Will, after death, be fure to rife "Befides, they'll make, when kill'd in fight, A Collection of Psalms and Hymns, extracted, revised, and published; by the Rev. W. B. Williams, B. A. Minister of Homerton Chapel, Middlefex; and Chaplain to the Marquis of Downthire. 18mo. PP. 200. Williams. 1804. WE ought to apologize to our poetical readers for claffing this wretched farrago of enthufiaftical cant and methodistical prefumption under the head, Poetry; for not one feature of Poetry is to be difcerned in nine-tenths of the Psalms and Hymns here prefented to the public. It is a melancholy fubject for reflection to all serious and fober Chriftians, that the weak minds of the lower claffes of people should be filled with fuch miferable ftuff as is contained in this volume, calculated certainly to infpire them with the most dangerous presumption, hoftile to the meek and humble spirit of Chriftian «* In bats and bed-bugs, fleas and flies. Temple of Nature, Canto IV. "It has been a matter of curious enquiry among fome of my corresponding garretteers, whether this pilofopher himself, in the latter ftages of his exiftence, enjoyed much confolation from reflecting that the organic matter' which entered into his own compofition, was about to be employed for the important purpose of giving new life' to unnumbered infects." + " "Vaft monuments of paft delight.' Thus the tall mountains, that emboss the land, ARE MIGHTY MONUMENTS OF PAST DELIGHT.' "The monuments of past delight,' Darwin fays, Rofe from the wreck of animal or beaft.' "Thus taught by this wondrous fage, I truft the friends to humanity will fuppofe it beft to let the poor, infirm, and decrepid, die off as faft as poffible to manure the earth,' that the quantity of organized matter of which they are compofed, may revive in the forms of millions of microfcopic animals, vegetables, and infects, make monuments of paft delight,' &c. Therefore it is to be hoped, that the promoters of the Perkinean Inftitution will prove as defpicable in refpect to numbers, as they are deficient in understanding, efpecially in comprehending the great and glorious truths of modern philofophy." ity; and with a destructive confidence, arifing from, an alledged certainty of falvation, on the first moment of Belief. It is really fhocking to fee the venerable Bishop Horne preffed into fuch company as Meffrs. Williams, Toplady, Newton, Haweis, &c. &c. The 29th Hymn, addressed to The Trinity, is a parody of God save the King! We fhall exhibit two or three fpecimens of this notable production, which will fuffice to convince our readers of the juftice of our animadverfions. HYMN I. (Toplady.) "A debtor to mercy alone With me can have nothing to do, Hide all my transgressions from view. "The work which his goodness began, And never was forfeited yet. " My name from the palms of his hands In marks of indelible grace: Yes, I to the end fhall endure, As fure as the earnest is given, "HYMN 25.-Hart.) "An Invitation to Sinners to confide! 'Tis his Spirit's rifing beam. "Come, ye weary, heavy laden, Much in the fame ftrain of comfort and confidence is * HYMN Ohe jam fatis eft! No wonder that fuch comfortable doctrine as this makes numerous converts to fchifm! But it is a wonder that any man, who has a right to prefix the epithet reverend to his name, fhould have the folly or the allurance to prefix his name to fuch a farrago as that before us! The British Volunteer, or Loyal Song fter. Being a collection of entirely new Songs, for all patriotic Companies; including thofe on the Subject Jung at the different places of public Amfement. Several written purpofly for this Work, and adapted to familiar Tunes. To which is added a Selition of of fuitable Toafts and Sentiments, 12mo. PP. 38. 6d. Neil, Sommer's Town. MANY of these fongs are not less distinguished by poetical talent than by patriotic fentiment; and fuch attempts to cherish and to roufe the national fpirit, at a crifis which calls for the fulleft difplay of it, are highly praife-worthy. NOVELS AND TALES. Heliodora, or the Grecian Minstrel. Goethe. 3 vols. 12mo. Pp. 636. WE Translated from the German of Baron E opened thefe volumes with no fmall degree of curiofity, from a recollection of one of the first productions of the author, The Sor rows of Werter, and from a knowledge of his fubfequent life and writings; fully expecting to find them deeply tainted with that grofs immorality and contempt of religion which fo ftrongly mark the conduct and the writings of that fchool to which BARON GOETHE belongs. We were, however, agreeably disappointed; fince, with very few exceptions, we found Heliodora to be an harmless, and an interefting tale; the incidents in which, though fometimes highly improbable, are well managed, and not unnatural. The characters are pourtrayed with a masterly hand; and, which is of more confequence, the moral is unexceptionable-vice meeting with its due punishment, and virtue with her proper reward. A great deal indeed is faid about fate and nature; but nothing of nature's God. Speaking of the " Jerufalem delivered" of Taffo, the Baron has the prefumption to reprefent it as a poem,. which, with the exception of" a few beautiful episodes," is of" no value on the whole." This dogmatical fentence is, of itfelf, fufficiently strange, but, the reaton on which it appears to be founded is ftill ftranger. "The Christian Mythology teemed to her cold and dead, and the object for which its heroesemployed their valour entirely founded on opinion. Hence a war of opinions The contidered as unworthy of the exertion of the poetic mufe. But when fhe took up Homer, and mingled in his living world of gods and men, whe e the hearts and the pallions of the heroes are on fire, how cold and litelets appeared thofe knights of the holy fepulchre!" Christianity may, perhaps now be deemed a fable by Goethe, and his affociate Wieland, who has publicly renounced its tenets, and impioufly blafphemed its divine author; but the time will come when these vain philofophifts, and their wretched votaries, bursting as they are with the vanity of human reafon, will be compelled to acknowledge its reality, when too late to avert the punishments which it denounces on obftinate unbelievers. The tranflation is well executed, with the exception of some few expreffions, which are not English. The Life of Napoleon, as it bould be handed down to Posterity. By J. M-D. 12mo. Pp. 150. Parfons and Son. 1804. WE have strong objections to any book in which fiction is blended with fact, fince it tends to milead young minds which are incapable of (eparating the one from the other. We have another objection too, to a fic titious life of the hero of this little volume. For, however ingenious a writer may be, however inventive his faculties, however fertile his imagination, we defy him to fabricate fuch a series of complicated horrors, crimes, and enormities, as the faithful page of hiftory prefents,in recordingthe real life and actions of Napoleone Buonaparté. The volume before us contains nothing that is improbable; but it falls very far fhort of the truth; it is well written; the moral is good; and the principles and fentiments, in general, unexceptionable. We fay, in general, because we must except the reflections at the beginning of the 6th chapter of the first book, which betray gross, ig NO. LXXIV. VOL. XVIII. D d norance norance of the fubject, and fhew that the author has been weak enough to adopt the falle affertions of the Jacobins, French and English, who, and who alone, had the folly, or rather the effrontery, to afcribe the enormities which marked the origin and progrefs of the French Revolution, to the oppofition which it experienced from the best and wisest men in Europe. Augustus and Mary; or the Maid of Buttermere, a domestic Tale. By William Mudford. 1 vol. 12mo. Pp. 188. Jones. 1801. THIS tale is founded on a well-known, but very melancholy incident. The characters of the father and mother are well drawn. Mary is a very interesting picture; the object and tendency of the whole is to incul-cate virtue, and to caution fimplicity against deception. The main tale we believe clofely adheres to the original facts, therefore, any analyfis of it would be fuperfluous. The under tale of Louifa Faulkner and William Stitchum feems to be foifted in without any connection with the fate of the heroine, and answers no other purpose than to fwell the book. The author alfo tries fatire, which being beyond his reach, he substitutes abuse. Mr. William Gifford is not an object to be hurt by the attacks of fuch a puny affailant. Sherwood Forest; or Northern Adventures, a Novel. By Mrs. Villa-Real Gooch. 3 vols. 12mo. Pp. 720. Highley. 1804. IF the authorefs of this production writes for amufement, we advise her to take to fome paftime that may not be fo public; if the write from neceffity we are truly forry for her, fince the proceeds of fuch a work must afford a very fcanty fupply. Whatever may be her purpose in giving these effufions to the world, our duty is the fame--to eftimate the performance by its intrinfic merit. In a preface, our novelift introduces feveral very great names, and, at their head, Homer, to prove that "the fire of genius is feldom lit but at the Jamp of adverfity." This fentiment the expands in a fine-founding period full of long words, and epithets, and rhetorical figures. "Poverty in this, as it is called, enlightened age, treads upon the heels of genius, and anticipates every progressive step by rude assailment, and by the scorpion sting of acute recollection." To attempt an analyfis of this work would be taking up space and time which we can beftow to much more advantage on publications of importance. We must allow, however, that the paffages before us are harmless. The story is the old ftory that has been so often repeated; the whole effence of which is compressed in the two first verses of an "There once did live a lady fair, old song. And he was in love with a gentleman." In Sherwood Foreft there are half a dozen of ladies fair; and they are all in love. Their loves are fo intermixed and complex, that we could hardly difcover, who and who are together. Their various adventures convey to the reader the following information,that, if agreeable young men, and agreeble young women often meet together, it is probable love may arife. Indeed the authorefs makes good a pofition that there is in the sexes a tendency to mutual affection! This is the novelty, and the whole novelty which her ingenuity has discovered, and her ability exhibited; and deferves equal praise |