ing paper by Dr. Thaer of Hanover, respecting some improved modes of farming lately introduced into that country. Among these innovations, none has proved on the whole so beneficial as that of stall-feeding cattle throughout the whole twelve months, which has been practised for several years past, on a large scale, by Baron de Bülow, at a farm called Essenrode, five miles from Hanover.

The advantages of this system (says Dr. Thaer) are founded on the following incontrovertible principles:

1. A spot of ground, which, when pastured upon, will yield sufficient food for only one head, will abundantly maintain four head of cattle in the stable, if the vegetables be mowed at a proper time, and given to the cattle in a proper order.

2. The stall feeding yields at least double the quantity of ma nure from the same number of cattle (hence eight times the quantity from the same surface of ground).

3. The cattle used to stall feeding will yield a much greater quantity of milk, and increase faster in weight when fattening than when they go to the field.

4. They are less subject to accidents, do not suffer by the heat, by flies and insects, are not affected by the baneful fogs which are frequent in Germany, and bring on inflammations; on the contrary, if every thing be properly managed, they remain in a constant state of health and vigour.'

We could with pleasure have transcribed several other passages from this paper, but we have not room.

The volume concludes with an Appendix, describing the manner of erecting strong and durable earthen walls, to the height of several stories, drawn up and presented to the Board of Agriculture, by Henry Holland, Esq. This mode of building, we are told, has been long practised about Lyons, where it is known by the name of pisi work. It differs from the mud walls raised for cottages in some parts of our island, chiefly in this respect, that the materials are, in the pisi work, employed when nearly dry, and are compressed together by a kind of wooden rammer; by means of which the earth is forcibly pressed down between two deal boards, placed at such a distance from each other as the thickness of the wall is intended to be. These boards are successively removed as the wall advances. Without the aid of plates, we could not render this part of the operation easily intelligible to our readers. We are assured that the walls are close, firm, and beautiful, and extremely cheap as well as durable. This mode of building deserves to be better known than it yet is in this country; for, if it shall be found on trial to answer as well as it is here said, it will prove a valuable acquisition to us for building cottages, especially at a small expence. We wish, therefore, that Mr. Hol

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land

land would publish this treatise by itself; and in that case we shall farther beg leave to suggest, that he should previously re-examine the drawings, which, we apprehend, he will find to be in some respects inaccurate :-certainly a great improvement might be made by a few obvious alterations in this respect.

This volume, on the whole, contains many good hints, though mixed with a great proportion of objectionable matter. To the adept it will be of use; to the novice, it may prove in some cases injurious, as he is furnished with no means of discriminating the good from that which does not merit so honourable an epithet.

And.....

ART. VIII. The Stranger; A Comedy, freely translated from Kotzebue's German Comedy of Misanthropy and Repentance. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Dilly. 1798

ART. IX. The Stranger, or Misanthropy and Repentance; a Drama,
in Five Acts. Faithfully translated, entire, from the German of
Augustus Von Kotzebue. By George Papendick, Sub-Librarian
to his R. H. the Prince of Wales. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Wingrave.

WE E take these two productions together, because our re-
marks on both will comprise the whole of the criticism
- which we have to offer on the performance of the German au-
thor. The fate that has attended this foreign drama is so very sin-
gular, that we cannot pass it in silence. The entire translation
by Mr. Papendick, who was at Vienna when he made it, we
are told, was by that gentleman's brother offered to Mr. Harris,
the patentee of Covent-Garden Theatre, about five years ago;
and, in three weeks afterward, it was returned, as unsuited to
the English stage. The play differs so entirely from all the
productions of Covent-Garden Theatre for some years past,
that we do not wonder at the taste and judgment of the ma-
nager. In the mean time, the free translation was composed
by a person who signs A. S**** k, and offered, about a year
and a half since, to the managers of Drury-Lane; who, in
eight or ten days, returned it, politely signifying," that they did
not think it would succeed in representation." With this answer,
the translator rested satisfied: but he was greatly surprised
when he saw it acted during the last winter, with scarcely any
alteration from his own manuscript, except the names of the
characters, and the additions of a song and some dancing. In
justice to himself, he resolved to submit his work to the judgment
of the public, and endeavour to secure some part of the credit to which
he thought himself entitled. The play was therefore published
from the copy which was sent to the managers; whom, after

6

their

their rejection of the piece, he charges with the undisguised appropriation of the whole. From this account, it appears that Mr. Harris committed an error in judgment, but no breach of integrity; while the managers of Drury-Lane fell into the same mistake, but, it seems, have corrected their error to their own advantage, though with apparent injustice to Mr. S****k. It is natural to ask whether, when they pronounced their judg ment, they kept a copy of the play for some future occasion? From all that appears to us at present, we cannot but agree with the translator, that he has not been treated with that candour which ought to mark the conduct of those who preside over the amusements of the public:-but we shall only add that it appears to us to be a dark transaction, which, for their credit, the managers ought to explain.

We come now to our observations on this very curious German play. We have perused both translations with attention; and that attention was powerfully excited by the art with which the original author has conducted his fable. The character of the Stranger is drawn with a just imitation of Nature: he is represented as a misanthrope, who, for reasons best known to himself, has withdrawn from the world to live in solitude, and never opens his lips but to rail at the whole race of mankind; and yet, in all his sullen discontent, we plainly see that, while satirical reflections on mankind are at his tongue's end, they never flow from his heart:-he sees Toby, the poor worthy old cottager, in distress, and his benevolence immediately shews itself in an act of compassion and generosity. From that moment, the Stranger is an interesting character; we long to be better acquainted with him; our curiosity is excited; our passions are kept in agitation; we eagerly wish to know who he is, and what motives made him forsake the world to hide himself in solitude. These affections are kept alive with just dramatic art, till, in the last act, an unexpected incident, by natural and probable means, brings every thing to light. It must be acknowleged that, when the discovery is brought about, we find that the misconduct of the wife calls too strongly for our moral disapprobation of her character. The excuse made for her, that she was of tender years when she was guilty of the worst infidelity to her husband, by whom she had two children, is by no means sufficient; and the husband's reconciliation, after such an act of treachery, is strained too far, and our feelings revolt from it. The author of the free translation has with judgment altered this circumstance: he has not made the wife guilty of a crime which we are inclined to think no husband could forgive; and the alteration in this respect is certainly more congenial to the heart of an English audience,

than the forgiveness of a wife who had been actually guilty. The character of the wife, thus cleared from positive vice, is that of a most worthy woman, who had retired from the world in order to pass her days in sorrow and repentance, for a crime of a lighter nature than that which the German poet had ascribed to her. When we see such a couple reconciled, and rendered happy amid their children, the sensibility of the heart is touched, and we feel all the pleasure of the sincerest sympathy.

The other characters are drawn with a just imitation of nature, and the business is carried on in such a manner as to keep expectation alive in every act. We long for a discovery; we often think that it is ready to break out; and yet the incidents keep us in the dark, till by a sudden turn we gain the desired information, and our anxiety terminates in full satisfaction.

Such is the piece that was rejected at both theatres, and at last brought forwards at Drury-Lane with considerable success; and with the highest credit to the unrivalled acting of Mrs, Siddons and Mr. Kemble. We cannot help adding that, amid the pleasure which this German comedy has afforded us, a vein of uneasiness was mingled with all our sensations. The truth is, that we were grieved to see the essential beauty of the drama, i. e. a just imitation of nature, better preserved by the poet of Vienna, than by most of our modern race of dramatists for some years past. The Stranger does not depend on far-fetched conceits, quaint phrases, puns, and mere buffoonery. Comic humour was not, perhaps, to be expected from a German poet: but, if the chief manager of DruryLane, whose dramatic talents are justly admired, had interspersed some pleasantry and wit from his own fund, and had more thoroughly naturalized the manners and incidents, we have no doubt that he would have been able to make the Stranger a comedy equal to his own School for Scandal. The rest of our writers for the stage will do well to study the German poet; and we hope that their application may recall them from Blue Beards and Spectres to a true copy of human life.

ART. X. The Four Ages; together with Essays on various Sub-
jects. By William Jackson of Exeter.
Svo. PP. 45. 75.
Boards. Cadell jun, and Davies. 1798.

IN the prefatory advertisement to this publication, the author

informs us, that

The greatest part of these Essays should be considered as Sketches for a Periodical Paper, which was once intended for pub

lication

Mur..y.

litation-they are, in consequence, upon familiar subjects, and treated as such-The Four-Ages, and other Pieces (casily distinguished) made no part of the above design; but though less proper for a Paper, they are more so for a Book, which may be considered as an addition to the THIRTY LETTERS already published by the same Author*.'

It may have been remarked, perhaps, that we were not quite so civil to this author, when he was lately before us, as we had formerly been: but, as he himself seemed out of humour when he drew up the pamphlet which we reviewed in 1791 t, peradventure, during perusal, we may have been a little infected by contact. We hope, however, that our small complaints have long since been cured by time, if not immediately eradicated by. reason. We have formerly received too much pleasure from Mr. Jackson's ingenious elegies, not to respect his musical opinions; and we have seen too much merit in his literary productions not to wish to continue with him on friendly terms.

The first essay (or discourse) in this volume exceeds all the rest in length, at least ten fold. It is entitled the Four Ages.

The antients (says the author) conceived that the first state of man was as superior to all preceding states, as gold is beyond other metals; that the second age had as much degenerated from the perfection of the first, as the value of silver is below gold; that the third was so far removed from primitive excellence, as to deserve the appella tion of the Brazen-Age; and that the fourth, unhappily for us, is the last stage of degeneracy, and deserves no better epithet than what the cheapest and most worthless metal afforded. We then live in the Iron-Age.'

In direct contradiction to the opinion of the antients, and perhaps of the moderns, I shall, in treating this subject, invert the order, and endeavour to prove, that the first was the Iron-Age, and the last, when it shall please Heaven to send it, will be that of Gold-no Golden-Age" having yet existed, except in the imagination of poets,'

We are not insensible of the author's extensive reading and ingenuity in tracing the culture and progress of the human mind: but perhaps we shall not altogether agree with him in his doctrine. It was the superior state of innocence and simplicity of manners of pristine times, which the antients figured under the Golden-Age; and not superior attainments and cultivation of arts and sciences; which, according to Rousseau, "flourished most in the most corrupt times." Nor did Ovid' mean any rude northern uncivilized country, but the regions' of the earth that enjoyed the mildest and most fertile climates; which were probably first inhabited, and where nature exempted mankind from labour and hard fare.

*See Rev. Vol. xix. N. S. p. 357.

In the 6th vol. of our New Series, p. 196.
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Perhaps