much beyond the spirit of their age or people. Here truth ought to be spoken. If a high tone of piety, if particular strictness in manners, if a certain quantity of attention to the private interests of members of their congregations were absolutely REQUIRED, were made a point of by those congregations, who can doubt that the demand would be answered? Not, perhaps, immediately, but surely eventually. If, on the contrary, talent and eloquence are more in demand than Christian zeal and religious usefulness, then Unitarians themselves are settling the character of their ministry, and, far as we may be from wishing to shelter indolence, we must admit that censures which often fall so heavily upon ministers, should at least be shared by the people, to whom, in a great measure, are attributable their prevailing deficien cies. Watchful Wakefield, late and early, Slumb'ring o'er the page of Pope! Wit has catch'd her Critic fairly, Twisting sand into a rope. Your correspondent T. F. B. (XX. 678) appears not to have seen, or he could have scarcely omitted to notice, the Review of Dr. Chaliners's Astronomical Discourses in your XIIth Volume (pp. 418–426). I wish it were in my power fully to satisfy H. W. (XX. 681) as to an inquiry which a subscriber to Priestley's Works might, perhaps, with more propriety have addressed immediately to the Editor. The XXIVth Volume, containing the Lectures on History, from the enlarged American edition, will, I have no doubt, be through the press before the end of February. In the mean time, I must request every subscriber, with whom I am not already in correspondence, to forward a letter to my friend Mr. Eaton, 187, High Holborn, containing his full address, what volumes he has received, and where, in London, 549, col. 1) is, I dare say, unacquainted with Wakefield's "Observations on Pope," published in 1796, or he had not failed to remark that the author has there exposed his own attempts "to comment" on the "Song by a Person of Quality," (which, however, extended no further than to two notes on the first stanza,) as freely as any foe might desire, or at least any foe less gross and illnatured" than a Blackwood's Magazine." ་་ 66 Wakefield had published in 1794 a first volume of "the Works of Alexander Pope, Esq., with Remarks and Illustrations," then expecting such encouragement as would have allowed him to proceed. Disappointed in these expectations, he formed his further collections on Pope into the Observations, and thus concluded his address to the reader: "Some verses of my friend Mr. W. Toulinin, bantering a mistake committed by me, at p. 326 of my former volume, will form an agreeable terinination of this preface." The verses are thus entitled: " By a Person of no Quality, on reading Mr. Wakefield's Criticisms on Pope's Song, Flutt'ring spread thy purple pinions." The following is the first of the seven stanzas : sent, with an order for payment on delivery. Circumstances which I have been under the unpleasant necessity of detailing in your work on a former occasion, constrain me to add, that without such communication no volume will be delivered. H. W. must excuse me, if I cannot inform him how soon the labour which I, perhaps unadvisedly, encountered when ten years younger than at present, will be at an end. I can assure him that the delay of "more than twelve months" is not more than prudence fully justified; and that strict prudence would rather have further detained me amidst literary engagements which, except as to one of them soon to appear before the public, were less inviting, though not so unproductive. I trust, notwithstanding the unfavourable appearance of a plan left incomplete, that no subscriber will be materially injured by possessing, on the terms of the subscription, nearly the whole of Dr. Priestley's Theological and Miscellaneous Works, (several of which cannot now be procured on any terms,) in a correct and connected form, and with additions intended to illustrate them, and thus to subserve the author's favourite and truly honourable designs. I am, however, happy to inform H. W. and the rest of the Subscribers, that the 25th Volume will contain every remaining article of the works included in my edition; and that I have now reason to promise myself, should life and health be granted me, that the present year will not pass without my having made considerable advances in preparation for the First Volume. I beg leave, on this occasion, to repeat my request to those among your readers who can thus favour me, for the prompt communication of letters or any information calculated to assist in the execution of my design. The trite bis dat, qui citò dat, they will give me leave to say, is peculiarly suited to the present application. J. T. RUTT. January 3, 1826. P. S. My excellent friend Dr. Carpenter, (XX. 740,) whose early patronage of my design, and his uniformly punctual attention to the Editor's convenience, have been most exemplary, will, I trust, accept the above explanation, which was designed to appear in your last Volume. I wish I could feel what his kind partiality prompts him to express, on the subject of labour. I must, rather, confess a serious truth, that the delay, and my frequent occupation among the writings of Dr. Priestley, have served greatly to enhance my apprehension as to the satisfactory performance of the arduous duty I have ventured to undertake. Collections at Boston, United States, for the Sufferers at Miramichi. [Extract of a letter from Mr. Goodacre, Astronomical Lecturer, to Rev. Dr. J. Evans, dated Philadelphia, Nov. 19, ́ 1825.] F all the letters of introduction supply, that to the Rev. Mr. Parkman, of Boston, produced me the greatest source of pleasure. He is an excellent man. The Unitarians of Boston are a noble race. I never thought before that the world contained such men. They are after my own heart. At no very distant day I may enjoy, I hope, the pleasure of reading you some notes of sermons, taken by me, that I heard preached by some of their leaders when I was at Boston. Boston is indeed a spiritual place, not according to Calvinistic cant, but according to the true evangelical sense of the word. To spend a Sunday in Boston, if a man has any religious feeling, must warm his heart. But it is not in words that they excel merely. Take an example: you will, before you receive this, hear of the dreadful fires in and about Miramichi in the British province of New Brunswick. But you will not hear of Boston "doings" (as the Americans call it) perhaps. The news reached Boston late in the week, ending Nov. 6th, and on Sunday last, Nov. 13, sermons in behalf of the sufferers were made at the following churches: Rev. Dr. Channing's.. Rev. Mr. Green's.. Dol. Cents. 529 64 352 0 320 0 260 212 20 207 0 201 57 179 45 150 0 POETRY. HYMN TO LIBERTY. SWEET Liberty, wake thee! too long hast thou slumbered— Did he do, sacred Freedom! aught wiser or better Than those who lay scourges and fetters on thee? No, thy tides will yet rise in their strength and their scorn, And the thrones will grow pale in the light of thy morn, Every bond of the rights which the nations resume. From the hands of the myriads they pinioned so long; On the statue + they warm till it hails them in song! An allusion to the celebrated statue of Memnon, which was said to yield music when it felt the first rays of the morning sun.-C. Tac. Aon. III. 61. The pure laurels of Washington yet will be green In the realms where the Inca and Spaniard have reigned; And Hellas-dear Hellas!-the same brilliant standard Brook the scourge and the chain from the fear of the sword; The colours that tell of an Ottoman lord! In vain may the bands of the Orient environ But it yet will be drawn by a patriot's hand, Should hold the crushed nations for ever in thrall— No, Mankind will yet wake to a loftier duty, Than that which enjoins them to sink into slaves; Thy first steps, lovely Liberty! sometimes may falter- SIR, TO THE AUTHOR OF THE CRITICAL SYNOPSIS OF THE IN noticing my Sonnet, written in Burbage Wood,* you were pleased to make a kind of inquiry, whether I might not be a "a direct descendant of” Dare, (my namesake,)" the quick-witted patriot of olden time." + WHY not? If a mind that all knowledge would know Of ages elapsed and of ages to come; If thoughts that with freedom and liberty glow, Vide Mon. Repos, XIX. 423. + Vide Mon. Repos, XX. 393. If hopes-that are bright as the glories that gild Those songs that on earth give to virtue reward: That sighs with the weeper, that smiles with the gay; And quits superstition for Truth's heavenly ray: O! long as that wave shall beat free on thy land, HYMN. ALL nature sings the bounteous Power The rolling wave, the cooling show'r, The lofty oak, the humble flow'r, JOSEPH DARE. Alike their Author own, their mighty Maker show. They tell of him whose pow'rful hand From nothing all things made; He stretch'd the skies, he spread the land, Obedient to his high command That sun majestic rose, whose glories never fade. Let the glad sound of song arise To him who all has given Oh, Thou who reign'st above the skies, Accept the praise, the sacrifice, Of man, thy noblest work, the destin'd heir of heav'n. To him alone thy goodness gave To bear thine image here, Oh let thy mercy from the grave His reason, thy true image, save, And love correct the faults which dimm'd that image here. HYMN, Sung after Sermon, in the Old Meeting-House, Birmingham, on New-Year's Day, 1826. THE year has pass'd away, Swift as the gliding stream; And all its scenes appear |