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firft, is, the life of Anthony Auguftin Archbishop of Tarragona, who flourished in the 16th century; the fecond, of Auguftin, the firft Archbishop of Canterbury, who flourished in the fixth and seventh Centuries; and the third, of Auguftin, the famous Bishop of Hippo, who flourished in the fourth and fifth centuries! This arrangement is very aukward; but it is of lefs confequence than the omiffion of those particular tenets, and the arguments by which they are fupported, that have led the Calvinifts to claim the Bishop of Hippo for their own. It is on account, of those tenets alone that the life of St. Auguftin can now much intereft the reader; but the biographer has taken not the smallest notice of them, though he has given a minute account of the Bishop's fquabbles with the Donatifts and Manichees, which can excite no intereft. He likewife. quotes Erafmus, as calling him a " writer of obfcure fubtlety, and unpleasant prolixity;" but in juftice he ought to have added, that the fame Erafmus fays, Solus Auguftinus præftat omnes fcriptoris Chriftiani dotes, in docendo fedulus, in redarguendo nervofus, in exhortando fervidus, in confolande blandus, ubique pius, et verè Chriftianam fpirans manfuetudinem.

AURORA Borealis is a well written article, but we cannot fay fo much for the article AUTOGRAPHUM. Why the editor chofe, under that title, to enquire what became of the original MSS. of the New Teftament in particular, rather than of the original MSS. of any other ancient books, it is not eafy to conceive. The inquiry, if it be of any importance, might have been made under the title SCRIP TURES, or under NEW TESTAMENT; but it is in fact, as Michaelis and others have completely proved, of no importance. An ancient manufcript, profeffing to have been written by St. Paul himself, could not have been proved authentic by any other kind of evidence than that which proves his epiftles to have been tranfmitted to us by a feries of faithful copies; and indeed there could have been no proof of the one fact fo complete as that which we poffefs of the other. This cyclopædift had furely forgotten the late invention of the art of printing, when he hazarded the following abfurd fentence:" The early lofs of the autographa of the New Teftament affords juft matter of furprife, when we reflect that the original MSS. of Luther and other eminent men, who lived at the time of the reformation; whofe writings are of much lefs importance than those of the apoftles, are ftill fubfifting." The comparative infignificance of the writings of Luther is the very circumftance, which, combined with the facility of multiplying copies

by means of the prefs, has preferved his original manufcripts, for had those MSS. been tranfmitted from church to church, and copied by a hundred hands, it is not probable that they could have been read fifty years after they were written.

AUTOLITHOTOмUS is furely a very fuperfluous article; for if there be, as we are here told, one inftance of a man who cut himself for the ftone, the practice is not likely to become fo frequent as to require a compound Greek name for fuch operators! We have the fame pedantic trifling, and in the very fame words, in the Encyclopædia Britannica.

No man accustomed to philofophical arrangement would have thought of making a feparate article of AZOT, in agriculture, and placing it too before AZOT, in chemistry !: What makes this arrangement ftill more ridiculous, is that we are informed of nothing in the former article, but that, "the effects of azot on vegetation are not yet fully afcertained; and that fome plants expofed in it foon droop and die, whilst others continue to grow in a perfect manner.'

We have now run rapidly through the articles under the letter A in this Cyclopædia, and have characterized fuch of them as particularly attracted our attention. If we have. found fome calling for reprehenfion, we have likewise found fome entitled to praise; and we doubt not but that there is much to blame, and still more to praife, that has efcaped our notice. In the fecond and third volumes we have found nothing fo exceptionable as one or two articles, which, in our opinion difgrace the firft; but we beg leave to affure. the editor, that, in the minds of those who are acquainted with the French Encyclopædia, and know the effects produced by it through all Europe, he will excite fufpicions not friendly. to his undertaking, if he fhall continue to fufler religious or political difcuffion to be introduced into articles, where no.. thing could naturally lead the reader to look for it. We could likewife with him to banish from his work all useless and uninterefting biography; and not to fubdivide his articles. more than the plan that he has adopted abfolutely requires. Of typographical errors we have not obferved a greater number than are perhaps inevitable in works of the kind; but we entreat the correctors to pay more attention, if poffible, to the dates; for we have repeatedly found the deaths of men placed, at the end of an article, in the century preceding that, in which, at the beginning, they were faid to have been born.

In examining this work thus far, we have not thought it neceffary to collate it with the former editions of this Cyclopædia; becaufe, if any thing was there objectionable, it is

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little lefs faulty to have retained it in this edition, than to have introduced it on the prefent occafion. With respect to the execution of the work, in point of typography, and still more as to the plates, it is but juftice to say that it is very greatly fuperior to any thing that has hitherto appeared. The Plates of the Encyclopædia Britannica were, and continue in the fecond edition to be contemptible; but here they are in general the work of the best artists, and fuch as would do honour to any publication.

BRITISH CATALOGUE.

POETRY.

ART. 10. The Ruftic. A Poem; in Four Cantos. By Evan
Clark. 12mo.
Price 2s. 6d. Oftell. 1805.

This Poem is the production of a writer, who avows himself to have seen his feventeenth year. It is in four cantos, and defcribes, in pleafing verfe, the life, purfuits, qualifications, and employments of a ruftic. It certainly is not remarkable for any lofty flights, or bold conception, "for words that breathe, or thoughts that burn," but it is never mean nor tedious, and we have read it with much fatisfaction. The following represents a scene. which we must all remember, and all have pursued with greater or lefs avidity.

"Come, blushing Spring, with thee the school-boy train,
Rufh joyous forth to plunder round the plain;
Each brake, each bush, with eager eye furvey,
And burn to bear the fpeckled spoils away.
Through fen and foreft, wet and wearied roam,
Till frowning Evening chace them to their home.
No neft efcapes with whate'er art difguifed,
And not a twig is left unscrutinized;

Each crannied wall their eyes and hands explore,
And tits and red-tails muft refign their ftore.
Some youth, the hero of the daring train,
Risks his young neck the magpye's neft to gain;
With labour vaft attains the topmost bough,
And waves a living gibbet to the view.
Eggs, his laft wifh, th' ventrous fchool-boy's all,
And one string more fhall grace the fhining wall.
Then with each youth, triumphantly detail
The chequered fortunes of the hill and vale;

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Boaft in what bush the blackbird's neft he took,
On what tall oak defpoiled the cawing rook ;
Boneach what hillock the wild duck betrayed,
Wha: antic stratagems the dam difplay'd.
From what clofe copfe, the glory of the day,
He bore the full-fledg'd goldfinches away;
What dangers he efcaped, what risks he braved,
And down which precipice his limbs he faved;
With thousand incidents of dread import,

And ends the tale-"Now this is glorious fport." &c. &c.

ART. 11. Infpiration. A Poetical Effay. By Martha Savery. 8vo. Arch. 1s. 6d.

1805.

We do not remember the name of this writer, but it seems as if it will be her own fault if her name be not more generally known, and efteemed' too.-The following fpecimen of this work will justify the affertion.

"O'er hill and valley, o'er the barren heath,
Or foil matur'd by every art of man,.
Breathing the incenfe of its various fruits

And flowers all beauteous, ftill thy voice is heard.
But oh! moft awful, moft fublime thou reign'ft
O'er the tall cliff, the rugged precipice,
The roaring cataract, and rolling wave
Dashing its foam againft th' unfhaken rock,
Repelling all its fury-there on high,
O'er Appenine, or o'er the tow'ring Alps,
Wrapt in a mifty cloud, thou fitt'ft enshrined
In majesty fupreme. The wand'ring bard,
Struck by thy magic wand, arrested stands
To contemplate their greatness, full of thee,
O'er all his form a heavenly radiance fhines,"
As wrapt in thought fublime, he feels thy breath
Sweep gently o'er his lyre, and wake to life
The fong immortal; then to rapture rifing,
As o'er the foft'ning view the fun declines,
He fings the wonders of the scenes around him
In all their wild fublimity, till fir'd
To nobler daring, his mellifluous ftrains,
Wound to a higher pitch, accord the praise
Of their great architect, and to the foul

Of philofophic piety present

The nobleft picture-Man, the child of Heaven,

Singing, thro' all his works, his Maker's praife." P.10.

ART. 12.

Soldier's Fare, or, Patriotism and Hofpitality. A Poem. Refpectfully infcribed to Robert Wigram, Efq. M. P.

Lieutenant

Lieutenant Colonel Commandant of the 6th Regiment L. L. V. (Loyal London Volunteers) Second edition. 4to. 19 PP. Is. 6d. Jones. / 1805.

The patriotifm rather than the poetry of the writer before us feems to have carried his work to a fecond edition: for several of the paffages remind us of the celebrated couplet

"And thou, Dalhoufie, the great God of War,
"Lieutenant Colonel to the Earl of Mar!"'

But, when the intentions of an author are fo good, we will not dwell upon defects in the execution of them. The Poem celebrates (we doubt not with truth) the public fpirit of the 6th Regiment of London Volunteers and the hofpitality of their commander. Long may the author witnefs that fpirit and partake of that hofpitality! for "Soldier's Fare," however plain, is, we can affure him, far preferable to the ufual Fare of a Poet.

ART. 13. Half An Hour's Lounge; or Poems. By Richmal Manguall. Small 8vo. 80 pp. 35. Longman, Hurft, &c. 1805.

We fee not much to cenfure in this little volume of poems, but ftill lefs to commend, not one of them appearing to us to rife above mediocrity. The following, though not faultlefs, is not only one of the shorteft, but one of the beft. We are, however, concerned that the fair author fhould have occafion to reproach any man with deceit.

"6 THE REPROACH.

"AGAIN another dawn of woe!
Yes, Henry, this I bear for thee:
Grief fteals on true affection's glow,
And bids my troubled heart be free.
Why did that heart thy vows believe?
Why doat upon thy foothing tale?
Wert thou not aiming to deceive?
And flighted Love removes the veil.
Frequent beneath a winning form,
Dark and unmanly arts appear;
Thus bright the glance of pleafure's morn,
But lurking dangers chill with fear.

Nor triumph in the work of death,
Nor turn thee from my ardent pray'r;
May heav'n receive my parting breath,

I pardon-and would meet thee there." P. 33.

The trange names in the title page, we fhould fuppofe, muft

he faitious.

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