prove dry, he has frequently departed from the gravity with which such subjects are usually treated.' If (as he says) he is panting after fame with the ardour of a poet labouring after immortality,' we are rather apprehensive that, while he continues in the same road his panting will be in vain, whatever may be his exertions.-Several plates are added; most of which, however, have already appeared in Nichols's "History of Leicestershire."

MISCELLANEOUS.

Art. 37. Essays and Thoughts on various Subjects, and from various Authors, &c. together with Nine Papers from the Olla Podrida, and Poems; by the Right Reverend George Horne, D.D, late Lord Bishop of Norwich. Small Svo. pp. 307. 5s. Riving

tons.

Greatly are the good people of England indebted to the manufacturers and venders of books, for that supply with which they are, in these times, so copiously and assiduously furnished! Poor Dr. Johnson was divided and dealt out till not a particle of him remained undistributed; and now it seems as if Doctor Horne should participate in a similar honour. It will, however, be acknowleged that the volume before us may prove acceptable and useful. Take, gentle reader, a few specimens:

• When Dr. Andrews became Bishop of Winton, a distant relation, a blacksmith, applied to him to be made a gentleman, i. e. to be ordained, and provided with a good benefice. No, said the Bishop, you shall have the best forge in the county, but-every man in his own order and station.

Grove, a Presbyterian, published in 1728, a funeral sermon on the Fear of Death. The subject was treated in so masterly a manner, that a person of considerable rank in the learned world declared, that after reading it, he could have laid (himself) down and died, with as much readiness and satisfaction, as he had ever done any thing in his life. Biog. Dict. art. Grove.-The sermon must have been a good one to have wrought such a persuasion; but how the persuasion would have kept its ground, had the person been taken at his word, and or dered to prepare for instant death, is another question.'

Disputation makes us ready and expert in using the knowledge we have, but sufficeth not for the acquisition of more. It is excercise, but not food. It is but too much a custom to give ill names to those who differ from us in opinion. Dr. Hammond mentions, as a hus mourous instance of it, that when a Dutchman's horse does not go as he would have him, he in a great rage calls him an Arminian.'

Sir Peter Lely made it a rule, never to look at a bad picture, having found by experience, that, whenever he did so, his pencil took a tint from it. Apply this to bad books and bad company.'

Pringle, (Sir John.) He was particularly fond of Bishop Pearce's Commentary and Notes. He was brought up in principles of virtue and piety; he was seduced to deism, but brought back again, by an attentive consideration of the evidence, and settled by discovering that the doctrine of the Trinity made no part of the Scriptures; that

the

the mercy of God was not confined to a few, exclusive of others, and that future punishments were not eternal.-See Kippis's account prefixed to his Speeches. This is a way of making matters easy; a man strikes out of the gospel what he does not like, and then is graciously pleased to profess himself a believer of the rest. After this fashion, the religion certainly bids fair to become universal. "Thus, says Kippis, he added another name to the catalogue of the excellent and judicious persons who have gloried in being rational Christians !” — Whatever there may be of truth in this remark, Bishop Horne surely evinces a defect of candour, in the manner in which it is here applied.

A genius, forward, and early ripe, seldom in the end answers expectation. Virgil has observed the same thing of land, which throws forth corn, shoots, or stems as it ought to have been rather expressed, too strong at first:

"Ah nimium ne sit mihi fertilis ille,

Neu se prævalidam primis ostendat aristis." Georg. II. 252.
Let not my land so large a promise boast,

Lest the lank ears in length of stem be lost. Dryden, 341.

He who sacrifices religion to wit, like the people mentioned by Elian, worships a fly, and offers up an ox to it. Wit without wisdom is salt without meat, and that is but a comfortless dish to set a hungry man down to. Wit employed to disguise and prejudice truth is salt thrown into a man's eyes.'

Honesty, saith Dr. Rees in his Dictionary, is a plant supposed to be possessed of eminent medical virtues; but it hath not the fortune to be received into the shops. The Doctor is perfectly grave, but the words admit of a humorous sense.'

In general, these thoughts or maxims may claim the praise of utility, but some are more common, and some less important, than others; while in one or two instances they have a less liberal cast than we might reasonably have expected from Bishop Horne.

Art. 38. Select Views of London and its Environs; containing a Collection of highly-finished Engravings, from original Paintings and Drawings, accompanied by Copious letter-press Descriptions of such Objects in the Metropolis and the surrounding Country as are most remarkable for Antiquity, Architectural Grandeur, or Picturesque Beauty. 2 Vols. Medium Quarto. 51. or im perial 4to, with first Impressions, 71. 10s. Vernor and Hood, and Scott.

Publications of this class have a double attraction, eince they gratify the eye while they convey instruction to the mind: but it is a mortification to us that the nature of our work precludes the possibility of affording specimens of their chief merit, viz. the plates. In these cases we can merely excite curiosity by our praise, while the prices of the performances themselves prevent that curiosity from being generally gratified. Many of our readers, perhaps, will not have it in their power to turn over the pages of these interesting volumes:

but

but those who have this pleasure will applaud the beautiful execution. of the engravings, as well as the choice of the subjects on which the pencil of the artist has been employed.

Vol. I. presents views of St, Alban's Abbey-Church, Greenwich Hospital, Windsor, Waltham Abbey, Stepney Church, Westminster Hall, St. Paul's Cathedral, Chingford Church, Eltham Palace, London from the Thames, Crosby Hall, and Christ's Hospital. Vol. II. contains Westminster Abbey (several views), Admiralty and the Horse Guards, Bartholomew the Great, village of Bray, Chelsea College, Eton Do, Royal Exchange, Kentish town, Highgate and Hamstead, Maidenhead bridge, Great Mariow, Mark's Hall, St. Saviour's church Southwark, Sion House, Stoke Pogis church, and the remains of Winchester House, Southwark. Besides the quarto views, several vignettes are interspersed.

With regard to the letter-press, care has been taken to furnish such accounts as will be acceptable to those who wish to be acquainted with the history, antiquities, and sacred architecture of our country. The author seems to have derived his information respecting antient edifices from the best sources, and has carried down the account of them to the present day in a very pleasing manner. To the plate, for instance, representing Sion House, Middlesex, the seat of the Duke of Northumberland, are added sixteen pages of explanatory description, in which we find enumerated the most interesting particulars of the antient monastery of Sion, which stood at some distance from the present house, and an account of the edifice as it is now inhabited.

Art. 39. Chronological, Biographical, and Miscellaneous Exercises, on a New Plan: designed for the daily Use of young Ladies. By William Butler, Teacher of Writing, Accounts, and Geography in Ladies' Schools. The Third Edition, greatly enlarged. zmo. PP. 550. 7s. Boards.

Harris.

If to place a mass of valuable information within the reach of young persons, and to render it alluring by a judicious selection, by neat and concise statements, and by an attractive arrangement form claims to commendation, the little volume before us (which has reached a third edition) must be allowed to merit the encouragement which it has obtained. The plan of the work is to connect with the days of the year respectively, in their regular succession, the events and occurrences which distinguish and render them memorable: beginning with the first of January, and ending with the thirty-first of December.-We are pleased also with the attention paid by the author to those characters which are more useful than ostentatious, we mean such as illustrate and dignify the middle walks of life.

Art. 40. Crosby's Merchant's and Tradesman's Pocket Dictionary, addressed to Merchants, Manufacturers, and Traders in all the various Branches of commercial Intercourse. By a London Merchant. PP. 500. 6s. 6d. Boards. Crosby and Co. The object of this publication is to explain, in the Dictionary-form, the regulations of trade, the practice of the Customs and Excise, com

12mo.

mercial

mercial formule, laws of bankruptcy, &c. To dignify it as the work of a London merchant is, we apprehend, one of those expedients which take their origin in the belief that a book will sell better if it proceeds from a high quarter: but, come whence it may, a great portion of matter is here put into a convenient compass, and it seems to be a cheap and useful compilation.

SINGLE SERMONS, on the Jubilee.

Art. 41. A Discourse delivered in St. Philip's Church, Birmingham, before the Brethren of the United, Loyal, and Constitutional Lodges of the Ancient and Venerable Order of Druids, on October 25, 1809. By the Rev. Luke Booker, LL.D. 4to. IS. 6d. Longman and Co.

Dr. Booker has the grace to make some apology for the medley of subjects in this salmagundy sermon: but he would, in our opinion, have more consulted the dignity of the clerical character by declining the service which the Order of Druids requested him to perform. How ludicrous for a christian minister to address, in a christian church, lodges of Free Masons who call themselves the Order of Druids. To gratify the vanity of these united Lodges, Dr. B. sketches the outlines of antient Druidism, not forgetting the Misletoe; after which, Christianity comes in for a share of his attention, then the Birmingham General Hospital, and last of all our good King; of whom, says the preacher, we are not offering any adulatory incense on the shrine of falsehood, when we assert, that no Monarch ever more deserved a people's love.'

Art. 42. Righteousness the Dignity and Ornament of Old Age, preached at Pell-Street Meeting-House, Ratcliffe-Highway, October 25, 18c9. By Thomas Cloutt. 8vo. IS. Conder. As this preacher has quoted from Cicero's Cato Major, (though incorrectly,) we are surprized that he did not take the passage which echoes the sentiment of the text: "Aptissima arma senectutis sunt artes exercitationesque virtutum." Having pointedly contrasted the miseries of an impious and vicious old age, with the pleasures reserved for the hoary head that is found in the way of righteousness, Mr. Cloutt, with unaffected loyalty, delineates the personal virtues of our aged Sovereign, and subjoins an ardent prayer that his succéssors may copy his example. The general exhortations are such as naturally flow from the subject; and to illustrate the importance of the kingly example, he makes the following apposite quotation from Claudian:

"Componitur orbis

Regis ad exemplum; nec sic inflectere sensus
Humanos edicta valent, quam vita regentis."

In complimenting this Order of Druids, Dr. B. appears to forget. the fact that the decoration of our churches with evergreens at Christmas is borrowed from the Jewish feast of Tabernacles, and he declares this custom to be a relict of Druidism!

Art.

Art. 43 The Jubilee a Source of Religious Improvement, preached a Worship street, Finsbury Square. October 25, 18c9. By John' Evans, A M. &c. 8vo. 18. Sherwood and Co.

This discourse affords an instance of what may be termed ora torical flying off at a tangent. Jesus the King of Glory comes in rather irrelevantly, when the occasion and the title of the sermon lead us to suppose that George the Third would be the prominent topic. The life of the author of our religion has no point of comparison with that of any earthly Cæsar; and when he declared that bis Kingdom was not of this world, he meant to assert that the power which he exercised, and the effects which he aimed at producing, did not interfere with the authority and ends of temporal sove. reignties. Art. 44.

Preached at the Parish Church of Chard, October 25, 18c9. By the Rev. W. S. Bradley, A. M. vicar of Chard, &c. 4to. Is. 6d. Crosby and Co.

The kingly and the private virtues of the Sovereign are warmly dis played by this preacher, as a proper theme for national rejoicing and pious gratitude.

CORRESPONDENCE.

We are favoured with the obliging communication of the ci-devant Theophrasticus; but, as he is himself aware that the circumstances to which it refers have long since been withdrawn from our minds, so we are persuaded that he will not expect from us, at present, any other than this general acknowlegement of his politeness, and of our satis-" faction at his finding such particular reason to be convinced of the justice of our criticism.

We shall take notice, in our next number, of the principal work mentioned by Mr. F. of Harlow: but the other is so completely a personal affair, that we cannot feel either inclined or warranted to enter into the discussion.

Eixes is informed that we intend to take an early opportunity of reviewing the late Cambridge edition of Eschylus, as far as it has proceeded; and the new metrical arrangement of the choruses of that great Bard, which is shortly expected from the pen of the Rev. Dr. Charles Burney.

In the last Review, P. 251. 1.16. for Пnyos, read Пy. ; and line 19. for μedov, read μεσον. P. 266. the price of Article VI. should have been inserted, 7s 6d. each Fart.

The APPENDIX to this volume of the Review will be published with the Number for January on the 1st of February.