1 An O DE in Imitation of ALCEUS. Οὐ λίθοι, ἐδὲ ξύλα, δὲ Ἐνταῦθα τείχη και πόλεις. ALC. quoted by ARISTIDES. HAT conftitutes a ftate? WH Not high-rais'd battlement or labour'd mound, Not cities proud with fpires and turrets crown'd; Where, laughing at the ftorm, rich navies ride; Where low-brow'd bafenefs wafts perfume to pride. With pow'rs as far above dull brutes endued As beafts excel cold rocks and brambles rude; But know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain, And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain : And fov'reign LAW, that ftate's collected will, Sits Emprefs, crowning good, repreffing ill; The fiend Difcretion like a vapour finks, And e'en th' all-dazzling Crown Hides his faint rays, and at her bidding fhrinks. Than Lefbos fairer and the Cretan fhore ! Shall Britons languifh, and be MEN no more? Those sweet rewards, which decorate the brave, And fteal inglorious to the filent grave. ABERGAVENNY, March 31, 1781. N 4 HONORIA, HONORIA, ΟΥ the Day of ALL SOULS, а Рост. By Mr. JERNINGHAM. The Scene of the following little Poem is fuppofed to be in the great Church of St. Ambrofe at Milan the fecond of November, on which Day the moft folemn Office is performed for the Repofe of the Dead. YE E hallow'd bells, whofe voices thro' the air The awful fummons of affliction bear: But other duties, other cares impend, Cares that beyond the mournful grave extend; Yet, can this high folemnity of grief By By love, by piety, by reafon taught, -Does fancy mock me with a falfe delight, Account Account of Books for 1781. Philological Inquiries; by James Harris, Efq; 2 vols. 8vo. IN N an eminent rank amongst the productions of this year is a treatise, entitled, Philological Inquiries, by the celebrated author of Hermes. A performance of this kind appears to be moft fuitable to, and what might naturally have been expected from the close of a life, spent in the purfuit of knowledge, and in habits of deep and fpeculative difquifitions. It It is principally converfant with critical and hiftorical reflections, and implies rather a judicial review of acquirements already made, than a laborious investigation of new fubjects: it embraces a wide compafs of learning, and abounds in a variety of fuch deep and philofophical remarks, as difplay the folidity and penetration of a judgment, evidently formed in the fchool of Ariftotle. It has been frequently and juftly regretted, that a depth of erudition is by no means the greatest praife of modern writings; and that it is more the fashion, perhaps from a vain affectation of originality, to admire the illegitimate productions of fancy, than to recur for just principles to the pure models of antiquity. This gene eral failure, and contempt for antient literature, Mr. Harris wished earnestly to remove, and it is to be hoped he has laboured with fome degree of fuccefs, especially when we confider the great popularity of his writings, although profeffedly founded upon the Greek philofophy, and imitative in a close degree of the manner of Ariftotle: indeed it is the opinion of fome, that in this laft inftance he has gone further than the genius of the English language feems to admit. However, any peculiarity of this fort is abundantly compenfated by an accuracy and precifion peculiar to himself; and if our ingenious author hath not, upon this occafion, entered fo deeply into logic and metaphyfics, as he has done in his former more elaborate productions, it is to be remembered that the nature of the prefent work did not demand it; and it is a circumftance fo far in its favour, that it is thereby rendered of more general ufe, as it profeffes, to inftruct by example, and not by demonftration, and exhibits a series of conclufions, rather than the principles, upon which thofe conclufions are found 1 of Mr. Harris, is perhaps no where more eminently discoverable than in this treatife: in it he has introduced a great variety of fubjects, and by an eafy mode of tranfition has reconciled and reduced to a fyftem and to an unity of defign matters, which, if confidered in a separate view, would appear of a nature perfectly extraneous. The author's own words will convey to the reader the most adequate idea of the plan of his work. "The treatise, which follows, " is of the philological kind, and ** will confift of three parts, properly distinct from each other. thing connected with letters, "be it fpeculative, or histori"cal." Agreeable to this introduction, he diftinguishes the general word criticifm, by three different fpecies;-the Philofophical, the Hiftorical, and the Corrective. By the Philofophical, he means " that original criticism, which is a deep and philofophical fearch into the primary laws and elements of good writing, as far as they could be collected from the most approved performances.' To prove that this fpecies of criticifm was fubfequent to, and not productive of the first good writing; that there must have been good authors who made the firft good critics, and not critics who made the first good authors, Mr. Harris argues thus. "Can << we doubt that men had mufic, "fuch indeed as it was, before "the principles of harmony were "eftablished into a science? that "difeafes were healed and build ings erected before medicine, and architecture were fyftema"tized into arts? that men rea“soned and harangued upon mat"ters of fpeculation and practice, long before there were profeft "teachers of logic or rhetoric ?" He accounts for the origin of the fecond fpecies, or the hiftorical, in a manner the most fatisfactory. "We know from experience, "that in progress of time, lan66 guages, |