volunteers, if service for a certain number of years, on board a King's ship, was an exemption for life; except under the circumstance of an enemy's fleet upon the coast, with intentions of invasion. 7. On the Amusements of Clergymen, and Christians in general. In three Dialogues between a Dean and a Curate. By Edward Stillingfleet, Lord Bishop of Worcester. 8vo, pp. 181. Sherwood and Co. WHEN Dr. Josiah Frampton's library was sold in London (in 1729 or 1730), his divinity books were classed in seven lots, one of which was purchased by Dr. Edwards. The catalogue of this lot mentioned a parcel of MSS. Among them Doctor E. found one in Dr. Frampton's own hand-writing, which is here given to the publick. It consists of three Dialogues between that truly venerable man Dr. Edward Stilling fleet, then Dean of St. Paul's, and Mr. Frampton, at the seat of Sir Roger Burgoin, in Warwickshire. Mr. Frampton, then a very young clergyman, was fond of country diversions, hunting, a ramble in the woods with his gun, or a game of cards, and a dance in the evening. This was observed by the worthy Dean, who was friendly enough to give him hints with regard to his conduct, which were not lost upon him; more particularly in the three Dialogues which are here published, as they were committed to writing at the time by Mr. Frampton. The First Dialogue is an excellent dissuasive from riotous and cruel Amusements. The Second Dialogue is aimed against the trifling and seducing ones of Cards and Gaming; the Theatre, as it was then (and indeed is now) conducted; Assemblies, and Dancing. The Third Dialogue speaks of the lawful Amusements of Clergymen. The following extract shews the worthy Bishop's ideas on the proper dress of a Clergyman, a subject which has been a good deal discussed by some of our Correspondents: I think it an argument of great lightness in a Clergyman to endeavour, as far as he can, to adopt the lay habit. He shows be has embraced his own profession only for reasons of convenience, and in his heart dislikes its restraints. I should ✨ wish to have every Clergyman, especially when in full orders, obliged to appear always in a short cassock, under his coat. He could not then so easily adopt improprieties in his dress, and might be more upon his guard also against improprieties in his behaviour. His Cierical habit would be a continual call upon him for decorum, as he durst not, in that garb, do many things which, dressed like a Layman, he might tend to keep such young men out of might be tempted to do. Besides, it the Church, as, when in it, are a disgrace both to it and to themselves." "When I was a young man, "" says the Bishop, "and could go among my neighbours, I had three employments at the same time-visiting my parish-studying-and using exercise. I have made, in these excursions, many a sermon. The greatest part of this book was first rudely composed in the fields, and when I came home always digested what had occurred in my' walk-consulted my authorities, and wrote all fair over." These Dialogues contain many vaall, but particularly to Clergymen, as luable hints which may be useful to tending to make their amusementstheir habits-their company-their dress and their profession, all agree. 8. -- On the Excellence and Mismanagement of FRIENDLY Societies form one of the strongest links that unite the lower orders in friendship and goodwill; but, like all institutions, are open to misconception and mismanagement. Little benefit can arise to the people from their meeting merely to celebrate a festival, and the publioriginal plan of the Society is rendercity of their assemblies, by which the ed of no effect. Mr. Pain has, therefore, stepped forward to correct abuses, arising from benevolent intentions, with a care for their prosperity not always compatible with such amendments. "The following pages (he says) were hastily drawn up, in fulfilment of a duty I had to perform some days ago, at the meeting of a Friendly Society at FennyStratford and the readiness which immediately appeared to correct the abuses animadverted on, has induced me to make them more public, solely in the hope, that what has been useful in one instance, *The Origines Sacra, which the Dean had just been correcting. + Text, 1 Cor. i. 10. may 54 REVIEW. Mr. Pain on Benefit Societies. may be so in another; and that the good example of these poor men may have an influence in similar establishments, and even have the good fortune to interest some person of abilities to direct his attention to these mismanaged but excellent institutions." P. iii. The advocates for Banks for Savings are numerous, and many excellent treatises to that effect have appeared in print; but the welfare of Friendly Societies has been an object to few not immediately connected with them. Besides, they are frequently established under the guidance of persons, well-meaning, but not calculated to direct the economy of parishes or towns; for want, there fore, of some superior inspection, abuses creep into these beneficent institutions, of which its members are either not aware, or unable to amend. We consider great praise as due to Mr. Pain, for thus stepping forward, and endeavouring to remedy those abuses without altering the institution, and (as frequently occurs) nullifying the original system. Few of our Readers, we believe, are acquainted with the system of Benefit Societies; they know that such establishments exist, and the late mania for addressing has brought some of them into notice: they know, from the instance alluded to, that they have been made the vehicle for disloyalty, and such transactions are apt to convey ideas very different from the actual truth. The state of morals in the London populace is such, as to require these excellent institutions, and much good has arisen from them; but they may be perverted in a manner, of which people in the country have no idea. After stating the objections to the Poor Laws, our Author proceeds to the question, why so little encouragement is given to Benefit Societies? [Jan. to the willing supporters of every measure that can tend to their welfare or improvement. Abandon then, without hesitation, a rule that has so pernicious a tendency. Apply the three shillings a year to the purchase of some necessary article for your families, or let them be added to increase the general fund." Pp. 12, 13. The most loose calculation will shew how large a sum bas for several years been wasted in this manner; as well as in the allowing of a guinea to such as attend the funeral of a member: he deprecates not only this unnecessary expence, but the custom itself, which he considers as auswering no good purpose. In this point alone, we beg leave to differ from him, for we consider the reverence thus paid to the memory of the deceased, as one of the strongest links of the Society, although we think the allowance or remuneration as unnecessary and wasteful. In the preface, he thus states the good consequences of his advice: "The monthly meetings in the Society, to which I allude, have been abolished; & resolution has passed to discontinue the attendance of members at funerals; aud every disposition has been shown, to confine within moderate limits, the expenses of the annual meeting. With such regu lations, the union of poor men deserves every encouragement." P. iii. We take leave of Mr. Pain and his labours, with the gratification that naturally arises from perusing any excellent plan for the bettering of the lower orders; he can scarcely be said to have addressed himself to the world, as this Sermon was drawn up for a small circle, and is uninteresting to such as do not enter into his wishes; but as he has planned the comfort of the poor, his reward must be such as is not in the power of criticism to confer. 9. Vision the First; Hades, or the Regions, inhabited by the departed Spirits of the Blessed. 12mo, pp. 110. Rivingtons. THE Address of Christ to the Pe "Neither Charity nor Religion could have been present at the formation of your articles, which seem to have been framed in the bar of a public-house, for the benitent Thief," this day shalt thou be nefit of the keeper of it, and the enjoy ment of a few members in the neighbourhood. Threepence a month from every member to be spent-in affording the means of an idle and sottish indulgence to a few members who live near where the meeting is held.-These monthly meet. ings are the source of every thing irregular and disorderly. They have given dis gust to the real friends of the poor, and with me in Paradise," has been considered as irreconcileable with any other doctrine than that of an Intermediate State. Setting aside the Popish Purgatory, as a Heathen hypothesis, adopted from ideas of lucrative quackery, Broughton first led the way two centuries ago, by stating that Hell, in our translation of the Creed, Creed, meant the Gra Hades, is not the grave, or receptacle, on one hand, or henna of Scripture, the final pic Torment on the other, but a regi distinct from both. The Saxon My. thology and Language supplied no proper word for the Asiatick Paradise, or Grecian Hades; and the Heaven of Odin, was suited to the ideas of his followers,-luxurious viands, and hard-drinking. Of animated, perfectionated Being, abstracted from sensual, feeding, or decaying matter, they had no idea; nor could they have a conception of pleasures of the ear and the eye, and a delighted imagination personified and self-existing, though they felt that Musick, Vision, and Fancy, were pleasurable things. Of course, Hell was the sole word in use, conveying one simple idea-that of the final place of suffering. The Work before us is learned and able, and comprises all that can be known of the intermediate state; and, if Hope gives us no more than the flower in bud, Faith may, in its holy anticipation, present it to the mind's eye in its full growth. To the discussion in p. 86, concerning the Soul, we object, as scholastical and metaphysical. It proceeds upon a manifest psychological error, the confusion of animation, conferred upon matter, with inert matter, the musical sound with the catgut string, a superinduced quality with the subject, which does not contain it. 10. Resolves, Divine, Moral, and Politi. cal, by Owen Feltham. Second edition, revised, with some account of the Author and his Writings. By James Cumming, Esq. F. S. A. 8vo, Lond. pp. 454. Hatchard. IN the days of Owen Feltham (17th cent.) it was not unusual for Casuists, real or pretended, to advertise in the Newspapers their ability to resolve Cases of Conscience; and thus, without feeling any qualms on account of the obvious variety of such annunciations, to invite Clients to take their opinions, like those of Counsel learn. ed in the Law. From the necessity of such a knowledge in Confessors under the Romish religion, and the numerous subdivisions and splitting of hairs in the Sermons of our early 13 is plain, that of knowledge, ticated with our No atry, were expected to ne science alluded to; and it probable, that to the study of this science we owe this book, and to the public taste of the day its passing through so many editions. The manner of treating moral subjects, in these æras, is not philosophical, nor the style classical. To the moderns, there is a quaintness of expression, which often renders the matter not intelligible without study, and very often there is exhibited only an obscure comprehension of the idea stated. This is a common failing, where the ideas are not simply drawn from nature, but from a mind peculiarly tinctured with certain studies; and these were Polemicks, the Fathers, School Divinity, Cicero, and, more rarely, some other classicks. In clearness of head, and soundness of judgment, and conclusive reasoning, and masterly deduction, Hooker stands supreme. Milton, though of far more powerful genius, and more brilliant associations, does not, in his Prose-works, interest, or even instruct; and from the simplicity and plainness, which often appears in the Epistolary composition and Minor Poetry of this era, it is evident, that an elaborate and artificial construction was especially consulted, in works like those now before us. What was the colloquial style of any æra, may be best inferred from the private letters of the age; and the toil and art, betrayed in books of the kind under discussion, would not have found readers, unless they had been considered books of study; of which the contents were not purposely formed for intuitive acquisition, but for "reading, learning and inwardly digesting" and making "good Casuists." This is the reason, in our opinion, why in Jeremy Taylor, and other divines of this æra, we see such ingenious compounds of subtlety, acumen, felicitous illustration, and metaphorical confusion. Such Authors may be denominated Lawyers in Theology and Moral Philosophy. They have a technical bearing and manner in addressing their readers, as if they were a Jury, who required not simple elucidation 56 elucidation of th tory impression, formation. We have made these: knowing that old Authors explained by the writings of their contemporaries, and that Casuistry was a favourite study of the age. The book before us is a Cabinet in the fashion of the day; full of gorgeous ornaments of mother of pearl and shells; and is curiously carved, braced, and hinged. Of the singularity and richness of the work, we shall now give some specimens. "Of Contentment. Those who preach contentment to all, do but teach some how to dwell in misery; unless you will grant Content desire, and chide her but for murmuring. Let not man so sleep in Content as to neglect the means of making himself more happy and blessed; nor yet, when the contrary of what he looked for comes, let him murmur at that Providence which disposed it to cross his expectation. I like the man who is never content with what he does enjoy; but by a calm and fair course, has a mind still rising to a higher happiness. But I like not him who is so dissatisfied as to repine at any thing that does befal him. Let him take the present patiently, joyfully, thankfully; but let him still be soberly in quest of better-and, indeed, it is impossible to find a life so happy here, as that we shall not find something we would add to it, something we would take away from it." P. 199. "Of Memory. Of all that belongs to Man, you cannot find a greater wonder than memory. What a treasury of all things! what a record, what a journal of all! As if provident Nature, because she would have man circumspect, had provided him an account-book to carry always with him; yet it neither burthens nor takes up room. To myself it is insensible. I feel no weight it presses with. To others, it is invisible; for when I carry all with me, they can see nothing that I have. Is it not a miracle, that a man, from a grain of sand to the full and glorious sun, should lay up the world in his brain; and may, at his pleasure, bring out what part he lists, yet never empty the place that con these premises, he then draws, a the principles of comparative anatomy, the following very ingenious inference: "If putrefactive man can, undiscerned and unburthened, bear so much about him; if so little a point as the least tertia of the brain, the cerebellum, can hold in itself the notions of such an immeasurable extent of things, we may rationally allow omniscience to the great Creator of this and all things else. For, doubtless, we know what we do remember; and, indeed, what we remember not, we do not know." P. 250. But the principal characteristick of Feltham's writing, is the singular poetical ingenuity which he uses to illustrate his ideas. The imagination of Lord Byron has been justly elevated to admiration ; and modern writers, in general, are very short of stock and variety in this kind of goods. Not so Feltham. His similitude and allusions are inexhaustible; rally as a-propos and felicitous, as very rarely common-place, and genethey ingeniously dovetail with the other matter. Take the following specimen, out of numbers. He is speaking of an envious man. As "As a desert-beast, the day's brightness drives him to the dulness of a melancholy cave, while darkness only presents him with the prey that pleases him. a negro born of white parents; it is a sordid sadness, begot at another man's joy." P. 339. As Cocknies may not know, that Cattle resort to the shade when oppressed by heat and flies, it is necessary to make this observation, or they would lose the beauty of the figure, in which an envious man is finely assimilated to a beast, feeding in a forest, who cannot bear the glory of the day, through being harassed with insects. We shall conclude our remarks with the following excellent ideas upon Libelling. "Certainly it is an ungenerous thing to publish that to all, which we dare not own to any. It is a serpent, that bites a man by the heel, and then glides into a hole. A libel is filius populi; having no certain father, it ought not to inherit belief." P. 327. The Editor has got up the book very well, con amore. 11. The 11. The Brothers; a Monody, and other Poems. By Charles A. Elton. Foolscap 8vo, pp. 118. Baldwin, Cradock, &c. WE are of opinion that Rhyme, understanding by the term a jingle of similar sounds at the end of lines, is so far from being an essential to real Poetry, that it is quite the contrary, injurious; i. e. powdering a fine head of hair. There are two evils attached inevitably to Rhyme. It compels, generally, a close of sense with the line, and an expletory and feeble phraseology. How it can, in any sense, be consistent with the Epick, must only be the feeling of those, who think that it would not be bad taste for Hercules to appear in the costume of a Dancing Master! that a Hero is not to march, but to spring upon the toe. Now, in the true style of blank verse, there is a fine poetical inflexion of language, accompanied with a masculine character of features, which not only exhibits the idea with superior effect, but shows, that Rhyme would destroy the charm. The misfortune is, that few people read Poetry with any feeling of impropriety, if they pause at the end of the line; whereas, if they were to read the verses as blank-verse ought to be read, by placing the pauses only where the stops and sense required, they would soon see, that the jingle adds nothing to the effect; on the contrary, may be injurious, and that metre is requisite. We must, however be considered, as confining these remarks to our English Decasyllabicks, iu chiming couplets, a measure, not only in the best making a minuet of a march, but a bastard sort of production in se, a puerile trick played with the gamut, to substitute an echo for harmony. Our Odes and lighter pieces are Bever written in this measure; and could not, it is plain, without palpable injury. Mr. We have made these remarks, because we have been much pleased with the following blank verse. Elton is depicting a Lover's dream: "reality itself Scarcely equals that dear moment, when he grasps [soft The hand so long withheld, that trembles Within his trembling pressure; when his eyes GENT. MAG, January, 1821. Drink in the lucid languishment of look, That thrills the shivering nerves; the mystic glance Avowing all unutterable things, yet, Unwelcome Sun! for never shall he know First felt and heard in credulous ectasy; We apprehend, that no rhymes could improve these lines. Mr. Elton's Translations of Hesiod, and Specimens of the Classic Poets, have heen deemed worthy notice in the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews: and the paraphrase of the 19th Psalm in p. 84, is very good. 12. Poems and a Meditation. By S. Spence. (Widow of the late George Spence, sen.) Author of a Musical Catechism, a Fragment on Prophecy, &c. Baldwin, &c. pp. 19. "SOME suppose that the desirable change alluded to in Isaiah ii. 2, 4, is to be produced by political revolutions, or the increasing wisdom of the human race. Others are of opinion, that the universal spread of the Gospel will be the means of subduing unruly passions, and leading men in every part of the globe, to pursue the paths of peace, holiness, and virtue. "The Millenarian takes a still more extensive view of this glorious event; to him the effect appears great, but not greater than the cause which produces it; since scend, and with elect Saints, reign a thouhe believes, that Christ shall visibly desand years on the earth; under whose government, War, Injustice, Cruelty, Oppression, and all kinds of wickedness shall be driven from among men, or completely subdued. "The perusal of Lectures on this grand subject, occasioned the lines on the Millennium to be written, and during the years that they have been consigned to oblivion, the dawn of the predicted Event seems to have shed a benign twilight on the distant horizon, That its meridian splendor may make the most rapid progress, is the sincere wish of the Writer, SARAH SPENCE." This is, indeed, a grand and an aweful subject-to be touched by no light or unskilful hand. It has called forth |