the majority of the people are them'elves domineered by hendrong and impetuous paffions; their dominion therefore will be anarchy, oppreflion, and cruelty; and to intruft government, even for a moment, to fuch clufy and artlefs hands, will, inftead of having any tendency to reform it, be the likelieft means to prevent the pobility of any thing like rational reform from ever being effected." P. 204.

In enumerating, in his eighth chapter, fix articles as effential conftituents of a ftate, it is remarkable that Ariftotle fets down as the fifth in order, but firft in dignity, an establishment for the functions of religion. Πέμπιον δὲ καὶ πρῶτον, τὴν περὶ τὸ Θεῖον ἐπιμέλειαν, ἣν καλᾶσιν ἱερατείαν. On this his dallator, in a note, very appofitely obferves, that "if we except the French republic, the Chinese are the only great nation who, according to recent accounts, ever differed from Arift tle in this particular. See Staunton's Emb. to China, i, 10, and there is even reafon to fuppofe that; in this reprefentation of China, Sir G. S. was perhaps miftaken." The fix effentials recited by Ariftotle are, t. Food. 2. Arts. 3. Arms. 4. Money. 5. Religious eftablishments. 6. Councils for judgment and legiflation. Another fentiment of this great Philofopher, we cannot entirely pafs in filence. He allows, as we have feen, of flavery; but he afferts, that "liberty ought to be the reward of all flaves univerfally, who approve themfelves worthy of obtaining, and capable of enjoying it." P. 235. If the fundamental doctrines of Ariftotle were rightly weighed and confidered, it would perhaps appear, that the very best arrangement which could be made, refpecting our African flaves, might be founded on this principle. That, on certain conditions, liberty thould be held out to them all, after a limited period; and that the punishment for ill behaviour, after emancipation, fhould be a relapfing into flavery. Under fuch regulations, wifely formed, with the neceffary care to inftruct them in the doctrines of Christianity, removal to our colonies might become to the Africans, instead of a curfe, the greatest of all poffible bleffings.

To the fifth book (formerly 8th) the introduction is very fhort. The tranflator had already fo well prepared his reader for comprehending the doctrines of Aristotle, that here it feemed unneceffary for him to expatiate. The fubject of the book, however, is important. It is that of education; and involves fome of the author's notions on mufic and poetry, which have been the fubject of much difcuffion. The purgation of the paffions, that grand difficulty in the Poetics, is ably illuftrated by Dr. Gillies, in a note on the feventh chapter, P. 268.

In his fixth book (formerly 4th) Ariftotle appears, as his tranflator justly obferves, on an eminence far above all rivals. As heftands on loftier ground, his fight has a wider range; and, while his fituation it more commanding, his eye is also more piercing." P. 273. In treating of the fovereignty in a ftate, he analy fes it into three powers; the deliberative, the appointing or elective, and the judicial; which Dr. G. contends, and we think proves, to be more accurate than the mo dern divifion into legiflative, executive, and judicial. We cannot however undertake the examination or recapitulation of his arguments. After diftributing the general branches, the praifes which Ariftotle beflows on the middle claffes in fociety are highly judicious and important; and tend, as Dr. Gillies remarks," to reconcile the people at large with their refpective lots, and to fhow that the condition which every man, by an ordinary degree of prudence and good fortune, may attain, is precifely the beft in which he could be placed :" -a most valuable and excellent leffon, which, if duly underftood, would prevent a great part of the evils of fociety.

The feventh book (or 5th) treats of Revolutions; and had it been written with an exprefs view to the benefit of the prefent age, could not have been better adapted to that purpose. The illuftration of this most valuable book, prefented to the reader in the introduction to it, is of the best and clearest kind; and we might employ a complete article of our Review in felecting the parts deferving of attention and affent. But other works call for our notice; and we must content our felves with pointing out the way to found knowledge, instead of undertaking to be perfect teachers of it. One paffage, however, we cannot with-hold.

"In oppofition to the tenets which have been fo induftriously propagated in fome modern nations, Ariftotle, while he inhabited the freeft and moft democratical republic of all antiquity, maintained that, from a due mixture of aristocratic elements, the fabric of political fociety derives both its folidity and its fplendour. The very popular doctrine, therefore, which maintains that all power is derived from the people*,

"According to Dr. Price, liberty is The power of a civil fociety to govern itfelf by its own difcretion, or by laws of its own making, by the majority, in a collective body, or by fair reprefentation. In every free ftate every man is his own legiflator.' Price on Civil Liberty. This definition contains the effence of Locke on government, and of its French tranfcript, the Contrat Social.' Locke, I firmly believe, was a religious man, and a good fubject; yet, by a strange combination of circumitances, the philofophical opinions of this great adverfary of Aristotle, have had no fmall tendency to promote fcepti eifm, and his political principles to encourage rebellion."

to

to the majority of whom it unalienably belongs, and by whom it may always lawfully be refumed, muft have appeared to him not lefs wicked than it is weak, not lefs deteftable than it is extravagant; especially, could he have foreseen that many of the authors who fupported this wild affertion, would have exerted themselves moft ftrenuously to destroy all reverence for those institutions, which, while they enlarge the wif dom and exalt the affections of the few, have the most direct tendency to reftrain the vices and to moderate the paffions of the multitude. What renders Rouffeau of Geneva, and other writers of that stamp, fo hoftile to Chriftianity? They tell us that it commands fubmiffion to the higher power; and is therefore, a religion fit only for flaves*. But an author, not interior to Rouflean in vigour of fancy, incompa rably his fuperior in point of learning and judgment, and a far better advocate in the cause of true fiberty, had long before proved that the pre-ended flavifhn fs of Chrittianity amounts to nothing more than fending its awful fanétion to fupport eftablished magistracy, and uphold lawful authority. In this particular, Christianity commands what philofophy had uniformly prefcribed; maintaining that obedience to authority is effential to humanity, fince the powers of human nature cannot be unfolded but in a state of feciery; and fince, without government, fociety could not for a moment be fecurely preferved, any more than it could, without government, have been originally eftablished. Upon this foundation, the Stagirite afferts the birth and wealth, as well as talents, morals, and experience, ought to have their due weight in every community which has the good of the whole for its main object, and that every principle which tends to maintain a reafonable and moderate aristocracy, ought to be improved and cherished, in order to counteract that dangerous propenfity to fedition and anarchy, which, wherever they prevail, render the habitations of men more bloody and more abominable than the dens of wild beats." . P. 327.

How happy would it be for the world, if thefe doctrines could be univerfally ftudied and inculcated! They exhibit truth. and nature in their brighteft political forms; and they lead to a direct demonftration of the excellence of our venerable conftitution. "A King," fays Ariftotlet," in his nature and end, is a public guardian. His office is a pledge, that the nobles fball not be fubjected to injuftice, nor the people to infult." P. 37. The 8th book (formerly the fixth) is confidered by Dr. Gillies as intended for a fupplement to the reft; which appli cation of it he well explains in the introduction. By reference alfo to Cicero, and to the fixth book of Polybius, he amply and fatisfa&torily illuftrates his author: and again leads us to the very interefting conclufion, that what the wifeft theoretical and experimental philofophers regarded as the beft

"* Contrat Social, 1. iv. c. viii.

+ Buchannanus de Jure Regni apud Scotos, c. lxiii. Ixiv. & lxv." Meaning a lawful and limited King.

poffible

poffible political arrangement, is now realized, beyond their hopes, in the BRITISH CONSTITUTION.

We fhall here conclude our account of perhaps the most important book, that has ever demanded our attention as public critics. We have only to lament, that, from the indolence and fuperficial difpofition of the age, too few perfons will probably have patience to confider and to weigh the admirable. doctrines.delivered in it; while thofe who make most noife in the political world, namely, the feditious and turbulent, will go on venting their crude and moft pernicious notions, as boldly as if no public refutation, or complete condemnation of them, exifted in the world.

ART. XIV. Original Sonnets on various Subjects; and Odes paraphrafed from Horace. By Anna Seward. 4to. 179 PP 6s. 6d. Sael, 192, Strand. 1799.

!

MRS. C. Smith, and Mifs Seward, may be confidered as the leaders of two poetic parties, the one patronizing the irregular, the other the regular Sonnet. The latter poetess mult certainly be allowed to have refuted the idea (if it were not fufficiently refuted before by the fuccefs of Milton) that the regular Sonnet is not adapted to the genius of our language; fince out of an hundred Sonnets, contained in this colJection, the informs us that there are only nine which in any degree depart from the ftrict rule. Nor have we any intention. to affert that her Sonnets, in general, want grace, elegance, fpirit, or any other quality by which fuch poems are recommended. Still we cannot but feel averfe to the arbitrary rule, though fanctioned by Petrarch, when no rational account can be given why that particular arrangement of rhymes thould be preferred to many others that might be devifed. The French Rondeau is equally limited by arbitrary rules, but that has hardly ever found its way into our language, and we hope it never will. What reader of tafte and poetic feeling, will conceive it poffible to with that Mrs. Smith's beautiful Addrefs to the Nightingale, and feveral others of the Poems which the calls Sonnets, had been caft in any other mould than that which the has ufed? Whether they are Sonnets or not, is a queftion about a name; if they are as good as Sonnets, and better than moft Sonnets that were ever produced in any language, what occafion is there to fubmit to the defpotic laws of the Italian Mufe? On the other hand, if Mifs Seward, or any other qua

lified perfon, chooses fo to fubmit, we undoubtedly fhall not say: or think that their Poems are the worfe for the compl ́ance.

The belt defence we have ever seen of the ie im se Sonnet, is that quoted by Mifs Seward in her Preface to is p. blication. It was published originally in the Gentleman's Magazine*, and was written by the Rev. Mr. White f Lienfield. To fhow that we are willing to give all poffible weight to that fide of the argument, we will quote that pail ge entire.

"Little Elegies, confifting f four ftanzas and a couplet, are no more Sonnets than they are Epic Poems. The Sonnet is of a particular and arbitrary contraction; it partakes of the nature of blank verte, by the lines running into each other at proper intervals. Each line of the first eight rhymes tour time, and the or ler in which those rhymes fhould fali is decifive. For the enfuing fix there is more licence; they may, or may not, at p.eafure, clofe with a couplet. Of Milton's Englih Sonnets, only that to Oliver Cromwell ends with a couplet, but the fingle inftance is a fufficient precedent; however, in three out of his five Italian ones, the concluding lines rhyme to each other.

The ftyle of the Sonnet fhould be nervous, and, where the fubject will with propriety bear elevation, fublime; with which, fimplicity of lan, uage is by no means incompatible. If the fubject is familiar an domettic, the style should, though affectionate, be nervous; though plain, be energetic. The great models of perfection, for he fublime and domeftic Sonnet, are thofe of Milton's, To the Soldier to fpare his Dwelling-place,' and To Mr. Lawrence.'

"The Sonnet is certainly the most difficult fpecies of poetic com→ pofition; but difficulty fubdued is excellence. Mrs. Sinith days, the has been told that the regular connet is not fuited to the nature or ge nius of our language. Surely this allertion cannot be demonstrated, and therefore was not worth attention.

"Out of eighteen English Sonnets written by Milton, four are bad. The reft, though they are not free from certain hardneffes, have a pathos and greatnefs in their fimplicity, fufficient to endear the legitimate Sonnet to every reader of just tafte. They poffefs a characteristic grace, which can never belong to three elegiac ftanzas, clofing with a couplet."

This is perhaps as good a plea, for the legitimate Sonnet, as can be offered. The remarks are in generai found and good, but require fome limitation. Thus the difficulty of the compofition is furely exaggerated; nor is it true, that difficulty fubdued is always excellence. To fubdue unavoidable difficulties is the pride and privilege of Genius, but to raise unnecef

For 1786, p. 1110.

This fingle word is, in our opinion, fufficient to deftroy its exclufive plea to preference. Rev.

fary