IV. Preached before an Affembly of Proteftant Diffenting Minifters 8vo. IS. in Exeter, May 10, 1786. By Jofeph Bretland. Printed for the Author, in Exeter. The point laboured through this difcourfe is fimply the following, as ftated by the preacher himself, viz. That it is the indifpenfable duty of Chriftian minifters, after the example of the apoftle, to declare to their people, according to the beft of their judgment and abilities. the whole counfel of God.' As a general pofition, no one will difpute it: all the difficulty lies in its application; and, for aught we fee to the contrary, there is ftill as much room for cavil and debate, as there was before Mr. Bretland published his fermon. Di V. Before the Houfe of Lords, Weftminster, Jan. 30, 1787, being the Anniversary of the Martyrdom of King Charles I. By John Lord Bishop of Oxford. Evo. 1s. Cadell. When Bishops preach on the anniversary of the death of Charles the First, we muft, generally, expect to fee the Royal Martyr dreffed in the immaculate robes of INNOCENCE; and to hear the whole blame of thofe civil commotions, which brought that unhappy prince to the fcaffold, caft on the people. Thus, on the prefent occafion, it is afferted, that the character of Charles was excellent ;' and that we have no legal evidence of his having ANY guilt.' If this be a true reprefentation of the cafe, what monfters of iniquity were thofe forefathers of ours, to whom fome of our beft writers have taught us to look up, as having been, under God, the authors of all the political bleffings which their thankless pofterity now enjoy? VI. The Piety, Wisdom, and Policy of promoting Sunday Schools. Preached in the Parish Church of Painfwick, in the County of Glocefter, on Sunday the 24th of September 1786; by Samuel Glaffe, D.D. F. R. S. Rector of Wanftead in Effex, and Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majefty. Publifhed by the Defire of the Minifter and Parishioners. 4to. Is. Rivington. 1786. This difcourfe recommends, by folid arguments, and in animated language, an establishment, which promifes to contribute very effentially toward reforming the lower claffes of people, by early inftilling into their minds that best guard of virtue, RELIGIOUS PRIN CIPLE. CORRESPONDENCE. To the AUTHORS of the MONTHLY REVIEW. GENTLEMEN, ASI delivered to Dr. Lettfom the account of the diffection of the Introfufceptio, inferted in the laft volume of the Philofophical Tranfactions, and had the correction of the plates, I think it incumbent upon me to clear up the difficulties which occurred to you in the review of that article in your laft Number. I muft candidly acknowledge that had I not actually feen the cafe, I might with others have been led to doubt the poffibility of its taking place; but, fetting afide my own authority, I have the pleafure to inform you, that Mr. Chriftopher Pegge of Chrift's Church, Oxon, and Mr. Steel of Tower-freet, were with me when I opened the body, and faw the disease disease exactly as reprefented in Fig. 1. And Dr. John Sims, Dr. Dennifon, and Mr. Robinson, Surgeon, of Earl-ftreet, were alfo prefent when I diffected the parts, leifurely, that Mr. Pole might take the drawings. On diffecting children, I have more than once feen the caput coli fo loosely connected by its peritoneal ligaments, that it might be removed with ease almost to the oppofite fide of the abdomen; and this obfervation I mentioned in a note, for the fole purpose of conveying an idea of the poffibility of fuch an inverfion. The figures are undoubtedly faithful copies of nature; but the mefocolon and mefentery were fo collapfed and hid, by the pofition and increased fize of the inteftines, as to prevent their being reprefented; yet they are certainly in the fubject, as may be proved by the preparation now in my poffeffion; and a bundle of enlarged mefenteric glands are defcribed in both the account and drawings, which of courfe must belong to that part of the mefentery connected to the ilion in the inverted colon. OLD JEWRY, 16th March 1787. GENTLEMEN, I am, Gentlemen, with much respect, To the REVIEWERS. IN your Review of the American Philofophical Tranfactions, laft month*, the word Frefhets occurs, as not within your knowledge. It is a typographical error in the American book, and fhould be Freshes, i. e. annual inundations, from the rivers being fwollen by the melted fnows, and other fresh waters from the uplands; as is the Nile, &c. from periodical or tropical rains. As a failor's term, it is opposed to marine or falt-water floodings, tides, &c. Thefe freshes afford another benefit, in regard to many rivers in America, viz. in equalizing the furface of the ftream (where Rapids, and falls, or cafcades obftruct the navigation), fo that rafts of timber, and other grofs produce, are then floated down to the fea-ports, in great quantities. Your most humble Servant, ACADEMICUS. N. B. We fu'pected that Freshes was the word meant in the book; but it did not occur to us, that Frefhets must certainly have been an' error of the prefs. We are obliged to ACADEMICUS; who, we hope, will excufe the liberty we have taken, in leaving out a very few words in his friendly letter. Feb. p. 139. AMERICANUS is entitled to our thanks, and is defired to ac cept them. Itt William Matthews, in anfwer to G. B. came too late for this month; but fhall appear in our next. ERRATA in Review for laft Month. P. 111, 1. 7 from bottom, for capable,' r. able. THE MONTHLY REVIEW, For APRIL, 1787. ART. I. The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D. with his Life, and Notes on his Lives of the Poets, by Sir John Hawkins, Knt. 8vo. 11 Vols. 31. 6s. Boards. Buckland, Rivington, Payne, Cadell, &c. &c. 1787. IR John Hawkins informs us, that, at the request of fome of Dr. Johnfon's friends, he has taken upon himself the office of his Editor; and, accordingly, he prefents to the Public 29 complete a collection as he was able to form, with the affistance of directions left, for that purpofe, by the Author. The work is dedicated to his Majefty, but, we think, without feeling or fentiment. Left any one fhould imagine that either of the two former Princes of his Majefty's illuftrious name is here intended, we are told, that it is George the Third, and for our further information, it is added, that he is king of Great Britain. Of this king it is faid, that his royal bounty raised the Author from a State of indigence to the enjoyment of learned leifure, and an exemption from worldly folicitude. Johnlon was one of the highest literary ornaments of his Majefty's reign in the year 1762, when the penfion was granted, he had finished his Dictionary, the Rambler, the Idler, Raffelas, and the best of his works: he had enriched the world with his labours, but had made no provifion for himself. If at that period, when he was advanced in years, with a mind fatigued, and a conftitution vifibly declining, the royal munificence fought fo valuable an author in his obfcure retreat in the Inner Temple Lane, the bounty, fo conferred, is at once an honour to the King that granted, and to the Man that deferved it. Ideas of this kind might have kindled in the Dedication a fpark of fire; account, but at present we must remain content with a meagre implying no more than that his Majefty relieved diftrefs, and maintained a beggar. Through every period, in which letters flourished, it is the glory of the reigning prince, that he was the friend and protector of men of genius: Auguftus Cæfar, and Louis XIV. are, for their attention to the arts, refpected at this day Virgil and Horace reflect a luftre on the former; Racine and Boileau do honour to the laft; and Johnson will VOL. LXXVI. U repay repay George the Third with the praise of future times, for the ftipend he received. The Dedication is followed by The Life of Johnson, amounting to one entire volume of fix hundred and two pages. In the progrefs of this work, Sir John Hawkins throws out, in great abundance, his opinions upon various fubjects, with the lives of other men, fome well known, and others of inferior fame. He favours us with a lift of Authors by profeffion, and of phyficians, who have failed, or fucceeded. He talks at large of Mr. Cave (the founder of the Gentleman's Magazine), of lord Chesterfield, Fielding, Richardfon, Paul Whitehead, the members of doctor Johnson's club at the Chop-house in Ivy Lane; of mufic, politics, legal decifions, and the arches of Blackfriars bridge. He remembered, perhaps, that Warburton promised to the memory of Pope a JUST VOLUME: a fimilar tafk (though Warburton broke his word) he feems determined to perform for Dr. Johnfon: but whether fo much mifcellaneous and foreign matter can be deemed JUST to the perfon whom he commemorates, may well be made a queftion. When a favourite topic, or a name ftmiliar to him, comes in his way, he flies off, for five or ten pages, fometimes more; and, during this excurfion of thought, we lofe fight of the proper object. In the dawn of tragedy, the Greeks faid, "What is all this to Bacchus ?" and we, in the midft of Sir John's wanderings, are inclined to fay, "What is all this to Johnson?" In the perufal of this work, we confess, that we found ourfelves often under the painful neceffity of read-. ing what did not intereft, because it is mifplaced. Nunc non erat his locus. We thought of the ftory-teller in Foote's farce, who begins with one fubject, and as new ideas ftart up in his mind, diftracts you with wild variety, and indeed every thing but that which he profeffed to tell in the outfet. Unity of de-. fign is the first beauty in every fpecies of compofition, and from the Biographer, who undertakes to give an interefting life, the Reader expects it. If the mind of the Writer, or his common. place book, be full of fragments, let him, like Bayle, discharge himself in notes, which may be perufed at leifure, without breaking the thread of the narration. In order to guide the Reader through the maze, which Sir John Hawkins has fo elaboracely formed, we fhall endeavour to find a proper clue. The course we fhall take is this: we fhall first give the life, prefenting doctor Johnfon in one continued and uninterrupted tenor: we shall afterward, in another article*, prefent the opinions, maxims, and reflections of Sir John Hawkins, together with his lives and anecdotes of other men, and all his mifcellaneous matter, under the title of an Appendix to Some obfervations on Johnfon's Works, will be the fubject of a third Article. THE LIFE OF DOCTOR SAMUEL JOHNSON. This extraordinary man was born at Lichfield, on the 7th of September 1709. His father, Michael Johnson, was a book feller in that city. His mother was the fifter of doctor Ford, a phyfician of eminence, and of Cornelius Ford, otherwife parfon Ford, the fame who, being chaplain to the earl of Chefterfield, wifhed to attend that nobleman in the fame capacity on his embaffy to the Hague. Colley Cibber relates the anecdote: You fhould go, faid the witty peer, if to your many vices you could add one more:-Pray, my lord,-what is that?-Hypocrify, my dear doctor. Johnfon had a younger brother, Nathaniel, who died at the age of 27, or 28. Michael Johnfon, the father, had a brother of the name of Andrew, who kept the Ring in Smithfield, appropriated to wreftlers and boxers, for a whole year, and as Johnfon ufed to fay, was never thrown or conquered. Johnfon's father was, more than once, bailiff, or chief magiftrate of Lichfield, and, as Sir John Hawkins expreffes it, difcharged the duties of that EXALTED station with honour and applaufe. He was, like a number of others in that part of the world, a Jacobite, and, no doubt, gave an early tincture of the fame principles to the mind of his fon. Michael, the father, died, at the age of 76, of an inflammatory fever; and the mother at eighty-nine, of a gradual decay, in the year 1759. Samuel Johnfon derived from his parents, or from an upwholesome nurfe, the diftemper called the king's evil. Jacobites at that time believed in the efficacy of the royal touch: accordingly Mrs. Johnfon prefented her fon before queen Anne, who, for the first time, performed that office, and gave her young patient as much of her healing quality as fhe could difpenfe. Johnfon remembered fomething of this; he had a confufed idea of a lady in diamonds and a black hood. The feeds of Jacobitifm were thus early fown, and in a mind like his, it is not to be wondered if they ftruck their roots deeply, and grew with his growth. It is probable that he continued in those principles till he defpaired of the caufe. He was cut for the evil, and his face, naturally rugged, was feamed and disfigured. It is fuppofed that this diforder deprived him of the fight of his left eye, and also impaired his hearing. He never remembered to have enjoyed the ufe of the left eye. At the age of three years, he trod, by accident (as we are told), upon one of a brood of eleven ducks, and killed it: he is faid, upon that occafion, to have made the following verfes: Here lies good mafter duck, That Samuel Johnfon trod on, If it had liv'd 't would have been good luck, There then had been an odd one. Every great genius muft begin with a prodigy, and this is fcarcely exceeded by the bees on Plato's lip, or the doves that co U 2 vered |