the first discovery of fuch an expectation disappoints it, and prejudices your title to it for ever.

To this fpeculative argument of it's weakness, it has generally the ill fate to add another of a more fubftantial nature, little ex which is matter of fact, that to turn giddy upon every altation, is experienced to be no lefs a mark of a weak brain in the figurative, than it is in the literal fenfe of the expreffionin fober truth, 'tis but a fcurvy kind of a trick (quoties voluit Fortuna jocari) when Fortune, in one of her merry moods, takes a poor devil with this paffion in his head, and mounts him up all at once as high as the can get him-for it is fure to make him play fuch phantaftick tricks, as to become the very fool of the comedy; and was he not a general benefactor to the world in making it merry, I know not how Spleen could be pacified during the representation.'

After confidering briefly the natural imperfections of humamity, he proceeds to the wilful depravations of our nature.

Survey yourselves, my dear Chriftians, fays he, a few moments in this light,-behold a difobedient, ungrateful, intractable and diforderly fet of creatures, going wrong feven times in a day acting fometimes every hour of it againft your own convictions your own interefts, and the intentions of your God, who wills and purpofes nothing but your happiness and profperity what reafon does this view furnish you for Pride? how many does it fuggeft to mortify and make you ashamed? — well might the fon of Syrach fay in that farcaftical remark of his upon it, That Pride was not made for man-for fome purposes, and for fome particular beings, the paffion might have been shaped--but not for him-fancy it where you will, 'tis no where fo improper 'tis in no creature fo unbecoming

But why fo cold an affent, to fo incontested a truth? -Perhaps thou haft reafons to be proud :-for heaven's fake, let us hear them-Thou haft the advantages of birth and title to boast of- -or thou standeft in the funshine of court favour

-or thou haft a large fortune--or great talents--or much learning or nature has beftowed her graces upon thy perfon --speak-on which of thefe foundations haft thou raifed this Let us examine them. fanciful ftructure?

is

• Thou art well born; then truft me, 'twill pollute no one drop of thy blood to be humble: humility calls no man down from his rank, divefts not prince of their titles; it in life, what the clear-obfcure is in painting; it makes the hero ftep forth in the canvas, and detaches his figure from the group in which he would otherwife ftand confounded for ever.

If thou art rich--then fhew the greatnefs of thy fortune, -or what is better, the greatnefs of thy foul in the meekness of thy conversation; condefcend to men of low eftate,sup

port

port the diftreffed, and patronize the neglected-Be great; but let it be in confidering riches as they are; as talents committed to an earthen vesel-That thou art but the receiver,— and that to be obliged and be vain too,-is but the old folecifm of pride and beggary, which, though they often meet,-yet ever make but an abfurd fociety.

If thou art powerful in intereft, and ftandeft deified by 2 fervile tribe of dependents,-why shouldeft thou be proud,— because they are hungry?—Scourge me fuch sycophants; they have turned the heads of thousands as well as thine.

"But 'tis thy own dexterity and ftrength which have gained thee this eminence:--allow it; but art thou proud, that thou ftandeft in a place where thou art the mark of one man's envy, another man's malice, or a third man's revenge,where good men may be ready to fufpect thee, and whence bad men will be ready to pull thee down. I would be proud of nothing that is uncertain: Haman was fo, because he was admitted alone to queen Efther's banquet; and the distinction raised him, but it was fifty cubits higher than he ever dream'd or thought of.

• Let us pafs on to the pretences of learning, &c. &c. If thou haft a little, thou wilt be proud of it in course: if thou haft much, and good fenfe along with it, there will be no reafon to dispute against the paffion: a beggarly parade of remnants is but a forry object of Pride at the beft;-but more so, when we can cry out upon it, as the poor man did of his hatchet, Alas! Mafter,for it was borrowed.

It is treafon to fay the fame of Beauty,-whatever we do of the arts and ornaments with which Pride is wont to fet it off: the weakest minds are moft caught with both; being ever glad to win attention and credit from fmall and flender accidents, through difability of purchafing them by better means. In truth, Beauty has fo many charms, one knows not how to speak against it; and when it happens that a graceful figure is the habitation of a virtuous foul,-when the beauty of the face speaks out the modefty and humility of the mind, and the juftnefs of the proportion raifes our thoughts up to the art and wisdom of the great Creator,-fomething may be allowed it,and fomething to the embellishments which fet it off;—and yet when the whole apology is read, it will be found at laft, that Beauty like Truth, never is fo glorious as when it goes the plaineft.

Simplicity is the great friend to nature, and if I would be proud of any thing in this filly world, it fhould be of this ho neft alliance.'

Mr. Sterne's fermon, from Judges xix. 1, 2, 3.And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Ifrael, that there was a certain Levite fojourning on the fide of Mount Ephraim, whe

took

took unto him a concubine,next demands our notice. Though it is lefs in the ftile of fermons than any in the collection, and wears too gay an aspect, yet it contains many natural fentiments, and pathetic touches,-the power of which may perhaps be felt, even by the moft rigid and pious Reader.

• Notwithstanding all we meet with in books, fays Mr. Sterne, in many of which, no doubt, there are a good many handsome things faid upon the fweets of retirement, &c.... Yet ftill," it is not good for man to be alone :" nor can all which the cold-hearted pedant ftuns our ears with upon the fubject, ever give one answer of satisfaction to the mind; in the midst of the loudest vauntings of philofophy, Nature will have her yearnings for fociety and friendship ;-a good heart wants fome object to be kind to-and the best parts of our blood, and the pureft of our fpirits fuffer most under the deftitution.

• Let the torpid Monk seek heaven comfortless and aloneGod fpeed him! For my own part, I fear, I should never fo find the way. Let me be wife and religious-but let me be Man: wherever thy Providence places me, or whatever be the road I take to get to thee-give me fome companion in my journey, be it only to remark to, How our fhadows lengthen as the fun goes down; -to whom I may fay, How fresh is the face of nature? How fweet the flowers of the field! How delicious are these fruits!'-To all this we moft cordially and fincerely give our full affent!

It is the mild and quiet half of the world, continues our Author, who are generally outraged and born down by the other half of it: but in this they have the advantage; whatever be the sense of their wrongs, that pride ftands not fo watchful a fentinel over their forgiveness, as it does in the breafts of the fierce and froward: we fhould all of us, I believe, be more forgiving than we are, would the world but give us leave; but it is apt to interpofe it's ill offices in remiffions, especially of this kind: the truth is, it has it's laws, to which the heart is not always a party; and acts so like an unfeeling engine in all cafes without diftinction, that it requires all the firmness of the most settled humanity to bear up against it.'

There are many other paffages in Mr. Sterne's fermons, which it would give us pleasure to infert, but we muft refer our Readers to the discourses themselves.

The Clandeftine Marriage, a Comedy, as it is acted at the TheatreRoyal in Drury-Lane. By George Colman and David Garrick. 8vo. I s. 6d. Becket and Co.

EAUMONT and Fletcher, Dryden and Lee, Sternhold and Hopkins, Tate and Brady, are, to the best of our remembrance,

membrance, the principal poets of this country, who have clubbed their wits for our entertainment or edification. Now, though fome people may not be able immediately to conceive the reason why the author who has produced one good fcene, or act, might not have wrote the next, as well as his fellow-labourer, of no greater abilities than himfelf; yet, if there be any truth in the old proverb, that two heads are better than one, fomething greater may certainly be expected from fuch a coalition. But the probability of fuperior excellence from the united efforts of two men of genius, will mare fully appear, if we confider them as two painters exerting their refpective talents in the production of a picture in which history and landscape, for example, were united. It is eafy to imagine how fome fine pieces of antiquity might have been greatly improved by such an union. But to proceed to the piece before us.

In an advertisement prefixed to the play, and alfo in the proJogue, we are given to understand that Hogarth's Marriage Ala-mode furnished the hint which produced this performance. I may be fo; but as there is no refemblance in the two pieces, except the intended union between the family of a citizen and that of a nobleman, for the fake of money on one fide,, and grandeur on the other, we think our poets needed not to have had recourfe to a picture, when fo many hints of this kind are fo frequently fupplied from real life.

The principal characters are as follows:

Lord Ogleby, an old decrepid man of quality, whose infirmities we are to fuppofe occafioned by a too liberal indulgence of his paffions, otherwife his decrepitude is an improper object of fa

His lordship, however, becomes a fit fubject of ridicule from his foolish opinion of, and attention to, his perfon; as alfo on account of his affectation of French manners, dress, and gallantry: but he is, nevertheless, humane and generous. We fuppofe him to be related to Lord Chalkftone, as there is a ftrong family likeness between his prefent lordship and that ce, lebrated nobleman.

Sir John Melvil, nephew to Lord Ogleby, is the inftrument by whofe union with the daughter of a citizen, his lordship is to receive a confiderable fum of money. As to his character, it differs in nothing from that of a thousand other people in the fame fituation.

Sterling is the merchant whofe daughter is going to be married to Sir John Melvil. He is the ufual citizen of the ftage.

Lovewell, apprentice to Sterling, and privately married to his youngest daughter Fanny. He is related to Lord Ogleby.

Canton,

Canton, a Swiss, gentleman to his lordship. His fole business through the play, is to flatter his master and laugh at his jokes. Our only objection to this gentleman is, that he happens to have been born in a wrong country. We are of opinion, he might with much greater propriety have been created a Frenchman.

Mrs. Heidleberg, fifter to Sterling, the rich widow of a Dutch merchant. She is a perfon of great importance in Sterling's family, on account of her riches. The entertainment which the affords the fpectators is owing chiefly to the comic talents of Mrs. Clive, by whom the part is played.

Mifs Sterling, the young lady who was to have been married to Sir John Melvil,

Fanny, her younger fifter, married clandeftinely to Lovewell, The reft of the characters are of little importance. Let us now proceed to the ftory. Scene, Sterling's Country-house.

ACT I.

Fanny, in a private converfation with her husband, expreffes great uneafinefs at concealing their matrimonial 'connection any longer. The indelicacy of a fecret marriage grows every day more and more fhocking to her, and fhe earnestly intreats him, for very particular reafons, to difclofe the affair to her father. Sterling finds them together. She retires, and Lovewell delivers a letter to his mafter, informing him that Lord Ogleby and Sir John will certainly arrive that night. In the next scene we have a converfation between the two fifters, in which the eldest triumphs in the expectation of her approaching magnificence. The remainder of the act is taken up in giving orders for the proper reception of my lord and his nephew.

ACT II.

Opens with a scene between his lordship's valet de chambre and a chambermaid, from which we learn, that Fanny the youngest daughter is esteemed, by the fervants, for her affability, and her fifter difliked for being proud. Lord Ogleby now crawls forth from his bed-chamber, is invited by Sterling to take a walk in the garden, where the whole family affemble, and where his lordship has an opportunity of fhewing his gallantry to the ladies, and contempt for Mr. Sterling's tafte. The reft of the good folks continuing their walk, Sir John and Lovewell remain upon the ftage, where the latter is furprized by a declaration from the former, of his violent paffion for Mifs Fanny, alias Mrs. Lovewell; the happening at this moment to be walking alone in the garden, Sir John purfues her, repeats his folicitations, and at laft, finding her still inflexible, falls on his knees, and feizes her fair hand. In this fituation they are unluckily furprized by Mifs Sterling. Sir John fneaks off; poor REV. March, 1766.

Fanný