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in Two Acts. By John Murdoch, 2 vols. 12mo. 6s. Bew.

THOU HOUGH there is much fingu larity in the ftyle of thefe productions, they are by no means deftitute of merit.

For the hints which gave birth to the Danger of the Paffions, as well as to the Adventures of a Friend of Truth, Mr. Murdoch confeffes himself indebted to two fugitive French morceaux; the Embarraffments of Love, and the little drama of the Double Difguife, (the latter of which was merely written for the purpose of a domeftic exhibition) are to be confidered as in every refpect our author's own.

As we have mentioned what may be fuppofed to amount to an objection to this gentleman's ftyle; it will be proper to obferve, that though we notice a peculiarity in his language, we fhall not charge him with want of fenfe: he has, to be fare, in some places made what we think very violent tranfpofitions; but perhaps this

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joyed, for above twenty years, all the bleffings which could flow from an almost-uninterrupted peace. Beloved by his fubjects, dreaded by his foes, refpected by his neighbours beyond all the other princes of Afia, did Nourgehan enjoy the god-like praife of being at once a great and an upright monarch.

His favourite diverfion was the chace, particularly that of the beafts of prey; and in this he indulged, not merely because it afforded a fcope to his courage, but because it tended alfo to destroy the most dạngerous enemies to the flocks of his fubjects.

Often would he quit the palace ‹ of Mouab, and climb the moun'tains of Masfa, in dauntless defiance of the fierce tyger, and of the mighty lion.-Thofe mountains I then inhabited, in the humble, though happy, condition of a hepherd. I had numbered my fiveand-twentieth year; had received an education fuperior to what ge

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flyle, if not carried quite fo high,nerally falls to the lot of my ftation;

would be lefs improper for most of his prefent fabjects, than at firft fight may appear; and, as it evidently par takes of the genius of the French language, it may on that account have it's admirers. For our own parts, we are willing to acknowledge, that many of this gentleman's periods are to us not unpleafing.

The following extracts from the Adventures of a Friend of Truth, will furnish fpecimens of our author's manner, and probably afford enter

tainment to most readers.

By leaving out fome of the lefs important parts of the narrative, but without altering a fingle fyllable of the language, we fhall endeavour to comprize in thefe extracts, a connected account of The History of a Courtier, virtuous though disgraced, and though disgraced, yet happy;' as related to Candidus, the Friend ofTruth.

and was, at all the feats of heroic * exertion, accounted the most expert youth in the whole country.

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One day, the king having out. ftripped his attendants in the purfuit of a furious wolf, arrived at the very place where I was employed in watching my flock. With wonder I beheld him affail the beaft alone; and as I had never feen Nourgehan-in whofe garb there was nothing now by which he might be diftinguished from one of the emirs in his retinue-I flew to his affiftance, unconfcious that he was my fovereign.

Armed both for annoyance and defence, with my trusty javelin I happily flew the wolf; at the very moment too, in which the prince, unequal to the conteft, becaufe already overcome with fatigue, must otherwife have fallen a victim to the rage of his merciless antagonist. -Nourgehan expreffed to me all

Under the scepter'-refumed Alfaleh after a fhort paufe- under the fcepter of the magnanimous Nour-the gratitude of a generous, an exalted foul; and at length-pleafed

gehan, the kingdom of Yemen en

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evening of life, a helpless Father. "All these bleffings here do I pof"fefs on my native mountains; and

were I not fatisfied with them, in "vain fhould I fearch for happiness "elsewhere."

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"But," refumed Nourgehan, "if you were to go to Mouab, the king, perhaps, whofe benevolence "is not unknown, might" "Unknown!" eagerly, but rudely interrupted - No: even in thefe defarts the benevolence of "Nourgehan is our conftant theme. "Are we to be told, that it is to "him that it is to the love he bears "to his people-we are indebted, "under Heaven, for all the comforts σε we enjoy!Is not Nourgehan the "friend, the benefactor, the father, "of his people!-As fuch, at every "fetting fun, do we not, with one "accord, fervently offer up prayers, " that the days of our fovereign may "be long!-that ftill his reign may "be profperous!--that he may leave "behind him, to rule over our most remote pofterity, children who shall perpetuate his virtues!"

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I fpoke with all the ardour of a * loyal enthufiafm; nor could the prince fupprefs the transports with which through that enthusiasm he was agitated.-Never, it is evident, could he have received a stronger affurance of the fincerity with which he was praifed; and with tears, VOL. III.

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Having thought nothing farther of what had paffed at this interview-for, ignorant as I was of Courts, I knew too much of them, however, to pay a moment's attention to what a Courtier might tell me-I was not a little aftonished, the next morning, to receive a meffage from the king, commanding my immediate attendance at the foot of the throne.

On being ushered into the royal prefence, I threw myfelf proftrate before my fovereign; and thus I remained, till, with his own hands, heraifed me from the ground.

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Shepherd," faid he, with an air of gracious affability, which never forfook Nourgehan, and which feemed to diffufe around his throne an additional luftre Shepherd, "I am he, of whofe life, at the peril "of thy own, thou waft yesterday

the preferver. Wert thou a man "of vulgar mould, with riches, and "with empty titles, would I acquit "my obligations to thee; but from. "the dignity of thy mind, from the

contempt with which thou lookest "down on opulence and grandeur, "I pronounce thee worthy-more "than worthy-to be my chief coun"fellour.-In the character of Vizir, "then, henceforth fhalt thou co

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operate with me in the prosecution of fuch measures as may yet more "promote the happiness of my people, yet more conciliate to me their "" love."

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In a country like Yemen-where one glance of royalty is fufficient to elevate a fubject to the fummit of honour, or to plunge him into an abyfs of infamy-a choice fo precipitate, and, apparently, fo prepofte. rous alfo, is hardly productive of wonder.

Raifed as I now was to a fitua⚫tion

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tion in which fo much good, and fo much evil, might be done, never did I court the favour of my royal mafter, but by endeavours to merit, at the fame time, the affections of his people.-Between their interests. and his conceiving them to be effentially the fame-I ftrove not to make the smallest distinction; nor • did I ever dare to fubftitute my caprice, or my will, in the place of the established laws of the realmlaws, however, of which I fcrupled not, on all occafions, to moderate the severity, when it might be done • without an abfolute perverfion of the ends of justice.

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For a long series of years, fuch were my principles, fuch was my conduct; and for both I received an adequate reward-the only one, indeed, worthy of an exalted mind -the fmiles of my king, and the bleffings of my fellow-fubjects.

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Boftam, who enjoyed the chief ⚫ command of the troops, had loft an important battle; and loud was the clamour excited against him for an event, of which, as having been fatally unfortunate, it was bafely < endeavoured to ftamp him the guilty authour.

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Could I witnefs fuch proceedings, and not fpurn at them?No. In the midft, therefore, of a perfecution unmerited as it was unprecedented, I ftood forth the advocate of the gallant, though difcomfited chief; and this I did, not be◄ cause I knew him to be my friend, but because I knew him to be him⚫ felf, on the prefent occafion, friend• lefs-because I knew, alas! that it was determined to render him the victim of a difafter, which it had been impoffible for him to foresee, and which, at any rate, he had been denied the means to prevent.

In vain was it to tell me, that Nourgehan had already doomed him, unheard, to a perpetual banishment. This circumftance ferved but to animate me the more in his defence; and with fuch zeal did I • affert his fill-unfhaken loyalty,

patriotifm, and courage, that I ⚫ found myself subjected to the heavy charge of having fet at defiance the royal authority.

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Difpleafed at my firmness-or rather, as he had been taught to believe it, my contumary-the king too readily liftened to this foul afperfion; and many days had not elapfed when I received orders to accom'pany Boftam in his exile.

Of the fpet to which we fhould retire, happily, the choice was left to ourselves; and here I accordingly fixed my refidence with all it · was left me to hold dear on earth a wife, a daughter, and a friend! In their arms, I wept for the loft protection of a monarch, whom I now pitied yet more than I had ever loved; but if aught I knew of forrow, that I was no longer fuffered to enjoy the rank to which, against my will, he had exalted me, it was because I was also no longer fuffered to enjoy the power, connected with that rank, of contributing to the welfare of a grateful people.

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By the death of my friend, I found myself infinitely more af⚫fected than I had been by the lofs of rank-by the lofs of even power→→ but in the tenderness of my Nadina, and in the careffes of an infant-prattler, the only remaining pledge of our loves, I ftill found a balm for all my woes.

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With them, for fifteen years, did I lead a life of calm delight.-During that period, the whole of my time-unless what I devoted to

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the ftudy of nature, and of nature's 'God-was engroffed by the occupations, which our daily fubfiftence rendered neceffary, or by thole, yet-more pleafing, which were effential to the plan of education I had laid down for a beloved child -a child, who continued ftill to cheer her father with the promife -now beyond his own moit fanguine expectations realized-that The would, one day, amply requite him for all the pains he took to cultivate her genius, and to en

rich her mind.

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But, ah! without fome intervenient alloy, fleeting, at the belt, are all the enjoyments of man.Six months ago, Nadina left me, in order to obtain from Heaven the reward of those virtues, which, to her husband, were, even on • earth, a fource of felicity; and which, to her daughter, have proved a model of what, otherwife, the leffons of the fondeft parent could have but feebly inculcated to her. My Nadina, however, is happy; and, if happy, fhall an accent of murmur drop from the lips of Alfaleh!-No: with a pious refignation-the fruit of a well-grounded ‹ affurance, that ere long, without the poffibility of a fecond difunion, blissful they shall meet againcheerfully will he ftill adore the Power that inflicted even this, the 'laft, and the feverest stroke, he ever ⚫ experienced.'

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Thus fpoke the venerable Alfaleh, while down his furrowed cheek, in filent progreffion, trickled an unrefifted tear a tear, which, to thofe who had themselves never known what it was to weep, or who from weeping had never known what it was to enjoy a pleasure, would have appeared a downright violation of his boafted ferenity; but which Candi dus fympathetically felt to be a balmy effufion of joy at his having thus had an opportunity of cordially unbofoming himfelf to a foul congenial with his own.'

Surely, the fufceptible reader, who

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THE Family Picture is a series of

domeftic dialogues: in which various moral and entertaining stories and anecdotes are introduced, fome of which are original, but much the greater part are felected from other writers. The family is that of a Mr. Egerton, confifting of three fons and two daughters, who, with himself and Mrs. Egerton, and a neighbour and his daughter, compofe the entire groupe of characters between whom the dialogues are fuppofed to be carried on.

Though the work has very confiderable merit, we cannot give our approbation to the ftrange medley of truth and, fiction with which it abounds. Young' minds will be incapable of fufficiently difcriminating, when they find circumftances of invention blended in the fame dialogue with historical facts, and intimately connected with each other. This is, with us, a very important objection; perfuaded, as we are, that more than half the time of most youths is facrificed to the want of perfpicuity in books meant for their improvement.

The obfcurity we complain of is the more likely to be fatal, as Mr. Holcroft has neither named the authors to whom he is indebted for the respective ftories, nor diftinguished the few which are the result of his own genius.

We fhall extract the whole of Mr. Egerton's account of himself; which will at once give a good general idea of the work, and ferve to difplay Mr. Holcroft's talents for original compofition.

Though I was the youngest child of a numerous family, and confequently was poffeffed of but little wealth to beF2.

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gin the world with, yet I had one advantage to which I attribute all my fubfequent fuccefs: I had the inftruction, the experience, and the wifdom, of an affectionate father, to guide and direct ine till I was fourteen. At this age, having loft my parents, though I nad guardians, I became lefs circumfpect. Being of a warm and ente prizing temper, and feeling myfelf fuperior to the generality of my young companions, fchemes of independence began to revolve in my mind. I obferved the filly actions of men, and drew inferences favourable to my own prudence and capacity: thofe to whom I was left in charge had weakneffes I faw them, and became impatient of controul. As I grew towards manhood, my mind became reftlefs, my imagination was heated by reading the strong fentiments and great actions of the ancient heroes. The successful career of young Scipio charmed and fired my fancy: I panted to be diftinguished, and neglected no opportunity that could render me remarkable, as the follow-thus to you, Sir, because you feem, ing incident will convince you.

thority of the mafter, who ordered me to be feverely punished; which was what I wished and expected. I fupported the pain as if I had been infenfible to it, and then told the mafter that he was mistaken, if he fuppofed me capable of fearing any punishment that he, or the worst of tyrants, could. inflict; I had done my duty, by relieving age and imbecillity from the wanton cruelty of two boys; and, if he had done juftice, he would have punished. them instead of me. The matter, who. was a fenfible and difcerning man, replied, "There is fomething peculiar in your conduct, young gentleman, it must be confeffed, but you do wrong in accufing me of tyranny. You have "behaved with audacity, and if I "fhould fuffer fuch ill-manners to go.

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unpunished, it would be impoffible "for me to preferve any order in this place. If, as you now fay, you took "the part of the oppreffed, you thould have condefcended to have faid fo, "when I queftioned you at first. I fpeak

from what I have obferved of your prefent and your former behaviour, to think fomething deeper, and fee. a little farther, than people of your. "age ufually do; but you do not fee far

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enough. I am no tyrant, young Sir; "you have been very rude, and though "I have fome hope it proceeded from "a good, though mistaken motive,

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I was educated at Eton School; and obferving, one day, two of my schoolfellows infulting a poor woman, that was tottering under age, it excited my indignation fo much, that I fell upon them both very heartily, and truck one of them an unlucky blow. They conceiving I had injured them, by interfering in a business that did not concern me, and not being able to conceal their difgrace, complained to the mafter, and made up a ftory greatly to their own advantage. I was accordingly fummoned to anfwer for my-will fee your error." felf. It happened that I had just before been reading the tale of the Spartan Boy that expired while the fox was biting him. In confequence of this, having at that inftant a thorough contempt for pain, and indeed withing for an opportunity to fhew how much I defpifed it, I behaved fullenly, and refufed to answer the maiter, except by haughtily declaring, I had done what I thought was right, and would, with the ke provocation, do the fame again. This, exclufive of the crime I flood accufed of, was braving the au

yet, had I not refented it, I fhould "have acted inconfiftently, and have. degraded my fituation. Recollect. "yourfelf; and if you have as much fenfe as I believe you to have, you

This cool addrefs not only fhewed me how wrong I had been, in not explaining myfelf, but quite overcame me. I burst into tears; fell upon my knees; and, as foon as I could fpeak, asked his pardon for having ufed fuch an injurious epithet to him. I then related the story of the old woman and my fchool-fellows, fimply as it happened, together, with my heroic imitation of the Spartan Boy. The mafter, who was evidently furprized and affected by my manner and conduct in this affair, faid to me, this affair, faid to me," Mr. Egerton,

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