preme God, are all together but One God; which is either direct Sabellianifm, in fuppofing the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to be but One Perfon; or elfe a contradiction in terms, in allowing Three Perfons, to be each of them a Supreme God, and yet all together but one Supreme God.

Thus they abfolve themselves from one herefy; by professing another, which is quite oppofite to it; and holding two or more doctrines at the fame time, which are abfolutely contradictory to each other. And therefore it is no wonder; if they differ as much among themselves, as they do from their adverfaries."

The author proceeds to fhew, that these doctrines, in their confequences, ftrike at the very fundamental principles of all natural and revealed religion. He then proposes the opinion of Apollinaris, bishop of Laodicea, as the moft intelligible and fatisfactory viz. that the Logos, or divine perfon which defcended from heaven, supplied the place of a foul in Christ.

• Notwithstanding the pains which were taken [in the fourth century] to discourage this doctrine, it appeared again, fays this writer, in different fhapes in the Chriftian church, in the doctrine of the Monothelites; who held, that Chrift had only one Will; which, without doubt, is fufficient for one Perfon. And in the Jewish church the fame notion appeared among the cabaliftic Jews, who looked upon the angel Metalron, who they say inftructed Mofes, to be the foul of the Meffiah: fee Allix, 456. And this angel they fuppofed to be the angel of the covenant, or the angel of God, or the visible Jehovah; who appeared to the patriarchs in a human form.'

But left this notion fhould be looked upon as a modern fcheme, the author fhews, that it is the doctrine of the New Teftament and the original faith of the first fathers of the church; and that, in their days, the notion of two perfons in Chrift, or, which is the fame thing, two natures, the one paffible, the other impaffible was heretical.

The author concludes his letter with obferving, that the doctrine of the gospel relative to Jefus Chrift is rational and confiftent; that Scripture, and not the artificial divinity of the fchools, is the rule of faith; and that the apoftacy and wickednefs of Chriftians is no objection to Chriftianity.

XI. Letters concerning the present State of England. 8vo. 5 boards. Almon.

THE greatest part of these Letters is employed on political fubjects, which are treated in an argumentative manner. In the first Letter, the author confiders the influence of the crown in the British conftitution; and he is opinion, however the three eftates of the kingdom may appear to be equally balanced, and to check the encroachments of each other on public liberty, yet that the power of the whole legiflature is

enhanced

enhanced by the influence of the crown. This reasoning is plaufible in theory, but we hope the time is far diftant when it fhall be confirmed by experience; and if fuch an event fhould ever happen, it will be the confequence not fo much of any dangerous prerogative in the crown, as of the general corruption of the people.

In the fecond letter, the author directs his attention to the English nobility, whom he confiders as devoted auxiliaries to the aggrandifement of the royal authority. He adopts the common remark, that, from the great increase of the peerage, the balance of property in the kingdom is inclining ftrongly to the lords; and affirms, that there are not more than five capital eftates in the nation at prefent among the commons. This letter contains feveral fevere strictures on the qualifications of those who in modern times are raised to the rank of nobility.

That our readers may be enabled to form fome judgment of this performance, we fhall lay before them a part of the Letter on Patriotism, the conclufion of which is, we hope, too injurious to the legislature to admit of being inferted in our Review.

Of Patriotiẩm.

• What is the fpirit of modern patriotism? I can form no idea of fuch a virtue exerting itself in the British conftitution; all the explanations, harangues, and flights of imagination, which have been jumbled together to form that imaginary monster of perfection called a Patriot, are but an unintelligible jargon. They are Grecian and Roman ideas in an Englifh drefs: patriots rife up like mushrooms; we have always the patriot of the day like the favourite player; first to clap for a fool, and then to hifs for a knave. It is the nature of our government to produce thefe heroes of politics; the occafion produces the character; a pretence to the famed virtue is the road to corruption; and marks a man, as one who wants only a bidder that will rife to his price.

• If we reflect on the hiftory of the men, who in this country have made a figure in the character of patriots, we shall be convinced, that they made the pretence of the virtue a mere ladder to mount high in office and wealth: a mere mask to their ambition.

• The patriotism of the antients had even a military, a favage fiercenefs in it; which feemed effential to its being. Indeed it is a virtue which required a wild and daring caft of thought, generally measuring the welfare of the state, not against a cold, temperate, refiftance of temptation; a moderation of fentiment; or the dictates of philofophic reflections;

but

but against life itself; friends, kindred, family, all were to be facrificed at the shrine of their country: patriotism and death were ever hand in hand; it was a ferocity in the mind nearly allied to a degree of fury; nothing calm, or temperate. The man was hurried away by the impulse of a violent paffion ; rather than urged by the calls of reason; hence arose an enthufiafm, which fometimes broke into the noblest actions, and the most exalted fentiments; but as to modern times, and our own country in particular, the conftitution of the government destroys the very idea of a patriot. The regularity of all the movements of the ftate, the nature of the modern art of war, and the univerfal power of law, has brought every thing to fuch a standard, that we can have no idea of patriotifm: what are to be the rules to judge it? What are the figns by which to know it? The mob will ever have their patriot; but fure the better part of mankind should understand their conftitution better, than to fuppofe every man who oppofes the court a patriot! The true patriot, if the term is allowed to express an uncertain idea, must in fuch a government as ours often be in power-fometimes with the court-sometimes against it—but our patriots always lose their characters when in office, whatever the motive, and can never regain it but by violent oppofition.

In short, there is fo much nonfenfe and contradiction in the character of patriots in this kingdom, that the moment any one makes pretences to the virtue, he should on all hands be treated either as a vifionary fool, or a defigning knave.

• The men amongst us who have at different times flourished in this harlequin's frock, have ever been railers at men rather than measures. If you will fix an idea to the word Patriot, and adapt it to this country, you ought to defcribe a man in parliament who looks at measures alone, totally forgetting who are the conductors; and who in all his conduct, both in and out of place, adheres fteadily to certain plans, which he thinks favourable to the happiness and liberty of the people. In an age wherein the influence of the crown is too great, and threatens to overturn the conftitution, he will not enter into any measures that can add to that influence by the fame means that created it. Debts and taxes laid the foundation; throwing into the scale of the crown a weight unthought of at the Revolution; adding to the debt is increasing taxes, and all the train of their confequences, which are already grown too formidable to liberty. If fuch a man therefore could exist as a modern patriot in cold blood, he would fee the neceffity of adhering to a plan of preventing a further acquifition of riches in the crown, by raising fresh taxes to pay the intereft of new debts.'

Among

Among the political fubjects difcuffed in thefe Letters, the most interesting are, of the national debt, the public revenues, population, and the balance of trade, which are in general judicious, and treated with perfpicuity, though deficient in elegance and correctness of ftyle.

In the concluding Letter, the author prefents us with a catalogue of the moft celebrated writers of the prefent age, with remarks on their works. This is the most fuperficial and inaccurate part of the volume; in which there are not only numerous omiffions, but the characters given in fuch a manner as would reflect dishonour on the meaneft inhabitant of Grubstreet.

XII. The Hiftory of England, from the earliest Times to the Death of George II. By Dr. Goldfmith. Four Vols. 8vo. 17. 15. boards. Davies.

T

It appears from the preface, that this work was undertaken

by Dr. Goldsmith in confequence of a pretty general opinion that an abridgement of the English hiftory was still much wanted by the public. We not only concur in this fentiment, but likewise in the judgment of those perfons who confidered the author of the Roman Hiftory as eminently qualified for fuch a task. It is the fate of abridgements, however, though executed by men of acknowledged abilities, to be liable to various objections. Notwithstanding the work, upon the whole, may be equally remote from the extremes either of prolixity or brevity, it is almoft impoffible to avoid both these defects in relating particular tranfactions; and though the work fhould be conducted by the moft judicious rules of proportion, it never can be rendered entirely conformable to the standard of every taste. But granting this difficulty to be happily furmounted, fuch an author may ftill be injuriously cenfured for faults which are properly not his own. It is profeffedly his province to follow the authority of fuch writers as have treated copiously of the fubject, and whom he has chofen for his guides. He would act inconfiftently with his plan fhould he either enter into the minute detail of unimportant facts, or even investigate the original fources of that hiftorical information with which he prefents us. When thefe reafons are maturely confidered, it would be equally unjuft and uncandid to expect from the author of an abridgement the fame precifion which we have a right to claim from fuch writers as are not circumfcribed; and when, upon this principle, we examine the History now before us, we must acknowledge, that for the execution of it in general the author

6

is

is entitled to the approbation of every competent and unbiaffed judge.

It would have been incompatible with the defign of this work, for the hiftorian to have entered upon a minute enquiry into the state of Britain before the invafion of the Romans; and he has therefore very properly confined himself to a curfory detail of the particulars of that obfcure period, which, however interesting it may appear to those who delight in the contemplation of fabulous or unauthenticated tranfactions, a more full account of it would certainly afford but very unfatisfactory information. The author, befides, is by no means fingular in this omiffion, for the moft copious writers of the English hiftory have generally, and with good reafon, confidered the events of thofe remote ages as veiled in impenetrable darkness. The history even of the Saxons, who lived in a later period, is far from being clearly afcertained; and it is not till after the demolition of the heptarchy that the annals of England are divefted of great obfcurity and con fufion. Through the whole narration, both previous and pofterior to that æra, Dr. Goldsmith has feldom omitted any important transaction, nor precipitately adopted any opinion that has not an apparent foundation in fact. We do not hefitate even to admit his reprefentation of the ancient nobility of England as petty tyrants, to be just in a limited degree. The vaffals of the barons under the feudal fyftem were actuated by a spirit of fervitude that greatly fuppreffed the generous ardour arifing from the conception of a conftitutional berty inherent in the people; and however the tyranny of the nobles may appear to have been impolitic, and incompatible with their own fecurity, yet fuch a fact is too clearly evinced from the hiftory of many ariftocratical governments, to be regarded as a folecifm.

As a specimen of this History we shall lay before our readers the conclufion of the reign of Elizabeth.

• The remaining events of this reign are not confiderable enough to come into a picture, already crouded with great ones. With the death of her favourite Effex, all Elizabeth's pleasures seemed to expire; fhe afterwards went through the bufinefs of the state merely from habit, but her fatisfactions were no more. She had fallen into a profound melancholy, which all the advantages of her high fortune, all the glories of her profperous reign, were unable to remove. She had now found out the falfehood of the countefs of Nottingham who, on her death-bed, fent for the queen, and informed her of the fatal circumftance of the ring, which he had neg. lected to deliver. This information only served to awaken all that paffion which the queen had vainly endeavoured to fup.

prefs.