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thrown into boxes. Mrs. Yates, (widow to the unfortunate Lieutenant Yates, killed by Sellers,) for whose benefit the play was performed, perfonated Margaret of Anjou. On her firft entrance the appeared extremely timid, but in the principal fcenes the evinced powers which might render her a valuable acquifition to any of the public theatres. Mr. Faulkner, who lately played Oreftes at Drury-lane, performed the part of Warwick, with credit to himself, and fatisfaction to an applauding audience. We were much furprized to fee a perfon fo totally devoid of animation, as was the gentleman who performed Edward, come forward in a character of fo much importance: he poffeffed no modulation, no powers of voice, nor difcrimination of character; and as to feeling, he did not feem confcious of the existence of such a sense: his action, though not intolerable, was by no means appropriate. We do not, however, criticife with fo much feverity as we should have done, had this been the performance of a regular company.

THE MASQUERADE,

Lately held at the Pantheon, derives no claim to our attention, but from its name. Juftice, however, requires us to obferve, that every eulogium is due to the conductors of the fupper and refreshments: they were excellent. As a proof whereof, the only characters well-fuftained, were thofe fuftained at the table.

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Literary Review.

"Tis with our judgments as our watches; none

Go juft alike, yet each believes his own.

POPE.

ART. I. Zimmerman on National Pride. (Continued from page 76 of our last Number.) READ this excellent man on religious pride:

"The contempt and hatred which prevail fo much be tween the oppofite perfuafions of the Chriftian religion, are alfo wholly confequences of the prejudices occafioned by a bad education. The Christian youth are taught to condemn, what in their riper years they feel inclined to excufe; the poisonous feeds of hatred, difcord, and abhorrence, are fown in their tender bofoms; and they learn at school to deteft as idolaters, or execrate as heretics, thofe who, at the age of reafon, they are tempted to embrace as brethren and fellow Chriftians. The more we attain to a found understanding of the real fcope of the Chriftian religion, the more we must feel the great abfurdity and narrowness of the prepoffeffions entertained by weak-minded Proteftants against the members of the Roman church, or thofe, on the other hand, which foolish Catholics cherish against the Proteftants. The common people among us are wont to be mightily aftonished, when they hear of any generous deed of a Catholic towards a Proteftant, or that the greatest esteem and friendship, to gether with the fincereft urbanity, can exist between men of different religions. The inhabitants of Touloufe believed that it was an established law among the reformed, that fuch of them as abandoned their perfuafion to embrace the Roman Catholic religion were to be strangled; and, prepoffeffed with VOL. I.

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this idea, the Parliament of Touloufe ordered the old and innocent Calas to be broke on the wheel, because he was an Huguenot, and his fon in a fit of melancholy hung himself, without ever thinking of a change of religion. We must, unfortunately, when our reafon is come to maturity, be very retentive of prejudices learned often by rote, and adopted without confideration in our youth, if we do not fee that it is poffible to be true to our religion, without at the fame time being furprifed that others can likewife be true to theirs; that there is nothing fo rational and conciliatory as a perfect liberty of opinion; that, in a world where error and not truth is the portion of the greatest part of its inhabitants, God will judge our hearts, and not our understandings; that we are all children of one common father, and coheirs of all his promises, if we believe only as much as we can, and live according to his commandments; nd that virtue and piety, whether feen counting of beads and repeating the Ave Maria, or fitting down with a proteftant to a dinner of flesh-meat in Lent, are always equally lovely and amiable."

This conceit of the excellency of religious opinions is often carried fo far, that all great men are held to belong to our own perfuafion. The Turks are morally convinced that Adam, Noah, Mofes, the Prophets, nay, Chrift himself, were all good Mahometans; and according to the Alkoran, Abraham was neither a Jew nor a Chriftian, but a true believing Muffulman. In Voltaire's opinion, Fenelon is a deift. In that of the peasants in the neighbourhood of Naples, Virgil was a faint; and a little edifice, near his grave, a chapel where he used to read mass.

Yet there is a falutary pride:

"In the minds of individuals, it is the fenfe of inward worth that Pythagoras held to be the greateft incentive to virtue; a centinel which the author of nature has placed within us, to keep aloof all that is little, mean, and unworthy the greatnefs of our foul; and, what requires to be particularly attended to, it is a perpetual exhorter to root out our defects. No base, malignant, or criminal thoughts will arife in us, if we entertain an esteem for ourselves, if we submit all the inclinations of our foul to the tribunal of our judgment, and if we more fear our own condemnation than that

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of others. The sense of the beauty and dignity of human nature, to which all moral virtue finally tends, seems not able to fubfift without this refpect for ourselves. Impreffed with this sense of his own worth, a man cannot avoid esteeming and valuing himself, but only inasmuch as he makes a part of the community or nation over whom this noble sentiment extends. The esteem for one's felf is a curb to all crimes; a libertine clergyman is addreffed, Remember your ecclefiaftical dignity;' a magiftrate, who judges of the propriety of a complaint in proportion to the greatnefs of the fum of money which accompanies it, is reminded, That he fits in the feat of justice.' In the last war, when batteries upon batteries, when two, three, and four fucceffive entrenchments were to be forced, the cry was general throughout the ranks of the affailants, Remember, ye are Pruffians in like manner, the vicious should be called on, Remember the high destination of man.'

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"The consciousness of the real worth of one's nation, is the fame with national pride founded on real advantages; and this pride is a political virtue of no fmall importance. The fenfe of the worth of our ancestors, is a fpur to emulalation. Partaking in the fame of our nation for arts and fciences, we are awakened to the defire of encreasing it. The conviction that we live under a good government, endears our country to us and fecures our fidelity. The juft pride of a nation, therefore, arifes chiefly from its domestic advan tages, but not always from the estimation these are held in by other nations. This esteem is fought after by vain nations; and is but little valued by those who are free; the English are not vain, for they do not care what others think of them; when honour is their motive for action, they do not take this motive from the judgment of others; it fuffices if they are estimable in their own eyes, or at most in those of their countrymen. Yet vanity is fo far connected with this kind of pride, inasmuch as we believe our national fame exalts us individually in the eyes of foreigners."

We come now to Chapter XII. It treats "Of pride which is produced in a nation by the remembrance of the heroifm and valour of its ancestors."

"The remembrance of the valour which encircled the

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brows of our anceflors with never-fading laurels, is a perpetual memorial and an unceasing incitement to us, that we fhould do nothing unworthy of their name; that we should efteem ourselves able to maintain it in all its pristine luftre. If we would imitate the virtues of our progenitors, if we would approach near to their renown, if we would revive their great and glorious days, we must be mindful of our origin, and of the duties it impofes on us; we must keep our ancestors in view, as our bright examples; their deeds of hardihood and virtue must be the favourite subjects of our sculptor's and our painter's art, an animating fire enlivening the ready eloquence of our orators, and the sublime imaginations of our poets: we must never look on their renown as an inheritance which we may enjoy in indolence; never indulge in that impatient and Jealous pride, which suggests that all muft yield to a name of glory, and which is irritated at the preference present merit obtains over former worth. It is then that our fathers live again in their defcendants: the spirits of the great and mighty flain beckon us to the battle; the mofs-grown cenotaphs and ancient trophies feem to rife before us; the guardian Genii of our nation are feen fupporting in the air the fhades of the illuftrious founders of our fame; and, enraptured by this pleafing vifion, even the vanity and frivolity of vulgar minds yield to the thirst of glory: every heart and hand is united in the ardent pursuit of honour; and every foul blazes with true patriotism, and an undissembled admiration of our country's virtue."

There is fo much of Zimmerman in this chapter, that, did our rules permit, we would fondly enliven our pages with the whole of its fpirit; but we are bound to content ourselves with a few words by way of conclufion,

Much diverfity of entertainment, and irregularity of ftyle, will be met with in this Essay on National Pride. While perufing the first parts of this Effay, we were oft induced to exclaim-" Is this from the pen of Zimmerman?"-He is often merry, but feldom with a proper grace, though there are many pleasant relations in this book. As a philofopher, he does not fpeak

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