investigating obfervation. And what though you perfift in your doctrine? Will you exalt an impulfe, of which you cannot certainly know that it proceeds from the Holy Ghoft, above the fcriptures, which you acknowledge to proceed from Him? If you are habitually obedient to Chrift through faith; do you deem the fcriptural promife of forgiveness to all who thus obey Him an infufficient fecurity, an inadequate ground of comfort? If you are habitually difobedient; will you believe on the credit of an impulse that you are forgiven, in oppofition to the scriptures which pronounce you to be in a ftate of condemnation?" P. 335. The natural ftyle, the earneft manner, the close and fcriptural argumentation, in this and other paffages, fpeak more ftrongly than any praise we can bestow in favour of discourses. which must ever be admired in proportion as true and found religion is felt and valued. ART. XI. Harvest Home: confifling of Supplementary Gleanings, Original Dramas and Poems, Contributions of Literary Friends, and Select Re-publications, including Sympathy, a Poem. Revifed, corrected, and enlarged, from the 8th Edition. In Three Volumes. By Mr. Pratt. 8vo. 11. 11s. 6d. Phillips. 1805 HE " THE Harvest Home" is ever confidered the season of mirth, gaiety, and humour; the cares of the moment are forgotten, and all unpleafant fenfations fubfide before the general impulfe of joy and feftivity. The name of the prefent work is not ill adapted to its contents. Mr. Pratt once more appears before that public, from whom he has fo frequently met with a favourable reception, with all his accustomed good humour, and with an increased flock of anecdote, and a not unentertaining vivacity. The first volume is exclufively confined to the "Stations" of part of Hampshire and Warwickshire; and though we are occafionally fatigued with defcriptions of fplendid manfions, romantic dairies, gothic churches, and picturefque landscapes, not to mention a degree of vanity and felf-commendation, which is but too prominent throughout this author's productions, the whole is fo agreeably written, and fo frequently enlivened with entertaining anecdotes, that we make no doubt it will be generally read, and by many approved. The communications from the gleaner's friend, Mr. Morfitt, in a series of very well-written letters on the manners, the atres, atres, and general amufements of the people of Birmingham, occupy a great part of the latter end of the volume; but as they really contain fome very important difcuffions, they will not be thought tedious, or uninteresting. We were fo much pleafed with the honeft humour of Mr. P.'s friend, the deer-keeper, that we confefs ourselves anxious to take this opportunity of introducing him more particularly to the attention of our readers. "Let me introduce you to a fpacious farm-house kitchen, a fire place extending to the whole breadth of an ample room; fome of the well-feafoned oaks of the foreft converted into tables; flooring of the fame-large, deep, and enviable receffes on each fide of the chimney, forming feats for fuch as defy the high-piled faggots flaming about them. Hampshire flitches, rivalling thofe of Weftphalia, mellowing in the wood and fmoke below, loading the racks above, or depending in tempting rows from the ceiling. The bufinefs of the rural day over, behold the ruddy country damfels enjoying the cheerful blaze; and the yet more exhilarating tale of a kitchen-gueft recently arrived, and fnugly nitched in one of the chimney retreats, always a post of diftinction and hofpitality. Imagine you fee the perfonage thus honoured by the queens of the kitchen: accept him, just as I drew him, at the inftant that I was called from a parlour full of vifitors. Athletic form, ftrong, but interefting features, deep brown hair, few, if any, of them grey, though in his feventy-third year; coat of the true fporting green, red cellar, great coat of the fame, with triple cape of fcarlet, fleeves of the fame, leathern gaiters, blue handkerchief tied in a twist round his neck, the whole fomewhat in decay, yet venerable and interefting from the character, age, and office of the wearer. Let me place a jug of Hampshire home-brewed in his hand, often lifted to his lips, and try to give you a fmile, that indicates at once a gaiety of heart, affifted by a state of head too light for, and yet not too much elevated by drinking deep, to wash away all focial diftinctions; just enough in good fpirits to drive away melancholy, without fermenting into madness. "Put these feveral circumftances together, and you will have a pretty juft idea of the externals of an old sportsman, who has a cottage in Cranbourn-chafe, and has ferved under the Lords of Rufhmore upwards of fixty, out of the feventy-three years of his life. "For the character of his mind and manners, I must give you fome of his converfation, which I will in his own words, fince none other can fo well defcribe them: now, then, let him speak for himfelf. A parlour guest is always, more or lefs, an intruder in the kitchen, and generally throws a gloomy air over the unlaboured gaiety and eafe of the place. The ceremony of rifing and bowing, may, however, be foon done away by a little accommodation; and the parlour and kitchen, upon occafions like the prefent, became fociable. This veteran game-keeper, for fuch was his calling, befides being of pleafant difpofition, was animated beyond the point of ceremony, by the exhilarating ale of Dorfet; and, therefore, after a refpeciful bend of his not unmajeftic figure, he refumed both his feat and and his hiftory. I broke the thread of his narrative, juft as he was relating his fuccefsful courtship to two of his wives, with one of whom he fwore by all the wood-nymphs of Cranbourn-chafe, that he was as happy as the day's were long, for upwards of four-and-twenty years; and, when he lost her, he refolved never to enter into the holy ftate, because he thought his glory was over. Glory, you are to know, was a cant word, and brought into almost every fentence. But", faid he, "I thought 1 fhould never find fuch another woman, till one day going into my Lord's kitchen, I liked the eyes of the cook, and told her fo; but it was not till fome time after, when I made her a prefent of a couple of rabbits of my own killing, and faid fomething as I gave them to her, that he looked as if fhe liked me. Glory, however, was the word: fhe was a little body, and I dandled her about upon this arm; and had her before the parfon in lefs than three weeks; which is now thirteen years, miffing a few days, and the has been my glory ever fince. She is alive and merry, thank God, at this time, in Rufhmore-cottage, where, if you please, you may fee her to-morrow; and fo, my glory, here's your health". "But though we have thus doubly wedded him, the man is incomplete without his dog. What is a huntfman without his hound? Your pardon, honeft Bouncer, I fhould have placed you at your mafzer's fide, where I first faw you ftand to receive his frequent careffes, and looking into his face, as if liftening to bis difcourfe. I should then have laid thee gently at his feet, where I beheld thee repofe, while he went on with his glories. He's "Bouncer, here Sir", continued the fportfman, (after he had emptied the jug to the health of his fecond nuptial glory)" Bouncer, here, knows I fpeak nothing but truth, and loves my dame as well as I do; and he would be an ungrateful dog if he did not. now hunting, you hear, in his fleep. But, fleeping or waking, Cran bourn-chafe never boafted a better ftag-dog than he. See how his coat is fcarred;-he's all over buts and bruifes, from his nofe to the tip of his tail. Lookee, Sir, there's fcratchings and tearings-but he's all glory nevertheless, and will stand at a stag now, fingle-handed, till he fees the end of him.-Wont you, Bouncer, boy?" "At this question, the querift, who had been increafing in glory, at every potation from a fresh fupply of the jug, which one of the kitchen goddeffes had replenished, rofe, but without quitting his can, and gave the view-hollow; at which Bouncer, fuperior to fleep, age, and fears, leapt up, and foon came in for his full share of the glory. gave his voice deep, fonorous, and musical-“ To-hoo, to-hoo, to-hoo,-hoo, hoo, hoo, hbo !" exclaimed the huntfman. The hound refponded in correfpondent notes of triumph and joy. "There's my He glory", quoth the huntsman," thee art a good one as ever gave tongue in a wood. D-n me, with half a fcore like thee, I can ftill heave my dogs over the mountains, and almoft over the moon, with a cheerly chirup!" The contents of the fecond volume are three original dramas; the first, of "Hail Fellow! well met!" the object of which is to prove" the ABSURDITY and impoffibility of the French French fyftem, and turn the whole into that ineffable ridicule it deferves, by fhowing its weakness, folly, impolicy, and impracticability," may, perhaps, not be improperly placed immediately after the clofing remarks on England. On this fubject, however ably it may be difcuffed, fortunately little remains to be added; the delufion has happily fubfided, and fuch principles are rapidly finking to that oblivion and contempt of which they are fo eminently deferving. The minor performances of "Love's Trials", and " Fire and Froft", are written with confiderable spirit, and are by no means devoid of humour. Of Mr. Pratt's tafte for poetry, we have always entertained rather a favourable than a contrary opinion; and from many of the specimens now offered to the public, these fentiments are more confirmed than diminished. Our readers will not be infenfible to the merits of the following lines: Apology to a Friend, for addressing him fome time after a melancholy Event. Amongst the first to share your facred grief, The firft, alas! its caufe fevere to mourn,- For O how feeble is Affection's lyre To footh the anguish of a woe profound; To Nature's pangs, 'tis Nature bids us feel He, only He, a folace can impart, Teach us to think the blow was kindly giv❜n ; Can caft a comfort to the widowers heart, Breath'd in foft whifpers full of Hope and Heav'n." Vol. iii. p. 126a As we confider ourselves fomewhat interested in the following question, we must leave our readers to form their own judgment on the fubject. "The Fate of the Bards. The poets are a gentle race, And Nature form'd their fouls for love; Yet Love and Nature have decreed The woes they pity, they should prove. The rofe, their favourite flower, they bring, And And many a manfion fair they raise- Vol. iii. p. 171. Several of the author's friends have lent their kind affiftance to the poetical part of this publication, and among them we diftinguish names of avowed and extenfive celebrity; upon the whole, we do not hesitate to aver, that if Mr. Pratt has not delivered to the public a faultlefs production, they have at least to thank him for much general gratification. ART. XII. An accurate hiftorical Account of all the Orders of Knighthood at prefent exifting in Europe. To which are prefixed a critical Differtation upon the Ancient and prefent State of thofe equestrian Inftitutions, and a prefatory Difcourfe on the Origin of Knighthood in general; the whole interfperfed with Illuftrations and explanatory Notes. By an Officer of the Chancery of the Equestrian, Secular, and Chapteral Order of St. Joachim. Two Volumes. 8vo. 18s. or 11. 1s. fine paper. White. Without Date. THIS book appears under peculiar circumstances, yet fuch only as induce us to pay it more particular attention; which it was our full purpose to have done at an earlier period. Though it bears in its title the name of London, and of a refpectable publisher there, the second page difclofes that it was printed by J. C. Bruggeman, at Hamburgh. Though it is written in English, and in many refpects particularly devoted to the honour of Englishmen, it is probably the work of a foreigner, fince he is an officer of the order of St. Joachim; of which, though one Englishman has been voted into it as a Grand Commander, it is probable that there are not many English members. To that illuftrious knight of many orders, Horatio, Lord Nelfon, the book is very properly dedicated, and we could not but feel pleafed at the very handfome terms in which our diftinguifhed countryman is ad dreffed.* * Another tribute to Englishmen is paid in p. xliii. where is in-. ferted a lift of British fubjects invefted with foreign orders, and whe are particularly mentioned in the courfe of the work. Pp ERIT. CRIT. VOL. XXV. MAY, 1805. The |