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is a breach of the Mofaic injunction againft ftealing. But it is much so be doubted whether a notable housewife, when the finds a fly opportunity of getting a pound of tea, a piece of Bruffels, or a gallon of nice Hollands for her own ufe, will think herself bound by the Jewish decalogue, provided the can elude the pains and penalties of a British act of parliament.

Sometimes mankind err in practice, when their intentions may be acquitted; but in the above cafes, thefe good ladies, though they always cunningly mean to defraud their country, are often perfectly innocent in the fact; by thinking as little of the duffer as they do of the eighth commandment.

11. The Neceffity of a National Reformation.-Occafioned by the prefent critical State of the Nation,-at the Parish Church of Leeds, July 11, 1779, and published by Requeft. By Miles Atkinson, A. B. 8vo. 6d. Wallis, &c.

Mr. Atkinson contends that fin is the fource of all calamity, and that to repent and turn through Jefus Chrift unto God, is the way to fafety and peace.'-This Gentleman preaches to a congregation of Chriftians, not philofophers.

II. Preparation for Death-Preached at the Interment of Mr. Samuel Knight, late of Shoreditch, near Taunton, Somerset (who was killed by the Fall of a Wall, Dec. 28, 1778, in the 41 Year of his Age). By Thomas Reader. 12mo. 3 d. Buckland. This Author lately diftinguished himself as a great calculator :not in the fame line with the ingenious Dr. Price, but in a line quite out of the Doctor's reach, or indeed that of any other man of mere common fenfe. He hath plunged deep in futurity, and having feen, he tells

"Of things invifible to mortal fight!"

-

His prefent difcourfe, though not fo profound as his Apocalyptical Vifions +, is tinctured with the fame dark hue of myfticifm. We give Mr. Reader ample credit for his piety, which is undoubted; but we wish he would allow his good fenfe to check his fanaticism. There is a warmth of colouring in fome of his expreffions, fuitable enough to a popular and illiterate audience; but we apprehend that only the loweft and groffeft part of the Disenters can hear, without disgust, fuch an expreffion as this- It certainly becomes us to ask with a kind of infinite folicitude. Is the dart which is to diflodge me from earth, now fleeping in the milk and honey of God's gracious covenant, or in the vengeance of God's juftice ?'-To have given an air of confiftency to this curious antithefis, he fhould have compared the juftice of God to vinegar and gall.

But we will not attempt to mend what ought to be totally reprobated as injurious to religion, and difgraceful to the pulpit. IV.

The Duty and Character of a national Soldier, Jan. 2, 1779, at the High Church in Hull, before the Nottinghamshire Militia, commanded by Lord George Sutton, on the Delivery of the Colours to the Regiment. 8vo. 6d. Johnfon.

We cannot conceive why the name of the Preacher is with-held from this very fenfible and animated publication. It is really an excellent difcourfe, and cannot fail of doing honour to its Author.

+ Seç Review for January, P. 75.

The

The friends of civil liberty will be peculiarly pleafed with his fentiments on that head. Surely the worthy Preacher was not afraid left offence should be taken at thofe fentiments!

V. At New Broad Street, Aug. 1, 1775, on the Death of the late Rev. Caleb Fleming, D. D. who departed this Life July 21, in the 81st Year of his Age. By John Palmer. With the Oration delivered at the Interment, by Jofeph Towers. 8vo. I s. Johnson. A refpectable commemoration of a very respectable character.

IN

CORRESPONDENCE.

'N anfwer to the quere of Philodomus (Vid Rev. July, last page) a Correfpondent has fent us the following extract from Leigh's Body of Divinity, inferted in a treatife of Lawfon's, printed in 1703, ch. 5. Of the Rife of Mufical Inftruments in the Churches profeffing Chriftianity.Inftruments of Mufic were not heard of in the Latin church, till the days of Pope Vitalian, who, about the year 660, invented and brought the ufe of Organs into the church." Balani Angliæ Epifcopus, &c.

Our Correfpondent adds, that an Abbot named Benedictus, brought with him from Rome, in the year 724, one John the arch-chaunter; who first taught the English how to fing in the choir, after the manner of Rome; but that Sternhold and Hopkins were the first who compofed the Pfalms of David in English metre.

The fame Correfpondent informs us that Mr. Carr, the tranflator of Lucian, is the very refpectable Master of a boarding school in great repute, at Hertford :' this in answer to a note at the end of our Review for June.

To the Correfpondent who inquires concerning the further confideration of Dr. Kippis's Biographia Britannica,' we reply, the fubject will be refumed on the appearance of the second volume.

The N. B. from the fame Correfpondent, relating to a matter of bufinefs, in the Publisher's department, is referred to Mr. Becket; who will answer the Gentleman's inquiry, if. favoured with his addrefs.

+++ Robertfonioni's Letter is received, and the "Prize Essays" therein mentioned will be confidered.

$15 The explanation of the proverbial phrafe to "Bear the Bell," being a matter fomewhat foreign from our plan, has been fent to the St. James's Chronicle, and was inferted in that paper of Sept. 21.

** The Bishop of Offory's Harmony of the Gospels, and Marshall's Experiments and Obfervations concerning Agriculture and the Weather,

in our next.

* The wafer has rendered the name illegible; but it seems to be John or James, or fomething Lawfon. We have not the book

to confult.

THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For OCTOBER, 1779.

ART. I. Experiments and Obfervations concerning Agriculture and the Weather. By Mr. Marshall, Author of the "Minutes of Agriculture." 4to. 7 s. 6d. fewed. Dodfley. 1779.

T

HE choice that Solomon made of wifdom in preference

to every other endowment, confidering that he was then a very young man, appears not a little extraordinary, and is a convincing proof that he was not, even at that period, deftitute of a very confiderable fhare of that eftimable quality he wished to poffefs in ftill greater perfection; but in the eyes of moft young men, the brilliancy of GENIUS feems more irrefiftibly alluring, although to fuch as are of riper years, it is often evident that this endowment more frequently proves hurtful than beneficial to its poffeffors, as it occafions a nicety of perception, and a keen irritability of temper, ill adapted to the ordinary occurrences of life. Convinced of this fact, Erafmus endeavoured to folace himself for the inconveniencies which had accrued to him from this caufe, by writing his eulogium of FOLLY; and a later author, with lefs wit, has more pathetically defcribed the troubles that environ the man who is poffeffed of talents fuperior to those which the generality of mankind can boast.

This obfervation occurred to us on reading the work which is the fubject of the prefent Article, and which is the production of a writer, who (if we mistake not) will, in time, feel the juftness of these reflections still more forcibly than ourselves: for throughout the whole of his remarks we difcover evident proofs of a lively and penetrating genius, running rapidly forward, in a career, in which he will be followed by few. He does not seem aware, that those who are the leaft able to

Dr. John Gregory, in his Comparative View, &c. VOL. LXI.

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comprehend the excellences of his performance, will not only be most willing, but most able to discover its defects, and will be moft fuccessful, likewife, in pointing out thofe defects to others for the little mind, incapable of comprehending the general plan of any great defign, creeps along, pries into every trifle, catches at minute defects, and faithfully points them out to the multitude, whofe contracted optics take in the fame narrow range with itself †.

Old as we are now become in our literary labours, and accuftomed to remark, for many years, the effects of different circumftances on the minds of men, it is hard to fay whether, in many cafes, we derive greater pleasure or pain from the perufal of works of genius. If we were to confider only ourselves,

There is a fiertè, a fpecies of haughtiness in behaviour, too natural to men of talents, which it were happy for themselves if they could correct, as it is perhaps the fource of more uneafiness than they can be aware of. We meet with a strong and most disgusting example of this, toward the end of the advertisement prefixed to the prefent volume. The farm, fays he, was let to a neighbour, whose birth, parentage, and education; life, character, and -BEHAVIOUR, are jointly and feverally-not worth recording.'-The paffage is printed, as we have given it.

Notwithstanding our tenderness, and avowed partiality, for this Author, it is impoffible for us to find words fufficiently expreffive of our diflike of the foregoing paffage; which is altogether unworthy of a place in any literary work. Leaving it, therefore, as indefenfible, in a liberal view, we fhall only remonftrate with our Author on its impropriety with regard to himfelf. Mr. M. here affumes, with the utmost arrogance, a pre-eminence over his neighbour, to which it is very poffible his own vanity alone gives him a title. In certain refpects it is highly probable our Author has greatly the advantage over his neighbour; in others, perhaps, the neighbour may excel our Author and the wafpifhnefs of this remark is a strong prefumption with us that it is fo.

But granting it fhould be otherwife. Allowing even that this neighbour fhould be a much more infignificant perfon than he really is; if our Author has fuperior talents, ought he not to exercife thefe talents in cultivating a more liberal difpofition of mind than can be expected from thofe to whom nature has been lefs bountiful? Ought he not alfo to know, that people of inferior abilities may be as vain of their talents as others, and must be more fhocked at any contemptuous treatment than men of greater parts would be, because it preffes more upon the fore heel? Why then fhould he wil fully hurt them? It indicates a littleness of mind, to be capable of doing this, of which we hope our Author would be ashamed. Let him, moreover, be reminded, that indulging fallies of this kind, is ufually attended by the most difagreeable confequences to the aggreffor; it irritates beyond a poflibility of forgivenefs; and may excite a thirst of vengeance which never can be fatiated.

we fhould, in general, be highly pleafed with these performances, because it is in thefe only we difcover that novelty which can keep the mind from falling into a languid indifference, fo natural to age; and because it helps to recal to memory the days of our youth, when the animal fpirits, warm and glowing with beneficence, leaped with joy at the profpect of any thing that promifed to be extenfively ufeful: but when we turn our eyes to the authors of thefe works, and pafs in ideal review the various difappointments that we forefee thickly rifing around them, an involuntary figh efcapes us, we embrace them as the children of our love, but we mourn over them as destined to struggle with difficulties which we are unable to avert.

When we reviewed the former work of this Author, these were our fenfations,-nor are they changed by the perufal of the prefent performance. We faw him there fporting without fear. We fee him here beginning to learn a little caution, but ftill hurried forward by the irrefiftible bent of his own genius. We discover fewer exuberances-lefs attachment to noveltyand a fomewhat greater degree of diffidence; but we do not perceive that the Author has yet obtained a clear view of the arduous nature of the undertaking in which he is engaged. Like Charles the Twelfth of Sweden, he feems to estimate the ftrength of other men by his own: than which nothing could be more fallacious. An apoftle has faid, that all things that are poffible are not expedient-and an ancient legiflator declared, that though his laws were not the most perfect which could be framed, they were the beft that thofe people for whom they were intended could bear. In these fayings we difcover much good fenfe, and we earnestly wish that every improver would carefully attend to them.

This volume confifts of a few experiments on agriculture, with fome obfervations upon them, communicated to the Public chiefly with a view to ferve as a model for the manner of recording agricultural experiments. As no explanatory words could give the reader fuch a proper idea of this operation as a fpecimen of the work, we fhall fubjoin an extract from it, after having premised, that the Author prefixes to his book a plan of his farm, on which the feveral fields are delineatedwhich fields are, for cafy reference, diftinguifhed fimply by letters, as A, B, C, &c. and the feveral fubdivifions are alfo marked, as A 1, A 2, &c. &c. An account of the nature of the foil-expofure, and other particulars, of each field, is alfo given-and its extent is marked in a feparate table.

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