moment the enthusiasm of an aspiring spirit, delighted to contemplate, and ardent to resemble, a model of ideal excellence. Indeed, a higher order of characters would in a a great measure have precluded an exercise of her talents in which she evidently delights, and in which she very highly excels, that is, the analysing of the mixed motives by which persons are often governed, while they are giving themselves credit for being actuated by one simple and perfectly laudable motive; the detecting of all the artifices of dissimulation; and the illustration of all the modes in which selfishness peravdes human society. Scarcely has Swift himself evinced a keener scent in pursuit of this sort of game; a sort of game which, we readily acknowledge it is, with certain benevolent limitations, very fair and useful to hunt. And we must acknowledge too, that our author, while passing shrewd, is by no means cynical.-She is very expert at contriving situations for bringing out all the qualities of her personages, for contrasting those personages with one another, for creating excellent amusement by their mutual reaction, and for rewarding or punishing their merits or faults. She appears intimately acquainted with the prevailing notions, prejudices, and habits, of the different ranks and classes of society. She can imitate, very satirically, the peculiar diction and slang of each; and has contrived (but indeed it needed very little contrivance) to make the fashionable dialect of the upper ranks sound exceedingly silly. As far as she has had opportunities for observation, she has caught a very discriminative idea of national characters that of the Irish is delineated with incomparable accuracy and spirit.-It may be added, that our author possessing a great deal of general knowledge, finds many lucky opportunities for producing it, in short arguments and happy allusions. Unless we had some room for a distinct notice of each of the tales in these volumes it will be no use to mention that their titles are the following; Ennui-Almeria-Madame de Fleury-The Dun-and Manoeuvring: the first and the last each filling an entire volume.

Art. IV. Sermons preached before the University of Oxford, in the Year MDCCCVI. at the Lecture founded by the Rev. John Bampton, M. A. late Canon of Salisbury. By John Browne, M. A. late Fellow of C.C.C. 8vo. pp. 320. Price 9s. Parker, Oxford; Rivingtons,

1809.

IN choosing the theme of these lectures, Mr. Browne, it appears to us, has been rather unfortunate. The uniformity of the divine government is apparently a subject of great ex

tent and splendour: and yet, so far as it can be treated in a popular manner, it is a subject which admits of no great variety of argument or copiousness of illustration; and affords but few reflections that tend either to confirm our faith or to animate our devotion. A being of infinite wisdom, it may be assumed, will always adopt the plan most worthy of his attributes; and subordinate all the parts of the most extensive and complicated system of things, and series of events, to the accomplishment of his principal purpose. When we examine a single but complete production of divine wisdom, a human body, for example, we find the individual parts to be contrived with such exquisite skill, and, by their figure and position, so evidently conducing to the convenience and perfection of the whole,-as fully to bear out the inference, that, if we could take in, at one view, the entire extent of the moral government of the universe, we should discover a similar subserviency of parts to the whole, and an equal degree of order and harmony arising from what now appears jarring and confused. Having ascertained from reason as well as revelation, the chief design of God in the creation and government of the world, we may observe, in many instances, a wonderful adaptedness to his purpose, in the instruments he has at different times employed.-But here the subject is al-, most exhausted; and for the popular teacher it remains onlyto repress the short-sighted arrogance which, without comprehending, would arraign the divine government of injustice, or folly, or unkindness-to awaken our gratitude to the Supreme Being who, in all his arrangements, has preserved so obvious a regard to the welfare and happiness of man-and to hold up the perfection of the mind, as that central point to which all our purposes and actions should verge.

Thus limited, however, is the subject of Mr. Browne's Bampton Lecture. The author seems, indeed, to have been in some measure aware of the scantiness of his materials, and has accordingly displayed considerable art in producing them to the requisite length. His style is flowing and decla-matory: whatever essentially belonged to his subject he has dilated to its utmost limits; and has laboriously digressed into the numerous and fruitful common places that lay within tolerable distance of his path. On this account, perhaps, he merits praise. Keeping in mind the audience he was addressing, he seems to have preferred usefulness to originality; and has probably reflected that the reward would indeed be great, should his discourses in any degree contribute to render such an audience wise to salvation.

We are not sure, however, that Mr. B. has taken the most effectual way to accomplish so desirable a purpose. The

well known remark of Louis XIV. to Massillon," My father, I have heard several great orators in my chapel, and have been well pleased with them, but, whenever I have heard you, I have been very much displeased with myself-" affords a most useful lesson to all Christian teachers. If they do not study to make those who hear them dissatisfied with themselves, they have little reason to expect that their labours will issue in the salvation of men. The great defect of the lectures before us is, that they have no tendency to remove that complacency in itself, which is so natural to the human mind. Had no opportunities been afforded to the preacher of turning the attention of his audience inward, and leading them to institute a comparison between what they were, and what they should be, to entitle them to the character of Christians, and qualify them for future blessedness, some apology might have been found in the subject. But, unfortu nately, we have to complain, that the author, on several occasions, has neglected to improve those opportunities which did in course present themselves; and that he has employed others in too cold and heartless a manner to effect the reformation of his hearers, or even to excite in their minds an alarm however transient, or a compunction however slight and unavailing.

The first of these sermons is introductory; in which, however, all that is indispensable to the subject might have been despatched in the compass of two pages: the second is an epitome of scripture history, with a few remarks tending to solve difficulties, which are treated of in other parts of the work; and the last is a recapitulation of the preceding discourses. Of the eight lectures, therefore, five only are directly appropriated to the main design. In the course of his discussion, our author, as he acknowledges, has found the sermons of Saurin particularly serviceable. Besides the first hint of the subject, he has taken the liberty to borrow from the refugee, the divisions, the general illustrations, and many of his most valuable remarks. In fact, Mr.,B.'s book is little more than an enlargement of Saurin's sermons on the same subject. We shall not attempt, therefore, to give any detailed analysis of its contents; but proceed at once to lay before our readers the leading idea of the work; an idea which appears in almost every other page, and which, if we may credit the learned author, is sufficient to solve all the difficulties that have hitherto perplexed divines, in treating of the different dispensations of religion.

In pursuance of a hint thrown out by the writer to whom he is so largely indebted, Mr. Browne maintains that the successive ages of the world bear the same analogy to each other as

the infancy, youth, and manhood of an individual. Assuming this as unquestionable, he proceeds to shew, that the knowledge God has gradually imparted, the worship he has prescribed, as well as the duties he has at different times enjoined, together with the evidence that has, in various ages, been made use of to gain assent to the revelations of his will,were exactly proportioned to the supposed infancy, youth, and manhood of the species. This conceit, to which such immense importance is attached, and which is so perpetually referred to in these sermons, is so pretty, that it is distressing to think it should be liable to any objections. Most unfortunately, however, it happens to be at variance with several of our author's own assertions. He maintains, for example, p. 22, that it is revelation alone which assures us that all things are under the superintendence of God. Yet, if the Almighty has conducted man through the different stages of moral and intellectual improvement, as his faculties have been developed in successive ages,-the means made use of for this purpose no more authorize us to infer that he has abandoned the government of the world, than a system of education, varied according to the progress of the pupil, would lead us to suspect the wisdom or goodness of the preceptor. Miracles, says our author, are a kind of evidence adapted to the condition of a gross and sensual people. They are evidences which come immediately home to their senses, and bring with them instant and decisive conviction. To appreciate them no previous knowledge is required, except what every man will readily acquire from his own observation, and that of his ancestors, with respect to the usual course of nature. No extensive acquaintance with the history of mankind is necessary towards making a due estimate of their force; they require rather the exercise of the senses than that of the intellectual faculties,' &c. p. 227. It might seem superfluous to say, that the evidence of miracles is the kind of evidence made use of to evince the truth of Christianity, did it not suggest a view of man precisely opposite to that of our ingenious author. On Mr. B.'s theory, it is natural to expect a more intellectual kind of evidence would have been adduced on behalf of Christianity, than on behalf of Judaism. But, as this is not the case, we are confirmed in supposing, that the revelations afforded at different periods of the world, were designed rather to counteract the growing corruption of man, than as an accommodation to his expanding intellect and purified moral faculties. Such an opinion, it must be confessed, is much less honourable to man, than the conceit that runs through the volume before us. But it seems to be the view of things given in scripture; and it is even countenanced by

several parts of these lectures. When men had become vain in their imaginations, and their foolish hearts were darkened; when the world, by wisdom, knew not God; it pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe.' In the age of our Saviour, according to Mr. B.'s mode of thinking, mankind had nearly arrived at maturity: but, was it a maturity of wisdom and virtue, or of folly, of superstition, of impiety, and every kind of vice? The age of Moses, again, might be regarded as the 'youth' of the species, were not the cumbrous ritual of that legislator adduced by our author to prove that mankind was still in its infancy,' guided by the senses rather than by reason. It would be too tedious to quote passages from these lectures, which are irreconcileable with the notion Mr. B. is elsewhere so solicitous to inculcate ;—and we shall conclude with observing, that if this notion were pushed to its legitimate consequences, we should be constrained to infer, that, while the reason of Socrates, or Plato, or Aristotle, was not sufficiently exercised, nor their faculties sufficiently matured, to qualify them to receive the pure and sublime articles of Christian truth-the savages of New Zealand, or the semi-barbarians of China, would find no difficulty at all, without even the intervention of miracles to overawe and confound them, in embracing the most spiritual revelation of heaven; since they live in an age in which all the faculties of the human mind are so much more fully developed, and have approached so much nearer to perfection.

Art. V. Philosophical Transactions, of the Royal Society of London. For the year 1810. Part 1st.

(Concluded from p. 804.)

PROCEEDING in our analysis, the next paper we mect with is,

III. The Case of a Man, who died in consequence of the Bite of a Rattlesnake with an account of the Effects produced by the Poison. By Everard Home, Esq. F. R. S. Read December 21, 1809.

The unfortunate subject of this communication was a young man, a carpenter, who, after having endeavoured to irritate a rattlesnake, of four or five feet in length, with a common foot-rule, imprudently introduced his hand into the cage, to regain the instrument which had accidentally slipped out of his reach. The animal bit him twice; making two wounds on the back part of the thumb, and two on the second joint of the fore finger. This happened at half