nomifts, and calculators, has fucceeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished for ever. Never, never more, fhall we behold that generous loyalty to rank and fex, that proud fubmiffion, that dignified obedience, that fubordination of the heart, which kept alive, even in fervitude itself, the fpirit of an exalted freedom. The unbought grace of life, the cheap defence of nations, the nurse of manly fentiment and heroic enterprize is gone! It is gone, that fenfibility of principle, that chastity of honour, which felt a fain like a wound, which infpired courage whilft it mitigated ferocity, which ennobled whatever it touched, and under which vice itself loit half its evil, by lofing all its groffness.' Loud plaudits inform us that this is thought fine, Nay, the ladies around us declare 'tis divine; 66 Q, Lord," cries a Mifs," how enchantingly clever, "As I hope to be faved, fhe is greater than ever!" We admit that the paffage, in the abstract, is truly eloquentit is poetic, per fe: but with us grey-beards, the application is the main matter. The finest poetry, with a total moral and phyfical inaptitude' of the fubject to the fiction, has the air of burlefque. A defunct veteran of the Ariftocratic fquad, (like Mr. B. too, a good writer, and a very refpectable man in his platoon,) was once rapt in a way very fimilar to this. He told us, that "a Brutus and a Cato, with their love of liberty and impatience of control, leave the world more unqualified for, and more inadmiflible into, the kingdom of heaven, than even a Meffalina, or an Heliogabalus, with all their profligacy about them." We, however, who are lovers of liberty, and no cavaliers; who, like the old Earl of Kent, in the play, are plain men, and eat no fifh; cannot relish all this doctrine. We cannot help thinking that there is more of truth, if there be lefs of eloquence, in the fage and fober dictum of our ancient, virgin, aunt Deborah: "who had an excellent heart, though the worst face in nature," It was her standing maxim, that No powders will take out the fix'd iron-mould Of lewdness, as often her maids have been told; No fyrup can med'cine the huffy to flumber, Who throws away virtue as ufelefs old lumber." Mr. Burke clofes the whole (of the dramatic part of his work, we mean,) with an epilogue in praise of the theatre, and of fine feelings;-and here we think it full time for us to retreat. With our bow to Mr. Burke, and to the public, we therefore take our leave, till the next month. [To be continued.] Mr. Soame Jenyns's View of the Internal Evidence of Christianity, ART. ART. XVI. Elementa Architecture civilis ad Vitruvii veterumque difciplinam, et recentiorum præfertim A. Palladii exempla probatiora concinnata. Auctore Henrico Aldrich, S. T. P. Edis Chrifti olim Decano.-with a Tranflation by Philip Smyth, L. L. B. Fellow of New College, Oxford. Large 8vo. with 55 plates. il. 55. Boards. Payne, &c. 1789. PREFIXED to Mr. Smyth's tranflation of Dean Aldrich's work, is an introduction confifting of fixty-fix pages, written by another hand in which are traced, the characters of fome of the more eminent among the Italian architects: particularly thofe, of whofe performances, fpecimens are given in the plates. We meet alfo with the following fhort account of the author of the prefent Elements: The author of the enfuing Elements died Dean of Chrift Church in 1710. An article relating to him in the Biographia Britannica, (perhaps not the most accurate, or complete, in that valuable collection,) faves the necefity of mentioning things generally known concerning him, and leaves us at liberty to conform to our plan, by hinting only what may be supposed to affect his qualification, as a judge and teacher of the fine arts. A perfon he, undoubtedly, was of true and versatile genius, affifted by learning, converfe and travel. An acute and accurate obferver, a patient thinker, a deep and clear reafoner. His natural portion of thefe faculties was improved by a perfect acquaintance with mathematical fcience, and quickened by the fubtlety of the fcholaftic logic. That the vigour of his conceptions might be tranfmitted unimpaired by the expreffion of them, he fought, in a familiarity with claffical elegance and propriety, the habit of exhibiting them with force and luftre. The warm funs of Italy, the domefticity with congenial fpirits he contracted there, exalted his inbred tafte and rendered it excurfive through the whole field of Arts. There he became impafioned for Architecture and Mufic, from fuch fpecimens of both as no other country can afford. That the impres fron was not merely local and momentary, his executed defigns * in the one, and his yet daily recited compofitions in the other, would enable his hiftorian to prove. • Become prefident of a numerous and learned fociety, in one of the two univerficies that diftinguifh our ifland as a nursing mother of fcience, the fuavity of his manners, the hilarity of his converfation, the variety and excellence of his talents, in conjunction with a fine perfon, conciliated and attached all committed to his fuperintendence, to fuch a degree that his lateft furviving difciples, of *The Peckwater quadrangle at Chrift Church, the Church and beautiful Campanile of All-Saints, in Oxford, are of the number, and, most probably, Trinity College Chapel. See Mr. Warton's life of Dr. Bathurst, p. 71.2 choirs.' Thofe of the devotional kind are fill current in all our beft the first rank, have been feen unable to fpeak, recollectedly, of their intercourfe with him, without the tendereft indications of affection to his memory. Ever ready to direct, affift, and encourage, their endeavours in pursuit of useful knowlege, he lowered himself (if fuch works be not rather fit only for a great mafter) to the compolition of different elementary pieces for their inftruction. Among these, in favour of the few, whofe happier fortunes permit them to join elegant with folid information, he compiled the rudiments of Architecture now offered to the public, through the very liberal conceffion of the governing members of Worcester College, friends to fcience too true, too zealous, to rejoice in the exclufive poffeflion of any means fubfervient to its propagation.' The original work appears to be a collection of rules and precepts relative to the art of building, extracted from other authors, chiefly Vitruvius, Palladio, Barbaro, and Perrault : it copies alfo the errors and erroncous expofitions of Vitruvius, which prevailed in the days of the moderns above-named, and which later writers have expofed and corrected. As thefe corrections were not known to the Dean, and are unnoticed by the tranflator, the errors are ftill inculcated as truths. The editor alleges public utility, and the defire of being ferviceable, as the motives which led him to publifh the treatife, and which induced the college to permit its publication; and doubtless this was the cafe but they fhould have inquired whether their motives were well founded. To us it appears, that they who are already verfed in the art, will meet with no improvement from this compilation; and that novices or amateurs may find all the matters far better and more fully explained in the writings of the authors, from whom they are extracted; and, without confulting which, thefe curfory fketches cannot, to them, be intelligible. On the whole, although this treatife might, at the time of writing it, be confidered as a great effort for an amateur, it is but juftice to fay, that it confiits of fentiments and errors, which the Dean would not probably have entertained or published, had he lived in the prefent day, when he might have improved his knowlege by confulting the Athenian, lonian, Palmyrean, and other antiquities, more lately illuftrated. It feems, indeed, by no means unlikely that this compilation was originally intended for the author's own private ufe; or as memoranda for public lectures; for it is too brief to be underfood by any, but thofe who are previously acquainted with the fubject. With regard to the tranflation, we have noticed a few paffages, where the fenfe of the original is either altered or mifunderstood. it is faid, among ftones we may At P. 3. On logic, geometry, &c.' reckon reckon bricks (and tiles).' Tiles are not mentioned in the original, nor fhould they be confidered among ftones for erecting the walls.-Proceeding afterward to defcribe bricks, it is faid, Ift, the teftaceous; unbaked; &c.' In the original, it is crudos,' and fhould have been tranflated crude or unburned, meaning those which are dried in the fun it is the 2d fort, those which are burned, that, in the original, are named tes taceous. In the following paffage, the meaning of the author is not properly rendered. In the walls of large buildings, columns are carried up a thrifty and useful invention if winding flairs are placed in them.', p. 6. Columnaria is the term in the original this does not fignify columns, but cylindric voids or tubes of any kind. Vitruvius mentions them in defcribing the aqueducts by the fame term. In the prefent inftance, it means thofe voids, which are frequently left in the thick part of walls in order to leffen the weight, as well as the expence. The tranflator's note on this paffage fhews that he did not understand it. It is not eafy,' he obferves, to ascertain the meaning of the author here. Quære, Whether he has in view thofe round turriform erections at equal intervals, fo common in the walls of our old caftles?' Again, in the fame page, fpeaking of brick-work, it is faid, that the rows of ftones fhould be alternate.' The meaning of this is obfcure: the original is coagmentationes; and should have been tranflated joints, or cements. It means that the perpendicular joinings of the bricks fhould always be alternately dif pofed, each over the folid part of the ftone below it, so that two fuch joints fhould never coincide. The author himself is in an error, when he fays that Palladio and Vitruvius affert, that no ancient fpecimen of the reticulated kind of walling now remains. There are numerous remains of it at Rome, as all the publications of the Roman antiquities prove; nor can we find that thofe authors make fuch an affertion: on the contrary, Palladio, book i. chap. 9. fays, "vestiges of all the kinds of antient walls are now remaining." In giving Palladio's defcription of reticulated walling, (at p. 7.) the tranflator fays, he propofes to erect brick buttreffes at the angles: but orthoffatas in the original does not fignify buttreffes. It means regular brick-work, wherein the bricks are laid horizontally, in the ufual way; and it is mentioned in oppofition to reticulated walling, in which the bricks were laid diagonally. In this paffage, alfo, fefquipedem is rendered fix feet, instead of a foot and a half.-We likewife noticed fome other errors, which perhaps arofe from inattention: fuch are the the explanations of the terms apophyge and apothefis; the former of which is said to be at the top, and the latter at the bottom, of a column; juft contrary to the fact; and fuch again is the paffage which tells us, that to the ante and fupercilium is affixed what is called the antepagmentum;' whereas, in reality, the ante and fupercilium being adjoined or affixed, thence have the common name of antepagmentum; for this term includes both those members. The plates which accompany this volume are chiefly copies from other authors; and we are obliged to fay, that they are not copied with accuracy: the drawings are indeed frequently void of just form and proportion. The engravings of them are neatly done, but several are without the figures and letters by which the reader is referred to them, and he is left to difcover them for himself. Others, again, to which we are referred, or at least to parts of them, feem to have no relation to the fubject, and are not explained. On the whole, though we admire the type, the paper, and the other decorations of this treatise, we cannot recommend it to the perufal of those, who are not competent to supply its deficiencies, or to correct its errors. ART. XVII. Sermons on various Subjects. By George Walker, F.R.S. WHERE 128. HERE real excellence prevails, it were faftidious to dwell on minute defects. It might not be difficult, from the volumes before us, to collect inftances of fingularity, negligence, and even inelegance of expreffion: but ample atonement is made for thefe faults, by the good fenfe, the liberal fpirit, the original turn of thinking, and above all, the ardent zeal for the interefts of virtue, religion, and Christianity, which pervade and animate thefe difcourfes, They are manifeftly the productions of a mind enriched with knowlege, and habituated to reflection, and of a heart that glows with worthy and generous fentiments. Those who are capable of entering into the feelings as well as the conceptions of the author, will perufe his fermons with pleafure, and confefs that he is entitled to higher praise than can ever be attained by faultlefs infipidity. "Vitavi denique culpam, Non laudem merui.— Sometimes the author fuffers his honeft warmth to carry him too far into what may be called the indignant ftyle: but his energetic manner is often highly pleasing. The |