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out it, and are apt to make as much noife with fuch logical tenns and diftinctions, as the school-men used to do with their principle of indiə viduation, fubftantial forms, &c. Whereas, if we could be per fuaded to quit every arbitrary hypothetis, and truft to fact and experience, a found fleep, any night, would yield fufficient fatisfaction in the present cafe; which thus may derive light even from the darkest parts of nature; and which will the more merit our regard, fince the Jame point has been in fome measure confirmed to us by revelation, as our author has likewife fhewn in his Introduction to the Reasonablenefs of Christianity."

Certain it is, as our judicious Editor obferves, that Mr. Locke's Effay contains many refined fpeculations, which are daily gaining ground among thoughtful and intelligent perfons, notwithstanding the neglect, to which ftudies of this kind are frequently oppofed.-It is to be remembered, however, that the thoughtful and intelligent are few in comparison of that herd of readers, which, to use the jargon of the times, give the ton to fyftems of philofophy as well as to fafhions in drefs. How elfe, in the name of common-fenfe, could the nonsense of Reid, Ofwald, and Beattie, have, under that plaufible title, fo generally feized and infatuated the minds of the pretended philofophers of this philofophizing age!

Their fyftem is, to be fure, a very convenient one, and faves a world of thinking; making a Macaroni talk as wifely in half an hour as man of fenfe from the study of half a century.

We are pleased to find our Editor an advocate for a more orthodox fyftem; although we cannot help fmiling that such a writer fhould be fo foolishly affected with the frivolous cuftons of the times, as to reflect with indignation, on fuch a character as Mr. Locke's wanting a magnificent tomb-flone to perpetuate his memory.

"When we view, fays he, thofe very ufeful and important fubjects, which have been treated in fo able a manner by our author, and become fenfible of the numerous national obligations due to his memory on that account, with what indignation must we behold the remains of that great and good man, lying under a mean mouldering tomb-ftone [which but too strictly verifies the predictions he had given of it, and its little tablet, as ipfa brevi peritura) in an obfcure country churchyard, by the fide of a forlorn wood-while fo many fuperb monnments are daily erected to perpetuate names and characters hardly worth preferving!"

For our own parts, we rather regard with pity the memory of those, who have nothing but fuperb monuments to tranfmit their names and characters to pofterity. What a pitiful inheritance is the perpetuity of a splendid monument! What

mighty difference between even à marble tomb-ftone and a wooden grave-rail! Our Editor himself hath erected, in this publication, a more lafting and honourable monument; whose tablet, though repeatedly effaced, may be as conftantly renewed with additional fplendour.

W.

A Collection of Novels, felelted and revifed by Mrs. Griffitha Vol. I. 35. Kearfly.

As there is no fpecies of writing fo ufelefs and dangerous to young minds as a certain kind of novels, fo there is none perhaps more generally useful and inftructive than fome others. A felect collection, therefore, of fuch as are proper to put into the hands of the rifing generation, of both fexes, cannot fail of being acceptable to the public. But we can fay nothing, in recommendation of fuch an undertaking, more pertinent than the ingenious collector has faid in her preface; which we, therefore, take the liberty to quote.

"The extraordinary revolution which this nation happily experi enced, both in its religious and political principles, by the restoration of Charles the Second, naturally produced a change as striking, and as fudden, in the minds and manners of the people.

"Extremes of all kinds tend to promote their oppofites.-Hence, the bigotry of Fanaticifm became the fource of Irreligion; and the difguft arifing from a furfeit of puritanic zeal, drove weak minds into that chaos of licentioufnefs, mifcalled free-thinking. Mirth and wit both which had been anathematized during the gloomy interregnum of Cromwell's ufurpation, broke forth, like light, with the returning fun of royalty. Exiled with the Monarch, they accompanied him home again; but, like him alfo, unreformed by chaftisement, and untutored by adverfity. Sermons and homilies gave place to Shaftesbury's Characteristics; myftic hymns were exchanged for wanton fonnets; and the ftately romance refigned its station in the female library, to the grofs effufions of amorous nonfenfe; which was, at that era, first introduced into thefe kingdoms, under the more modern title of Novels. "Decency and good fenfe, the natural characteristics of the Englith, though for a time inebriated with joy on the restoration of Region, Liberty, and Law, at length fhook off the fafcinating flumber; "Then Shame regain'd the post that Wit betray'd, "And Virtue called Oblivion to her aid."

Accordingly, moft of the literary productions of thofe days, are now forgotten, with their authors; and the few that remain, particularly of the Novel kind, have long been profcribed to the Youth of GreatBritain, by every fenfible Parent and Preceptor.

"Yet all young minds require a certain fupply of entertainment, as well as the body of nutriment; both which, if not properly provided,

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will anxioufly be fought after; and writings of the most dangerous tefla dency, conveyed through the vehicle of an amufing or interesting story? like the most unwholefome viands, if rendered palatable, will be iwallowed with avidity, by the unformed tafte and unexperienced judge ment of our youth of both fexes.

"Prejudices, as well as difeafes, contracted in our early age, are always most difficult to be eradicated. They become our fecond nature,

"Grow with our growth, and strengthen with our ftrength.'

"An attention, therefore, to the amufements, as well as to the ftudies neceflary to the forming of young minds to virtue, is doublets an indifpenfable duty, in thofe who are intrufted with the important province of education.

"To fuch, then, the Editor of the following Work more particu larly addreffes herfelf, whether diftinguifhed as Parents, Guardians, or Preceptors; and as the fole purpose of this Compilation is to unite the utile dulci, by felecting fome of the beft Novels now extant, and frain ing them into a Collection, in which no writing tending towards im morality or indecency fhall obtain a place, the flatters herfelt that the publication of thefe Pieces will be favourably received by the Public.

"Upon this fubject may be fairly quoted the learned bishop Huet ; who, in a letter addreffed to M. de Segrais, author of Zayde, and other works of the fame kind, fpeaking of Romances in general (the term Novel not having been then adopted into the French language), fays,

To which let me add, that nothing quickens the mind fo much, or ❝conduces more to the forming and finishing it, than good Romances. "They are a fort of filent instructors, that take us up just where the "Schools leave us, teaching us to think, fpeak, and live, after a me

thod more edifying and perfuafive, than what is taught or practised "there; and to which Horace's compliment upon the Iliad may be justly applied, That morality is more effectually recommended by them, than by all the precepts of the most able Philofophers."

"It is the intention of the Editor to carry this Work as far back as the origin of this fpecies of writing in England; which has already been remarked to have taken its rife in the reign of Charles the Second; and the progrefs which our language has made towards its prefent elegance, fince that era, will afford an amufing fpeculation to the critical Reader."

Almanach des Mufes.-The Almanack of the Mufes, for the Year 1777-1

A mere Englishman, of the prefent refined tafte, if it be poffible for an Englishman to be refined without being frenchified, will be apt to fmile at this title, and wonder how long fince it is that the Mufes have been Almanack-makers. But, if they reflect on the Riders and the Moores, and particularly on the Gentlemen and Ladies Diaries, of our own country, they must

own

own that, if the Mufes have had nothing to do with almanacks, their hand-writing muft have been horribly forged. But forgery is the bon ton in England; let us fee how it is in France, -A foreign critic, whofe word we will take, fooner than rely on our own judgement, in matters of French poefy, acquaints us, that if good fenfe, true tafte, and impartial criticism, fhould prefide at the head of the Mufes' Almanack *, it would be less voluminous than it is; but, fays he, as every young poet is ambitious to have a fpecimen of his veries in this collection, the intereft and arts, made ufe of to effect it, will of courfe make way for fome pieces unworthy of it. Notwithftanding this, as the beft writers are ftill proud of figuring in the poctical almanack, it conftantly affords a number of ingenious and amufing productions. As a proof of this, the almanack for the prefent year contains no lefs than twelve pieces, imputed, and with reafon, to that wonderful phænomenon in literature M. de Voltaire. There are many other pieces, alfo, of other authors, in this volume, which will give much pleafure to the lovers of French poetry. For the amusement of fuch of our readers we fhall therefore felect the following fable. "LES ABRICOTS.

Un hommé étoit propriétaire
D'un aflez grand jardin fruitier
Fort beaux arbres en pleine terre,
Autres, fort beaux, en efpalier.
Au printems, chaque abricotier
Donne fa fleur, puis le fruit noue;
Puis, petit-à-petit,

Il s'augmente & groffit;

Il vient un vent fort, qui fecoue
Tous les abricotiers; vous juges que le fruit
Tombe à terre comme la grêle;

Il en tombe au moins la moitié;
Notre homme fe lamente à vous faire pitié,
Un vieux jardinier, qui fe mêle

De raifonner (des vieilles gens,
C'est là, le plus grand des talens),
Lui dit, pourquoi pleurer, mon maître!
Puvrons ces fruits tombés, & vous allez connoître
Que le coup de vent eft heureux.

Voyez-vous!... Ils font tous verreux;
De l'arbre, ils mangeoient la fubftance,

Et ne pouvoient venir à leur maturité.

C'est le vent de l'adverfité

Qui fait des faux ami difparoître l'engeance."

At the peril, we may fay, of being ftuck with the darts of revenge,

like the man at the bottom of our English sheet almanacks.

SUP

SUPPLEMENT.

Continued from page 535 of the Appendix to VoL. V.

The Convil's Addrefs to his unhappy Brethren. Delivered in the Chapel of Newgate, on Friday, June 6, 1777. By William Dodd, LL. D. Price is. Kearily.

A very proper and pathetic addrefs to the unhappy objects to whom it was made; perhaps not the lefs proper for its being addreffed to them by a brother convict.-To a fecond edition has been added his fpeech to the court, previous to his receiving fentence of death. In both thefe pieces, appear a regularity of compofition and propriety of expreffion, not to be found in any of the unfortunate writer's former productions. -We are told, indeed, that they were actually written by one of the greatest mafters of ftile and compofition now living. -From the meannefs of fpirit, and inconfiftency of thinking. difplayed in the fpeech, we are, alfo, apt to believe it. With thofe, with whom "to live is Chrift, to die is gain :" a christian, therefore, above all other characters, should be proof againft the fear of death.

The Trial at large of James Hill, otherwife James Hind, otherwife James Aitzen; for feloniously, &c. fetting fire to the Ropehoufe in His Majefly's Dock-yard at Portsmouth.-At the Affize at Winchester, March 6, 1777. Taken in fhort-hand, by Jofeph Gurney. Publifhed by permiffion of the Judges. Folio, 25. Kearfly.

Genuine and authentic.-A judicial monument of the dreadful effects of party madnefs, joined to perfonal infanity.

Effay on the Contrarieties of Publick Virtue. 4to. Davies.

A ludicrous amplification of the famous political proverb, "That private vices are public benefits." The fatire, however, is feeble, and the verfification, which is hudibraftic, frequently little better than doggrel,

A Supe

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