question: but I depart from the confideration of the language itfelf, and what I would fay of it, in general, is, that it is, I fear, radically and per fe, a lefs perfpicuous one than we Englishmen might with it to be.' From this fpecimen of the familiar involution and evolution of phrafeology, with which this letter abounds, our readers will eafily conclude, without any laboured critique on our part, that if Johnfon is to be chaftifed, it must be by a more able hand than the author of this letter. He detects, it is true, fome errors in Johnson's Dictionary: but what human production is free from errors? He points out fome foibles in his character: but what human being is perLet his imperfections be acknowleged: but let not this tiny fcribbler again have the prefumption to fay of Dr. Johnfon, This is a poor creature,' left echo from every corner of the temple of criticifm fhould reply-POOR CREATURE! The pamphlet concludes with a large dofe of dull small-talk upon fundry topics, critical, political, and topographical. 8vo. Art. 29. Silva Critica. Sive in auctores facros profanofque commentarius philologus: concinnavit Gilbertus Wakefield, A. B. et Coll. Jefu apud Cantab. nuper Socius. Pars tertia. pp. 197. 39. 6d. Boards. Deighton. 1792. Of this volume of Mr. Wakefield's Critical Mifcellany, our numerous debts to the public will not allow us to take farther notice, than by making a general acknowlegment, that it abounds with fruits of laborious ftudy, and ingenious conjecture; which, at the fame time that they will not fail till farther to establish the author's reputation, will afford the fcholar a new courfe of claffical entertainment. In this volume, the learned writer makes the facred epiftles the stem, around which he entwines many beautiful wreaths of flowers, gathered from the garden of claffical learning. As we think that farther fpecimens of the Silva Critica are now unneceffary, we fhall content ourfelves with a reference to our account of the two former parts of this work; viz. Rev. vol. v. New Series, P. 54. At the clofe of the prefent publication, the author encourages his readers to expect another volume. Art. 30. Thoughts on Dancing; occafioned by fome late Tranfactions among the People called Methodists. By M. Davis. 8vo. PP. 30. 6d. Law, &c. 1791. Mr. Davis defcribes himself as a fcoolmafter at Laytonstone in Effex, and as a preacher among the Methodists; and this publication is an appeal to the public, against a late decree iffued by the leaders of that perfuafion, that all schoolmasters and miftreffes, who employ dancing-mafters in their fchools, and all parents, whose children are taught to dance, fhall be excluded their fociety. To this four, narrow minded, and impolitic restriction, we are indebted for a fenfible and liberal juftification of the accomplishment of dancing, as an article of education: fuch a defence as, we imagine, if it fhould produce a pofitive repeal of the act, will operate to its oblivion. Mr. D. is manifeftly fuperior to the generality of his brethren brethren of this perfuafion: but they may, perhaps, be provided with a confolatory plea, and may contrive to convert ignorance into a recommendation. Art. 31. The Literary Mufeum; or Ancient and Modern Repofitory. Comprifing fcarce and curious Tracts, Poetry, Biography, and Criticism. 8vo. 6s. Boards. Sold by the Editor, No. 24, Drury-lane. 1792. The advertisement to this volume of old tracts is figned Francis Godolphin Waldron: but it does not fufficiently explain either the nature or extent of the undertaking. It appears to confist of articles entirely detached and feparately paged; and as the Literary Mufeum, Nos. I. and III. are incidentally mentioned, we are war. ranted to conclude the volume to be made up from fome publication in numbers, of which we know nothing, but which either is, or ought to be, going on, as two or three of the tracts are imperfect. Under proper management, there is fufficient opportunity to carry on a republication of old, fugitive, and valuable productions of the English prefs, that have been overwhelmed by the crowd which fucceffively folicits the public attention. In all the purfuits of life, a rage for novelty is predominant. Even in the productions of nature, a monkey, brought from remote parts, and for which we have no ufe, is more highly prized than our domeftic cats, who have the misfortune of being too prolific to have their merits regarded. In gardens, general admiration firit renders a beautiful flower common, and then we despise it for being common! It is the fame in literature; many a valuable tract is elbowed out of notice, and even out of remembrance, by an unceasing fucceffion of new productions; numbers of which, after all, are only old ideas in a new drefs. We therefore are difpofed to look favourably on any well formed plan for refcuing the good fenfe and fententious advice of our forefathers, from that unmerited oblivion to which their brevity expofes them. The editor's notes must be confidered as forming not the leaft entertaining part of this volume. Art. 32. A Melancholy Tale; Dark Sentences; and a Vifion. 8vo. PP. 20. IS. Ridgway. This melancholy tale relates, in a profaic elegy, the grief of a widow'd mother for the lofs of a child, who was accidentally drowned: the vifion, equally profaic, celebrates the praife of religion as the only road to happinefs; and the dark fentences confist of a string of thoughts and reflections alphabetically arranged, which are neither very dark, nor very profound. Art. 33. Maxims and Morals for our Conduct through Life. By Lieutenant Furley. Izmo. PP. 92. 2 s. ftitched. Ridgway. 1791. This work may, on the whole, be ftyled a collection of innocent and inftructive apophthegms. The author has occafional recourse to the excellent proverbs of Solomon to increase his ftock, but, for the greater part, he has found different refources. When we are told, that he who cultivates one acre of ground, is of more real service to his fpecies than all the philofophers who ever exifted,' we must pro teft against such a maxim;' for, certainly, agriculture is indebted to philofophy for inventions and improvements, as are most other arts and Sciences. Industry, indeed, cannot be too much commended: but philofophy must not be depreciated; for the true and ufeful philofopher is not idle, though he may not drive the plough. In another place, we read- God delights no lefs in a killing mercy, than in a pitiful juftice.'-This we hardly comprehend. Page 59. 1. 14. the word ingenious is inferted inftead of ingenuous. Art. 34. Short Expoftulations and Thoughts on Suicide. 8vo. 6d. J. Evans. The principal topic of this addrefs, (which, except that it wants a text, may be properly called a fermon,) is the impiety of fuicide, inferred from the confideration that man, having received his being from God, has no power over himfelf, beyond what is granted to him by his Maker. The fubject is important, and the argument is urged with much folemnity: but the pamphlet is deficient in thofe graces of compofition, which are requifite to captivate attention. Art. 35. The Benefit of Starving; or the Advantages of Hunger, Cold, and Nakedness; intended as a Cordial for the Poor, and an Apology for the Rich. Addreffed to the Rev. Rowland Hill, M. A. By the Rev. W. Woolley, M. A. 12mo. 6d. Terry, &c. An unbeneficed clergyman here complains of neglect, and (yet worfe!) of not being duly rewarded for his paft labours in the vineyard. He states the ungenerous, unjust, and even cruel treatment which he has experienced; yet he recites the particulars of his woeful tale in fo lively a ftrain, that we cannot help confidering him as a man of good abilities, [as a writer,] and worthy of better fortune than that which has, hitherto, awaited him. We wish he may, hereafter, have lefs reafon to cry out, in the words of his motto, "My bowels? my bowels! I am pained to my heart!" Jer. iv.19. Art. 36. Mifcellanies in Profe and Verfe. By Captain Thomas Morris. 8vo. pp. 180. 45. fewed. Ridgway. 1791. This truly miscellaneous volume contains entertainment for readers of various tastes. For the lover of hiftorical narrative, it furnishes a journal of an expedition among the American Indians in the year 1764, full of furprizing incidents. For the dramatic connoiffeur, it provides fome bold ftrictures in a Letter to a Friend on the Poetical Elocution of the Theatre, and the Manner of acting Tragedy, in which Mr. Garrick's method of playing is cenfured, and Mademoiselle du Menil is held out as a pattern of theatrical excellence. For the claffical scholar, a very pleafing verfion is given of the fourth and the fourteenth fatires of Juvenal; and for the friend of liberty, feveral pieces are added on this fubject, written on one fide in English verfe, and tranflated on the other into French profe. THEOLOGY and POLEMICS. Art. 37. Two Treatifes by Henry Ainsworth. The firft, Of the Communion of Saints. The fecond, entitled, An Arrow against Idolatry, &c. To this Edition is prefixed, fome Account of the Life and Writings of the Author. Printed at Edinburgh. 8vo. PP. 344. 2s. 6d. fewed. Strachan, London. The name of Henry Ainsworth is at prefent almoft forgotten, except when the fcripture critic occafionally confults his annotations on the Pentateuch. He belonged to the fect of Puritans called Brownifts; whofe chief diftinction was, that they were enemies to religious establishments; and who about the end of the 16th century were driven by perfecution into Holland:-for many years, Ainsworth refided among them in Amfterdam. The works here reprinted, while they afford pleasure to readers who retain the religious tenets of the Puritans, may engage the attention of the critic, as curious fpecimens of the manner of thinking and difcourfing, which prevailed among the Puritanical preachers of that period. The editor expreffes a purpose of publishing a more authentic and interesting account, than has hitherto appeared, of the fect of the Brownists, collected from their own works, and from other good authorities. Art. 38. The Sentiments of a Member of the Jacobins, in France, upon the Religion of Reafon and Nature; carefully tranflated from the original Manufcript, communicated by the Author. 8vo. pp. 99: 25. Stace. 1792. The philofopher Anaxagoras, of the fchool of Thales, acquired an immortal name by introducing a fyftem of nature, in which mind was feparated from matter, and which taught that, from eternity, an infinite intelligent power muft have exifted diftinct from body, having within itself the principle of motion, and being capable of communicating it to the material world. On account of this doctrine, this philofopher was honoured with the appellation of Nas, or mind. There is a fet of modern philofophers, who are fo fond of fimplicity, as to be ambitious of establishing a theory which is the reverfe of that of Anaxagoras. Thefe philofophers, and, among them, the author of this publication, afk whether it be not probable," that univerfe, nature, God, are not all one and the fame thing, one Being poffeffing one mind, unchangeable, occupying infinite fpace, and enduring through endless time; who, perceiving diftinctly the infinite number and extent of the parts or portions in him, which are of the fame intrinfic nature, and alfo his own infinite power, has employed that power to conduct these portions of himself in a regular, uniform, and eternal ftate of circulation and change, from one ftate or form to another." A doctrine, which thus abfurdly confounds the Deity with the univerfe, the world with its Creator, evidently annihilates all religion. Yet the writer who teaches this doctrine, fays that we are not more certain of our own existence, than that there is a fupreme God the creator of the univerfe; that is, he afferts the grofs contradiction, that the universe created itfelf; and withal undertakes to teach a fyftem of religion, which is to confit in ftudying and performing the part allotted to man by his Creator. This pamphlet contains good moral obfervations, but they appear under great difadvantage in connection with fo fanciful and contradictory a fyftem of theology. Art. 39. Several Difcourfes on Special Subjects, preached before the University of Oxford, and upon other Occafions. By William Parker, Parker, D.D. Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty, Rector of St. James's, Weftminster, and F. R. S. and 279. 9s. Boards. Rivingtons. 8vo. 2 Vols. pp. 246 Many years have paffed fince the name of Dr. Parker firft appeared in our journal. At the time when it was thought neceffary to defend the strong holds of religion in general, or revealed religion in particular, against the attacks of Bolingbroke, Morgan, and other infidel writers; and when it was apprehended that the pillars of orthodoxy were in fome danger of being fhaken by the heretical writings of Middleton, and others; Dr. Parker was one among a numerous train of able champions, who stood forth in defence of the established fyftem. The difcourfes, which he published on thefe occafions, and of which we gave an account at the time of their appearance, make a confiderable part of the contents of thefe volumes. They confit of Two Difcourfes on the Expediency of fome Divine Interpofition in the firft Ages of the Chriftian Church, and the Inexpediency of thofe that are claimed by the Church of Rome, in reply to the leading argument in Middleton's Free Enquiry * ;--Two Difcourfes on the Mofaic Hiftory of the Fall, in refutation of the hypothefis advanced in a work entitled An Examination of a Difcourfe on Prophecy, &c. Two Difcourfes on the Nature, Evidence, and Importance of Truth, intended to provide an antidote against the poifon of Bolingbroke's Pyrrhonifm ;-Two Difcourfes on the Scripture Doctrine of Predeftination, the defign of which is to prove, against the infinuations of Bolingbroke and others, that the Church of England does not teach the doctrine of abfolute election §. Beside thefe difcourfes, which may be read with advantage, as to the general queftions to which they relate, the volumes contain feveral fermons on particular fubjects and occafions, viz. On the Nature and Calling of the facred Miniftry; on the Improvement of Extraordinary Divine Judgments; on the Grounds of Submiffion to Government; on the Danger of Civil Strife; on Church Mufic; on Academic Education; on the Authority of the Pailoral Office; on Mercy to the diftreffed Children of Clergy; on promoting Chriflian Knowledge; and on the Sympathetic Affections; an account of each of which may be found by confulting our Review . In thefe volumes, are alfo reprinted an Explanation of the Difference between the Old and New Style, and a Familiar Dialogue on the fame fubject between a Clergyman and one of his Parishioners. Art. 40. The Scripture Dorine concerning the Coming of Chrift unfolded on Principles which are allowed to be common to the Jews, both in ancient and modern Times: in Answer to the Objections of Mr. Gibbon and Dr. Edwards upon this Subject. To which is added an Appendix, containing fome Remarks upon the Miracles of the Gofpel, in Reply to an Objection of the latter of * See Rev. vol. ii. p. 84. See the General Index, Parker. + Vol. iv. p. 9. thefe |