vouchfafement or gift only, as St. Paul alfo teaches, in Rom. íîì. 24. Eph. ii..8, &c. Add alfo, Acts xi. 18.

• And from the whole, who difcerns not, in the last place, how. such a faith in Chrift on the finner's part, and fuch gracious acceptance and imputation of it on the part of God, does finally and fubftantially refolve itself into the fame with that repentance and remiffion of fins which was to be preached in all nations in the name of Jefus; and thus reconcile together not only Jefus and St.' Paul, but St. Paul and St. James alfo; if we will only understand by thofe works which St. Paul fo exprefsly excludes, works of law, as we certainly ought; and by thofe which St. James requires and fpeaks fo highly of, works of faith, that is, done in it, and proceeding from it; to which it is certain that St. Paul neither had, nor could have, any objection. To fome it has feemed probable that the righteousness of God by faith, in Phil. iii. 9. is to be understood of works of this nature.' P. 176.

The remaining part of the work relates to the prophecies of Daniel and Ifaiah, and the Revelations. The downfall of the pope, and the decay of his church, having occurred in our days in fo different a manner from that which was predicted by the generality of commentators on fcripture, many perfons may be induced to receive without difapprobation the fentiments of our writer. He cannot fee the pope in Daniel: Antiochus Epiphanes is the principal character in the drama; and the fcene of action is chiefly confined to Judæa and Babylon. On the Revelations we cannot agree farther with Mr. Amner, than in his wifh for a regular fcheme or plan of well-foundedinterpretation. We were more pleafed with his critique on the prophecies of Ifaiah, whofe work he divides into two parts. The former part, ending with the thirty-ninth chapter, may, he thinks, not improperly be entitled Hezekiah, or Isaiah's Hezekiah, as we fay Virgil's Encïs; and to the fecond, containing the rest of the book, may be given the appel-: lation of the Return; i. e. the return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity. Agreeably to this notion, the phrases applied to our faviour are attributed to Hezekiah; and the fuppofed evangelical views of the prophet are confined to rapturous exclamations on the return of his countrymen, and the happiness which they for fo long a time enjoyed in confequence of their obedience to the true God.

To examine all the opinions of Mr. Amner would take up more time than we can fpare: but we can affure thofe individuals to whom fuch a tafk more immediately belongs, that, however they may differ from the writer in various points, they will be pleafed with his fpirit of refearch, with his candour in argumentation, and with the proofs which he has given of a mind devoted to the cause of fcriptural truth.

*

The Purfuits of Literature. A. Satirical Poem in four Dia logues. With Notes. The Eighth Edition revifed. 8vo. 8s. 6d. Boards. Becket. 1798.

IN the opinion of the author of this work, the fullness of the fatirical glory never thone but on SIX POETS; the three Roman fatirifts, Boileau, Dryden, and Pope. As a difciple of thefe great mafters, and full of that fpirit which an unbroken and an honourable intimacy with their works has infpired, I now prefent myfelf' (he fays) a votary at their temple; and in fome measure clothed in the robes of their hereditary priesthood, I would alfo enter and offer my oblation at the high altar of my country.' This writer is willing to confider himself as the feventh great fatirift; he would perfuade the world that the fullness of the fatirical glory, like the divine light which defcended from Ifhmael to Mohammed, has fettled upon him in the confummation of splendour. But will pofterity receive the fame of this anonymous fatirist upon his own teftimony? His own opinions, indeed, are frequently and decifively expreffed; he is the cenfor of literature, the defender of the faith and conflitution of his country. A very Quixote in literature, he has attacked windmills and fheep, and congratulated himself upon the overthrow of giants and of armies. His own teftimony, however, will not avail him at the tribunal of difpaffionate judges; nor can the merit of the work be inferred from its rapid and extenfive fale: the author himself will not confider, as the criterion of merit, a circumstance which would be equally in favour of the Monk and of the writings of Thomas Paine. Scandal and calumny will always be greedily received; the Jockey Club was generally read because it was perfonal and abufive; and the anonymous fatirift may congratulate himself upon a fimilar notoriety.

It may be obferved, to the disgrace of the prefent fatirift, that he has always exaggerated the faults or merits which he has cenfured or commended, and has contemplated every thing through the falfe medium of prejudice or friendship. We tranfcribe what he has faid of the romance of the Monk.

There is one publication of the time too peculiar, and too important to be paffed over in a general reprehenfion. There is nothing with which it may be compared. A legiflator in our own parliament, a member of the house of commons of Great Britain, an elected guardian and defender of the laws, the religion, and the good manners of the country, has neither fcrupled nor blufhed to depict, and to publifh to the world, the arts of lewd and fyftematick feduction, and to thrust upon the nation the most open and unqualified blafphemy against the very code and volume of our religion. And all this, with his name, ftyle, and title, prefixed to the novel

* For an account of the first edition, see our XVIIIth Vol. New Arr. p. 47, and Vol. XXI. p. 15.

of romance called "The Monk." And one of our publick theatres has allured the publick attention ftill more to this novel, by a fcenick representation of an epifode in it. "O proceres, cenfore opus eft, an harufpice, nobis?" I confider this as a new species' of legiflative or state-parricide.' P. 239.

• We can feel that it is an object of moral and of national reprehenfion, when a fenator openly and daringly violates his first duty to his country. There are wounds, and obftructions, and diseases in the political, as well as in the natural, body, for which the removal of the part affected is alone efficacious. At an hour like this, are we to stand in confultation on the remedy, when not only the disease is afcertained, but the very stage of the disease, and its specifick fymptoms? Are we to fpare the fharpeft inftruments of authority and of cenfure, when public establishments are gangrened in, the life-organs?

I fear, if our legiflators are wholly regardless of fuch writings, and of fuch principles, among their own members, it may be faid to them, as the Roman fatirift faid to the patricians of the empire, for offences flight indeed, when compared to thefe :

"At vos, Trojugenæ, vobis ignofcitis, et quæ

Turpia cerdoni, Volesos Brutosque decebunt.

There is furely fomething peculiar in these days; something wholly unknown to our ancestors. But men, however dignified in their political station, or gifted with genius, and fortune, and accomplish-· ments, may at least be made afhamed, or alarmed, or convicted before the tribunal of publick opinion. Before that tribunal, and to the law of reputation, and every binding and powerful fanction by which that law is enforced, is Mr. Lewis this day called to anfwer.' P. 242.

What

It certainly is not our intention to justify the licentiousness of the Monk, or the ridiculous criticifm upon the fcriptures, which the fatirist fo vehemently points out as blafphemous, and deferving of public punishment. On the first publication of the book, we feverely condemned the indecent and impious parts of it. But furely it is moft exaggerated cenfure to compare Mr. Lewis with Cleland for the obfcenity, and with Woolfton and Peter Annet for the blafphemy, of his writings. Let the whole tendency of the novel be confidered. are the confequences of Ambrofio's indulged paffions? guilt, ignominy, death, and everlafting perdition. Perhaps, if the indecencies of the Monk had not been fo induftriously pointed. out, many or even most of its readers would not have noticed or remembered them. But the tenor of the whole, fays the fatirift, is reprehenfible: how? is it reprehenfible to enforce by ftory the precept, how mercy to others that you may deferve mercy yourfelt?' or will this cenfor object to the old. leffon,

*Sce our XIXth Vol. New Arr. p. 194.

let no man be confident in his own virtue? It is ungenerous and unjust, after accufing Mr. Lewis fo bitterly for the improper paffages to which we have alluded, not to mention that in the last edition of his book they have been omitted. The fatirift is not always fo fevere upon obfcenity; he can fpeakof an obfcene poem as the light and vigorous fally of a very young man, forgiven as fuch and forgotten; but he can find no palliating epithet for the Monk. As for the youth of its author, the plea for which the Geranium is forgiven and forgotten, he afks, What is it to the kingdom at large, or what is it to all thofe whofe office it is to maintain truth, and to instruct the rifing abilities and hope of England, that the author of the Monk is a very young man ?' and, if there be any thing vigorous or poetical in the novel, it is,' he fays, 'fo much the worfe; it is the more alluring on that account.'

The fatirift fiercely attacks the following paffage in Mr. Godwin's Enquirer, refpecting the children of peasants.

At the age of fourteen the very traces of understanding are obliterated. They are enlifted at the crimping houfe of oppreffion. They are brutified by immoderate and unremitting labour. Their hearts are hardened, and their fpirits broken by all that they fee, all that they feel, and all that they look forward to. This is one of the most interesting points of view, in which we consider the prefent order of fociety! It is the great flaughter-house of genius, and of mind. It is the unrelenting murderer of hope and gaiety, of the love of reflection, and of the love of life.'

6

This it is (he adds), I suppose, as this atrocious but foolish writer would call it, to promote patience and tranquillity among mankind! He is, however, unfortunate in the felection of a paffage for his cenfure. Does he deny that a great proportion of the lower claffes of fociety are brutified by immoderate and unremitting labour? that their hearts are hardened and their fpirits broken by all that they fee, all that they feel, and all that they look forward to? Does he object to the paffage as tending to excite difcontent? to whom then does he fuppofe that the book is addreffed will it be read by thofe who are enlifted at the crimping-house of oppreffion,' or by the manufacturers who are herded together by fifties and by hundreds, and deftroyed by the flow poison of confinement and unwholefome occupations? When the grievances of the poor are expofed in works like this, they are intimated to thofe who have the power of alleviating them. Such a difclofure may stimulate the rich to beneficence; but furely octavo volumes are not calculated to excite the poor to discontent.

No author ever laid himself more open to ridicule than Mr. Godwin. His enemies could not have dictated paffages more agreeable to them than he has written. We are not the ads

vocates for his fyftem; but we would deal fairly even with the fyftem which we difapprove. To ridicule is not always to confute; and any fyftem may be rendered ridiculous by ex, hibiting only parts of it.

The first trait of the work is, a certain cold-blooded indifference to all the mild, pious, and honourable feelings of our common na ture, like all the philosophers of the new fect. The next thing observable, is a most affectionate concern and regard for the welfare of mankind, who are to exift some centuries hence, when the endlefs perfectibility of the human fpecies (for fuch is their jargon) fhall receive its completion upon earth; when the difciples of Dr. Darwin have learned to manage the winds and direct their currents at pleafure, and the defcendants of abbé Sieyes have calmed the waves of a ftormy people with the effential oil of democracy. Another trait is that all political justice is effentially founded upon injuftice; if plunder, robbery, and fpoliation of all property in the outfet may be termed injuftice; though to be fure the latter end of his commonwealth rather forgets the beginning. But I must say, he is not without fome kind of apprehenfion, that the population of states may be too great, under the bleffings of an equal diffufion of property in the propofed government, for which he provides a remedy though, for my own part, I think such a government, like Saturn of old, will be reduced to the neceflity of eating up it's children. Again: another discovery feems to be, that as hitherto we have had recourfe to the agency and interference of the deity, and his unalterable laws, to account even for the fall of a stone to the ground, the germination of a blade of grafs, or the propagation of the meanest infect; we are now to discard the fuperintendence of God in human and terreftrial affairs, and to believe in no providence but our own, and to re-make ourselves and our faculties. He feems to realize a modern fiction I once read, which fuppofes an affembly of certain philofophers before the deity, when fome of them are faid to whifper in his ear, "Between friends, we do not believe that you exift at all." Further: as to fuppofe a divine fanction without a divinity would be abfurd, therefore, every inftitution such as marriage, which in all civilized nations has been hal, lowed for the great end for which it was ordained, is to be vilified, ridiculed, argued away, and abolished. The tender fex, deprived of the fupport, comfort, and protection of their natural guardian, is to be delivered over to fancied freedom and wild independance, but in reality to mifery and deftitution beyond all calculation. Then by way of corollary, a few vulgar virtues and once honourable affections, as piety to parents, and love to children, as such, are to be erafed from the breaft. Gratitude for kindness, and tears for the unfortunate, are but weakness: there is nothing foothing in compaffion, and friendship has no confolation. It would feem, that a well of water, an apple tree, or any thing productive, is more va