a careless obferver, can be in any fort relied upon. Mr. Young, as might have been naturally expected, enters little into this view of the matter. His obfervations on the productions of his correfpondents are few, and in thefe it feems that he would rather run before his friends than Ray to accompany them, or to moderate their ardour, if they happen to be in too much hurry: and though we believe that he has a mind far above the meannefs of knowingly becoming the panegyrift of high rank or great names, yet he has, on feveral occafions, inadvertently we prefume, fallen into a tone that an ill-natured critic might eafily conftrue to his difadvantage. The dignity of science requires that a man of character fhould be equally above offering incenfe to the great, or unjustly degrading the humble; and, if we are not mistaken, our editor will readily agree with us in this fenti

ment.

It will not be expected that all the papers in a work of this nature can be of equal merit, or that an editor can have it in his power to reject all thofe which his own judgment might difapprove, when he and the correfpondents are mutually known to each other; for politenefs, humanity, gratitude, and benevolence fometimes forbid this. A confiderate reader will therefore be difpofed to make allowances on thefe accounts, and will not harfhly refufe to forgive him for admitting a few trifling and infignificant effays, when the bulk of thofe he meets with have merit. Of this laft clafs there are not a few; but to no one perfon has this work been so much indebted for original and ufeful communications, as to John Symonds, LL. D. profeffor of modern hiftory in the University of Cambridge; who has given, in feveral long and interefting papers, a better account of the prefent ftate of agriculture in Italy, than we recollect to have ever seen of any other country on the globe: it would form a very interefting work by itself. Many other valuable communications occur; but we are not allowed room to particularize them.

The greatest defect we have remarked in the work is, that perpetual tendency which the Author fhews to run into long and intricate digreffions on political fubjects. We call them digref fions, for though the editor has endeavoured to pave the way for fuch anomalies by inferting, in the title-page, the words other useful arts, as well as agriculture, yet we prefume every reader would expect that the work fhould be almoft wholly appropriated to agriculture. For our own part, we have been difgufted by having our attention fo often diverted from the fubject we expected to find treated exclufively of all others, and called away by long digreffions on the colonies, the Weft Indies, the Irifh propofitions, and other fimilar fubjects, which are treated with all the ardour and enthusiasm of a profeffed party-writer. This difappointed ys; and we are perfuaded it must have a ftill greater

tendency

tendency to offend the fober-minded farmer, who, chiefly attentive to his own business, takes little concern in those warm contefts which fo ftrongly intereft our political partizans. This, we doubt, may have tended much to retard the fale of our Author's annals, of which he bitterly complains, among that truly valua ble class of citizens. In its prefent ftate, the work can neither be adapted to the tafte of the practical farmer, nor that of the fpeculative politician, as it contains a great mixture of extraneous matter, about which neither of them are much concerned. It would be well, therefore, if Mr. Young would lay himself under a little reftraint in this refpect, and either refolve to abftain from one of these kinds of fpeculation, or make two separate publications of it. Our defire to fee a fuccessful work on the fubject of experimental agriculture, which we think is much wanted, has produced thefe remarks. An-n

N. B. This publication hath proceeded as far as the 30th N°.

ART. IX. Two Difcourfes, delivered at the public Meetings of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Belles Lettres at Berlin, in the Years 1785 and 1786. I. On the Population of States in general, and that of the Pruffian Dominions in particular. II. On the true Riches of States and Nations, the Balance of Commerce and that of Power. By the Baron de Hertzberg, Minister of State, and Member of the Academy. Tranflated from the French. Svo. 2s. 6d. Dilly. 1786.

HESE difcourfes are two of those which the Baron an

Tnually delivers before the Royal Academy at Berlin, on the

birth-day of the Pruffian monarch.

We gave a particular account of the first of these pieces in the Appendix to the 73d volume of our Review, from the French; we fhall therefore proceed to the fecond.

The Baron begins with fhewing that the profperity, happinefs, and riches of a ftate, confift in the variety and goodness of the means by which it can procure for itself, firft, the neceffaries, and afterward, the conveniencies or elegancies of life. He proves, by many ingenious arguments and obfervations, that the firft, principal, and effential basis of the profperity of a state, confifts in good agriculture, and in the abundance of natural productions; and that the fecond bafis is national induftry, which, by giving perfection to the produce of the foil, introduces various kinds of manufactures, and thus gives value to the artificial productions of a country. He concludes that the balance of commerce will always be in favour of that nation whose commodities, whether natural or artificial, are neceffaries of life, as corn, linen, wool, timber, &c. and this balance will always be against a nation whose different kinds of merchandice confift only of articles of luxury, and confequently are not effential to life. He confiders the balance of commerce to have an effential and decifive influence

9

influence on the balance of power; and the proof of this affertion is confirmed by an hiftorical account of the exiftence of a political balance in all ages. In this part of his work he fhews himself to be a profound politician, and a well-informed hiftorian.

After mentioning the great work which the King had lately completed, of establishing the general repofe and fecurity of Germany, the Baron proceeds to enumerate the many important political occupations which engaged the attention of that great monarch. It appears that he has, at his own expence, erected a great number of public and private buildings at Berlin and Potfdam,-that he has rebuilt whole towns which have been confumed by fire,-erected new churches, and repaired old ones,that he has expended great fums in the conftruction of fortreffes and barracks, that he has established new manufactures and fupported old ones,-that he has given confiderable fums to gentlemen and other poffeffors of lands for the advancement of agriculture and the improvement of their eftates, for the clearing of lands and the draining of marshes,-and that he has made the greatest efforts for repairing the damages and misfortunes occafioned by extraordinary inundations, in caufing the banks that were broken down to be restored without lofs of time, in furnishing to the unfortunate inhabitants feed for sowing, and corn for their fuftenance, and in fupplying their various other neceffities. The whole fum which the King has expended during the courfe of the year 1785, in extraordinary benefactions and gratuities, for the benefit of his fubjects, appears to be 2,901,000

crowns.

The Baron, after this warm eulogy on his illuftrious monarch, returns to the principal fubject of his difcourfe, and fhews that Pruffia may be confidered as a powerful and rich state, because it enjoys an improved state of agriculture, great national industry, an advantageous inland and foreign commerce, and an extenfive navigation.

This great and learned politician has afforded us much pleafure, whenever we have had occafion to perufe his productions; and we think our countrymen are obliged to Dr. Towers for giving them a good tranflation of the prefent ingenious and animated difcourfes. R- m.

ART. X. An Attempt torwards an improved Verfion, a metrical Arrangement, and an Explanation of the Twelve Minor Prophets. By William Newcome, D. D. Bishop of Waterford. 4to. 10s. 6d. Boards. Johnfon, &c. 1785.

F the diffufion of learning, in general, affords matter of de

liberal philofophic minds, progrefs which has been made in biblical criticifm, in particular, under the aufpices of civil and religious liberty, in our own

country,

country, must be contemplated by every friend to truth, and Christianity, with a pleasure still more interefting and exalted.

The Hebrew and other Oriental languages have lately been cultivated by fcholars, whofe taste is equal to their erudition, and who, to the labour of patient and minute inveftigation, have joined that accuracy of judgment, and chastity of ornament, without which, diligence is often mifapplied, and learning itself difgufting. Should the example of fuch critics excite the emulation of others, equally qualified to engage in fimilar pursuits, theology would no longer open to the fteps of the young ftudent those intricate and thorny paths, which few have courage to tread, and in which even those who have explored them, have rarely gathered a fingle flower, to cheer them on their way.

But while we are thus taught how the brow of criticism may be fmoothed, while the facred pages are gradually exhibited to us in a form which attracts our curiofity by its novelty, and challenges our admiration by its elegance, there is reason to apprehend that thefe advantages, however fubftantial they may be to the learned reader, and however plaufible fome perfons may deem them in every inftance, will, if caution be not used, produce effects the most injurious to religion. There would be no caufe, indeed, to dread thefe effects, if the writers here alluded to, addreffed their criticisms only to fpeculative men; if they were content to hold up that light to scholars only, the blaze of which, inftead of directing the illiterate, will but dazzle and miflead them. The contrary, however, and we fay it with the most serious concern, is unhappily the cafe. To fpeak plainly, we think the frequent recommendations of a new tranflation of the Scriptures the more alarming, as they come from perfons whofe talents derive additional refpectability from the purity of their intentions, and whofe reputation confers authority, as well as fplendour, on the higheft ftations in the church,

The probable, not to say the neceffary confequences, of this meafure, are dangerous in the extreme. It would tend to fhake the faith of thoufands, to whom it were impoffible to demonftrate the neceffity of a change, or the principles on which it was conducted. Thefe would lofe their veneration for the old verfion, without acquiring fufficient confidence in the new. They would even expect ftill farther alterations, in what they have hitherto received as the infallible oracles of heaven; and thus, being incapable of inquiry themselves, and fufpicious of their inftructors, might they be abandoned at length, either to doubts that admit of no folution, or to Atheism, which mocks conviction. Great indeed muft be the benefits, that can compenfate even for the remoteft probability of fuch an evil. Yet we might afk the most zealous advocate for a new verfion, whether the prefent does not convey every inftruction to Christians of the lower ranks which they are capable of receiving? Is their view

of

of the great outlines of religion intercepted, or obfcured, because fome of the minuter touches, which their fituation could never have enabled them to perceive, are copied with a lefs faithful pencil? Will the peafant, who has already learnt from his Bible, that there is one God, the punisher of the wicked, and the rewarder of the righteous, reap any neceffary, or useful inftruction, from being told, that the words which originally recorded thefe awful principles of religion were arranged in metrical order? In paflages relating to ancient customs, of which he is neceffarily ignorant, will he feel the fuperior force of a tranflation, that marks fuch allufions with greater exactness and propriety? In the felection of correfponding idioms, by means of which a good verfion reflects the beauties of the original language, what charms fhall he be able to difcover, who, inheriting only a mechanical ufe of his own tongue, is equally ignorant of univerfal grammar, and of the peculiar force of idiomatical expreffions?

It were easy to multiply arguments to the fame purpose; nor would thefe obvious remarks have found a place in our Review, had it not been the professed design of the work before us to recommend and facilitate an improved English version of the Scriptures. In the opinion of the learned Prelate, nothing could be more beneficial to the cause of religion, or more honourable to the reign and • The reafons for its age, in which it was patronized and executed.' expediency, fays he, are the mistakes, imperfections, and invincible obfcurities, of our prefent verfion, the acceffion of various helps, fince the execution of that work, the advanced state of learning, and our emancipation from flavery to the Maforetic points, and to the Hebrew text, as abfolutely uncorrupt *?

Without pursuing a fubject which would lead us beyond the limits prescribed to this article, it may be fufficient to remark, in general, that thefe reafons do not feem to us fufficiently cogent. We have already obferved that the imperfections complained of, feldom affect either the faith or practice of illiterate perfons; and that, in many inftances, even a more accurate verfion would to them be attended with equal obscurity. At the fame time, every pious and inquifitive scholar is under the higheft obligations to fuch critics as Bifhop Newcome. To men of this defcription, therefore, let him prefent the fruits of his theological fpeculations, fince they only can derive thofe advantages from his labours, which his mistaken zeal would extend to all. In them he will find no innocent prejudices, which it may be dangerous to remove, and from them he will certainly receive that meed of honeft and well-earned fame, which in every good man's eftimation is inferior only to the filent praise of his own

heart.

Preface, p. xvi. xvii.

The