fay as much with regard to that vivacity of fentiment and ftrength of expreffion, which ferved to compenfate for all the defects of Churchill's hambers. THEATRICAL. Art. 22. The Summer's Tale. A Comedy of Three Acts. As it is performed at the Theatre-Royal in Covent-Garden. 8vo. Is. 6d. Dodfley. To enter on a formal examen of the fing-fong ftage-trifles which have lately come into vogue among us, would be finking beneath the dignity of criticifm.This performance may take rank with the rest of the kind. There are fome things in the dialogue part, which may be endured; others, that are abfurd enough; and a few that are intolerable for their indelicacy: fuch as a footman's finging his master a fong, to prompt him to ravish his mistress; and another character coming in, fweating, pulling off his wig, and wiping his head, before the audience. As to the fongs, the fame may nearly be faid of them: fome are paffable, and others very indifferent, indeed! With regard to the mufic, we have not heard it; but we obferve the names of the greatest masters, in the lift of compofers.That the Author, however, may not accufe us of ill-nature, we fhall felect one or two of fuch as we take to be his best-written airs: AIR III. See how the genial god of day Salutes the warm, the blufhing year; Chear'd by his beams, how bright, how gay And hark! in yonder vocal bower And, tell me, do thefe fcenes impart Ah! why wou'd Nature make thee fair, And not to love, is to be blind. [Boyce.] Not quite fo roughly expreffed, indeed ;-the following couplet i the paffage alluded to: If the damfel confents, take her strait in the mood, If not, gently force her, 'tis all for her good. Rev. Dec. 1765. Kk AIR AIR XXVII, From clime to clime From rifing to the fetting fun; To fearch for dear variety, And catch fhort gleams of fluctuating taste. With eafe and plenty crown'd, Nor ask of heaven a fairer lot. Hardly obedient to the peafant's toil, A nobler dower has given ; [Arne.] Perhaps, after all, the fort of Rape above hinted at, means no more than a gentle force upon the lady, to make her pronounce the kind monofyllable yes. If fo, we afk the Author's pardon for putting so reugh a construction on the paffage cited in the Note.-But let the Reader judge between us. Art. 23. NOVELS. The Female Adventurers. 12mo. 2 Vols. 5s. Folingsby. It is easy to perceive, through the difguife of a very bad tranflation, that the original of this little French romance is not deftitute of merit. There is nature in it; and the fentiments, had they been expreffed in good English, might have fecured the work from that contempt into which it must inevitably fink, in the opinion of those few novel-readers who are competent judges of what they read. Art. 24. The Wanderer; or, Memoirs of Charles Searle, Efq; conta ning his Adventures by Sea and Land, with many remarkable Characters and interefting Situations in real Life; and a Variety of furprifmg Incidents. 12mo. 2 Vols. 65. Lownds. The reader who accompanies this wanderer, in his various peregrinations, will be conducted through adventures which never could have happened, and brought into fituations in real life' which are to the highest degree unnatural and improbable, if not utterly impoffible, For the reft,-thefe memoirs are not very ill-written. The characters, fuch as they are, are numerous, and a world of bufinefs is to be dispatched, before we arrive at the conclufion: wherein, according to the caftom, the heroes and heroines are brought before the parfon; who having faid grace. the fupper comes in; then every body goes to bed; and fo good night! Art. 25. Art. 25. The Novellift, or Tea-table Mifcellany; containing the felett Novels of Dr. Croxall: With other polite Tales, and Pieces of modern Entertainment. 12mo. 2 Vols. 2 Vols. 6s. Lownds. To a selection from the well-known fet of Novels published by the late ingenious Dr. Croxall, the prefent Editor hath added fome tales, &c. borrowed from the authors of the Rambler and the Adventurer; and also from a variety of other modern writers: the whole forming a very entertaining Mifcellany, for young readers. MISCELLANEOUS. Art. 26. A Treatife of Agriculture. The fecond Edition, with large Additions and Amendments. By Adam Dickfon, A. M. Minifter at Dunfe. 8vo. 6s. Edinburgh, Kincaid. Sold by Longman in London. In our Twenty-eighth Vol. (p. 119 feq.) we gave fome account of the first edition of this judicious treatife; which was then (1763) publifhed without the Author's name.In this 2d edition, Mr. Dickson hath inferted feveral additions and illuftrations, both in the text and notes; and the last chapter of Book II. which treats of wheel-carriages, is entirely new. Art. 27. A Dialogue concerning the Subjection of Women to their Hufbands. Published for the Benefit of all his Majefty's Married Subjects, in Great Britain, Ireland, and the Dominions thereunto belonging and appertaining. In which is interfperfed, fome Obfervations on Courtship, for the Ufe of the Batchelors. By a Friend to the Ladies.-MOTTO." He fent Letters into all the King's "Provinces, into every Province according to the Writing thereof, "and to every People after their Language, that every Man fhould "bear Rule in his own House." Efth. 8vo. 6d. Wilkie. From the motto to this pamphlet, the Reader will naturally infer which way the Author would determine the queftion concerning the dominion univerfally claimed by husbands over their wives. Nevertheless, as all general rules are liable to exceptions, we are not to make this rule abfolute, as the lawyers fay; for there are fuppofable cafes in which it would be the higheft abfurdity, and of ruinous confequence to many families, were the fenfible and capable wife, to fubmit implicitly to the mis-rule, and weak or wicked conduct of a foolish or worthless husband. In all fuch cafes, however, a prudent woman will take Mr. Pope's hint, And if the rules him, never bewus fhe rules. We have, indeed, fo good an opinion of the fair fex, that we entirely acquiefce in the fentiments of Mr. Freeman, one of the interlocutors in this dialogue; where he obferves, that it is not nature, but the anmanly and irrefolute conduct of the men themfelves, in the government of their families, which is the principal caufe of the improper behaviour of the generality of married women.' And he very fenfibly adds, that the abfurd behaviour of men to women previous to marriage, con ri Kk 2 butes butes much towards making them afterwards fo ungovernable. A may feldom approaches the woman to whom he intends to make love, but with the most fervile complaifance. He is not only her fervant, but her flave. He is obedient to her nod, and lives upon her fmiles. And can any man rationally expect, that the woman to whom he thus behaves, will ever make him a dutiful and obedient wife?" Lovers (fays Of borne) place like stupid idolaters, divinity in a filly creature, fet by the inftitutes of nature in a far inferior clafs of perfection, to that which makes it his bufinefs to worship and adore it ;rendering thereby him fubject to flavery that was born free, and her to command, who ought in righter reafon to ferve and obey." A woman muft undoubtedly think it very ftrange, that the man whofe former behaviour to her was characterized by nothing but fubmiffion, and the most undiftinguishing complaisance, fhould afterwards pretend to affume any sort of authority over her, or to controul her actions. And what adds to the abfurdity of that fort of behaviour, which is generally made use of in courtship, is, that it is by no means the best way for a man to recommend himself to a woman of fenfe, or indeed even to the generality of them. They may like the adoration that is paid to them, but they defpife thofe who make ufe of it; at leaft, they undoubtedly esteem them lefs, than if their behaviour had in it more manlinefs and dignity, It has been faid, that women prefer fools and coxcombs to men of fenfe; but in this remark, the women, I believe, have not juftice done them. At least, it appears only to be true of those men of fenfe, whose severity of manners makes them abfolutely deftitute of any of the arts of pleafing. Let a man of fenfe, who is at the fame time a mafter of fome addrefs, (which the character of a man of fenfe furely does not exclude, though it does not neceffarily include it) pay his addrefes, as the phrafe is, to a woman, without the leaft fervility, and only with that manly complaifance and tenderness, which an amiable woman will naturally infpire in a man; and let his whole behaviour be free, fincere, fenfible, and manly; and I will venture to affert, that any woman (if he were not more deficient in point of underflanding than the generality of women are) would prefer him to twenty fawning fops who might happen to be his rivals. Women are, in fact, fo far from being fond of men of a foft complying temper, that they do, generally, rather prefer thofe, who either by na tural temper, or by the particular prevailing manners of their profeffion, are characterised even by a blunt freedom of behaviour. And furely, these are not the men whom they can reasonably expect to make the moft pliant hufbands.' We have obferved feveral other fenfible remarks in this little tract; but, on the whole, the fubject is but flightly difcuffed; and the queftion not abfolutely and clearly decided at lalt. Art. 28. An Effey towards eflablishing a Standard for an elegant and uniform Pronunciation of the English Language, throughout the British Dominions, as practifed by the most learned and polite Speakers. A Werk entirely new; and whereby every one can be bis own private Teacher. Defigned for the Ufe of Schools, and of Foreigners as well as Natives; efpecially fuch whofe Profeffions engage them to fpeak in Public. By James Buchanan, Author of the British Grammar, &c. 8vo. 5s. Dilly. This effay confifts of a vocabulary of English words, printed in double columns; the one containing the words fpelt as they are usually written, and the other, fpelt in such a manner, as the Author conceives may direct the Reader to the true pronunciation of them. Against the plan itself, we object, first, that the falfe mode of orthography here used to facilitate the pronunciation will be apt to vitiate the learner's writing our language, more than it will improve his peaking it: fecondly, that foreigners and others, who have not a thorough knowledge of the found of our vowels in the fyllables of different words, cannot poffibly receive any benefit by fuch a prepofterous mode of fpelling and lastly, that, fuppofing neither of the former objections exifted, Mr. Buchanan himfelf does not appear to understand how English is pronounced by polite or just speakers. Let our Readers judge, from the following Specimens: • We name the vowels a, e, i, o, u, y, by their long founds, thus, ai, ee, ǎwee, ō, eu, wy. Aree, rapidly pronounced, is the long found of [i], or as we pronounce the pronoun I.' + A paffes into the found of fhort i in many words, as marshal, filial, human, village, logician, &c. denoted mårsbil, filyil, heümin, villidsh, fo-jeefbin, &c.' I For it is obfervable that we acquire, and retain, our orthography by the eye, and not by the ear. Thus, in a hurry, we fometimes fee that a word is fpelt wrong, though we cannot, without fome confideration, discover in what particular letter the fault lies. ↑ Awee! What English, or indeed any French, Dutch, or other foreign reader, would ever difcover the true pronunciation of the prcnoun I, by fuch a mode of fpelling? -This is certain, that a common porter about St. James's would think that aree was a good rhime for the pay of an Edinburgh porter, viz, a bawbee; but he would as foon take an halfpenny for a fhilling, as admit that AWEE could ever stand for I. A good speaker, though he had given into this abfurd way of teaching, would have written thefe words thus, mär-fbül, fil-č-ül, būmin, &c. Art. 29, |