the affairs of the English miniftry with those of the Regency of Hanover. If the taste, or rather appetite, of an English and Irish audience requires a large portion of theatrical entertainment for an evening meal, it would be more elegant, as well as palatable, when ferved up in two feparate courfes, than fet on the table at once, with diforderly and difgufting profufion. Two tragedies or comedies would pleafe us better in fucceffion, than when confufed and huddled together in one monstrous mass: and this rule we recommend to the observance of our dramatic poets, in all time coming. The comedy before us has little, with regard to fable, cha. racter, or manners, to recommend it to notice. The ftile is forced, barbarous, and ungrammatical; and by no means the ftile of converfation. The following is a fpecimen. Sir Harly. Has our bright northern ftar, at length, moved from its stationary distance, revolving nearer us, to beam its brilliant and benign influence on the fouth, to enlighten me, and shine a conftellation in the hemifphere of our metropolis!- Caroline. If this flaming compliment is defigned for me, Sir Harly, I affure you it is thrown away, and much more than I de◄ ferve; as it was neither to planet-strike you, or make an illumination in the city, that I came to it; for J shall beam very little abroad. Sir Harly. Come, come, Mifs Belgrade, this formal, icy language is not congenial to the warm regions of London; - we'll not let you be envelop'd and conceal'd in a cloud, hiding your luftre from us with all the prudery of a Lady Grace; fhall we, Mifs Meanwell?' Sir Harly Paramour is, indeed, reprefented as a member of parliament; but there was no occafion for so much brilliancy of figure, on this occafion, as he was only talking to his mistrefs, and not making a speech in the House of Commons. But the wittiest and most laboured scene of the whole is, when the aforefaid Sir Harly Paramour was at Madame Bordelle's lodging (to which he wanted to convey his miftrefs, but being detected by the father, who came all the way from India, in the critical moment) attempted to make his escape, difguifed in womens clothes, from a closet window; but, being fufpended by the train of the gown, was caught in the attempt: Belgrade the father, Blenheim the honourable lover, and Madam Bordelle the bawd, appearing at an oppofite window laughing. Sir Harly. Help! help! help! do, Madame Bordelle, order fome of your damn'd rafcals to affift me. Blen. What! for running off with her clothes, and making a woman of yourself? Belg. Q! the gods of old always intrigued in difguife, you know! Blen: Blen. And he that has the heart of a woman should always appear like one. Sir Harly. Do, dear Madame Bordelle. Blen. O no, he's a capital fign poft, and might have answered for a golden fleece, had chance fufpended him by the middle! Blen. But he is better as he is- for a battered rake, you know, is the fittest emblem for a brothel like this. Belg. Aye, and if Madame Bordelle was hung next him as a Companion-what a pair of fpectacles they would make! Sir Harly. Curfe my unlucky fate!- (Both laugh.) Do cut me down, pray! Blen. What! would you make hangmen of us? fore your execution.--(Both laugh.) Sir Harly. I'll be the laughing-ftock of all paffengers ridicule of the world as long as I live. you down be and the Blen. No; they will only call you the enchanted knight, or macaroni in tribulation! Belg. Or, perhaps, fay-you were over head and ears in love, or foufed in claret, and fo hung yourself up to dry. 1 Both. Hah! hah! hah! Blen. Suppofe you plead your privilege- and get a habeas corpus to remove the body. M. Bord. O, mon Dieu! vat bufmefs have de corpse here! you be not going to kill de body in my house! Belg. Hah! hah! hah!-No, never fear himself, if he furvives the fhame of it. Blen. We have plagued him fufficiently order us a ladder.. - fure he will live to punish fo, Madame Bordelle, (Sir Harly, in fruggling, breaks down, and falls into the fireet.) Belg. He has fav'd us the trouble-" for down drops the gallant, gay Lothario." Sir Harly. I have had a hard fall of it; but all is fafe-and now, legs do your duty.--(Runs off.) Blen. But he fhall not efcape me this way.' Notwithstanding the brightness of all this wit, fome of it is borrowed. "What a pair of fpectacles they would make!" is taken from a well-known ftory of two thieves, who were condemned to be hanged. After the first was turned over, the other thus harrangued the audience: "You see my companion fwinging, and that is a fad fpectacle; you will "foon fee me fwinging, and that will be- a pair of fpectacles." But here, as in moft cafes, the beauty of the original is loft in the imitation. English comedy has been often and much, indebted to the jefts of Ben Johnfon, Joe Millar, and other great wits, as well as to Wagitaffe's Dialogues on Polite Converfation; but this is the firft inftance we recollect of any author who has attempted to fleal from Tyburn. It was rather unfortunate, that communicating the vis comica to Ireland made no part of Mr. Orde's propofitions. ART. ART. IV. Plain Sermons on Practical Subjects, by the late Mr. Thomas Gordon, Minifter of the Gospel at Speymouth. 8vo. 2 vols. 10s. boards. Cadell, London. MR. R. Thomas Gordon, the worthy author of these fermons, was distinguished by his zeal for liberty, and a regard to the rights of mankind. Thefe, in him, were not the feeble fentiments which glow only in the closet, and evaporate in fpeculation. His zealous attachment to government, in the year 1745, and the decided part which he took, when religion and liberty were in danger, made him fo obnoxious to the rebels, that he refolved to join the Duke of Cumberland's army; and he was prefent at the battle of Culloden. The fame liberal and independent fpirit followed him into retirement, and marked his ecclefiaftical life. Though he conformed to the religious opinions of the church of Scotland, his notions of church government were somewhat fingular. These he expreffed in an excellent Treatife, which he published in the year 1776, which he called An Inquiry into the Powers of Ecclefiaftics, on the Principles of Scripture and Reafon. * There he ftrongly afferts the facred rights of confcience and of private judgment, and defends them with a fervour and force which will be highly acceptable to all rational Chriftians. During the intervals that he could spare, from the duties of his minifterial function, he compofed a variety of Effays on morality, politics, agriculture, and criticifm, many of which appeared in a periodical paper at Edinburgh, under the fignature of Urbanus. The fermons are of the plain and practical kind. The modest author makes no pretence to new difcoveries in theology, to refinement of reasoning or embellishment of compofition. He delivers what he reckons the doctrines of the gospel in their native fimplicity; adapts his instructions to the different characters of men; and endeavours to recommend and enforce vital religion, ftript of every human addition. The following paffage in the fermon on The True Import of Goodness seems to give a picture of the author's heart, and will be acceptable to every serious reader. (1.) This divine principle, where it hath arrived at any confiftence, is accompanied with the fineft and moft pleafing of all feelings. It is accompanied with a ferenity and compofure of foul which can arife from no other fource. It enables one to poffefs his whole foul and enjoy himself. And in this happy fituation one is not eafily ruffled, is feldom provoked. In quarreling with the world, it would be often found, if we would fearch deeper than prefent appearance, that at bottom we are quarrelling with ourselves. The ground work, the inflammable matter, lies within, and the least spark kindles it. For to This Inquiry is fold by Mr. Murray, No. 37, Fleet-freet, Lon don. 8vo. boards. 45. one one felf-fatisfied, that can converfe with his Creator, as the fource of being and happiness, and with himself as a dependent accountable creature, and as a finful and guilty creature with his Redeemer and Interceffor-looking with humhle hope to his all-atoning perfect work, as the alone ground of his acceptance; all nature around looks gay and fmiles; the faireft fide of things prefents itself; nor is he greatly moved in circumstances, where the reftlefs, felf-troubled, rankled mind would ftorm, rage, and discharge all its spleen and fury.—Hence arife two confiderations of great importance to our own peace and fecurity, and to the peace and happiness of society. "This divine principle will, on the one hand, fit as admirably to be members of civil community. It will difpofe us to be quiet, obliging, ufeful. It will prompt to every duty which juftice could demand, of humanity fuggeft;-which religion, in her divine ft form, infpires and dictates. The good man ftudies to be a living picture of Charity."He fuffers long, and is kind; he vaunteth not himself, he is not puffed up; doth not behave himself unfeemly, feeketh not his own, is not eafily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; heareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things "—And who would harm fo amiable, fo divine a character! It will prevent, on the other hand, that indifcreet and affuming fpirit which mars the peace of religious community, and inflames one denomination against another. It will preferve from, or foften, that intemperate and fiery zeal, which, under the base pretence of love to the truth, imbitters the paffions of men-producing often a brutal fiercenefs, equally deftructive to public and private happiness, to the rights of humanity and confcience. The belief of the truth and the love of the truth are infeparable; but the love of the truth, however fincere or fervent, is a thing totally different from these prejudices, and that refentment, which often too plainly appears against those who cannot believe and think as we do. Goodnefs of heart will ever lead to act with modefty and deference, and to judge with moderation and lenity. If we have been happily directed to the paths of truth, while others wander in the maze of darkness and error, it is our duty, indeed, to endeavour to reclaim them by every friendly, gentle, rational means in our power; to pity them, and pray for them-a truly good man would perhaps drop a tear over them; but to proceed to violence, or to dare to fanctify the most baneful paffions that difgrace humanity, under the facred name of zeal for religion, his heart forbids him-a divine impulse restrains him. Goodness of heart, in its genuine and proper fenfe, therefore, is the only permanent fecurity against this moft dreadful of all terrefttrial evils-religious perfecution! (2.) There is a majefty in real goodness that ftrikes with veneration, and overawes the confciences of wicked men, and makes them, as it were, bow before it. Hardly is any man fo abandoned-where ipi ritual ufurpatien, originating from ambitious and interested views, hath not rendered the mind dead to every moral feeling; hath not worn out every fenfibility, and erafed every trace of humanity-as not to admire, as not to envy the amiable, the bleffed character which the divine graces adorn, however little difpofed to follow the noble copy. Goodnefs, therefore, where it is not itfelf a principle in the the heart of the beholder, constitutes a moral restraint in the minds of others, and proves as a mound around its poffeffor: I do not fay impregnable; but, next to the power of repelling every injury, it is the best and moft permanent fecurity. And however bad men may act, impelled by their paffions, good men have the secret verdict of the confciences of thefe very men in their favour. They may express their difguft or their spleen, they may difcover more injurious marks ftill of their difpleasure; but, if they liften but for a moment, there is fomething within them that will whifper in their ears the true cause of all this.--That the conduct and virtues of the good man reproach them, and, in fpite of themselves, throw an alloy into their own estimate of themselves, and into the lap of all their pleafures.' Mr. Gordon's theological opinions are Calvinistical, or what are commonly called orthodox; but even his fpeculative discourses have a moral tendency, and are favourable to virtue. He does not belong to that fanatical fraternity, who think they please their Maker by renouncing their reason, and exalt revealed religion by undermining natural. He is a Chrif tian and a moralift, and addreffes the heart as well as the understanding. Readers of fermons are chiefly found in the middle ftations of life, and to fuch this collection will be of fignal fervice. The author was induced to publifh them from an impreffion on his mind, that they would be useful; and the fincerity of his piety, and the fervour of his goodness, cannot fail to make the beft impreffions on others. ART. V. The Works of Mr. Chevalier de Florian. Tranflated, from the laft Paris Edition, by Mr. Robinjon. Two volumes I 2mo. 5s. fewed. Becket. London, 1786. THE firft of these volumes contains a translation of Galatez, a pastoral romance; to which is prefixed an introductory effay on that species of compofition, addreffed to Mifs Thurlow. Paftoral romance is, in our language, a new fpecies of writing. Italy gave birth to it, and is ftill without a rival in that branch of literature. Taffo's Aminta is ftill the first of paftoral productions. His imitators have not been so happy. The delight of the Italians is to start an image hidden in some remote region of fancy; to prefent it in a variety of forms; and to fubftitute wit and fancy for paffion and nature. Not all the wit of Guarini, the prettiness of Bonarelli, or the luftre of Marino, can vie with the fimple beauties of Geffner. A German writes as he feels; the heart finds a language for itself; a language easy and expreffive, without the aid of art. The Germans are our mafters in rural harmony; and have carried off the palm of paftoral poetry. The |
