mous writer. This is the man who has undertaken to mix the names of Fox, Sheridan and Grey; of Warton, Porfon, Wolcot and Darwin, among the enemies of Britain, of religion and morality. If men of the higheft genius have blemishes, why fhould thefe be expofed, and their virtues neglected? or why fhould they be expofed at all? It is not the chriftian religion this writer wishes to defend. He can raise an uproar about a* picture of (p. 387) Pope, becaufe it is a true likeness; or of Gibbon, who did more to ruin religion than any man in Britain; but no victim can atone for the errors of Warton, beeaufe he wrote of the honefty of Virgil in defcribing the punishment of Mezentius. "Dr Warton (p. 303) "knows (fays he) that Julius Cæfar 66 was not Mezentius." We also know the fame, but we remember the Rubicon, the fields of Pharfalia, and the fenate of Utica. "Thefe, (con "tinues he) are the murmurings of a fpurious, baftard, half-republieanifmt, I like them not." We cannot read thefe words without indig nation. Muft every friend to truth and honefty lie at the mercy of this murderer? We can applaud both the actions of Pitt and of Fox, we can fee virtue on either fide, patriotism on either fide, faults and blemishes on either fide. Miferable must be the zealot who thinks of affaffinating the characters of half a nation; himself devoid of honour, honefty, religion, or virtue. His defign is neither more nor lefs than to kindle the rage of party, to the deftru&tion of all merit and justice in literary diftinction. The third dialogue from p. 173 to p. 233 has more of poetry than the fecond,

Rifum teneatis: "this extraordinary genius, poet, critic, fcholar and orator, William Cook, M. A. late of King's College, &c. Cambridge, ftrove with nature and Gray for the maftery, in tranflating the Elegy in a country churchyard, and rivalled both the one and the other of them." He bungled "the boaft of heraldry, the pomp of power,' &c. into four lines, the fecond word of which is a barbarifm; the whole of which is one continued folecism. Difcuffions on exiled Catholic priefts, (p. 192, &c.) the fpirit o papery, Dr. Parr, (with moft infamous malice, and nonfenfe, pp. 218, 219, 220) on fome English bishops, and the like topics, drag on the ftory, with now and then a beam of poetry (p. 192 et passim) to line 246 to p. 226 where begins a beautiful account of the restorers of learning, before, and about the time of their Leo's vifionary days," ending nearly with the dialogue at p. 233. Here their hiftorian Rofcoe finds that tribute of merited praife which we never expected from the prefent quarter. From his own evil, and for the time remain'd That fpace the evil one abftracted flood Stupidly good, of enmity difarm'd, Of guile, of hate, of envy or revenge.

Milton, P. L. B. ix. 460.

The fourth preface, confifting of 39

pages,

pages, from p. 237, to 276 inveftigates the immorality of the Monk, a novel by Mr Lewis, and the avowed Socinian tranflation of the Bible by Dr. Geddes. We think the cenfure of the Monk to be juft, the Bible, though undoubtedly capable of fome amendments in our verfion, is ftill the only unerring, infpired guide of faith and practice. The manners and language of different ages change; what is chafte and pure in one century feems vulgar and impure in the next; but in fpite of Dr. Geddes's infinuations, the word of God fhall abide for ever: of Popish prietis, of democracy, of French philofophy, we have need to beware; but we shall not be much fafer for His great LITERARY MANIFESTO hung out page 275, wherein you may fee and learn, that there is no difference between the principles and views of the friends of minority in or out of parliament, and the tenets of Jacobins !

The fourth dialogue begins with thefe lines.

Erect the ftandard there of ANCIENT NIGHT. Par. Loft. B. II. ver. 985. Mark the note: "It is remarkable, that in Switzerland appeared the THREE PERSONS, whofe principles, doctrines, and practice (as it feems to me) have primarily and ultimately effected the great change and downfall of regal and of all lawful power in Europe; CALVIN IN RELIGION, Rouffeau in politicks, and Neckar by his adminiftration. Calvin and his difciples were never friends to Monarchy and Epifcopacy; but I fhall not here contend theologically or politically with bifhop Horfley about Calvin. A poet's words are better for a Poet. I have looked into hiftory, and as I think have found them true. Dryden" (a flave of abfolute power, and a papift)" fpeaks of Calvia thus, and remarkably enough,

3

The laft of all the litter 'fcap'd by chance,

"And from Geneva first infefted France."

And France before the CROSS believ'd and flept,

(Reft to the ftate, and flumber to the foul!)
Ere yet the brooding ftorm was heard to roll
In Fancy's car o'er many an Alpine rock,
Or Europe trembled at the fated fhock;
Ere by his lake Geneva's angel flood,
And wav'd his feroll prophetic o'er the flood,
With names (as yet unheard) and fymbols
drear,

CALVIN in front, and Neckar in the rear, &c. &c. (p. 277,278.)

Do not thefe verfes, if faith may be given to the plainest declaration, fhow the wishes of their author? Say they not to fuperflition, to flavery both of mind and body, to every gorgon form of Romish fervitude (whatever be the fpecious pretext of his work)

-No mean recompenfe it brings To your behoof; if I that region loft, All ufurpation thence expelled, reduce To her original darkness and yoUR Iway (Which is my prefent journey) and once

more

being accounted the difciples and fucceffors of Calvin. Observe his ashes difinterred aud fcattered about to infamy. Your own fidelity to your SOVEREIGN broadly queftioned, your principles, religious and political, con fidered as "the downfall of all law"ful power in Europe." You too, as well as Mr Erfkine, and the minoof France. rity, are confpiring with the anarchists

Search the decifions of

the immaculate Charlefes and Jamefes, appeal to Mr Dryden and the author of the Purfuits of Literature, they will tell you all. We return their lies to their original monitor the devil; and inform them, that although we can difcern much living merit in the frock of Epifcopacy, and altho' "Scotch profeffors" and (p. 382.) clergymen cannot "convert propofi "tions" OF TRUTH, for the benefit of

"

of the author of the P. of L. " into "meat and bones," yet with chriftian forrow we can fympathife When curates ftarve and helpless orphans quake; P. of L. p. 190. l. 78. and regret, with pity, that the poor people of England are better fed than taught.

The Scottish church and nation are certainly under fome obligations to this author for the flattering hints he has been pleased to bring forward in honour of both. After a number of ironical remarks on Dr. Horfley's fermon before the Magdalens, moft of which are unjuft, he tells us (p. 179) how the fame Doctor might have told his audience about Dr Gillies, Mr Erfking and Mrs Smith; and in the fame jeering ftrain of what we fuppofe he would call truly claffic, Juvenalian, scholarlike, gentlemanny wit, he adds, there may be found in London "Scotchmen teaching grave morality and Greek." If morality and Greek ought to be taught in London, as we have no doubt they both ought and are, why are Scotchmen more than Englifhmen, when profeffed ridicule is the defign of the author, produced by way of eminence in this department? By flighting them into a mass of open irony, we cannot help concluding that he thinks their religion and morality much of a piece; the first a germ of the reprobated Calvin; the laft a thing of nearly the fame value and utility, in our eftimation, with his own Greek quotations. We trust, however, that every Scotchman will beware of employing his own morality as this author employs his Greek, viz. in un. dermining individual characters under the pretence of fhowing how Plato, Longinus, Homer, &c. &c. coincide with his opinions. Thefe authors, like the Bible, have been quoted for all purposes.

The reft of this long dialogue difcuffes the affair of the damage arifing from revived literature; pourtrays in

;

Thus far guided by the lamp of honeft truth, unbiaffed by party zeal or party hatred, and animated by the love of virtue and of our King and Country, we have with due feverity examined this feandalous performance. We thought to have ftopt here when behold the arrival of a volume! of what? of a volume of 104 pages octavo; price 3s. and 6d., containing "a tranflation of the paffages from Greek, Latin. Italian, and French writers, quoted in the Prefaces and Notes'of the Purfuits of Literature." Long flourish the facred arts of volume-building and money-catching. We facrifice anew to the genius of this towering book-maker. Still we want an index, which pedantry on his part, and a few fhillings on ours, may very commodioufly fupply. After what we have feen, our admiration has ceafed. There is nothing fo ridiculous, nothing fo pedantic, nothing fo ftupid, nothing fo mad, which this writer may not attempt. Under the name of the nearest, and if juftice had her dues, the only friend which the author poffeffes, viz. him

felf,

felf, receive, gentle reader, his defence, and thefe fame tranflations. In this book a 66 Prefatory Epiftle" of 66 pages, written by the tranflator, vindicates the departed author. Out of the whole would be wit trafh of this effufion we felect barely the following interrogation: "Are we to ftyle Horne Tooke, Dr Pricftly, Lord Stanhope, Dr Parr, Mr Porfon, Dr Darwin, Peter Pindar, Mr Lewis, Mr Knight, Mr Jerningham, Mr Bofcawen, Mr G. Stevens, Mr Ritfon, Mr Ireland, Mr Tierney, Gilbert Wakefield, Dr Geddes, C. J. Fox, R. B. Sheridan, Mr Barrister Erskine, the Duke of Bedford, Lord Lauderdale, Lord Lanfdowne, Mr Jofeph Jekyll, William Godwin, Thomas Paine, Thomas Holcroft or John Thelwall, as abfolutely the beft, the wifeft, and the greatest of the fons of Great Britain ?" We anfwer, it is the felect province of the A. of the P. of L. to couple the names of Fox and Horne; of Horfley and Cal. vin, with the names of Paine, Jer ningham, Ireland, and Geddes; and with almoft equal, though more fpecious falfehood, to wreathe himself with the laurels of Boileau and Pope; but we have no he fitation to affirm, in the most unqualified fenfe, that the flandered bishop of Rochester in theology and orthodox fcriptural knowledge; Horne Tooke in philofophi cal grammar; Priestley in chemical dif. covery; Porfon and Wakefield in prodigious, claffical, and antiquarian fcience; Wolcot in the higheft ex

cellence of comic fatire; Darwin in harmonious, tender, fublime poetry; Steevens in English critical information; Fox either as a ftatesman or orator; Sheridan as a man of wit and eloquence; Erskine as an accomplished, religious, able, and patriotic lawyer; in fhort, taking all these and moft of the reft together, and excepting thofe with whom they would not affociate nor act, we have no hefitation to affirm, that, in point of wisdom and true grandeur of genius, they have not their equal ;-in point of goodness, they are equal to any in Great Britain.

The clofe of this epiftle contains, amongst other ftuff, a character of the A. of the Pursuite, who is fuppofed to be dead*. He grew up in folitude and filence from his youthnot embarraffed by difficulty-mufed much on other times-lived in habitual poetry-wore in his youth a mantle with figures on it like the flower infcribed with woe, i. e. he was mad; for why should he have been woeful, feeing he was in a "quiet independence?" That he was mad, then, has much probability on its fide. He often dwelt in the vale of Tempe, grove of Plato, and other foreign places; and got his water from Caftalia. (See all these things p. 57. and 58.) at last he went down to Avernus. So we shall chaunt his dirge in the words of his own fong, No Patriot weeps when gifted Villains die.

P. of L. Dial. III. v. 180.
Edinburgh.

M.

THIS

to enrol the fubje&t of the prefent article in the number of her ornaments, as his extraordinary abilities have been brought into action, ftrengthened, and properly directed, under the auspices of the British fovereign.

of Hanover, and was born November 15, 1738. He was the fecond of four fons, all of whom were brought up to their father's profeffion, which was that of a musician. In addition to thefe, Mr Herfchel, fenior, had two daughters; and therefore, burdened