He acknowledges that a tendency to thefe malignant feelings and aitiul manauvres is inherent in human nature, and not to be attributed to emulation alone. But till he afferts, that emulation is the agent which, perhaps at every period of life, and undoubtedly in childhood and youth, fans them into a flame.

But muft we not then, in the process of instruction, employ the influence of comparison and example? Is it not lawful to apply to children a fimulus, which is applied with vifible advantage to kindle ardour, and to confirm good conduct, in maturer years? Mr. G. in reply to thefe queftions obferves, judiciously, that to compare our own conduct and attainments with thofe of others, that we may more clearly see our defects, and be incited to imitate a meritorious example, is a practice in many cates both juftifiable and uteful. It is therefore to be recommended on fuitable occafions, and with proper explanation, to thofe to whom we impart instruction. But to compare that we may imitate, is not the Jame thing as to compare that we may rival: and emulation includes, not in name only, but in reality, the spirit of rivalfbip.

There is, undoubtedly, much good fenfe and moral wildom in thefe remarks; yet we question whether excellence in any talent will without rivalfbip be ever acquired. How far our happiness or our utility may be increated by excellence, is an enquiry of deeper refearch; but cxcellence prefents itfelt as a glittering prize, which mortals will always pant to

chtain.

In the Chapter on Female Converfation and Epiftolary Correspondence, Mr. G. reprehends the levity of difioure in which women, even of improved under#tandings, occasionally indulge.

Take his cenfure in his own words, which feem the refult of actual and acute oblervation:

"It is not only to women of moderate capacity that hours of trifling and flippant converfation are found acceptable. To thole of fuperior talents they are not unfrequently known to give a degree of entertainment, greater than on flight confideration we might have expected. The matter, however, may easily be explained, Many women who are endowed with frong mental powers are little inclined to the trouble of exerting them. They love to indulge a fupine vacuity of thought; liften to nonfenfe without diffatisfaction, because to liften to it re

quires no effort; neither fearch nor prompt others to fearch, deeper than the furface of the palling topic of difcourfe: and were it not for an occafional remark that indicates difcernment, or a look of intelligence which gleams through the liftleliefs of floth, would icarcely be fufpected of judgment and penetration. While thefe perions rarely feem, in the common intercourte of life, to turn their abilities to the advantage either of themfelves or of their friends, others, gifted with equal talents, are tempted to mif. apply them by the conicioulness of poffelling them. Vain of their powers, and of their dexterity in the ufe of them, they cannot refift the impulfe which they feel to lead a pert and coxcomical young man, whenever he falls in their way, to expose himself. The prattle which they defpife they encourage, becaufe it amufes them by rendering the speaker ridiculous. They lead him on, unfufpicious of their defign, and fecretly pluming himself on the notice which he attracts, and on his own happy talents of rendering himself agreeabic, and delighted the most when he is molt the object of derifion, from one ftep of folly to another. By degrees they contract an habitual relifh for the ftile of converfation which enables them at once to display their own wit, and to gratify their pallion for mirth and their talte for the ludicrous. They become inwardly impatient when it flags, and more impatient when it meets with interruption. And if a man of grave afpect, and more wakeful reflection, profumes to ftep within the circle, they aflail the unwelcome intruder with a volley of brilliant raillery and sparkling repartee which bears down knowledge and learning before it, and convulie the delighted auditors with peals of laughter, while he labours in his heavy accoutrements after his light-armed antagonist, and receives at every turn a shower of arrows, which he can neither parry nor withitand."

Plaufible as this opinion may be in theory, we doubt whether the power or influence of a Court, or even the taile and learning of a Lord Chamberlain, will ever operate anyvery important improvement in the province of the Diama; and if Majesty iteit, as he withes, were to interfere, the Theatre is too flight a subject for its permanent cognizance. It must be directed in its centroul of the Stage by eyes and ears, fometimes not better informed, and feldom leis corrupt, then the writers and actors they would correct.

In Mr. G.'s reprobation of Sunday Concerts, we very heartily concur with him.

Our Auther in speaking of the em ployment of the, recommends a practice not often attended to, but not on that account leis useful and ornamental; the committing to memory fele&t and ample portions of poetic compofitions. "The mind is thus ftcred with a treasure of fentiments and ideas, combined by writers of tranfcendant genius and vigorous imagination, clothed in appropriate and glowing language, and impreffed by the powers of harmony. The poetry, how. ever, fhould be elect. It fhould be fuch as may clevate the heart with devotion; add energy and grace to precepts of morality; kindle benevolence by pathetic Tarrative; or prefent vivid pictures of the grand and beautiful in the icenciy of nature. Such," fays Mr. G. "are the works of Milten, of Thomfon, of Gray, of Mafen, and of Cowper. By thele means the fcenery of nature will be contemplated with new pleature; the tatte will be called forth, exercited, and corrected; and the judgment ftrengthened and intermed."

Were we to add any thing to this advice, it would be to add occafionally choten pallages in proje. Poetry has the advantage of a readier hold on the faculties; aid for that very reafon is not fo hrong an exercite of the mind. Befdes, the images in proje have commonly a more exact conicrmity with their archetypes, and are more generally wanted as examples to the tow writer,

M. G. at the 238th page difcuffes and cenfetes the commonly-received notion, that relanza rekes make the best Lufbands. He confiders the Drama as having laid the foundation of this opition, by carrying its hero through four entire acts, and three quarters of the fifth, with a character uniformly immoral and "urprincipled; which he lays afide, like a won cut fuit, in the catafirophe, and is ruppeled to become in a moment radi

cally virtuous. It must be acknowledged that there is fuch an improbable foily as this to be found in many novels and plays. It is alfo true, that men can only be eftimated with any degree of certainty by their habits. On the other hand, there is generally fome foundation for popalar apothegms and conclusions. Reformation does certainly fometimes take place in fome. Thele furely will be indulgent to imall tranigreflions, when they know themselves to have committed far greater; and muft receive with gratitude marks of affection, which they have felt only by their return to virtue.

It is in the application of this rule to practice, as in other cafes, that the diffculty lies. For how shall we distinguish the penitent from the bypocrite? And when is the danger past of a relapse to vice?

In the Chapter on the Duties of Ma. trimonial Life, Mr. G. centures, with be coming pilit, the artifice recommenced by fome feudo-moralifts, of concealing from the bigband a fuperiority of underftanding, left there fhould feem a dispoùtion to rivalfhip. He remarks very tru ly, that in general it is not the sense in woman that offends; it is rather fome quality or difpofition which has no natural connection with it. Either it is ar rogance, or impatience of contradiction, or reluctance to difcern and acknowledge error, which render the manners of women overbearing, their temper irritable, and their prejudices obftinate. If female talents be graced with fimplicity, ordhumour, and modely, there is fcarcely a hufband's heart which they will not warm with delight.

In a fubiequent part of the fame hend of inftruction, the circumftances are ditcuffed of female relations of the mafter or of the mistress of the bouls, ❝ who, though admitted to live in the parlour, are in truth bumble dependents, received either from motives of charity, or for the fake of being made ufetul ia the conduct of domeftic affairs, or of being companions to their protectreis when the latter is not otherwife engaged or amufed."

We have not room for the quotation at length on this topic ;—we can only infert the two concluding paflages.

66

"Is it the part of friendship, of liberal protection, to harrafs her with difficulties, to enfnare her fincerity, to ettablish her in the petty arts of cunning and adu lation? Rather difmifs her with fome fmall pittance of bounty to fearch in ob

fcurity

fcurity for an honest maintenance, than to retain her to learn hypocrify and to teach you arrogance, to be corrupted and to corrupt."

Thele fentiments are no lefs fpirited than just, and are well worthy the confideration of females in the higher claffes, who are often very capricious and tyrannical rulers of their unfortunate proegs. The laft fentence is a happy application of a strong and brilliant remark of Tacitus.

Our Author is, for the most part, grave and folemn; he relaxes, however, Tometimes into ridicule and bumour. Thus, for inftance, he describes a female fabionable morning.

"What is called the morning is fwallowed up in driving from street to ftreet, from fquare to fquare, in purfuit of perfons whom he is afraid of difcovering, in knocking at doors where the dreads being admitted. Time is frittered away in a fort of fmall intercourfe with numbers for whom the feels little regard, and whom he knows to feel as little for herself. Yet every thing breathes the fpirit of Cordiality and attachment. The pleature expreffed at meeting is fo warm, the enquiries after each other's health fo minute, the folicitude if either party has caught a cold at the laft Opera to extreme, that atranger to the ways of high life, and to the true value of words in the modern dictionaries of compliment, would be in aftonishment at fuch effufions of difinterefted benevolence. Invitation fucceeds invitation; engagement preffes on engage

ment: etiquette offers, form accepts, and indifference affumes the air of gratitude and rapture."

Mr. G. afferts in a note, what we fhould hope is not often true, that the wives of hopkeepers in London will alk more than the real price of an article from ready money customers, with the view of pocketing the excefs themfelves; and if detected in the fraud plead ignorance of the value. It is difficult to fay whether fuch conduct be more injurious to the individual or to the public.

There is a remark in the Chapter on Parental Duties, taken from Dr. Henry's Hiftory of England, which explains the attitude of Margaret Roper in the very curious ancient picture of Sir Thomas More's Family by Holbein. Daughters, though women, were not anciently per mitted to fit or repofe themselves, otherwife than by kneeling on a cushion, until their mother departed.

From the above account of Mr. G.'s book it evidently appears well worthy the attention of all, and the diligent perual of the gentler jer. As the ladies, however, ftill more perhaps than men, delight to blend amufement with their weightier concerns, we must repeat our with that the theory laid down had been more frequently enlivened by facts, and illuftrated by examples. The moralit might not, indeed, in that cafe have deferved more fuccess, but we are fure he would have obtained it.

R. R.

THE Thirteenth Chapter of the Firft Volume opens with an account of a very happy eftablishment enjoyed by our Author at a military ftation, called the Hope, where he was in the principal command, on the Cimmewine River, in Surinam. Here his felicity was confiderably augmented by a vifit from fome friends at Paramaribo, who gave him the addrefs of Meffrs. Paffalage and Son, at Amiterdam, the new proprietors of his

favourite mulatto, whom they alfo defired him to take with him to the Hope. This propofal he moft joyfully complied with, and immediately fet his flaves to work to build a houfe of Manicole trees for her reception.

In the mean time he wrote a letter to Meflrs. Paffalage and Son, to fay, that being under great obligations to one of their mulatto ilaves, nained Joanna, for having attended him during fickness, he

requated

requested that they would permit him to purchafe her liberty without delay, and he would immediately remit to them the

money.

In fix days his new dwelling was completed. It confifted of a parlour, which alfo ferved for a dining-room; a bedchamber, where alfo the baggage was ftowed; a piazza or fhed to fit under before the door; a fmall kitchen detached from the house, and a poultry-houfe; the whole fituated on a spot by itself, commanding an enchanting profpect on every fide, and furrounded with paling to keep off the cattle. The tables, ftocls, and benches, were al! compofed of Manicole boards, the doors and windows were guarded with ingenious wooden locks and keys, that were the work of a negro. His houfe being thus far finished and furnished, the next care was to lay in a tock of provifions, which confifted of a barrel of flour, another of falted mackarel, which in that country are delicious, hams, pickled fautages, Jamaica rum, tea, fugar, fpermaceti candles, two foreign fheep, and a hog, befides two dozen of fire fowls and ducks, prefented to him by Lucretia, Joanna's aunt.

The Manicole Tree, the wood of which he employed for his habitation, he thus de'cribes, with its utes in building and furniture, in another part of his work:

"The Manicole, which is of the Palm Tree fpecies, is about the thickness of a man's thigh, very ftrait, and growing to the height of forty or fifty feet from the ground: the trunk, which is jointed at the distance of two or three feet, is of a light brown colour, hard externally for the thickness of half an inch, but pithy like the English Elder. On the top the tree fpreads its beautiful green boughs, with leaves hanging trait downwards like filk ribbons, which form a kind of umbrella.

"The manner of ufing it for building huts or cottages, is by cutting the trunk in pieces of as many feet long as you with to have the partition high; which pieces are next plit into mall boards, the breadth of a man's hand, and diveted of their pithy fubitance, and then they are fit for immediate ute. Having cut and prepared as many of thefe laths as you want to furround the dwelling, you lafh them in a perpendicular polition, and

clofe to each other, to two cross bars of the fame tree fixed to the corner pofts; and the whole is cut and fhaped by the bill hook alone, and tied together by nebees. These last are a kind of ligneous ropes of

all fizes, both as to length and thickness, which grow in the woods, and climb up the trees in all directions; they are fo plentiful and wonderfully difperfed, that they make the foreft appear like a large fleet at anchor, and kill many of the trees by mere compreffion.

"With refpect to the roofing of these flender habitations, it is done by the green branches of the fame Manicole that made the walls; each branch, which can be compared to nothing fo well as to the shape of a feather, and which is as large as a man, must be split from the top to the bottom in two equal parts, as you would split a pen. When a number of thefe half boughs are tied together by their own verdure, and form a burch, you take thefe bunches, and tie them with nebees one above another, on the roof of the cottage, as thick as you please, and in fuch a manner that the verdure, which locks like the mane of a horie, hangs downwards. This covering, which at firft is green, but foon takes the colourof the English reed-thatching, is very beautiful, lafting, and clofe, and finishes the dwelling without the help of a hammer, or nails; doors, windows, tables, feats, &c. are made in the fame manner; so are the inclosures for gardens, and the places for keeping cattle."

Having completed his houfe, Captain Stedman thus defcribes his lituation in it with his beloved companion.

On the 1st of April 1774 Joanna came down the river in the Fauconberg tent-boat, rowed by eight negroes, and arrived at the Hope. I communicated to her immediately the contents of my letter to Holland, which the received with that gratitude and modelty in her looks which fpoke more forcibly than any reply. I introduced her to her new habitation, where the plantation flaves, in token of refpect, immediately brought her prefents of cafada, yams, bananas, and plantains, and never two people were more completely happy. Free like the roes in the foreft, and difencumbered of every care and ceremony, we breathed the purett æther in our walks, and refreshed our limbs in the limpid tream: health and good fpirits were now again my portion, while my partner flourished in youth and beauty, the envy and admiration of all the colony."

The happiness our author enjoyed in this Elyfian plantation was fuddenly blated by the fatal news of the death of Mr. Pallalage, at Amsterdam, the gentleman to whom he had written to obtain his

mulatto's