DIVINITY.

The annual Lectures of Canon Bampton, established in the University of Oxford, have produced, and are likely to produce, fome of the most important volumes in English Theology. Nor can many of them. be more valuable, than two which we have noticed in our prefent half-year; thofe on Religious Enthusiasm, by Mr. Nott*, of all Soul's College; and thofe of Dr. Laurence, on a material part of the Calvinistical Controversy. Mr. Nott, by clear definitions and accurate deductions, points out the nature of Enthufiafm, and of the minds on which it is likely to operate; Dr. Laurence, moft diligently examining the theological language of the age of our Reformers, has demonftrated that thofe articles of our church which are claimed by the Calvinifts, as inculcating their opinions, cannot poffibly have had that meaning, in the intention of those who wrote them.

This latter volume unfolds fo much recondite information, that we could not do juftice to its contents, or give them the fupport we wifhed, without a very extended critique. We are foon to report upon another highly valuable work, produced by the fame lecture. A different inftitution, and one more flow in its progreffion, produced the Warburtonian Lectures, of Mr. Nares, Archdeacon of Stafford 1; of which it is not perhaps too much to fay, that they give a clear as well as a chronological view, of one great Clafs of Prophecies, and thofe the most important.

The chief works which we have noticed, befides thefe, are tranflated from French authors, though not without confiderable acceffions from the tranflators. Thefe are the pious and impreffive Charges of Maffillon, adapted to English ule, by Mr. St. John; and the much noticed volume of M. Villers, on the Spirit and Influence of the Reformation .

No. I. p. 57. + No. IV. p. 406. V. p. 515. VI. p. 625. No. VI. p. 652.

by Mill and by Lambert.

No. III. p. 228.

See No. IV. p. 382.

Tranflated

Mr.

Mr. Buchanan's Memoir on an Establishment for Britif India, is of a mixed nature, involving much of political confideration; but, as its principal object and moft weighty arguments connect it with religion, we have here introduced the mention of it.

Of occafional difcourfes, we might enumerate feveral, not wholly unworthy of that diftinction; but we felect, as more particularly demanding it, the primary Charge of the Bishop of Exeter †, with the Sermon of Mr. Gregor, delivered at the fame Vifitation: the Sermon of Mr. Churton on the Powder-plot §, and that of Dr. Eveleigh, Provost of Oriel, on the 87th Pfalm. Thefe are all of diftinguifhed excellence; but the Bishop's charge is, as it ought to be, preeminent among them.

The firft in merit, as the first in place.

HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES.

The confolidation of these claffes, which are not always easy to separate, will afford us one of moderate extent. The Hiftorical View of the English Government, begun long ago, by the late Profeffor Millar, of Glafgow, and now completed from his papers, is a work of very mixed character. It has too many merits to be paffed over here, and too many faults to be praised without much referve. The author was a zealous, and at one time a dangerous republican; but, with allowance for the prejudices belonging to fuch a character, a man of ability and research. The former caufe produces the chief errors, the latter the great merits of his work. Mr. Glenie's improved edition of a work, entitled Military Memoirs **, compiled ori

ginally by the continuator of Watfon's Hiftories, is a book of amusement to the common reader, and of inftruction to the military ftudent to the one it is general hiftory, to the other profeffional example. The History and Antiquities of the Town of St. Edmund's Bury have employed the induftry and exercised the pen of Mr. Yates; and the refult has been a very ufeful and fatisfactory work. As fupplemental to one period of English Hiftory, the Progresses of Queen Eli"zabeth will often be confulted; and the third volume lately produced by Mr. Nichols †, the compiler of the two former, is not inferior to them in the curious na;ture of its contents. The hiftory of the 18th century, as far as the progrefs of Arts, Science, and Literature is concerned, has been given by an American Clergyman, Mr. Miller, in his Retrospect. The work has been republished here, and is likely to be well received. Mr. Clarke's Naufragia is almoft too trifling a work to be placed in the clafs of Hiftory: yet it may come in among the appendages to hiftorical knowledge, and therefore is here noticed.

BIOGRAPHY.

A work long and anxiously expected by the literary world was Mr. Rofcoe's Life and Pontificate of Leo XI. That it is equal to the work which raifed that expectation, the Memoirs of Lorenzo, can hardly be affirmed; but, if it has faults which were not perceivable there, it has merits alfo, which mark the hand of the fame able writer. The Memoirs of General Thomas, produced by Captain Francklin, are curious in themfelves, and highly illuftrative of the interior History of Modern India. Among the early biographers of the illuftrious Nelfen, Mr. Charnock ** ftands diftinguished

by many valuable qualities: that his book will not be furpaffed hereafter, when time fhall have completed and matured information, cannot be promised; but, for immediate ufe, it is well deferving of attention. The Memoirs of Mr. Cumberland, written by himself, form one of thofe interefting books, wherein an author of celebrity defcribes himfef and his contemporaries. Few fuch pictures are ever drawn, as are thus fketched from the life by the hand of a mafter: and the want of fome minuté finishings is amply compenfated by the fpirit and vigour of the pencilling. The Life of Marmontelt is a fimilar production, which we noticed briefly, because only in a tranflation: but the original affords more fubject for remark than almost any other book we could name. Himfelf he has drawn, we believe, with tolerably accuracy; his brother Philofophers, with foftened features indeed, but with many lines of truth; and he has traced the caufes of the Revolution, like a man of feeling, who would have rejoiced to arrest its fatal progrefs. Laycey's Life of Erafmus is confeffedly only Jortin's, re luced to the standard of ordinary biography, and not without skill. Granger's Letters are illuftrative of biography, as his Biographical Hiftory is of the Hiftory of England; by fhort and defultory communications, rather than by any connected narrative. The Life of Telley, and I and the Female Revolutionary Flutarch, are continua➡ tions of a plan calculated to fhow the French Revolution in all the minutiae of its horrors; and to make us intimately acquainted with the actors and fufferers in it. Had the former never lived, we fhould have loft indeed fome virtues of the latter, but we never should have known how like men may become to devils.

TRAVELS AND GEOGRAPHY.

Connected with thefe two claffes by its principal fubject, the work on the Periplus of Arrian*, which we have here feen completed, by Dr. Vincent, Dean of Weftminster, has reference alfo to various other branches of learned refearch; to the hiftory of ancient manners and commerce, and the tranfition of both into thofe of modern times; to claffical learning; and, occafionally, even to facred hiftory. Investigation fo extenfive, and remark fo acute, are very rarely united; and the two volumes of this work, with that on the Voyage of Nearchus, contain more knowledge, remote from the common objects of enquiry, than has often been comprised within an equal number of fheets.

The works that remain to be here noticed are of a more common kind: fuch as Capt. Beaver's African Memoranda I, and the tours within our own ifland, by Mr. Mawman and Mr. Malkin ||. Information and amusement may be found in each of thefe, but of a more light and popular kind.

Dr. Aikin, whole endeavours to inftruct his countrymen have been unremitting and fuccefsful, has lately published Geographical Delineations ¶; a work of merit and ingenuity, and calculated to diffufe very ufeful information. The Traveller's Guide, by Mr. Oulton ** may be confidered as a new English Gazetteer, convenient in every thing but fize, or rather bulk; for its thickness only exceeds moderation.

POLITICS.

Seldom have we taken up a political work in which the information conveyed was fo new, or fo impor

* No. II. p. 97.. III. p. 287. Volume, fee vol. xvi. of the British x. pp. 1. and 70. No. I. p. 48. III. p. 256. No. II. p. 208.

For our account of the first Critic. + Brit. Crit. vol. § No. II. p. 124. || No. ** No. II. p. 203.

tant