This, as far as we can discover, is the choicest specimen of the "lively acuteness of talents," the "elegance of manners, " and the "incessant gaiety of heart," which "endeared" Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, as his present publisher informs us, to the most "eminent men" of his time. The reputation of a great wit is somewhat like that of a great beauty. It stands higher with contemporaries than with posterity and the bitterest hardship which can occur to those who live merely for their day, is to be dragged back again into notice, when that day (and every dog, male or female, has its own) is completely gone by.

:

ART. VIII. Body and Soul. 8vo. pp. 404. Longman and Co. 1822.

WE are not particularly fond of the prevalent modern divinity which turns religion into a royal game of goose; and endeavours to surprise grown-up children into Christianity, much after the same manner, and by the same ingenious toys, as are used to cheat the less adult into the pence and multiplication tables. The knowledge of God and of our duty, is surely not so bitter and unpalatable, that it is necessary to wrap it up in some mawkish syrup, as a vehicle. which shall disguise its taste: and it is rather an affront to the good sense and good taste of the times in which we live, to pre-suppose that the matters which concern our eternal interests, must, if we would have them received, be carefully infolded in a temporal envelope. A sign-post is a mighty comfortable sort of guide, but it would be a mistake to append it to a steeple; and we should be as little satisfied by being ushered into a Church, when appearances taught us to expect a Tavern, as we are when we find a Treatise on Theology sailing under the false colours of a Tale of Imagi

nation.

Nevertheless as the fashion sets that way, it is as well to have our share of the tide while it is flowing: and though in soberer days we should have objected to the system upon which the volume before us is composed, (for every body knows the fate of works of invention pertinaciously built upon system,) yet as it is, we are well pleased to find that a Religious Romance can be published, which does not inculcate doctrines hostile to the Established Church, nor diligently sow Sectarianism while it affects to be directed to amusement. This publication, on the contrary, is undertaken as a corrective of Fanaticism. Its author is well

grounded in the controversies of the day; and his views of them (if his be the correct gender, and of this we feel great misgiving,) are eminently correct. We think him a more skilful Divine than Novelist: and we shall be better satisfied to find him writing, on some future occasion, on subjects which must have occupied his attention deeply, in a form which we consider more legitimately adapted to their discussion.

Dr. Freeman, the rector of a very populous parish in a large mercantile town, is described as a conscientious clergyman, warmly attached, upon conviction, to the principles of the Established Church; and animated by a cheerful and active piety. He is thrown into a variety of professional situations in the progress of this volume, and placed in contact with almost every class of enemy, open or concealed. In the first instance with a Deist, whom he awakens to Christianity. Then with a Youth, fresh from College, whose evenings had been "passed in the assemblies of those who denominated themselves Elect;' at which it was usual not only to furnish the guests with tea, but to serve each at the same time with a Bible." Next in chasing a raving Calvinist from a death-bed: and afterwards in unravelling the sophistical web into which an Unitarian had twisted himself. But a scene of which we wish our limits permitted us to transcribe the greater part is given under the title of "the Clerical Conference." Dr. Freeman, while sitting with his Curate, Mr. Deacon, over the carnal abomination of a chessboard, is visited by a neighbouring Clergyman, attended by two itinerant divines, and two respectable laymen, to request the use of his pulpit for the Missionary Society, and for the Society for the Conversion of the Jews. The Doctor freely states his objections to both these Societies; and he thus rebuts the charge that he does not preach the Gospel, because he does not assume the title of "Evangelical:"

"Though it is true we do not arrogate to ourselves such a title, yet we profess to be no other in word and deed than evangelical, and, perhaps, we are more justly entitled to it by our humility, than others are by their high-blown pretensions. Pardon me, I mean no offence, I mean nothing personal; but I confess it is with difficulty that I can restrain my feelings, when I find people by their professions lowering us, that they may rise the higher themselves; which I consider they do, who presume upon such distinctions, while they withhold them from their brethren. I declare, Sir, there is nothing that we professedly teach, either in public or in private, but what we deduce from the Scriptures; and our exhortations uniformly spring from the Gospel, or from some thing

vitally connected with it. For my own part, I can always conscientiously say and think with the Apostle, woe be to me if I preach not the Gospel!" P. 145.

He shews that preaching morality is an essential part of preaching the Gospel, because it is only by faith and obedience jointly that we can comply with the terms of the Gospel; and he exposes the favourite subterfuge to which his opponent resorts, that, though an advocate of the system of Calvin in general, he does not carry it quite to the same length, as that great Reformer did :

"You are then, Gentlemen, what I suspected you to be,' replied the Doctor, that is, according to modern phraseology, moderate Calvinists. Now, I confess, I prefer an open and an avowed enemy to one who shows himself by halves to be so. I do not understand the distinction, nor can I see how a preacher should only be a Calvinist in part, particularly when I generally find that it is through fear of creating alarm that he conceals the horrors of Calvin's tenets from the vulgar eye; for however he may keep them out of sight, his principles have the direct tendency to cling to the whole. Besides, it is my firm belief, if that great man were living, he would disown connection with those who mutilated his system. But, indeed, you must yourselves well know that it is not easy to go along with him only to a certain distance, without accompanying him to the place he is going. If he compels you 'to go with him one mile, you must even go twain.' You must also excuse me, Gentlemen, when I declare it to be my opinion, that the worst enemies which our National Church has to encounter, are to be found amongst those professing to be her sons ; amongst those who are undermining her foundations, under pretence of a zeal, which, I think, outstrips knowledge; amongst those who arrogantly style themselves evangelical; assuming a most invidious and untrue distinction, founded on the notion of their exclusive preaching of the Gospel, because they preach the tenets of Calvin. These are the foes, who, under disguise of relationship, breed dissention and promote civil wars in the bosom of the state of our Israel; for such, without breach of charity, I must esteem them. I quarrel not with open Seceders or Sectarists, because they differ in their creed with me; they are at liberty to enjoy and to maintain their opinions equally with myself; but, I own, I feel indignant, when I perceive a part of our own body starting up in direct opposition to the established opinions of our Church, and then throwing contempt upon the other, by designating them as non-supporters of the Gospel; which, by implication they do, when they exclusively declare themselves to be evangelical.'

P. 152.

Dr. Freeman's next visit is to a Lunatic Asylum, into which the daughter of a friend has been driven by fanatical excite

ment; and unfortunately our own experience enables us fully to assent to the truth of the picture which is here drawn. The scene following is in a lighter style. The Hon. Mrs. Draymore, Vice-President and Lady Patroness of six or seven pious Societies, passes all her week-days in raising subscriptions for religious purposes, and all her Sundays in running away from her parish Church to attend places of worship in which she hears "the cause of God, of religion, and of humanity, advocated in several Chapels in which have been made collections that would have delighted the Apostles themselves." Mrs. Draymore's great heterodox objection is raised against the Liturgy, which she thinks too long, too tedious, too dry, and too much wanting in novelty. "It is the extemporaneous mode of praying," says this fair lover of impromptu," which gives Sectarists such an immense advantage over the Establishment. There is something in a prayer uttered off-hand that wins attention, and can be better adapted to the several wants and circumstances of a congregation than a set form." The Lady, it will be seen, had well conned her lesson. But Dr. Freeman's plain sense and obvious arguments drive her from the field.

The popular objections to receiving the Sacrament, and rehearsing the Athanasian Creed, are clearly and dispassionately removed in two succeeding divisions; and the last opponents whom Dr. Freeman encounters are a Fatalist and an Anabaptist. In all these instances the reasoning put into the Advocate's mouth is simple and conclusive: his doctrine is that of the Church of England: and his manner such as those who argue not to gain victory, but to produce conviction, would do well to adopt. Putting aside our original objection to the ground-work of this volume, we have no doubt that it will be extensively useful. Blue morocco and gilt-leaves will give it a passport to the hanging-shelves of the boudoir and the sofa-table of the library: and it will be a most salutary antidote to the copious draughts of Sectarian sentimentality, with which the loungers in religious light-reading are so fond of bemuddling and bemystifying their feelings and their faculties.

ART. IX. Journal of a Visit to some Parts of Ethiopia. By George Waddington, Esq. Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and the Rev. Barnard Hanbury, of Jesus College, A.M. F.A.S. With Maps and other Engravings. 4to. pp. 334. 21. Murray. 1822.

MR. WADDINGTON'S visit to the banks of the Nile, above the second cataract-a district hitherto unexplored by European travellers-as Burckhardt, following the course of Bruce, had left the immediate shores of the river to the west, and Poncet to the east of his path-was a deviation from the tour which he originally proposed to himself, on quitting his own country. It was, however, his fortune to reach Cairo, shortly after an army, under the command of Ismael Pasha, the younger son of Mohammed Ali Pasha, had quitted that city, on an expedition against the petty kingdoms of Dóngola, Dar Sheygya, Berber, Shendy and Sennaar, in pursuance of a favourite and magnificent project of Mahommedthe reduction under his own dominion of all the Nilotic provinces from the Mediterranean to Abyssinia. The two former of the five states which we have enumerated, Dongola and Dar Sheygya, extend up the banks of the Nile, to the point where that river, deviating from its regular course, turns back to the south, until it reaches the site of the old city of Dongola, where it again assumes its northern direction. Between the second (or as Ptolemy and other old geographers name it, the greater) cataract, and the southern frontiers of Dongola, lie the provinces of Batn El Hadjar, Sukkot and Mahass; the two former of which were visitedby Burckhardt; but at Tinareh, a little distance within the northern frontier of Mahass, the course of that enterprising and lamented traveller ceased to pursue the line of the river; of which, and of the antiquities on its banks and islands, the animated and interesting volume before us contains the first narrative which has yet appeared. The circumstance of this region being in the possession of the pasha's army, offered a facility for the very desirable object of exploring it, which had never fallen within the reach of former travellers; and which might not possibly recur, although, with all the advantages thus supplied, the undertaking was one of no inconsiderable difficulty and danger; and very great credit is, we think, due to Mr. Waddington and his fellow-traveller, for the promptitude with which they entered upon, and the spirit and energy, with which they pursued it.

A faithful, narrative of the progress of any observers, 7