adopted the religion of their conquered enemies, and the habits of civilifed life. In no country did civilifation appear with the luftre that had adorned Athens or ancient Rome; but it. was diffufed over a wider furface. Thus the irruption of the northern nations proved, in the fequel, favourable to civilifa tion. The example of. France, which Mr. Browne has adduced, is not favourable to his argument. If fcience fuffered under the tyranny of Robefpierre, a repentant nation has made am-ple amends. Science has little to dread from revolutionary exceffes; for, if the period of revolution should arrive in other countries, France will prove a warning as well as an example. Neither is this the danger. The fpirit that prohibits inquiry, that forbids reading focieties in Germany, and infpects all books and coat-capes at Petersburg-this is the fpirit that would again barbarise Europe. A fevere attack is made by our author upon the character. of Dr. Johnson, who is faid to 'come forth from Mr. Bofwell's prefs in religion a bigot, in politics a tyrant, and in manners a barbarian. Let us examine his fpirit, his opinions, his confiftency; his fpirit appears to me alternately infolent and fervile, according as his commerce was with the great or with the humble: his opinions never free from the most inveterate and narrow prejudices: his confiftency ready at any time to fubmit to his love of contradiction and affectation of fuperiority unfair and uncandid in controverfy, ridiculously partial to his friends and abfurdly detracting from his enemies.' Vol. i. P. 69. This is a harsh attack; and, though it may be faid to be juftly founded in general, there is fometimes a want of candour in the inftances adduced. It is, perhaps, no proof of Dr. Johnfon's bigotry, that he did not difbelieve the existence of witches and apparitions, or that he examined in perfon whether the Cock-lane ghoft was an impofition. Most of Mr. Browne's readers, however, will probably agree with him even in this point; and the other circumftances for which he condemns Dr. Jolinfon cannot be palliated or excused. It is more pleasant to fee the critic attacked than the man; and, in the next effay, we find fome of the doctor's canons of criticism ably controverted. Johnfon feems to imagine that every image must be distinct; perfectly contoured like a fenfible object, otherwife that it is ab furd; he seems to think no image correct that could not be reprefented in painting; no idea can be more falle. Images, as I have faid, muft not be abfurd, but they may be indiftinct; they may change their shapes and yet not be repugnant; like aerial beings, 1 half feen behind a fleeting, yet beauteous cloud. As imagination bodies forth the forms of things unfeen, one perfon may be able to reduce them to fhape, another not, or in a less degree; but this hinders not that he may have a beautiful though an indistinct vifion. Give me leave to mention a few inftances of Johnson's cri ticifins from his Lives of the Poets, and then try whether by like canons of criticifm, any the most beautiful poetic paffages may not feem to be rendered ridiculous. I will (not to tire the reader) felect two remarkable criticisms, the firft on Addifon, the latter on Pope. Addifon fays, in the letter from Italy: Fir'd with that name, I bridle in my struggling mufe with pain, I fee nothing ridiculous in thefe lines, the words bridle and launch have by common and frequent use loft their figurative meaning, and mean no more than controul and enter upon. Perhaps their figurative fenfe does not occur to one man in a hundred that ufes them. Yet fee how ridiculous the critic makes this paffage, "To bridle a goddess is, fays he, rather a ridiculous idea, but why must he be bridled? Because the longs to launch, an act which never was hindered by a bridle; and whither will the launch? Into a nobler ftrain: fhe is in the first line a horse, in the fecond a boat, and the care of the poet is, to keep his horse and his boat from finging." Now, I ask the candid reader, whether this critique be fair, or whether he believes that the idea of a boat or a horfe, were ever in Mr. Addison's mind on this occafion.' Vol, i. P. 84. The truth is, Johnson had not poetic enthusiasm, which the poet has a right to expect from his reader, and which would hurry him away too much into the vortex of general effect, to suffer him to stay and analize each petty mole; it is like anatomizing a beauty with a furgeon's knife, and then faying fhe is very ugly when the has been flayed.' Vol. i. p. 87. In the paper entitled Religion, we were, pleafed with the picture of the effects which would follow, if Christianity were nationally practifed as well as profeffed. • Could we imagine a world in which religion univerfally prevailed, and Chriftianity was univerfally practifed; what health, what happiness, what peace would reign in fuch a scene! Wars muft ceafe-difeafe would be almoft unknown, for temperance and tranquillity of mind would banifi moft of thofe maladies which afflict mankind. Extreme old age finking in gradual decay without pain, without forrow, would be the termination of the life of man. The fpirits of youth without alloy; the enjoyments of manhood without care; the approach of death beheld without terror or anx lety. When we turn back from fuch a vifion to what the world really is, does it not seem almost the abode of dæmons? It might be a paradife ftill. Nature and Providence inflict comparatively few evils; we ourselves are the cause of our own mifery.' Vol. ii, P. 246. After reading in this paragraph, that, if Chriftianity were practifed, wars muft ceafe, we did not expect to find even defenfive war juftified; ftill lefs, after another paragraph, did we expect to find the author captain commandant of the univerfity corps. Suppose a man were to threaten the defenders of the Chriftian religion, or to endeavour to prevent their speaking its truths, by the fword, might they not repel fuch violence? • Your last instance is really too ludicrous; that a man fhould think himself justified in defending the Chriftian religion, by a direct breach of it, you cannot seriously maintain.' Vol. i. p. 136. As a military man, Mr. Browne has been ftudying tactics; and he has given copious extracts from Guibert. However inconfiftent we may deem this with his religious principles, we perfectly approve what he recommends to military men. The whole paragraph deferves to be quoted. The foldier's life is always fuppofed and reprefented to be a life of gaiety; few opinions are more common or more false; the glare of arms, the pomp of drefs, the spirit of mufic, impose on the young, the frivolous and giddy; but let the decayed captain, or old broken-hearted lieutenant fairly tell, what has been the gaiety of this captivating life to them. Look not to the little temporary parade in towns, but pursue the folitary officer to his feven years quarters at Niagara, or two years fojournment at Fort Auguftus, or view even the melancholy life which I have feen led by many a cavalier in remote villages of Ireland, with not a creature to speak to for twelve months but his dog, and fuch a prospect would foon cure youthful folly of the deception which encompaffes the fancy of the adopters of this profeffion, with nothing but fcenes of mirth and vivacity. Perhaps in the courfe of 30 years in the regular army, not fix of them, amidft its perpetual rotations, would be spent in agreeable quarters; I have known a youth who went abroad at 16, employ his time from thence to 40, in broiling on the rock of Gibraltar, in pining on the banks of Lake Erie, and in drinking fangre at St. Vincent's, and then return to his own country, almost an old man, after spending a very merry life of it truly. Perhaps the deception is ufeful. The army is neceffary, and how else could it be recruited? One thing however is to be lamented, that in this folitary life, for fuch it really is, with fo much leifure, fo little knowledge is acquired. How ufefully might time be diverted by the acquifition of languages, the ftudy of fortifica tion and tactics-the practice of drawing; yet in what regiment. will be found, perhaps more than two officers who understand any thing even of their own profeffion. Some excellent plans have been thought of by able men of late, to make commiffions the reward of literary merit. I wish they may fucceed, and we should no longer have the least informed though the most gallant army in Europe. Vol. ii. P. 224. The humourous effays form the worst part of these volumes. That which is entitled Malheureufement, unhappily reminds us of Marmontel. 6 Upon the whole, we have derived much pleasure from Mr. Browne's Sketches; and we should not have furmised, had not the preface fo informed us, that they were the result of thoughts which occurred in a long and folitary journey into a remote and unfrequented quarter of Ireland-where converfation was not to be expected, and the mind was left to itself. put together as evening amusements in melancholy inns.' The Sentiments of Philo Judeus concerning the Aoyos, or Wordof God; together with large Extracts from his Writings, compared with the Scriptures, on many other particular and effential Doctrines of the Chriftian Religion. By Jacob Bryant. 8vo. 35. 6d. Sewed. Cadell and Davies. 1797.. THE principal object of this publication is to prove, that, Philo Judæus (not Judeus, which is a diffyllable) borrowed his fentiments and expreffions, relative to the fecond perfon of the Trinity, from the converfation or writings of the apofties. Mr. Bryant thinks that he has proved this, and that it affords. a ftriking argument in favour of the truth of Chriftianity. It is afferted in the Preface, That Philo was converfant with many of our Saviour's difciples, and, as we are informed, with fome of the apoftles.' We cannot discover any fatisfactory evidence in fupport of this affertion; and we are difpofed to think that the probabilities arifing from conjecture, are adverfe to it. Among the expreffions which lead Mr. Bryant to suppose that Philo derived his information from the doctrines of the New Teftament (though it is admitted, that he probably held the great author of them in contempt,) are, AsuTEÇOS EOSΛογος Είκων Θε8 - Πρωτογενης - and υιος : but our author fhall fpeak for himself. The chief proof, that Philo had perused some of the books of the New Teftament, or at least had converfed with fome of the first converts to Chriftianity, is to be drawn from his writings in - which, as I have fhewn, are many articles of great confequence to be found. A perfon, who fpeaks of the Word of God, as the Son of God, his Firft-begotten, the Shepherd of his Flock, the fecond Great Caufe, the Image of God, the Mediator between God and Man, the Great High Prieft mentioned by the prophets, the Crea-, tor of all that was created; who fpeaks alfo of Redemption, and, Auтga naι σworgα the Price of Redemption, and of the perfon, λυτρα και σωστρα by whom it was to be procured, and by whom we are finally to attain to (any aidov) everlasting life: I fay, whoever, was acquaint-, ed with these doctrines, could be no stranger to Chrift and Chrif tianity. Eufebius therefore very juftly obferves, that Philo must have had in idea fome of the first preachers of the gofpel, and the doctrines tranfmitted by the apoftles themfelves, when he wrote these things. But this is not fufficiently precife: for he had not thefe truths tranfmitted. He lived in the time of the evangelifts and apostles and obtained his knowledge from them, the fountain head. And that he entertained a favourable opinion of the gofpel, we may judge from his filence; for though a Jew, and, as one in confequence of it would suppose, not a friend to Christianity; yet, when there are many opportunities afforded, he never speaks again it. And we have feen, that he borrows many effential truths, which could not have been obtained from any unconverted people of his own nation. At the fame time it is to be observed, that. though he lived among Chriftians, and was acquainted with their doctrines, yet he never mentions them; nor does he ever take notice of Saint Mark, who prefided in his time over the church at Alexandria. • Yet fo much was Philo beholden to them, that we may read in him the opinion of the apostles, and the doctrines of Chrift himfeif, about this.effential article of our belief. And that he had op portunities of information is plain. For if he were, as the editor thinks, antecedent to Christ in respect to his birth, it is very manifeft from his own evidence, that he furvived him: for in his treatise, about which we are concerned, he mentions, as I have fhewn, the death of Claudius. He was therefore alive through the whole courfe of our Saviour's refidence upon earth; and furvived him feveral years. This fhews, what room there was for intelligence; of which, it is plain, he availed himself. He was a Jew, and a follower of Plato. But what he fays of the firft-born fon of God, the creator, of all things, the image of God, the mediator, &c. was past the apprehenfion of man. Neither Plato, nor the ftoicks, had any thing, fimilar; and even the Jews had nothing adequate to the precife truths, which he difcloses. He certainly has adopted so much from Chriftianity, that Photius fuppofes, that he was a profelyte, but relapfed. For this however we have no evidence: on the contrary, Philo intimates through all his works, that he continued in the religion of his fathers.' P. 49. |