To burthen the memory with a load of dry matter would, on the one hand, be dull; and with a mass of poetry, which the can have little occafion to ufe, would, on the other, be fuper. fluous. But, as the understanding opens, and years advance, might the not occafionally commit to memory, from the best au thors in every department, one felect paffage, one weighty fentence, one ftriking precept, which, in the hours devoted to fociety and relaxation, might form a kind of thefis for interefting converfation. For instance, a fhort fpecimen of eloquence from South, or of rea foning from Barrow; a detached reflection on the analogy of reli gion to the conftitution of nature from Butler; a political charac ter from Clarendon; a maxim of prudence from the Proverbs; a precept of government from Bacon; a moral document from the Rambler; a pallage of ancient hiftory from Plutarch; a fketch of national manners from Goldsmith's Traveller, or of individual character from the Vanity of Human Wishes; an aphorifm on the contempt of riches from Seneca, or a paragraph on the wealth of nations from Adam Smith; a rule of conduct from Sir Matthew Hale, or a fentiment of benevolence from Mr. Addison; a devout contemplation from Bishop Hall, or a principle of tafte from Quintilian; an opinion on the law of nations from Vattel, or on the law of England from Blackftone." P. 135. The whole of this chapter deferves the higheft commendation. This fame fubject is continued for three fucceeding chapters, in which are found fome excellent observations on Addifon, Johnfon, Shakspeare, Lord Bacon, &c. At chapter XXIX, the fubject of Religion is again refumed; and here the author feems to exert all the powers of her mind. With the holy fcriptures the appears to have formed the clofeft intimacy; and her knowledge of this kind is communicated with the foundeft piety, untinctured, as every candid reader muft fay, by the fmallest degree of fanaticíím. The claims of the Old Teftament to universal admiration and reverence, are, with great ftrength of argument and precifion of flyle, difcuffed in p. 206 and p. 220. The fub. ject of the New Teflament occupies a portion of the work from p. 221 to p. 240. We adinire the mild and pious fpirit with which the whole of this is written; but we extol without referve the paffages on the fubje&t of the prophecies. From what precedes, we are naturally led to what the writer calls the abufe of terms; as for example, the terms Liberty and Property; the cant terms of Wilkes and his party; Equality, the cry of the French Reformers; Enthufiafm and Superftition. On thefe the author mpft be allowed to speak for herself. "Religion, "Religion, the religion of the Scriptures, is itself an exquifite temperament, in which all the virtues, of which man is capable, are harmoniously blended. He therefore, who ftudies the Scriptures, and draws from thence his ideas and fentiments of religion, takes the beft method to escape both enthusiasm and fuperftition. Even infidelity is no fecurity against either. But it is abfolutely impoffible for an intelligent votary of fcriptural Christianity to be in any refpect fanatical. True fanatics, therefore, are apt to neglect the fcriptures, except fo far as they can turn them to their own particular purpose. The Romish Church, for example, became negligent of the Scriptures, nearly in proportion as it be came fuperftitious. And every ftriking inftance of enthufiafin, if inquired into, will be found to exemplify the fame dereliction. In a word, Chriftianity is eternal truth, and they who foar above truth, as well as they who fink below it, equally overlook the ftandard by which rational action is to be regulated; whereas, to adhere fteadily to this, is to avoid all extremes, and escape, not only the tendency toward pernicious excefs, but any danger of falling into it. "Did we accuftom ourfelves to exact definitions, we should not only call the diforderly religionift an enthufiaft; we should alfo feel, that if irrational confidence, unfounded expectations, and affumptions without a bafis, be enthufiafm, then is the term moft justly applicable to the mere worldly moralift. For, does not he widely affume effects to be produced without their proper means, who looks for virtue without piety; for happiness without holi. nefs; for reformation without repentance; for repentance without divine affiftance; for divine affiftance without prayer; and for acceptance with God without regard to that Mediator, whom God has ordained to be our great high priest." P. 253. The fubject which is next inveftigated, is the Reformation; and here fome further very admirable remarks on Hume are to be found; and ample juftice is rendered to the character of Erafmus. The chapter which follows, on the importance of religious inftitutions and obfervances, traces, fagacioufly, the vices and crimes of the French revolution, to the spirit of infidelity, which in that nation preceded it. It is foundly proved that religious inftitutions are fuited to the nature of cliriftianity and the character of man, Thefe remarks properly introduce a chapter on the Established Church of England, of which the following extract exhibits a juft and modeft reprefentation. "The established Church of England may not, it is true, bear a comparison with theoretic perfection, nor will it gain the approbation of thofe who require, that a visible should poffefs the qualities of an invisible church, and that every member of a na tional inftitution fhould equal in piety certain individual Chrif tians; nor, in any point of view, can its real character be afcertained, or its juft claims be established, except it be contemplated, as a fixed inflitution, exifting from the period of the reformation to the prefent day, independently of the variations and difcordances of the fucceffive multitudes who adhered to it. "Let it then, under this only fair notion of it, be compared with all the other national churches of the reformation, and, on fuch a comparative view, its fuperiority will be manifeft. The truth is, our church occupies a kind of middle place; neither multiplying ceremonies, nor affecting pompoufnefs of public worfhip with the Lutheran church, nor rejecting all ceremonies and all liturgical folemnity with the church of Geneva;-a tempe rament thus fingular, adopted and adhered to, in times of unadvanced light and much polemical diffonance, amid jarring interefts and political intrigues, conveys the idea of fomething more excellent than could have been expected from mere human wisdom, P. 301. Mrs. More next examines what the terms, "The providential hiftory of England," or the fuperintendence of Providence, as manifefted in the local circumftances and in the civil and religious hiftory of England, as well as in thofe incidents alfo which led to the revolution, and to the providential fucceflion of the Houfe of Hanover. The work concludes by confidering Chriftianity as a principle of action, especially as it refpects fupreme rulers. We may now be expected to give our definitive opinion of the merits of the whole performance. Setting afide all former claims of the writer to merit panegyric, we should have no fcruple in faying of the work, that it is composed with extraordinary vigour; that it demonftrates a pious, loyal, and very enlightened mind; it fhows a familiar acquaintance with ancient, modern, and particularly with Ecclefiaftical Hiftory; and it proves an intimate knowledge of the beft writers in many languages and on the most important fubjects. The ftyle is elegant and perfpicuous, with very little exception. The work altogether is of very fuperior merit, and will add confiderably to a reputation already established by many excellent productions, and the repeated approbation of the public. It is very properly, and in very modeft terms, infcribed the Bishop of Exeter, to whofe diftinguished abilities and virtues the fuperintendence of the education of the royal pupil has been confided. ART. III. A Poem on the Restoration of Learning in the Eaft; which obtained Mr. Buchanan's Prize. By Charies Grant, Efg. M. A. Fellow of Magdalen College (Cambridge.) 4to. 29 pp. Ss. 6d. Cambridge, printed. Cadell and Davies, London. 1805. WE have not often perufed a work of this nature with fo much gratification as that which is now under review. The Oxford Prize Poem of Mr. Heber, on Paleftinet, we confidered as little likely to be rivalled; but we must conffs that Mr. Grant has no lefs exalted the Mufes of Cambridge, and in fome particulars has rifen even to fuperior energy and beauty. The oppofite faults of negligence and affectation are those which moft frequently difgrace the writings of modern poets. Both are avoided by Mr. Grant, who has neither fuffered his imagination to milead his judgment, nor has fought originality by affected novelties of expreffion His language is pure and chafte, the ftyle of genuine poetry, without the paltry ambition of fingularity. The plan which he has adopted embraces a wide field, and affords him full fcope for difplaying all his powers. He has divided his poemn into three principal parts, in the firft of which the genius of India in profperity prophetically anticipates the miferies which were to be produced by the bigotry of Aurungzebe, the irruption of Nadir Shah, and its inteftine divifions; the fecond paints the fplendors of its literature and poetry, previous to that time, under its native kings; and the third, marking the reviv..l of learning under the English, anticipates the ftill happier profpects which await Hindoftan from adopting the arts and fciences of Britain, and more particularly from the introduction of Chriftianity. By means of this plan, the poet has avoided the formality of narration, always to be apprehended, when fo large a portion of time paffes rapidly under review, and yet preferves all the important features properly belonging to his fubject. The picture of Aurungzebe is drawn with great energy and truth in the very opening of the poem. A friend who communicated an article on this fubject will fee that we have occafionally employed his expreflions, though we could not adopt all his fentiments. Noticed in the Brit. Crit. vol. xxiii. p. 615, in our Account of the Poetical Regifter for 1802. "Nor "Nor midft that brood of blood, a fiercer name, Fierce from his lair, to lap the blood of kings." P. 2. In defcribing the rapid and terrific progrefs of Tahmas. Kouli Khan from the neighbourhood of the Cafpian, through the plains of Perfia to Delhi, Mr. Grant has indulged a fpecies of characteristic topography of which the claffical reader will at once recollect examples in Homer, Virgil, and Milton particularly in the fecond book of the Iliad, the feventh of the Æneid, and the eleventh of the Paradife Loft*. "Hark! 'tis a voice on Meshed's holy walls. From Gebal's mountains, whofe rude fummits fhade * See particularly the beautiful paffage in Virgil, of a very. different character from this, beginning "Una ingens Amiterna cohors, prifcique Quirites," &c. The following lines give a general sketch of the route of Nadir's conquefts. Mehed means "the tomb of martyrs." It is the capital of Khorafan, and was the city from which Nadir first went forth to conqueft by his own authority, and which he made the principal feat of government. § Afbar, the tribe to which Nadir belonged. Nobavend, the scene of the laft decifive battle, which lafted for three days, between the Perfians and Arabs, and terminated the empire of the former, in the feventh century. From |