univerfal influence of cards on modern times; luxury in general, with the reason why it does not threaten Europe now with the fatal confequences it brought on ancient Rome; advantages derived from a free interCourfe with the fair-fex, who diflike effeminate men; the martial fpirit of European nations preferved by their frequent wars; point of honour; hereditary nobility; and peculiar fitua tion of Britain. After which, Mr. Pye laments the effects of commerce, when carried to excefs; defcribes the danger of money's becoming the fole diftinction; warmly and pathetically addreffes men of ancient and noble families; politely hints to the ladies the decline of their influence, which he confiders as a fure fore-runner of felfifh luxury; recapitulates his plan; and concludes one of the very best poems we ever read. Asit is impoffible for us fufficient ly to gratify our inclinations, in making extracts from this excellent production, we must content ourfelves with the affurance, that every reader of tafte will be tempted, by the famples we fhall produce, to become poffeffed of the whole. The opening of the poem furnishes a beautiful general idea of the Progress of Refinement. As when the ftream, by cafual fountains fed, Health and Plenty deck its fertile fide; poem, we fhall prefent our readers Ah Britain! while, with radiance all divine, Havig thus given a fpecimen of the begining of Mr. Pye's delightful Yet when, forfaking every manlier thought, A feeble ftate, with abject hope, relies, But on the uncertain aid her force suppliess The race, who draw their worth from wealth Nor other rank, nor other merit own, Knows Knows not with mirth untinged by scorn to please, But guard it's rights, for they protect your own. To drown reflection, and to deaden thought. To court the ftranger to the friendly gate; Long may ye mock, in this fecure defence, And you, ye Fair! forgive the honest lay, : In fabled times, by Ida's lofty wood 'From Albion far mayHeaven's benign decrees tomb Sees the dread hour of Justice yet to come; But let not man attempt, with bounde skill, As As forms and fultry gleams o'ercome the flower ART. III. De Morbis quibufdam Gommentarii. Autore, Clifton Wintringbam, Baronetto, M.D. Colleg. Medic. Londinenfis et Parifienfis Socio, Societatis Regie Sodali, et Medic. Regio. 8vo. 5s. Cadell. [Reviewed by a Correfpondent. ] THE learned author of these, Commentaries is not one of those fpeculative writers, who employ themfelves in forming new and fanciful theories, and adapt their prefcriptions to their preconceived hypothefes, but appears to be, in the higheft fenfe of the word, a rational phyfician, who has minutely and accurately attended to the operations of nature, the fymptoms of difeafes, the indications of cure, and the efficacy of medicines. His work is divided into four hundred and nineteen aphorifms, or fhort observations on almost every disease, founded on the experience of forty years. In the difcrimination of difeafes, and the detection of certain errors, which have been committed both in phyfic and forgery, the author fhews a difcernment which indicates the judicious phyfician and the true philofopher. It may perhaps be objected by fome modern theorifts, that he has too frequently adopted the doctrines of the Boerhaavian fchool. But on this account, we apprehend, it would be the height of temerity to cenfure the excellent author of thefe Commentaries: for who can pretend to fay, that his own fpeculations will ftand the teft of time, and fubvert thofe principles which Boerhaave established on an intimate knowledge of the Materia Medica and the nature of difeafes; on a A S the Editor of thefe Lunar Travels has given a very mo. deft and not unfavourable account of bis own abilities, eftimated by the Man in the Moon, (who previously pronounces Dr. Samuel Johnfon, Dr.. Gibbon, Mr. Burke, Mr. M'Pherfon, the Bishop of London, Dr. Price, Dr. Priestley, and feveral other equally illiterate gentlemen, unqualified to pen this fublime narrative) he cannot be difpleafed if we recommend his eulogium to the attention of our readers, though profeffedly that of a Lunatic. • Mr. Student, you fhall be my editor yourself. You have a candour in your nature, which difpofes you to tell the truth, and nothing but the truth. Your imagination is vigorous, and you exprefs things as you feel. them. You never facrifice fenfe to found; and though your style is not always either harmonious or elegant, yet you have the talent of fitting the turn of your language to every fubject, and of expreffing the fentiment and hitting the point in question; and this, in my mind, is the true cri terion of writing.' ART. V. Pictures of the Heart, fen timentally delineated in the Danger of the Paffions, an Allegorical Tale; the Adventures of a Friend of Truth, an Oriental Hiftory, in Two Parts; the Embarraffments of Love, a Novel; and the Double Disguife, a Drama, in in Tavo Acts. By John Murdoch,joyed, for above twenty years, all 2 vols. 12mo. 6s. Bew. HOUGH there is much fingularity in the ftyle of thefe productions, they are by no means deftitute of merit. For the hints which gave birth to the Danger of the Paffions, as well as to the Adventures of a Friend of Truth, Mr. Murdoch confeffes himself indebted to two fugitive French morceaux; the Embarraffments of Love, and the little drama of the Double Difguife, (the latter of which was merely written for the purpose of a domeftic exhibition) are to be confidered as in every respect our author's own. the bleffings which could flow from an almost-uninterrupted peace. Beloved by his fubjects, dreaded by his foes, refpected by his neighbours beyond all the other princes of Afia, did Nourgehan enjoy the god-like praife of being at once a great and an upright monarch. His favourite diverfion was the chace, particularly that of the beafts of prey; and in this he indulged; not merely because it afforded a fcope to his courage, but because it tended affo to destroy the most dångerous enemies to the flocks of his fubjects. Often would he quit the palace of Mouab, and climb the moun; tains of Masfa, in dauntless defiance of the fierce tyger, and of the mighty lion. Thofe mountains I then inhabited, in the humble, though happy, condition of a fhepherd. I had numbered my five As we have mentioned what may be fuppofed to amount to an objection to this gentleman's ftyle; it will be proper to obferve, that though we notice a peculiarity in his language, we fhall not charge him with want of fenfe: he has, to be fure, in fome places made what we think very vio-and-twentieth year; had received lent tranfpofitions; but perhaps this an education fuperior to what ge and was, at all the feats of heroic exertion, accounted the most expert youth in the whole country. yle, if not carried quite fo high,nerally falls to the lot of my station; would be lefs improper for most of his prefent fubjects, than at firft fight may appear; and, as it evidently partakes of the genius of the French language, it may on that account have it's admirers. For our own parts, we are willing to acknowledge, that many of this gentleman's periods are to us not unpleafing. The following extracts from the Adventures of a Friend of Truth, will furnish fpecimens of our author's manner, and probably afford entertainment to most readers. By leaving out fome of the lefs important parts of the narrative, but without altering a fingle fyllable of the language, we fhall endeavour to comprize in thefe extracts, a connected account of The Hiftory of a Courtier, virtuous though difgraced, and though difgraced, yet happy as related to Candidus, the Friend of Truth. · Under the fcepter-refumed Alfaleh after a fhort panfe under the fcepter of the magnanimous Nouragehan, the kingdom of Yemen en One day, the king having outftripped his attendants in the purfuit of a furious wolf, arrived at the very place where I was employed in watching my flock. With wonder I beheld him affail the beaft alone; and as I had never feen Nourgehan in whofe garb there was nothing now by which he might be diftinguifhed from one of the emirs in his retinue I flew to his affiftance, unconfcious that he was my fovereign. Armed both for annoyance and defence, with my trusty javelin I happily flew the wolf; at the very moment too, in which the prince, unequal to the conteft, becaufe already overcome with fatigue, muft otherwife have na vidim to the rage of his merciless antagonist. -Nourgehan expreffed to me all the gratitude of a generous, an exalted foul; and at length-pleafed with my answers-he afked, if I had never thought of prefenting myself at court. alas! "Atcourt!" exclaimed I "what fhould I do at court? A "ftranger to ambition, a stranger to avarice, in the culture of this "fpot of ground, and in the care of "that little flock, I find an ample "gratification of all my withes, an ample provifion for all my wants. The king, great as he is in power, can add nothing to the felicity of a man, whole fole object is, to live in a state of peaceful obfcurity; to render himself in that ftate ufe "ful; and as the occupation dear"eft to his heart to cherish, in the “evening of life, a helpless Father. "All these bleffings here do I pof"fefs on my native mountains; and were I not fatisfied with them, in "vain fhould I fearch for happiness "elsewhere." "But," resumed Nourgehan, "if you were to go to Mouab, the king, perhaps, whofe benevolence " is not unknown, might"'. "Unknown!" eagerly, but rudely interrupted No: even in "thefe defarts the benevolence of "Nourgehan is our conftant theme. "Are we to be told, that it is' to "him-that it is to the love he bears to his people-we are indebted, "under Heaven, for all the comforts we enjoy!-Is not Nourgehan the . friend, the benefactor, the father, of his people!-As fuch, at every fetting fun, do we not, with one "accord, fervently offer up prayers, "that the days of our fovereign may "be long-that ftill his reign may "be profperous-that he may leave "behind him, to rule over our most "remote pofterity, children who shall perpetuate his virtues!": I spoke with all the ardour of a ⚫ loyal enthusiasm; nor could the prince fupprefs the tranfports with which through that enthufiafm he which vainly he ftrove to conceal, he faid to me, "Adieu, thou "brave, thou virtuous youth!-Too much love haft thou for thy king,' not to experience his friendship; "and ere long wilt thou hear from "him"? Having thought nothing farther of what had paffed at this interview-for, ignorant as I was of Courts, I knew. too much of them, however, to pay a moment's attention to what a Courtier might tell 'me I was not a little aftonished, the next morning, to receive a meffage from the king, commanding my immediate attendance at the foot of the throne. operate with me in the profecution "of fuch meafures as may yet more "promote the happinefs of my people, yet more conciliate to me their "love." In a country like Yemen-where one glance of royalty is fufficient to elevate a fubject to the fummit of honour, or to plunge him into an abyfs of infamy-a choice fo preci was agitated.Never, it is evident,pitate, and, apparently, fo prepofte could he have received a ftronger * affurance of the fincerity with which he was praifed; and with tears, ...VOL. III. rous alfo, is hardly productive of wonder. Raifed as I now was to a fitug |