་་ Thy praise and cenfure were impartial fhewn, And faults and beauties to the world made known,” when his Thefpiad is folely devoted to praise and beauties, without the fmallest censure or any notice of faults, it is beyond our fimple Englifli capacity to comprehend. His attack on the fuppofed author of "the Purfuits of Literature" for his "execrable poetry" muit appear truly curious to those who have read that justly celebrated work, from the writer of fuch lines as the following. Coyne, with queer humour, and as queer a phiz, "Galindo plays in Mrs. Siddons' line, (But why adopt her melancholy whine?) Had the been formed as handfome, fine a creature (crature) "A pleafing woman, elegantly made, Looks very roguish as a dashing blade, And he that fuch a form with fatire twitches, Deferves to meet a wife who wears the breeches."-P. 25. · "Dowling fhall sketch thy likeness at a hazard, Surely, furely, we have, we have difplayed famples fufficient of the fubTime, the acute, and the beautiful, to convince our readers of the extreme fitness of our bard to be the Anfiarchus of dramatic literature, and to justify him in diftributing, largà manu, his cenfures, on fuch inferior poetafiers, as the author of the Purfuits of Literature, &c. Left, however, any. farther. proof fhould be required by fome one of our more faftidious readers, let him take the following criticism of the actor's and the poet's merit; "This, in my judgment, is the actor's test- So that if an actor chance to play Punch better than Macbeth, (and, alas! there are too many of that defcription) Flockton must be fuperior to Shakespeare! We fuppofe this is confidered as very found logic, and very juft criticifm; nor is it our intention to dispute the point; but we cannot here refrain from expreffing our concern at the influence which great names have ever poffeffed in misleading little minds. Thus the poetical nonfense of And "For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight, "For forms of government let fools conteft, has been received, without examination, as folemn fenfe and fober truth, and 0 4 has has not only been adopted as fuch, by the general herd of mankind, but has led to endless imitations, all falling below the, originals, even in fenfe and in logic. Pleasures of Solitude, with other Poems. By P. L. Courtier. Third Edition. Small Svo. Pp. 144. Plates. 6s. Rivingtons. 1801. IT is no small fatisfaction to us to find the opinion which we expressed of the two former editions of this interefting little volume confirmed by the public voice. Grateful for the approbation which the effufions of his virtuous and benevolent mufe have thus experienced, the Bard has induftrioufly and judicioufly altered and improved various paffages, principally in Pp. 20, 22, 36, 50, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76 and 77, and has prefixed to the present edition an elegant Sonnet, from the able pen of that excellent judge of poetical merit, the Rev. R. Polwhele, which we fhall extract. "How oft thy fong, lov'd bard of folitude! Doth memory whisper to my charmed ear; Then, where the glow-worm tints the moffy fward, Till, ftealing on my fenfe with fresh delight, I liften to the wood-lark's mellow lay! But not fo fweet the tinkling ftream, lov'd Bard! As are thy foothing notes, to win my fond regard." "Manaccan, June 22, 1802. "R. POLWHELE." Alfred, an Epic Poem, in Twenty-four Books. By Jofeph Cottle. Second Edition. 2 vol. Small 8vo. Pp. 530. Longman and Rees, London; Mills, Bristol. 1804. THE first edition of this poem was reviewed in one of our former volumes, with that attention which the labour employed, and the genius difplayed, in it fo well deferved. In the prefent edition various alterations have been made which befpeak a mind open to conviction, and anxious to reward public favour by able attempts at improvement. In a new preface Mr. Cottle defends his work, and, for the most part, fuccefsfully, we think, against fome objections which have been raised to it. This preface contains many fenfible, judicious, and pertinent obfervations. DIVINITY. A Sermon preached as preparatory to a General Fast, on Sunday October 16, 1803, in the Parish Church of St. George, Hanover-square. By the Rev. Archer Thompson, M. A. Lecturer of the faid Parish, and one of the Evening Preachers at the Magdalen. 8vo. Pr. 22. 1s. Stockdale. 'HE obfervance of the Faft-day laft year, fo far as we had the opportunity of noticing, was, in general, fuch, as the awful state of the THE country, country, and the pious purpose of fetting apart a day for national humilia tion imperiously demanded. It exhibited the folemn fpectacle of an un ted and Christian people, bowing in penitence and prayer before the offended Majesty of the Lord of Hosts, deprecating his judgments, and imploring his protection. To this pleasing prefage, as we are willing to believe it, of a ferious fente of our danger and our duty, at this moft momentous crifis, we rejoice to bear teftimony to the piety and zeal of the parochial cle gy; which, in numerous intances, that came within our own observation, contributed, in no fmall mea ure, to promote the proper regard that was hewn to the day. It is with peculiar fatisfaction that we have peruled a difcourte of very confiderable merit, preached by the Rev. author, preparatory to that day; and, in our judgment, admirably adapted to prepare the minds of the audience, before which it was delivered, for the discharge of the duties of a day of public fatting and prayer. We took occafion, in a former number of our Review, to fpeak of Mr. THOMPSON with the commendation, which, in our opinion, he fo justly merits as a preacher, as well as to vindicate his difcharge of his bounden duty as a clergyman, against the cavils of a respectable writer, who, in this inftance, departed from his ufual candour and good manners: but we never before, fince the commencement of our literary labours, have had an opportunity of expreffing our approbation of Mr. THOMPSON'S merit as an author. Much as a fermon must frequently depend for its acceptance and character on the eloquence and earneftness of the preacher, as well as on other accidental circumftances, that combined to affect the audience, and imprefs their minds with a favourable opinion of the compofition, and which cannot accompany the difpaffionate perufal of the fame difcourfe, when fubmitted to the critical examination of the reader in the retirement of the closet; we venture, nevertheless, to affirm, that Mr. THOMPSON will forfeit nothing of the reputation he acquired in the delivery of this excellent difcourte, by committing it to the prefs: and, if our approbation can stamp on it any credit, or give currency to its circulation, he will have the fatisfaction of extending its utility, by fuffering it to go forth into the world. Taking his text from Pfalm xcvii. 1. the animated preacher divides his difcourfe into two diftinct propofitions; viz. 1. That the Lord is king; and, 2. That his government of the world is a ground of universal joy. The truth of these propofitions he feparately confiders. Under the Ift head, he diftinguithes the divine government, as it eminently displays itself in the creation and preservation of the world, the fuperintendance of human affairs, the concerns of kingdoms, and the moral conduct of mankind. Thefe general remarks are confirmed, very properly, by an induction of particulars; from which is deduced their practical application. Under the 2d head, the pious orator, adverting to the truths which he had before established, proceeds to point out in what manner the perfuafion of their certainty tend to influence the conduct, and promote the happinefs of mankind; obferving, with equal piety and judgment, the numerous and almost exclusive caufes for which we of this nation, as Britons and Christians, ought to express our warmest and most affectionate gratitude to Almighty God. Here the im * See ANTI-JACOBIN REVIEW, Vol. XIV. P. 75. portuned paffioned preacher enforces, with fingular fuccefs, the indifpenfable duties of national reformation and gratitude towards our great Benefactor and Preferver; duties, which, although at all times most falutary and seasonable to be inculcated by the Chriftian minifter, are, if ever, more efpecially to be urged with earnethiefs, at a crifis like the prefent, when, after 'every poffible preparation which the prudence or forelight of the most enlightened ftatesman, or the bravery of the most experienced foldier can make, to meet the unexampled difficulties which we may fo foon be called to encounter ; our whole confidence must be repofed, not on the frail arm of mortal man, but on the almighty arm of heaven. "If ever (obferves the preacher) "there was a moment, when the heart must be ready to pour out itself in prayer to the God of its life ;' if ever there was a time, when we are reminded, by the exigency of our fituation, to put all our trust in the Lord our king, it is furely this prefent time; this prefent moment. We have talked heretofore of the hardships of war; of the facrifices we have been called on to make in our fortunes and our comforts; but of the horrors of war we have known almost nothing our country has not been ravaged by the foe, our fhores ftained with blood, nor our friends and our parents, our wives and our children, driven from their babitations; now all that is dear to us is put to the extremest hazard, and our very existence as a people is at stake." We regret that the narrow limits to which we are confined in the review of ingle fermons, and the attention due from us to other discourses, that have been publified on fimilar occafions, preclude us from extending our remarks, or making farther extracts from a discourse, which has afforded us fo much fatisfaction; and which we recommend to our readers, as most appropriate to the occasion on which it was preached; as containing many interefting and juft reflections, well connected and well. arranged; conveyed in a pleating and popular ftyle; and reflecting equal ho nour on the head and heart of the worthy writer. The Turpitude of Treason. A Sermon preached on the Occasion of his Majesty's happy Deliverance from the flagitious Designs which, through God's Goodness, were lately averted by the Discovery and Punishment of the Traitor and his Accomplices. 8vo. Pr. 30. Rivingtons. 1803. WE know not by whom, nor at what place, this fermon was preached; but we know that it would do no difcredit to any name or to any place. It is indeed a very impreffive and able discourse, from the appofite words of the Pfalmift, "Now know I, that the Lord saveth his anointed." In one part of his fermon the preacher notices the abominable practices of sec tarifts who seek to reduce the ignorant and the weak from attendance at their parith church; and he makes fome very just obfervations on the heinous fin of fchifm. Equally juft and forcible are his remarks on the duties of fubjects, and on the schemes of the difaffected. In a note he, very naturally, aiks, "Whether if we faw a perfon in habits of familiarity, walking and converfing with any one long noted for difloyalty, we should not readily conclude unfavourably of that perfon's principles? But, if the fufpected character were fhortly after proved to be a criminal of the deepest die, furely then we should be wary of confiding in his companion. This is evidently an allufion to the fact of Sir Francis Burdett's having been feen walking familiarly with Despard not many hours previous to his appre henfion. henfion. And the papers affured us very lately that Sir Francis Burdett dined with the Prince of Wales!!!!!!-These are revolutionary times with a vengeance! The Duty of Volunteers. A Sermon preached before the Birstall aud Batley Volunteers, on their Appearance at Church in Uniform, on the 22d Day of April 1804. By Hammond Roberfon, M. A. &c. Published by request. 8vo. PP. 40. Brook and Lancashire, Huddersfield; Oftell, London. 1804. IN this fermon we have an able expofition of the duties of volunteers, and a pious exhortation to discharge them with ftrictness and fidelity. In a prefatory note, Mr. Roberton takes occafion to condemn the practice of Sunday drills, and judiciously calls upon all commanders ferioully to confider the bad confequences of accuftoming men to think lightly of the fabbath, by engaging them unneceffarily in fecular employments upon that day, The economy of the measure, is extremely queftionable; the bad tendency of it in a religious view is notorious and extenfive. And he must be thoughtless or hardened in the extreme who can allow himself, for a moment, to admit any comparison between the greatest certain temporal advantages, and the risk of eternal happinets in the world to come." We are the more anxious to imprefs these notions on the public mind, as we have reason to know that fome of the volunteers in the metropolis conftantly make military excurfions into the country on the fabbath, and perform their manœuvres even during divine fervice; a practice which cannot be too ftrongly reprobated. A Good Effects of an United Trust in the Arm of Flesh and Arm of the Lord. Sermon preached at Cuxton, Kent, July 31, 1803. By the Rev. Charles Moore, M. A. Rector of Cuxton. Svo. Pr. 22. 18. Etherington, Rochefter; Hatchard, London. WITH great energy, and in eloquent language, the preacher points out the means of conciliating the favour of God, without whofe arm the arm of flesh would be impotent. The difcourfe is highly imprefiive, and could fcarcely fail, we should think, to produce a powerful effect on the congregation to which it was addreffed. Sermon preached in the Parish Church of Boughton-Monchelsea, in Kent. By the Rev. Sir John Head, Bart. M. A. on Occasion of the first Muster of Volunteers, for the general Defence of the Country. 8vo. Pr. 16. 4d. or 3s. per dozen. Shaw and Son. 1803. A plain, fenfible discourse, in which piety and patriotism are becomingly blended. NOVELS AND TALES. A Picture from Life; or, the History of Emma Tankerville and Sir Henry Moreton. By Henry Whitfield, M. A. Two Vols. 12mo. 9s. Highley. 1-804. FROM ROM the annexation of M. A. to the author's name we are to suppose that he is somewhat of a scholar, and if the intimation of this degree fhould not be deemed fufficient proof of his learning, we have farther the evidence |