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The Character of but their influence cannot be denied by those who confider the nature of impulfes made upon the human mind, not by any regular deductions of reafon, but initantaneously, which impulfes have been productive of the greatest events. There is a difference between the natural and moral government of God; with refpect to the one he rules by an abfolute power, with respect to the other he regulates things in a manner confiftent with free-agency. Plutarch well explains the method whereby the Deity may be fuppofed to influence the human mind in his comment upón a paffage in Homer, Oux avargerla woles (Oungos) τον Θεον, αλλά κινενία την προαίρεσιν, κι', όρμας εργαζομενον, αλλα φαντασίας guar agwes i. e. "Homer does not reprefent God as taking away, but directing, our choice; neither is the immediate author of our defigns, but as cxciting în us ideas or hints that

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King James 1.

may affift us in forming our defigns." There is an equal dilplay of Divise Providence in the natural and moral world, varied according to their dif ferent circumflances.

Having thus endeavoured to eftablifh the doctrine of a continual interpofition of the Deity, as the tole difpofer of all events, the fourth and lalt query will be fufficiently anfwered by the foregoing obfervations: for if God prefides over all events indifcriminately, and is continually exerting his attributes in the prefervation of the frame of nature, there will be no necefity of a criterion to deter mine what events happen by chance, or by one enablined laws or rules.

Let us therefore receive, with all due fubmifion, all the difpenfations of Providence; being fully convinced that whatever happens under the government of an infinitely wife and good Eting, must be right.

Vol. II. p. 516.

the noble perfonage, in whofe poffeffion they are, would fuffer them to be printed. The papers I mention, are the Letters of the Count de Beca mont, the French Ambaffador at the English court, from the beginning of king James the First's reign to October 1605.

The Character of King James I. from Birch's Memoirs of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. Have read the character of King James I. in the writings of the Scotch Hiftoriographers, Toby Smollet, Hume, and Mrs. Catherine Macaulay; I fhall not ftop to inform the public, what opinion I have of this famous group; but beg leave to prefent your readers with the character of the fame monarch by a hand remarkable for hiftorical verity, and fingular industry, in his refearches after authentic memorials. When I fay this, I need not inform the reader that I mean the late Dr. Birch. But I must premise, that the chief reafon why I have troubled you on this occafion, is to request of the honourable Charles Yorke, that he would induce his relation to call thofe papers from the grave of oblivion, which the doctor fays, would add new difgrace to the character of king James, if

From these letters of count de Beaumont, it appears, that the king foon became very odious to the Englifh nation. For in his journey from Scotland to England, he profeffed openly a great contempt for the female fex, not only fuffering the ladies to prefent themselves to him on their knees, but even publicly condemning any paffion for them; and reflecting, at his own table filled with company, upon Henry IV. of France, for his indulgence of that paffion. This dif courfe highly exafperated the women

in general, and opened their mouths
against his majefty. He fhewed great
impa.ience at the concourfe of people,
who flocked to fee him, where he
was hunting, curfing all who came in
his way, and threatening to leave
England, if they would not let him
enjoy his diverfions in quiet. And
when he vifited his fleet at Chatham,
in July 1604, he took fo little notice
of it, that not only the feamen, but
likewise persons of all ranks, were
much offended, and faid, that he
loved ftags more than ships, and the
found of hunting-horns more than that
of cannon.
This contempt of him
was increased by his averfion to public
bufinefs, his mean and weak behaviour
in private life, and the neceffities in-
to which he plunged himself and his

"TH

government, by a confused and im-
prudent prodigality, rather than a true
and well-directed generofity, fo that
he was not able to maintain his house-
hold, but obliged to borrow money
of all the rich men in the kingdom,
and refused by many of them. In
fhort, it is evident from thefe letters,
and many other most authentic me-
morials, which have not yet been
produced to the public light, that
the reign of this king was a very
unfuitable fequel to that of his illuf-
trious predeceffor; and that the real
facts of it are an unanswerable con-
futation of that grofs flattery, which
was offered him, with fo much pro-
fufion, during his life.
Col. Nov.
Oxon.

HISTORIOPHILUS.

Teftimony of the Excellency of Trials by Fury.

HE meaneft fubject in the kingdom is intitled, by being born in this kingdom, to be tried by a jury, where there are thofe juft advantages that cannot be had in another cafe. There is a liberty of challenging thirty-five, without fhewing any reafon, and as many more, as he can any way object to with reafon. The witneffes are upon oath, and all the proceedings are by certain known rules and methods, and not only by the ftatute of Magna Charta, but by the common law of England, much more ancient than that flatute; and though the proceedings therein are fuch as a criminal may fometimes efcape, yet the just advantages are fo much beyond any thing of that nature, that I hope we shall never complain of that ancient courfe of proceeding by jury. I am fure it is the honour of our government, the mark of our freedom, and envy of our neighbours; and I trust that method of trial will never be laid afide, though fometimes it

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may not have the effect that is defired by it.

"I would take notice to you, that in a cafe of the greatest crime, and moft notoriety of fact, yet the perfons concerned in it, were brought to their trial. The Regicides, who did not fly, but were found upon the Reftoration of king Charles II. tho' their treafon had the worft effect, even in the murder of the king; yet, notwithstanding, though the fact was fo notorious, thofe who were found upon the place, were admitted to their trials in the ordinary courfe of juftice, although at the fame time there was a bill of attainder against fome who fled, and fome who were dead, and fo could not be tried.”

The above is part of the argument Sir Thomas Powys, knight, an eminent lawyer in king William's reign, made ufe of in the houfe of commons

on

behalf of Slr John Fenwick, against the paffing his act of attainder for high treafon.

A Conftitutional Lawyer.
ON

ON

ON ENGLISH GRAMMAR.

LETTER V. (Continued from p. 180.)

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N account of the imperfect manner in which the article A defines, the Greeks, who have no articles correfpondent to it, fupply its place by fuppreffing or omitting their definitive article. Agreeable to this doctrine is that obfervation of Apollonius. "Those things which are fometimes understood indefinitely, become definite as to their perfon, by the infertion of the ARTICLE." But Gaza is more explicit; the article, fays he, caufes, a review within the mind, of fomething known before in the texture of the difcourfe." Thus if any one fays, according to the Greek form, man came, which is the fame as when we fay in English A man came," it is not evident of whom he fpeaks: but if he fays, "THE man came,' then it is evident; for he speaks of fome perfon known before."-Even in English, where the article A cannot be used, as in plurals, its force is expreffed by the omiffion of it as in the Greeks. Thofe are THE men," means that they are individuals of whom we have fome knowledge. Thofe are men, with out the ARTICLE, means no more than that they are fo many vague and uncertain individuals.

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But tho' the Greeks have no article equivalent to the English article A, yet nothing can be nearer related than their o, to our article THE. This will appear from the attributes of the Greek article, as defcribed by Apollonius." The particular attribute of the article, fays our author, is that reference which implies fome certain perfon already mentioned. For nouns of themselves imply not reference, unless they take to them the ARTICLE, whofe peculiar character is reference. And again, the article indicates a pre efablished acquaintance." VOL. I.

In order to render both parts of fpeech equally definite, i. e. the adjective as well as the fubftantive, the adjective itself affumes an ARTICLE before it, that it may fhew or intimate a reference to fome fingle perfon or thing only. Thus we fay Trypho THE Grammarian.

Even appellations, or common names, affume the force of proper names merely, by the help of the article. Thus, in English, City is a name common to many places; Speaker a name common to many men; and House a name common to many dwellings: but if you prefix the article, THE city, means our me, tropolis; THE Speaker, a high officer in the British parliament; and THE houfe, the particular place wherein the members of parliament affemble.

By an eafy tranfition the article comes to denote eminence, as well as reference. Thus, among the Greeks, THE poet meant Homer, and THE Stagyrite meant Ariftotle; not because there were not other poets befides Homer, nor because there were not many Stagyrites befides Ariftotle; but because none were equally illuftrious for their poetry and philofophy.

On this principle Ariftotle affèrts, that it is not the fame thing to affert that "Pleasure is a good, or the good." The firft expreffion only makes it a common object of defire, upon a level with many others, which daily raife our wishes; the laft fuppofes it, that fupreme and fovereign good, the ultimate end of all our actions and endeavours.

It has already been faid, that "the article has no meaning but when joined with fome other word." To. what words may it then be joined ? To fuch as require defining; for it is by nature a definitive. And what

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words

words are thefe? Not thofe which are already as definite as they can be ; nor yet thofe, which, being indefnite, cannot properly be otherwife. It follows, then, that the words must be thofe, which, tho' definite, are yet capable of becoming definite by means of the ARTICLE.

On these principles we perceive the reason, why it is abfurd to fay, THE I, or THE thou, becaufe nothing can make thofe pronouns more definite, than they are. The fame may be faid of proper names, when ufed according to their original defign. For the fame reason, we cannot fay in English, THE both, because these words, in their own nature, are each of them perfectly defined; fo that to define them again, would be quite fuperfluous. Thus, if it be faid, "I have read BOTH poets;" this plainly indicates a definite pair, of whom fome mention has been made already. On the contrary, if it be faid, "I have read Two poets," this may mean any pair out of all that ever existed. And this numeral, being in this fenfe indefinite (as indeed all others are) is forced to affume the ARTICLE, whenever it would become definite. Thus it is, that the two means nearly the fame thing as

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fame may be faid with refpect to qualities and quantities of both kinds. We fay, without an ARTICLE, "What fort of? How many? How great?" The reafon is, that the article the refpects beings already known, Interrogatives refpect beings about which we are ignorant; for interrogation is fuperfluous concerning what we know.

From what has been delivered it will appear, that the article a is used in a vague fenfe to point out one fingle thing in other refpects indefinite, and not known, or mentioned before. THE determines what particular thing is meaned and generally implies that it was mentioned before, or is of fome eminence. Inftead of A we write an, before words beginning with h filent, and all the vowels excepting y and . The reason why it is omitted before y and w, is, because thofe letters, as part of a diphthong at the beginning of a word, require fuch an effort in the pronunciation, as does not eafily admit of an before them. In other cafes, the article an coalefces with the vowel which it precedes; but in this the effort of pronouncing feparates the article, and prevents the difagreeable confequence of a fenfible hiatus.

A fubftantive without an article is taken in its wideft fenfe; thus, man means all mankind. "Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live." A man means fome one of that kind indefinitely; THE man means that particular man who is fpoken of: the former has therefore, in this fenfe, been called the indefinite, and the latter the definite ARTICLE. The tranflators of the New Teftament render Acts xxii. 4.

I perfecuted this way to THE death." But as the Apofile does not mean any particular fort of death, but death in general, the definite article fhould have been omitted; and we should read unto death," without the ar

ticle.

66

On English

ticle. Again, we read John xvi. 13. "When he, the fpirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth." That is, according to this translation, into all truth whatsoever, or into all kinds of truth; but, according to the original, we fhould read with the definitive article," into all THE truth;" that is, into the molt eminent truth, or into that concerning which our bleffed Saviour was difcourfing, into all evangelical truth. The tranflation, " Truly this was THE Son of God," Matth. xxvii. 54. fuppofes the Roman centurion to have had a proper idea of the divinity of our Lord; a fenfe which fome have objected to. But when we confider, that the Centurion, by his refidence among the Jews, might have arrived at the knowledge of the true God, might have been an auditor of the heavenly doctrines, and a fpectator of the great miracles which our Lord wrought before his crucifixion, it is not at all improbable, that the last scene in which our Lord appeared unto him, might have wrought fo powerful a conviction, that he owned him to be the Son of God, in the fame fenfe as the Jews might have represented their Meffiah to be.

We have faid above, that both the articles are definitive, or that they determine or limit the fignification of the word to which they are joined; but this they do in different manners. A, or AN determines the word it precedes to be one fingle thing of the kind, leaving it vague and uncertain which: THE determines which it is, or, of many which they are. An is derived from the Saxon en, or the Gothic ans, which fignifies one, and therefore can only be joined to fubftantives in the fingular number; but THE may be joined to plurals alfo. As the English word means has generally been used as if it had no fingular number, the beft writers have the article A before it; thus

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Atterbury, "A means of ftill doing further good." Bishop Lowth recommends the fingular in this place, afking, Whether it ought to be a mean? But it should be remembered, that this fingular has scarce any authority, and that there are a thousand inftances in which grammatical analogy is not preserved.

Another remarkable exception to this rule is, that a is used before the adjectives few and many, even when joined with fubftantives plural: thus Shakespear writes, A many thousand French; and we say, both a few men, and A great many men. The reason of this ufe of the article A, appears from the effect which it has in these phrases; it fignifies a small or greater number taken collectively, and therefore gives the idea of a whole, that is of unity. Thus, likewife, A thouSand, a hundred, is one whole number, or an aggregate of many taken collectively; and therefore ftill retains the article A, though joined, as an adjective, to a plural fubftantive, as a hundred years, A thousand doors. But when two or three are prefixed to the word thoufand, we look upon it as a barbarism; for no polite ear can bear "A three thousand men," though they can endure " A thousand men” very well. The reafon is, that the word thousand, like a dozen, or a core, is confidered as one collective idea; but the word three separates and divides the parts of which it is compofed, and will not any longer fuffer it to be confidered as a fingle collective idea, but as divided into many. Hence we may fee the want of grammatical propriety, in this fentence of Swift," How many a mesfage would he fend?" The word hory feems to deftroy the unity or collective nature of the idea; and therefore the fentence fhould have been written without the ARTICLE, thus, "How many meages? For the fame reafon the following expreffion in the Ee 2

Englift

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