In an unremitted courfe of attention to this fubject for a great number of years, proofs of that ufeful truth in regard to feveral different difeafes have occurred: these he has published as they came to his knowledge; and with them plain directions how to treat the feveral diforders; not different in general from thofe of other writers; but happily confirmed by his own repeated experience. The number being now confiderable, it may be useful to place them in one view before the general eye together; directing the manner of giving fuch as are to be used in their native late; and the regimen and rules of life to be obferved with thofe of which the Author has made preparations. This will be done upon the plan of the different treatifes, publifhed at the time of their feveral difcoveries; or in abitracts from them. The medicines are appointed to be fold by reputable perfons in all quarters of the town and country, that it may be in every one's power, with convenience and safety, to feek his relief, at the price of a few fhillings. For those who may wish to fee the particular cafes treated more at large, the feveral diftin&t tracts are republished; and where the Author's affiftance is defired, it is at every one's command.' POETICAL. Art. 19. A Birth Day Offering to a young Lady from her Lover. 4to. 6 d. Dodfley. A very genteel eafy piece of galiantry, in which there are many pretty lines, and, amongit the reft, the following, addreffed to Time: Ev'n here, as health and beauty fail, While lilies o er the rofe prevail, Long e'er, by twenty ftars a day, The fpangled heav'n would wear away.' If we are not miltaken, we have seen these verses advertised in the name of George Canning, Efq. Art. 20. Pride and Ignorance: A Poem. By Edward Nicklin, Gent. 4to. 2 s. 6 d. Baldwin. Edward Nicklin, Gent. is a baftard of Sir Richard Blackmore's he has all his thunder, without his lightning. Hear how he roars: Loud clamour ring rends the vast concave, The cowards howl amidit the shouting brave. What? Thirst for blood in vain.' Edward Nicklin, Gent. rife up Sir Edward Nicklin. Art. 21. A Turkish Tale: In five Cantos. 12mo. Is. Becket. This poem, which, is unmeaningly called a Turkish Tale, gives us a new fyftem with respect to the origin of evil. The reator it feens, as foon as he had finished Eve, made her a chambermaid, of very bad materials, and her name was Vixen. From a little un fortunate fortunate crim, con, with Adam, this Vixen propagated her vile difpofition, and a great deal of her blood ftill remains among us. The tale is well enough told, and the Author appears to have abilities that deferve a better fubject. DRAMATIC. Art. 22. Almeyda; qr, the Rival Kings: A Tragedy. By George Edmond Howard. Dublin printed, London reprinted. 8vo. 1 s. 6d. Robinfon and Roberts. The firft idea of this performance was certainly conceived from an oriental tale written by Dr. Hawkesworth, intitled Almoran and Hamet, but of which Mr. Howard makes no mention. The tale appears to have been written to prove and illustrate this principle, "that if the vicious were aflifted by fupernatural powers to effect their wishes, they would, instead of procuring happiness, become proportionably more miferable." The vices of Almoran having exhausted nature for delight in vain, he repined at the bounds within which he was confined, and regretted the want of other powers as the cause of his difappointment. In this difpofition a genius appears to him and tells him that if as weak only he has been wretched, thenceforth he shall be happy, for to thy powers, fays he, mine fhall be fuperadded; a feries of prodigies then takes place at the will of Almoran, which, by their natural effects, render him at once more guilty and more wretched: but the machinery, which is thus effentially neceflary to the story, is in the tragedy left out, yet fame of the events and fituations which it was contrived to produce, are fuppafed to be produced without it, and have therefore no adequate caufe. Other events and fituations are alfo introduced, in which there is neither nature nor art, and the whole performance, as Dryden fays of a dream, is “a medley of disjointed things," the parts taken feparately are equally incongruous; there being neither unity nor propriety in the manners, characters, or fentiment. An ambaffador from Circafia to Perfia, is reprefented as bringing his daughter Almeyda, a blooming beauty of fixteen, through the gazing multitudes of the metropolis, in what the Author calts a huruished car; and Almoran is fappofed to become enamoured of her by feeing her bathe at an open fountain, in a garden commanded by the windows of his palace; thus is the ftory of David and Bathsheba tranflated from a rude people in a barbarous age, to a country where luxury is carried to the last refinement; where no woman of condition travels but in a clofe litter, nor bathes but in the fecret receffes of a palace, the avenues to which are fecured by every art of fufpicion and jealousy. In the tale, Almeyda is fuppofed to be feen in confequence of a fire in the palace, which forced her into the garden to preferve her life; in the play, the incident of the fire is preferved, though it is wholly unnecef fary for the purpose it was invented to answer. Almoran is reprefented as rafh, irafcible, and impetuous; Hamet as deliberate, gentle, and peaceable; Almoran as a tiger, and Hamet as a lamb; yet the fiery Almoran, when a band of Tartars has invaded his dominions to ravage and plunder them, advises to parley, and treat; but the gentle Hamet cries out in a rage for flaughter and revenge. The gentle Hamet too, when he receives notice from his brother to meet Dd 4 him him with the nobles of his court, treats the poor fellow who happened to be the meffenger with infult and menaces, vaffal away, nor more provoke your fate." Almoran having in the fecond act declared before all the nobles and chief officers of his court, that he is determined to rule alone, communicates this refolution in the third act as a great fecret to his minifter during a private conference. When Almoran declares that he will no more hold any council with his brother or his nobles, till "the crown is his own unpartnered," Hamet replies, that he is determined to maintain his right. This contest between rival kings, nothing but the fword can determine; the refolution of each therefore to maintain his share in the government, is a refolution to appeal to the fword; yet we find Hamet juft afterwards most pathetically defcanting on the miseries of a civil war, and determining to perish himself, rather than bring them upon his people. In the very next fcene he determines to incur the evils of a civil war, rather than give up his right; and declares, that he takes this refolution not for his own fake, but that of his people: thus with refpect to Hamet, does this divided kingdom refemble prince Volfcius's boots; Volfcius had one boot on and the other off, and sometimes determined to draw on that which was off, and fometimes to put off that which was on fo Hamet now determines to divest himself of his fhare of royalty, and then to affume his brother's," or He or I, fays he, muft fall, both cannot live." This, as Bayes fays, is among the little things that fet off or marr a play. Hamet, who is reprefented as a devout Mahometan, undertakes to refcind liberties which the prophet allowed, and to prohibit polygamy; and it appears that the kingdom, inftead of being in the mixed state which might be fuppofed to refult from a government jointly adminiftered by two different characters, is reprefented at the fame time, as in a state of abfolute freedom and abfolute flavery: we find in one page, that all was tyranny in confequence of Almoran's vices, and in the next, that all was equity in confequence of the virtues of Hamet. In one fcene, we learn that Omar, the preceptor of Hamet, was ftabbed, and buried; foon afterwards, we find him alive, and he accounts for his refurrection, by telling the old ftory of a sexton coming with a candle and lanthorn to rob the body. The wound that was fuppofed to be mortal, and produced an appearance of death till he was buried, is immediately forgotten, and Omar is found haranguing the people in behalf of Hamet, making a proceffion upon their fhoulders, and abetting the caufe of his pupil with great activity and vigour; yet at the critical hour when conteft is to decide the quarrel, we find him hidden in a cave disguised like a hermit, and carrying about him a medicine of his own preparation, to recover ladies who have been terrified into fits. The other incidents and characters of this tragedy are equally inconfiftent and abfurd; yet the Author has at least one admirer, for we find prefixed to his performance fome verfes under the name of Philip Doyne, Efq; in which he is addreffed as the rival of Shakespeare, born to restore a linking ftage, and infpire virtue by controuling the paflions. Art. Art. 23. Hector: A Dramatic Poem. 4to. 2s. 6d. Flexney. A fulfome dedication, a pert advertisement, a contemptible poem. SILLY, I feel, indeed I do, For the best fifter, all a brother can. GROSS. VERY TRUE. Of honeft glory, he who robs me, wrongs me. Art. 24. The whole Proceedings in the Caufe on the Action brought by the Right. Hon. Geo. Onflow, Efq; against the Rev. Mr. Horne, April 6, at King fton, for a defamatory Libel, before the Right Hon. Sir William Blackstone, Knt. one of the Juftices of his Majefty's Court of King's Bench. Taken in Short Hand (by Permiffion of the Judge) by Jofeph Gurney. 8vo. I S. Davies. 1770. The pleadings of the council, in this caufe, on the effect of a verbal or even a literal inaccuracy, are curious. Mr. Onflow was nonfuited in a caufe of great expence and expectation, because, in the paper that was read, it was 11 July,' whereas, in the record, it was the 11th.' And, in another count, there was pounds for pound. Such variations appear immaterial in themselves; but with refpect to the exactness required by the law, in proceedings not upon the purport but the tenor of a libel, this rigid formality feems to be very right and the diftinction between tenor and purport is now well understood and ascertained. RELIGIOUS and CONTROVERSIAL. Art. 25. Diotrephes Admonished: or, Some Remarks on a Letter from the Author of Pietas Oxonienfis to the Reverend Dr. Adams at Shrewsbury; occafioned by the Publication of his Sermon preached at St. Chad's, entitled, A Teft of true and falfe Doctrines. By a PARISHIONER of St. Chad's. 8vo. 1 S. White, &c. The vicar of St. Chad's is here defended with great judgment and temper, by an able and (as it appears from the refpectful terms in which he speaks of Dr. Adams) a most affectionate friend, who declares he hath entered into this controverfy without the Doctor's confent, or even his knowledge t. It is our opinion that he hath * See the 29th article of our Catalogue for laft month. You cannot,' fays our Admonisher, expect a learned and accurate reply from a plain man, who is not Master of Arts in either of our famous Univerfities: but he hath read fomething, and thought much; and cannot bear to fee fo worthy and respectable a person as the vicar of his parish treated with feverity, infolence, and contempt, without animadverting upon it.' vindicated vindicated Dr. Adams from every charge brought against him by the Letter-writer, in fuch a manner as will fully fatisfy every liberal-minded, impartial reader. We think he hath, moreover, with equal juftice, reason, and propriety, admonished his antagonist, on account of his uncandid treatment of the good vicar, and for endeavouring, by prejudicing the parishioners of St. Chad's, &c. against their truly pious and learned paftor, to obstruct his usefulness in that station which he hath fo worthily filled for about forty years past. Art. 26. The Admonifher admonished. Being a Reply to fome Remarks on a Letter to the Reverend Dr. Adams, of Shrewsbury. By the Author of Pietas Oxonienfis. 8vo. 6d. Dilly. Staunch to his ORTHODOXY, the Author of Pietas Oxonienfis still keeps the field; and, indeed, however liberal the notions, and forcible the reasoning of his antagonist, we are not furprifed at this Writer's firmness. Men are feldom convinced by the arguments of those who have oppofed them in the way of difputation: for, in controverfy it is, generally speaking, rather a trial of skill, a contest for victory, than a difpaffionate fearch after TRUTH, that impels and animates both par ties. This Writer puts us in mind of Lewis the XIV. who never failed to fing Te Deum after a battle, whether he won or loft it; for he exults, in the very out-fet of this performance, on the overthrow of his antagonist, who, in his apprehenfion, has unhappily defeated himfelf, or rather, to ufe our Author's own words, yielded every inch of ground' to his competitor, without oppofition." You cannot be ignorant, Sir,' fays our Author, that the grand point I endeavoured to eftablish, throughout my whole piece, was the irreconcilable variance between the doctrines contained in Dr. Adams's fermon and those of the church of England; and therefore I obferved, in the beginning of my letter, that the question was not so much whether the feriptures and the church were of accord, as whether the Doctor and the Church were of accord?' Now the prefent Author apprehends, that from the quotations he makes out of the admonisher's pamphlet, nothing can be clearer than the admonisher's hearty averfion to the principles of the Reformation [Calvinism he means) and the doctrines of the eftablished church;' and yet, he adds, O amazing inconfiftency! whilft you vindicate your minifter for his disbelief of the doctrines of the church, and whilft both you and he think thofe doctrines to be contrary to fcripture, you take upon you to defend his fubfcription to them, even though he is obliged to declare that he believes them from his heart to be entirely agreeable to the word of God.' But though, totally differing, as thefe gentlemen do, in their fentiments relating to the doctrines of the church, and the nature of the clergy's fubfcription to the articles, fo that we might as foon expect to fee oil and water unite, as any agreement between them on these fubjects, this Writer very honourably does his competitor the juftice to acknowledge, (after pushing on the argument with fpirit to what he no doubt thinks a decifive conclufion against both the Reverend Doctor and his very fenfible advocate), that he never faw fo able a defence of fo bad a caufe,' as that which the admonisher hath made, in his late publication. But he immediately fubjoins this draw-back upon |