for three or four years to fo great a degree as was ever experi enced by any perfon.' Speaking of his Lettre fur les Spectacles, he lays this was the first of my writings in which I found the charms of labour, for Julia was not yet half finifhed. Till this time the indiguration of virtue had held the place of Apollo: tenderness and gentleness of foul reigned on this occafion.'We fhall next give fome fpecimens of his letters.

It appears that hatred was too heavy a burthen for his heart. If M. de Voltaire, fays he in his letters, fincerely defires a reconciliation, I have my arms already open, for of all the Chriftian virtues, I fwear to you, the forgiveness of injuries is to me the eafieft. I will make no advances; that would be cowardice; but depend on it I will meet his in a manner that shall be fatisfactory to him. This is a hint for your conduct if he should fpeak to you again on the fubje&t.'-A little farther on, he adds, the evil that I fay of my enemies I fpeak to them in fecret; the good I addrefs to the public, and with all my heart."

We fhall conclude this article with fome extracts from his letters to the king of Pruffia. Sire, fays he, in his highest tone of pride, I have often abufed you; I fhall probably abuse you again. Yet, driven from France, from Geneva, from Berne, I am coming to feek an afylum in your kingdom. I was in fault not to have taken this step at first, and this culogium is one of thofe of which you are worthy. Sire, I have not deferved any favour from you: I do not afk any. But I thought it neceffary to declare to your majefty that I am in your power, and that I wifhed to be fo. You may difpofe of me as you pleafe.”

In another place he writes to Frederick, Sire, you are my protector and my benefactor, and I have a foul formed for gratitude. I come to acquit myself with you if I can. You are willing to give me bread; none of your fubjects want it. Take from my eyes the sword which dazzles and which pains them : it has already exceeded its duty, and the fceptre is abandoned. The duty of kings of your ftamp is great, and you are yet far from the goal, but the time preffes, and you have not a moment to lose in your progrefs to it. May I fee Frederick the juft and the redoubtable cover his ftates with a numerous people, of which he may be the father, and J. J. Rouffeau, the enemy of kings, will then come to die at the foot of his throne.'

We have only to add that we wish to fee this fingular work well tranflated, but it is not the bufinefs of a school-boy. Words muft be examined, muft be weighed, and their import well confidered before they are fet down, for the words of Rouffeau are often fingular and convey no common meaning. We may have failed in our fpecimens, but they were executed with care, and many apparently obvious words were only adopted after a careful examination and comparison. The first part of the Confeffions has been already tranflated, but executed with little care: the whole fhould be again undertaken, and finifhed with attention and accuracy, neither haftily, erroneoufly, nor imperfectly.

P 4

MONTHLY

MONTHLY CATALOGUE. DIVINITY, RELIGIOUS, &c. The Scripture Account of the Attributes and Worship of God, and of the Character and Offices of Jefus Chrift. By Hopton Haynes, Efq. Second Edition. 8vo. 5s. Boards. Johnfon.

~HE first edition of this work was printed in the year 1749, ΤΗ but the death of the author, while the book was in the prefs, retarded in fome degree the circulation of the opinions of a zealous Unitarian. We are told by the editor that Mr. Haynes was for upwards of fifty-one years employed in the Mint, and that he boasted in the acquaintaince of fir Ifaac Newton, whence occafion is taken to add that this great philofopher poffeffed the fame fentiments in religion as our author. As to the performance, it shows Mr. Haynes poffeffed fome critical accuracy, but what merit can be claimed by a futile and ill executed attempt to difprove what our church-establishment fupports with equal moderation and candour?

Sermons. By Pendlebury Houghton. 8vo. 53. Boards. Johnfon.

This volume Mr. Houghton ufhers into the world unprotected; and we find no preface either to folicit the favour of the public, or with fome tale of falfe modefty or diffidence, to attempt to disarm the feverity of the critic. The fermons are fixteen in number, upon familiar fubjects. If we deny Mr. Houghton fublimity of thought and correctnefs of expreffion,' we may allow him to poffefs a nervous flow of words; and if he often wields with feeble hand the weapon of argumentation, it is but justice to obferve that his diction is occafionally pathetic, his eloquence often instructive, and his devotion ever awake. An Inquiry into the moral and political Tendency of the Religion called Roman Catholic. 8vo. 35. Robinsons.

Though the author appears only as the fober enquirer, it is not difficult to discover that he is rather an apologist and defender of the Catholics. He examines all the moral and political objections to this feet, and replies to them often fatisfactory: in England, indeed, their politics have hitherto rendered them the objects of fufpicion, and from this caufe every enormity has been fabricated to blacken their credit, and every crime really committed has been imputed to them. The dawn of a brighter day is now, however, beaming; and while no political motive is likely to draw them from their fidelity as good fubjects, fufpicion, we hope, will no longer appear. Yet fimilar reafons which lead us to oppofe the repeal of the teft acts refpecting the Diffenters, prevent us from wifhing to introduce the Catholics without limitation, to offices of truft, to corporations, or to the bench no other restrictions fhould remain. Our author we fhould have thought more liberal, if he had allowed fome accu

fations,

fations, and attributed them, as he might have done, with the ftrictest accuracy and propriety, to a dark, ignorant, intolerant

æra.

The Neceffity and Duty of the early Inftruction of Children, in the Chriftian Religion, evinced and enforced: in a Sermon preached in the Parish Church of Great Yarmouth, on Sunday June the 20th, 1790; for the Benefit of the Charity and Sunday-Schools. By Samuel Cooper, D. D. 4to. 15. Robinfons.

Dr. Cooper's chief argument is drawn from the depravity of human nature, which requires amendment by gentle means and milder admonitions. His text for this purpofe is drawn from Ephefians vi. 4. Our author dictates a little too pofitively, and fpeaks more often in the ftyle of command than of perfuation: yet his object is commendable, and it is enforced with great dignity and great juftice.

The Doctrine of Chrift, the only effectual Remedy against the Fear of Death; and the Union of good Men in the future World: in Two Sermons, preached at Cambridge, on Lord's Day, June the 27th, 1790, on occafion of the Death of the late Rev. Robert Robinfon. By Abraham Rees, D. D. F. R. S. 870. 15. 6d. Cadell.

These two excellent Sermons are only connected as they lead the mind to ferious reflections on death, and offer the best prefervatives from the terror and difmay which occafionally arife in timid minds from contemplating it. The first is on John viii. 51. If a man keep my fayings he fhall never fee death," in other words, fhall have no reafon to regard death with dif quieting horror, or more probably, fhall not remain under the dominion of death for ever. Dr. Rees next fhows in the moft convincing manner, how the doctrine of Chrift fecures this bleffing to all who keep his fayings.'

The fecond difcourfe, which is more, ftrictly appropriated to the late Mr. Robinson's memory, is from 1. Theffalonians ii. 19. Are not even ye in the prefence of our Lord Jefus Chrift at his coming? It affords the best source of confolation on death, by fuggefting the certainty of a future union in another world; an union not debafed by the ftrife, the contention, the cares, the diftreffes, the competitions of this life; an union, however, in which our former fituation and relations in this life will appear too inconfiderable, perhaps too defpicable to engage the attention for a moment. The life of Mr. Robinfon is fubjoined; to whofe learning and goodnefs we have often borne a chearful teftimony, while we hefitated on fome points, and more decidedly difagreed on others. He was, in his early youth, a follower of Mr. Whitfield, and for fome time preached among the Methodists. He afterwards joined the Diffenters, and continued with them, deviating occafionally from fome of their opinions, particularly respecting infant baptifin. His confeffion

of

of faith at his ordination was Calvinistic, referving to himself the liberty of changing his fentiments, if on careful enquiry he faw reafon to do fo.

A Sermon on the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. 12mo. 3d. Rivingtons.

A plain practical difcourfe, defigned to draw Christians more frequently, and with fewer apprehenfions, to the holy table.

A New Syftem of Religion. 8vo. Printed at Amfterdam. This new fyftem, fuppofed to be publifhed at Amfterdam, and which really appears exotic in the paper and printing, is not a very fingular one: its principal trait we shall fubjoin in the author's own words:

All things in existence, and all modes of existence, have their oppofites. Nor can the human, or perhaps any mind, form a conception of an object without a tacit comparison between its oppofite. What idea of light without darkness? of truth without falfhood? of good if there were no evil? It may be faid, that to deny exilence to any object, is at the fame time to deny existence to its oppofite: for without its contrariety nothing is known to exist.

Hence to deny the eternity of matter, is to deny the eter nity of the Deity. He is the fupreme oppofite of matter, of chaos. As the pureft of fpirits he must have had his oppofite, in the groffeft of matter from all eternity.

Had not matter been co-eternal with the Deity, he muft have filled all space with infinite purity; and it was impoffible that any corruptible matter could be produced in a univerfe completely filled with the divine radiance.'

Matter, therefore, is in this fyftem the fource of evil, and God the fource of good; yet our author fees not in this way that he falls into the Manichæan fyftem, which he directly oppofes. Between us and God, there are, he fuppofes, many intermediate beings, which, compared to us, are gods. Thefe fpirits, he thinks, probably intermix in human affairs, producing those fingular events which are by fome imputed to fortune, and by others to a fpecial providence.'

Thefe are the outlines of what is new; but on these fubjects it is improper to contend: we can only add that the old fyftem is good enough for us, and if properly believed and followed, we think it good enough for the world.

POETRY.

Epifile to James Bofwell, Efq. occafioned by his long-expeled, and now Speedily-to-be-published Life of Dr. Johnjon. 4to.

Hookham.

25.

Notwith@tanding the Pindaric (we mean the Petro-Pindaric) appearance of the title-page, this Epille is really serious and intended in general as complimentary. We truft, however,

that

that the fubject is fuperior to the panegyric; and hope we may be able to lay certe eft dea carmine digna.' After a fpecimen or two of our author's poetry, our readers will not probably with us to give a fuller account of the Epiftle:

This meed to thee belongs, nor thou refuse
The courteous off'rings of an humble Muse;
Her ftrains degraded by no venal view,
The chofen fubject of their theme pursue,
Lucind-like, give this epiftle birth,
To make an affidavit of thy worth;

Prompt, both thy merits and thy faults to weigh,
Nor thefe, nor thofe, fall claim an undue fway,
Blame unapply'd, or general, marrs the caufe,
Unjuft alike, as indiftinct applaufe.'

The strains, we fufpect, are the Epiftle, and this is the first iaftance of the child being metamorphofed into the midwife, or the Muses making an affidavit- mult we fwear to the truth of a fong?'

Thy bow, thus doubly-ftrung*, obey this rule,
Thou claffic lover of Minerva's school ;

In conftant view a two-fold quadrant keep,
To point your bearings thro' the treacherous deep;
No ill-judged fpeed the compafs fhould exclude,
Whofe magnet virtue points our latitude :
With all thefe nautic requifites fupply'd,

The fav'ring gales fhall fmooth th' oppofing tide;
Nor will th' attempt the timely purpose fail,"
When round life's ocean you with Johnson fail.
Bofwell, no more thy logbook journal, which
Infects us all with anecdotic itch;

Thy treafur'd hoard of tales, which nicely fit
Thy genius, teeming with excurfive wit,
No more muft they, provoking critic rage,
Difgrace the theme of thy hiftoric page.'

The two-fold quadrant, the quadrant employed to point the bearings, gales fmoothing the oppofing tide, &c. are metaphors neither correctly employed nor properly fupported. The teeming genius' alfo is a little inconfiftent with the hoarded tales.' We truft that our author had no national invective in view by the words marked in Italics, though it is probable that he defcended to an illiberal jeft, unless the rhyme was neceffary, and no other word was fo fit. In general, however, he is not very nice on this fubject, as we could fhow, if it were expedient to tranfcribe the lift of defective rhymes which have occurred to us.

* By wit and judgment.

A Defence