cian of the neighbourhood, who on hearing that great quantities of human bones were dug up by the labourers, when searching for stones, came and stored himself with many bushels, with which (to use his own words) "he made a noble medicine that relieved many of his distressed neighbours."

The interval of 80 years elapsed before the antiquities of Abury at tracted the notice of Dr. Stukeley, who made repeated visits, and spent much time in the investigation of it: and although the learned Doctor deals rather too much in fancy and conjecture, yet the literary world is chiefly indebted to him for the history and dilapidation of this truly interesting monument of antiquity.

It would be a tedious task to follow our modern Author throughout his antiquities, or to trace their many intricacies and particularities; we must therefore refer our readers to his original work, concluding with his own words:

"The object I have had in view, has been to illustrate, by existing evidence, the history of those early Britons, who resided on the Wiltshire hills. I have endeavoured to collect and arrange all that has been written and published concerning them to glean the most important matter from the unpublished manuscripts of Mr. Aubrey and from the printed volumes of Dr. Stukeley; to correct some of their errors; and by the assistance of accurate plans, maps, and views, to transmit to posterity the History of an Abury, a Marden, and a Stonehenge.

"In short, having recorded what I have read, and faithfully described what I have seen, I shall, in the words of Dr. Stuke. ley, leave the Reader to form his own judgment, without endeavouring to force his assent with fancied proofs, which will scarce hold good in matters of so remote an age;' and in the words of my countryman and fellow-labourer in the fields of Antiquity (Aubrey), hoping, that my Readers will receive as much pleasure in reading of these British relicts, as I have had in seeing them.'"

When we see the names of Basire, Carey, and George Cooke applied to the numerous Engravings and Maps, we cannot entertain a doubt concerning their able execution.

The Author informs us, that having concluded his History of the Antient Britons, he has actually engaged about the Roman Era, which is far advanced, and will complete the second volume.

48. 4 Short Narrative of the Creation, and Formation of the Heavens and the Earth, &c. as recorded by Moses in the Book of Genesis. By Philo. 8vo. pp. 119. Longman and Co.

THE Cosmogony is evidently a subject of much curiosity and interest. The present book appears to be the production of a Hebrew scholar, professing to treat the work in a religious view; and it proposes to unite this with a proper attention to the manifest laws of uature.

The Mosaic account is certainly not discordant with reason, in any part of it. We have only to mention, that God is the Essence of all Being; and have only to object to the use of certain words, which mislead the mind. God is called a spirit, which conveys the idea of a gaseous substance. The meaning is not this. God is the principle, by virtue of which all matter acts according to its respective properties. What we call a law of Nature is a Divine property conferred upon it. Thus gravity is the divine property annexed to matter; and so all the distinctive qualities of_every sort of thing which exists. By attributions of this kind, every thing in creation is simplified and brought to its clear origin. God being universal in power and being, of course creation was an affair of pure will. He had only to dictate the form and the mode of action.

In the beginning, says Moses, God created the Heaven and the earth. By the Heaven we are to understand, all the worlds which we do not inhabit. The earth is said to have been without form and void; i. e. according to philosophers, in a state of fluidity, where the chaotic particles were held in solution. By communicating to them the laws of gravity, centrifugal force, and the chemical affinities, and placing the earth in a state of revolution on its axis, air would arise from the mass, water next, and other bodies recede from the centre of gravity in the ratio of their specific gravities. The germs of all the animals, and other existing beings, were called into their intended sphere of action by conferring the attribute of life upon them. In short, not to pursue a subject, possessing no difficulty in reality, Moses merely affirms, that God created all things, and that his powers, or, as he terms

it, his spirit gave them all the properties of life and action. All this he divides into a period of seven days; for though there is, properly speak ing, no such thing as time, it being a mere arbitrary annotation of revolution of the earth round its axis, and its solar centre, action is not universally simultaneous, nor can be where matter is connected with the subject. The waters could not subside for the earth to appear, and the animals be set in action to move upon the latter with order, if all had been of contemporary motion.

The great difficulty is the trees of Eden. Our author has produced numerous quotations to show, that trees were used for emblems (p. 95), and he is of opinion, "that the trees of Eden were not only intended and adapted for the material senses of Adam, but as a plan or book from which he derived and retained a knowledge of spiritual things, he having God for his instructor." p. 96.

We know the figurative forms of Oriental diction; we know, the curious opinions of various commentators concerning the seduction of Eve; and we also know, that John Hunter, in his enquiries concerning the various species of the genus man, declared that Adam was a Black. "When Doctors so disagree," it cannot be expected that we should chuse to commit ourselves.

49. Moderation: A Sermon, preached at the Octagon Chapel, Bath, Jan. 31, 1809. By the Rev. J. Gardiner, D. D.

The Author of this Discourse is eminently distinguished as a preacher at Bath; where he attracts a large and most respectable congregation.

Dr. Gardiner is not an ornamental or showy writer, like Mr. Allison; he does not seek to please; neither does he attempt, by burst of eloquence, like the late Mr. Skelton the Irish orator, to transport his hearers into warmth and passion. His eloquence is of the middle kind: his art is exerted in selecting the most appropriate arguments, in stating them with the greatest force, and arranging

them in the most natural order.

This Sermon exemplifies our observation: the manner is extremely insinuating; but excellent as is the composition, we think it greatly in

ferior to the discourse contained in a volume formerly published by the Author, which are distinguished by their animated and persuasive addres ses, and are written on the true prin ciples of pulpit eloquence: but this inferiority, the author satisfactorily accounts for: 'he makes, at the request of some of his hearers, a discourse public, which was written merely in the ordinary course of sup→ plying provision for his own flock.'

The following quotation will show that the Author has high claims both upon attention and approbation. Having touched with a delicate and gentle hand the preconceived opinions of those who are dissatisfied with every thing they hear which does not flatter their own views of things, whilst he laments that "all efforts by reason and argument to enlighten and convince them will, in general, be of no avail," he expresses his

disapprobation of measures, which the zeal of party too often dictates.

"We are still left," the Preacher proceeds, "to have recourse in their behalf to that power, superior to any on earth, which alone turneth the hearts of men; and how much more efficacious and Christian-like a method is this of taking an interest in their welfare, than that of upbraiding them for their imbecility or perverseness; and of trying to degrade them by ignominious names; of treating them with contemptuous sneers or supercilious looks or, what is still more irritating, of making their failings the subjects of pleasantry and derision? No measures can be more likely than these to confirm them in their delusions, since they will either consider themselves as suffering persecution for the cause of Christ, in which they will glory or they will take refuge in a sullen conceit of their own spiritual superiority over those who revile them. All effervescence of spleen, or acrimonious spirit of party, manifested by invectives against them in public or private, is sure to defeat its own end, and will augment the very evil it attempts to reform. heart's desire to God of every true disciple of Christ is, to save others by making them sound Christians; but how absurd to employ for this purpose methods, which in spite of your vehement profession of have not yourself imbibed the true spirit orthodoxy, too clearly indicate that you of Christianity! Blessed be God, there have been for some time past, and there still are, an active religious zeal, a Christian emulation, stirring in this kingdom on all sides; and amidst the contests of

The

Divines

Divines of the same Church; for preeminence of soundness of doctrine, too much examination and caution cannot be employed in deciding for the true faith. But how deplorable will it be, if any, under a pretence of striving for this faith of the Gospel, should make their religion principally consist in attacking that of others, in detecting and severely exposing their erroneous opinions; or, what is still worse, in thwarting and disconcerting their laudable projects."

Want of room forbids us to continue the quotation. The whole of the sermon is excellent: we wish it to be

read by all the Evangelical party, and by all who oppose Evangelical preaching it contains so much good sense, due moderation, and Christian piety, that it will be read with pleasure by the unprejudiced, and cannot fail of producing the happiest effects on those who are open to conviction.

50.

Sermons on Public Subjects and Occasions. By Francis Skurray, B. D. Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford. 12mo. pp. 261. Cadell and Davies.

THESE Discourses "on Piety and Patriotism," seven in number, are the production of a Clergyman, who, during a lengthened residence in a populous village, marked the devastation of noxious tenets, and endeavoured to supply antidotes against their contagion; and are inscribed to Lord Colchester, who, at the time of their publication, was Speaker of the House of Commons.

"Connected by ties of affection and interest with our venerable seminary of learning, inclination concurs with duty in selecting its Representative, who will not fail to countenance efforts emanating from congenial principles, and animated by kindred ardour."

An extract from one of these Sermons, preached at the Abbey Church of Bath, was given in the second part of our last volume, p. 36. A second of them is noticed in the same volume, p. 585.

From the latter Sermon we shall now give another specimen:

"Whilst we are not insensible to the evils of separation, nor to the disingenuousness of enthusiasm, we detract not from the merit of good intention in their devotional activity. If it be objected, that they creep into houses,' (2 Tim. iii. 6.) it must be conceded, that, with more liberal views, they compass sea and land to make one proselyte.' (Matt. xxiii. 15.) They have borne the light of the Gospel

into retreats where its rays had never glimmered. They have awakened in our torpid Church the energies of zeal, and roused it to a sense of its duties and its dangers, • Some, indeed, preach Christ of envy and strife, and some also of good will. What then? Notwithstanding every

way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice; yea, and I will rejoice.' (Phil. i. 15, 18.)

"But behold more recent instances of ministerial defection from our communion; of whom is Hymeneus and Philetus, who, concerning the truth have erred.' (2 Tim. ii. 17, 18.) After public confes

sions of one baptism for the remission of sins,' they have submitted to a repetition of the rite, thus appropriating to their party the denomination of ana-baptists.

Whether the consistent and respectable members of the Baptist persuasion consider our seceders as helpers of their joy,' (2 Cor. i. 24,) is unknown. Men who have betrayed one cause are not usually respected in a new connection. This schism, commencing in a breach of plighted faith at ordination, and in violation of contracted vows at induction, presents a subject of awful consideration; but the answer of autinomianism is at hand; Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth?' (Rom. viii. 33, 54.)

we,

"May our once familiar friends, with whom we took sweet counsel, and walked in the House of God,' (Psalm lv. 14, 15.) be brought to the honest confession,-' all like sheep, have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way!' (Isaiah liii. 6.) And let not the Minister of God's word cease to remember them, when, in the customary services of the temple, he prays, that it may please the Almighty to bring into the way of truth all such as have erred, and are deceived.'"

51.

The Travellers; a Poem, in two Cantos. By Thomas Anstey, Esq. 1818. 8vo. pp. 52. Cox.

WE are particularly happy, that a Poem like this' has come under our

notice. Unless the laws of Providence can be reconciled with those of Revelation, we do not admit pretended religious claims to our approbation. Calvin has been proved to be the founder of rebellion and treason, under the mask of the Bible *, and the age is too enlightened, to permit the murderer of Servetus to qualify his baseness and criminality, by such sacred hypocrisy. Calvin was a

powerful writer upon popular prejudices; but he did not write like Adam Smith, Lord Kaimes, and many others. All was scholastic and artificial; but imposing through ability.

The work before us is a bitter, acrimonious satire upon all persons, not professing Evangelical principles, in the modern sense of the term. We do not like satire, as a vehicle of reform.

In a barbarous state of society, Methodism is useful, but education and civilization are modes far better, because these unite worldly advantages, auxiliary to virtuous habits. Providence civilizes by means of luxury, because luxury is the plan, by which, through diffusing comforts among artizans, the inequality of station is corrected; and Scripture does not deny the use of the creatures, only that we are not to abuse them. A participation of luxury alone reconciles mankind to government and property. Luther was a plain, honest man, of generous sentiments: Calvin was artful and designing; adapting his system to local ideas especially. With the philosopher, probity of conduct, purity of life, energy of philanthropy, and uprightness of honour, are the first principles of high character. With Calvin and his followers, it is mere external deportment, not service to the publick, or noble-minded disinterestedness. Pride, ambition, avarice, and selfishness, all passions sacrificing the public interest, are venial, provided the persons are men of exterior gravity. Yes! but in the present age, Le Sage and Harry Fielding and Wyndham have numerous admirers, not from moral corruption, but knowledge of the world. These admirers know, that the love of pleasure and the love of action are the sole motives of human conduct; and they also know, that Calvinism betrays the grossest ignorance of the laws of Providence. For instance, because a hack-parson happened to be tipsy, once in his life perhaps, when his services are required, the most moral private characters of this kingdom, the parochial Clergy, are, according to this writer, vermin fit only to be hunted by persecution. Are we to judge of Heaven by the fallen angels?-Philosophers kuow, that reguJar drunkards will bear too much to in

cur the probability of the censure here mentioned. Many inn-keepers drink from five to twenty glasses of spirits and water every day, and carry it off. The poor unfortunate fellow not used to bad habits will be soon carried to bed. Who knows but the unthinking, offending parson was enjoying the prosperity of a friend, who treated him too far; like Tom Jones at the recovery of All-Worthy. In the present æra, Parson Thwackum and Philosopher Square are not oracles.

It is also our opinion, that real holiness never rails, because it is too sublime and too charitable. It only pities. Things as they are, and things as they ought to be," are quite different. Contracted ideas render virtue unamiable, and from disappointment of extravagant expectation, deter its votary. The Clergy are men of liberal education, and, if their moral conduct is unexceptionable, entitled to all decorous pleasures.

Calvin, who was a clever fellow, in one of the most petty republicks of Europe, is thought a proper person to dictate to the most powerful nation in the globe, who have natives far superior *. And what was the real origin of this man's system? not Greece, or Rome, or Judæa: but the monastic introduction of abstemious living from the climate of Asia, where life is luxuriously supported without clothing, or fire, or labour beyond mere amusement. Adam Smith has justly said, that a life of austerity, as such, confers no good to the publick. It is true, Bunyan was the first writer on the Calvinistic system, who ever existed. But he was in error. АН pleasure was sin, especially showy pleasure. Adopt his plan; horses must be extirpated. The coachmakers, the jewellers, the taylor, the shoe-maker, &c. &c. &c. must turn mendicants. Mankind must resort to

cabins, purely engaged in contemplative life; and the world become a desert; and this from religion? Ah! do Christ and his Apostles say a word of the kind? They do not, and they mingled in approbation with festive society, if innocence was observed. We are sorry to have gone these lengths; but we do so, because we know that Calvinism is only the re

* Queen Elizabeth, a woman of firstmind, despised the Genevese trash.

vival of barbarous misconceptions derived from hot climates, not from Scripture; and it threatens the ruin of civilized society; for this always implies that degree of luxury, which comes under the denomination of comforts. Besides, an age of religious bigotry is always followed by one of profligacy.

To these remarks, we are purely invited by the subject of Mr. Anstey's Poem. We see nothing but the ruin of science and taste, when men of talents try to support absurdities, by becoming the advocates of unphilosophical nonsense. We will give a catalogue of Sins, specified by this Author, only observing, that we shall ever take pleasure in committing some of them, without caring for the doctrines of the Genevese Reformer: "Hot Cross-buns; Parties on Sundays (always festivals); the Theatre; Christening Dinners; Rational Piety; Dr. Mant's Regenerated Doctrine; Dancing; Going to Bath; any Innocent Amusement whatever."

One sin of Calvin's is here omitted: viz. Difference in opinion from him, or his followers, and that is the summum malum.

52. Night. A Descriptive Poem; in Four Books. Foolscap 8vo. pp. 144. Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy.

THERE is much genius and energy in this Poem: though why it is denominated Night, we can no other wise imagine, except that the Author seems to regard the sable goddess, much as a young man does a pretty girl.

The Poem is divided into Four Cantos, and we wish that the good old fashion had been preserved, of fixing an argumentum of the contents. The subjects are of course all melancholy, and the reader of the beautiful Idylls of Gessner, may justly wonder at the hypochondria of our modern Poets, who prefer murders, and villanies, and sufferings, to the display of Nature in the felicitous indulgences of fine sentiments, picturesque situation, and the pure joy of innocence of soul.

The subject of the last Canto is Napoleon, who is too much ennobled. Caution (says Giuccardini, we believe) is the result of long experience in the art of war; and whenever a General forgets caution, he commits an act

of bankruptcy. We consider Buonaparte's talents as limited to military science. We are led to these remarks because the last and best Canto of the Poem before us chiefly turns upon the retreat from Moscow. It is a story of misery, unparalleled in History, but disregarded because humanity was forgotten amidst the beams of triumph and disgust at French ambition. We do not believe

that any Poet or Narrator can do justice to a three weeks bivouac in Russia, during winter. It can only be conceived, ou seeing a human subject undergoing the operation of a continued gaze from the gorgon's head stiffening in crystallization.

We might quote many fine illus trations and figures in this poem; but we must distinguish one peculiarly happy. It is the description of a number of perishing Frenchmen huddled together in a heap, and dying in slow process: i. e. Nature in her mercy inclines frozen people to sleep, under which indulgence dissolution is certain.

They slumber on th' interminable waste, What are they? Ha! it moves; that hillock moves.

The concluding representation of the whole globe being one mass of ice, is exceedingly grand; but the horror, we think, might have been improved by exhibiting its analogy in such a situation to simply exercised sculpture; that owes its interest only to attitude and motion, which confers the idea of life: but once existing objects, represented in pure death, is genuine ghastly horror; what modern poets like.

As we have a great and sincere respect for this Author, we must beg to suggest some useful hints. First, to take a good story for his subject. The first is founded upon a pretty Welch girl, promised with her own full consent to a dark man of her own country, but afterwards falling in love with a young brawny Scotchman, and being murdered for her infidelity; the event, by awkward circumstances, occasions the Scotchman to be hanged, and the Welch-man to commit suicide: all the three become ghosts (though one is enough at a time), and terrify the inno cent villagers. All this is usual in the way of trade; but extraordinary events, to have due interest, should

be