the whole with the death of Orlando, and in not wearying the reader with a long account of the vengeance of Charlemagne. After the death of the hero all must be flat. From the Morgante Maggiore of Luigi Pulci, Mr. Merivale first derived the idea of his poem, and how much he has improved upon the original, we leave those who may choose to acquaint themselves with the Italian to declare. We are clearly of opinion, that notwithstanding all the advantages of so har monious a language, and the natural prejudice in favour of an Italian chronicler of Orlando's deeds, Mr. Merivale rises intinitely above the Morgante of Pulci. Wherever he is indebted to him for any incidents or thoughts, he points out the source with the utmost candour. The notes subjoined to each canto are both amusing and good, and throw much light upon the subject. Mr. M. has adopted the Italiau stanza, which in any poem in which much action is employed, is the best metre which can be chosen, and in a poem where the ideas of the Italian poets press so strongly upon the reader's mind, is peculiarly appropriate. The artificial division affords the poet a very great advantage in all cases where varied description is required, particularly in the confusion of a battle. The flow of the verse throughout is full and varied, the language is classical and elegant, the conceptions are both spirited and just. Of the conduct of the poem as a whole, our readers must already have formed a judgment, and the stanzas which we have cited must have justified our high opinion of its merits. Many brilliant passages might be brought forward to confirm our judgment. We particularly admire the stanza in which the power of conscience over the guilty tyrant in his secret hours is thus pourtrayed. "But in the solemn hour of secret thought, In that dark hour, when Pride and Grandeur sleep, But of all the passages not immediately connected with the story, by far the most brilliant is the allusion to the victorious arms of our British heroes on the very plains which were the scenes of Orlando's dying valour. Mr. M. has with great judgment kept back this long expected coincidence till the conclusion of the fourth canto, when from the very delay it bursts прод J upon the reader with increased effect. The revival of Rolando's fame in Sir Rowland is happily conceived, and the Epicedium on Colonel Cadogan is a master-piece of pathos, and is artfully interwoven with the incident of Astolpho, the British Paladin's death in the poem itself. " "Yet at the last a prouder day shall dawn, O Roncesvalles! on thy blighted name; With grateful shade, and fairest flowers of fame "But not for France shall swell the solemn strain Lo! Britain leads the glorious chase, and Spain "Sleeps Arthur in his isle of Avalon? "What mournful train, descending through the glade, Beneath the o'erarching pine-tree's towery height, "Or, haply, shall thy spirit, hovering near, He hail'd his conquering friends, and closed his eye, We We have now convicted Mr. Merivale of such enormous offences against the taste of the day, that he cannot in any reason expect either admiration or applause. Who can be supposed to read a poem, in which the classical elegance of our fusty forefathers is so audaciously revived. But among the few who are doting enough to admire such a beaute passee, as the muse of Mr. Merivale, we must unfortunately take our place. We are not ashamed of our feeling; and though her charms are lost. upon the world, we shall toast her every day with increased de votion. ART. V. Christian Ethics, or Discourses on the Beatitudes. By Robert Wintle, B. D. Rector of Brightwell. Two Vols. 8vo. Oxford, University Press; London, Longman and Co. 1812. WE hardly know what apology we can make either to ourselves or to the public, for having so long delayed to notice these excellent volumes. We trusted that their own intrinsic merit would have been the best passport to general reception; or, if that had failed, that the name of their author would have ensured to them that regard, which is so justly their due. Mr. Wintle has long been known to every sacred scholar, as the learned and judicious commentator upon the prophecy of Daniel; and we believe, that his volume is considered by every sound theologian as a text-book to all who are desirous of a deep and thorough acquaintance with those awful prophecies. The labours of our venerable author upon other parts of the prophetical writings, are distinguished for the same depth of research and soundness of judgment, which are so conspicuous in his notes and dissertations upon Daniel. From so able an Hebraist, and so deep a theologian, two volumes of Sermons might have been expected of a very different character and cast from the present. No critical illustrations, or controversial disquisitions, either dignify or obscure the work; all is pious, simple, and practical. Our author writes under the operation of Christianity upon the heart, but he writes also with that calm and steady conviction of its truth, which nothing but a laborious study of its evidences, and long meditation on its importance, could have effected. Simpli city is no mark either of a superficial or a mean understanding; on the contrary, it is an art to which very few, without a tho rough knowledge of their subject, can attain. Involution may pften conceal, and declamation adorn, a very contracted range of information, information, but simplicity is the child of arrangement and of thought. Such is the simplicity which distinguishes and recommends the discourses before us. Their subject is that summary of Christian duties, contained in the beatitudes, pronounced by our Lord on the opening of his sermon on the mount. We are aware, that to the very name of " Ethics," very strong objections will be raised by a certain party, many of whom are, we believe, wholly ignorant of the meaning of the word, which they are so much in the habit of using as a term of reprobation and contempt. By "Christian Ethics," we understand our author to mean, those duties required from one whose Christian principles have passed is 0, and have interwoven themselves with his whole moral frame. We are also aware, that an enforcement of these duties will be called by those who exclusively claim to themselves the name of Gospel preachers, both heathenish and profane. But let these gentlemen remember, that whatever these duties are, they come not only commanded but blessed by the Saviour himself; and if he was not a Gospel preacher, let them declare who is. To a cold and lifeless panegyric from the pulpit, upon the beauty of moral rectitude, or the charms of virtue considered in itself, we have as powerful a dislike as themselves; but to an enlargement upon those duties, which Christ himself has so solemnly enjoined, we conceive that every Christian is bound to listen with the most earnest attention, inasmuch as they presuppose the existence of a Christian principle, because they must be urged upon Christian motives, namely, upon the promise of those high rewards attached to their performance, which no one but the Saviour of the world could fulfil. In no discourses which we have ever read, are those motives, which animate and cheer the children of the Gospel, more zealously displayed, or more affectionately urged throughout, than in these "Christian Ethics." To render the work in this point of view still more perfect, the author has prefixed two Sermons upon faith, the one designed to explain the foundation upon which it rests; and the second, to shew its influence upon the heart, the life, and the 0n of a Christian. From the first of these sermons, we shall present our readers with the following extract, "Upon the whole, the faith by which we are to walk, and which we are assured our God will accept, is a sincere and hearty resignation of ourselves to the disposal of our heavenly Father; a fixed persuasion of the truth of his holy word, and of all things contained in it; a steady reliance on the efficacy of Christ's merits and intercession; an unalterable attention to all the doctrines and precepts delivered in his Gospel ; and a full acknowledgment, that, not by our own merits, or for any thing that we have done, or can do, but through A through the mercies and mediation of Christ alone, we are, with humble confidence, to hope for everlasting salvation. "This faith may not be altogether complete, may not be free from frailties and imperfections, may even be tarnished by failings and sins; but it must be sincere and universal, or without partiality and without hypocrisy. There must be no deceit or falseness in it, no halting between two opinions; it will admit of no kind of confederacy with the works of Satan, no acquiescence in any sort of sin: it must not only be our profession in times of ease and security, but must not be deserted or relinquished in the day of trial and danger. Such is the faith which hath its seat in the heart, and will be available to our justification. And to the penitent Christian, who is animated with it, God will not impute sin; will overlook the frailties of his past, and the infirmities of his present weakness, and accept him through the atonement and satisfaction of our blessed Redeemer. "To our unwearied endeavours to obtain this faith, we must ever remember to add our devout and fervent prayers to the God of all consolation, beseeching him to bless the work that he hath begun in us, and entreating the succours of his blessed Spirit, to enable us to carry it on with firm patience and steady perseve rance. For we cannot but be diffident, if we think seriously, of our own strength; cannot but be sensible that we are unable of ourselves, and without the mighty aid from above, to work out our salvation. "Conscious therefore of our own inability, let us look up sted, fastly to the God of all grace for help, be duly thankful for his heavenly assistance and protection, and acknowledge his mighty power and sovereign grace in all the good we do, and in all the evils which we escape and avoid. Let the clear prospect of the future glories of the invisible world animate our lives, warm our souls, and invigorate our practice: that thus living here in the faith of our great Intercessor, we may hope to live hereafter in his presence, and to enjoy the incessant communications of his favour and love throughout the ages of a blessed eternity." Vol. i. p. 39. If this be not Gospel preaching, we desire those who understand it better than ourselves, to inform us what is. But taking that leave both of the doctrines and the doctors of fanaticism, which we heartily wish for the sake of Christianity, that they would take of us, we shall proceed to give our readers a farther account of these excellent discourses, through which the spirit of the Gospel is so uniformly diffused. Our author considers the beatitudes delivered at the opening of our Lord's sermon from the mount, as a summary of Christian ethics, or of those duties which form the leading features in a Christian's moral frame, and are most peculiarly the fruits of that faith, which the Holy Spirit has consecrated and confirmed. In the discussion of each of the beatitudes, and the rewards an A |