• See Minucius Felix § 12, Quarterly Review, vol. iv. pp. 503, 504, 510 and for another parallel amongst heathens to the Quarterly Reviewer's sneer at the "Methodist" refusal to eat " black-puddings," the learned reader may turn to cap. 9. of Tertullian's Apologetic, or the Apostolic Can. 55, for the reasons on which the "leaden headed methodists" of those days founded their practice.

The spirit of dissent, (our liberal censor remarks), is as little favourable to literature as to manners. Unless by "literature" he means such prose as the infidel speculations of Godwin and Sir William Drummond, such dramatic poetry as that of Congreve and Wycherley, or such lyric poetry as that of "Little Moore ;"-unless by manners, he means the manners of the masquerade and of the gaming-table; we scruple not to say, that this passage, short as it is, contains as gross a misrepresentation as ever was penned by any man, who was not either shamefully ignorant or miserably prejudiced. If there are, as he assures us, with great emphasis, "blind reasoners, who do not see that it is to their intellect, not to their principles of dissent, that Milton, and Bunyan, and Defoe, owe their immortality; there are, as he demonstrates with equal force, though very unintentionally, other "reasoners" equally "blind, who do not see that it is to their" want of mental power and genius, "not to their principles of dissent," that must be imputed the circumstance of others not attaining the imaginary immortality to which he points. Whether "the muses" or the sciences be heathenish" or not, we need not here inquire;, but we will affirm, and not fear contradiction, that, without looking back to former times, the "age we live in" exhibits, among Dissenters, as able and as successful cultivators of every department of literature, science, and the fine arts, as can be found in the British dominions. Now, if the train of argumentation assumed by the writer, on whom we have thought it a duty, for once, to animadvert at length, be true, the various examples which are in every man's recollection would always be adduced as exceptions to a general rule. But, do we ever hear any man of sense and candour say?-Nonconformity is a very stultifying, debasing, grovelling thing, stunting fancy in its growth, repressing the force of intellect, checking the expansion of science, and forbidding all excursions into the regions of taste by the interposition of its leaden sceptre;-yet, Dr. **** is a man of extraordinary attainments in bibliography, the oriental dialects, and general literature, and Dr. ****, one of our first-rate classical and biblical critics, though the former is a Methodist, and the latter an Independent! That individual, also, who has, for half a century, borne the palm amongst English mathematicians, was, we learn with astonishment, from the Public Characters, when a young man, actually a dissenting preacher! There is one of the most acute, the most original, and the most profound, of modern essayists, but "they do whisper that the man is" a Baptist! And more than this; one of our most celebrated chemists, one of our most accurate ornithologists, one of our sweetest lyric poets, as well as our first-rate

painter, our best engraver,-the Bartolozzi of his day, the architect who has evinced more taste and science than any of his cotemporaries; and the Barrow of modern preachers, who unites the imagination of Burke, and the accuracy and comprehension of Pitt, with the energy of Fox, and who is, at once, the most eloquent speaker, and the most eloquent writer of the age; are all dissenters! If this gentleman of "the Quarterly" can find any man who will in good earnest wonder at all this, we shall be greatly surprised, if the next step in his experience do not show him his wonderer safely lodged within the walls of St Luke's.-The truth, we fear, is, that with all this writer's affectation of liberality, he is not a genuine friend to religious toleration. Should this be the case, however, such is the spirit of the times, that he will, in all probability, soon stand alone, unless he confine himself to the society of well-meaning but narrow-minded" clerks," of more than 50 years of age.

The great recent increase of genuine piety among men of all persuasions, has produced a corresponding diffusion of true liberality of sentiment. The evils of a sectarian, dividing spirit, are more than ever understood and deplored; while the advantages of honest, and temperate dissent, when conscience absolutely demands it, are well comprehended, and almost universally acknowledged. In England, there now exists a toleration, which, though not quite complete, is the glory of the land: this may possibly diminish the number of Dissenters; but it will not eradicate them, nor, indeed, is that to be wished. "Could we suppose toleration to exist without Dissenters, unless the church, to which all belonged, were (which is impossible) absolutely perfect, and incapable of corruption, a great proportion of the benefits of toleration would be lost. The grand benefit of toleration is, that (to a certain extent) it produces Dissenters; because the existence of Dissenters is highly conducive to the interests of religion, morality, and good government."

To have no non-conformists would, in the present state of society and of religion among us, be a great evil; yet we dare not say, that if Dissenters should increase so as to rival Epis- . copalians in number, there would not be a great evil of another kind. It would be easy, however, to allow of perfect toleration with entire safety to a national establishment. Let the doctrine of the endowed church be evangelical, (as happily it is in Eng land,) let her pay a proper attention to elementary and catechetical instruction, and let the preaching be plain, practical, expository, and devotional (seldom, if ever, polemical); let care be taken, that the clergy be pious, zealous, discreet, and able men, not merely preachers, but pastors of their respective flocks; let bishops be

required to preach frequently, as well as to superintend the Presbyters, and "watch for the souls of all;" let there be no undue or intemperate assumption, in the establishment, of superior purity or authority over other churches, either in respect of doctrine, worship, government, or discipline; let the terms both of clerical and lay communion be such as are calculated to facilitate the admission of all pious men of evangelical sentiments, (however they may differ upon minor points), while they tend to exclude men of immoral conduct or of heterodox principles; and let there be such an augmentation to the incomes of the subordinate clergy, as shall render them both happy and useful in their stations; and such a gradual lowering of the enormous emoluments attached to a few of the bishoprics, as shall exclude all temptation to dissatisfaction in the minor clergy, as well as all risk of sudden revolution in that respect:" -An establishment thus constituted, can have nothing to fear from the widest toleration; and, if we do not mistake, all circumstances are powerfully conspiring to this issue of things. While we rejoice in these prospects, we are not unthankful for what is already possessed. In regard to ourselves, though we often commit the sin of worshipping among " the gloomy professors," we have listened with delight to the organ's noble swell, and have felt our hearts dance within us at the sound of the Sabbath bells, while our eyes have glistened as we have gazed at the village steeple whence the sound proceeded; we have cheerfully trudged, with other worshippers," the churchyard path along," and have been ready to exclaim, as we approached to the sacred fane where we knew the word of God was faithfully dispensed,-O happy England, how blessed art thou amongst the isles of the earth! In thee "God is known," and on thee he pours his richest mercies. "Thy pastures are clothed with flocks, thy valleys also are covered with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing." Thy merchants are princes, thy hospitals are palaces. Thou receivest the word of life freely, and while thou" sittest as a queen among the nations," thou dispensest it to them bountifully. Thy political constitution is the glory of the world; and thy civil and religious rights are so confirmed and established, that thy people" shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree, and none shall make afraid." Industry and activity are every where seen in thee, and contentment is depicted in every countenance. "Happy is that people that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people whose God is the Lord!”

*«The constant sense of all churches, in all ages, has been, that preaching was the bishop's great duty, and that he ought to lay himself out in it most particularly."-Burnet's Pastoral Care, p. 128.

Art. V. The Letters of Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu, with some of the Letters of her Correspondents. Part the Second, containing her Letters from the age of twenty-three to forty, ending with the Coronation of George the Third. Published by Matthew Montagu, Esq. her Nephew and Executor. Vols. III and IV. crown 8vo. pp 340 and 370. Price 14s. T. Cadell and W. Davies. 1813. BEFORE we speak of letter-writing, it should be distinctly

understood what we mean by a letter. There is hardly any subject which has not been treated of in letters: history, divinity, belles lettres, ethics, botany, astronomy,-all these we have seen handled in series of letters, to a young nobleman, or to an only son, or to a youth at the university.. But, in, criticising letterwriting, we should no more include these under the general denomination of letters, because they may happen to have "my. dear boy" at the top, and, "I remain, &c. &c." at the bottom, than, in speaking of conversation, we should include under that term the pleadings and counter pleadings of a couple of counsellors, because one of them speaks in reply to the other. By conversation we understand something perfectly distinct from lecturing and discussing, and letters we consider as nothing, but a conversation upon paper. It follows, that the merits of the one are also the merits of the other,

Now, every body knows what good conversation is. Its charm does, indeed, lie more in the manner than in the matter, and often leaves a general impression which it is not easy to justify by particular specimens of excellence; yet the ingredients may be put down, we suppose, much as follows: here and there an anecdote, never lengthened into a history; a philosophical observation, never spun into a discussion; a trait of character, never descending into scandal; a passing criticism, never laboured into a critique; a little reasoning, never rounded and squared into demonstration; and all this enlivened by wit that is not coarse, and humour that is not, ill-natured, and the play of an imagination that is always fluttering above this little world of every day concerns, but never soaring among the stars. Above all, in conversation, every thing must be,-or must appear to be, -easy, artless, unprepared; no eagerness to set yourself off, no impatience to say your own good things, no winding the conversation round till you get it to a convenient point for bringing out your ready store. The subject is supposed to spring naturally, and the company to speak extempore upon it, and it will not be tolerated that one shall bear away the bell from all the rest, by bringing out, as an impromptu, what he has been labouring hard at for a week. Admiration is a thing of which every one likes to have as much as he can obtain; and of which, therefore, no one will permit another, if he can help it, to carry off any upon false pretences.