secondary hemorrhage, much useful informati on is to be found which our limits will not permit us to notice.

We cannot conclude without expressing our opinion, that the author of the present work has prosecuted an ardu ous and most useful inquiry, with great industry and success. His experiments and observations furnish information, which at all times must be acceptable. But at the present period, when thousands of our fellow-men, of our countrymen, may fall in the hour of battle, he, who eagerly directs his attention to counteract effectually the most frequent cause of death in these lamentable situations, renders a service to suffering humanity, which deserves our grateful acknowledgements.

Art. IV. Select Sermons; translated from the original French of Louis Bourdaloue. 8vo. pp. 355. Price 6s. Conder. 1806.

TO one ever possessed in a more eminent degree than Bourdaloue, all the great characteristics of genuine eloquence. He united the simplicity of Christian preaching, with majesty and sublimity... strength with sweetness, vehemence with unction, freedom with precision, the most energetic ardour with the purest and clearest views... Nothing escaped the vi vacity and extent of his imagination. What fire and animation in his delivery! ... he bore down all before him; he captivated, he mastered the feelings of his hearers; conviction was irresistible, and libertinism itself yielded to his sway!"

We do not recollect ever to have been more completely at fault, than on accidentally meeting with this singular effusion, the composition, we believe, of a celebrated French female, the Marchioness de Lambert. We could not for some time persuade ourselves that the praise had been seriously designed; so ingeniously has the writer contrived to attribute to Bourdaloue, almost every excellence which he did not possess. Our estimate of his merits and defects has not been formed lightly nor hastily, and we do not hesitate to give it as our decided opinion, that he has neither sublimity nor sweetness, unction nor imagination; he is sometimes, although but rarely, vehement; and so far is he from attaining the mastery of the feelings, that we question if a single instance of genuine pathos can be produced from the whole of his works. The following extract from Laharpe, so completely expresses our own ideas on this subject, that we adopt it nearly without reserve. After noticing the gross and indécent buffoonery, which degraded the eloquence of the pulpit in France, during the two centuries immediately preceding the age of Louis XIV. he thus proceeds:

"Bourdaloue held out to his contemporaries an example suited to the gravity of the sacred ministry... he was the first who constantly

supported in the pulpit, the eloquence of reason he laid aside the affected display of miscellaneous quotations, and quaint conceits. Deeply imbued with the spirit of the Gospel, and versed in the Holy Scriptures, his subjects are solidly treated, judiciously and methodically arranged, and vigorously pursued. His reasoning is conclusive... and his inferences satisfactory and instructive: but he has few of the great requisites of the orator, elocution, sentiment, animation. He is an excellent theologian, an expert catechist, rather than a powerful preacher. While he forces conviction on the mind, he is deficient in that precious unction which can alone render conviction efficacious."

To this judicious estimate of the talents of Bourdaloue, we add, in the words of his present translator, that in his writings, "active and social duties are clearly delineated, and zealously enforced, nor is any argument used to seduce them into indolent retirement, who are usefully employed in public life: and the performance of ceremonial religion, or the cultivation of abstract feelings, to the neglect of moral obligations, and influential piety, is ever condemned as hypocrisy or self-delusion."

The volume, under review, contains an interesting and welltranslated selection from the sermons of this eminent preacher. The subjects are---True and False Piety; The Love and Fear of Truth; The Afflictions of the Righteous, and the Prosperity of the Wicked; Prayer; The Recompense of the Saints; Love to our Neighbour; The Forgiveness of Injuries; Providence; The Fear of Death; The Prayer of Jesus Christ in the Garden; The Last Judgment.

Of these we are disposed to prefer the 1st, 5th, and 9th. From the 1st, we shall extract that part of the exordium which contains the arrangement of the discourse.

"As the most brilliant gold is not always the most free from alloy, sa the most splendid piety is not always the most solid and pure. Can we desire a more striking exemplification of this truth, than in the Scribes and Pharisees? Their actions apparently so holy, were not only worthless in the sight of God, but they were actions which he expressly condemned. What were the causes of this condemnation? Three great imperfections we may discover in them, and which I shall endeavour to expose in the three heads of this discourse. In short, what was the piety of the Pharisees? It was hypocritical, false, and vicious; first, in its subject; secondly, in its aim; thirdly, in its form. False in its subject, because it affected the most scrupulous severity in things of a trivial nature, whilst it neglected the most important duties; false in its aim, because all its exertions were selfish, and arose from worldly considerations, Lastly, false in its form, because it was merely external, and consisted in outward performances; for these reasons it was so strongly opposed, and so frequently reprobated by the Son of God. If we, my brethren, are desirous, by sincere and genuine piety, to ensure our salvation, and render ourselves acceptable to God, let us learn to correct, in the practice of our religion, these three defects; that is to say, let our piety be perfect; let our piety be disinterested; and let our piety be internal: perfect, that

it may comprehend every thing which enters into the service of God, whether of more or less importance; disinterested, that it may have a view to God and his Kingdom, without considering what we might expect to receive from the world; internal, that it may influence and dwell in the heart. Unless by these distinguishing marks, we prove ourselves superior to the Pharisees: unless our piety be more extensive, and actuated by a nobler aim than theirs, and unless it be deeply rooted in our hearts, we must not flatter ourselves that we shall ever find favour with God. Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Hea

ven."

The recompense of the saints is a subject of peculiar delicacy and difficulty, but, with some allowance perhaps for the creed of Bourdaloue, we think it treated with singular felicity in the 5th sermon. After describing the promised reward as certain, abundant, and eternal, he goes on with an animation which faintly reminds the reader of the unrivalled eloquence of Massillon.

"The reward of the righteous alone passeth not away; for the righte ous will live for ever, and their recompense is in God, who cannot change. The reward of the righteous alone is immutable and invariable; for it consists in the happiness they receive from seeing, loving, and possessing God: they will see him, they will love him, they will possess him to all eternity. As the sufferings of the damned will arise from their being deprived of God, and eternally feeling the loss of God, the beatitude of the saints, on the contrary, will arise from the certainty that they shall never lose their God, that they shall be for ever united to him. Such is the reward of them who devote themselves to the service of the Almighty. A kingdom is prepared for them, an eternal kingdom, in which there will be no succession, no vicissitude: a crown awaits them; a crown endowed with a privilege conferred on no earthly crown, that of being perpetual: they will reign like God; they will reign for ever this eternity of power is the recompense of them who suffer, and who humble themselves for the sake of their God. They will be filled with joy; with joy which will never terminate; with joy which will never be disturbed nor interrupted; a joy which will endure as long as God himself. This eternity of happiness is the recompense of them who are lowly in heart, who renounce themselves, and by their humility become great in the sight of God, of whose glory they will be partakers; they will enjoy glory which will never be diminished nor obscured; which will be ever new, which will receive augmented lustre from the lapse of ages; an eternity of glory!"

In the 9th sermon, among other powerful motives for the consolation and triumph of the Christian, in the prospect of death,

he urges

"The contemplation of our dying Saviour; of Jesus Christ, who, though immortal in his nature, became, as we are taught by St. Paul, a partaker of flesh and blood, for the purpose of subjecting himself to mortality, and thereby removing the bitterness of death; that he by the grace

of God should taste death for every man, and deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their life-time subject to bondage. Yet to you, feeble and timid Christian, death still appears full of bitterness, Jesus Christ tasted death for you; and you, although you have the benefit of his example, think it hard to taste it for him. After all his care to sweeten the cup, you reject it, as if it were filled with wormwood and gall. It was the felicity of the Apostle Paul to behold death destroyed, swallowed up in the triumph of Jesus Christ. Death is swallowed up in victory. He defies death in the language of insult; without presumption, he exults, O Death, where is thy sting! O Grave, where is thy victory! But we are not animated by the Apostle's language, we share not his joy and triumph; death is still victorious over our weakness; in our apprehension it retains the sa e power, the same sting, so that the efficacy of the cross, and of the death of the Redeemer, appears to us almost destroyed. It is the peculiar privilege of Christians, who are united to their Saviour with well-founded assurance, to die without feeling the sting of death; but we renounce this privilege, and from a pusillanimity unworthy of our faith, not only feel, but anticipate, and give additional sharpness to that sting."

:

We cannot dismiss this volume without congratulating the translator, a female, as we understand, on the able execution of her task.

Art. V. Observations on English Architecture, Military, Ecclesiastical, and Civil, compared with similar Buildings on the Continent: including a Critical Itinerary of Oxford and Cambridge; also Historical Notices of stained Glass, ornamental Gardening, &c.; with Chronological Tables and Dimensions of Cathedral and Conventual Churches. By the Rev. James Dallaway, M.B. F. S. A. Royal 8vo. pp. 340, price 12s. Taylor, London, 1806.

THIS is a work of considerable learning and labour, the re

sult of much investigation and continued research. We are sorry that, with such toil and such ample materials, it is not more inviting to general readers; but is rather a collection of valuable matter, than an elegant and pleasing composition,

Mr. Dallaway divides his work into eleven sections. In his first section he investigates the term Gothic,' and the derivation of Gothic Architecture, of which he notices the descent, and some of the peculiarities, in reference to Ecclesiastical Structures. His second section describes the era of the Florid Gothic' its characteristics, especially, as manifested in certain parts. These principles be illustrates in a third section, by an account of the Benedictine Abbey, now the Cathedral, at Glouc, ster. After Religious Edifices he adverts to Military Architecture, Castles and Forts, before the Conquest; to similar constructions under the Normans; to the military principles of defence introduced from the Levant, by King Edward I.; and

this brings him to the period when castles gave way to mansions, and the necessity of personal defence was no longer visible in the residences of our nobility. He then institutes somewhat very in a comparison, though he protests to the contrary, between the two Universities, in regard to their public buildings; it is evident that Oxford is his favorite. This is followed by an investigation of Domestic Architecture from the days of Inigo Jones, to the present period; and, as the demense is, according to modern principles, part of the dwelling, Mr. D. next considers English Ornamental Gardening, and the art of composing Pleasure Grounds. The history of the manner of Painting on Glass, much of which has appeared in Horace Walpole, is given in the eleventh section; and the work concludes with a list of our principal churches and cathedrals, in the order of their dates, marking their founders' dimensions, &c. Other lists of a similar kind occur in the work, as well in the notes as in the text.

Mr. Dallaway in his title page professes to compare buildings of various descriptions in England, with those of their respective classes on the Continent; we therefore cannot complain that he makes frequent excursions for this purpose; yet these transitions deprive the work of that uniformity, which is desirable in a history of so important a branch of art, no where better understood, or practised, than in our country.

Readers to whom the subject is new, will find another difficulty in the perusal of this book; the author cites from buildings abroad, many examples that are necessary to illustrate his remarks, but which, of course, those who cannot recollect, cannot compare. Nevertheless, connoiseurs, familiar with this study, whe have seen the foreign, or distant subject referred to, or who in their extensive collections of prints can examine at leisure the various structures, and their respective peculiarities, may derive much satisfaction from this gentleman's labours. Mr. D. has chiefly confined his observations to England; he might have included Scotland, if not Ireland, also, with advantage; instead of vouchsafing them only a cursory notice.

John Knox, in Scotland, heedlessly counselled the Partisans of reformation, to'pull down the Rookeries, and then the Rooks would fly away to this phrensy in the cause of godliness, is owing the demolition of many most elegant and venerable struc tures, which had been erected with wonderful skill, and at a vast expence.

Nothing could have been more easy, and one might have supposed more natural, than to convert buildings already erected for religious worship, to a use analogous with their original intention, and similar in its object, though distinct in its mode. But the very stones of such edifices were abhorred, by those