the real question at issue-whether we have instituted any other terms of admission to Christian communion than the simple one established by Christ and his apostles,-he asks whether Baptism, the Lord's Supper, and assembling for Christian social worship, be not badges of communion? What is this to the purpose? - In short, to whatever credit the author may be entitled on the score of good intention, we cannot agree with him, in the concluding words of his Appeal, that he has been inditing a good matter." We question its tendency to do good in these times. There is a mode of defending opinions, which excites as strong a suspicion of their stability as the most open attack on them. The sermons subjoined to the Address are on Subjection to the Civil Power, from Romans xiii. 5. The Doctrine of the Trinity, from Heb. xi. 6. The Divinity of Christ, from Matth. iii. 17. and Suber-mindedness, from Titus ii. 6. addressed to the young men of St. Mary Magdalene College, Oxford, at the administration of the Holy Communion. At the conclusion of the last sermon, the writer thus senibly addresses his audience. I would recommend it to the young to give all diligence to attain this qualification in this their spring of life; for though it be true that at that season the passions and appetites bear the strongest sway, yet is it equally true that the powers and energies of the mind, if duly exerted, are at the same time proportionably strong to resist; and that if they defer this important business to a later period, they will perhaps have so habituated themselves to the gratification of every desire, as to be unable to accomplish it. Let them begin then by accustoming themselves to the practice of self-denial. Let them be persuaded of the necessity of attending to the apostle's exhortation, that they must "watch," if they wish to be sober." Let them bear constantly in mind that the duty here enjoined, is enjoined them as Christians, and that they must necessarily comply with it, if ever they mean to act up to their Christian character and profession, if ever they hope to obtain the rewards of Christian obedience.' O si sic omnia dixisset! Why will a writer, with all the energies of a strong mind, endeavour to bewilder himself and his readers, in treating on subjects respecting which the weak and the strong are on a level? SINGLE SERMON. Art. 54. Preached at Brunswic Chapel, Portman Square, April 25, 1798, and at Ebury-Chapel, Sloane-Street, May 20, 1798, for the Benefit of the Royal Humane Society; by Archer Thompson, M. A. Chaplain to the Lord-Bishop of Peterborough, &c. &c. 8vo. 18. Dilly. This is an animated discourse. The short and artless narrative which St. Luke has left concerning the son of the widow of Nain can hardly fail to affect and animate the reader: the preacher's text Luke vii. 15. is very apt to the occasion; and he prosecutes the subject wirh pathos and energy. In an appendix, as usual, some select cases of recovery are given from the annals of the society. CORRIS. CORRESPONDENCE. In answer to the question of a correspondent; Which are the best authors in English, on musical composition? we must inform him that so few have passed before our Court of Judicature, that we have been obliged to have recourse to Dr. Burney's History of Music; at the end of the 4th volume of which we recollected to have seen "a chronological list of the principal books on the subject of music during the present century." Out of this we select the following, for our interrogator's purpose: Dr. Pepusch's Treatise on Harmony, 1731; Geminiani's Guida Armonica, 1741; Rameau's Treatise-ill-translated from the French, 1751; Antoniotlo's ditto, 1760; Holder's Essay towards a rational System of Music, 1770; Morley's Introduction, republished, 1771; and Friek on Modulation and Accompaniment, 1782. Since this time, our Index points out no other book on Composition with which we were satisfied, except Kollman's Essay on Musical Harmony, of which we have given our opinion in vol. xxi, N. S. p. 27. A letter from Mr. Hornsey, Scarborough, produces some autho rities to justify the pronunciation of the word chorister, (See Review July, p. 334,) as if it were written kaver or kavir; yet it clearly appears to us, from the orthography and the derivation of the word, that it ought to be sounded in that natural way to which the letters cho plainly direct. The same may be said as to chaldron; while it is written with an I, it ought not to be pronounced chau or chaw. Mr. Hornsey observes that the instances of Tautology were taken from Dr. Ash's Introduction to Lowth: it is nevertheless certain that a repetition of the same words has in some cases great propriety; and if we recollect aright, the examples enumerated are not the most pertinent: it is also very requisite to remind youth, that there may be real and great tautology where the same words are not reiterated. The letter signed Z. relative to the transaction between the late Lord Verney and Mr. Burke, noticed in our last Number, p. 377, does not appear to us to elucidate the matter; nor, jadeed, can a statement of alleged facts have any weight, without the support of the writer's name. In answer to R. Y., who inquires concerning the translation of Count Verri's Notti Romane, which we announced in our Appendix to volume 23, we have to inform him that it has lately appeared, and that he will find an account of it in the Appendix to our 26th volume, published with this Review. The (expensive) communication from C. M. of Edinburgh is transmitted to the gentleman to whose department it relates. We are again obliged to defer the letter from the translator of Euler, on account of the absence of an associate, to whom it was sent, and who has not yet returned it. The remark of J. W. S. H. is valid, but not worth a thirty-second part of the postage of his letter. THE MONTHLY REVIEW, For OCTOBER, 1798. ART. I. A complete System of Astronomy. By the Rev. S. Vince, A. M. F.R.S. Plumian. Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy in the University of Cambridge. Vol. I. 4to. 11. 48. Boards. Wingrave, &c. 1797. AMONG the several descriptions of books that are offered to the public, there are some which, although they do not call forth its admiration for originality of matter and the life of invention, yet merit in a peculiar manner its thanks and patronage. Such are the works that are intended to collect the substance of a science, to compress it, to give to it form, arrangement, and unity ;-which require for their composition men of ability and learning, but which do not offer to men of ability an adequate object of ambition. Astronomy, it is true, opens a most spacious field for the exertions of intellect: but it is not like some other sciences, which may be called pure and abstract, conversant only in things, the creatures of the mind, and which by the exertions of an individual, and in his lifetime, may be advanced to a very high degree of perfection: it depends on circumstances over which genius has no control, and it requires the multiplied and accurate observations of a long series of ages. A compendium of astronomy, therefore, cannot expect to continue long in use, but must yield to other treatises, which have the recommendation of superior correctness, from the comparison of new or more accurate observations *.—Whether this discouraging consideration, or a love of ease, an attachment to other pursuits, a want of enterprise, or inability to procure the necessary materials, has prevented our eminent men from undertaking systematic treatises on Astronomy, the fact is certain that we have been in great need of such works. * Books of pure and abstract science, on the contrary, may maintain their celebrity for ages ;-witness the Elements of Euclid,—Archimedes, &c. VOL. XXVII. K 1 The The present treatise appears at a favourable time, and is executed with such ability as will create for it a powerful recommendation to the public. It is divided into 30 chapters according to the following arrangement: CHAPTER I. Definitions. Chap. II. Doctrine of the sphere. Chap. III. Right ascension, declination, latitude and longitude of the heavenly bodies. Chap. IV. Equation of time. Chap. V. Length of the year, precession of the equinoxes, and obliquity of the ecliptic. Chap. VI. On parallax. Chap. VII. On refraction. Chap. VIII. System of the world. Chap. IX. Kepler's discoveries. Chap. X. On the motion of a body in an eclipse about the focus. Chap. XI. Opposition and conjunction of the planets. Chap. XIII. On the greatest equation, eccentricity, and place of the aphelia of the orbits of the planets. Chap. XIV. Motion of the aphelia of the orbits of the planets. Chap. XV. On the nodes and inclinations of the orbits of the planets to the ecliptic. Chap. XVI. On the Georgian planet. Chap. XVII. Apparent motions and phases of the planets. Chap. XVIII. On the moon's motion, from observation, and phænomena. Chap. XIX. Rotation of the sun, moon, and planets. Chap. XXI. The ring of Saturn. Chap. XXII. Aberration of light. Chap. XXIII. On the projection for the construction of solar eclipses. Chap. XXIV. On eclipses of the sun and moon, and occultations of the fixed stars. Chap. XXV. Transits of Mercury and Venus over the sun's disc. Chap. XXVI. On comets. Chap. XXVII. Fixed stars. Chap. XXX. On the division of time. Were we to enter into any satisfactory detail and critical examination of the matter contained under these heads, our remarks would very greatly exceed any usual extent: we must therefore be general in our statement. The character of the present work may be pronounced to be scientific. Familiar explanations, moral reflections, and historical details, are excluded; and in thus acting we think the author commendable:-for assuredly the idea which has entered the minds of some philosophers, of adapting books of this nature to all capacities, is chimerical and delusive. It may be contended that the language of science should not differ from the language of common sense; yet would the dispute be verbal;-for were we to demand a definition of the language of common sense, it would be defined such as really not to be the language that is commonly spoken. We may fairly, then, presume that a treatise which aims to be a popular one must cease to be scientific, and must sacrifice precision of language and strictness of proof to familiarity of illustration. Professor Vince has not been seduced by the example of M. de la Lande, to follow what we think a very faulty arrangement.-The French astronomer is of opinion that the first phænomena, which strike the eye of the observer, naturally claim the first place in a treatise on astronomy:-in the order therefore of his book, he proposed first to consider these phænomena, then the consequences which the early astronomers derived from them, and in fine to blend the history of the science with its developement. It appears to us that M. de la Lande has pointed out the arrangement necessary to a history of astronomy, not to a scientific treatise; which requires the very reverse of such an arrangement, and should commence, like all elementary works, with the most simple principles. The first principles in astronomy, we grant, are unlike in their nature to the principles of some other sciences; and they are not truths of intuition, for the knowlege of them is the result of long and diligent observation, and of matured reflection. The heavens at first present to our view a scenery that is in truth magnificent, but which is confused; and in which appears a multiplicity of phænomena, and a complication of motions, that require time to be disentangled and classed. Although we must forbear, for the reason already alleged, to enter into any detail of the several parts of this work, yet we think it our duty to state the impression which the exami nation of those parts has made on our mind, and this impression is strongly in favour of the author; for we have found ample matter for commendation, in the care and labour which have manifestly been bestowed in examining all that related to the subject, in the judgment of selection, in the order of arrange ment, in the developement of principles, and in the nicety of detail were we to add, in the accuracy of computation, we should in all probability state what is strictly true: but it can K 2 scarcely |