, in God put all your trust ;

Be humble, merciful, and just;

You'll then, like them, gain wealth and fame,
Whilst widows-orphans-bless your name.

Sheffield, May 4th, 1818.

FLORA.

IMPROMPTU

a beautiful Plaister Bust of SAPPHO, fixed on a Stair-case in Sheffield.

"TIS time thou took'st thy destined leap

From high Leucotes' rocky steep;
For though thy form's of ATTIC gracė,
Thou'st truly got à SHEFFIELD face!

Review of New Publications.

In this department it will be the object of the Editors to give a complete view of the Literature of the counties through which this Magazine is circulated; and to notice every Book published within it, that shall come to their knowledge. At the same time, they will not consider it any infringement on their plan to notice other modern publications; and they will feel obliged by Authors who are desirous of having their works reviewed in the Northern Star, apprizing them of their wishes as early as possible.]

illustrated by the History of Men of Murray, London, 1818.

THE LITERARY CHARACTER, Genius, &c. 8vo. pp. 336. 9s. 6d. THE author of this valuable work, J. D'Israeli, Esq. has already established his character in the literary world by the publication of "The Curiosities of Literature,” “ Calamities of Authors," and many other masterly productions, celebrated no less for the classical elegance of the style in which they are composed, than the singular devotedness to literary pursuits which breathes through every page. The present volume may be considered as a second edition, on an extended scale, of a former work, which was published in 1795, under the title of "An Essay on the Literary Character;" but the alterations it contains are so multifarious and important as to justify the author in prefixing a new title to his production, and sending it out to the world in a new form. In any form, however, a publication of this nature, written by a person so eminently qualified for the task might be considered anornament to the library of every literary character, and a valuable benefaction to the world at large.

The ambitious mind

There sees herself: by these congenial forms

Touch'd and awaken'd, with intenser act

She bends each nerve.

"

AKENSIDE.

That such, indeed, has been the effect produced by its perusal, the author's own expressions, in his preface, will abundantly testify. During the long interval which has elapsed since the first publication," says he, "the little volume was often recalled to my recollection, by several, and by some who have since obtained celebrity; they imagined that their attachment to literary pursuits had been strengthened even by so weak an effort. An extraordinary circumstance has concurred with these opinions;-a copy which has accidentally fallen into my hands formerly belonged to the great poetical genius of our times; and the singular fact that it was twice read by him in two subsequent years, at Athens, in 1810 and 1811, instantly convinced me that the volume deserved mỹ attention. I tell this fact assuredly, not from any little vanity which it may appear to betray,—for the truth is, were Í not as liberal and as candid in respect to my own productions, as I hope I am to others, I could not have been gratified by the present cir "mstance; for the marginal notes of the noble writer convey no flattery-but amidst their dungency and sometimes their truth, the circumstance that a man of genius could, and did read, this slight effusion at two different periods of his life, was a sufficient authority, at least for an author, to return it once more to the anvil; more knowledge, and more maturity of thought, I may hope, will now fill up the rude sketch of my youth; its radical defects, those which are inherent in every author, it were unwise for me to hope to remove by suspending the work to a more remote period."

In the first chapter the author institutes a comparison between the literary character, and "those which are perpetually modified by the change of manners, and are VOL. III.

S

more distinctly national. Could we describe the medical, the commercial, or the legal character of other ages, this portrait of antiquity would be like a perished picture: the subject itself would have altered its position in the revolutions of society. It is not so with the literary character. The passion for study; the delight in books; the desire of solitude and celebrity; the obstructions of life; the nature of their habits and pursuits; the triumphs and the disappointments of literary glory ;-all these are truly described by Cicero and the younger Pliny, as by Petrarch and Erasmus, and as they have been by Hume and Gibbon. The passion for collecting together the treasures of literature and the miracles of art, was as insatiable a thirst in Atticus as in the French Peiresc, and in our Cracherodes and Townleys. We trace the feelings of our literary contemporaries in all ages, and every people who have deserved to rank among polished nations. Such were those literary characters who have stamped the images of their minds on their works, and that other race, who preserve the circulation of this intellectual coinage;

Gold of the Dead,

Which time does still disperse, but not devour.

D'AVENANT's Gondibert, c. v. s. 38.

"These literary characters now constitute an important body, diffused over enligh ened Europe, connected by the secret links of congenial pursuits, and combining often insensibly to themselves in the same common labours. At London, at Paris, and even at Madrid, these meu feel the same thirst, which is allayed at the same fountains; the same authors are read, and the same opinions are formed :"

Contemporains de tous les hommes,

Et citoyens de tous les lieux.

DE LA MOTHE.

In his 2nd chapter he lays it down as an axiom that "genius is an inherent faculty in the constitutional disposition of the individual. Many sources of geniu" says he, “have indeed been laid open to us, but if these may sometimes call it forth, have they ever sup plled its want? Could Spenser have struck out a poet in Cowley, Richardson a painter in Reynolds, and Descartes a metaphysician in Mallebranche, bad they not borne that vital germ of nature, which, when endowed with its force, is always developing itself to a particular character of genius? The accidents related of these men have occurred to a thousand, who have run the same career; but how does it happen, that the multitude remain a multitude, and the man of genius arrives alone at the goal?

"The equality of minds in their native state is as monstrous, a paradox, or a term as equivocal in metaphysics, as the equality of men in the political state. Both come from the French school in evil times; and ought, therefore, as Job said, "to be eschewed." Nor can we trust to Johnson's definition of genius, "as a mind of general powers acci dentally determined by some particular direction," as this rejects any native aptitude, while we must infer on this principle that the reasoning Locke, without an ear or an eye, could have been the musical and fairy Spenser."

"But while genius remains still wrapt up in its mysterious bud, may we not trace its history in its votaries? Let us compare, although we may not always decide. If nature in some of her great operations has kept her last secrets, and even Newton, in the result of his reasoning, bas religiously abstained from penetrating into her occult connections, is it nothing to be her historian, although we cannot be her legislator? "Can we trace in the faint lines of childhood, an unsteady outline of the man? In the temperament of genius, may we not reasonably look for certain indications or prognostics announcing the permanent character? Will not great sensibility be born with its susceptible organization; the deep retired character cling to its musings; and the