confiderably lowered, and mixed with the bafer alloy of a jealous and worldly minded prudence. You must learn to do hard, if not unjust things; and for the nice embarraffments of a delicate and ingenuous fpirit, it is neceffary for you to get rid of them as faft as poffible. You must shut your heart against the Mufes, and be content to feed your understanding with plain, houfhold truths. In short, you must not attempt to enlarge your ideas, or polifh your tafte, or refine your fentiments; but must keep on in one beaten track, without turning afide either to the right hand or to the left. "But I cannot fubinit to drudgery like this-I feel a fpirit above it." "Tis well be above it then; only do not repine that you are not rich.

Is knowledge the pearl of price? That too may be purchased by steady application, and long folitary hours of study and reflection. Bestow thefe, and you fhall be wife. " But (fays the man of letters) what a hardship is it that many an illiterate fellow who cannot conftrue the motto of the arms on his coach fhall raife a fortune and make a figure, while I have little more than the common conveniencies of life." Et tibi magna fatis !—Was it in order to raise a fortune that you confumed the sprightly hours of youth in ftudy and retirement? Was it to be rich that you grew pale over the midnight lamp, and diftilled the sweetness from the Greek and Roman spring? You have then mistaken your path, and ill employed your industry. "What reward have I then for all my labours?" What reward! A large comprehenfive foul, well purged from vulgar fears, and perturbations, and prejudices; able to com prehend and interpret the works of man-of God. A rich, flourishing, cultivated mind, pregnant with inexhaustible ftores of entertainment and reflection. A perpetual fpring of fresh ideas; and the confcious dignity of fuperior intelligence. Good heaven! and what reward can you ask besides?

"But is it not fome reproach upon the economy of Providence that fuch a one, who is a mean dirty fellow, fhould have amaffed wealth enough to buy half a nation ?” Not in the leaft. He made himself a mean dirty fellow for that very end. He has paid his health, his confcience, his liberty for it and will you envy him his bargain? Will you hang your head and blush in his prefence because he outfhines you in equipage and fhow? Lift up your brow with a noble confidence, and fay to yourself, I have not these things, it is true; but it is because I have not fought, because I have not defired them; it is because I poffefs fomething better. I have chofen my lot. I am content and satisfied.'

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VI. The

VI. The Canal and the Brook, a Reverie.-This is a fort of apologue or fable. The author introduces the Genius of the Canal and the Deity of the Stream setting forth their respective pretenfions to fuperiority. The latter concludes his apology for himfelf in the following terms: The sweetest and moft majestic bard that ever fung, has taken a pride in owning his affe&ion to woods and ftreams; and while the ftupendous monuments of Roman grandeur, the columns which pierced the kies, and the aqueducts which poured their waves over mountains and vallies, are funk in oblivion, the gently winding Mincius ftill retains his tranquil honours. And when thy glories, proud genius! are loft and forgotten; when the flood of commerce, which now fupplies thy urn, is turned into another course, and has left thy channel dry and defolate; the foftly-flowing Avon fhall ftill murmur in fong, and his banks receive the homage of all who are beloved by Phoebus and the Mufes.'

VII. On Monaftic Inftitutions.-The author confiders the beneficial, as well as the pernicious effects, which refulted from these infiitutions, during the barbarous ages in which they flourished. By the following extract it appears, that we are more obliged to the monks for the prefervation of literature, than we are apt to imagine.

Where could the precious remains of claffical learning, and the divine monuments of ancient taftè, have been fafely lodged amidst the ravages of that age of ferocity and rapine which fucceeded the defolation of the Roman empire, except in fanctuaries like thefe, confecrated by the fuperftition of the times beyond their intiinfic merit? The frequency of wars, and the licentious cruelty with which they were conducted, left neither the hamlet of the peafant, nor the castle of the baron free from depredation; but the church and monaftery generally remained inviolate. There Homer and Ariftotle were obliged to throud their heads from the rage of Gothic ignorance; and there the facred records of divine truth were preferved, like treasure hid in the earth in troublesome times, fafe, but unenjoyed. Some of the barbarous nations were converted before their conquefts, and most of them foon after their fettlement in the countries they over ran. Thofe buildings which their new faith taught them to venerate, afforded a fhelter for thofe valuable manufcripts, which muft otherwife have been deftroyed in the common wreck. At the revival of learning they were produced from their dormitories. A copy of the Pandect of Juftinian, that valuable remain of Roman law, which first gave to Europe the idea of a more perfect jurisprudence, and gave men a relish for a new and important

portant study, was discovered in a monaftery of Amalphi. Moft of the claflics were recovered by the fame means; and to this it is owing, to the books and learning preferved in these repofitories, that we were not obliged to begin anew, and trace every art by flow and uncertain fteps from its first origin. Science, already full grown and vigorous, awaked as from a trance, fhook her pinions, and foon foared to the heights of knowledge.

Nor was the entirely idle during her recefs; at least we cannot but confefs that, what little learning remained in the world was amongst the priests and religious orders. Books, before the invention of paper, and the art of printing, were fo dear, that few private perfons poffeffed any. The only libraries were in convents; and the monks were often employed in tranfcribing manufcripts, which was a very tedious, and at that time a very neceffary task. It was frequently enjoined as a penance for fome flight offence, or given as an exercise to the younger part of the community. The monks were obliged by their rules to spend some stated hours every day in reading and study; nor was any one to be chofen abbor without a competent fhare of learning. They were the only hiftorians; and though their accounts be interwoven with many a legendary tale, and darkened by much superstition, still they are better than no hiftories at all; and we cannot but think ourselves obliged to them for tranfmitting to us, in any dress, the annals of their country..

They were like wife almoft the fole inftructors of youth. Towards the end of the tenth century there were no schools in Europe but the monafteries, and those which belonged to epifcopal refidences; nor any mafters but the Benedictines, It is true, their courfe of education extended no further than what they called the feven liberal arts, and thefe were taught in a very dry and uninterefting manner. But this was the genius of the age, and it fhould not be imputed to them as a reproach that they did not teach well, when no one taught better. We are guilty of great unfairness when we compare the schoolmen with the philofophers of a more enlightened age we thould contraft them with thofe of their own times; with a high conftable of France who could not read; with kings who made the fign of the crofs in confirmation of their charters, because they could not write their names; with a whole people without the leaft glimmering of tafte or literature. Whatever was their real knowledge, there was a much greater difference between men of learning, and the bulk of the nation, at that time, than there is at prefent; and certainly, fome of the difciples of thofe fchools who, though now

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fallen

fallen into disrepute, were revered in their day by the name of the subtle doctor, or the angelic doctor, fhewed an acuteness and ftrength of genius, which, if properly directed, would have gone far in philofophy; and they only failed because their enquiries were not the objects of the human powers. Had they exercifed half that acuteness on facts and experiments, they had been truly great men. However, there were not wanting fome, even in the darkest ages, whofe names will be always remembered with pleasure by the lovers of fcience. Alcuin, the preceptor of Charlemagne; the firft who introduced a tafte for polite literature into France, and the chief inftrument that prince made ufe of in his noble endeavours for the encouragement of learning; to whom the univerfities of Soiffons, Tours, and Paris owe their origin, The hiftorians, Mathew Paris, William of Malmbury, Savanarola; the elegant and unfortunate Abelard; and, to crown the reft, the English Francifcan, Roger Bacon.

It may be here observed, that forbidding the vulgar tongue in the offices of devotion, and in reading the fcriptures, tho' undoubtedly a great corruption in the Chriftian church, was of infinite fervice to the interefts of learning. When the ecclefiaftics had locked up their religion in a foreign tongue, they would take care not to lose the key. This gave an importance to the learned languages; and every fcholar could not only read, but wrote and difputed in Latin, which without such a motive would probably have been no more studied than the Chinese. And at a time when the modern languages of Europe were yet unformed and barbarous, Latin was of great ufe as a kind of univerfal tongue, by which learned men might converfe and correfpond with each other.

Indeed, the monks were almoft the only fet of men who had leisure or opportunity to pay the leaft attention to literary fubjects. A learned education (and a very little went to that title) was reckoned peculiar to the religious. It was almoft efteemed a blemish on the favage and martial character of the gentry to have any tincture of letters. A man, therefore, of a ftudious and retired turn, averfe to quarrels, and not defirous of the fierce and fanguinary glory of thofe times, beheld in the cloister a peaceful and honourable fanctuary; where, without the reproach of cowardice, or danger of invafion, he might devote himself to learning, affociate with men of his own turn, and have free access to libraries and manuscripts. In this enlightened and polished age, where learning is diffufed through every rank, and many a merchant's clerk poffeffes more real knowledge than half the literati of that æra, we can fcarcely conceive how grofs an ignorance overspread

thofe

thofe times, and how totally all ufeful learning might have been loft amongst us, had it not been for an order of men, vefted with peculiar privileges, and protected by even a superftitious degree of reverence.

Thus the mufes, with their attendant arts (in ftrange difguife indeed, and uncouth trappings) took refuge in the peaceful gloom of the convent. Statuary carved a madonna or a crucifix. Painting illuminated a miffal. Eloquence made the panegyric of a faint; and History compofed a legend. Yet ftill they breathed, and were ready, at any happier period, to emerge from obfcurity with all their native charms and undiminished luftre.'

VIII. On the Pleasures derived from Objects of Terror, with the Story of Sir Bertrand, a Fragment.

IX. On the heroic Poem of Gondibert, by Sir William D'avenant.

Our author endeavours to prove, that this poem is a work of an elevated genius, pregnant with a rich store of free and noble fentiments, fashioned by an intimate commerce with the great world, and boldly pursuing an original, but not an unfkilful plan.

X. An Enquiry into thofe Kinds of Diftreffes, which excite agreeable Senfations. The purport of this enquiry is to fhew, that the view or relation of mere mifery can never be pleafing; that no fcenes of mifery ought to be exhibited, which are not connected with the display of fome moral excellence, or agreeable quality; that the misfortunes which excite pity muft not be too horrid and overwhelming; that pity cannot be excited by any thing mean or difgufting; that poverty, if truly reprefented, fhocks our nicer feelings; that if a writer would have us feel a ftrong defire of compaffion, his characters must not be too perfect, nor his fcenes of distress too long continued.

In this effay, the author has discovered a competent knowledge of the hurnan heart, and has traced out the principal fource of its fympathetic affections.

In all the little pieces, of which this volume confifts, there are the evident characteristics of tafte, ingenuity, and judgment.

VIII. A Differtation of the Phadon of Plato: or Dialogue of the Immortality of the Soul. With fome general Obfervations upon the Writings of that Philofopher. By Charles Crawford, Efq. 8vo. 4s. Jerved. Evans.

No

O philofopher has been more admired and applauded than Plato. Cicero calls him, princeps, longè omnium in decendo graviflimus et eloquentiffimus; divinus auctor; quafi

qui