from the doctrine of a particular providence, appeals to the dictates of nature.

To pagan climes repair.

O fon of doubt! and thou wilt hear it there;
There, where the Chriftian hath not taught to pray,
Nor heav'nly Truth diffus'd her gladd'ning ray;
Th' unletter'd native in his painful hour,
Looks to fome great, fome interpofing pow'r ;
And fondly thinks THAT mighty Pow'r will fave,
Or make his paffage eafy to the grave;
And nature's dictates rather than disown,
Kneels to a flock, or humbles to a ftone.'

In the latter part of the poem the author endeavours to shew, that, notwithstanding many feeming irregularities, Providence is uniformly wife and good in all his difpenfations, and frequently fends his bleffings in difguife.

The following reflection is unneceffary, and a little too much in the ftrain of enthufiafm.

Ye book-learn'd ftudents

As well as you, the right from wrong I know

Nor want philofophy to tell me fo.'

We are extremely indebted, in a moral fenfe, to philofophy, or, in other words, to reafon properly cultivated and improved; and all invectives against the ufe of it in theological enqui ries are injudicious.

3

The general tendency of this piece is laudable; and the language plain and unaffected. 56. Kien Long. A Chinese Imperial Eclogue. Infcribed to the Author of an Heroic Epifile to Sir William Chambers, Knight. 4to. Is. Almon.

We are no advocates for pieces of fatire on the conduct and character of a virtuous and amiable monarch. On this account we cannot applaud the performance we are now confidering. It is written in the ftyle and manner of the Heroic Epiftle. But the fubject has no longer the recommendation of novelty.

57. Sibylline Leaves. Fol. 1s. Evans.

A fatirical poem on Mr. Wilkes's fucceffion to the mayoralty, written in Hudibrastic verse, and not void of humour. 58. Ode on the Inftitution of a Society at Liverpool, for the Encouragement of Digning, Drawing, Painting, &c. Read before the Society, Dec. 13, 1773. No Publifher's Name."

It affords us pleasure to fee the imitative arts meet with fo much encouragement at Liverpool, as the cultivation of them is a never failing criterion of the flourishing ftate of commerce. From the merit of this ode, there is ground to imagine, that the Mufes likewife are not difregarded amidst the bustle of traffic.

59. Poems, by Robert Furguffon, 12mo. 2s. 6d. Murray. There is a natural ease in these poems which renders them in general agreeable; though this quality is more apparent in what

may

may be called the author's vernacular compofitions, than in thofe of a more polished strain.

DRAMATIC.

60. The Rivals, a Comedy. As it is acted at the Theatre Royal in Covent-Garden. 8vo. 15. 6d. Wilkie.

This comedy affords a fingular proof of the ingenuity of the writer, and the candour of an English audience. Some parts of it were much difliked on the first reprefentation: the author therefore inftantly withdrew his performance, altered a great part of it, and in a few days produced, as it were, a new play; which was immediately brought on the stage, and received with applause.

There is variety, and fome degree of novelty, in the following characters: Sir Anthony Abfolute, a hafty, peremptory old gentleman. My fon Jack, fays he, knows that the leaft demur puts me in a phrenzy directly. My procefs was always very fimple-in their younger days, 'twas, Jack, do this. If he demurred-I knocked him down-and if he grumbled at that, I always fent him out of the room.'

Captain Abfolute, the fon of Sir Anthony, in love with Mifs Lydia Languifh, a young lady of a romantic turn, who has an averfion to a regular humdrum wedding, with confent of friends; and is therefore, above all things, charmed with the idea of an elopement. The captain, in concurrence with her fingular tafte, addreffes her under the character of Beverley, a half-pay enfign.

Faulkland, in love with Mifs Julia Melville, of a fretful and jealous difpofition- I fear, fays he, for her fpirits, her health, her life. My abfence may fret her: her anxiety for my return, her fears for me, may opprefs her gentle temper. And for her health-does not every hour bring me caufe to be alarmed? If it rains, fome shower may even then have chilled her delicate frame! If the wind be keen, fome rude blaft may have affected her! The heat of noon, the dews of the evening, may endanger the life of her, for whom I value mine.-There is not a feature in the sky, not a movement of the elements, not an aspiration of the breeze, but hints fome caufe for a lover's apprehenfion.' In one of his fits of jealoufy, he fays, Her whole feelings have been in oppofition with mine! I have been anxious, filent, penfive, fedentary; my days have been hours of care, my nights of watchfulness. She has been all health! fpirit! laugh! fong! dance! --Oh! d-n'd, d -n'd levity!'

Acres, a rough country 'fquire, the rival of the fuppofed Beverly, without knowing, that his friend Capt. Abfolute ever faw. the lady in queftion. One trait of his character confifts in the following humorous manner of fwearing: Warm work on the roads, Jack, odds whips and wheels! I have travelled like a comet, with a tail of duft all the way as long as the Mall.'• Mifs Melville: odds blushes and blooms! the has been as healthy VOL. XXXIX. Feb. 1775.

M

as

as the German Spa.'- • Odds minnums and crotchets! how did the chirup at Mrs. Piano's concert !---Odds flints, pans, and triggers! I'll challenge him directly. Odds crowns and laurels! your honour follows you to the grave," &c.

When Captain Abfolute takes notice of this new method of fwearing, Acres replies. Ha ha! you've taken notice of it 'tis genteel, isn't it? I didn't invent it myfelf though; but a commander in our militia, a great fcholar, I affure you, fays, that there is no meaning in the common oaths, and that nothing but their antiquity makes them refpectable; because the ancients would never flick at an oath or two, but would fay, by Jove! or by Bacchus! or by Mars! or by Venus! or by Pallas! according to the fentiment.---So that to fwear with propriety, "the oath fhould be an echo to the fenfe;" and this we call the oath referential, or fentimental fwearing---ha! ha! ha! 'tis genteel isn't it?'

Sir Lucius O'Trigger, an Hibernian, carrying on an amorous correfpondence with Mrs. Malaprop, fuppofing the lady to be her niece, Lydia Languish.

Mrs. Malaprop, aunt to Mifs Lydia Languifh. The fingularity of her character chiefly confifts in her penchant for the Irish baronet, and the ridiculous mifapplication of her words:

Obferve me, fays the to fir Anthony Abfolute, I would by no means with a daughter of mine to be a progeny of learning; I don't think fo much learning becomes a young woman: for inftance --I would never let her meddle with Greek, or Hebrew, or algebra, or fimony, or fluxions, or paradoxes, or fuch inflammatory branches of learning--neither would it be neceffary for her to handle any of your mathematical, aftronomical, diabolical inftruments. But, fir Anthony, I would fend her, at nine years old, to a boarding fchool, in order to learn a little ingenuity and artifice. Then, fir, the fhould have a fupercilious knowledge in accounts ;--and as he grew up, I would have her instructed in geometry, that he might know fomething of the contagious countries. But above all, fir Anthony, the fhould be miftrefs of orthodoxy, that the might not mifpell, and mis pronounce words fo fhamefully as girls ufually do: and likewife that fhe might reprehend the true meaning of what the is faying. This, fir Anthony, is what I would have a woman know; and I don't think there is a fuperftitious article in it.'

Julia Melville, engaged to Faulkland.

The rest of the characters are Fag, fervant to Capt. Abfolute; fir Anthony's coachman; David, fervant to Acres; and Lucy, Lydia's maid.

The principal perfons abovementioned are thrown, by their caprice, folly, or mistake, into feveral perplexities and ludicrous fituations, which produce fome entertaining fcenes of comic humour.

61. The

61. The Rival Candidates. A Comic Opera. 8vo. Is. Becket.

The two rival candidates, from which this Comic Opera derives its title, are Byron and fir Harry Muff, who are competitors for the borough of Tipplewell, and the affections of a rich heirefs, called Narciffa. Byron is a man of worth and fpirit; fir Harry a fop and a coward. The baronet is therefore of course defeated in all his pretenfions.

- In this light, fugitive performance, there are ftrokes of ingenuity; but nothing new in the characters, or interesting in the plot. It has chiefly owed its fuccefs on the ftage to the fongs and the mufic.

NOVEL

62. Memoirs of the Count of Comminge. M. d'Arnaud. 8vo. 2s. 6d.

S.

From the French of Kearfly.

Stories of romantic love carried beyond the bounds of probability, and inferior to fome of the publications of M. d'Arnaud. 63. Edwin and Julia. Two Vols. 12mo. 5s. Sewed. Wilkie.

However plentiful the follies and vices of mankind are, the numerous reprefentations which have been made of them feem to have almost exhaufted the fubject; at least in the prefent Novel, as in many others which we have lately perused, we have met with scarcely any thing but what is grown thread-bare by repetition.

MEDICAL.

64. Medical and Philofophical Commentaries. Tavo Vols. 8vo. 12s. in boards. Murray.

Every three months, for two years paft, this work has been regularly published in parts, and it feems to meet with encouragement. The contents of it are, an account of new books on medicine, and thofe branches of philofophy moft intimately connected with it; medical cafes and obfervations; medical news; and a list of new medical publications. In the account of books, the authors reftrict themfelves to the giving a fummary detail of the fubjects of which they treat, without interpofing any remarks. The cafes and obfervations alone are fufficient to render the work ufeful to every practitioner.

こ

1

65. Remarks on the final Ceffation of the Menfes. 8vo. 6d. Donaldfon.

This pamphlet is written with the view of recommending a noftrum, entitled Balfamic Pills. The author expatiates on the inefficacy or prejudicial effects of fecret medicines in general, but affirms that, by following the directions which are given with these pills, their operation may be fo regulated as to fuït the particular circumftances of different perfons.

CONTROVERSIAL.

66. A Gospel Defence of the Unitarian Doctrine.

Robinson.

12m0.

This publication confifts of fixteen letters, in anfwer to fome effays, in favour of the Trinity, printed in an Irish Journal, under the fignatures of Lucius, Fidelis, and Philalethes. The purport of thefe letters is to fhew, that three perfons cannot be one God; and that, however highly God has been pleafed to dignify Jefus Chrift, yet every thing implied in his most exalted character falls infinitely fhort of an equality with the Father of the Universe.

In the first chapter of St. John, the beginning, he thinks, refers to no æra fooner than the commencement of our Saviour's preaching fee John i. 1. ii. 7. The Acyrs, he apprehends, denotes the gofpel. What St. Mark evidently means, by this expreffion, The beginning of the Gospel of Jefus Chrift, the Son of God, St. John, he thinks, intends by thefe words, In the beginning was the word. Even God, he fuppofes, may be called word, in the fame fenfe in which he is called love.---Jefus defigned no more by the phrafe, I am, John viii. 58. than that he was the Chrift.---The highest confeffion of faith, made by the apostles concerning Jefus was this: Thou art the Chrift, the fon of the living God.

Thefe are fome of the principles, which the author maintains with a laudable degree of temper, ferioufnefs, and learning. His work would have been more agreeable, if it had been better printed, and not fo prolix.

67. Human Authority in Matters of Faith repugnant to Chriftianity 800 1s. 6d. Johnson.

In the controverfy concerning the XXXIX Articles, no text of Scripture has been fo frequently produced as thefe words of our Saviour, one is your master, even Chrift, &c. Matt. xxiii. 8. Our author takes this paffage for his text; and endeavours to prove, firft, that our Lord had the unquestionable authority of heaven for claiming the high and diftinguifhing pre-eminence, which he here affumes, namely, that of being our one mafter, or only infallible teacher of religion; fecondly, that we should acknowledge no other man, or body of men whatever, confidered either as in competition with him, or in conjunction with him, to be our master. - -Most of our author's obfervations have been anticipated by preceding writers..

63. A Sermon on the Nature of Subfcription to Articles of Religion. By A. Burnaby, A. M. 8vo. 15. Payne.

This difcourfe breathes a fpirit of benevolence, candour, and moderation. The author's principal aim is to prove, that general belief and approbation, with acquiefcence and conformity, is all that either is, or can be required; all that the church has a right to require; and, in a word, all that the spirit of her acts and injunctions feem to require.