Montalde lofes this place alfo; but at laft is happy with the Honeft Breton, M. Plemer, a merchant of Nantes.

In the title of the fecond volume the arrangement is wrong, for the Leffon of Misfortune fhould follow Palemon, as in the book; instead of being placed before the Error of a Good Fa

ther.

The Village Breakfafts prefent only one tale, little correfponding to the title. It is a pretty story, but the only moral is that love which comes in by the door, is much lefs dangerous than that which finds its way through the window.' The tedious prolixity of the Tales becomes more apparent in this volume. An English reader, in particular, will wifh for fhorter tales, more incidents, and fewer fermons.

In the Error of a Good Father Voltaire is introduced, and his character is well preferved.

Palemon, a Paftoral Tale, is founded on the celebrated, picture of Pouffin, Et in Arcadia ego. It is full of melancholy elegance, and the coffume are well maintained. The tomb is fuppofed to have been erected for Myrtis, who was about to be married to Lycoris, but on his wedding-day was killed by a ferpent.

A dreadful cry fuddenly arofe. My company and myfelf heard it from afar; and, feized with terror, we began to liften. The cries redoubled, and we perceived a crowd of thepherds nearer the borders of the lakes, lifting up their hands to Heaven, and by their geftures expreffing horror and affright. It was Myrtis, whom they beheld encircled in the long folds of the ferpent that was ftrangling him. Alas! my daughter and her companions had not yet heard the cries; and while the wretched fhepherd was spending his ftrength in vain efforts to extricate himfelf from the windings in which he was involved, my daughter gave a loose to happiness and joy, and with her brows bound with flowers, was dancing at the bottom of the meadow, and animat. ing by her example a circle of youthful lovers. O, treacherous. profperity, who can rely on thy careffes? who can lull himself to repofe upon thy faithlefs lap?

I flew to the fpot, and with the iron of my crook foon crush-. ed the head of the fake, as he ftretched himself out to make his efcape. Tardy and fuperfluous aid! The unfortunate youth was breathing his laft; he recognifed my voice, and lifting up his dy.. ing eyes, he gave me his hand. He endeavoured to speak, but the name of Lycoris died away upon his lips. I took him to my arms. Alas! he expired.

The deepest affliction fucceeded to the most unbounded joy,, Nelé forrowfully advanced towards the dance, "Shepherds," faid fhe," and you, my daughter, give over your fports, it is

now

now no longer time to rejoice. The gods would not permit our happiness to be of long duration. No, Lycoris, it is no longer your nuptials, nor the marriage of Myrtis; it is upon his obfequies that this inaufpicious day muft fhine. Myrtis is no more." "Myrtis is no more!" This cry of aftonishment refounded through the valley. On hearing the fatal story, my daughter fell, as if truck with the ftroke of death, and remained pale and fpeechlefs in her mother's arms. We bore her in a state of infenfibility to my cottage. "Is it true," faid fhe, in a faultering and heartrending voice," is it true, father, that he is no more ?” « Alas, my child, it is!" She then de fired us to relate the particular cir cumftance: fhe determined to attend her lover's funeral; and far from concealing her tears, the gloried in fhedding them. "I am weeping," faid fhe, "for the husband my father had allotted me. I was his, I am fo ft ll, nor will I ever be otherwise; and 'till the grave shall reunite us, all I wish is to weep.

"Alas! both young and old, we all wept with my daughter for the lofs of Myrtis. His death was a general calamity throughout all Arcadia. Your fathers may have told it to you. The nymphs of the groves where Myrtis was born; the nymphs of the borders of Ladon, exclaimed the live-long night, "Myrtis is dead!" and from the caves of Pholae to the fummits of Alefus, the echo of the mountains long repeated the words, "Myrtis is dead!" and nothing could be more juft than his country's regret. He was a pattern of excellence; he was the glory of the Arcadi ans, and well deferved their love.

But I, wretched father! what was the anguish of my heart, when I perceived my drooping child, faded like a flower, that the wind or fy the had feparated from its ftalk, rapidly decaying in our arms! She tenderly loved her mother and myself. She was defirous of living for our fakes. "Ah," he would say, as she gave herself up to our careffes," administer confolation to me, and if it be poffible, on your account, prolong my days. It is a debt I owe you. I would wish to fupport and comfort your declining years, nor would I go and rejoin my Myrtis until you fhall be no more." But the bitterness of her affliction mingled itself upon her lips with the sweetnefs of thefe words, and her youth and beauty melted away like wax drawn from the sweets of flowers before the flame it feeds.

"Her mother fell a victim to her forrow at seeing her decay, and her death hastened that of Lycoris.”

Watelet makes his apppearance as the narrator of the next tale, 'The Leffon of Misfortune,' which is fraught with that morality which is ufeful in common life.

In the Solitary Fugitives of Murcia, the tedious elongation

is

is particularly difpleafing, and this fault may be supposed to increafe with the age of the celebrated author.

The tranflation is tolerable, though fometimes quaint, and fometimes mistaken,

Sermons; now first Printed from the Original Manufcripts of John Wallis, D. D. to which are prefixed Memoirs of the Auther, with fome Original Anecdotes; and a recommendury Introduction. By the Rev. C. E. De Coetlogon, M. A. 89. 6s. boards. Robinfons. 1791.

DR. R. Wallis was one of the most eminent mathematicians of the last century, and is justly entitled to the moft honourable mention in our fyftems of biography. As a divine he no doubt fuited the tafte of his age, but his merits will be fo differently rated by the prefent generation, that the apology of his editor for the publication of thefe Sermons becomes in fome degree neceflary. It may be true, as Mr. de Coetlogon hints, that they will be approved by all who prefer the weakeft glimmerings of divine truth, though unimbellished with the charms of elegance, to the moft brilliant polifhing of ftyle, and harmony of period, disfigured by error, and deformed by faltehood.' They are, indeed, written on the genuine plan of the old Puritans. They have remained unpublifhed for upwards of a century, and, though we have not an opportunity of comparing them with the fermons publifhed by the Dr. in his life-time, yet we are ftrongly tempted to believe that if he had prepared them for the prefs they would, both as to matter and manner, have bore a nearer affinity to those talents which he evinced in all his other works, and which rendered his name refpectable both at home and abroad. We agree, however, with the editor, that although they may be thought too puritanica! by fome, they will not be on that account the lefs acceptable to a very numerous clafs who enjoy that stile of writ ing even now with as high a relish as diftinguifhed the middle of the last century. To fuch as wish to have a fpecimen of the ftyle we allude to, the following will be fatisfactory. It is taken from Sermon III. on Canticles, chap. i. v. 4. • Draw me, and we will run after thee.

Now this pursuit of Chrift, this running after him, being a practical fubject, it would not be any breach to the rules of art, if I fhould handle it in an analytical method: obferving first, the end and the medium, run efter; and principium actionis, dravj me. The end propofed is the enjoyment of him,' of her wellbeloved; this is the (finis ultimus) ultimate end, at which the aims. The means of obtaining it, of coming unto him, ave running

running after him. And the principle, from whence this motion proceeds, is, God's drawing," draw me, and we will run after thee."

In a fynthetical way I might commend to you in order fubjeum, principia, et affectus. But (to avoid the confufion of too many fubdivifions), you may briefly obferve these particulars in their order; Motor, Motio, Mobile, Motus, Via, et Terminus; which agree exactly both with the order of nature and the conftruction of words in the text. And they are all precifely couched in it; to which in profecution I fhall annex fome other appendants, which, though not exprefsly contained, yet are neceffarily implied in the words of my text, without tranfgreffing my prefcribed limits, or going farther than my text leads me; ift, there is the Mover, God, or Chrift, the spouse's beloved. Draw me, draw me thou, or, do thou draw. Thou, my beloved; it is to him the speaks, zdly, and then the motion, as it is Actio Mioven tis, the action of the agent. It is drawing, draw me. To which must be annexed the vis motiva, or principia motiva; the cords whereby we are drawn ; and they are exprefly faid elsewhere to be the cords of a man; the bands of love; " I drew them with the cords of a man, with loving-kindness have I drawn them.” 3dly, the mobile, or the thing drawn; the church or spouse of Chrift, expreffed in these words me and we. Draw me, we will

run after thee. Where the variation of the number will raife no great difficulty. For the church of God reprefented to us as the fpoufe of Chrift being nomen multitudinis; it is no wonder if it be fometimes spoken of in the fingular number, fometimes in the plural. As the chorus ufually in veteri comedia is fpoken to in the plural number, and anfwers in the fingular; though I confefs that may be perhaps from another reafon; because, when they are fpoken to, one fpeaks to all; but when they answer, each fpeaks for himself. But it might be thought perhaps odd that the church, though a multitude, yet prefented as a spouse should be spoken of as many. Whereas a spouse is fingular, and can be but one; and therefore, my dove, my undefiled, is but one of her mother; fhe is the choice one of her that bare her." We may therefore take this plural expreffion to fignify her spouse with all her attendants, the queen and the virgins that are her followers, those mentioned immediately before my text. Thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore the virgins love thee. And if you ask, who then are reprefented by the virgins which accompany the fpoufe of Chrift; we shall fee that thefe alfo are fuch as run after him; that have their longing defire; and constant endeavours of attaining to him. And therefore neither can these be any other than the fouls of true believers.

You will fay, but then the fpoule and virgins will be all one;

7

which

which are yet here contradiftingushed: and if we take each believ er to be one of these virgins, who will be left for the fpoufe of Christ? But, for this, it would not be amifs to confider another form of speech not much different, and yet in frequent ufe. Each believer is accounted a fon or daughter of the church of Chrift and the church is accounted our common mother (" Jerufalem which is above, is the mother of us all ;)" and yet if we fubtract the particular believers-thefe fons and daughters; we shall have none left to conftitute the mother-the mystical church confifting only of these.

The whole mu'titude therefore of believers (in a collective fenfe) confifting of the myftical body of Chrift, is this mother, the church; and each feveral believer, as in one fense they are called members, fo in another relation they are fons and daughters. So I conceive this catus credentium, the body of the church, Christ's mystical body, may be fo fet forth unto us, as the spouse of Chrift and yet the feveral believers, diftribute loquendo, may be thefe virgins, the queen's attendants, But to proceed.

Here is, 4thly, The motus, as it is an affection of the mobile : and that is a running, we will run after thee. And to this muft be adjoined the facultas motiva,when by this mobile it is enabled to perform its emotions, to run after him. 5thly, and then the via, the way, or medium in which this motion is performed; the path in which they run, in the words after thee: we will run after thee: in thofe paths wherein Chrift went before us, or, (as David fpeaks) "I will run in the way of thy commandments, when thou hast enlarged my heart."

6thly, And lastly, here is the end, or terminus, to which this motion tends,' in the word thee: we will run after thee. A running after Chrift, is a running towards him. Having difcuffed thefe particulars, I fhall now fhew you the fubject, the spouse following her well-beloved, with its principia both internal and external (via motiva in movente, and the facultas motiva in mobili) together with its affection. It is a running; and therefore a free motion, a/peedy motion, a conftant and diligent motion; not a remifs and negligent motion: but I fear I have been fo long in laying the platform, that I shall have little time (without trefpaffing upon your patience) for erecting the fabrick."

The memoirs of Dr. Wallis, prefixed to thefe Sermons, contain much original and interesting matter, extracted prin cipally from his own manufcripts. It is not our purpose here, to give a detail of his various progrefs through a long and eminent life. The reader may find that in the General Dictionary, in Collier's fecond Supplement, and a tolerable abridgement of both in the Biographical Dictionary. We

'fhall