The Scripture Account of Prayer, in an Addrefs to the Diffenters in Lancashire; occafioned by a new Liturgy fome Minifters in that County are compofing for the Ufe of a Congregation at Liverpool. By John Taylor, D. D. late Profeffor of Divinity and Morality at the Academy in Warrington. The fecond Edition. To which is added, an Appendix, containing Remarks on the Chriftian Common Prayer Book*, or Univerfal Liturgy, and its Preface. 8vo. 1 s. 6d. Waugh. UR Readers were apprized of the Publication of the first Edition of this Addrefs to the Diffenters in Lancafhire, in the Review for Auguft, 1761, p. 124. We mention the fecond Edition on account of the Appendix, wherein the Editor of Dr. Taylor's Tract has thrown out fome Remarks on the Chriftian Common Prayer Book, which may deserve the attention of the Compiler of that wellintended, though not faultlefs performance. That Gentleman would do well to attend to every hint, which may affift him to render any future impreffion of his work more perfect, and unexceptionable-Fas eft et ab hofte doceri: at the fame time we wish him a mind fuperior to that unmerited rudenefs and indecency, with which his opponents feem too much disposed to treat him. These are marks of an illiberal and unchristian spirit, and fhould be always treated with the difregard they deferve. Devotional compofitions are, of all others, the most difficult; not only on account of the propriety of the sentiments, but the manner in which they are to be expreffed. To fupport that gravity and dignity which fhould always appear in the offices of religion, and at the fame time to retain that plainness and fimplicity, which are neceffary to render them easy to the understandings of mankind; (and which, after all, will be acknowleged the beft proofs of a good tafte, and the moft natural expreffions of a devout heart) will be found upon trial to be a task which requires very found judgment and attentive confideration: and therefore every attempt of this kind fhould at least be received with candor and good manners, though it may not arrive at the perfection which is to be wished. But our Remarker, not contented with his ftrictures on the Univerfal Liturgy, difcovers a ftrange and unaccountable impatience to be exercifing his critical acumen For an Account of this Work, fee Review, Vol. XXV. p. 285. Z 4 upon upon a work of the fame kind, faid to be drawing up at the request, and intended only for the ufe, of a private congregation in Liverpool; a work, as we are informed, yet unfinished, and never intended to be made public. What the Remarker has to do with a defign of this kind, or how he can poffibly be interested in it, we are at a lofs to conceive. He furely does not mean to dictate to a free fociety in what manner they shall worship the Deity!A Deacon of one Church feems to have no more right to interfere in the bufinefs of another Church, than the Conftable of one Township has to act within the limits of another. Upon the whole, we by no means approve the acrimonious Spirit of oppofition, which, on this occafion, manifefts itself amongst fome Diffenters; and are furprized, and concerned too, that they, who are fo happily tolerated by the present Establishment, fhould be preparing weapons of war, and eagerly waiting to animadvert upon the expected Liturgy, with fo much feverity: this is unmanly, ungenerous, and unchriftian.- -In what confiftency of character must that set of men appear, who enjoying the great blefling of Toleration themselves, are unwilling to allow the fame to their fellow Nonconformifts? How much better would it become them to exercise the benevolent difpofition of the Gofpel; to follow the milder example of our wife and happy government; and permit their brethren to worship God in their own way, without attempting to deprive them of their liberty, or casting reproach and calumny upon them for that use of it, which they have the jufteft title to? Better, far better were it, to acquiefce in what God permits, and continue, as he commands, in a course of friendly forbearance, and charitable difpofition towards all our fellow Chriftians. Diffenters fhould, of all men, be attentive to the great firft principles, on which, not only their Diffent, but the Reform. ation itself was founded, and on which alone either of them can be fupported. If they have forgotten what these are, let them again turn to Mr. Locke's excellent Letters upon Toleration, in which they are reprefented with the greateft clearness, and fupported with the ftrongeft arguments. And let them recollect, that they are not now debating the lawfulness or unlawfulnels of Habits, Modes, and Forms, which are inferior circumftances left in a fate of indifference; but ought at leaft to appear in the more refpectable light of friends to the liberties of mankind at large: and, as fuch, afferting the right of every man to judge for himfelf; and that not only in fpeculative principles and doctrines, but in regard to the methods of conducting the folemn fervices of Divine Worship, in which, it is apprehended, Chriftians are left equally at liberty by the firft founder of our holy religion. 4s A Treatise on the Art of Dancing. By Giovanni-Andrea Gallini, Director of the Dances at the Royal Theatre in the Hay-Market. 6s. bound. Dodfley and Becket, A S Logic is termed the Art of Thinking, fo Dancing may be called the Art of Gefture; and Burgurdifcius's definition of a fyllogifin may well be applied to a Step, in qua quibufdam pofitis, diverfum quid à pofitis, propter ea quæ pofita funt, neceffario fequitur. Logic teaches us fo to order and arrange our thoughts, as to give them perfpicuity and propriety of connection; and by Dancing we are taught to direct our motions in such a manner, as to give them gracefulness, harmony and ease. But the art of Dancing is even more neceffary to Gefticulation, than the art of Logic is to Thinking. To think elegantly and fublimely is the effect of genius alone, and the art of Thinking clearly and juftly, may be attained by habit and obfervation; but it is queftionable whether an elegant and graceful carriage was ever obtained without the aid of Dancing. Mechanical, however, as this art may feem, genius is far from being out of the queftion. We have elsewhere obferved that the imitative arts were alone the province of genius, and no art can with more propriety be called imitative than Dancing. It is a copying of those ideas of gracefulness and harmony, which we borrow from nature; and in this, as in the other imitative arts, the closest imitation of graceful nature is the happiest execution. But it may then be afked, if Dancing be nothing more than copying the native beauties of motion, why is not nature left to itself? The reason is, that art hath borrowed various graces from various forms; and in this, as in other cafes, by combination, hath reduced them to a fyftematic science. Could any art or fcience derive importance from its antiquity, Dancing might ftand in the firft rank for this claim.` The accounts of it run almost as high as any thing we find upon authentic record. Nothing particular, indeed, concerning this art hath defcended to us, except the tracts of Lucian and Athenæus. But Plato and Xenophon have made honourable mention of it; and no wonder, fince their mafter 'Socrates thought thought it worth his while to learn it at an advanced time of life. It was probably on account of its being a religious ceremony that this wife and pious philofopher applied himfeir to it; but however that might be, it is a proof of the great esteem in which it was held in the most enlightened age of Greece. Whether Dancing owed its origin to military or religious ceremonies, will admit of a difpute, in which great erudition might be difplayed on both fides of the question, and nothing determined. We look upon it to have been a natural confequence of the invention of music; for it has been obferved that the Indian Savages, upon hearing the found of any mufical inftrument, could not forbear throwing themfelves into antic poftures and capers, rapid or flow, in proportion to the time of the mufic. Thus, as Dancing was originally the effect of mufic, it continued to accompany that art, on all occafions, whether in religious ceremonies, festivals, or public rejoicings upon the acquisition of victory. Nunc eft faltandum, nunc pede libero From being used in the religious ceremonies of Pagans, Dancing, like many other of their customs, was retained in the Chriftian church, during its infancy. Hence the space before the altar came to be called the choir, being originally appropriated to the Dancers. It would have been impolitic, and perhaps impoffible, in the first promoters of Chriftianity, to have stripped Pagan idolatry of all its ceremonies at once By only changing the object of adoration, and by leaving the people in poffeffion of their fuperftitious cuftoms, they were more eafily drawn over to a new fyftem of faith, and were weaned, by degrees, from the abfurd rites of their antient worship. But though Dancing, confidered as a religious ceremony, appears extremely ridiculous; yet, applied to harmonize the motions of the body, to teach an eafy gefture, and a graceful attitude, it is highly useful. A Dancing-Mafter, in this refpect, fhould have the genius of a statuary, and know exactly the proper attitudes of every fentiment and paffion. Mr. Gallini has formed a right judgment of his art, and is well apprized in what its chief excellence confifts. He has not puffed it with the vanity of a Dancing-Mafter, but has treated it with the candour of good fenfe, and the acutenefs of good tafte. Page 72, he gives us an account of the dif 4 ferent ferent ftyles of dancing. "There are, (fays he) properly fpeaking, four divifions of the characters of Dances; the Serious, the Half-ferious, the Comic, and the Grotefque: but for executing any of them with grace, the artift should be well grounded in the principles of the ferious Dance, which will give him, what may be called, a delicacy of manner in all the reft. "But as one of these divisions may be more adapted to the humour, genius, or powers of an artist, than another, he fhould, if he aims at excellence, examine carefully for which it is that he is the most fit. "After determining which, whatever imperfections he may have from nature, he muft fet about correcting, as well as he can, by art. Nothing will hardly be found impoffible for him to fubdue, by an unfhaken refolution, and an intenfe application. "Happy indeed is that artift, in whom both the requifites of nature and art are united; but where the first is not grofsly deficient, it may be fupplemented by the second. However well a beginner may be qualified for this profeffion by nature, if he does not cultivate the talent duly, he will be furpaffed by another, inferior to him in natural endowments, but who fhall have taken pains to acquire what was wanting to him, or to improve where deficient. The experience of all ages attefts this. "The helps of a lively imagination, joined to great and affiduous practice, carry the art to the highest perfection. But practice will give no eminent diftinction without ftudy. Whoever fhall flatter himself with forming himself by practice alone, without the true principles and fufficient grounds of the art, can only proceed upon a rote of tradition, which may appear infallible to him. But this adoption of unexamined rules, and this plodding on in a beaten track, will never lead to any thing great or eminent. It carries with it always fomething of the ftiffness of a copy, without any thing of the graceful boldnefs of originality, or of the strokes of genius. "I have before obferved that the grave, or serious style of Dancing, is the great ground-work of the art. It is alfo the most difficult. Firmness of step, a graceful and regular motion of all the parts, fuppleness, eafy bendings and rifings, the whole accompanied with a good air, and managed with the |