ings more painful and difhonourable to yourself, and more difpleafing and pernicious to the world. Wait for the more happy feason, when viva voce inftruction, reading, meditation, and example, fhall have better formed your principles and regulated your life. Become a faithful fervant of God, and a true difciple of Chrift; and then you may afpire, with comfort and confidence, to be a minister of religion, and a preacher of the Gospel." P. 8. This fecond chapter is full of excellent advice on this subject. But there is one particular, in which we fear this advice can feldom be followed, as things are at prefent ordered. The ftudent is advised, after spending four academical years in the general ftated courfe of education, to devote the three years following (if circumftances admit) to a particular preparation for orders." P. 12. There are two difficulties in the way of this defirable arrangement, neither of them easily vanquished. Ift. That the ufual course of education carries a young man too far on in life to allow, in general, feven years of academical preparation for deacon's orders. This can only be obviated by bringing forward the courfe of education, to which there are many ftrong objections. 2dly. Even four academical years will exhauft a fmall fortune, and three more will make matters bad indeed. After all which, fo long as benefices continue to be difpofed of as at prefent, the reward of his labours and expences will be very precarious. The following caution, on reading the fcriptures in the church, is unquestionably juft, and deferves the particular attention of young divines. "In the application of these principles one circumftance is always to be remembered. You are not fpeaking in your own perfon, nor reprefenting, as on a theatre, any other: you are only reciting the words of a writer, or the fpeeches of other perfons by him recorded. Though, therefore, it be convenient fo far to vary your voice, as to convey to your hearers, and even to imprefs upon them, the sentiment of the writer or fpeaker, it is perfectly incongruous to attempt to prefent his tone or manner. Confidering, moreover, that the writer is a facred hiftorian, a prophet, or an apoftle; and that the speaker introduced by him is generally a prophet, or an apoftle, or an angel, or our bleffed Lord upon earth, or the Almighty from heaven, this dramatic imitation approaches to irreverence; and equally offends the piety, and the good fenfe or tafte, of the audience. It has, befides, an appearance of elaboratenefs and oftentation, in no performance furely fo ungraceful, as in the adminiftration of the offices of religion." P. 49. A fpecimen of chaste and claffical eloquence may be extracted from the eighth chapter. "The lights of reafon and revelation fall upon our path in rays fo blended. that we walk like the fummer-evening traveller, who, enjoying enjoying at the fame time the full orb of the moon and the fun's folftitial twilight, is unable to afcertain the proportion in which he is indebted to each of these heavenly luminaries: and fome of us, alas! are fuch incompetent philofophers, as, because the greater is below our horizon, to attribute all to the lefs. But the intelligent obferver acknowledges with gratitude the joint affiftance of both; and while he measures the general tenor of his way by the written word of God, he guides his fteps continually by the correfpondent and concurrent law imprinted on his heart." P. 102. We are induced by the circumftances of the present times to think, that the fubject of the eleventh chapter, namely, refidence, might have been even more enlarged upon, with great propriety and advantage. Non-refidence, without very adequate caufe, is certainly a serious evil, and they who indulge themselves in it unneceffarily might be more moved by the folemn and earnest appeal of a friend, in behalf of the common cause, than by all the railings of adverfaries. If this publication fhould be as generally read by students in divinity, and by the younger clergy, as we wish it to be, the good effects of it will probably appear before many years have elapfed; and the Church of England, and the caufe of religion in general, will be under confiderable obligations to the learned and reverend author. ART. IX. A Treatise on the Errors and Defects of medical Education: in which are contained Obfervations on the Means of correcting them. By Thomas Withers, M. D. M. M. S. L. Phyfician to the York County Hospital, and public Difpenfary. 8vo. 134 PP. 35. Dilly. Dilly. 1794. 'N the introduction the author gives a general account of cation. He then defcribes two fects in phyfic, the empirical and the dogmatical, (the definitions he takes from Johnson's Dictionary) and fhows, by a variety of arguments, the fuperiority of the dogmatist (that is, of the rational physician) over the empiric, or more experimentalift. But all the labour here employed might surely have been spared, as neither of these fects can be faid now to exift; at least there are no schools where pure dogmatism or empiricifm are now taught. The method that has long been used in Europe, is founded on a happy mixture of the doctrines of the two fects, and cannot eafily be improved, as it admits all that reafon and experience in conjunction can produce, Dr. Withers proceeds to give fome fome cautions relative to the fitness or unfitnefs of perfons in particular fituations, to receive a medical education: and firft he obferves, "that where there is a natural defect of ununderstanding," as in the cafe of ideots, we fuppofe "it is impoffible for any one to engage in the profeffion of medicine with fuccefs either to himfelf or others. This pofition is illuftrated by feveral arguments, but as our readers will probably yield their affent to it at the firft glance, we shall not recite them. The next hint the author chooses to give to parents and guardians is, "concerning the natural conftitution and general health of thofe committed to their care." Nothing is more unfavourable to a young man engaged in this profeffion, he fays, than to have knots and tubercles in the lungs, along with a narrow cheft and tender conftitution, or to be afflicted with glandular affections in the mefentery, attended with tender relaxed bowels, a weak irregular appetite, pale fallow countenance, tumid body, emaciated habit, frequent diarrhoeas, colic pains, &c." To fuch perfons he thinks the profettion of phyfic must prove extremely laborious and dangerous. In this opinion we entirely concur. Indeed, as perfons fo affected can have but a few weeks, or, at the most, a few months to live, it would be extremely cruel in their parents or guardians to oblige them to attempt to attain an art in which it is generally thought, a long life affords too little space to arrive at perfection. The author next treats of "the neceffary preliminary and ornamental learning;" fuch as a competent knowledge of the Latin and Greek languages, to which he joins the French, and fuch other accomplishments as are neceffary to form the gentleman and the fcholar. The pupil having advanced thus far, he proceeds to defcribe a courfe of medical study. This he makes to confift in a knowledge of botany, anatomy, the materia-medica, the inftitutes and the practice of medicine. There is nothing faulty in this arrangement. But the author fhould have shown the pupil from what fources he was to obtain the knowledge of these several parts of phyfic. Perhaps it was incumbent upon him to have given an hiftory of the origin of the art, and of the authors who had moft materially contributed to its perfection. In this he would have been much aflifted by confulting the Methodus Studii Medici, of the celebrated Boerhaave, which he appears totally to have neglected. In that work he would have found the feveral branches of learning, neceflary to the completion of a medical education, clearly defcribed; their connection with medicine, and their ulity, concifely and elegantly explained; fhort hiftorical accounts of the most celebrated writers, with epitomes of their works, works, and inftructions relative to the order in which they fhould be read. In all this effential matter the work before us is extremely deficient, containing indeed no account of authors, or of their works, excepting of a few cominon books, which are in every one's hands. Hippocrates, the author fays, he reverences, and Galen he admires; but as he gives no fufficient reason for revering the one, or admiring the other, but rather endeavours to fhow there is no abfolute neceffity for confulting either of them*, the ftudent will not be likely to bestow much pains in cultivating their acquaintance from his recommendation. In the last fection the author treats of "fome other defects and abufes of education, arifing from various caufes." "A very serious abuse of education among practitioners of medicine, he fays, is a want of religious inftruction." This would certainly be a grievous defect, if it really existed. But we are at a lofs to understand how it can poffibly happen: fince we know of no diftinct feminaries for perfons intended for the profeffion of phyfic; who are in general educated by the fame mafters, and partake of the fame inftruction, that is given to young perfons intended for the church, the bar, or the fenate. Dr. W. thinks alfo, that "an irresistible attachment to the works of the ancients, has greatly retarded the progrefs of medical fcience." This, we confefs, we did not expect to find enumerated among the defects of medical education. We were rather apprehensive of the prevalence of the oppofite error: a neglect of, and inat tention to, the works of the ancients. But if any gentleman fhould be fo unfortunate as to feel this irrefiftible attachment, it will be most charitable, certainly moft wife, to leave him to his fate; fince there is little reafon to hope that our utmost exertions will be fufficient to wean him from this, unlucky propenfity: or, if we should fucceed in detaching him from these bewitching authors, we fhall only receive the thanks the lunatic gave his phyfician, Pol me occidiftis amici, non fervaftis." Other supposed errors and abuses are noticed, but what we have stated contains fufficient fpecimens of the work, which feems, on the whole, not much calculated to promote the improvement of the medical art. In a note the author fays, "All the ufeful knowledge which is contained in the writings of the ancients, is carefully delivered in thofe of the moderns, with many important additions and improve ments." ART, ART. X. The Hiftory of Catiline's Confpiracy; with the Four Orations of Cicero; to which are added Notes and Illuftrations; dedicated to the Earl of Lauderdale. By George Frederic Sydney. 8vo. 283 pp. 5s. Longman, 1795. THE most important ufe of history is that of extending and confirming our knowledge of human nature. We find there, that the paffions of mankind have always been the fame, and have produced the fame effects. Similar vices have led to fimilar attempts, which have been veiled by fimilar pretexts; while the public virtue, which refifted and detected these attempts, has encountered the fame difficulties, and fuffered the fame temporary obloquy for those acts, which were to form the bafis of its permanent fame. Salluft's Hiftory of the Confpiracy of Catiline, and the Orations of Cicero which refer to the fame tranfactions, prefent a picture, the reigning traits of which will be obfervable, more or lefs, in every attempt to overturn an established government, by factious and pefarious projects. The prefent tranflator, whom we confider as anonymous, (believing, from ftrong reafons, that the names in the title-page are affumed) has not only brought these pieces together, for the infpection of the English reader, but, in his notes and illuftrations, has pointed out the leading features of resemblance between the machinations of Catiline's faction against the government of Rome, and the plots of the pretended reformers of this country: between the efforts of Cicero and thofe of Mr. Pitt. The principal object of his attack is the Earl of Lauderdale, not, as it feems, from any peculiar importance attached to the character of that nobleman, but because he has thought proper, in a book iffued with his name, to defend the principles of faction, and take up most of the topics which have been broached by the enemies of our conftitution. We cannot, perhaps, better illustrate the degree of fimilarity that appears between this part of ancient history and fome recent events, and the manner in which it is illuftrated by the fictitious Mr. Sydney, than by extracting fome of the fpecious profeflions of Manlius, then in actual rebellion, and the note of the tranflator. After many things of the fame tendency, Manlius writes thus to the general who was ordered to oppose him. "Our enterprise has no fuch object in view; we have neither ambition nor avarice, the two grand fprings of human actions, the conftant cause of all the ftrife, and all the wars that difturb the world. We demand a reform of the laws; we ftand for the rights of man, and equal |