On Hobbes, the Philosopher.

This is the Philosopher's stone.

On Dr. Walker, author of a treatise on English Particles.
Here lies Walker's particles.

SELECTED POETRY.

From Horae Ionicae, a poem, descriptive of the Ionian Islands and part of the adjacent coast of Greece, by W. R. Wright, Esq. published in London, 1809, we select the following

extracts.

YE isles beyond the Adriatic wave!

Whose classick shores Ionian waters lave;
Ye plains of Greece! the Muse's anciept pride,
Whose rising beauties crown the western tide;
That smile beneath November's deepest gloom;
Where April wantons in luxuriant bloom,
No longer vocal to your native lyre,
Forgive the daring strain your charms inspire;
Though all unworthy of the meed ye claim,
A meed as deathless as your ancient fame.
For well I know, that not to me belong
The lofty raptures of poetick song:
My simple Muse in fancy's gilded ray
May sport, the insect of a summer day;
May sparkle, like the dew-drop on the flower;
But never please beyond the transient hour.
Yet when the year renews its lovely prime,
And spring, advancing from the southern clime,
With rosy smile the infant zephyr greets,
And bathes his tepid wing in balmy sweets,
My heart, responsive, owns the genial glow ;'
And the wild numbers all unbidden flow.

The author's power of description will be easily understood from the following.

And now, emerging from the straits that wind
Through many an isle, by rocky shoals confin'd,
Once more we launch upon th' Ionian main,
And spread our sails the fresh'ning breeze to gain.

Welcome, Zacynthus, welcome are thy shades,
Thy vine-clad hills, and deep sequester'd glades!
Soft are the gales that o'er thy bosom stray,
And mild the beams that on thy mountains play.
What though no spreading oak or lofty plane
Here mark the honours of the Sylvan reign!
With rapture we survey thy humbler groves,
Still bending as the changeful Zephyr moves.
By Acroteria's steep we pass along,

Whose echoing cliffs repeat the boatman's song ;
Then to our destin'd station bear away,
And moor our vessel in the shelter'd bay.
Sure 'tis enchantment bids the prospect rise,
Like some bright fairy vision, to my eyes:
On ev'ry side what varied beauty charms !
Here the throng'd city spreads her crescent arms;
To her white bosom woos the swelling tide,
And rises on the mountain's shelvy side;
Around whose brow in ruin'd grandeur frown
The hoary honours of his mural crown,
As proudly conscious of the glorious day
When Dion marshall'd here his small array,
With patriot ardour fir'd the dauntless band,
And led them forth to free his native land.
Where to the right extends the level shore,
And ripling surges break with fainter roar,
From yonder turret through the yielding air
The echoing bell sends forth the call of pray'r.
Hail to the sacred spot, whose bosom gave,
Immortal Tully, thine inglorious grave!
Yet why inglorious? though no mortal guest
Sigh'd o'er thy turf, or bade thine ashes rest,
While undistinguish'd here thy relicks slept,
Beside thine humble grave the Muses wept ;
In heav'nly strains thy hallow'd requiem sung;
And o'er thy tomb the votive chaplet flung ;
By fancy wreath'd, with flow'rs of brightest hue,
Yet freshly glist'ning with Castalian dew,

And mingled ivy-buds in clusters brown,

And virtue's palm, and wisdom's olive crown.

The conclusion of the poem is in a style which does honour

to modern poetry.

Whence bursts this flood of light, before whose ray
Heaven's azure concave seems to shrink away?

As if some daring hand aside had thrown

The mystick veil that shrouds the world unknown, Bid mortal sense the vast abyss explore,

And tempt the trackless deep, unbounded by a shore.
Lo! where, enthron'd amidst the rolling spheres,
His awful front majestick Plato rears.

Such as of old, on Sunium's rocky side,
Or where Ilissus' sacred waters glide,

From reason's light he taught the list'ning youth
Of moral beauty, and eternal truth;

Or in mysterious symbols half conceal'd

The secret lore which Memphis had reveal'd.
Now, clear'd from mortal mists, his eagle sight
Expatiates freely through the realms of light :
Inspir'd by truth he sings in bolder strain
What pow'r combines creation's golden chain;
How worlds obey the geometrick laws
Establish'd by the great eternal Cause;
And whence in human breasts immortal glows
Th' etherial flame, which heaven itself bestows:
Till, rising with its theme, the lofty ode
Ascends from nature to the throne of God.

Unseen celestial beings hover nigh
And pour their sweet accordant minstrelsy;
Through boundless space the sacred hymn prolong,
And worlds unnumber'd join the choral song.
But cease, my Muse! for not to thee is given
On earth to emulate the songs of heav'n:
No sister thou, but handmaid of the Nine;
And least of all their train as I of thine.
Immortal themes a master's hand require-
In silence I adore, and trembling drop the lyre.

THE

BOSTON REVIEW,

FOR

NOVEMBER, 1810.

Librum tuum legi, et quam diligentissime potui annotavi quae commutanda, quae eximenda arbitrarer. Nam ego dicere verum assuevi. Neque ulli patientius reprehenduntur, quam qui maxime laudari merentur.

Plin.

ARTICLE 13.

Cases of Organick Diseases of the Heart. With dissections and some remarks intended to point out the distinctive symptoms of these diseases. Read before the counsellors of the Massachusetts Medical Society. By John C. Warren, M. D. Boston; T. B. Wait and Co. 1809.

No subject in medicine has hitherto been more involved in doubt and obscurity than diseases of the heart. Notwithstanding the frequency of these complaints, the formidable train of symptoms, which marks their progress, the very gradual manner in which they are fully unfolded, the favourable opportunities thus afforded to physicians to compare these symptoms and form a correct judgment of the nature of the morbid affection and the liberal and candid views of the publick, of the advantages resulting from a careful examination of the changes of organization after dissolution, it is to be lamented that no branch of this science has been less investigated or so little understood. From the age of Morgagni to the present time, these diseases have hardly constituted a subject of medical research; and, if we except the imperfect collections of Baillie, and the observations of Corvisart, we shall find no separate work, not even a treatise, on the characteristick symptoms of morbid affections of the heart. In consequence of the obscurity diffused over these diseases, and the great difficulty of forming an accurate diagnosis, physicians,

it would appear, have been contented with the prominent fact, that they existed somewhere among the thoracick viscera. Hence the symptoms of diseased organization of the heart itself, of the great blood vessels connected with it, of the pericardium, of the cavities of the pleurae and even of the lungs, have been often confounded with each other, their classification has been neglected, and no criteria of either have been permanently established. The diseases, whose symptoms resemble those arising from changes of structure or volume of the heart, and which are often mistaken for it, are asthma, phthisis pulmonalis, and hydro-thorax; and it is the object of Dr. Warren, in publishing these cases, to show, "that whatever resemblance there may be in the symptoms of the first, when taken separately, to those of the latter diseases, the mode of connection and degree of those symptoms at least are quite dissimilar; and that there are also symptoms, peculiar to organick diseases of the heart, sufficiently characteristick to distinguish them from other complaints."

In this work we are presented with ten cases of the symptoms which preceded, and of the morbid changes of the heart and its great vessels, which appeared on accurate examination after the decease of the subjects. Of these, the first, of a late governour of Massachusetts, is undoubtedly the most interesting, not only from the character and station of the patient, and the accuracy and fidelity with which the gradual progress of the symptoms is recorded; but from the minute examination of the diseased organs, and the perfect demonstration of the unchangeable cause on which depended the whole series of his dreadful suffering. As we shall soon quote the observations of Dr. Warren on the symptoms of these cases taken collectively, we think it unnecessary to insert the whole of the case above mentioned, and we shall therefore confine ourselves to the description of the morbid appearances after death, which will afford a good example of the mode of investigation, and of the changes in organization in most or all of the subsequent cases.

"DISSECTION, NINE HOURS AFTER DEATH.

"EXTERNAL APPEARANCE.

"The whole body was much emaciated; the face pale and contracted. The bands were slightly oedematous. Discolourations, answering to the ribs, were observed on the thorax; many small purple spots, hard