ged, and ungracioufly bestowed. Alexander, when he had won his world, had lefs reafon to fing forth the Io Pean of triumph, than had our author to gratulate himself on the fatisfaction of "never having preferred a request to one great man, or ever of having made advances to any of them." To confefs the truth, he wrote, generally, upon fubjects of which the modern nobility are, for the most part, fo contemptibly ignorant, that to have infcribed performances fo fcientific to fuch patrons, would involve the Philofopher in a fimilar error of judg ment. Indeed, nothing is more offentive to men of true taste, and right feeling, than the condefcenfion of perfons of genius, to perfons of rank, merely as fuch. This it is, more than any thing else, that hath helped to degrade the literary character; which as it implies a fuperior vigour of intellect, and a more enlarged capacity, poffeffes, naturally, an unrivalled dignity. According to all the fyitems of all the fects, it is al lowed that the human understanding is the greatest, as it is the most boasted diftinction of human beings; confequently, one of these beings muft rife higher than another in the fcale of rationality, only by fo much, as the diftinguishing part of him is elevated above that of others: So, likewife, a fhallow, illiterate, and vacant creature, must fink in the fcale, by the fame equitable proportion. Now, it is eafy to prove, that, what are called the Great (who are but too commonly the least of all God's little atoms), muft, according to the very nature of things, be amongst the worst judges of literary merit, and therefore, fpeaking truly, its most improper patrons. Men, born to titles and to fortunes which defcend without effort, or exertion of any talent whatever, imagine the cultivation of the mind totally adventitious nor does the man of fashion admit it into the catalogue of his accomplishments. Even the harlequin Lord Chesterfield-that fuccessful smatterer-allows only fuch a share of philofophy, as belongs to the philofophy of the paffions; which is nothing more, in his idea, than guarding yourself while you make a fine, dextrous, and fuccessful push at the paffions of another. Giddinefs, glitter, the indolence of plenty, and above all, its impudence, all contribute to render perfons of rank, frivolous, voluble, fuperficial; the illuftrious exceptions of a Bacon, a Bolingbroke, Shaftesbury, a Lyttelton, a Pruffia, a Clarendon, have nothing to do with a rule fo deplorably general.

This being the cafe, can any thing be fo prepofterous, as to infcribe the mere tinfel of titles, the labours of learning, or the reflections of accurate and abitrufe Philofophy? Yet hath this been, for many ages, the practice. Whence hath it happened? The question cannot be anfwered without affecting us.

"Fortune seems to have neglected thofe, whom Nature hath most favoured; and men of genius, I fuppofe, think it but fair, to fupply the defect by folliciting men of money. This follicitation, however, fubjects them to all that rudeness and difdain, which those who have only a handful of authority, bestow upon their flatterers. The flatterers are, in turn, well ferved; they fet out upon a wrong principle-The intercourse is altogether ill managed."

As a proof of this, our apologift proceeds to expose the fulfome practice of Dedications, fo difgraceful to moft writers

of

of part ages and many of the prefent; clofing the fubject with the following fpirited reflections.

"We have the misfortune to perceive a ftyle of baseness and adulation creep through moft of the epiftles dedicatory for the space of feveral centuries; by which means flattery and fulfomenefs is affociated with the very idea of thofe addreffes, and the literary character is held, by the dulleft of the fpecies, in utter contempt.

"What hath undoubtedly contributed to bring about fo difgraceful a circumstance, is a cuftom which prevails amongst authors, of swelling the ignorant vanity of Patrons, by fubmitting to them a performance prior to its entry into the public world: this mode might, indeed, be reasonable enough, were it only defigned as a compliment to the tafte of the Patron, which the Authors may be fuppofed anxious to gratify, before the matter becomes, as it were, public property; but when it is done with a view of begging permiffion to fay civil things of the Patron and his family, it degenerates into a meanness which juftly merits the neglect that commonly attends it.

"Afk permition! for what? For distinguishing a man? For circulating the knowledge of his good qualities beyond the narrow circle of, very likely, a frivolous fet of companions! Require leave to do this! Was there ever heard fuch an inconfiftency?The point is mifconceived. Be it again remarked, that, in true fcience, there is a greatness which feldom receives, though it often confers obligations. Genius inay more properly be faid to patronize, than be patronized.

"If a production is fit for the eye of men of taste, it ought to be acceptable to men of rank; who are ready enough to be thought in poffeffion of a fine tafte themfelves, and very frequently, no doubt, pay liberally for their dedications, folely upon that principle

"If, on the other hand, a performance is crude, trifling, ill-written, and, notwithstanding fuch defects, is, without the confent of the Patron, adorned with a name which it difgraces, fuch patron Gught publickly to renounce his protection, and treat the pretender as every pretender of whatever profellion deferves to be treated; ftill, however, with this falvo, that if the production could have done any fervice to literature, or promoted, but in a small degree, the caufe of fcience, he would have been the first man to acknowledge his obligations, for having been thought a fit patron to aflift that caufe, and ftrengthen thofe fervices. While the present fcandalous conceflions remain, the fneer will inevitably be thrown upon fuch abominable proftration. I have been fomewhat copious on this fubject, because it has never, to my recollection, been placed in a proper light.

"Perhaps, this doctrine of dedications may be little relished by thofe who are daily pampered into conceit by daily panegyric: but it is a juftice which every man of letters owes to a character, founded on qualities, which ought to be a better paffport to honorary diftinctions, than any that can be conferred by royal grant, or by the pride of ancestry.

"On fuch qualities was founded the reputation of David Hume; fo that upon this occasion, at least, his example may be held up to perfons engaged in literary pursuits, as a proper standard.”

VOL. V.

x x

Section

Section IV. treats of Mr. Hume's philofophical principles, and his motive for making them public, with remarks on his conduct in his last moments. Under this head the writer defends the character of Mr. Hume, as a man and a moralift, which appears to have ftood in no need of apology. We do not think him fuccessful, however, in juftifying fo free a publication of his religious (or as fome might ftile them irreligious) opinions.

In Section V. our apologift draws a parallel betwixt Mr. Hume and Lord Chesterfield, both with respect to abilities and principles. What put it into this writer's head, to draw fuch a whimfical parallel, we cannot conceive; the very reasons, he himself affigns, fhould certainly have kept two fuch heterogeneous characters far enough afunder.

"To a character fo amiable, fo complacent, and fo little tinctured by that pedantry which always fticks to an affected philofopher, who, that hath any fenfe of agreeable qualities, will ever bring near him fuch a frivolous compound of whim, wickednefs, cunning, and congee, as Lord Chesterfield; unlefs, indeed, he is brought forward by way of contrait! There appears likewise to me, to have been as wide a difference in the fize of their abilities, as there was in the honesty of their principles: every page in thofe Letters, which have laid open his Lordship's hypocrify, furnishes us with examples of his futility: it would be the drudgery of a day to detect a fingle light fentence in Hume. The Earl of Chesterfield's utmoft ftretch of penetration, amounts to little more than fhrewdness, partly caught from the fuggef tions of a mind naturally fufpicious, and partly from obfervations upon the weakneffes, and tender imperfections of mer. lefs capable to diffemble. This faculty is, at beft, but the principal ingredient in the character of a cunning fellow, who, as it were, by imperceptible flight of hand, hath the art of appearing what he is not; and of cheating you, with fingular dexterity, even before your face.

"But all the fame, or popular etiquette, that could poffibly arife from fuch practices, Hume would have difcarded with difdain. And chiefly for two reafons: first, his genius had not a fingle grain of the petis maitre in it, which, by the way, was a confiderable ingredient in Lord Chesterfield's; and, fecondly, he had too much dignity in his nature, and too juft a fenfe of the focial compact between the individual and the whole human race, to find any zeft in gratifications, which ema'nated from, neither more, nor lefs, than flagrant treachery. Hence it appears obvious enough, that the Earl of Chesterfield's heart and head were both unable to bear any fort of parallel with the head and heart of David Hume. The one is the Author of a fyftem which feems to have been pillaged from the Dancing-mafter, the Perfumer, and the Devil: the other purfues a philofophy, which, with all its exceptions, gives countenance neither to the follies of a coxcomb nor the meanAefs and mifchief of a hypocrite-a wretch, which, in the courfe of thefe pages, hath been marked with fingular rebrobation; and above

all

all other hypocrites, one that, in a kind of moral mafquerade dress, perpetrates every bafencfs, and pafles upon the world as a mighty good Chriftian creature."

In Section VI. our author gives, what he calls, proper cautions prior to the establishment of our religious credenda. Thefe confift, however, of mere trite common-place reflections.

In the annexed addrefs, in answer to the author of the Re marks on Dr. Smith's letter, the writer pertinently-enough re plies to feveral little impertinencies in the Remarker's letter to Dr. Smith. We wish, however, he had more fatisfactorily anfwered his adverfary's queftion, refpecting the umbrag, which Mr. Hume is faid to have taken at Dr. Beattie's Effay on Truth; a work, the mention of which, it has been reported, he could not bear with any tolerable patience. The Remarker fays to Dr. Smith,

"Was there ever any Book written against Mr. Hume-which fhook his fyftem to pieces about his ears, and reduced it to a heap of ruins, the fuccefs and eclat of which might be fupposed to have hurt his mind, and to have affected his health? Was there any Author whofe name, his friends never dared to mention before him, and was not all ftrangers, that were introduced to him, against doing it; because he never failed, when by any accident it was done, to fly out into a tranfport of paffion and fwearing? or hath no book been written to impair the growth and increase of his philofophic reputation ?"

"In reply to thefe feveral points, fays our apologift, I fhall wave all ftricture upon the fcurrility, and unchriftian spirit which is mixed up with them, and only obferve, that, no book has been written, that has impaired Hume's philofophical reputation; a philofophic reputation, fubfifts only among philofophers: and they, to a man, hold Beattie's Book in contempt; which is a philofophy calculated only for ladies, and fine gentlemen."

As to the reft, it does not appear to us that either the Apologift, or the writer, who ftiles himself, One of the People called Chriftians, hath the advantage in criticifing on each other refpecting Mr. Hume's metaphyfics, which neither of them feems clearly to comprehend

R.

Since this article was fent to prefs, we are informed that the apology, which is the object of it, was written by that fertile young genius, Mr. Courtney Melmoth. Rev.

X x 2

A Series of Letters addressed to Soame Jenyns, Efq; on occafion of his View of the Internal Evidence of Chriftianity. By A. Maclaine, D. D. Minifter of the English Church at the Hague. 8vo. 35. Bathurst.

Did Dr. Maclaine refide in London, or had he an earlier opportunity of perufing the productions of the English prefs, we conceive, he would have faved himself the trouble of writing, and expence of printing, the letters before us; in which we difcover little that has not already, in one form or other, been offered to the publick *, The corroborating opinions of different writers, however, may have their ufe, even with those who have an opportunity of becoming acquainted with tltem all; a circumftance under which many may not find themselves; fo that feveral advocates in a good caufe are not always ufelefs in proportion to their multiplicity. The only, at leaft principal, ill effect, they can have, is to fwell the importance of the object oppofed, and to perfuade the world it is much more formidable than it really is. The advice which the idcot gave to the hero, who was going to deftroy the Hoft of an enemy, viz. " to let them alone, far they would, in a few years, die, of themfelves," is peculiarly applicable to all those who either attack or defend religion on falfe grounds. In respect to Mr. Jenyns's tract in particular, a few months have proved fufficient to fettle its character, and to convince the public that, as it was, at beft, a merely plaufible, it is at worst, a very futile, performance. But, tho' this redoutable doctor, like a true Low-Dutchman, only comes to flay the flain, we will fhew him the complacence due to a foreigner, by exhibiting the ampleft proofs of his prowess.

In a quotation, by way of preface, he gives us the following paffage from Gerard's differtation on Chriftianity.

"The mistaken principles of one Chriftian Writer have been de tected and expofed by other Chriftian Writers without referve. But Infidels, indiolubly leagued together by the fingle tie of unbelief, ftu diously avoid confuting one another: this conduct fhews a determined

*We conceive this, alfo, for another reafon, viz. that of not being thought a plagiary; the beft of his arguments against Mr. Jenyns's tract having appeared, (and many of them almost verbatim) in our colleague, Dr. Kenrick's Obfervations, within a very little time after the publication of the tract itself. How it happened that thefe did not come to Dr. Maclaine's hands before he wrote thefe letters, we fhould be at a lofs to guefs, did he not inform us that even Mr.Jenyns's View had paffed through four editions before he received it. Not but thofe editions fucceeded each other fo rapidly, that the one inuft have been put to prefs before the other could have been well taken from it, or the bookfeller must have contrived the fucceffion in a manner equally flattering to the author and impofing on the public. There are greater puffs in Pall-Mall, than even in Pater-nolter-Row. Rev.

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