of

in a peculiar manner, for the poor; and the poor this country have the gospel preached to them, if they are willing to listen to it, in every part of the kingdom. But it is a melancholy truth, that the poor in general, but especially those of the metropolis, neglect to avail themselves of this singular and unspeakable advantage. Those among them who give any attention to religion, are often led to a state approaching to lunacy, by illiterate and fanatical pretenders to heavenly illumination.

I venture to affirm then, that more weight and authority should be given to the regular clergy, whether dissenters or on the establishment. I mean not to erect a spiritual tyranny, for I abhor all tyranny; but I wish that some mode should be devised for rendering the regular clergy more respectable than they now are in the eyes of the vulgar. And I should imagine the most effectual method of accomplishing this purpose is, to reward those who are eminently distinguished for piety and for their parochial labours, with those preferments, and with those honours, which, in the eye of reason and of God, are justly their due. In the present state of things, the worthy curate, who spends all his days in preaching, praying, and in visiting the sick, shall earn less, and be less respected, than a smith or a carpenter; and at his death leave his widow and his children to the cold protection of charity. But a young rake, who happens to be cousin to a lord or a bishop, or to be connected with those who have influence at an election, shall get himself blacked over, or japanned, as he vulgarly phrases it, at an ordination, and thenceforward be preferred to pluralities, and shine, as a sensible author observes, in all public places but his own pulpits.

But after all that the clergy can do, even when abuses are removed, it is to be feared that the lower

But oh! ye who call yourselves the great, condescend once in your lives to visit a gaol, and to survey the mansions of woe and wickedness in the outskirts of the town! I apply not to your purses; you are liberal in subscribing to all kinds of charitable institutions. Ye do well. But give me leave to tell you, that the setting of a good example to the lower classes, considered merely as an act of charity, will do more good, and prevent more misery, than if ye cut down your last oak, or give all ye win at the gaming-table, to found an hospital or establish a dispensary.

No. CXLVIII.

On some Passages in Aristotle's Rhetoric, with Miscellaneous Remarks on his Style, Genius, and Works.

ARISTOTLE established an intellectual empire more glorious and universal than the conquests of his pupil. But he is a remarkable instance of the caprice of human judgment and the revolutions of taste. After having been idolized with a veneration almost blasphemous, he is now most undeservedly neglected. And yet his works, though unentertaining and obscure to the reader who peruses them with the same attention which he gives to a novel and a newspaper, abound with matter which cannot fail to enrich the mind, and to delight a philosophical taste by its beautiful truth and accuracy. In his three books on the rhetorical art, are many passages, which describe human nature in the most

neation. He characterizes the manners of different ages no less scientifically, than a Hunter would describe an anatomical subject, or a Linnæus a plant. The fine pictures of the manners of young and old men in the second book, are such as Horace has imitated, but not equaled; such as might have richly fertilized the imagination of a Shakspeare. The celebrated speech of Jaques is not equal to the accurate and complete descriptions of the manners of different ages in the life of man by the neglected Aristotle.

The close, yet comprehensive language of Aristotle, will scarcely admit of a literal translation. I shall not then attempt to deliver his sentiments in English, since I should not satisfy myself; but I will refer the young student to the admirable original, where, in the fourteenth, and a few subsequent chapters of the second book, he will be able to acquire a very accurate knowledge of human nature.

I have selected these passages as a specimen of Aristotle, with an intention to obviate the prepossessions of those who imagine, that every part of his works is abstruse and difficult of comprehension. A good translation would be the best commentary that could be given of them: but he who was the best qualified to perform it in perfection is now no more. It is, indeed, much to be lamented, that the great philosopher of Salisbury did not condescend to enrich his country with a translation of the best among the works of his admired Stagirite. Mr. Harris's style is, indeed, for the most part the style of Plato; but we may conclude from the many passages from Aristotle, which he has most accurately translated in his notes, that he would have rendered whole treatises in English to the greatest advantage. He has, however, caused the want of a translation of Aristotle to be less felt, by supplying such originals

I cannot help remarking, that though this is an age in which many ingenious authors delight in metaphysical researches, yet few attend to the writings of Aristotle. Indeed, many of the French philosophers, who have done all they can to obscure the light of nature, common sense, and revelation, by the clouds of metaphysics, have not been sufficiently acquainted with Greek, or with ancient learning, to be able to improve themselves by the fine philosophy of the polished ages of Greece and Rome. Like spiders in a dark and dirty corner, they have drawn flimsy cobwebs from themselves, with which they cruelly endeavour to ensnare the giddy and unwary.

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It is indeed my misfortune, if it be a misfortune, to have no great idea of the utility of metaphysical disquisition. And though Aristotle's logic and metaphysics principally contributed, in the middle ages, to render him the idol of the world, I cannot help considering them as the least useful parts of his various lucubrations. They are, indeed, valuable curiosities, and illustrious monuments of human ingenuity but at the same time, when compared to his rhetorical, ethical, and political books, they are as the husk and the shell to the pulp and the kernel. It was these, however, together with his erroneous physics, which induced the bigoted theologists to number Aristotle among the saints in the calendar, and to publish a history of his life and death; which concluded with asserting, that Aristotle was the forerunner of Christ in philosophy, as John the Baptist had been in grace. Images of him and of the founder of Christianity, were beheld at one time with equal veneration. It is said, that some sects taught their disciples the categories instead of the catechism, and read in the church a section of the ethics instead of a chapter in the Gospel.

If the exclamation which he is related to have

made at his death 'be true, he appears to have possessed very rational ideas on the subject of religion...

A Christian might have said, as it is reported he said just before his dissolution, "In sin and shame was I born, in sorrow have I lived, in trouble I depart; O! thou Cause of causes, have mercy upon me!" I found this anecdote of Aristotle in the Centuries of Camerarius, but I am not certain of its authenticity.

The style of Aristotle has been censured as harsh and inelegant; but it must be remembered, that few works, of which so much remains, are supposed to have suffered more from the carelessness or presumption of transcribers, and the injuries of long duration, than the works of the great legislator of taste and philosophy. We may fairly attribute any chasms and roughnesses in the style to some rude hand, or to accident. It is not credible that so accurate a writer should have neglected those graces of style which the nature of his subjects admitted. The style of his best works is truly pure and attic; and Quintilian, whose judgment ought to decide, expresses a doubt whether he should pronounce him more illustrious for his knowledge, his copiousness, his acumen, his variety, or the sweetness of his elocution.

No. CXLIX.

On the Beauty and Happiness of an open Behaviour and an ingenuous Disposition.

A GREAT part of mankind, if they cannot furnish themselves with the courage and generosity of the