gies, are not sufficiently numerous to constitute a class ||ing powers, the formula, fpcs + cr + cb + as = nt or order.-2d, That we profess too much veneration +n't'+n" t"+n" t". And as the human understandfor the religion of our forefathers, to place, as he ing is always proportional to these thinking powers, does, the books of Moses, the prophecies, the chris- or more properly as it consists of the mental faculties tian doctrines, and the theological researches in the themselves considered as active, and expressing their map of the irregular productions of the human un-activity by signs, the above formulæ may be equally derstanding.-3d, That in this synoptical map of the subservient to express its energy; and consequently aberrations of the human mind, as well as in the on designing it by SP and sp, we shall find SP = FP doctrine of the irregular proceedings and immemorial = CS+ CR + CB + AS, and sp=fp=cs+cr+ cb labours of nature, we have detected a plagiarism from + as." the already superannuated work of Robinet, on the "These abridged formulæ possess the invaluable subject; and 4th, That, although we have no objec-advantage of tracing, with the greatest simplicity, all tion that the map of human knowledge should be the primitive elements of the thinking faculty, and of projected on the universal system of nature, we do not the human understanding; of calculating, in some think with the author, that this is in any respect an measure, its radical energy, its productive force, and important and original discovery; for we are convinced its fundamental habitude, and of comparing them to a that the purpose of metaphysicians will always be certain degree, in all men, and of fixing the extent of completely answered if each branch of the scientific memory, imagination and judgement which every tree fills its proper place, and has a regular and graduated connection with every other. Besides the neologism of which we have already complained, the whole performance is systematically incumbered with algebraic expressions and formulæ, some of which, in their application, become nugatory and ridiculous. So extravagant indeed is M. Lancelin on this head, that he has even sought to reduce to an algebraic formula the thinking powers, and the human understanding itself a particular too curious not to be presented to our readers at full length, in the author's own words. "We have already seen," says he, "that all the operations of the thinking faculty may be reduced to these four -1st, to receive ideas; 2d, to preserve, or represent 3d, to combine; and 4th, to express ideas. Let therefore the thinking faculty be FP, the capacity of receiving sensations or ideas CS, that of preserving them CR, that of combining CB; CB; and that of expressing them through signs AS; for the re presentation of the thinking faculty, which is the result of these four elements, we shall have the formula FPCS + CR + CB + AS." individual possesses through the equations CS NT CT cr = NT' CB N'T" FP = n't" i CS CS &c." CS nt nt cb fp either precise or approximating can be given of the We do not profess to comprehend how any value several elements of the thinking powers, how any comparison, even of a vague sort, can be possibly made between these different powers in several individuals, or lastly, how, for the purpose of expressing ideas of superiority or inferiority in algebraic language the sign of division is adopted instead of that of subtraction CS-cs. Let us, however, suppose those uncertainties not to exist, we shall desire M. Lancelin to answer the question-Whether, according to the primitive rules of algebra, we could not, in the foregoing equations, convert either or both the divisors into multipliers, and make for inCS NT stance, x nt = NT, or CS= x cs, or lastly, CS x nt NT+ cs-- -And whether in the ultimate application of these new equations it would not be found that genius may take the place of learning and vice versa? Risum teneatis amici? CS nt "Now, to fix the value of each of these elements, Let N be the number of sensations and ideas which a person may acquire during a stated time, which I take as unit of measure, we shall have, at the end of this We cannot think of concluding the present review very time T, the capacity for sensations and ideas ex- without doing the author the justice to say, that he geactly measured by the product Nx T, or CS NT.||nerally possesses a clearness of conception, and an unLet likewise N' be the number of ideas which memory can represent during the unit of time, we shall have, for the expression of its energy at the close of the same unit T', the equation CR N'T. In a similar manner also, if N" indicates the number of combinations which may occur in the supposed interval, the product of the power or faculty CB shall be at the end of that interval T" equal to N" x T". And lastly N expressing, with the same circumstances, the faculty or the art of signs, we shall have for this new measure, the equation AS NXT"". It is plain that all this will exchange the preceding formula FP CS+ CR + CB+ AS into a new one-FP= NT+NT+N'T" + N'" T." "If, by the same letters in smaller types, we indicate similar quantities relative to another individual, we then shall have, for the representation of his think common felicity of expression; and we regret that we List of New Publications from September 1, to Sep- selves by every thing that can interest them, as social, ac tember 16, 1803. HISTORY, &c. This excellent Discourse was very properly printed at the request of the select Vestry of the Parish where it was delivered. The learned preacher commences it with that part of the History of the Jews, where they were overthrown by the Assyrians, because they were "a luxurious, enervated, dispirited, and divided people." He recommends unanimity in the present contest, and draws a faithful portrait of the enemy with whom we have to contend: he advises a firm reliance in the protection of Heaven, which "has aforetime been in an eminent degree experienced against a formidable attempt to invade this nation; it was deemed, by a people,* at that time powerful both in ships and warriors, an easy conquest; superstition was called in aid of their attempt; their consecrated banners were esteemed invincible: But the sovereign, then ruling over this land, like good Hezekiah, was not to be daunted: she stretched out her arms to the Almighty; the nation was filled with her spirit; the boasted armada of the enemy became a prey to the winds and the waves, and to the courage of our ancestors. The same spirit in their descendants must be exerted against similar threats." Au Address to the Richmond Volunteers, assembled in the Parish Church of Richmond, Surry; to take the Oath of Allegiance. By Thos. Wakefield, B. A. 6d. In this address Mr. Wakefield reminds the Volunteers of his Parish of the sacredness of an oath of which he gives the following idea. "A solemn oath, implies, in those who take it, their acknowledgment of the almighty power, the immediate presence, the moral attributes, and the providence of that God, in whom we live, move, and have our being that he is a lover of truth and justice: that he notes our actions, and will call us to account for them. "Moreover, in taking hold of the everlasting Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ when we swear, we christians in effect consent to put all the interest, and all the hopes, which we have in the contents of that book of life, upon the veracity of our oaths; and, at the same time, directly invoke the Lord God Omnipotent, who alone upholdeth our soul in this world, and can make us for ever happy, or miserable in the world to come, to bear witness to our declaration; and so to deal with us, as we then swear truly, and shall afterwards fulfil our oath with fidelity. All which, as it hath ever been esteemed, so it must surely be to christians, the firmest foundation of mutual confidence in each other: for it is a pledging of them*The Spaniards in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. countable, and immortal beings; by all their hopes of inward peace on earth, and of future happiness in heaven." At the same time he does not lose the opportunity of strenuously exhorting them against profane swearing; or wearing in common conversation. Good effects of an United Trust in the arm of flesh and arm of the Lord, a Sermon, preached at Cuxton, Kent, July 31, 1803. By the Rev. Charles Moore, M. A. Rector of Cuxton. 18. Britons exhorted to the defence of the country, in an Address on the threatened Invasion by France. By the Rev. Thos. Broadhurst. 6d. or 25 for 10s. 6d. POLITICS. A Plan for the removal of Inhabitants, not military, from the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland, in case of Invasion. By I. Lettice, D.D. 18. 6d. By non-military inhabitants Dr. Lettice means not all who do not bear arms, but those only who are incapacitated from so doing. He wishes to prevent that confusion and delay which would certainly attend the removal of the aged, of the infirm, and of children, were they surpri zed suddenly without a preordained plan for the purpose. We recommend this pamphlet to the leading men of the different parishes not distant from the coasts, as they would derive many useful hints from its perusal. 6d. A Digest of the law, now in force, relating to Volunteer Corps in Great Britain. By a Volunteer. 6d. The Cannibal's Progress; or, dreadful horrors of French Invasion, as displayed by the Republican officers and soldiers in their perfidy, rapacity, fero ciousness, and brutality, exercised towards the innocent inhabitants of Germany. Abridged from the Translation of Anthony Aufrere, 12mo. Under this fear-inspiring title are collected a "number of facts taken by the magistrates of Suabia, from the accounts of sufferers in their several districts," which have been published, in a more copious form, by their authority at Stut gard. They convey a relation of the extortions and cruelties committed by the French troops during their progress in Germany. This abridgment is published to warn the people what are the evils, which they can prevent only by strenuously and unanimously opposing the French in case of Invasion. a bold one. lier period than we are usually aware of; but it possessed none of those requisites which mark legitimate SATIRE; it was rude and violent in its expression, very often imprudent in the choice of its objects, and in many cases served only a momentary end. This novel is said to be a first attempt, and it is certainly || The moral, if it has any, is, that ladies should learn to fence, dress themselves in the male habit, become partners in a gambling firm, and fight duels, in vindication of unsuspecting virtue, or injured innocence. Such qualifications in Barbara Markham, we are here gravely told, rendered her "a rare instance of the generous exertions of which the fair sex are capable, when their genius, instead of being restrained by the arbitrary shackles of custom," (such as petticoats and feminine delicacy)" is left to pursue its own bent," (viz. gaming and fighting) to accommodate itself to circumstances as they arise, and to take a bias from the dictates of that reason which we, vain lords of the creation, arrogate to our dear selves, and to which we too often profess to think our lovely associates can assert but a very feeble claim."-How greatly are the ladies indebted to their modern champions! But these absurdities, preposterous as they are, do not constitute the only objection we have to this novel; in volume first, it contains a passage so abominably indecent that we think it || incumbent on the publishers, if they value their reputation, immediately to cancel it. Margaret of Stafford, an Historical Romance. By Madame de Stael, 5 vols. 175. MISCELLANIES. It has been asserted, and perhaps with truth, that the Satire we are now speaking of, made its first appearance in the feudal times, among the Troubadours of Provence; and exerted itself with more than common force in commiseration of the Albigenses, the cruel persecutions of whom in the twelfth century excited the indignation of the world. The compositions of historical, didactic, and satyrical; but the last of these the Troubadours were various; they were gallant, we esteem the best, as they explain the manners and correct the vices of the times. In their poems, says an elegant writer-" We behold a boorish and masculine familiarity which talks without reserve of persons and things; which censures with equal rudeness the prince and the subject." Among the most satirical of the Troubadours, was William de Figueira, the son of a taylor in Toulouse. Having witnessed the horrors of the crusade against the Albigenses, and the distresses of his country, he retired into Lombardy, and there became a jongleur. He was an inveterate The Sporting Dictionary, and Rural Repository of general information, upon every subject appertain-enemy of the great, because he had felt their tyranny; ing to the Sports of the Field. 2 vols. 8vo. 17. 1s. The Author does not recommend his work for any "effusions of literary fertility," but for the useful instruction it contains derived from practical experience; and indeed few subjects useful to the sportsman seem omitted. It would have been much more convenient, if, at the head of the pages, instead of the running title, Sporting Dictionary, the words of reference had been inserted. The Sportsman's Diary, oblong 4to. sewed 4s. This Work, consists of printed tables, by which the exact number of head of game, distinguishing the species, and when and where killed, is exhibited at one view, with spaces for occasional observations, by which the Lover of Field Sports will be enabled to keep a register of the occurrences of the sporting season. An English Introduction to the Latin Tongue, compiled for the Use of Schools. By the Rev. T. Pritchard, A. M. of Queen's College, Oxford. 12mo. bound 25. In this compilation, the plan of the Eton grammar is followed; it appears clear and comprehensive. Some notes containing English grammatical rules, not found in the Latin grammar, will be advantageous to the pupil who, as is often the case, has not studied his own. Verulamiana; or opinions on Men, Manners, Literature, Politics and Theology. By Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam. With a Life of the Author. By the Editor, 12mo. bound 5s. CORRESPONDENCE. Observations on the Rise and Progress of Satire in England. To define Satire and describe its origin were needless. It is the natural product of every nation whose literature is highly polished. And though often seen in the works of dark ages, never exerts itself with genuine vigour but in a legitimate form. SATIRE, generally so called, had its rise in England, at an ear VOL. II. his morose and satyric humour he was fond of venting on the nobility; and was desirous of placing them far below the populace in genius and merit; but above all, the clergy and the court of Rome felt the keenness of his satire. Much of his poetry has been translated from St. Palaye, by Mrs. Dobson. (Hist. of the Troubadours, p. 401.) It has a deal of fervour; and must undoubtedly have produced a strong sensation: two sentences are here transcribed :"Rome! may God remember against thee thy pilgrimage to Avignon." "Thou takest the crooked road, and woe be unto him who follows thy track." Rome, however, had its champions even among the Troubadours, and a female, Germunda of Montpelier, recriminated on our satyrist with boldness. Another of these writers, mentioned by Mrs. Dobson, was the monk of Montaudon, remarkable for the wildness of his poetry, who wrote an indifferent satire against all the Troubadours. But farther with the Troubadours we have nothing to do. Suffice it to say, they who search Mrs. Dobson's selections from St. Palaye, will find few specimens of that satyric vein which the Troubadours were so fond of indulging. Mrs. Dobson's Troubadours were mostly lovers. Having thus far cleared our ground in regard to the Troubadours, let us look back for a moment to the Saxon times; in which, those who were skilled in learning never meddled with subjects of a temporary concern: so that it is in vain we seek for any thing that may bear the name of satire. Among the Norman minstrels who were entertained in the courts of the latter princes of the Saxon line, few gave their minds to the subject of our observations: the temper of the times was too captious to bear it; and the minstrels, it is probable, were too much of courtiers to apply it. The poems of Z the Troubadours however, were introduced and liked; and the arrival of the Conqueror in 1066, giving a new turn to the literature as well as the manners of the country, their compositions were not only studied but imitated. The first Satire we shall adduce is one on the monastic profession, written about the time of the Conquest; and as many parts of it are quoted by Mr. Warton in the History of English Poetry, others by Dr. Henry, in the History of Britain, and the whole in Dr. Hickes's Thesaurus, and Mr. Ellis's Specimens of the early English Poets, we shall not transcribe any part of it. It opens, in the allegoric manner of the early French poetry, with a curious description of the Land of Indolence and Luxury. Its language is rude, but it has an elegance of design, and a keenness of irony which few poems of its time are found to equal. It was intended to be sung at festivals. Indeed the strongest of our early satires must be entirely attributed to the minstrels, and the circulation of them could be easiest promoted when they assumed the form of songs. The reign of William Rufus was particularly distinguished by serventois, or satyrical ballads from which, it has been thought far from improbable, that Robert of Gloucester borrowed many of his sarcasms against that monarch: and we well know that in those times opprobrious expressions were very frequently and liberally employed, as a substitute for wit. The Chevalier Luc de la Barre, we are told, had the boldness to write a satire against Henry the First, for which the enraged prince caused his eyes to be put out. A punishment that, on our part, needs no comment; but it served to shew, either an excessive fear of ridicule in Henry, or the dangerous consequences that might result from satire amongst a people who delighted so much in poetry. First, during his absence in the French and Scotch wars, about 1306. And another complains of the exorbitant fees extorted, and the numerous taxes levied by the king's officers. Mr. Ritson in his first collection of ballads has preserved one of the satyric kind in the form of a "Requiem to the conspirators against || Henry the Fourth." It relates to the efforts of many of the nobility and others, to restore their deposed sovereign in 1399, and has the singular merit of preserving the names of several prelates and nobles whom no historian has mentioned as engaged in the conspiracy. In the reign of Henry the Sixth, to pursue the topic a little lower, we find a ballad of a like complexion stuck upon the gates of the royal palace, severely reflecting on the king and his counsellors then sitting in parliament. This piece which has a Latin title, is preserved in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford.-Indeed it may be as well to make the history of the ballad-satire compleat, and to have done with it, since it will otherwise interfere with the more regular examination of our subject. The ballad-satire, I believe, may be found in every reign, from the appearance of the Troubadours to the present moment. Many of the more ancient form, may be seen in Dr. Percy's Reliques; and one in the time of Henry the Eighth, is a spurn at fallen greatness in the person of Sir Thomas Cromwell. The period of the Reformation abounded in such ballads, which were, all of them, either libels or invective: and many artfully decline entering into the merits either of the popish or the protestant cause, and wholly confine themselves to reflecting on the lives and actions of the reformed. The number which were written during the period of the great rebellion, need hardly be enumerated; and others not only on the fall of James the Second, but at the arrival of the House of Brunswick, and at later periods, have had their day. Many of them served their purposes and were forgotten. But such of them as are still in being, perhaps, show the temper of the times which produced them in a truer light than many publications of a larger form. From this period till the middle of the thirteenth century, we have little that deserves the name. In the latter end of Henry the Third's reign, indeed, we have a satyrical song by one of the adherents of Simon de Montefort, Earl of Leicester, of whose success against the royal party in 1204, the reader need We now come to the History of Satire in a more hardly be reminded. It has humour; was evidently determined shape, separated into two divisions, the written by some one above the condition of a common allegoric and the legitimate. The allegoric, compriminstrell; misrepresents the royal cause; and pro-sing satire as it assumed a distinct form without any bably had no small influence in encouraging Leicester's reference to the ancient models. The legitimate, as partizans and diffusing his faction. It is printed both it was modified after the restoration of classic literain Mr. Warton's History, and Dr. Percy's Reliques of ture. Ancient English Poetry. Mr. Barrington has observed in his Observations on the Statutes, that this ballad of Richard of Alemaigne, probably occasioned a statute against libels in the year 1275, under the titleAgainst slanderous reports, or tales to cause discord betwixt king and people." But it should seem that the general spirit of satirising had grown to such an extravagance, as called loudly for the interference of the legislature. Indeed for reasons which have been already given, the ballad was in the early ages, the most preferable vehicle for satire, particularly when it bore the slightest relation to politics. Several other ballads of a similar tendency are mentioned by Mr. Warton; one reflects on the commissioners of traylbaston, or the justices so denominated by Edward the An instance of it in the allegoric form has been already adduced as early as the conquest; but not another of the slightest consequence occurs till the time of Edward the Third, when, soon after 1350, appeared the Visions of Piers (or Peter the) plowman, which are usually attributed to Robert Langland, a secular priest of Mortimer's Cleobury, in Shropshire. This work exhibits a series of visions, which the writer pretends to have happened to him on the Malvern hills, in Worcestershire. It is written not in rhyme, but in the alliterative style of the Anglo-Saxon poets, and is a satire on the vices of almost every profession. It is hardly to be imagined how much thinking, how much observation on human life is condensed together in this poem. Exclusive of its poetical merit it contains many valuable pictures of || whatever was absurd in both.-Chaucer, in the ancient life; explains the particular feelings and opi- rhyme of Sir Thopas, ridiculed the former, and the nions of the time in which it was written, and is now ballad of the Tournament at Tottenham, (which is universally allowed to be an entertaining and a general mentioned here only from its peculiar merit and decommentary on the history of the fourteenth century. sign,) humorously burlesqued the former. The pasIts style is simple and energetic, and though it has sion for the tournament had been prevalent so long, many incoherencies, seems by the employment of al- that even those who from their inferior rank were delegorical personages to have been well suited to the barred entering the lists, had contrived that many of popular taste. It is full of good sense and piety, and the popular amusements should partake its spirit. had not only its share in preparing and fomenting Such in particular were the varieties of the Quintain many of the popular discontents under Richard the game, for which I shall refer to the sports and pasBecond, but probably prepared the minds of men for times of Mr. Strutt. In the ballad I have mentioned, those bold tenets which afterwards produced a rest- a parcel of clowns are introduced with admirable lessness that at last subsided in a free government and humour, imitating the solemnities of the Tournay, a reformed religion. the particular cereinonials of which are preserved with uncommon nicety. And," as Dr. Percy has observed, "how acutely the sharpness of the author's humour must have been felt in those days, we may learn from what we can perceive of the keenness now, when time has so much blunted the edge of his ridicule." Mr. Ellis and Mr. Warton have been so copious, and so happy in their extracts, that nothing more curious than they have given can be hoped for here. It should however, have been before observed, that though Langland satirized the vices of almost every profession, he laid a particular stress upon the absurdities of superstition and the corruption of the clergy. These he ridiculed with a considerable share of humour and fancy; and foretold their downfal in the spirit of a prophet. He has another praise which rarely happens to a satyrist: his poetry has strains which are often elegant, and sometimes beautifully descriptive. In short, this early allegoric satire, which is entitled to more regard than has been generally shewn it, appears to have been neglected only from the uncouthness of its versification. : : To expatiate on Chaucer as a satyrist were surely needless there are few who read him but perceive his poignancy. The Canterbury Tales were certainly intended to contain an elaborate delineation of all the prominent characters in society: a plan which the poet did not live to execute entirely. Yet as far as his design is carried, he affords us more information of the real manners of English society in the fourteenth century, than all his contemporaries put together. The specimens of genuine satire scattered through his works are far too numerous to be even slightly mentioned. It is pleasing that he has not confined it to the clergy, but suffered us to know what were the vices and the follies deserving a general censure in the other ranks of society. The next satyrist we have to mention is Skelton; whose ludicrous disposition, having first attacked the mendicants, at last vented itself on Wolsey. But the cardinal's officers pursuing him closely, he took shelter in the sanctuary at Westminster, where he died, in 1529. The satire of Skelton, however, was but low burlesque, and though his allegoric imagery has occasional merit, it far from compensates for his coarseness. There is another poem of a similar tendency, entitled, "Pierce Ploughman's Creed," attached to the edition of the work we have just mentioned, which was printed in 1561; but it was evidently composed by a Lollard, near thirty years after the Visions and in one part speaks of Wickliffe with honour, as no longer living. Of its satire no more need be said, than that it is chiefly aimed against the clergy.-The pride, the possessions, the indolence, the occasional imprudence of this respectable body had gradually alienated them from the respect of the people: and the advantages which many of the commons gained by the low rents at which monastic lands were let, could not satisfy the greater part from envying such Dr. Warton in his Essay on the genius of Pope, ample domains to men, who had so little appearance of || has said, that Sir Thomas Wyat and Lord Surrey were living by their industry.—As it has of late years been satyrists; both of them elegant writers of the time fashionable to detract from the merit of high life, so of Henry the Eighth. But Surrey, if we except his in the times we are speaking of, few professions but || translation of Virgil, was the poet of gallantry; and that of the clergy felt the keener shafts of satire. Di-Wyat, though he has many pointed observations upon rected against other orders of life, it would probably have not been read at any rate the readers of the time would not have been delighted. The seculars, it should seem, who were not bound by monastic rules, were in those ages the chief dispensers of satire. Here, however, we plead two exceptions, both of which do honour to the good sense of the nation. They were first observed by Dr. Percy. While all Europe was captivated with the bewitching charms of chivalry and romance, two of our writers in the rudest times, not only saw through the false glare that surrounded them, but discovered to the world human life, can hardly rank with 'those who drew pictures at large, which might mark the enormities of vice or folly with the deep and indelible characters of reprobation. At the same period with these lived Barclay, a writer whose principal and most popular poem was a translation from the German of Sebastian Brandt, he intended it to ridicule vice and folly in whatever rank or profession it might be found; and as Chaucer had collected the characters of his story on a Pilgrimage, Barclay collected his in the allegory of a Ship freighted with fools. Like other early satirists, his work is more valuable for the explanation of obsolete man |