conqueror in the battles, and in all bis battles was be conqueror." Nor can Mr. Turner's hefitation of belief be allowed against this full, this cotemporary, this invincible evidence. Mr. Turner only wonders, how Cerdic and the other kings of the Saxons came not to be reduced by him, "if he wielded the whole force of Britain, and only fought to conquer." But Nennius fays exprefsly, that he was a leader, victorious in all his twelve battles, "though there were many of the people more noble than he." Malmesbury, alfo, from fome monuments that have not reached us, therefore, with an explicitness that fpeaks its own propriety, tells us thus; "then would the welfare of Britain have been much endangered, if Ambrofius, the only furvivor of the Romans, who after Vortigern was the Monarch of the kingdom, had not repreffed the fwelling Barbarians by the great exertions of the warlike Arthur †."

And to fet afide fuch teftimonies by an hypothetical if, in contradiction to the very hiftory; and by a flighting infinuation, as if Arthur could not have done much because he had not done every thing; is an attempt unworthy of Mr. Turner's intellect. We fhould here have concluded our remarks upon Mr. Turner's work, having already taken a compass fufficiently large for a work of fuch a fize. But we measure not the value of books by their bulk. Nor wifh we to leave Mr. Turner, before we have exhibited him in a light that does him peculiar honour. We, therefore, go on to his account of the establishment of Chriftianity on the throne, and in the kingdom of Northumbria.

Edwin," he tells us, concerning its king, " permitted the introduction of Chriftianity into his dominions, but his own converfion was not haftily effected. Although in its promifes to virtue of an everlafting felicity, the Chriftian religion is fitted to allure the well-difpofed and well-regulated heart, yet Edwin did not run with undiftinguishing credulity into its circle; he juftly confidered it, on its firft annunciation, as a weighty propofition ;

"Nennius, c. lxi." Licet multi populi nobiliores effent, ipfe tamen duodecies dux belli fuit victorque bellorum, et in omnibus bellis victor extitit."

+ Malmesbury, 4. "Jain tunc profecto peffumiffent, nifi Ambrofius, folus Romanorum fuperftes, qui poft Vortigernum monarcha regni fuit, intumefcentes Barbaros eximiâ bellicofi Arthuri operâ preffiffet."

"Bede informs us that, non ftatim et inconfulté facramentą dei chriftianæ percipere voluit; that, cum fuis prematibus quos fapientiores noverat, curavit conferre quid de his agendum arbitrarentur; and that as he was a man natura fagaciffimus, fæpe diu folus refidens, ore quidem tacito, fed in intimis cordis multa fecum conloquens, quid fibi effet faciendum, qua religio fervanda, tractabat, 1. 2. c. ix.”

and,

and, as he was ignorant of its merits, he felt himself incompetent to decide. When Eadbald of Kent, whose fifter he had sued in marriage, invited him to embrace it, he only promised to allow her the unmolested enjoyment of her opinions, and to submit the momentous fubject to the judgment of wife and competent perfons if by them it was thought more worthy of the Divine Ma❤ jefty, than the notions he had inherited, he should not in that cafe view it with disdain *.

:

"After feveral circumftances, the king fummoned a council of his wittena; he laid before them the new fyftem, which he was preffed to adopt, and required of each his unreferved opinion on its merits. The priest of his idols was forward to adduce a perfonal feeling: I believe the religion we profeís to be worth nothing; for no man has applied himself more zealously to it than myself, yet many obtain your favours in preference to me: if our gods were good for any thing I fhould have been more profperous.'

"At fuch an argument the noble minded Edwin must have fmiled." Yet furely not, if (as the argument fuppofes) Saxon Heathenifm promifed principally the happiness of this world to its votaries. Nor did the priest end with that argument. He went on to this judicious conclufion from it: "I therefore argue, if you shall find these new doctrines which are now preached to us, upon examination, to be better and more folid, that we haften without any delay to embrace them †."

He fpoke first as the High-Priest of Heathenifm, as one without whofe concurrence this grand revolution in religion could not with decency be debated, and as one whose feelings had long been offended at Heathenifm by the failure of its promifes to its followers.

66

"The next fpeaker," as Bede notices, and Mr. Turner fuppreffes, "affented to the perfuafion and the prudence of the other's peech," but, as Mr. Turner proceeds, difplayed a contemplative mind, which had often pondered on the uncertainty of human life, and fometimes endeavoured to lift up the awful throud which covers the last relics of mortality.

The present portion of our exiftence, O king, compared with the uncertain future, feems to me to resemble the temporary ap¬

* " Bede, 1. 2. c. ix. Neque abnegavit fe etiam eandem fubiturum effe religionem, fi tamen examinata a prudentibus fan&tior ac et Deo dignior poffet inveniri."

+ Bede, ii. 13. "Unde reftat, ut fi ea quæ nunc nobis nova prædicantur, meliora effe et fortiora habità examinatione perfpexeris, abfque ullo cunétamine fufcipere illa feftinemus.",

Ibid. ibid. "Cujus fuafioni verbifque prudentibus alius Optimatum Regis tribuens affenfum."

pearance

pearance of a fparrow at your winter feafts, when your generals and minifters are around you; gay with the warmth of your central fire, it hears the hurrying rain and fnow beating without, and for a while is happy; when ferener ikies approach, the little guest difappears; and as it came we know not whence, it goes we know not where. Such is the life of man; for a thort time it appears in this bufy world, revels with hilarity, and is active from its enjoyment of exifience; foon the pafling fcenes terminate, and as of those which may have preceded this life we are ignorant, fo we know nothing of the events which are to follow. In this ftate of ignorance, of doubt, of alarm, I feel," this fpeaker appealing equally with the other to his feelings, though his "contemplative mind" is directly contrafted with the perfonal feeling of the other, "that if this new doctrine contains in it fomething more certain and more confolatory, it deferves our affent *.*

Mr. Turner has certainly mistaken the grand point of fimilitude, in the allufion of this fine fpeech. To fhow he has, we will give the fpeech in its original form, thus correcting, in Mr. Turner, what is devious, curtailing in him what is diffufe, and exhibiting more truely than he the genuine manners of the times,

"Such seems to me, O king," cries the fecond of the Grandees, "the prefent life of man on earth, when compared with the uncertainty of the future; as when, while you are at fupper in winter with your Dukes and Miniflers," fupper being the principal meal among the Saxons, as it had been among the Romans before, by derivation from thefe to thofe through the Britons, "while the fire is burning in the middle, and the fupper-room is warmed by it," a notice, that fhows us how very early the grate was fixed in the middle of our long eating-rooms, "while the whirlwinds of wintry rains or fhows are raging all without, a fingle fparrow comes in, but has foon flown along the whole room, as entering in at one door he is presently gone out at another. During the very time, indeed, at which he is within, he is not affected with the wintry ftorm; but yet,. having fhot in a moment through the very fhort space of ferenity, and returning prefently from the ftorm to the ftorm, he glides away from your eyes. So does this life of man appear for a little time; but what follows, or what pi-ceded, we are wholly ignorant. Wherefore, if this new define has brought us any thing more certain, it ought in juftnefs to be purfued t." We thus fee evident the impropriety of Mr. Turner's tranflation

*" Bede, 1. 2. c. xiii. Smith's edition."

+ Bede, xi. 13. Talis-mihi videtur, Rex, vita hominum pratens in terris, ad comparationem ejus quod nobis incertum eft temporis, quale cúm te refidente ad coenam cum Ducibus ac Miniftis tuis tempore brumali, accenfo quidem foco in medio et

tranflation. In the original we have no hint concerning the fpar row, that "gay with the warmth of your central fire, it hears the hurrying ram and fnow beating without, and for a while is happy; when ferener kies approach," that night, or the next day, or the next fpring?"the little gue difappears." The "ferener fkies" of the original are only thofe within the room. Nor does he leave thefe to enjoy bofe. Having thot in a moment through the very fhort space of ferenity," becaule he has foon flown along the whole room;" he "returns prefently from the storm to the form,” and "glides away from your eyes, because " entering in at one door he is prefently gone out at anothe Nor does Mr. Turner's tranflation here correfpond at all with his context. As it came we know not whence, his fpeaker fays, concerning the sparrow, "it goes we know no where ;" though Mr. Turner has juft tranfported it to" ferener kics." "Soon the palling fcenes terminate," notes Mr. Turner by his fpeaker in equal contradiction to his "ferener fkies" again, "and we know nothing of the events which are to follow." The whole force of the comparison, therefore, refts upon the fhortnefs of life, the clouds upon the time antecedent, and the darkness upon the time fubfequent, to it; without any reference at all to " ferener kies" in future, with a reference, indeed, to "ferener fkies" only in the prefent life. Yet, in justice to the speech itself, let us remark, that this mistake in Mr. Turner does not affect the general energy of it.

"This counfellor uttered the voice of wisdom and of nature. His fentiments fell with deep impreffion on the minds of his hearers, -• who may have often thought with anxious curiofity on the poffible fcenes of the future existence," and to whofe minds an image, fo familiar to their wintry, feafts, would carry a lively picture of the enjoyed prefent fhortly paffing away into an unknown future. That new theatres of being fucceed to this perishable fyftem has been the reafoned hope, and the eager belief, of all claffes and stages of fociety, from the naked Pict and the warlike Goth to the intellectual Athenian, the reflective Roman, and the fierce pirates of Saxony." Yet, as Mr. Turner ought to have added, in confiftency with his prefent fubject, "the fierce pirates of Saxony," even when civilized by their fettlement among the Romanized Britons, "knew nothing of the events which are to follow" life, and fo

calido effecto cænaculo, furentibus autem foris per omnia turbinibus hiemalium pluviarum vel aivium, advenienfque unus pafferum domum citiffimé pervolaverit, qui cum per unum oftium ingrediens, mox per aliud exierit. Ipfo quidem tempore quo intus eft, hiemis tempeftate non tangitur, fed tamen parviffimo fpatio ferenitatis ad momentum excurfo, mox de hieme in hiemem regrediens, tuis oculis elabitur. Ita hæc vita hominum ad modicum apparet; quid autem fequatur, quidve præcefferit, prorfus ignoramus. Unde, fi hæc nova doctrina certius aliquid attulit, merito eífe fequenda videtur.'

lived

lived "in" a "itate of ignorance, of doubt, of alarm." But, as Mr. Turner proceeds, "prefented as a grand revelation, that endlefs felicity awaits to recompenfe active virtue, Chriftianity affumes a charm which has enraptured the martyr at his ftake, and must interest the moft philofophical. The council of Northumbria ended in the public acceptance of the new religion, and in the deftruction of the temple of idolatry."

This extract shows us Mr. Turner, not merely as a man of knowledge, of judgment, and of taste, but, what is infinitely fuperior, a man of religion. Yet we think he ought to have fubjoined the additional account, in Bede, of this very remarkable council or parliament. As he has not, we futjoin it for the credit of the High-Priest above, for the credit of a Chriftian Bishop, and for the elucidation of our Saxon manners under Heathenifm.

"The reft of the elders and King's counfellors, by divine admonition, spoke to the fame purport. But Coifi," the high-prieft, with much good-fense, added, "that he wished with attention to hear" the Chriftian Bifhop, " Paulinus himself, fpeak concerning that GOD whom he preached; which when Paulinus at the command of the King had done, the other exclaimed on having heard his difcourfe: I had long understood what we worshipped, to he as nothing; becaufe, indeed, the more ftudiously I fought the truth in that worship, the lefs did I find it. But now do I openly confefs, that in this preaching blazes out the very truth, which can confer on us the bleflings of life, falvation, and happinefs eternal; wherefore I fuggeft, O King, that we inftantly confign, to the condemnation of fire, thofe temples and thofe altars which we have confecrated without deriving any utility from them.' In short, the King openly" affented to the words of Paulinus, renounced his idolatry, and profeffed his belief in the Chriftian religion. And when he queftioned the aforefaid high-prieft of Heathenifm, who ought to be the first in profaning the altars and fanes of the idols with the fences by which they were encircled, the high-priest answered, 'I myself, for who is more fit than myfelf by the wifdom given me from the true GOD, now as an example for all to deftroy what I worthipped through foolishnefs.' Then inftantly throwing off the vain fuperftition of Heatheniim, he begged the king to furnish him with arms and a stallion; as he would mount the latter, and go to destroy the idols; for it had not been lawful for the High-prieft," as it was not lawful for any of the Heathen priefts at Rome, and is not lawful for any of the Christian clergy at prefent, "to carry arms, or," juft as the clergy of England were almoft within memory confined by cuftom, to ride upon grey horfes," to ride upon any but mares. Girt therefore with a word, he took a lance in his hand, mounted the king's ftallion, and went away to the idols. The populace, feeing him, thought he was deranged. Nor did he delay, as foon as he approached the fane,