Sheva. Oh! that is very kind; he wou'd give you the preference when he had none himfelf. Fred. Juft fo: but what acknowledgment fhall I give you for thefe bills? Sheva. None, none; I do acknowledge them myself with very great pleasures in ferving you, and no fmall pains in parting from them. I pray you make yourself and pretty wife comfortable with the monies, and I will comfort myfelf as well as I can without them—Ah, poor Sheva! when thou art beggar man, who will take pity of thee? -Well, well! no matter-now I must take a little walk about my bufinefs-I pray you pardon my unpoliteness. Fred. No apology: I am gone-Farewell, Sheva! Thou a mifer! thou art a prince. [Exit. Sheva. Jabal! open the door." We have heard, but we know not whether it be a fact, that the fons of Levi have not been backward in teftifying their gratitude to Mr. Cumberland for his honourable attention to their fame. E. ART. X. Sermons. By the Rev. Thomas Harwood, late of Univerfity College, Oxford, and Mafter of Litchfield School. 8vo. 2 Vols. pp. 449. 10s. Boards. Robinfons. 1794. אן N eftimating the merit of fermons committed to the press, we may perhaps be fometimes apt to expect too much. Many difcourfes, which neither furnish ingenious fpeculation for the learned nor elegant amufement for the polite reader, may nevertheless be very ufeful as popular addreffes on religious and moral topics. Of this kind, chiefly, is the merit of the fermons before us. The preacher, though orthodox in his fyftem, rather teaches the doctrines of religion as myfteries to be believed, than as propofitions to be proved; and he chiefly directs the attention of his hearers to the duties of piety and morality. The reader will meet with a few entire difcourfes on fubjects purely theological, fuch as, faith in the scriptures, the nativity of Chrift, and the Chriftian facraments: but the fermons are, for the most part, practical; tending to illuftrate and enforce, in general terms, and by a popular kind of amplification, the obligations of religion. The topics of these are, The Divine Omniprefence; rafh judgment; the love of our enemies; the neceffity and efficacy of religious fervice; confeffion of fin; the protection of God; falfehood; fwearing; growing in grace; the importance of a religious behaviour; mourning; purity of heart; evil-fpeaking; repentance; apoftacy. In the compofition of thefe fermons, the author has not been duly attentive to method. When the text would naturally lead to the difcuffion of one fingle point, feveral different topics are often confufedly introduced. This is particularly the cafe in the the fermon on evil-fpeaking.-Scriptural quotations are frequently, and, in general, properly introduced. To this, however, there are fome exceptions: among which we shall particularly mention the application of our Saviour's parable of the invited guests to the Lord's fupper. Claffical allufions, alfo, fometimes occur, but with no great propriety in fermons which are faid to have been chiefly delivered to a country congregation. Before fuch an affemblage, to talk of the response of the oracle to the Circæans, or of Antinous in Homer, is to preach to them in Greek. From a writer fo converfant with the antients, a greater degree of precision and more elegance of ftyle might have been expected than will generally be found in thefe fermons. A few of the peculiarities and obfcurities of our author's language we shall take leave to select.-Of our Saviour, he fays; he who could measure heaven and earth with a fpan, became a child of a span long.' He speaks of comforts more mortal than mortality itself;' of the most feraphic of men' being liable to the transports of paffion; and of our fubfcription to the wisdom, power and goodness of God, fecuring us from danger.'-To thefe we add the following paffage at greater length, because we find ourfelves incapable of decyphering its meaning: There is a peculiar harmony in thefe words, [Nehemiah, xiii. 22.] worthy of Nehemiah, who was fo excellent a pattern of piety and wif dom. While he raised the fort of his confidence in the expectation of a bleffed reward, he laid the foundation of it upon an humble conceit. Uniting his virtues in a golden fhrine, and fynbolizing his actions, like the elements in compounded bodies. To have only faid, "Remember me," would imply much prefumption; or only, "Pardon me," might truly have argued a total neglect of Chriftian converfation.' Vol. i. p. 52, 53. Notwithstanding the inaccuracies and defects which we have remarked in thefe fermons, we must do the author the justice to fay that they are not deftitute of proofs of learning and ability, and, as practical difcourfes, may be perufed with profit. E. ART. XI. Letters to the Peers of Scotland. By the Earl of Lauderdale. 8vo. pp. 318. 55. fewed. Robinsons. 1794. No man, in our opinion, can differ more widely from another than Lord Lauderdale, addreffing his fellow fenators in the House of Lords, differs from Lord Lauderdale addreffing his conftituent peers through the medium of the prefs. We do not mean to apply this obfervation to his Lordship's principles, nor in the moft diftant degree to charge him with inconfiftency: for we are ready to bear our teftimony to the perfect confiftency of his po As a litical character, in which we have never witnessed the leaft wavering nor tergiverfation. The remark with which we fet out we wish to apply folely to his Lordship's manner. fpeaker in parliament, he difplays an ardor and a vehemence which may the more readily be confidered as intemperate, as the fubject of the debate is often of a nature calculated rather to suppress warmth than to call it forth: he is femper idem; his action is as vehement, and his diction as ardent, when speaking on a turnpike bill, as when inveighing against the advisers and fupporters of the war, or afferting the general rights of his fellow citizens and of mankind. His Lordfhip has therefore the merit of uniformity; and though he cannot be fet down as an impaffioned, he certainly has invariably the appearance of a paffionate, debater. In his printed letters, however, he is quite a different man: he argues with a coolnefs, a temper, and a gravity, becoming a perfon who is giving to his principals an account of the manner in which he has difcharged the truft repofed in him, and is ftating his claims to a continuance of their favour and confidence. In our judgment, thefe letters will do him credit, and, if the Peers of Scotland ftill cherish a spirit of independence, will infure his re-election as one of their reprefentatives in the next parliament. The Earl not only avows himself a party man, but maintains that the existence of a party in this country is abfolutely neceffary for the prefervation of the conftitution. The Whigs, he afferts, are, from principle, the true friends of the conftitution; and it is for this reason that he always has adhered, and promifes always to adhere, to them at the fame time recognizing Mr. Fox as their great political leader, and adopting all the opinions entertained by that able ftatefman refpecting the prefent war, and the grounds of our interference in the internal concerns of France. This, it must be allowed, is a manly declaration; and the more fo as it is made at a time when that gentleman and the Whigs are fo greatly out-voted in parliament. The ftatements given by Lord L., relating to public affairs, are in general fair and accurate; but he muft not be surprised *To draw our attention to the revolution in France, as it has affected the political interefts of this country,' is one of his Lordship's great objects in this publication. He thinks that we have too much confined our attention to the grand queftion concerning the internal government of France, confidering it as intimately connected with the general interefts of mankind, and the immediate happiness of the univerfe as if we had loft the recollection of all national feeling, or, perhaps, as citizens of the world, looking with contempt on the poffeffion of it.' if they be perufed with caution as coming from a declared partifan, and an accufer of the men whose measures he condemns. We think that it would be of great ufe to the noble Lord, if he would endeavour to speak with the fame temper with which he writes; he would then find his auditors more attentive, and his arguments infinitely more impreffive. We trust that he will not be offended with us for this advice, nor pronounce it to be officious and ill-timed; we really mean it in good part; and we are perfuaded that, if he can bring himfelf to adopt it, he will derive no fmall advantage from it. At the fame time we are aware that, though he fhould be difpofed to take the hint, he will not find it easy to get rid, in a fhort period, of a habit of long standing. The word preventative, which is not English, occurs too often to warrant us in confidering it as an error of the press; and it is not to be found among the errata. It is too generally used for preventive, even among those whofe education ought to make them explode it. Medical writers, we think, are more chargeable with this bafe coinage than any other clafs of literary men. MR. ART. XII. Lectures on Electricity. By G. C. Morgan. Sh.....n. R. Morgan attributes the conducting quality of charcoal, as diftinguished from baked wood, to the innumerable minute cells or cavities which it contains, and which, in his judgment, muft be very favourable to the paffage of a fluid equally fubtile with that of electricity *.' A little attention will discover the fallacy of this appeal to 'the fenfes. Were the argument juft, it would follow that powdery fubftances conduct better than folid. If the cavities be filled with air, they will have fome influence in retarding the tranfmiffion of electricity, fince air is widely removed from the character of a conductor. On the contrary, if they be perfectly void, their counteracting effect will be still greater, because experiment afcertains that an electric difcharge cannot be made through a vacuum.-When wood is converted into charcoal, it undergoes a total change of properties. The principle which Mr. Morgan lays down, in p. 166, vol. ii. feems to be of an oppofite kind. The refiftance of all fubftances to the paffage of the electric fluid increases with the distance from each other by the removal of preffure, or by the influence of any repellent power.' That, with certain limitations and exceptions, the rare fubftances are imperfect con ductors, we would admit:-but what idea can be formed of refiflance which is leaft when the conducting medium is dense? Here is a notable inftance of the inaccurate and undefined application of that term in the fcience of electricity. Refistance in mechanics denotes a conftant retarding force, which is proportional to fome function of the velocity. The electricians appear to fignify by it the vague conception of an obftacle to be overcome before the motion commences. Mr. Morgan endeavours to account for the diverfities of conducting power in different bodies, by a theoretical application of the doctrine of attraction. The multiplied fuppofitions which he employs leave on the mind a very indiftinct and unfatisfactory impreffion. Even granting the ample conceffions which he would require, it appears difficult, if not impoffible, to arrive at accurate conclufions. The author fhews much subtlety, however, in his attempt to explain the manner in which the electric fluid operates when folid electrics are broken by the explofion. A mufket-ball, it is obferved, will pierce through a board delicately fufpended, and not cause the smallest change of pofition; because the motion of the ball is fo rapid as to spend itself on the fpot ftricken, without being communicated to the other parts of the board. Brittle fubftances, fuch as glafs and rofin, derive their character, according to Mr. Morgan, from the flowness with which they tranfmit an impulse through their internal ftructure. Hence, if the electric fluid, darting with inconceivable rapidity, encounters these subftances, its ftroke will be partial, and will confequently produce a difruption. The idea is plaufible and ingenious, but confined in its application. An explofion of electricity never makes a clean perforation; it fhivers hard fubftances, and raifes protuberances on fuch as are foft. When oppofite wires are inferted in a glafs tube containing oil, the tranfmiffion of a charge caufes a general difperfion. In vain fhall we attribute the effect in this inftance to the difficulty with which the electric fluid obtains a paffage; for the violence'is greatest when the tube is narrow, and when the ends of the wires are near to each other. Having difcuffed the theoretical principies of electricity, Mr. Morgan next applies them to explain the natural phænomena of our atmosphere; and, in this part of the work, we find more demands on us for praife. With few exceptions, it contains unquestionably the most accurate and complete view of the fubject that has yet appeared.-He will hardly admit that lightning ever ftrikes the ground, and thinks himfelf warranted to affert that ninety-nine thunder-claps out of one hundred arenothing more than the harmlefs difcharge of one cloud into another Into this fingular opinion he is led by his theory of conductors already |