• Thus fince ambition yields to certain fate,
By reason prompted, fure, unerring guide,
Let virtue bless thy vifionary state,

Whose glory time nor envy ne'er can hide.'

His Ode is pathetic and defcriptive; it is worthy of Catullus, from whom its motto is taken.

The beginning of this Ode introduces us to the most agreeable, and affecting images of the fpring.

• Winter with his difmal train
Now has left the happy plain;
Genial spring resumes her seat,
Prolific queen of ev'ry sweet:
As fhe treads the verdant mead,
Mark each flow'ret rears its head;
Ev'ry plant and tree is seen,
Deck'd in robe of gayest green;
Wanton zephyrs round her play.
Hark! the sky-lark greets the day;
And each creature feems to fing,
Welcome goddess, welcome spring.
Come, my fair one, let us rove
Thro' the dew-befplangl'd grove;
For nature now is fpruce and gay,
To meet the genial goddefs, May.
Let us choofe fome cool retreat,
Shelter'd from the noon-day heat;
And mark how sweetly nature smiles,
Whilft love the paffing hours beguiles.
Hark! the am'rous plaintive dove
Murmurs mufic through the grove,
And mourns in accents foft the fate
Of her unhappy, wand'ring mate.
The thrush too fwells her beating breast,
Some cruel hand has robb'd her neft;
While others, joyful, fweetly fing
Loud carols to the friendly Spring:
Sweet the profpect, fweet the grove,
Scene of fympathy and love!'

At the clofe of this Ode, the description of the rotation of the featons, and the application of their changes to the various terms of human life, are not lefs inftructive than picturefque.

• Mark the blades of fpringing corn,

The wide-extended fields adorn,

Which fummer raifing by degrees,
The heart-elated rustic sees;

And hopes, when autumn fhews its face,
The yellow fheaves his barns will grace;
Yet anxious for his future gain,
He views inclement fkies with pain,
As all confpiring to destroy,
And rob him of his fancied joy.
The corn, as thus it yearly grows,
The life of man in emblem fhews,
Who, heedless of confuming time,
Exults at fpring in youthful prime;
Nor fummer days prefent a fate
He vainly hopes will yet be late;
But autumn crops his fancied bloom,
Pointing, tho' flow, a certain doom;
He withers like the ripen'd corn,
And filver hairs his brows adorn ;
Unftrung each nerve, all vigour past,
He yields to winter's chilling blast.'

The contents of this pamphlet, are,-the laft Chorus of the fecond Act of Seneca's Troades, imitated-An Elegy-An Ode-The Snake and the Worm, a Fable.-Two Odes of Anacreon, two of Horace, and one of his Epiftles, imitated.

Of his Imitations it may be obferved, that they at least rival their originals; and of his Originals, that they hold a confiderable rank in compofition.

VIII. The Elements of Univerfal Erudition, containing an analytical Abridgment of the Sciences, polite Arts, and Belles Lettres, by Baron Bielfeld, Secretary of Legation to the King of Pruffia, &c. Tranflated from the laft Edition printed at Berlin, by W. Hooper, M. D. 3 Vols. 8vo. Pr. 185. Robfon.

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HE plan of the work before us is fo extenfive, that to fucceed in the execution of it might juftly feem to require feveral masterly hands. Yet baron Bielfeld has fucceeded fo well in it, that his learning and judgment are both entitled to the highest praises. Though he has modeftly declined giving to thefe Elements of Univerfal Erudition the name of Encyclopedia, left he fhould be thought prefumptuous enough to vie with the refpectable authors of the celebrated French work published under that title; it may, notwithstanding, be juftly confidered in the fame light. Our author, begins his work, by ranging the fciences in three claffes, and in conVOL. XXIX. June, 1770. fequence

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fequence of this arrangement, divides his treatife into three books. The first of these books treats of those sciences which employ the understanding; the fecond, thofe that are derived from the imagination; and the third, those that exercise the memory. This is a very just and proper divifion; but, at the fame time that we must acknowledge our author's judgment in adopting it preferably to that, in which the different branches of our knowledge are confidered as neceffary, ufeful, agreeable, and frivolous; and that, by which they are divided according to the different degrees of certainty, of which they are thought fufceptible; and, likewife, that which divides them into fciences properly fo called, and belles lettres; we cannot help accufing him of ingratitude in not acknowledging his obligation to lord Bacon, who was the first to think of this admirable division of the sciences into thofe that belong to the understanding, the imagination, and the memory.

As the work before us is extenfive, we fhall, in the prefent article, confine ourselves to thofe fciences which proceed from the imagination alone. The firft of these fciences is theology, which the author confiders under the ten following heads. 1. The dogmatic; 2. The exegefis, and hermeneutic; 3. Sacred criticifm; 4. Moral theology; 5. Polemic theology; 6. Paftoral theology; 7. Catechetic theology; 8. Cafuiftic theology; 9. Confiftorial prudence; 10. The functions of the ministry. We fhall not enter into all those topics, but content ourselves with fingling out fuch particulars as are most worthy of his notice, and beft calculated to enable him to form a judgment of the author's abilities.-Under the article of sacred criticifim, he enumerates the several verfions of the fcriptures, the firft of which is that of the Septuagint, which has been at all times held in the highest efteem, as well by the Jews as by the Chriftians, The Hebrew language being loft by the Jews during the captivity in Babylon, and the Greek dialect becoming the common language of the Eaft, that version was made in Egypt by publick authority, and for the ufe of the common people. The fecond is that called the Vulgate, which was formed from the translation of St. Jerome; and another that was called Verfio Antiqua. After these two tranf. lations come the Greek verfions, amongft which are reckoned: 1. That of Aquila, who has tranflated the Hebrew verbatim, by placing over each word of the Hebrew text, its corresponding Greek term. 2. That of Symmachus, who applied himfelf to write the Greek with purity and elegance. 3. That of Theodotion, whofe tranflation is as literal and exact as it is

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elegant. To thefe may be added, thofe of Jericho and Nicopolis, which are now much celebrated. None of these verfions are at prefent entire. The fragments that remain of them have been collected and published by Drufius and father Montfaucon. 5thly, and lastly, the Syriac verfions, of which one was made on the Hebrew text, and the other on the Greek. After a few more obfervations, the baron proceeds to treat of moral theology, under which head he takes notice that God has given to all the beings that compose the univerfe one fimple principle, by which alone the whole and every part of it is connected and perpetually fupported; and that principle is LOVE. Herein our author's fentiments coincide with thofe of Mr. Pope, and all other the most renowned moralifts:

Behold the one great principle of love,
Combining all below and all above.

Ethic Epift.

We cannot help thinking, however, that his reasoning is fomewhat too refined, when, in pursuance of this principle, he maintains that the attraction of the celeftial bodies, as well as that of thofe which compofe our globe, is a species of love; a mutual tendency towards each other. He adds, that the uniform generation by which all things are perpetuated, is founded in love. Such metaphorical and figurative expreflions appear quite improper and out of place in a philofophical treatife, in which every word fhould have a precife and determinate fignification, and in which no poetical licence or latitude of phrase should be admitted upon any account. The word love cannot be applied with any propriety to inanimate bodies. We, however, agree with him that it appears to be the will of God to establish the fimple principle of love in morality by the mouth of the Meffiah. It must be acknowledged that Jefus Chrift has alone taught mankind perfect morals by deducing them from this true principle. This fimple and uni verfal principle of morality has been fully made known to mankind by Jefus Chrift. He has therefore been, even in this fenfe alfo, the true Saviour of the world.

Having thus given an idea of fpeculative theology, our au thor proceeds to treat of the practical or paftoral theology, ufually divided into homilitic, catechetic, and cafuiftic theology. To thefe are added the confiftorial prudence, which includes the study of the canon law and the prudential exercife of the different functions of the ministry.

In treating thofe feveral branches of the theological feience, baron Bielfeld has faid enough to give an idea of

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the feveral branches that compofe the general fyftem of divinity; he at the fame time acknowledges, that there are theologies established in the schools ftill different in their genus and fpeciés. Thus, for example, they distinguish the theology of God, that of Jefus Chrift, that of the Holy Ghoft, that of the angels, and that of men. The theology of God is again fubdivided into theologia Dei naturalis or essentialis, and theologia Dei idealis or exemplaris; which laft article is again divided into archetypic theology, which teaches what comes immediately from God himfelf; and eclypic theology, which confiders the theologic notions, that man, as the image of God, is able to acquire by his own nature, that is, by the ability he has received from the Supreme Being, to know and adore him, and by the preaching of his divine word. Thus our author, though he juft mentions the divifions and fubdivifions of school divinity, takes no notice of the voluminous writings of the school-divines; and indeed Johannes Duns Scotus, Jacob Behmen, Thomas Aquinas, the famous archbishop of Toledo, Toftatus, and others called by their cotemporaries doctores irrefragabiles, though they abound in fubtilties and nice diftinctions, are scarce worth the attention of a student, who wishes only to ftore his memory with useful knowledge, and not burthen it with trifles.

Our learned author then proceeds to treat of jurisprudence. He obferves, in his 5th fection, that the state of pure nature is a ftate of peace, but that the ftate of man in fociety is a kind of a state of war. In this he differs from the celebrated Hobbes, who in his treatife De Cive enumerates a variety of arguments to prove, that the ftate of nature is a state of war. With regard to the state of nature fo much talked of by moralifts, we are inclined to think with the celebrated lord Shaftsbury, that it never had any exiftence; or that if it had, the motal philofopher is in the right to confider it as a state of war, as every state of man which excludes fociety, tends to degrade his nature, and reduce him to the level of the brute creation. Why the learned Bacon fhould reprefent the state of man in fociety, as a state of war, we are at a lofs to conceive, as that ftate is productive of every thing which contributes to improve the human fpecies, and foften the natural ferocity of man. Our author after having premifed certain confiderations on the neceffity, origin, and nature of laws, enumerates the several branches comprised by the ftudy of jurisprudence in its largeft extent, which are legislative jurisprudence, the law of nature, the law of nations, the public or political law of each nation, the hiftory of legiflation, the Roman law, the Germanic law,

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