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"The field of blood!" Oh! no fuch thing!-It is the field of joy! "The beautiful City, that lifts her fair head in the valley, and fays, I am, and there is none befide me!"-Who fays the is vain?-Julia will not fay fo-nor yet Honora-and least of all their devoted

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J. ANDRE.

* Field of blood.-Here is a fmall mistake-Lichfield is not the field of blood, but "the field of dead-bodies," alluding to a battle fought between the Romans and the British Chriftians in the Dioclefian Perfecution, when the latter were maffacred Three flain Kings, with their burying-place, now Barrowcop-hill, and the Cathedral in miniature, torm the City-arms. Lich is ftill a word in ufe. The church-yard gates, through which funerals pafs, are often called Lich-gates.

ART. X. Political Conferences between feveral Great Men in the last and prefent Century; with notes by the Editor, Thomas Tyers, Efq; of the Inner Temple. The fecond Edition, with Additions. 8vo. 3 s. Cadell. 1781.

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AVING already given our opinion of the firft Edition of this agreeable and entertaining work (See Rev. for June laft, p. 453), we have only to add, that the fecond contains three conferences more, between perfons of the highest political character, and on fubjects extremely interefting to the lovers of English hiftory. The conference held at Whittington in Derbyshire, between Lord Danby, Lord Devonshire, and Lord Delamere, immediately before the Revolution in 1688, relates to the most important events in the annals of England. The conference held in St. James's Park, April 25th, 1657, between Cromwell, Fleetwood, and Defborough, exhibits, in ftriking and faithful colours, three of the moft fingular characters to be met with in the annals of mankind. The third additional conference is between the Duke of Shrewsbury, and Lord Somers, held the first week of January, 1705.

Befide thefe additions to the text, the commentary is alfo confiderably augmented. The author fhall fpeak for himself:

The Commentary is become as large as the Text, and the pamphlet is fwelled into a volume. A candid critic, in a Monthly Publication, feemed to hint, that more anecdotes would be acceptable: this has produced fo large a harvest of them. The fenfible author alluded to, is mistaken, if he fuppofes, that the Editor does not ab, hor tyranny and corruption as much as any of his readers. He cannot but be an advocate, with hand, heart, and voice, whilst in his fenfes, for public Liberty, for he is one of the People. The perfonages, in thefe ferious political fcenes, hold their own language, on liberty, arbitrary power, anarchy, monarchy, fanaticism, a republic, and military ufurpation. The reader feems to be as much an auditor, as the interlocutor, and to have the converfation almost contrived for his amufement. Some readers have pronounced, that the diction of thefe great men is fometimes flovenly and ungrammatical. A proof, if

wanted,

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wanted, that it was not fabricated, but the genuine effufions of those times. But which of the molt unembarraffed spokesmen of either Houfe, even in thefe times, though poffeffed of all imaginable elocution, pretends to speak with correct eloquence? The debates in the Senate of Lilliput, compofed for them by our great Philologer, in his younger days, difplay the arguments of thofe deceafed orators to the beft advantage, and adorn them with the best flowers of rhetoric. But every body now acknowledges thofe fpeeches to be made for them, and not by them.-If the following dialogues had been of elaborate compofition, and fuffered to fell of the lamp, might not another Bentley, who found out the factitious epiftles of Phalaris, by the affay of Thericlean cups and Sicilian talents, have difcovered their fpurioufnefs, and exposed the Sophift?-But to be more ferious, and to have done. A number of characters pafs in folemn review before the Editor: but it is hoped, he has not wantonly, in his annotations, dipped his pen into fulfome praife or defamatory petulance. He means neither to offend the living, nor belie the dead. To take advantage of thofe who have been fnatched away before us, and to pursue their reputations with feigned or falfe accufations before the tribunal of the Public, for the entertainment of the Writer or the Reader, would demand fevere reprehenfion. Anthony Wood's charge of corruption, in his laborious Biography, againk Lord Clarendon, at the distance of more than thirty years, occafioned the burning of his book, by a fentence of the Univerfity; who took that method of vindicating their chancellor.-Ere memory's foft figures melt away, the Editor tries to look back on fome acts and actors who attracted contemporary notice, and to bring forward fome perfons who have had their day upon the ftage; and who, according to the light in which they are placed, will be variously talked of by the prefent and by future generations.'

We are glad that Mr. Tyers has taken the hint given in our journal, and confirmed the most doubtful paffages of his work, by citations from contemporary authors. We rejoice alfo that the fufpicion glanced at in that criticism, has given him an opportunity of juftifying his intentions, and of making a profeffion of his political creed, which might otherwise have been mistaken by feveral readers as well as ourselves.

ART. XI. First Principles of Philofophy. For the Ufe of Students. By John Bruce, A. M. Profeffor of Philofophy in the University of Edinburgh. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Bound. Cadell. 1780.

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HOUGH this work is chiefly intended for the ufe of those students in the Univerfity of Edinburgh, who attend the Author's Lectures, and contains only the outlines of those Lectures, yet the philofophical reader may perufe it with confiderable advantage, as it may direct his attention to fome important fubjects, which may poffibly have escaped his notice, and point out the proper method of profecuting his enquiries Concerning them,

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As far as we are able to judge from fuch a fpecimen; Mr." Bruce appears to have an enlarged and liberal turn of mind, and to be very capable of explaining and illuftrating, with no fmall degree of accuracy and precifion, the many curious and interefting points, which are the fubjects of his lectures.

The firft philofophy or logic clafs in the University of Edinburgh, is placed, in the academical courfe, immediately after the ftudy of the languages. Now logic, our Author justly obferves, was originally formed, and in a great degree has continued, an art without fcience. The treatises on this fubject, (Lord Bacon's excepted) have been limited to commentaries on the antient fyftems, or to detached effays on metaphyfics and criticifm. Hence the prefent imperfect ftate of this art, compared with the other branches of knowledge.

To remedy this defect, fays Mr. Bruce, The method of obferving and applying the laws of nature is to be explained, as forming a fcience of logic, which may ferve as the rudiments, or first principles of all philofophy.'

The object of philofophy, we are told, is to examine the properties and relations of the works of nature, and to discover the laws which they follow. The general departments of philofophy are, logic, or general philofophy; which treats of the method of obferving and applying the laws of nature; phyfics, which treat of the laws of material objects; ethics, which treat of the actions of mankind. The fubdivifions in thefe departments, are termed fciences. The knowledge of the laws of nature, in any general or particular department, conftitutes a fcience. The end of fcience is to create, and to improve the arts. An art is the application of the laws of nature to fome ufeful purpose in life.

The object of the first principles of philofophy, is to explain the method of difcovering the laws of nature, by obfervation of phenomena, and of applying thefe laws to the ufeful and elegant arts.-The first principles of philofophy divide themselves into two parts: 1. The method of obferving and studying nature 2. The application of this method to the proper fubjects of philofophical knowledge. The first part comprehends the following fciences; pneumatology, or the hiftory of the powers and faculties of the human mind; logic, or the method of directing our faculties in obferving and applying the laws of nature; metaphyfics, or an analyfis of the foundations of the other fciences and arts. The fecond part comprehends the following articles: 1. Application of the first principles of philosophy to the study of nature: 2. The hiftory of philofophy.

We are informed that Part I. which treats of the method. of ftudying nature, is given as an elementary courfe of philo-. fophy in the University of Edinburgh. And that Part II. is the fubject of a parate courfe, to more advanced ftudents..

In this course, the method of obfervation and experiment is applied to the hiftory of nature; the fciences which explain that hiftory, and the arts which thefe fciences create and improve, and next to the history of philosophy, divided into the periods in which the fciences and arts affume new forms.-The tables for both are plain, and fimply arranged, and, with proper explanations, seem calculated to give the ftudent a view of the future articles of his pursuit, and to enable his genius and taste to make their selection.

But we must now refer our readers to the work itself, where they will find the heads of Mr. Bruce's Lectures, together with fome accurate definitions, and very pertinent general obfervations.

MONTHLY

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CATALOGUE,

1781.

For MAY,

POLITICAL.

ART. 12. The Patriotic Mirror; or, the Salvation of Great Britain in Embryo. 8vo. 1 s. 6d. Faulder, 1781.

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Violent invective against the Oppofition,-the diabolical Con grefs, the Republicans, the Economists, -the Yorkshire Committee,-American Commanders,—Lee-shore Admirals, &c, &c. all in the ufual low, intemperate style of our common run of pamphleteers, or news-paper politicians; who feldom fail to manifeft more zeal and promptitude, than knowledge or good manners.

The Oppofition,' fays this Mirror of political knighthood, fhall as foon perfuade me a fhadow can be converted into a real fubftance, as that they are not meditating the fubverfion of the ftate, and the ruin of old England.' Can our leaders require a ftronger proof of this gentleman's candor ?

Art. 13. A Petition, written with an Intention that it should be prefented to the Houfe of Lords, concerning Freedom in Religion, wherein are ftated the Principles of that most glorious Inftitution, the Philofophical Society in London. It is high Time to break the Fetters of Mankind. Together with Notes, Axioms of Freedom, an Addrefs to the Inhabitants of Great Britain, like Looking-Glafs, which fhews a Monster all its Deformity, &c. &c. &c. &c. 8vo. 1 S. Stockdale. 1781.

"The Dog-flar rages!-Nay 'tis paft a Doubt.Art. 14.

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Remarks on the Dutch Manifefto. 8vo. 6 d.

Cadell. 1781.

Thefe remarks though brief, are pertinent. Brief because the prefent conduct and profeffions of our old friends the Dutch, require no more than a direct comparison with their former obligations and engagements; and pertinent, because the loose juflification they lately offered in their counter manifefto, is pointed out to be obviously equivocal and fallacious. But it is with bodies of men as with individuals; when a people are wholly devoted to the purfuit of gain,

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no confideration whatever, foreign to the immediate object, is fuffered to check the eagerness of their profecution of a profitable expectation.

Art. 15. Confiderations on the Propriety and Expediency of the Clergy acting in the Commiffion of the Peace. Svo. 6d. Jonnfon. 1781.

This gentleman, who confeffes himself to be both a clergyman and a magiftrate, is an able advocate for the eligibility of his reverend brethren to the judicial bench, in every point of view, excepting that which appears even to himfelf as the ftrongest objection, namely, the incompatibility of civil offices with the priestly character. We understand their peculiar province to be prayer, exhortation, and perfuafion; and how far it may become perfons of this mild defcription to wish to be armed with magisterial power to punish the disobedient, will require fome ingenuity to determine! It is indeed urged that the interefts of civil government affect them equally with other men; and a perfon whofe acquirements, behaviour, and conduct, give him refpect in his neighbourhood, and are the grounds of his authority in it, can very effentially extend his ufefulness by the additional character of the magiftrate. It is not pleaded that the clergy fhould follow the vain purfuits of pleafure and diffipation, become familiar to the world at large, but increase their ufefulness toward mankind in the ferious departments and relationship of active life, and the cultivation of fcience and knowledge, all which tend to civilize the human mind, and make it more ready to receive the awful impreffions, and fanctions of religion.' This is however a retrograde mode of reafoning; the operation of religion on the mind. having hitherto been understood as neceffary to fit us for active duties; and not active duties to prepare us for the reception of religious impreffions. The more a perfon is entangled in worldly af fairs, the more his paffions are awakened and ftimulated; and the more we are actuated by our paffions, the lefs we are influenced by reafon or why is the priesthood released from worldly attentions, and funds fet apart for their fupport? A confcientious diligence in parochial duty, which, in North Britain, leads a paftor, not merely into his pulpit at ftated times, but into the private houses of his neighbours on many interesting and benevolent occafions, will leave him little room to wish for an enlargement of his fphere of activity, were fuch a line of utility fashionable in the South. But it may be fairly prefumed that there are few clergymen in the commiffion of the peace, who do not disburden themselves of the troublesome duties of their order, by delegation on eafy terms; to qualify themselves for, perhaps, more defireable fociety, and different objects of purfuit.

Another motive is urged for feating divines on the bench of justice, but we honestly confefs, not to our conviction. An active fpirit must be employed to preferve itfelf from deviations from the paths of innocence and virtue, and the peculiar duties, offices, and ftudies of the clergy, do not require of them the confinement of the cloister, or that they should lead the ignoble, debafing, and useless lives of monks. In order that they may be as burning and fhining lights among men, they must keep up an intercourfe with them, and amidst the variety of temptations prefented to them in the courfe of their

warfare,

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