• With this landlady he had agreed not only for lodging but board; but as the latter was very scantily supplied, of which he used to give a very ludicrous account, namely, that she made a leg of mutton, dished up in different modes, serve them for a week, a dish of broth being made from the bones on the seventh day, he found it expedient to remove to a lodging where were other students of medicine, whom he frequently entertained with his songs and stories. These endeavours to amuse, it must be confessed, were, however, from an inordinate desire of gaining applause, and of setting the table in a roar, too often blended with grimace and buffoonery, from which defects, notwithstanding he was afterwards introduced into the po litest his conversation was never wholly exempt.'

company,

From Edinburgh he proceeded to Leyden; where he resided about a year, and studied chemistry under Gaubius (erroneously printed Gambius), and anatomy under Albinus. In this situation, he suffered many vicissitudes of fortune; for here he shewed himself addicted to gaming, a practice which occasioned all the future hardships that he underwent, and in the fatal consequences of which originated those deviations from integrity and honour that sullied his moral character. On leaving Leyden, he made the tour of a great part of Europe on foot, and met with many adventures which he has related in his Vicar of Wakefield; and in the year 1756, he arrived in London. We extract the account of him at this period, which was furnished by a very respectable physician, with whom he had been intimate at Edinburgh:

"From the time of Goldsmith's leaving Edinburgh in the year 1754, I never saw him till the year 1756, when I was in London attending the hospitals and lectures. Early in January, he called upon me one morning before I was up; and, on my entering the room, I recognised my old acquaintance dressed in a rusty full trimmed black sait, with his pockets full of papers, which instantly reminded me of the poet in Garrick's farce of Lethe. After we had finished our breakfast, he drew from his pocket part of a tragedy, which he said he had brought for my correction; in vain I pleaded inability, when he began to read; and every part, on which I expressed a doubt as to the propriety, was immediately blotted out. I then more earnestly pressed him not to trust to my judgment, but to the opinion of persons better qualified to decide on dramatic compositions, on, which he told me that he had submitted his production, so far as he had written, to Mr. Richardson, the author of Clarissa; on which I peremptorily declined offering another criticism on the performance. The name and subject of the tragedy have unfortunately escaped my memory, neither do I recollect with exactness how much he had written, though I am inclined to believe that he had not completed the third act: I never heard whether he afterwards finished it. In this visit I remember his relating a strange Quixotic scheme he had in contemplation of going to decipher the inscriptions on the written mountains, though he was altogether ignorant of Arabic, or the

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language in which they might be supposed to be written. The salary of 300l. per annum which had been left for the purpose was the temptation !"

In London, Goldsmith became acquainted and associated with literary characters of the first eminence; and, could he have added common prudence to his other qualities, he might have passed a happy and respectable life, since the popularity of his writings relieved him from the pressure of poverty: but no supplies, however ample, were sufficient to meet those demands which were occasioned by his inordinate love of play, and his other irregularities. We are informed that

Dr. Johnson took every opportunity that presented itself of praising the talents and genius of our author. Goldsmith's medical friend, by whose valuable and interesting communications we have been much obliged, has furnished us with the following anecdote:

"I was dining at Sir Joshua Reynolds's, August 7, 1773, where, amongst other company, were the Archbishop of Tuam and Mr. (now Lord) Eliot; when, the latter making use of some sarcastical reflections on Goldsmith, Johnson broke out warmly in his defence, and, in the course of a spirited eulogium, said, Is there a man, Sir, now who can pen an essay with such case and elegance as Goldsmith"?"

In the very amusing account of our great lexicographer with which the late Mr. Boswell furnished the world, we find many sentiments of Dr. Johnson highly honourable to the talents, and some creditable to the character, of our poet. These passages are with much propriety introduced into the present work; and, in addition to them, we are furnished with anecdotes communicated by Dr. Percy, Bishop of Dro

more.

On the whole, we have perused the biographical part of this first volume with real satisfaction, and can recommend it to the attention of our readers as replete with curious and entertaining matter.

With regard to the arrangement of Goldsmith's compos tions;-Vol. I. contains his Vicar of Wakefield, and his inquiry into the present state of polite learning. In the second, are inserted his poems and plays. In the Hermit, we find the following stanza introduced, which was communicated by Richard Archdall, Esq., who received it from the author. It comes immediately after the 29th stanza in the original:

And when, beside me in the dale,

He carol'd lays of love,

His breath lent fragrance to the gale,
And music to the grove.'

The

The whole of the third volume is occupied by the Citizen of the World; and the fourth contains the lives of Dr. Par nell and Lord Bolingbroke, prefaces to various publications, the Bee, and other essays.-The work is handsomely printed, and is ornamented with an engraving of the author from a picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds.

ART. VII. Religion without Cant: or, a Preservative against Lukewarmness and Intolerance, Fanaticism, Superstition, and Impiety. By Robert Fellowes, A. M. of St. Mary-Hall, Oxford, Author of a Picture of Christian Philosophy, &c. &c. 8vo. pp. 460. 9s. Boards. White. 1801.

W E are not now, for the first time, to introduce Mr. Fellowes to the acquaintance of our readers: on more than one occasion, we have already laid before them his claims to their attention and their praise; and it might suffice to furnish them with an account of the present volume without any prefatory remarks. A peculiar opportunity presents itself, however, of adding great weight to our testimony in the writer's favor; and both the justice due to merit, and the hope of doing good by holding virtue up to view and to imitation, induce us to profit by the circumstance. From a note, then, to Dr. Parr's Spital Sermon *, we extract the following character of the author of this volume:

"Of Mr. Fellowes, curate of Harbury in Warwickshire, in consequence of some reproaches that have been lately thrown upon his intellectual and moral character, I am bounden to say that I am acquainted with no clergyman in this or any neighbouring county, who is more respectable for diligence in his studies, for acuteness in his understanding, for purity in his principles, for regularity and earnest. ness in the discharge of his clerical duties, or integrity in the whole tenor of his life. He possesses only a scanty income, and has no prospect, I believe, of ecclesiastical preferment. But he administers medicine to the sick, he gives alms to the needy, he offers instruc tion to the ignorant, he visits the fatherless and the widow in their affliction," and keeps "himself," in no common degree, "unspotted from the world."-He has sense enough to be a Christian without bigotry, and virtue enough to be a philosopher without profaneness. He professes Christianity from conviction, he explains it with perspicuity, he defends it with ardour, and he comments upon the temper and actions of its blessed Author with reverence the most profound, and eloquence the most impressive. After all, it must be confessed that Mr. Fellowes does not assent to some positions of Mr. Wilberforce about original sin: but for the attempt to refute Mr. Wilberforce, some enlightened believers may applaud, and some orthodox churchmen, I believe, would pardon him.'

* See Rev. for March last, p. 248.
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This picture, though sketched by the hand of friendship, seems to be a faithful likeness. Mr. Fellowes appears to possess a clearness of conception, and a virtuous manliness of character; he is a lover of religion which produces pure and unostentatious morality; and he is a hater of the cant which commonly attaches to fanaticism. Much, however, as we admire the tendency of his former publications, and applaud the object of that now before us, we should have presented him with more unqualified commendation, had he been less severe on the motives of fanatical leaders; had he abstained from reflecting on Evangelical Preachers, which he does in a note p. 63, as loving darkness better than light, because their deeds are evil; and, cautiously avoiding personalities, had he confined himself entirely to the exposure of the errors and pernicious tendencies of modern fanaticism. Nothing is more certain, in the opinion of men of sense and learning, than that the gospel of Christ is much misrepresented; and that the view of the Christian doctrine, which some mistaken zealots are continually exhibiting to the people, is neither correct nor innocuous. Its nature is adapted to captivate the vulgar: but the reason of their preference, if fairly scrutinized, will not be found to reflect any honour on its object. The language of fanaticism is so degrading to morality, that he is a friend to genuine religion who exposes its fallacy, and the fatal impression which it is likely to make on common minds.-The words of the "modest Foster," as Pope calls him, are so nicely discriminative, and so immediately apply to the subject before us, that, had they occurred to Mr. F., we should probably have found them among his quotations:

"To preach Christ (said this amiable man) is universally allowed to be the duty of every Christian minister. But what does it mean? 'Tis not to use his name as a charm, to work up our hearers to a warm pitch of enthusiasm, without any foundation of reason to support it.-'Tis not to make his person and his offices incomprehensible.-'Tis not to exalt his glory, as a kind condescending Saviour, to the dishonor of the supreme and unlimited goodness of the Creator and Father of the universe, who is represented as stern and inexorable, expressing no indulgence to his guilty creatures, but demanding full and rigorous satisfaction for their offences.-'Tis not to encourage undue and presumptuous reliances on his merits and intercession, to the contempt of virtue and good works. No: but to represent him as a lawgiver as well as a Saviour, as a preacher of righteousness, as one who has given us a most noble and complete system of morals, enforced by the most substantial and worthy motives; and to shew, that the whole scheme of our redemption is a doctrine according to godliness."

This is unquestionably the mode of preaching Christ which existed among the Apostles, and which every friend to

rational

rational Christianity must be desirous of seeing universally adopted.

Aware of the progress of fanaticism, Mr. Fellowes labours to bring back the general sentiment to the gospel standard; and so earnest is he on this head, that he wishes (p. 131, note,) that the ministers of the Established Church were compelled to teach nothing but that pure morality which Christ taught, without any cant or any mystery.

Christian divines,' says he, do not sufficiently call the attention of the young, of the old, and the middle-aged, to the eternal importance of practical soberness, righteousness, and godliness.-Finding the great indifference of Christians in general to these most interesting topics, finding some separating religion from morals, or morals from religion, making the gospel of Jesus contemptible or ridiculous, polluting it with cant, or perplexing it with sophisms, lowering its sublimity by their frivolous and unworthy glosses, or burying its simplicity under an abyss of dark and doubtful disputations, I have endeavoured in this work, as well as in my Picture of Christian Philosophy, to warm the hearts of men with the spirit of true righteousness, and to lead them into a right track of thinking on the doctrines and the duties, on the true character and genius, of Christianity.'

The work commences with an examination and refutation of some of the most fashionable tenets of modern fanaticism; after which the author proceeds distinctly to discuss the points at issue between rational divines and those who, in the cant of the times, are called Evangelical preachers. He contends that man is a free agent, and accountable for his actions only to God the moral governor; that the doctrine of original sin*, as taught by the fanatics, is incompatible with the moral government of God, and the nature of man; and that what is called original righteousness is a mere fiction.

• Man,' he observes, did not originally possess any thing like an ingenerate habit of righteousness; but he possessed at the beginning, as he has done in all ages and generations since, certain tendencies to good, implanted in his nature; and which he is required to invigorate by cultivation. He brings into the world certain powers, as those of reason and the moral sense, which are necessary to him as a moral agent, accountable for his actions; he possesses the power of discerning good from evil, and of choosing between them; and on the right use of these powers, much of his present and all his future happiness depends. If he prudently exercise and carefully improve these salutary faculties of his nature, he doeth good; if he misapply them, he doeth evil. If he do good, he continueth in favour with God; if he do evil, he falls, as Adam fell, under his displeasure.'

*In another place, he terms the doctrine of hereditary corruption a loathsome doctrine.

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