rite illufions. To fo extravagant a height did they carry their idolatry of Ariftotle, that fome of them discovered, or imagined they discovered in his writings, the doctrine of the Trinity; that others published formal dissertations, to prove the certainty of his falva tion, tho' a heathen: and that a Patriarch of Venice is faid, to have called up the Devil exprefsly, in order to learn from him the meaning of a hard word in Aristotle's phyfics.

But the crafty Deinon, who perhaps did not understand it himself, answer'd in a voice fo low, and inarticulate, that the good Prelate knew not a word he faid. This was the famous Hermolaus Barbaro. The Greek word, that occafioned his taking so extraordinary a step, is the Entelechia of the Peripatetics: from: whence the schoolmen raised their fubftantial forms, and which Leibnitz, towards the end of the last century, attempted to revive in his Theory of motion.

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The Reformation itself, that diffused a new light over Europe, that fet men upon enquiring into errors. and prepofeffions of every kind, ferved only to confirm the dominion of this philofophy: protestants as well as papifts entrenching themselves behind the authority of Aristotle, and defending their several tenets by the weapons with which he furnished them. This unnatural alliance of theology with the peripatetic doctrines, rendered his opinions not only venerable but facred: they were reckoned as the landmarks of both, faith and reason, which, to pull up, or remove, would be daring and impious. Innovations in philosophy, it was imagined, would gradually fap the very foundations of religion, and in the end lead to downright atheism. If that veil of awful obfcurity, which then covered the face of nature, should be once drawn; the rafh curiofity of mankind would lead them to account

for all appearances in the visible world, by fecond caufes, by the powers of matter, and mechanism: and thus they might come infenfibly to forget or neglect the great original caufe of all. This kind of reasoning convinced the multitude, overawed the wifer few, and effectually put a stop to the progress of useful knowledge.

Such, in general, were the difpofitions of mankind, when Sir Francis Bacon came into the World: whom we will not confider as the founder of a new fect, but as the great affertor of human liberty; as one who rescued reafon and truth from the flavery, in which all fects alike had, till then, held them. As a plaufible hypothefis, a fhining theory, are more amufing to the imagination, and a fhorter way to fame, than the patient and humble method of experimenting, of pursuing nature thro' all her labyrinths by fact and observation; a philosophy, built on this principle, could not, at first, make any sudden or general rovolution in the learned world. But its progress, like that of time, quiet, flow, and fure, has in the end been mighty and univerfal. He was not however the first among the moderns, who ventured to diffent from Aristotle. Ramus, Patricius, Bruno, Severinus, to name no more, had already attacked the authority of that ty rant in learning, who had long reigned as abfolutely over the opinions, as his restless pupil had of old affected to do over the persons of men. But these writers invented little that was valuable themselves, however, justly they might reprehend many things in him. And as to the real improvements made in some parts of natural knowledge, before our author appeared, by Gilbert, Harvey, Copernicus, Father Paul, and fome few others, they are well known, and have been deservedly celebrated. Yet there was ftill wanting one great, and comprehensive plan, that might embrace the al

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moft infinite varieties of science, and guide our enquiries aright in all. This Sir Francis Bacon first concei

ved, in its utmost extent, to his own lasting honour, and to the general utility of mankind. If we stand furprized at the happy imagination of such a Syftem, our furprize redoubles upon us, when we reflect, that he invented and methodized this Syftem, perfected fo much, and sketched out fo much more of it, amidst the drudgery of business, and the civil tumults of a Court. Nature seems to have intended him peculiarly for this province, by bestowing on him with a liberal Hand all the qualities requifite: a fancy voluble and prompt to discover the fimilitudes of things; a judgment steady, and intent to note their subtlest differences; a love of meditation and enquiry; a patience in doubting; a flownefs and diffidence in affirming; a facility of retracting; a judicious anxiety to plan and dispofe. A mind of fuch a caft, that neither affected novelty, nor idolized antiquity, that was an enemy to all imposture, inust have had a certain congeniality and relation to truth. These characters, which with a noble confidence he has applyed to himself, are obvious and eminent in his Inftauration of the sciences: a work, by him designed, not as a monument to his own fame, but a perpetual legacy to the common benefit of others.

Dr. Johnson.

Bei der ansehnlichen Zahl trefflicher Biographen, welche die englische Nation mehr, als irgend eine andre, aufzuweisen hat, war der ausgezeichnete Vorrang, den D. Johnson in dieser Gats tung von Schriftstellern behauptet, gewiß kein leichter Erwerb. Schon durch mehrere frühere Versuche dieser Art, besonders aber durch seine Lebensbeschreibung des unglücklichen Dichters, Richard Sayage, hatte er sich diesen Ruhm eigen gemacht; noch mehr aber sicherte er sich denselben durch die kritischen Biogras phien, womit er die unter seiner Leitung veranstaltete Sammlung englischer Dichter, in sechzig Bånden, begleitete, die aber auch einzeln abgedruckt sind. Die Kritik hat freilich an diesen Lebenss beschreibungen größern Antheil, als die Geschichte; und was sie jedem Kenner und Liebhaber des feinern Geschmacks vorzüglich schätzbar macht, ist die Würdigung des dichterischen Verdienstes, die Ents wickelung der Schönheiten und Mängel, und die scharfe Prüfung einzelner Werke der berühmtesten brittischen Dichter, verbunden mit vielen scharfsinnigen allgemeinern Bemerkungen und Winken. Dazu kommt die sehr korrekte, oft nur zu sorgfältig geründete Schreibart, die sich dieser Schriftsteller nach klassischen Mustern gebildet hatte, und das durch sinnreiche Fülle der Gedanken und des Ausdrucks immer neu belebte Interesse dieser Biographien. Einige derselben, wie die von Cowley, Dryden, Milton, Pope, u. a. find sehr ausführlich); hier erlaubt mir der Raum nur die Mittheilung einer der kürzern. Unerwartet war übrigens der Kalts finn, womit man die vom Hrn. v. Blankenburg angefangne, sehr gute Uebersetzung, wovon aber nur zwei Bände geliefert find, in Deutschland aufnahm.

AKEN SIDE.

Mark Akenfide was born on the ninth of November, 1721, at Newcastle upon Tyne, His father Mark, was a butcher of the Presbyterian fect; his mother's name was Mary Lumsden. He received the first part of his education at the grammar-school of Newcastle; and was afterwards inftructed by Mr. Wilfon, who kept a private academy. At the age of eighteen, he was sent

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to Edinburgh, that he might qualify himself for the office of a diffenting minifter, and received fome affistance from the fund, which the Diffenters employ in educating young men of scanty fortune. But a wider view of the world opened other fcenes, and prompted other hopes: he determined to ftudy phyfic, and repaid that contribution, which being received for a different purpose, he justly thought it dishonourable to retain. Whether, when he resolved, not to be a dissent ing minister, he ceased to be a Diffenter, I know not, He certainly retained an unecessary and outrageous zeal for what he called and thought liberty; a zeal, which fo metimes disguiles from the world, and not rarely from the mind which it poffeffes, an envious defire of plundering wealth or degrading greatnefs; and of which the iminediate tendency is innovation and anarchy, an impetuous eagerness to fubvert and confound, with very little care what shall be established.. Akenfide was one of those poets who have felt very early the motions of genius, and one of those students, who, have very early stored their memories with fentiments and images. Many of his performances were produced in his youth; and his greatest work, The pleasures of Imagination, appeared in 1744. I have hear'd Dodsly, by whom it was published, relate, that when the copy was offered him, the price demanded for it, which was an hundred and twenty pounds, being fuch as he was not inclined to give precipitately, he carried the work to Pope, who, having looked into it, advised him not to make a niggardly offer, for this was no évery day writer.

In 1741. he went to Leyden, in purfuit of medi-. cal knowledge; and three years afterwards (May 16, 1744.) became doctor of phyfick, having, according to