University of Virginia Library

Occasioned chiefly, but not wholly, by the residence of Henry Grattan (Ex-Representative in Parliament for the City of Dublin,) at Twitnam; November, 1798.

Mr. Pope generally spelt the word in this manner.

The Right Hon. Welbore Ellis, Baron Mendip, the present possessor of Mr. Pope's villa at Twitnam.

Richard Owen Cambridge, Esq. a distinguished veteran in literature and the polite arts. His poem entitled “The Scribleriad” is a work of great fancy, just composition, and poetical elegance; but above all, of mature judgment conspicuous throughout. It should be read as well for instruction, as amusement. The preface is entitled to much attention.

George Hardinge, Esq. a man of genius and eloquence, M. P. one of the Welsh Judges. He is the present possessor of the villa, called “Ragman's Castle” at Twitnam, by the banks of the Thames.

“The English have been conquer'd, first, by the Minister, and afterwards, by the French.” Henry Grattan's Address to his Fellow-Citizens of Dublin. p. 37.

“In the people it would only be rebellion against their creature (the King); in the other (i. e. in the King) it would be rebellion against his creator, the people.” Grattan. p. 12.

“Kings are but satellites; and your freedom is the luminary which has called them to the skies.” Grattan. p. 40. This, I suppose, is a beautiful rhetorical expression alluding to the murder of Louis the Sixteenth, or the modern democratick mode of “calling kings to the skies.”

“Priestcraft is a falling cause, and a superannuated folly.” Grattan. p. 22. —If Priestcraft means the juggling or deceit of Priests, I hope it is falling, and will fall for ever. But I think, no man of sober enquiry and of a cultivated understanding, who admits the truth of Christianity, can ever apply with sense, honesty, or justice, the term Priestcraft, to such an Establishment of it, as the Church of England, dependant as it is, on the general law of the land for its support, rights, and constitution. I am here speaking only of the modes of religious worship as they affect civil society, between which there is an important relation, and a close connection.—Mr. Grattan's “popular and energetick Romanists,” could tell him what Priestcraft is.

“We know of no royal rule for religion or mathematicks.” Grattan. p. 21. I only notice this, to mark the folly of the rhetorician in it's application.

One peculiar feature of Mr. Grattan's inconsistency (now a favourite term) is this: In his Address to the Citizens of Dublin, he recommends and enforces self-legislation, absolute and unqualified, to Ireland; and in his speech on Mr. Fox's motion in the British House of Commons, he asserted and maintained the propriety (and consequently the legality) of Appeals from the Parliament of Ireland to the British House of Commons.

“What method remains to limit the monarchy of these kingdoms, Great Britain and Ireland, (it has now no limits) but by Reforming Parliament (i. e. the House of Commons)? What method to prevent a Revolution, but a Reformation?” (i. e. of the House of Commons) What is the reformation of Parliament? (i. e. of the H. of C.) but the restoration to the people of self-legislation?—Without which there is no liberty, as without reform, no self-legislation. So we reasoned!!!” Grattan, p. 40. In a preceding part of his Address, Mr. Grattan says, “It is the object of the Reform, that Parliament (i. e. the House of Commons) should continue in contact with the people always, and with the Minister never, except the people should be in contact with him.” Grattan, p. 28. The beautiful ambiguity, equivocation, or rather the absolute nonsense, of the word Contact suits such an understanding as that of the Ex-Representative of the City of Dublin. “Tantamne rem tam negligenter, tam indisertè, tam impudenter?” Perhaps Mr. Grattan may be of the same opinion with a seditious scribbler, one M'Cormick, concerning the many headed monster, the Irish Dragon, whose teeth (as M'Cormick tells us) are sown, and must ere long spring up in hosts of armed Patriots, not with frantick rage to point their spears at each others breasts, but to fertilize the soil, and renovate the proverbial verdure of their Country, by the blood of it's cruel oppressors.” —N. B. In the rural œconomicks of Democracy, Blood is always the manure.

See a large pamphlet in 4 to. published in 1798, which M'Cormick calls, “The Life of Burke, p. 231.

“The Catholicks have, in truth and reason, as good a right to Liberty as his Majesty has to the Crown!” Grattan, p. 21. Such is the sport of a rhetorician with the term Liberty.

Hussey, the Roman-Catholick, democratick, and seditious, titular Bishop of Waterford. See his Pastoral Letter, &c. &c.

“The project—to put France at the head of Europe, instead of Great Britain, while her people crouch under a weight of debt and taxes, without an Empire to console, or a constitution to cover them.” Grattan, ib. 38.

“We saw that these Islands, Great Britain and Ireland, were now two kingdoms in a Republican Ocean,” &c. Grattan. p. 39.

If Mr. Pitt's principle of Redemption in all loans had been originally adopted at the commencement of the Funding System, the National Debt would have been but small even at this period.

See above; Note (l).

“It appeared to us, that the best way of starving that spirit, was to remove the food.” Grattan. p. 16.

Sir George Baker, Bart. Physician to the King, of high professional character and learned accomplishments.

Francis Milman, M. D. a Physician in London, of great skill and eminence, and extensive practice; a gentleman of classical erudition, polite manners, and of a well-cultivated understanding.

“The popular and energetick Romanists, the United Irishmen.” Grattan.

See at large Dr. Duigenan's masterly and irrefragable arguments on the subject of the Roman Catholick religion and principles, in his answer to Mr. Grattan's Address. P. 41 to 45. and p. 123 to 141.

The freedom of the City of Dublin, &c. &c. &c. has been taken from Mr. Grattan by the vote of the Citizens, Freemen, &c. and his picture removed from the College.

Marquis Cornwallis, Lieutenant Governor, &c. &c. of Ireland. 1798. I cannot better characterize this great and good man, when the tenor of his virtuous and honourable life, and of his publick conduct military and civil, is impartially considered, than in the following lines.

See the Answer of Dr. Patrick Duigenan to Mr. Grattan's Address.—I refer to what is said in the preface to this poem.

N. B. St. Anne's Hill is the seat of the Hon. Charles James Fox.

James Gilray; the political Hogarth of the present day. His pencil has been, and continues to be, of essential service in the publick cause of Great Britain and Ireland. In some of the higher efforts of his genius, such as, “The Sun of the Constitution,—The Homage of Leviathan—The Shrine at St. Anne's Hill,” and others which might be named, it is justice to say, that the design, skill, execution, and intention deserve the highest praise. Multæ Veneris, cum pondere et arte.

The Rev. and unfortunate Dr. Hamilton, one of the first victims of the Irish Rebellion.

Le Peuple Souverain! as the French Jacobin tyrants term it, and, “The Sovereignty of the People,” as the English Jacobins echo it. I am astonished that such nonsensical democratick babble can be endured any longer, even at a tavern from Mr. Barrister Erskine.

Mr. Fox, the Linnæus of St. Anne's Hill.

Mr. Pope is here supposed to speak of Mr. Addison without remembrance of their jealousies and disagreements; and as Mr. Addison deserved of mankind.

From some late attentions, which have done the Minister honour; and even from the dedication of Mr. Maurice's. Second Volume of the History of Hindostan to Mr. Pitt, I am inclined to express the wish of the Poet;

An expression of Mr. Pitt in the H. of C. in November, 1798, imprudent, however qualified. “Magnum Vectigal est Parsimonia,” were the words of Cicero. The want of œconomy, (I know what I advance) is the chief and prominent defect of Mr. Pitt's administration. With what ease might it be remedied!

Some abuses of this kind should be looked into: what is granted liberally, should be expended wisely.

Ambrosio, or The Monk, a Romance, by M. Lewis, Esq. M. P.—See the Remarks upon it in the Preface to the Fourth Dialogue of the Pursuits of Literature.

An Athenian Orator, whose works attracted Lady Jersey's attention through the medium of Dr. Gillies's translation. The Oration on Eratosthenes is rather singular.

See the Preface to the Second Volume of the Ionian Antiquities published by the Dilettanti Society.

Charles Hatchett, Esq. F. R. S. a gentleman of ingenuity, and of liberal, intense application to the study of Chemistry. The R. S. presented him with their medal for his chemical researches in 1798. Much may be expected from the ability and patient labours of

Alluding to the experiments of the learned and very ingenious Mr. Cavendish on Water, and it's constituent principles.

In allusion to Sir John Sinclair's novel ideas on marine subjects, delivered in the House of Commons some time in Nov. 1798.

The present Earl Stanhope is one of the first experimental Naval projectors in England. He will possibly recollect the proposition he made to an eminent Ship-builder.

I allude to the present important controversy in the medical world. See the Inquiries by the Doctors Jenner and Pearson, “into the causes and effects of the Variolæ Vaccinæ, or Cow-Pox, principally with a view to supersede and extinguish the Small Pox.” London, 1798.—The evidence appears as yet to be wholly negative; but it is not my intention to examine all the cases and writings, “Vaccinus quæcumque recepit Apollo.” Dr. Pearson's Treatise is inscribed to Sir George Baker, Bart, which entitles the subject to the consideration of the Faculty. (Nov. 1798.)

This appears from the sublime and poetical words of the ingenious Dr. Pearson; “I would not pluck a sprig of laurel from the wreath which decorates the brow of Dr. Jenner!” Enquiry on the Cow-Pox, p. 3. But still— Et Vitulâ tu dignus et Hic.

Dr. Jenner is a Physician in Gloucestershire, and I very naturally suppose that Sabrina, the tutelar nymph of the Severn, pointed out to him the fair object of his discovery.

Hic crudelis amor Tauri, suppostaque furto Pasiphäe, mixtumque genus.

It is impossible to say, how far the Commutation System may be carried in this country. It first began with a little Tea, which the celebrated Doctor William Pitt, (a Practitioner of great and extensive reputation, who settled in London about the year 1784, and still continues to give advice to the publick in Downing-Street,) recommended to his Patients, as a cheap medicine in lieu of light, air, and some other non-naturals. The physicians are now beginning to pay their addresses to the Cow; and the Clergy are afraid that some State-Doctors may offer the same gallant attention to the calves, pigs, and lambs, merely by way of change. But if the medical commutation-act is to extend to other diseases, I fear that it will be easier for Sir George Baker, Bart. to appease the classical Manes of Fracastorius, than to console some of the medical profession on the extinction of the Nymph Syphilis. (Nov. 1798.)

Everard Home and James Earle, Esqrs. two Surgeons of eminence in London.

Everard Home and James Earle, Esqrs. two Surgeons of eminence in London.

William Godwin and Mary Woolstoncraft Godwin.—I refer the reader to the Notes in the third and fourth Dialogues of the Pursuits of Literature for the exposition and exposure of Philosopher William. At present it is curious to compare the living works of Mr. Godwin, with the posthumous writings of the frail fair one; and above all with the Philosopher's unblushing account of his own Wife's amours, life, and conduct. “Ego te ceventem, Sexte, verebor?” Mr. Godwin has fully explained and exemplified what he calls “the most odious of monopolies,” Marriage; and has published all his philosophical transactions with Mary, previous to his monopolizing her. When Mrs. Bellamy's and Mrs. Baddeley's Memoirs were printed, we knew what we were to expect. But when a philosopher, a reformer of states, a guide in fine writing, belles lettres, morality, and legislation, like Mr. Godwin, publishes such Memoirs of his own Wife, what must we say? “Sic liceat tumulo scripsisse, Catonis Marcia?”

I have been informed, that previous to the important, or as he thinks, unimportant nuptial contract, Philosopher Godwin consulted a descendant of Trouillogan in Rabelais, who states in two chapters, “How the Philosopher Trouillogan handled the difficulty of marriage; together with the answers of that great Ephectick and Pyrrhonian Philosopher on that subject.” A very short specimen of the doubtful doubts, as handled by Panurge and that great man, may not be unpleasant or inapplicable.

“Panurge.—Should I marry? Philosopher Trouillogan.—There is some likelihood. Panurge.—But if I do not marry? Philosopher.—I see in that no inconvenience. Panurge.—You do not? Philosopher.—None truly; if my eyes deceive me not. Panurge.—Yea; but I reckon more than five hundred inconveniences. Philosopher.—Reckon them, &c. &c. Panurge.—Well then; if I marry, I shall be a Cuckold. Philosopher.—One would say so. Panurge.—But are you married, Philosopher Trouillogan, or are you not? Philosopher.—Neither the one, nor the other; and yet both together.” &c. &c. &c.

At the conclusion of this Nuptial Dialogue, in which Panurge with all the keenness of his dialecticks pushed the Philosopher home, and probed him to the quick, the great Gargantua, who had heard the whole disputation most patiently from the beginning to the end, non sine stupore, suddenly rose and exclaimed, “Praised be heaven! but above all for bringing the world to that height of refinedness, beyond what it was, when I was first acquainted with it; that now the most learned and prudent philosophers are not ashamed to be seen entering the porches of the schools of the Pyrrhonian, Aporrhetick, Sceptick, and Ephectick Sects! It will be henceforth found an easier enterprize to take lions by the necks, oxen by the horns, or goats by the beard, than to entrap such philosophers in their words!” By which it appears, that the great Gargantua made no allusion, by anticipation, to Philosopher Godwin, who certainly may be entrapped with great ease in his words, at least in such as he has thought proper to print. But as Panurge said, “Parlons sans disjunctives.”

It is however certain, that many parts of this Dialogue must have administered great comfort to Mr. Godwin. But before I can persuade the reader to peruse the Memoirs of Mary by her own husband, and all Mary's own posthumous writings revised, and perhaps a little improved, by Mary's husband, on justice, marriage, rights, wrongs, and so on, to the end of the chapters by “He and She”, the gentleman and the lady, the two parties in the contract; the philosopher and philosophess, the citizen and the citizette, recourse must be had to abler arguments than any which I can produce. I must request him to study the chapter in which it is shewn, “How Pantagruel persuaded Panurge to take counsel of a fool.” Perhaps the Philosopher may here say with Panurge, “Je mettray mes lunettes a cette oreille gauche, pour vous ouir plus clair.”

I still think, that these memoirs and posthumous works of Mary Woolstoncraft Godwin should be earnestly recommended to every father and mother, to every guardian and every mistress of a boarding school throughout the kingdoms of Great Britain, as “A convenient Manual of speculative debauchery, with the most select arguments for reducing it into practice;” for the amusement, initiation, and instruction of young ladies from sixteen to twenty-five years of age, who wish to figure in life, and afterwards in Doctors Commons and the King's Bench; or ultimately in the notorious receptacles of patrician prostitution. This is the end of the new school, certain, inevitable, irreversible.

The force of ridicule indeed on this subject can hardly be exhausted upon the manner in which these philosophers treat it seriously. The words of Shakspeare press upon the mind;

Yet still the consequences are so fatal, and so extensive in their iniquity, that we must also strive to repress them by reasoning, and by every method which learning and reflection can supply or suggest. It is one nefarious system of philosophick foolery, which some persons suffer themselves to play with too long, till by flowery language, or rather by ridiculous terms, they are at last betrayed into a forgetfulness of original sound principles, and of sober sense. They read, till they persuade themselves, that they can see “the tear of affection (like Mr. Godwin's) chrystallized by the power of genius, and converted into a permanent literary brilliant!!! But by this nonsense, by this foolery, by this substitution of words, aided by the general corruption of morals throughout Europe, the great revolutionary terrors have been brought into action.

Surely parents and guardians should, with the most affectionate earnestness, for the sake of their country, of themselves, of their dearest hopes, and of every institution divine or human, warn and caution young female readers against such writings as Mrs. Woolstoncraft Godwin's; if they perceive an inclination in them to peruse her works. I hate literary prohibitions in such a case, which are generally ineffectual; but gentle admonition will always have some force on young minds and ingenuous tempers. Their instructors should inform them, that such opinions and doctrines are founded upon the contempt and rejection of that system, which has alone given comfort and dignity to women in the social state, and placed them in honour, confidence, and security.

The Christian code speaks to them of no species of subjection to men, as to masters; but it teaches them to look for support, affection, and comfort from men, as fathers, brothers, and husbands. Is it any wonder, that the Creator should best understand the specifick distinctions, and relations of his creatures? Whatever is consistent with the delicacy of their frame, the care of their minds, the cultivation of their talents, and the superintendence of their family and children, is offered and enjoyed freely and fully by women in this Christian kingdom. These philosophers, of either sex, make marriage the object of their most peculiar ridicule, and then refine it into prostitution.

What can women expect to learn from such writings? To approach them, is to tread, perhaps without design and generally with original rectitude, in the vestibule of the Corinthian temple of seduction and adultery. To no other altars can they be conducted by such a priestess as Mrs. Woolstoncraft Godwin. But they should be reminded, that in the gloomy back-ground they may plainly discern the cavern of suicide.

It is unpleasant to criticize, even in the gentlest manner, the works of the female pen. We have ladies of ingenuity, learning, and of every varied excellence; I would name Mrs. Carter, and Mrs. Hannah More, in the most eminent sense. The genius of the authoress of the Elegy on Captain Cook, the poetry of Mrs Charlotte Smith, and the sombrous fancy and high-wrought imagery of Mrs. Radcliffe, cannot be mentioned without admiration. But when female writers forget the character and delicacy of their sex; when they take the trumpet of democracy, and let loose the spirit of gross licentiousness, moral and political, in contempt of those laws, which are their best shield, and of that religion, which has invariably befriended and protected them; the duty which is owing to the defence of our country, and of all female virtue, comfort, and happiness, calls for strong animadversion. When their softness is laid aside, when they appear as the Minervas of the modern illuminated systems, and the Bellonas of France; in such cases men must be excused, if they would avoid destruction even from their writings.

Young female readers often find in Mrs. Godwin's treatises a lively fancy, a specious reasoning, a bold spirit, and flights of ideas to which they have been unaccustomed. The possession and the exertion of these ideas they sometimes, in a fatal moment, conceive to be actual liberty, and effectual freedom from restraint, and the enthralment of prejudice. They drink deep, and are intoxicated with words and fancies, till they are tempted beyond their strength, and become incapable of their own distress. Their weedy trophies of liberty, philosophy, and emancipation, fall into the stream together with themselves, their innocence, their comfort, their dignity, and their happiness, to rise no more. (Nov. 1798.)

See “Memoirs of Mary Woolstoncraft Godwin, by William Godwin.

Rabelais Book 3. Ch. 35. and 36.

The Annals of Doctors Commons extend the term.

In such language has publick criticism been delivered to the world in one of the Reviews, on Mr. Godwin's Memoirs of his Wife.

Baruel Memoirs of Jacobinism, Vol. 3.

Vanini, the celebrated atheist, who wished he had been born out of wedlock. “Utinam extra legitimum torum procreatus fuissem, &c.” Such is the blasphemous, idle rant on the subject in his treatise, “De Admirandis Naturæ Secretis.”

I shall take my leave of Mr. Godwin (for I have no present intention to examine any more of his works specifically) with some observations on the general tendency of all such authors and their works.

In the present state of civil society, and of political order so wisely established, so vigorously maintained, and so honourably recommended in this still flourishing, opulent, and powerful kingdom; it is difficult to restrain the emotion of the breast, and the indignation of the understanding at such nefarious writings, and desolating principles. The arms, the instruments, and the agents are before us, and are now understood. It was the strong language of Cicero; “Denuncio vitia; tollite: denuncio vim, arma; removete.” We would recover the health which is gone, and the soundness which is lost. I am of opinion they may both be recovered. But we must all strive, in our several capacities, to direct the vessel of the publick mind, and of the national understanding, in a strait and undeviating course; or, as it is well expressed in one of the Orphick fragments preserved by Clemens, Ιθυνειν Κραδιης νοερον κυτος.

In the sublime, but often fanciful theology, or as I would rather term it, the Theonomy, exhibited in the Timæus of Plato, and more fully in the commentary of Proclus, we read of the Εγκοσμιοι Θεοι, or superintending mundane deities. I would not insist upon the imaginary visions of any man, however great; but in the way of adaptation, they have often a force and analogy, which is neither unpleasing nor unfruitful. I am sure the present modern philosophical writers, such as Condorcet, and his mongrel disciples in England, Godwin and others, have no pretensions to the reverence of mankind, as mundane deities. Their aim is not to exalt the soul of man, but to depress and degrade it to the beast, or in Sir Thomas More's indignant language, “ad pecuini corpusculi vilitatem.”

It is remarkable that Sir Thomas More, in his Republick of Utopia, declared that a person who entertained and professed such sentiments, as the modern philosophy holds forth and inculcates, was not worthy to be numbered among rational men, much less to be enrolled among the Citizens. His reason was this; that a contempt of all laws and of all institutions was a necessary consequence of such opinions, when uncontrolled. His words are remarkable: “Illum ne hominum quidem ducunt numero, tantum abest ut inter Cives ponant, quorum instituta moresque, si per metum liceat, omnes floccifacturus sit.” Now we have lived to see, that fear has not restrained such Citizens as Mr. Godwin and others; and they have accordingly vilified, set at nought, and held out to contempt the laws, the religion, the manners, and the institutions of their country, which defends and protects them, in conformity to the opinion of Sir Thomas More. Such Citizens maintain the doctrines of dissolution, not of compact; the frame and body of Society drops into pieces member after member, when the principle of continuity is withdrawn. “Nigidium vidi; Cratippum cognovi.”

Men of the greatest minds and of the widest intellectual views, have frequently indulged themselves in forming Utopian Republicks, and have often unadvisedly dwelt too much upon the unavoidable evils of Society. Such pure spirits are naturally offended with every species of evil. Igneus est ollis vigor, et cælestis origo. But when such men, as Sir Thomas More, suffer their minds to be amused (I fear it is but an amusement at best) with speculative or imaginary political excellence, or rather perfection, how different are their principles, and the result of their thoughts from those of sciolists and sophists. We all regret the loss of that Republick, which the genius of Cicero had constructed. There are indeed a few noble fragments of the building, preserved by Lactantius, Macrobius, and Augustine; though the plan of the entire edifice by the hand of that consummate practical Statesman, and experienced Philosopher, cannot be traced from the remains. I believe he would have corrected many of the errors of Plato.

But it is not without it's use to compare, (if we have leisure, and as far as we may compare them) the work of the sublimest Heathen Philosopher with that of the Christian Statesman Sir Thomas More. I speak upon the whole; I am sensible of their errors, particularly in the Athenian: yet when we think of Plato, we must not forget the state of the Heathen world, antecedent to Christianity. But notwithstanding, both these great men proceeded upon the true dignity of the human mind, when undebased by vice; and bottomed their opinions upon the most solid science. Their views were large, comprehensive, connected. They knew the nature and the state of man; and they saw what it would admit, and what it would not bear. When they proposed some amendment, or some institution which did not then exist, it was in the way of suggestion, and not of dogmatical imposition. They never moved through the state with the sword, and the scythe in their hands. What they saw, was with the eye of a well-instructed mind, long prepared by study and exercised in discernment.

These persons in their generations, were indeed among the superintending mundane deities of their country. Not so the modern Directors of human affairs; though they aspire to be thought, and to act, as the gods of this nether world. They would sit with the thunderbolt in their hands, and the storms under their feet. Yet even Mythology condemns them, and points to her Salmoneus. But we stand not on the ground of fable: for what is the most extended and the most desolating power of tyrant and of rampant wickedness on the earth, for a few days or a few years, before Him “who (for his own inscrutable purposes) putteth down and setteth up, and alone ruleth in the kingdoms of men!”

The consideration of these modern philosophers offers also the strongest argument for the vigorous and unremitting prosecution of well-directed study, in all the publick seats of education in these kingdoms. Plato declared, that one of the causes of atheism is, “a certain ignorance very grievous, which notwithstanding has the appearance of the greatest wisdom.” This apparent wisdom must be combated, and overthrown by reason and erudition; the fallacy must be pointed out, and the effect, when perfected, shewn to be death moral, mental, and political.

I am confident that the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge will be still found to be the best and most solid bulwarks (I trust not the only ones) of true science, and of the legitimate cultivation of the understanding, if they adhere to their original principles; but not otherwise. By this method of reasoning, I should conceive, that the works of Hooker, Pearson, Stillingfleet, and Barrow, have been lately reprinted at the Clarendon press of the university of Oxford, with singular judgment and true discernment of the time. They have been sent forth again into the world, “rejoicing like giants, to run their course.” We are in general either destroyed, or lost, or warped, or led astray, for want of the primal knowledge. I speak not here of the great incontrovertible abstract sciences of the mathematicks, and of natural philosophy founded on a severe and sublime geometry. These cannot be disputed. But I am speaking of the moral cultivation of the understanding, that the frame and good order of religion and government may be still supported in these realms, by a succession of young men well educated, and judiciously conducted in the paths of erudition. An acute and intelligent observer of history once inscribed a most valuable work in these emphatick words: “To the hope of England, its young gentry, is dedicated, the glory of it, its ancient statesmen; a renowned ancestry, to an honourable posterity.” I wish to see these words continued, and embodied with strength and energy in Great Britain; her laws will never abhor such a perpetuity.

I have often, when discoursing on education, dwelt with peculiar earnestness on the dignity and wisdom of the Greek writers in almost every department of science, poetry, philosophy, politicks, and morality. I think I have observed, that the modern political theorists, who are either not versed in them at all, or but superficially, and who therefore hold them in contempt, have generally wandered the widest and the wildest in these days of confusion, distraction, and convulsion. Aristotle, Plato, and Thucydides, to mention no others, well knew what was the tyrannical nature of a democracy, and all its appendages. None have more strongly or more justly characterized and depicted it; none have held it out to greater reprobation and abhorrence. They teach us alternately by reason, and by example.

The writings of these great men have a perpetual youth. Like the sun, their light is always new, yet always the same; the source of mental life, health, vigour, chearfulness, and fecundity. It guided our forefathers, and it will guide us if we attend to it. The Commentator, or rather the animated rival of Plato, has words which, on such a subject, it is neither unnatural nor improper to produce and to adapt. Οινοχοει αυτοις η Ηβη. Τον ολον αισθητον Κοσμον ορωσιν: ατρεπτοις και ακλινεσι νοημασι χρωμενοι, πληρουσι τα παντα της δημιουργικης αυτων προνοιας. Συνεστιν αυτοις κουριδιη θεοτης, τη μεν νοησει το αχραντον επιλαμπουσα.

I would yet add a few words on these modern philosophers. They sometimes tell us sneering, and in scorn, that the code of Christians is the code of equality. They have attempted to shew this more than once. But surely we may ask, what is the equality held forth in the Christian Scriptures? Is it not the equality of the creatures before the Creator? the equality of men before God, and not before each other? They every where speak of the distinctions and ranks in society. They ordain tribute to be paid to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom, honour to whom honour; and they speak of all lawful power, as derived from God. The great Founder of it himself acknowledged the image and superscription of Cæsar. His Apostles declare the gradations of power, delegated by authority; they speak of submission to the ordinances of man, for the Lord's sake; to the King, as Supreme; to Governors and Magistrates, as unto them who are sent by him. Is this the political equality of the boasted deliverers or oppressors of the world? How long shall we suffer the tyrant, the blasphemer, the disorganizing Sophist, to triumph and to deceive us?

Finally; when the modern systems are delineated, and the chart of the opinions and doctrines laid out in departments, I would ask, What is the Picture? What are the objects? Are the things recommended and enforced, either true, or honest, or just, or pure, or lovely, or of good report? Is there any thing to be found and felt, but insolent domination; sanguinary, and unrelenting ordinances; and the tyrannical suppression and overthrow of every existing Institution? Throughout the whole of their systems, Is there any virtue, or any praise, or any motive, which the good can approve, and the wise ratify?

I would say, Behold ye despisers, and tremble! I would much rather say to my countrymen; Behold and watch, that ye enter not into the porch and vestibule of their “Plutonian Hall,” by the temptation of such Philosophy.

Cic. Philipp. 1. Sect. 10.

Clement. Alexandrin. L. 5. p. 443. Ed. Lugd. Bat. 1616.

Mori Utopia L. 2.

Mori Utopia, Lib. 2. p. 234. Ed. Glasg. 1750.

Cicero in Timæo, Fragm. de Universitate, Sect. 1.

Αμαθια μαλα χαλεπη δοκουσα ειναι μεγιστη φρονησις. Plato de Leg. 10.

The words of Plato are worthy of observation. Προς τουτοις, οταν Πολιτειαι κακοι και λογοι κατα πολεις ιδια και δημοσια λεχθωσιν, ετι δε μαθηματα μηδαμη τουτων ιατικα εκ νεων μανθανηται, ταυτη κακοι παντες οι κακοι. Ων αιτιατεον μεν τους φυτευοντας μαλλον η φυτευομενους, και τους τρεφοντας, των τρεφομενων. Plato in Timæo. p. 87. Vol. 3. Ed. Serrani.

State Worthies; from the Reformation to the Revolution, by David Lloyd; re-published by Charles Whitworth, Esq. in two volumes.

Procli Comment. in Timæum Platonis, L. 5. p. 334. Ed. Basil. 1534.

Rape of the Lock, C. 5. v. 72.

See an admirable piece of ridicule on the German nonsense of the day, by a man of parts and wit, in a pamphlet entitled, “My Night-gown and Slippers; or, Tales in Verse, written in an Elbow-chair, by George Colman the younger.” (Printed 1797.) It is called, The Maid of the Moor; or, the Water-Fiend concerning Lord Hoppergollop's Country House.

But I would refer with still greater pleasure, and the most decided approbation, to “The Rovers, or the Double Arrangement,” a Drama in the German style, in the Anti-Jacobin, or Weekly Examiner, No. 30 and 31. a work which has been of signal service to the publick, by the union of wit, learning, genius, poetry, and sound politicks.

The modern productions of the German stage, which silly men and women are daily translating, have one general tendency to Jacobinism. Improbable plots, and dull scenes, bombastick and languid prose alternately, are their least defects. They are too often the licensed vehicles of immorality and licentiousness, particularly in respect to marriage; and it should be remarked in the strongest manner, that all good characters are chiefly and studiously drawn from the lower orders; while the vicious and profligate are seldom, if ever, represented but among the higher ranks of society, and among men of property and possessions. This is not done without design.

It is indeed time to consider a little, to what and to whom we give our applause, in an hour of such general danger as the present. The Stage surely has the most powerful effect on the publick mind. The Author of The School for Scandal, with the purest and most patriotick intentions, long ago endeavoured to make dishonesty, gambling, deep drinking, debauchery, and libertinism, appear amiable and attracting in his character of Charles Surface; and the German Doctors of the sock and buskin are now making no indirect attacks on the very fundamentals of society and established government, subordination, and religious principle; the vaunt-couriers of French anarchy, national plunder, and general misery.

The insignia of Citizen Hardy, Citizen Kingsbury, Citizen Thelwall, Citizen Tom Paine, &c. &c. and all those philosophers, scribblers, and Lecturers, who serve us

Life of Edmund Burke by McCormick.

Two pair of Portraits, of two Fathers and two Sons, by John Horne Tooke.

Mr. Belsham and Dr. Towers, two Dissenting Compilers of some information and ingenuity, who would be thought Historians.—“They make lame mischief, but they mean it well.”

Richard Porson, M. A. The most learned and acute Greek scholar of the present age. I allude to his late accurate and most valuable editions of the Hecuba, and Orestes of Euripides, whose integral works may be expected from the Professor. He modestly says, that they are published “in usum studiosæ Juventutis, or, as I suppose, for the use of schools and Tiros. But his notes and remarks are not adapted to school-boys, to their wants, or their comprehension. He might as well have published them for the use of the Mamalukes in Egypt, or Bonaparte's Savans. The Professor should condescend to give some more general illustrations, and a selection of the Greek Scholia, if he would confer a real favour, as it is in his power to do, on the Masters of Schools and the Tutors of Colleges. I hope he will proceed in this important revision, and perhaps effect the final establishment of the Greek text of all the Tragedians. This he can do, or no man. He will be entitled to the publick gratitude of the learned world.—Such a man, so gifted, so instructed, so adorned with various science, I could wish to number among the defenders of the best interests of his country. But at present most unfortunately, in many of our learned men there is, in regard to subjects of political and sacred importance, a something, which, in the phrase of Hamlet, “Doth all the noble substance often dout.”

Why is it so?

Tironum usibus potissimum destinata.

Malone's reading of the passage.

Perry, the Editor of the Morning Chronicle, was imprisoned three months in Newgate, for a libel on the House of Lords.

The example of the Caravan of Deportation, or as it is called from the place of banishment, the Guiana Diligence in Paris, should be a warning to the editors and printers of such papers as the Courier, Morning Chronicle, the Star, &c. &c. how they abuse the patience forbearance of the mild and lenient Government of England.

Under the blessings of French freedom and emancipation, what is the liberty of thinking, speaking, and writing? The authors, the printers, and the booksellers, are crushed at once and equally, and either chained in dungeons, or seized and swept away from their native country, without hope and without judgment, unheard, unpitied, and unknown. Pro lege Voluntas!

But we have yet a nation to save; we have millions of loyal men who never bowed the knee to the Baal of Jacobinism; and we have also many who have drawn back from the bloody idol, and turned unto righteousness to the preservation of their souls, their bodies, and estates, and the general deliverance of their country.

See Dr. Darwin's Botanick Garden and Loves of the Plants.

Alluding to the judicious and well-timed republications of Hooker's Works, Pearson on the Creed Stillingfleet's Origines Sacræ, and a selection of Barrow's Sermons, at the Clarendon Press in the University of Oxford, in a convenient form, and for an easy consideration.

Dr. Geddes—the Roman Catholick Divine, the new Translator of the Bible.—See some remarks on the Doctor's attempt, in the Preface to the fourth Dialogue of the Pursuits of Literature.

See the Asiatick Researches, in particular those by Sir William Jones, and Mr. Maurice's Indian Antiquities, and his History of Hindostan, which have afforded the most curious and important facts, if applied with judgment and soberly investigated.—But we may expect a work on the Sacred Writings, of the greatest importance, and of the deepest erudition and ingenuity from a Gentleman, whom I shall not name. Yet perhaps, “Nunc intelligitur, olim nominabitur.”

I cannot but observe, that the learned world has much to expect in the improvement, reform, and conduct of the study of Antiquity, from the genius, erudition, discernment, active age, and unceasing diligence of Samuel Lysons, Esq. F. R. and A. S.

I allude to the works so long and so eagerly expected by the learned, from that consummate Geographer, and most accurate investigator, Major James Rennell.

The Rev. William Vincent, D. D. Master of Westminster School. A Gentleman whose professional merits, deep erudition, and unwearied application to science, in the intervals of a laborious and honourable calling, demand the most decided testimony of publick approbation. I believe, I speak the general sense of every scholar in the kingdom. Surely an honourable retreat, and some distinguished mark of publick gratitude, should be offered in time to such men, as Dr. Vincent, who have devoted their talents and attainments to the publick service, with unremitting diligence. The Masters of our great schools should be made independent, in every sense, of their scholars. This would stamp a dignity and firmness on their office and on their character, and the kingdom would derive great advantage from such a regulation.

I believe it is impossible to name such a work as Dr. Vincent's Translation of the Voyage of Nearchus, with all the learned illustrations, produced under the labour and constant pressure of so important an occupation, as the conduct of a great publick school. It has been received at home and abroad with equal attention and honour.

P. L. b. 2.

The Victory of Admiral Lord Nelson on the First of August, 1798, over the French Fleet on the shores of the Nile; that signal interposition of the Divine Providence.