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They fay, but oh! how falfe the tale fhall prove,
That Hymen blights the fairest flowers of love;
That oft has his ftern influence deform'd,

What truth has nourish'd, and what friendship form'd.'

The conftruction is:-He (Hymen) bas often by his ftern influence deformed what truth had nourished. The expreffion is not very happy. The third line is particularly reprehenfible, the words has his' making an ugly kind of cacophony: this might eafily have been avoided.

Sweet comfort to my foul fhe brings,
And promifes the kindest things.'

The inanity or no-thingness of the fecond line might ferve as an example for Scriblerus himself. The appearance of an anticlimax fhould be carefully guarded against by the poet who is ambitious of praise.

Yes, Delia, long as beats this trembling heart,

Those scenes, thofe hours, fhall fweet remembrance bring,
In which as yet had cold regret no part,

But we were gay and cheerful as the spring."

But, as a disjunctive, is in this place improper: for had been better, because it brings with it the neceffary confequence. The lines are feeble and profaic.

We have felected these few inftances from among fome others of a fimilar kind, not with any view of injuring Mr. Beloe as a writer, but entirely from the regard due to his general merit; and that cultivation to which his genius has an unquestionable claim.

ART. XI. Letters written in Holland, in the Months of September and October 1787. By Thomas Bowdler, Efq. 8vo. 5 s. Boards. Robfon. 1788.

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HESE Letters appear to have been haftily written, and without any great profpect of awakening attention. What (fays the Author) can you expect from me? A perfon unacquainted with tactics is to give an account of military operations; and one unconnected with statesmen is to write of political events. This being the cafe, I need not claim your indulgence with regard to the imperfections that you will find in my let

ters.'

The fact is, they contain little more than a recapitulation of what the foreign gazettes have brought us acquainted with; namely, the operations (if operations they must be called) of the Pruffian army against the States of Holland, in confequence of their refufal to give the fatisfaction demanded by Frederic William for the infult offered to his fifter by arresting her on the road to the Hague. The Author's defcription of the conduct of the oppofing

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oppofing Hollander on the arrival of the Pruffian troops, will ferve as a fpecimen of his work:

I do not recollect to have ever heard a more remarkable instance of general panic having feized a nation than that which now takes place in Holland. Niewport and Schonhoven, which from their fituation were capable of a long defence, were abandoned without firing a fhot; and the fame has been the cafe with other ftrong fortreffes. The rapid progrefs of the Duke's army has been well calculated to increase the terror of the patriots. You will readily conceive that the panic which has feized the patriots must have been very great, when I tell you, that although the Pruffians have taken near 400 pieces of cannon, and about 600 prifoners, they do not know of more than eight Dutchmen who have been killed. The truth is, they have every where fled or furrendered. I must however take notice of one circumftance, which has contributed in a great degree to the facility with which the Pruffian troops have advanced. I am told, that the friends of the Stadtholder are much more numerous than I imagined; and now, that they find they can be fupported, they have exerted themfelves in many places, and fhewn very plainly that nothing but fear had made them fubmit to their late govern ors.'

The Reader of the foregoing extract will affuredly fimile when he is told, that the writer, in fpeaking, in another place, of the Duke of Brunfwic, talks of the glory he has acquired by the campaign,' of the conqueft of Holland,' &c. &c. A glory and a conquest which we will venture to fay his Highness would never think of arrogating to himself, when oppofed to fuch holyday foldiers as thofe he met with among the patriots, and of which, indeed, their armies were entirely composed *.

But though Mr. Bowdler remarks with too much gravity on the movements of the Duke of Brunswic in the little time that he was at the head of his army, and which Major Sturgeon, perhaps, would likewife have called a campaign; he is nevertheless a fenfible and intelligent man, as may be gathered from feveral obfervations in his book; and has, undoubtedly, the merit of having given us an authentic detail of facts, which may prove highly useful to the hiftorian who fhall hereafter chufe for his fubject, The Troubles in Holland, A. D. 1788.

*It must be remembered, however, that a Dutchman will be va, liant in an honeft caufe.

ART. XII. A. Jos. TESTA, Phil. & M. D. &c. De Vitalibus Periodis grogantium et Sanorum: Seu Elementa dynamicæ Animalis. 8vo. 2 Vols. 10s. 6d. Boards, Johnson. 1787.

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LTHOUGH the animal economy has ingroffed the attention of feveral able phyficians, few authors have treated the subject in its utmost extent. Since the time of Dr. Ruffel, who chiefly confined his thoughts to glandular difeafes, we da

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not recollect to have feen a more comprehenfive work than the prefent.

M. Tefta confiders life as compounded of certain series of motions. In a healthy ftate, these motions are imperceptible, becaufe all the actions are temperated and counteracted by proper re-action; but in a difeafed ftate they are more obfervable, being fometimes accelerated and fometimes retarded. The firft part of this work treats of the regularities, periods, &c. of the motions in difeafes; the Author enters particularly into an examination of the writings of Hippocrates on this fubject, and strenuously defends thofe opinions which, through a period of about 2000 years, have never been rationally refuted.

After largely explaining the critical days and the feveral fymptoms by which a perfect crifis may be pronounced, M. Tefta treats of the different ftates or periods of peculiar difeafes, confining himself chiefly to fevers. His remarks on this fubject appear to be juft, perfectly confonant to theory, and confirmed by experience.

He abfolutely denies the exiftence of a material morbific principle, excepting in certain diseases, especially those which are communicated by infection or contagion. What he advances on this fubject is curious, and well fupported, both by argument and obfervation. He confiders, feparately, the ftate of fuch diseases as depend on, or are caufed by, what is ufually called the morbific principle, and fuch as are occafioned by fome immediate violence or hurt done to the folids; and points out the causes why, in feveral diseases, no perfect crifis can be formed.

M. Tefta concludes his firft volume with fhewing the fimilarity of the fymptoms in the fame difeafe obfervable in different parts of the world; and that the periods of fevers and other acute difeafes, contrary to the opinion of many modern writers, are the fame now, in all countries, that they were in the time of Hippo

crates.

The fecond volume treats of the changes which the healthy body undergoes, in various ftages of life, by different modes of living, by the viciffitudes of seasons and climates, by the inAluence of the fun and the moon, by the force of the paffions, and whatever else can affect the human body.

We doubt whether the performance before us will be univerfally well received. The learned phyfician, however, who has made the ancients his ftudy, and who knows the value of their writings, and the juftnefs of their remarks, will perufe the work with pleasure; and though he may not receive much information from it, he will, nevertheless, be convinced, that a proper bafis for a rational fyftem of phyfic can only be laid by means of a thorough acquaintance with the natural phenomena occurring in the animal economy, and that these phenomena have never

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been

been more attentively obferved, or more faithfully recorded, than by the Greek phyficians, who generally rejected all hypothefis, and who, contenting themselves with a careful examination of those facts which were presented to them, pursued the propereft methods

"rerum cognofcere caufas."

ART. XIII. Two Sermons; I. An Enquiry, how far the Knowlege and Manners of the World can with Safety and Propriety be adopted in the Clerical Character. Preached at the Vifitation of the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Chichefter, at Haftings, June 19, 1787. II. The prefent State of Difcipline, Manners, and Learning in our Univerfities: in which are noticed fome Mifreprefentations on this Subject in a Work entitled, "The Task." -Preached before the Univerfity of Cambridge, Dec. 2, 1787. By J. Lettice, B. D. Vicar of Peafemarch, in Suffex, and late Fellow of Sidney-Suffex College. 4to. 1 s. 6d. Cadell, &c. 1788.

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HE subjects specified in the title-page of thefe Sermons, are treated in a manner which difcovers the writer to be poffeffed of much good sense and liberality. The firft is a seasonable caution to the younger clergy; the fecond is an apology for the English Univerfities, in reply to the cenfure of a late popular writer.

If the fubject of the fecond difcourfe were difcuffed in detail, it would doubtless appear, that there is much room for improvement and correction in our public mode of education; but in the article of difcipline perhaps lefs than is commonly fuppofed, College-life is neceffarily fubject to less restriction than domes tic; and the prefent modes of early education are extremely unfavourable to the execution of any plan of rigorous difcipline at a later period. On this fubject, the Author makes the following judicious remarks:

The docility of childhood, the attention of our earliest years to every object addreffed to the fenfes and even to the understanding, feem to be unnoticed or forgotten by many parents of these days. And hence the wife maxim of, Reverence due to that innocent state, has too generally ceafed to be practifed. Its merit and importance are perhaps no longer underflood: children are now fuffered to fee every thing that is done, to hear every thing that is faid in the promifcuous circles of their parents acquaintance; they are allowed to witness all the unguarded levities of the focial hour; the licentious jeft and allufive fong are much fooner learned than they are meant to be taught; even the juvenile delicacy of the gentler fex is too often not fpared on these occafions.-The fmile of innocence, thus prematurely furprifed, has but too frequently hattened the blush of guilt, and laid the foundation of thofe enormities, which poifon the fweeteft charities of life, and bring a black scandal on Christian fociety, But this is not all.-Some parents, not only carelefs and inattentive

to these confequences of their own folly, are fo cruelly corrupt themfelves, that they are pleafed with the lively forwardness their offspring fometimes difplay in the imitation of their own depravities. It is matter of their triumph to fee the young novice pledge the cup of intoxication in his turn, nor are they fhocked to behold him thus unconsciously anticipating the fhaking head and paralytic ftep of old age. It were eafy to continue this painting; the canvas might foon be filled, did not the time and the place forbid me to dwell upon it. It will be enough to observe, that those perfons must needs be well reconciled to their own frailties and deformities, who can delight to fee the refemblance of them thus reflected in their children. But though many parents are not to be accused of such madness, we are forry to fay, that, in the higher ranks of life, fuch is the horror generally entertained of the bafhfulness of childhood, that beft tint of nature on our species in its bloom, fo impatient are they that, above all things, their children fhould adopt a fmooth and eafy commerce with mankind, that the rifing race of both fexes are hurried from the nursery, by a furprising transition, into all the gayeties and promifcuous fcenes of polished life, and are taught to move without fear or embarrassment, on ground, where the manhood of fimpler times could not ftand without circumfpection. Thus they become adepts in the fcience of the world earlier than their better forefathers had commenced their noviciate. Can we wonder, if children thus trained in the way they should not go, thus ripened in practice before the feeds of principle are fown, fhould prove refractory to their first ferious inftructors, and fometimes fill our early feminaries with licentioufnefs and rebellion? And fhall thofe parents, to whofe indifcretion alone truth has obliged us to trace the origin of these alarming evils, join our fatirift, and be among the first to impute them to neglect of difcipline or inftruction here? No, we cannot patiently abide this accufation: it has been fhewn how little we deserve it. They who come hither thus prematurely fchooled in the ways of men, and ignorant of better lore, muit unlearn more than half their leffons, or they will never be acknowledged the legitimate difciples of our inftitutions.'

The evil, of which the preacher here complains, is experienced by every preceptor, both public and private, and is of fuch magnitude, as to merit the ferious notice of every one, who wishes the profperity of the rifing generation.

ART. XIV. Eight Sermons; by Percival Stockdale. 8vo. 5s. Boards. Faulder. 1788.

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HESE Difcourfes are compofed on the following fubjects: I. An Affize Sermon, on Genefis i. 27. II. A Funeral Sermon, 1 Samuel xx. 3. III. On the Importance of proper Externals in Public Worship, Pfal. xxix. 2. IV. and V. On the Congruity of Natural and Revealed Religion, with true Pleasure and Happiness. VI. On the mischievous Character of a curious and. bufy Tale bearer, 1 Peter iv. 15. VII. On the great moral and

religious

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