Anxious the burthen Herman ask'd to bear;
But the replied, the mafter muft not serve
The fervant. Serious is your look; fevere
You think my fate; but fuch are woman's duties.
We learn to govern having learn'd to ferve.
And ferve the fifter muft, and come and go,
And wait on brother, parent, guest, and friend,
With ready hand and cheerful heart; no road
Too rough, no hour too late, no work too coarse;
Herfelf forgot, for others muft fhe live.
Become a wife, her labours multiply:
Sickly herself, the fick fhe muft confole
On feeble couch, the feeble babe must feed;
And watch by day, and wake and weep by night;
No limits have her toils, no end her cares:
Not twenty men could them fupport; nor should
They but, they should acknowledge woman's worth."

P. 124.

She accompanies him home; and her perplexity, at imagin ing herfelf a fervant, where the is expected as a bride, is very well reprefented. They are finally united, and all parties are fatisfied and happy.

What we have faid above applies merely to the original work, for we have not often met with any thing more fantaftical, or more foolish, than the tranflation, confidered as a poetical performance. Our readers will remember what we heretofore obferved concerning a certain tragedy called Antonio. Mr. Holcroft is exactly of the fame school, and entitled to the benefit of the rules there laid down for poets of the description of Mr. Godwin. But what is ftill more ludicrous, the tranflator pretends to alter his prototype in various places, in conformity to our manners and poetical feeling. Poetical feeling! can a man be faid to have poetical feeling, who is capable of producing the trash of this volume, in which no trace of the conftituent beauties, graces, or qualities, of true poetry, can poffibly be difcovered? Yet, like others of his fect, he talks with a gravity and decifion as if he alone were the Ariftarchus qualified to pronounce on what conftitutes poetic excellence.

The reader will have ample opportunity of judging of the poetical merit of the tranflator, from the fpecimens introduced; we will add a few lines, taken without much choice, to confirm more fully the truth of what we have faid.

So difcourfed the hoft of the Gold Lion.

The mode is changed to frocks, and boots, and pantaloons.

Of the countless combinations of things.

Frantic with horror, bellowed as he clank'd his chains.

The fingle man flies, light of body, and of mind.

And

And dearly was her love return'd, and dutiful.
careful of the well-

Bred horse, to see him dress'd and serv'd, was one
Of Herman's voluntary tasks.

He feels a joy at every trifle he

Retrieves. Great the rubbish, little the gold.
Not twenty men could them fupport, nor should
They but they should acknowledge woman's worth.
(above-cited.)
The precious metals melt, loft are their fainted forms.
What's ours for us, and ours we will maintain.

If thefe and a multitude of fimilar lines do not prove a total want of poetic taste and feeling, we give the matter up, and confefs ourfelves incapable of deciding on the queftion. The volume is elegantly printed, and fome trifling engravings are added, which furnish the pretence for demanding half-aguinea for a publication of two hundred pages. There are fome notes, alfo, explanatory of local cuftoms; of which, the only one at all curious is an extract from the Nord Literaire, defcribing the marriages of the peasants of Silefia.

ART. V. A Layman's Account of his Faith and Practice, as a Member of the Epifcopal Church in Scotland: published with the Approbation of the Bishops of that Church. To which are added, fome Forms of Prayer from the most approved Manuals, for affifting the Devotion of private Chriftians on various Occafims. With a Letter from the Reverend Charles Daubeny to a Scotch Nobleman, on the Subject of Ecclefiaftical Unity. 8vo. 181 pp. Edinburgh printed, by John Mair, for all the Bookfellers. 1801.

THIS fmail volume was fent to us from Edinburgh, and we have read it with much pleasure. We should have entertained, however, fomething more than a doubt of its being the production of a layman, were it not published with the approbation of the Proteftant Bifhops in Scotland, who, we are convinced, would not give their countenance to a pious fraud. The author, whoever he may be, writes fo like a young clergyman, zealous in the cause of converfion to the government and difcipline of his own church, that, but for the patronage under which the work is published, added to fome inaccuracies in language, and in fact, we should with confidence have given it to a clerical author.

It has, to use the words of Ariftotle, a beginning, a middle, and an end; but the beginning is the conftitution of the church; the middle is the conftitution of the church; the end is the conftitution of the church; and nothing is deemed valuable, whether in faith or in practice, which does not tend to preserve that conftitution in its apoftolical purity. This is fuch a view of Christianity, as we thould not look for from the pen of a layman; or indeed from any pen, but that of a man heated with ecclefiaftical controverfy, in which few laymen of the present age are difpofed to engage.

The conftitution of the church; we confider as highly important, and we have the fame notions of that conftitution with this layman; but we do not think that the faith was delivered to the Saints, or the duties of Chriftianity prescribed to them, for the fake of the church; but that the church was eftablished to preferve the purity of the faith, and to enforce the practice of the Chriftian duties. The church and the faith are both from God, but the former is fubordinate to the latter. This appears to us fo obvious, that we cannot conceive the contrary opinion to be embraced by any perfon, but a young man entangled in the labyrinths of controverfy. Yet, that the author of the work before us is a layman, we are convinced, not only by the reafons already affigned, but by the following mistakes, which could not eafily have fallen from the pen of a clergyman tolerably educated.

In pp. 10 and 11, the layman fays that the members of the Church of Rome" confefs, with us, that the Scriptures are infallible, and a fure guide to direct us in the way of falvation; but we can never believe that the Pope is fo, or any council or affembly, however general, of men not infpired by the Holy Ghaft. But every clergyman, of every communion, knows that every member of the Church of Rome confiders the Scriptures as a fure guide to falvation only, as they are interpreted by the church; that very few of thofe members confider the Pope as infallible; and that they hold general councils to be infallible, only because they believe all fuch councils to be infpired by the Holy Ghoft.

In p. 11, the layman fays, that "to call on Saints or Angels for help, or employ them as mediators with God, we say, is grofs and unwarrantable fuperftition." But a well-educated clergyman would have faid, that to call upon Saints and Angels, is to attribute to them ubiquity, one of the attributes of God, and is therefore idolatry. Could we fuppofe that they hear us, there would be no more fuperftition in calling upon St. Peter or St. Paul to intercede for us, than in requesting the prayers of our parish minifter; and we have always confidered

the herefy of the Arians as confuted by their own practice, when they address prayers and praises to Jefus Christ.

In p. 96, we meet with fo erroneous an account of the origin of the reformed Epifcopal Church of Scotland, as could not poffibly, we conceive, have come from the pen of a clergyman.

"When our church," fays this layman, "was rescued from the oppreffive influence of papal power, and exerted the improved ftrength of her piety and learning, in working a happy reformation from the errors and corruptions which fhe had imbibed from her long connection with the fect of Romifh fuperftition, she took care to distinguish between what was truly primitive, and what might juftly be denominated popish."

It is univerfally known that, in Scotland, the Pope's fupremacy was thrown off, not by learning, which diftinguished between what was primitive and what was popifh, but by a turbulent crew of armed fanatics, who thought that they could not recede far enough from the Church of Rome. This fentence therefore cannot have been penned by a clergyman, nor indeed by any man at all acquainted with the hiftory of the Reformation. The Scotch Epifcopal Church was rescued, not “from the oppreffive influence of papal power," but from the popular influence of prefbyterian fanatician; and fo refcued, not by the exertion of her own piety and learning, but by the authority and addrefs of our first James, after he obtained poffeffion of the throne of Elizabeth; who had indeed delivered the Church of England from the influence of papal power.

We have made these remarks, not with the view of detracting from the inerits of this publication, which are very confiderable; but to thow that, notwithstanding the clerical appearance which it fometimes puts on, it is, in all probability, what it profefles to be, the work of a layman. That the Bithops in Scotland fuffered it to go abroad into the world with all its inaccuracies, in point of fact, was therefore judicious; for, had they corrected it, the public would have given it to fome of them, and not to "a private Chriftian, who hath withheld his name for the fame reafons which induced the author of The whole Duty of Man, to conceal himself from the eye of the public."

It is obferved by this author, as it has been by others;

"that works on the fubject of religion, when judiciously com pofed by pious laymen of found and good principles, are more generally fought after, and leave a greater impreffion on the minds of readers, than those which come from perfons more directly engaged in the fervice of religion, and who are thought to be peculiarly interested in ita defence."

If this obfervation be well founded, the book before us is calculated to do much good; for the principles which the aurthor labours to eftablith, are certainly found, his reafoning is cogent without fubtlety, and his piety ferious without morofenefs. Should it be thought, that the conftitution of the church is too frequently brought into view, as an object of the very first importance, we beg leave to reply, that it is certainly an object of great importance, to which the prevalence of laypreaching thows that too little attention is generally paid. To ferious Methodifts of every denomination, we therefore beg leave earnestly to recommend this fmall performance, from which they may derive much-ufeful inftruction, not only concerning the church, and the authority of her minifters, but also concerning every article of faith and practice neceffary to the falvation of a Chriftian.

This will be apparent to the reader, from the following Table of Contents:

Layman's account of his faith and practice-Latitudinarian principles cenfured-Unity of the church of Chrift-Of the epifco pal church of Scotland-Hierarchy of the church proved from Scripture-Neceffity of regular ordination in [of] the minifters of the church-Danger of fchifm-The Bible contains a complete fyftem of revealed truth-A holy life and converfation inculcated-Neceffity of our attendance on the public worship of the church-Behaviour of a Chriftian in the houfe of prayer, and defcription of the fervice of the church-Festivals, &c. of the church-Of the holy Eucharift-Neceffity of inquiring for the old paths, and adhering to them--Of baptifm-Of confirmation-Open profeffion of our faith inculcatedThe duty of fupporting our clergy-A Chriftian's duty as a good fubject, as a good citizen, as a husband, as parent, towards his relations, towards his neighbours, towards all mankind-On placing all our trust in the good providence of God-Contentment recommended in every flation-On the improvement of our time--On the neceflity of religi ous knowledge-Usefulness of other branc es of learning-On our behaviour in company-Prejudices againit Chriftianity-Danger of liftening to the novelties of modern fectaries-Exhortation to fteadfaftnefs in our religious principle-Forms of praver for affiling the devotions of private Chriftians-Letter from Mr. Daubeny, &c."

As a fpecimen of this author's style and reafoning, we fubjoin his account of Epifcopacy in Scotland, from which fome of our readers will derive information, at once interciting and

new.

"For the information of those who are not much accustomed to hear of a regular church without a legal establishment, it may be proper to mention, that, by the Epifcopal Church of Scotland, which has long fubfifted in that fituation, I understand that body of Chriftians, who are united, in all matters of ecclefiaftical concern, under the regu.

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