perhaps a juft victim; but I will pity thee, my heart Thall bleed for thee, and ventures to predict that the fweet mercy of Heaven will mitigate the severity of human juftice.

He who can enjoy the pleasures of affluence without confidering the mifery of the lower claffes, and endea vouring, according to his influence and abilities, to alleviate the burthen, probably poffeffes a difpofition which no riches can render happy. Charity is characteristic of this country, and is, indeed, the natural effect of British generofity. Our clergy are conftantly recommending it in the metropolis; and the many palaces of the poor which lift up their roofs around it, are eminent and honourable teftimonies, that their preaching is not in vain when they recommend munifi cence. There are, however, few charitaba eftablishments that fo immediately tend to fnatch the loweft claffes from wretchednefs and ruin as that of the Marine Society; and if my praife could contribute to effect it, the fame of its inftitutors fhould be immortal. But their own benevolent hearts, and that God, in whole gracious purposes they co-operate, are able to beflow on them a reward infinitely fuperior to all human glory..

They who inform the understandings of the poor, in fuch a manner and degree as to amend their morals, contribute more to their happiness than the most munificent among their pecuniary benefactors. In a great and commercial nation honeft industry will feldom be deftitute of employment and reward. I cannot help remarking the fingular utility and importance of the clergy. The church-doors are open to all; and valuable inftruction in every duty of human life is afforded gratuitously. Our Saviour, who knew and

And here

felt for the wretchednefs of the lower claffes, feems to have defigned the gofpel, in a peculiar manner, for the poor; and the poor of this country have the gofpel preached to them, if they are willing to liften to it, in every part of the kingdom. But it is a melancholy truth, that the poor in general, but especially thofe of the metropolis, neglect to avail themselves of this fingular and unfpeakable advantage. Thofe among

them

them who give any attention to religion, are often led to a ftate approaching to lunacy, by illiterate and fanatical pretenders to heavenly illumination.

I venture to affirm then, that more weight and authority should be given to the regular clergy, whe ther diffenters or on the eftablifhment. I mean not to erect a spiritual tyranny, for I abhor all tyranny; but I wish that fome mode fhould be devifed for rendering the regular clergy more refpectable than they now are in the eyes of the vulgar. And I should imagine the most effectual method of accomplishing this purpose is, to reward those who are eminently diftinguished for piety and for their parochial labours, with thofe preferments, and with thofe honours, which, in the eye of reafon and of God, are juftly their due. In the prefent ftate of things, the worthy curate, who spends all his days in preaching, praying, and in vifiting the fick, fhall earn lefs, and be lefs refpected than a fmith and a carpenter; and at his death leave his widow and his children to the cold protection of charity. But a young rake, who happens to be coufin to a lord or a bishop, or to be connected with those who have influence at an election, fhall get himself blacked over, or japanned, as he vulgarly phrafes it, at an ordination, and thenceforward be preferred to pluralities, and fhine, as a fenfible author observes, in all public places but his own pulpits.

But, after all that the clergy can do, even when abuses are removed, it is to be feared that the lower claffes will be led by the examples of the higher. But oh! ye who call yourselves the great, condefcend once in your lives to vifit a goal, and to furvey the manfions of woe and wickedness in the out-fkirts of the town! I apply not to your purfes; you are liberal in fubfcribing to all kinds of charitable inftitutions. Ye do well. But give me leave to tell you, that the fetting of a good example to the lower claffes, confidered merely as an act of charity, will do more good, and prevent more mifery, than if ye cut down your laft oak, or give all ye win at the gaming-table to found an hofpital or eftablish a difpenfary,

No.

No. CXLVIII. ON SOME

PASSAGES IN

ARISTOTLE'S RHETORIC, WITH

MIS

CELLANEOUS REMARKS ON HIS STYLE, GENIUS, AND WORKS.

A

RISTOTLE established an intellectual empire, more glorious and univerfal than the conquefts of his pupil. But he is a remarkable instance of the caprice of human judgment and the revolutions of tafte. After having been idolized with a veneration almoft, blafphemous, he is now most undefervedly neglected. And yet his works, though unentertaining and obfcure to the reader who perufes them with the fame attention which he gives to a novel and a newfpaper, abound with matter which cannot fail to enrich the mind, and to delight a philofophical tafte by its beautiful truth and accuracy. In his three

books on the rhetorical art, are many paffages which defcribe human nature in the most curious manner, and with the greatest fidelity of delineation. He characterizes the manners of different ages no less scientifically, than a Hunter would defcribe an anatomical fubject, or a Linnæus a plant. The fine pictures of the manners of young and old men in the fecond book, are fuch as Horace has imitated, but not equalled; fuch as might have richly fertilized the imagination of a Shakespear. The celebrated fpeech of Jaques is not equal to the accurate and complete defcriptions of the manners of different ages in the life of man by the neglected Ariftotle.

The clofe, yet comprehenfive language of Ariftotle, will scarcely admit of a literal tranflation. I fhall not then attempt to deliver his fentiments in English, fince I fhould not fatisfy myself; but I will refer the young ftudent to the admirable original, where, in the fourteenth, and a few subsequent chapters of the second book, he will be able to acquire a very accurate knowledge of human nature.

I have felected thefe paffages as a fpecimen of Ariftotle, with an intention to obviate the prepoffeffions of those who imagine, that every part of his works is abstruse and difficult of comprehenfion. A good tranflation would be the best commentary that could be given of them: but he who was the best qualified to perform it in perfection is now no more. It is, indeed, much to be lamented, that the great philofopher of Salisbury did not condefcend to enrich his country with a tranflation of the best among the works of his admired Stagirite. Mr. Harris's ftyle is, indeed, for the most part the ftyle of Plato; but we may conclude from the many paffages from Ariftotle, which he has most accurately tranflated in his notes, that he would have rendered whole treatifes in English to the greatest advantage. He has, however, caufed the want of a tranflation of Ariftotle to be less felt, by supplying such originals himself as certainly vie with his Grecian master.

I cannot help remarking, that though this is an age in which many ingenious authors delight in metaphyfical researches, yet few attend to the writings of Ariftotle. Indeed, many of the French philofophers, who have done all they can to obfcure the light of nature, common fenfe, and revelation, by the clouds of metaphyfics, have not been fufficiently acquainted with Greek, or with antient learning, to be able to improve themselves by the fine philofophy of the polifhed ages of Greece and Rome. Like fpiders in a dark and dirty corner, they have drawn flimfy cobwebs from themfelves, with which they cruelly endeavour to enfnare the giddy and unwary.

It is indeed my misfortune, if it be a misfortune, to have no great idea of the utility of metaphyfical difquifition. And though Ariftotle's logic and metaphyfics principally contributed, in the middle ages, to render him the idol of the world, I cannot help confidering them as the leaft ufeful parts of his various lucubrations. They are, indeed, valuable curiofities, and illuftrious monuments of human ingenuity; but at the fame time, when compared to his rhetorical, ethical, and political books, they are as the husk and the VOL. II.

N

fhell

fhell to the pulp and the kernel. It was thefe, however, together with his erroneous phyfics, which induced the bigoted theologifts to number Ariftotle among the faints in the calendar, and to publish a hiftory of his life and death; which concluded with afferting, that Ariftotle was the forerunner of Chrift in philofophy, as John the Baptift had been in Grace. Images of him and of the founder of chriftianity, were beheld at one time with equal veneration. It is faid, that fome fects taught their difciples the categories inftead of the catechifm, and read in the church a fection of the ethics inftead of a chapter in the gospel.

If the exclamation which he is related to have made at his death be true, he appears to have poffeffed very, rational ideas on the fubject of religion.

A chriftian might have faid, as it is reported he faid juft before his diffolution, "In fin and fhame was "I born, in forrow have I lived, in trouble I depart; "O! thou Caufe of caufes, have mercy upon me!" I found this anecdote of Ariftotle in the Centuries of Camerarius, but I am not certain of its authenticity.

The ftyle of Ariftotle has been cenfured as harfh and inelegant; but it must be remembered, that few works, of which fo much remains, are fuppofed to have fuffered more from the carelessnefs or prefumption of tranfcribers, and the injuries of long duration, than the works of the great legiflator of tafte and philofophy. We may fairly attribute any chafins and roughneffes in the ftyle to fome rude hand, or to accident. It is not credible that fo accurate a writer fhould have neglected thofe graces of ftyle which the nature of his fubjects admitted. The ftyle of his beft works is truly pure and attic; and Quintilian, whofe judg ment ought to decide, expreffes a doubt whether he fhould pronounce him more illuftrious for his knowledge, his copioufnefs, his acumen, his variety, or the

fweetness of his elocution.

No.