in the name, but that fuch has generally been the defign and attempt of perfons who wrote Reviews in this country; and that fuch a record, under whatever name, is in itfelf defirable, will not we think be denied. Such it has been our uniform attempt to render the BRITISH CRITIC; and to make it in that respect ftill more useful, we firft ftruck out the plan of thefe half-yearly prefaces, in which we briefly recapitulate the works which best deserve attention ; adding references to our larger criticifms, for the more detailed account of each. This plan has given fatisfaction, and has in fome inftances been imitated.

Many books after all, as happens to every fuch Review, we are confcious of having paft by or overlooked; but it has feldom been by defign; and the accidents that have occafioned fuch omiffions may be as cafily imagined as repeated. Sometimes the illnefs or even death of a coadjutor; fometimes difapprobation of what was offered to us; and fometimes, because we have fairly had doubts refpecting the fubject of the work. Önce or twice we have paffed by a book, in confideration of the peculiar circumstances of the author, whom cenfure might have injured, and to whom we could not give approbation. Whatever caufe produces long delay, is likely, in a periodical work, to produce entire omiffion; fince new objects are continually arifing, with more urgent demands, and more intereft attached to them in the eye of the public, than belongs to fuch as are lefs re

cent.

We are far from uniting in opinion with those who think that a Review fhould be a felection; and that there is little ufe in noticing bad or trifling works.The vanity and prefumption of foolish writers ought to be repreffed, for the fake of the writers themfelves, as well as for the fake of the public: and the mischievous are too indulgently treated if they are only paffed over in filence. Much more than the cost

of

of a Review may be faved to many perfons, by being told what they ought not to buy; and the extreme ignorance of fome pretenders to authorship, is even a curious circumftance in the history of the human mind; as may very often be feen in our Monthly Catalogue, particularly under the head of Poetry.

If then a fervice of this nature be effential to the public; if it be defirable that a complete hiftory of the publications of any period fhould be at all attainable, we say, without fear of contradiction, that these objects cannot be effected by any one or even all of thofe publications which notice only eight or ten books in a quarter of a year. The average number of works mentioned, more or lefs explicitly, in each monthly publication of the BRITISH CRITIC, is about thirty-five, which gives, in the whole year, the number of four hundred and twenty; and even this amount is usually, as we have candidly stated, deficient. What progress then can critics make who notice only forty, at the moft, in the fame period, and feveral of those perhaps not connected with British literature? We defire not to contend about a name, or we might contend, that, in a REVIEW, books ought to be reviewed, whereas, in the publications here alluded to, the title of a book (or even of feveral together) ferves frequently as a mere introduction to an original differtation, of great extent, in which the contents, the merits, or demerits of the introducing work are not even mentioned or alluded to. This then is evidently not a critique but a new pamphlet on the fame fubject, and requiring to be reviewed as much as that or those which gave occafion to it. But waving this, as bearing chiefly upon the name of Review, we haften to conclude this introduction.

What cannot be done by means of any one Review, even on the old plan, may be effected by a comparifon of three or four, fince very few books are omitted by all of those who undertake to notice all.

What, it may be asked, is our defign? Is it to diminish the fale of the works herein defcribed? Far otherwife. We read them ourselves, and were they confidered as books, not journals, would review, and often recommend them. They are in truth collections of effays or differtations, fometimes critical, but more frequently political; generally very able, often learned, and fometimes calculated to be highly useful. Yet though we could not perhaps always do what they have done, and fometimes certainly would not if we could, yet most clearly what we profefs and perform, with whatever fuccefs, the production of a regular record of British literature, THEY do not even attempt, and therefore fhould not be confidered as occupying the fame ground.

Let it not then be faid that there are at prefent fo many REVIEWS; when in fact there are none, according to the original acceptation of the word, excepting those which proceed upon the old plan. We plead not for preference. Let the public prefer, if they be really preferable, differtations on a very few works, to a general account of many. But let things at least be rightly understood; and let those who with for a Review, that they may know what paffes in the literary world, be aware how little progrefs they can make, in that object, with the beft conducted felections. The Preface, which we are now about to begin, will contain more literary facts than feveral volumes of quarterly effays, however ingenious, able, or amufing.

DIVINITY.

It has happened fometimes, that we have forborne to fpeak of a work in the preface, because the account of it was hitherto incomplete in our volume. ទ

There

can

can be no occafion for this caution refpecting the Bishop of Lincoln's truly excellent Refutation of Calvinifm*. Our opinion of it was fixed foon after its appearance, and it will be feen, in the number which appears with this preface, that we have found no reafon to waver in it, or to vary from it, to the very clofe of our abridgement or analyfis. It is altogether fuch a work as the church muft welcome with exultation; and, could prejudice ever be conquered by argument, would finally extinguish the controversy.. The herefy, however, which may linger for a time, must at length expire, and the juftice of heaven be eftablished. So fkilfully has this able prelate been employed,

"To vindicate the ways of God to man."

That we fhould be prepared to follow this work, with the mention of others equally important, cannot be expected. No hiftory can be compofed entirely of great events; and affairs of lefs comparative moment may well deferve to be recorded. We proceed, therefore, to our friend Dr. Hales, in whom we readily acknowledge a ftaunch friend to religion and the church, though, in his Differtations ton certain Prophecies, there are feveral paffages intended to be fevere upon us. We have no fcruple, however, cordially to recommend thofe differtations. The disjeti membra Palai, Paley's Sermons and Traits ‡, must also be distinguished; though the fpirit of trade may have involved them with fuperfluous additions. Like Æneas emerging from the cloud, Paley appears with dignity, whenever he appears at all; and a volume that completes his works will rife with its own buoyancy, however loaded by the publisher. Mr.

*No. V. p. 433. VI. 578. + No. I. p. 55. No. II. Carwithen's

185.

A 4

Carwithen's Bampton Lectures* carry us to Hindoftan for fome confirmations of true religion; and that preacher's views of the Brahminical doctrines, if not new, are useful and well arranged. In Smith's Effays on the first Principles of Religion †, as well as in the former volume long ago noticed t, are many things extremely found and valuable, so many as by far to outweigh the lefs fterling materials, and to form a work, on the whole well deferving our recommendation. Another fecond volume alfo received our praifes, as equal at leaft to the first, if not fuperior ; we fpeak of the Practical Sermons of Mr. Theophilus St. John, difcourfes of much perfuafive eloquence, and of principles truly found §. The Practical Sermons of Dr. Rees, though not deficient in merit, are by no means equally to our taste; practice being there, in our opinion, rather too much difunited from doctrine. Of a Chriftian's Survey of the Events and Periods of the World, we fpoke ftrongly, though briefly, because it is one of those few books in which the value bears the best proportion to the fize, that of excefs; compreffing more inftructive matter, and the result of more reading and thought, within a few small pages, than can be found in many bulky folios. As an introduction to more profound and important works, we cannot but fpeak well of Mr. Wilson's Letters on the truth, &c. of Religion**. A book that ferves as a ftep to Butler's admirable analogy, may be lefs thumbed, probably, than the school-boy's book that profeffes to lead to Parnaffus, but it conducts to a better hill, and a more effential knowledge. The excellent Liturgy of our church has been tranflated, as it ought, into almoft every principal language, but it has not always met with juftice, and the old French

No. II. p. 181. No. IV. p. 386. See Vol. xxii. p. 248, and No. III. p. VI. p. 618. I No. VI. p. 638.

Vol. xxxi. p. 627. 257 of this. No. **No. III. p. 306. tranflation