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A selective Plan is adopted, in order to render this work more useful to the public at large; and a stated selection of subjects, has been preferred to a fortuitous assemblage, of which a considerable portion might be useless to our Readers. At the same time, we are not restricted from including works of eminent merit, in any department of literature.

A few words on the spirit with which this work will be conducted, shall close our prefatory address. All national and personal reflections shall be excluded, as well as indiscriminate censure of any religious or political party whatever. The spleen, neither of writers nor of readers, will be gratified, by wanton abuse of authors, or of their works. We think, with Mr. Addison, that it is more characteristic of a genuine Critic, to point out beauties, than faults; but we likewise admit, with Dr. Johnson, that it is the duty of criticism, neither to depreciate, nor to dignify, by partial representations; but to hold out the light of Reason, whatever it may discover; and to promulgate the determinations of Truth, whatever she shall dictate.

Such are our purposes, and though we may err in judgement, we pledge ourselves not to deviate from them wittingly, conscious that, if drawn by interest, or driven by influence, from the course we have marked, we should be peculiarly blameable. We shall only add that, as the Conductors of this work do not aim at emolument, and its pecuniary supporters do not require the prospect of gain for the risk of their property, the profits, when the expenses of it shall be discharged, are pledged, by a legal agreement, to be applied to the assistance of the New British and Foreign Bible Society, an Institution which has happily united in its support, Christians of every class and distinction in Britain.

THE

ECLECTIC REVIEW,

For JULY, 1805.

Art. I. Rural Philosophy; or, Reflections on Knowledge, Virtue, and Happiness; chiefly in reference to a Life of Retirement in the Country. By Ely Bates, Esq. 3d Edition. 8vo. pp. 414. Price 7s. Longman and Rees. 1804.

TO him, who has felt on his own heart the proper influence of our divine religion, no subject of enquiry will be more interesting, than the method in which this heavenly principle may be recommended to attention; so as, at once, most effectually to engage the understanding, imagination, and affections. When, therefore, the cordial and zealous Christian observes any new exertion of talent and learning, directed to this inestimable purpose, he enjoys the sincerest satisfaction, in pointing out to others, whatever excellence he may have discovered in the execution of the design.

The happy peculiarity of this volume consists chiefly in familiarizing to its readers the most solemn of all subjects, without departing from its most strict and serious views. Numberless attempts have been made to accomplish a reconciliation between religion and the world; but too generally an abandonment of some of the most essential duties of Christianity, and not seldom a surrender of its very substance, has been the condition of the compromise. Instead of an honest endeavour to conciliate those natural and innocent tastes which we possess from our creation, it has been the object to make religion less hostile to the evil propensities which are derived to us from the fall: thus, in fact, bribing the unhappy patient to receive the prescription, by first destroying in it what was peculiarly intended to reach the seat of his malady.

The work under examination stands clear of every charge of this nature: yet, its aim evidently is, to disembarrass truth of every thing unnecessarily sombre, and to give it such a dress as may fit it for mingling in the harinless circumstances of human life. While other pious authors have written for the closet or the study, Mr. Bates has adapted himself to seasons of unbent thought, and of cheerful intercourse; to the walk of the morning, or the conversation circle of the evening. He wishes it to be universally felt, that there is no innocent gratification, which vital religion does not heighten; no honest employment,

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which it does not render interesting; no difficulty, which it does not alleviate; no vacant portion of life, which it does not usefully and pleasurably occupy. And what he teaches, he himself appears in no small degree to exemplify; his remarks on these infinitely important subjects, being evidently the result of his feelings, no less than of his reasoning and observation.

He informs us, in his preface, that the idea of the present work was first suggested by the favourable reception which appeared to be given by the British Public to Dr. Zimmerman's Book on Solitude. Recognizing, in this undeserved preference, an alarming symptom of that depravation of taste which has been so fatal to other countries; and feeling himself qualified, from the philosophic retirement of his own life, to place in a just light what Zimmerman had perniciously misrepresented, he conceived the thought, in the first instance, of following this visionary writer through his maze of errors. But, on a nearer inspection, finding little else in Zimmerman than a gloomy and pathless confusion, he conceived that it would be both more useful and more alluring, to offer at once what he deemed a just estimate of retired life ascertaining its actual privileges; pointing out the circumstances in which it may be wisely preferred; above all, explaining the best methods of using it to advantage, and the mental qualifications, which are indispensable, not only to render solitude beneficial, but even to make it supportable. To such a disquisition, it is obvious that no juster title could be given, than that of Rural Philosophy; which the author well defines, as that wisdom, which teaches a man at once to enjoy and to improve a Life of Retirement.

In the prosecution of the subject, no clearly relevant topic appears to be overlooked; yet every thing is regarded in strict and uniform subordination to the great end of man. The judicious and pious reader, therefore, will feel little difficulty in acceding to the author's request, that no offence may be taken, because, in pursuing this grand object, words and phrases are sometimes employed, which are not perfectly theological. p. xix. It were, perhaps, rather to be wished, that the example might be largely followed, provided the substance of revealed truth were to be exhibited with equal care, and its experimental efficacy maintained with equal cordiality.

The author divides his subject into three different heads, referring to what he conceives to be the three great pursuits of human life, KNOWLEDGE, VIRTUE, and HAPPINESS. Reflections on these form the first three parts of the work; and while the second part appears to apply more appropriately to the author's chief design than the first, the third seems to enter more deeply into it than either. Should the reader be apprehensive, at the commencement, that he is introduced among a set of com

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mon-places, he will find himself led more and more into strictly apposite considerations, and pass from section to section with increasing interest in the work, and increased respect for its author. In the fourth and last part, Mr. B. considers the obvious objection to a Life of Retirement, which arises from the supposition of diminished usefulness.

The First Part is subdivided into Reflections on the Knowledge of God, of Ourselves, and of the World. The observa-tions under the two former heads are of a general kind, and are evidently intended chiefly to prepare the way for that religious purpose, to which the subject is to be turned. They form, no. doubt, a necessary introduction; and give clear indications of a mind habituated to reflection, cultivated by study, and elevated by evangelical piety.

The third section brings the author into the midst of his subject, and is generally very instructive and interesting. With respect to that useful Knowledge of the World, which, the author thinks, may be attained in retirement little less effectually than in the bustle of resort, we conceive that there must be a material difference between him who has never mingled with the world, and him who, after living in the world, withdraws from it into retirement. The former character may, doubtless, be indemnified by his unimpaired security for his want of accurate knowledge; but such a want appears inseparable from a wholly retired life. Perhaps, therefore, he is, of all men the happiest, who at some active period of life has been providentially engaged in the more open scenes of society, and afterwards obtains an equally providential dismission, of which his uncorrupted, or it may be his renovated mind, rejoices to avail itself. Such a person knows his own happiness with peculiar distinctness; his recollections giving daily and hourly zest to his present pleasures, and furnishing additional light to all the exercises of his understanding. We should think it extraordinary. if Mr. B. produced such a work as that under consideration, had he not, at some period of his life, taken a nearer view of the world than can be had in rural retirement: yet, we fully own the risk, which enlarged mixture with the busy world involves, and which must grow into extreme danger when that mixture arises from choice and liking. He only can be safe, who unaffectedly wishes for his discharge, or at least is ready cheerfully to accept it." No man," says the pious Kempis, "safely goes abroad, but he who is willing to stay at home."

The Second Part of the work commences with several wise and pious observations, on those cases of human weakness, which indicate Retirement from the World to be a necessary step, in order to the acquiring or preserving of VIRTUE. Other cases are pointed out, in which such a procedure might too probably Ii2 prove

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prove prejudicial; and the first section concludes with recommending, that young persons should be early habituated to solitude, as well as furnished with those mental resources, which are necessary to render their comfort independent of the varying circumstances of life. The author thinks that this purpose may be best served by an education in the country; and no doubt, supposing all other requisites to concur, the young mind night derive great advantage from the security and tranquillity of such a situation: but this plan may so often be ineligible, or impracticable, as to make it worth considering, whether much of the same advantage might not be derived from steady domestic quiet, even in the midst of a city. We doubt not, that the substance of what this wise and pious author is anxious for, might as really be accomplished in Fleet-street as on the banks of the Severn; if parents would generally spend their evenings at their own firesides, having their children around them, and partaking with them in those improving exercises, as well as innocent entertainments of the mind, to which the modern methods of education happily tend to promote a disposition. We make this remark, lest the well intended, and, in a degree, just preference, given to a rural education, should be misconstrued into a plea for neglecting those domestic duties, which are indeed incompatible with a life of city dissipation; but which the wisdom of God has made every where possible; and, when faithfully performed, his goodness will make every where successful.

We are sorry to find occasion for dissenting from Mr. B. in some of the sentiments respecting classical education, which occur in the next section, pp. 136-145. Most cordially do we participate with him, in his virtuous zeal against the admission of any thing into the studies of youth, by which the imagination could be vitiated, or the mind depraved. We cannot, however, allow, that this caution involves any necessity for excluding the authors of antiquity from the place which they have hitherto occupied; but merely for our subjecting them to a strict expurgation, so as not to leave in them a single image or sentiment, inconsistent with christian purity. We say with christian purity, because we conceive, that the danger lies infinitely more in their profligacy than in their paganism. There is an infectiousness in the one, of which the other is now destitute: and while we grieve to reflect on the mischiefs which must necessarily have arisen to moral principle and to moral taste, from the promiscuous reading of such authors, we cannot but think, that their be wildering and degraded Mythology has furnished an useful contrast to the divine rationality and heavenly majesty of Revealed Religion.

We rejoice then in the thought, that the poisonous part of the Greek and Latin Classics is clearly separable, and has actually

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