will never do; but, all new to me, I knew not that it was a thing that na urally no one ever thought about. We are nearly cured now, and to know it, is to cure it; but in the past age, our beft authors were full of them. I remember feeing, in two lines of Rowe, I think four or five changes of metaphor; and why we talk fo much of Shakspeare's "take up arms against a fea of troubies," (by which he only means to oppose a great number of troubles), &c. I cannot tell; if he had lived now, might he not perhaps have faid a boff of troubles, and that have done? Gray has, I believe, too many, and I fear in his attacked ode, I, among others, fo truly honour. It is cerrainly a great beauty to keep your metaphors consistent and clear, though not to a pedantic nicety, and nothing fo eafy; one defect fhewn you, eures you for ever. I think I have two or three in one place, but I would not let it ftop me. As to the two prefaces, they were both written by Hawkefworth, but to be fure it is fuppofed the matter was mine, or chiefly: in the fecond, however (I then in Italy), he ffung in two or three particulars of his own fuggeftion, I think very agreeable and to the purpofe. But I delire here to add this anecdote, I hope not to my difpraife; I mean that when I left England, and the fecond edition and preface were placed with Hawkesworth, I told him that I infified on putting fomething in, to tell the reader that whatever merit, and thence applaufe, the work might have gained, that was not entirely my own due, I would not arrogate to my felf; nor enjoy any honour that belonged to another man. In compliance with this may be feen the few words after the obfervations on the vagueness of our language, of my maxims, &c. happen to be expreffed in good and clear Language, 1 defire to fay that I owe it very much to the having communicated my ideas to others, and hearing their mode of expreffing them." I have not that fecond edition before me, to am not exact, but the words there are not fo ftrong; and when I came back, I fcolded Hawkefworth for not putting them stronger. This then now to that part of my fo entire rummage and clearage of every thing relative to that old work and thofe old times, which I have determined on, even how. ever tirefomely, as it is an abfolute for ever and aye. it And what then did Hawkefworth or any oneelle for me bedes? Why, he added into I believe fix or eight of the Maxims a word or two that improved them much, and made the wording clearer in a great many; in the very first of all, this not a little by the addition of expanding into flowers, fruits, &c." as is feen. The foundation is to be fore the fame; and I will just drop here, that more readers than one might as well (if they did fo much as to read the work at all) have attended to that introductory one more perhaps than they did. To several other little fentences a word or two gave perhaps fome brilliancy. In that quoted here of the author being not tried by his Peers, he put in the word criminal, which enlivened it fill more; more; to one I recolle&t he joined thefe words, that gave a grace to a long fentence, of which it would elfe have been none at all, viz. It's fo long fince truth went naked, fhe is now known only by her coaths:" which I think delightful. But it would be tedious to go through all. I know not if it may be called a refuge from this to join it to per contra, that to fome he did no good, as having about him with all his merit a certain trade-author ftiffness, and fometimes perhaps where I at least had, if not as much strength, concifenefs, and correctnefs, more nature, flow or eafe. He received therefore fometimes diffent, and that certain perfon already alluded to, who fometimes (though not often) was of the conference, then fometimes flung in very good remarks in that regard. He fometimes confidered fentences as pieces of mechanifm, which, like your table or cabinet, if put truly together, it was enough; and but for one, indeed both of us, number of I fuppofe many more fentences than thofe published that were burnt, would have been there now; in fome refpects, in regard to that book, he was as in a new world. I think he quite fpoilt one of my copies of verses by the total change of I believe half, from fome petty incorrectness. On the other hand let me alfo fay, that in the Man of Sorrow, in the very beft ftanza, he made it out poetically and excellently for me, where I was totally loft, and at a stand; and I remember he did the fame for the perfon alluded to, where alfo at a fand in one part, and where he hit off thofe lines in the little ode, wherein is that of " and turning, trembles too;" and this with the fame opportunity for it I have in all this relation, the fame then would have been fnatched certainly, even as by me it now is for myfelf. Hawkefworth had on the whole, as we all have, his ftrong and weak places; but the first much exceeded the laft, and I have often wifhed for his affiftance now as before. Of the work alluded to in the beginning of our quotation we know nothing: but we were not a little furprised to find the paffage in Mrs. Greville's Ode to Indifference, which conferred fo much celebrity on her, thus afcertained to be the property of another; at least that he has no other claim to it than Phryne to her golden treffes. The golden hair that Phryne wears Is hers; who would have thought it. This indeed seems to be the era in which authors were predeftined to be crowned with honor for works not written by themselves. The word in our text, above marked in Italics, may appear too ftrong; but this author, though he undoubtedly writes in a very flighty and defultory kind of manner, appears of too elevated a spirit and frame of mind to tell a direct and palpable N3. palpable falfhood. Should the reader judge like us, he will be entertained with many other anecdotes of a similar kind in this undefineable eccentric compofition. The Royal and Conftitutional Regeneration of Great Britain; or, properly Speaking, the effectual Advancement of all the different National Interefts of the Kingdom, which remain unexplored, rendered not only unexceptionable to the Sovereign, the Nobility, the Clergy, the People, and the Individual, but highly defireable to every Lover of the present general State of Great Britain, By G. Edwards, Esq. M. D. 2 Vols. 4to. 15s. Boards. IN Debrett. N the Appendix to our LXVIIIth volume, we gave an account of this author's former production, entitled, The Aggrandifement and National Perfection of Great Britain,' to which the work now before us has a remarkable affinity. It appears that Dr. Edwards's attention to this fubject has been excited by the late revolution in the government of France. He feems to have caught the patriotic ardor in all its enthusiasm; but had he waited to the full accomplishment of the French conftitution, perhaps he would have abated in his magnificent ideas of the generous zeal, the public virtue, and the political wif dom of the national affembly. There are certain limits beyond which it is dangerous, at leaft of a fudden, to carry even plaufible innovations, of great importance, into effect. Either experiments of the utility of doubtful measures fhould be tried before their final establishment, or the measures should be previoufly examined with great deliberation, and it ought to be afcertained that they are indifputably founded on the foundest principles of policy. Whether the national affembly has paffed the limits to which we allude, it is not our business to enquire: we only wish to guard both the writers and readers of our own country from the error of adopting, too precipitately, the fentiments of men, whom we believe to be more zealous in the profecution of liberty, than converfant with the means by which it may best be perpetuated. The perfon would difcover great prejudice, who fhould deny that the conftitution of Great Britain, with all its excellence, can admit of any farther improvement. Much, doubtless, might yet be performed towards promoting the national profperity; and indeed what elfe is the object of the various public acts, which are annually paffed by the legislature? When a powerful people have unanimously determined to affert their liberties, it becomes necessary to abolish the whole fyftem of defpotic administration, by which they had formerly been govern ed, ed. They must therefore recur to the leading principles of political affociations, and, according to the ideas which these may fuggeft, mould the form of their new conftitution. A procedure, however, of this kind, where a total change in the nature of the government is almoft instantaneously produced, is a rare occurrence in hiftory; and never has the phenomenon been fo fignally exhibited, as in the late revolution in France. The new conftitution of that kingdom may well be termed, in the language of the author before us, a political regeneration ;* for it rifes, like a phoenix, from the ashes of overthrown monarchy; but we cannot approve of applying the fame term to any propofed melioration of the conftitution of our own country. It seems to involve the idea that the conftitution is great. ly declined, through corruption or weaknefs, and that, to preferve it from extinction, it must be entirely renovated. This idea, in our opinion, is not fupported by fact; and we should more readily coincide with the fentiments of Dr. Edwards, did he restrict his propofal to improvements only, and not maintain, as he does, the neceffity of a political regeneration of Britain, in the most extenfive fenfe. But we fhall now proceed to lay before our readers the plan of the work; in performing which it will be neceffary that we be fparing of obfervations, as otherwife the prefent article would be extended to far too great a length. In the first chapter, the author, after delivering the propofal of royal and conftitutional regeneration, fhows the means of accomplishing it to be public liberty and benevolence, public reafon and activity. Then follows an addrefs, reccommending the attention of the public and of different focieties to one comprehenfive defign of national regeneration, rather than to particular detached objects of different kinds of public fervice. In the fecond chapter, the author endeavours to evince, that the undertaking of royal and conftitutional regeneration is indifpenfible, from the prefent regeneration of France; from various political reafons; from the nature of the defign, as alluring to the human species; from the magnitude of the national debt; from the regeneration being requifite to the reinftatement and advancement of public affairs; from the original intention of government; from the regeneration being indifpenfible to private happiness and profperity; from its being the fole adequate fecurity of the continuance of the proper powers of the crown; and from every rational view, which can be taken of the subject. In the third chapter, the author points out the nature of national regeneration; fhowing that it confifts in the knowledge of whatever is useful to fociety, and mentioning the executive means of carrying the fame into effect. In the fourth chapter, he describes the means of defigning, preparing, and rendering fuitable for use and execution the different fubordinate parts and works, whether principal or inferior, which conftitute the great undertaking of national regeneration and perfection. He delineates the modes of investigation to be employed for cultivating and advancing the different fubjects of national regeneration and perfection, which depend upon extenfive practical and useful fciences; fhowing public protection and affistance to be equally neceflary for the promotion of the different fubjects of national regeneration and perfection, as for that of the arts; and that pecuniary means, which ought to be directly afforded by government, are the principal requifite for preparing the designs of national regeneration. In the fifth chapter, the author propofes the inftitution of a board of national improvement, to be established on the fame footing as the other boards of itate, for the purpose of defigning and preparing the different subjects of national regeneration and perfection; and he likewife proposes, that the fociety cftablished for the encouragement of arts, manufactures, and commerce, fhould be fupported by government, In the fixth chapter, he goes into a more particular detail of the administration of the board of national improvements; in the feventh, he takes a view of the proper regulations of public economy; and in the eighth, he attempts to fhame government into a compliance with his prefent propofals.' The fubject of the ninth chapter is mental civilization, in treating of which the author expatiates in the field of metaphyfical enquiry, and points out the general means of cultivating the mind by the intervention of literature. In the tenth, he confiders the means of maintaining the honour and dignity of the church; propofing an augmentation of the ftipends of the inferior clergy, and fome of the bishops, and recommending the abolition of tythes; in the eleventh, he propofes improvements in medicine; and, in the twelfth, adverts to the defi ciencies of law, and the abufes of practice in that department. In the thirteenth chapter, the author treats of the general civilization of nations; and, in the fourteenth, he profecutes the confideration of corollaries on that fubject. In the fifteenth, he confers the politics of the empire under feven different heads; in one of which he recommends an intimate connection with Spain. The fixteenth chapter is employed on the confideration of the various defects and abufes, which exist in the prefent ftate of the finances. The whole is followed with a conclufion, where, befides many other remarks, the author obferves, that government, as an art, confifts of eleven practical fciences, which may be collected from what he has advanced in the preceding chapters. After |