lished, may be bad, or vicious, or erroneous, yet the condemnation of it must not come publicly from the hand of my friend. The cause of sound literature would therefore be injured by such a scheme, and criticism would sink into a mere interchange of civilities and courtesies.

Let it be imagined that such a plan had been projected fifty years ago, and that Johnson, Goldsmith, Burke, Reynolds, Garrick, and other eminent men, had consented to lend it the authority of their names, would it have been possible for them to exercise their judgements with real impartiality? I can conceive that they might, perhaps, have imitated other critical professors in merciless severity towards the humble, the obscure and the unassuming delinquent, but we should surely have found them sufficiently polite, ceremonious, and affable towards each other. Nor could it be otherwise, living, as they did, in splendid intimacy together: and the influence of this feeling would have extended beyond themselves and their respective productions. It would have taken in the circle of each man's acquaintance, and embraced, consequently, in its wide circumference, every writer who had risen only to such comparative distinction as might entitle him to their friendship and notice. What then would have been their situation? Between Scylla and Charybdis. If they praised, the world would have accused them of adulation; if they cen sured, an outcry would have been raised against them for envy and malignity. They would not have avoided self-condemnation on the one hand, or the world's condemnation on the other. And would they have found an adequate reward for such persecution and trial in the pecuniary remunerations of a bookseller? The answer is obvious. They would have spurned at the illusion which would mislead them under the guise of candour and honesty, and they would have left to venal and obdurate minds what only venal and obdurate minds could perform,' p. 570.

The extracts we have made are a fair, and this last we think a favourable specimen, of the quality and style of the performance. There are a variety of pertinent moral remarks on facts, and points of character. Considerable discrimination is sometimes shewn in estimating the individual articles in the heaped assemblage of Cumberlands's works; and the general estimate of his talents appears to us on the whole very just. It is but an extremely moderate language of admiration that Mr. Mudford is any where induced to express; on many of the enumerated literary performances he sets a low value; and he does not much spare the faults and weaknesses of Cumberland's character. At the same time, our author is not to be accused, we think, of being in any degree actuated by a spirit of malice and detraction. Credit will be given him for having honestly intended to place the merits of the character and the writings in a correct light. But it will hardly be allowed that there was any great necessity for the undertaking, or that it is here executed with a vigour or an elegance adequate to impart an adventitious interest to a subject that was not very interesting in itself,

A very few particulars are communicated concerning the short portion of Mr. Cumberland's life, from the publication of the supplement to his Memoirs to his death. His literary toils were exhausting and unremitted, and in so far as they were prosecuted as the indispensable means of subsistence they cannot be beheld without a pensive feeling. It may at the same time be doubted, whether the writer of so many successful works, especially as many of them were dramatic works, would have been in this situation in the last years of his life, if the virtue of prudence had not been rather loosely held in the former ones: The claim to sympathy arising from this unkindly state of his later fortunes, will, however, be instantly supplanted by a much stronger demand on compassion, in the mind of a religious reader, when he comes to the following passage.,

When the project for erecting a third theatre was vehemently pursued, Cumberland lent it the assistance of his name and talents. Most, if not all, of the addresses, statements, and advertisements which appeared, were by him. He interested himself in the success of the undertaking with great ardour; and was frequently heard to say that he only wished to live till its completion, when he could resign his last breath without a desire ungratified.' p. 586.

We never had read Cumberland's poem of "Calvary," and this short passage made us determine that we never would. If any thing had been necessary to corroborate the determination, it would have been found in the two pages of vile and vulgar profaneness, which Mr. M. has, we think very properly, extracted from a few of Cumberland's plays, in contradiction to Dr. Vincent's assertion, in his funeral oration for Cumberland, that his dramatic writings were of "strict = moral tendency."

Art. XVIII. A serious Enquiry into the nature and effects of modern So- » cinianism; being an answer to the question, Why are you not a Socinian? By J. Freeston. price 1s. 6d. Longman and Co. 1812.

THE standard treatises on the Socinian controversy are unfortunately too

high in matter, and too voluminous in extent, to encounter with effect the cheap and plausible tracts which this part are actively engaged in dispersing. It is not à reference to Bull, or Magee that can most effectually defeat those subtle appeals to the popular mind. Their works, however excellent, are too learned and recondite. Our adversaries must be met on their own ground, and the best method, perhaps, of exposing the weakness and fallacy of their pretensions to be considered as the only true expositors of the word of God, will be found in the publication of a

succession of pamphlets recapitulating the evidences of the orthodox doctrines, and proving the uniform failure, as well as the dangerous tendency of all attempts to shake them. This purpose, the present" serious enquiry" appears most admirably adapted to answer. It is written with an entire disregard of all the common artifices of composition. It states the points in dispute accurately, and meets them fairly and forcibly.

In answer to the query, why are you not a Socinian? Mr. Freeston gives the following reasons.

• Because the Socinians depreciate the Bible.'

Because they appear to idolize human reason

Because they degrade the person and character of Jesus Christ.'
Because they regret his expiatory sacrifice, intercession.'

Because the important doctrines of regeneration, justification, divine influence, &c. are rejected by them as enthusiastic.'

Because I cannot see in what respects Jesus Christ is a Saviour, upon their scheme, any more than the Apostles were.'

• Because Jesus Christ is so little the subject of their public preaching, in which they so essentially differ from the practice of the Apostles."

Because they appear to Ity another foundation for pardon and eternal life, than what the scriptures recommend.'

Because I find the Church on earth, and the Church in heaven, ascribe their salvation to the blood of the Redeemer."

• Because, as far as I am able to judge, the Socinians, in general, are more curious, critical, and speculative, than devotional, spiritual, and prac tical.'

Because the Divine Being appears to withhold the sanction of his blessing from them, in that their ministry is not succeeded to the conversion of the ungodly.'

Because the wisest and best, the most prayerful and holy men, as well as the most learned in all ages of the church, have held very different views of Christian doctrines, and rejected theirs as dangerous errors.'

Because they who hold evangelical opinions are men after mine own heart, whose devotional means, tastes, and habits, are congenial to my

own.'

• Because I dare not risk my salvation on the foundation on which they hope for eternal life.

Because, 1 fear, I should find no rest for the soles of my feet, till I sunk into absolute deism, and were finally lost.'

Each of these positions is separately and distinctly argued, and unanswerbly established. If any of them be weak it is the thirteenth; a section which would, perhaps, have been more convincing, if instead of being stated as a specific argument, it had been introduced towards the close of the pamphlet. The paragraph is truly eloquent, but its subject is rather a matter of feeling and experience, than of dry reasoning. The whole composition we warmly recommend. It is fervent without asperity, and firm without dogmatism. Without any affectation of learning or fine writing, it is the genuine effusion of piety and good sense; intelligible to the lowest, and capable of being read with interest and advantage by the

Wisest.

款

Art. XIX. A Monograph of the British Jungermannia; containing a
coloured figure of every species, with its history and description. By
William Jackson Hooker, F. R. S. and L. S. and Member of the
Wernerian Society of Edinburgh. 4to. No. 1. 7s. 6d. Longman and
Co. 1812.

T has been so often remarked that the division of intellectual labour contributes, in the most effectual way, to the perfection of knowledge, that the observation would not have been revived here, but for the very particular application which the fact has to the work before us. The confusion attaching to certain genera in natural history, has been disentangled by nothing so successfully as by monographic description. What a fund of botanical treasure is to be found in Hedwig's Monograph of Mosses, Swartz's Orchidia, Goodenough'sCarices, Acharius's Lichens, and Turner's Fuci! Like family history, but without its dulness, it developes the minutiae of character, and passes by no individual without recording its distinctive peculiarities. The work we are at present contemplating is one of very great promise, and intended to illustrate the genus Jungermannia, an obscure family in cryptogamic botany, which has received little attention from naturalists, until within these few years. They are a very beautiful tribe of vegetable, to those who have eyesight and research enough to discover such humble members of the great family of nature; and are rendered not a little interesting, from being the chief source of that delightful fragrance perceptible after a shower, and at even-tide. Dillenius, so successful in the study of mosses, was the first who undertook to describe them. Linnæus understood them very imperfectly, and confounded his own terms in his descriptions, calling the whole plant a frond, and yet describing the constituent parts as stem and jeaves. In English Botany' we meet with the same confusion; and besides this, some species are placed among the Algæ, and others among the Hepaticæ. These objections, however, do not apply to the later volumes.

This work of Mr. Hooker's, who is known to our readers by his "Tour in Iceland," will no doubt throw much light upon the subject: not only from the author's accuracy of observation, acuteness of research, and fidelity of delineation, but form the prompt assistance he is receiving from all quarters. This first number contains only four plates, in which are very beautifully figured and coloured, Jungermannia Hutchinsia, julacea, concinnata, et juniperina, each plate being accompanied by letter-press, in which the specific distinction is written in Latin, and a more enlarged description and history in our own tongue. The first plate is dedicated to the illustration of a new species, named in honour of a lady, who cultivates the study of botany in a remote corner of Ireland, with an ardour which has seldom been surpassed. There is something very peculiar in the habit and structure of this plant, which would almost lead us to suspect, without good authority, that it was not a real Jungermannia, J. juluceu, and concinnata, discriminated by Lightfoot, but confounded by almost every other author, and not correctly described or figured even in English botany, are admirably elucidated. Those parts which Linnæus terms frond, leailets, and scales, VOL. VIII. 4 A

our author agrees with Dr. Smith in calling stem, leaves, and stipulæ, though it cannot be denied that the whole is homogeneous, and, like a proper frond, decays at the same time.

We strongly object to the long specific differences which Mr. Hooker uses. Linnæus, we think with great propriety, limited himself, except in extraordinary cases, to twelve words; and though he has left some plants indeterminate by confining himself so rigidly to his rule, yet if such sesquipedalian descriptions are tolerated as are found here, and in Mr. Brown's Prodomus Flora Nova Hollandia, the very intent of synoptic specific differences will be done away. We hope the author will hereafter give us an arrangement of the species, with as close a regaid to their natural affinities as our present imperfect knowledge will enable him.

Art. XX. A Vocabulary in the English, Latin, German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese Languages. By I. Boardman.12mo. Longman and Co. 1812.

THIS little work contains a useful collection of the more usual terms of of common life in these languages. They are placed in parallel columns, classed under different heads, and, the English being placed first, are arranged in alphabetical order. The greater part are of course substantives; in general, as far as we can form an opinion, judiciously chosen, and correctly spelt. We must, however, except the Germanamong which many printing faults occur, and several provincial and obsolete words are introduced; as Sammstag for Sonnabend, (Saturday); Kule for Kuh, (Cow); Mahne for Maehne, (Mane); Zeppel-tuch for Halsband, Necklace); Sackuhr, for Taschenuhr, (Watch); Kaum for Kamm (Comb); Eudte for Endte, (Duck); Eig for Ey, (Egg); Ganze for Gans, (Goose); Halcion for Eisvogel, (Halcyon); &c. A number of verbs are added, but the other parts of speech, as unessential, omitted. It would be needless to say, that travellers, and others who require a degree of knowledge of the languages, in question, without having time to study them critically, will find this volume of considerable value; or that, in the hands of a judicious teacher, it may be rendered considerably subservient to his pupils,-though hardly in so extensive a degree, as the author seems to imagine.

Art. XXI. Instinct displayed, in a Collection of well-authenticated Facts, exemplifying the extraordinary sagacity of various species of the animal creation. By Priscilla Wakefield. 8vo. pp. 320. price 5s. in boards. Darton and Harvey. 1811.

THIS is a respectable collection of anecdotes, injudiciously blended with the insipid details of a slightly constructed story; in the course of which the instances of instinct are related by different personages as occurring within their own experience or that of their friends. The tale is per. petually and most awkwardly interrupted by the marginal references to the unexceptionable authorities quoted in attestation of the extraordinary facts which are the proper subject of the work. There are several anecdotes in this little volume which have not been much "blown upon;" and among these, perhaps, we may specify the following.