confiderations added, which are well calculated to put Chriftians on their guard against it.

The fifth Sermon is on the Folly of Procraftination with regard to the Concerns of Religion; the fixth is on the Vanity of Religion, unlefs confidered as the chief good, and accompa nied with Zeal and Perfeverance;' the feventh is on the Nature, the Effects, and the Rewards of Perfeverance in Religion;' the eighth is on the Progreffive Nature of Religion in the Soul." The next three fermons are on the Specific Qualities of Prudence and Simplicity,' the union of thefe qualities, and the motives to cultivate them. On each of these topics the reader will find much useful matter, ftated with accuracy and difcrimination. Three difcourfes follow on Agur's Prayer,' in which the author defcribes the happiness of a mind open to the conviction of truth, and attached to duty, the temptations and dangers of opu lence and exalted station, and the temptations and dangers of poverty, with the happiness of the middle condition. Some of thefe are fubjects upon which declaimers have enlarged with peculiar complacency; and on the temptations and vices of the great and profperous, many a lofty moralift has made himself popular at little coft. In thefe difcourfes, the dangers of opulence and of poverty are ftated with equal impartiality, and in a manner judicious and manly, without any aid of fanciful embellifh

ment.

In the next difcourfe, Pride' is very accurately diftinguifhed from vanity, and from that becoming felf-eftimation which is often neceflary to our protection from infult. The grounds of pride are examined in another difcourfe; and birth, titles, offices, riches, corporeal advantages, and mental endowments, are clearly fhown to afford no fufficient reafon for this temper. The next difcourfe is on the nature and effects of Humility,' which forms a very proper contraft to the fubject of the two preceding fermons. The laft fermon is on Charity,' and was preached before a Society inftituted for the Relief of the Sick Poor. The text is, charity never faileth;' and the author takes occafion to fhow, that, while many gifts beftowed on men, and high attainments reached by them, fhall ceafe with this life, charity fhall continue and flourish in another state; and, from its unfailing nature, he powerfully urges the exercife of it. From confidering the nature of charity in general, he eafily paffes to that exercite of it which confifts in relieving the neceffitous, and thus ftrongly recommends the interefts of that Society for which he pleads.

Ye who enjoy every convenience and comfort of life! to whom, when you are laid on a bed of ficknefs, every foothing aid, every help of medicine, every relief that money or tenderness can fup

N 2

ply,

ply, are provided; reflect how you endured the pains and languors of difeafe, though mitigated and foftened by all that human art or kindness could devife! Did you happen to be removed from your abode when fome fevere and dangerous malady affailed you, how were you overwhelmed by the abfence of domestic charity and convenience? But the poor man has no home for fickness! Health is neceflary to procure him ordinary comfort, is neceffary to provide him and his family with the means of daily fubfiftence. Laid on the bed of lauguishing, perhaps on the bed of death, he beholds his wife and children difconfolate around him. They can prefent to him none of the cordials and fupports of ficknefs; for his interrupted labour deprives them of the ftaff of life. His diftrefs and theirs are unknown to the ear of opulence. The rich, or those who employ him, recognife him only by the price of his labour. When fixed to a fick bed, which ferves rather to augment than to alleviate his malady, he ceases to attend his work, he ceafes alfo to be prefent to their minds. Another comes, occupies his place, receives the wages he used to carn-and the fick man is forgotten! Disease continues to prey upon his frame till he expires! He is configned to the grave, of difficult purchase, and to oblivion; or is remembered only by the beggary of his family, often accounted importunate and troublesome!' But, do not you then rejoice, that a Society exifts under the title of The Sick Man's Friend, whofe object is to penetrate into the receffes of mifery, to discover the fick poor, of whatever religious fect or party they may be, and to afford them every relief which charity can fupply? Do you not rejoice, that, without encroaching on your ordinary bufinefs, abridging your pleafures, or diminishing in any perceptible degree your ftores, you may heal or alleviate the difeafes of your poorer brethren, by contributing a fmall portion of your fuperabundance? Will you not, then, command that portion to fpeed, under the management of faithful men, to the habitations of the poor and the diseased, to fupply the ftrengthening cordial to the fick heart, to adminifter the cooling potion to the feverish frame, to mitigate the convulfive pangs of acute diftemper, and even to fmooth the bed of death?" p. 458.

In perufing fome of thefe difcourfes, we have been difpofed to with that the inferior divifions or parts had been more diftinctly marked. We have no defire to see a difcourfe fplit down into an intricate variety of divifions and fubdivifions; this would generally be abfurd, and could feldom be useful; but where topics, neceffarily distinct, are introduced, it unquestionably roufes the attention, and affifts the memory, to find them diftinctly announced. In the ninth and tenth fermons, for example, the effects refulting from the union of prudence and fimplicity, and the motives to cultivate them, are pointed out in a very masterly manner; yet, though feveral diftinct topics are introduced under each of these heads, none of them is formally ftated. This, we are perfuaded,

while it has no influence on the unity of the difcourfes, must diminish their impreffion. The unity of a difcourfe, is destroyed, we apprehend, by crowding a variety of fubjects into it, and not by clearly diftinguishing the different parts of the fame fubject. Fashion, we are aware, may perhaps be pleaded against us, though we believe Dr Brown would scorn to avail himself of fuch an authority; but we cannot permit fashion to decide against utility. She may be allowed to regulate the furniture of the circulating libraries; but it will be as well, perhaps, that the be not much confulted in the compofition of fermons.

From the extracts which we have given, our readers may be able to judge with regard to the ftyle of thefe difcourfes: it is well fuited to the nature of the fubjects, eafy, flowing, and dignified; it never finks to meannefs; it is never turgid: the author ftates his fentiments with precifion, and enforces them with animation; he never forgets the importance of his fubject, nor fuffers his reader to forget it; he always conceives clearly what he intends to exprefs, and is never at a iofs for appropriate expreffions to convey his meaning. He has very much enriched his difcourfes by an abundant use of the language of Scripture, which he has applied with much felicity, and often employed to exprefs his own fentiments, in a manner that gives much dignity to the style.

We cannot avoid obferving, that too little attention appears to have been bestowed on the mechanical part of this publication, and that the author has fuffered his compofitions to meet the public eye under the disadvantage of many grofs typographical errors. These we hope to fee removed in a fecond edition; and, on a further revifion of his work, Dr Brown will probably dif cover that these are not the only errors which require correction. Where there is fo much to praife, we feel the more anxious for the purification of his ftyle from thofe flighter faults and inaccuracies by which it is occafionally degraded; and we are fully confident that the exercife of his own tafte will enable him to ex hibit his work in a ftate ftill more unexceptionable.

ART. XV. A Vindication of the Genuineness of the Ancient British Poems of Aneurin, Taliefin, Llywarch Hin, and Merdhin, with fpecimens of the Poems. By Sharon Turner, F. A. S. London. Williams, Strand. 1803. 8vo. pp. 284.

THE 'HE predilection of the Welsh for the antiquities of their native country, and the jealous eye with which they ftill regard the interference of a Saxon in this facred fubject, are fo notorious, that we are strongly inclined to indulge a fufpicious fmile at their allowing Mr Turner to anticipate themselves in vindicating the genuineness of their moft ancient and favourite bards. No doubt can be entertained, that many of the Welfh antiquaries are infinitely fuperior in point of knowledge and zeal to Mr Turner: if, then, the caufe which he has undertaken had, in their opinion, been tenable, can we fuppofe that they would have fo long endured the fcoffs of unbelievers, and at laft have permit ted a stranger to enter the lifts, and bear off the prize? We are therefore reduced to the neceffity of fuppofing that Mr Turner poffeffes zeal, without their knowledge and prudence. Although, however, the Welfh antiquaries have not come directly forward on this important occafion, yet one of the moft diftinguished of them has given his fanction to Mr Turner's work fo directly and ftrongly, that they muft fhare in his difgrace if he fail in his attempt, without being able to claim any of the honour if he fuccecd. *

Mr Turner need not have informed his readers, that he had ap plied only fome part of the leifure of the fummer to the confideration of this queftion; fince the total want of arrangement, argument, and correct compofition, fufliciently proves his work to have been a hafty performance. It has, indeed, many of the external marks of a methodical and logical treatife: the propofition is formally ftated; the evidence is divided into two forts, the external and the internal' (16.); and there are eight divifions, befides fubdivifions without number, under each fort' of evidence. All this looks as if Mr Turner intended, when he began his work, that it fhould be clear, fyftematical, and full, even if he could not make it convincing or fatisfactory. But he tafked himfelf beyond his powers. Some of the divifions, which are laid down in the beginning of his work, are entirely omitted in the elucidation of the evidence; and those which are noticed, occur in a very different order. This defect, however, we might have endured; or perhaps we might have endeavoured to remedy it

Owen's Cambrian Biography. Pref. p. 5.

by

by a different arrangement, if the matter had appeared worth the trouble. But we do not remember ever to have met with any thing dignified with the name of evidence, which bore fo little refemblance to authority or argument. As we have neither time nor patience to examine, feparately, the innumerable divifions of external and internal evidence, we shall felect a few, and arrange them with more regard to method and order than Mr Turner has difcovered. We fhall not, however, infult the understandings of our readers, by entering into a formal and direct refutation; but, in fome inftances, fhall merely ftate the fubftance of Mr Turner's evidence; and, in no inftance, offer more than general remarks. We shall begin with the propofition, that Aneurin, Taliefin, Llywarch Hen, and Merdhin, were British bards, who lived in the fixth century;. which is the fixth in the order of examination (109.), and the fourth in the order in which they are laid down in the beginning of the work (17). The teftimony of Nennius is first adduced (115). Mr Turner obferves, that Gale places him in the feventh century; he may have belonged to the ninth. Now, the author of the hiftory attributed to Nennius wrote, as he exprefsly informs us in his preface, in 858, and confequently is very infufficient authority for the existence of bards in the fixth century. But, fecondly, the paffage alluded to is not in the printed copy: it is found only in one MS.; and the very ftyle and contents of the whole chapter in which the paffage occurs, prove it to have been the addition of a different, and, most probably, a later writer. And, thirdly, the paffage, as it ftands, mentions no bard but Taliefin: Item, Talhearn Talanguen in poemate claruit, et Nuevin, & Taliefin, & Bluchbar, & Cian qui vocatur Gueinanguant, fimul uno tempore in poemate Britannico floruerunt. Hence, allowing that Nennius wrote in the feventh century, and that this paffage is really ge nuine, ftill we must grant Mr Turner another favour before it can be of much advantage to him. By the affiftance of Mr Evans he changes Nuevin into Aneurin, and Bluchbar into Llywarch. So that Mr Turner merely requests his reader to allow him to fix the era of an author; to attribute to him, on the flight authority of one MS., a chapter not found in the other MSS., and very different in ftyle and matter; and to alter the words as he pleafes; and then he undertakes to prove his propofition. This is not the only inftance in which Mr Turner has recourfe to MSS. which have been rejected by the editors, whom, how

Nennius apud Gale, I. 94. Nicholfon, however, is inclined to

place him in 828. Eng. Hiftor. Librar. p. 33. 3d Edit. fol.