things, and receives no benefit from the fale of any of his books. Whether his itinerant preachings or a more ftated employment in one fpot would be moft ufeful we shall not determine: he does not appear to run into all the ranting firain of fome itinerants: Mr. Davies has taken pains in tranflating thefe Sermons in the perfuafion that they are likely to be useful.

Art. 44. Exhortations and Prayers, felected from Roffell's "Prifoner's Director," for the Inftruction and Comfort of Malefactors under Imprisonment for capital Offences; and more especially those who are under Sentence of Death: containing suitable Directions for the Improvement of their Minds in Prison, and as a due Preparation for Death and a future State. To which is prefixed, an Exhortation to convicted Criminals. By William Dodd, LL. D. The whole published by the Rev. John Villette, Ordinary of Newgate. 8vo. 6d. Rivington, &c. 1777.

However juft the cenfure and the punishment which attended the unhappy Dodd, it must be allowed that he made fome proper use of the time of his imprisonment, and at least, by these and other writings, intimated a spirit fuited to his melancholy ftate. His earnest addrefs intended for prifoners of all kinds, with which this volume opens, is humble, pathetic, and well fitted to answer its defign. The other confiderations, directions, and prayers selected from Roffell's compaffionate performance may very reasonably be put into the hands of thofe who are condemned, or are in expectation of it, or who have by fome means obtained a pardon. H. Art. 45. Afhort View of the Tenets of Tritheifts, Sabellians, Trinitarians, Arians, and Socinians; intended to affift plain Chriftians in forming a general Idea of the principal Opinions held on the Trinity, and of the Difficulties attending them; and to promote Candour and Charity among those who differ in their Apprehenfions on that Subject. 8vo. 1s. Johnfon. 1778.

Grievous have been the contentions that have risen in the Christian world on the abovementioned fubject. But great warmth concerning it gives reafon to fufpect ignorance or prejudice, or felf-conceit, or interested views. It is the defign of this pamphlet not so much to fettle our faith in the matter, as to moderate our paffions and at the fame time to inform those who may not be much accustomed to fuch enquiries, of the different notions that have been formed. When it is confidered that those Trinitarians who are called Realifts, and are fuppofed the moft orthodox, are obliged to allow fome kind of fubordination in the Son and Spirit to the Father, who is termed the root and the fountain of Deity, one would fuppofe the hot conteft for co equality fhould be fomewhat abated. This pamphlet may be read by numbers with inftruction and advantage. While the Author recommends candour to us, he discovers it in himself; and he fufficiently proves the great occafion there is for it on the particular topic of his pamphlet: For, he obferves, the fcripture never expressly afferts that the Father, Son, and Spirit, are the one God; or one in effence; or one in consent and power. In the close of the tract he prefents his readers with fome confiderations which have been effectual to fatisfy his own mind in the exercises of religion, and as to the object of worship. He has confidered with attention the directions

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directions of Chrift and his apoftles, and according to them, he fays, I find I am to come to one God the Father, through Chrift, and by one Spirit. This plan of worship has indeed generally been acknowledged juft by all parties of Chriftians.In my opinion, he adds, there is great weight in the following obfervation of the pious Mr. Bennet, author of the Chriftian Oratory, If you will receive it I think it a very useful truth, which had it been attended to, would have prevented many controverfies that have difturbed the Christian church, viz. that our chief concern with the Son of God is as mediator. We are neither concerned to know precisely what he was before he was incarnate, how employed in the world above, nor what he will be, and how employed, after his mediation is finished. Our present business is with the mediator, whom God has exalted, and to whom every knee must bow, and fhall bow at last, till the end cometh; and he hath delivered up the kingdom to his Father.'

We only farther remark that in a note at the end of this treatise, the writer tells us that Mr. Fawcett's Candid Reflections on the Doctrine of the Trinity, which he fays is an excellent pamphlet, did not come to his hands till after fome of these sheets were gone to the prefs.

SCHOOL BOOK S.

H. Art. 46. A methodical English Grammar: containing Rules and Directions for fpeaking and writing the English Language with Propriety: illuftrated by a Variety of Examples and Exercifes. For the Ufe of Schools. By the Rev. John Shaw, Head Master of the Free Grammar School at Rochdale in Lancashire. 12mo. 2 s. Richardfon and Urquhart. 1778.

Mr. Shaw is of opinion that thofe gentlemen, who have favoured the public with English grammars, have not fufficiently confulted the improvement of learners who are to be carried forward into the Latin grammar. It is acknowledged, he fays, that nothing fo much facilitates the acquifition of a language which is to be learned by the medium of another, as fimilarity of reprefentation, and identity of expreffion, whenever the cafe will admit of it. Upon this principle, he adheres, in the grammar now before us, fomewhat more clofely to the forms of the Latin grammar, than those have done, from whose productions he has chiefly compiled it.

Such young perfons as are intended for the ftudy of the Latin tongue may, undoubtedly, derive confiderable advantage from an English grammar upon this plan; but thofe, who are only defirous of a grammatical acquaintance with the English language, may certainly be taught by a more fimple and eafy method. R. Art. 47. The English Guide to the French Tongue; fhewing the Grammatical Construction of English Words into French; with a Set of Rules and Exercifes, for the Ufe of young People. By George Picard. 8vo. 2 s. Crowder.

This work is intended to answer the purpose both of a grammar and a book of exercises. It has confiderable merit; it fhews that the Author is well acquainted with the French language, and with the propereft method of teaching it. The English examples, to be ren

Monthly Review, Vol. lvii. p. 333.

dered

ام

dered into French, are fometimes defective in point of accuracy and elegance; but, notwithstanding this, the work, under the direction of a master who is well acquainted with the genius and idioms of the English tongue, may be rendered very useful to young perfons, who are entering on the Study of the French.

SERMON.

The Church an Ergine of the State. A Sermon not preached on the
late General Fait, 1778. By a Layman. 8vo. I S. Almon.
A fine republican rant, against the meafures of government, and
especially against their proclaimed faft-days; which the Author holds
in excess of abomination. His declamation, however, teems abun-
dantly with religion and christianity, but not the religion of the ftate:
no, quoth he, mine is the religion of the Bible! In the heat of his
enthufiaftic invectives, he perpetually emits flashes of imagination,
which would ftamp him a genius, were it not that he too frequently
deviates into fuch extravagance and fuftian, as plainly intimates that
while he seems to write the dictates of an honest heart, his head is a
little twisted.

Among the variety of paffages which, from their vivacity, afforded. us real entertainment, we were particularly ftruck with the following, in his preface; in which he diftinguishes two oppofite kinds of political maniacs.-' Even a madman,' fays he, in fo excellent a caufe as that of liberty, is a refpectable being in comparison with him who grows mad on the fide of flavery and defpotifm. The one is a generous, elevated fublime fort of madman; the other dark, fullen, malignant, and implacable. The one would rapturously take you by the hand, and lead you forth into creation, to enjoy all that is beautiful and enchanting around you. The other would feize you with the iron grafp of favage ferocity; drive you before him, like an ox or an afs, and plunge you into the horrors of a dungeon. Which of the two then fhould feem best entitled to the clofeft cell. and the traiteft waistcoat? The madman who fmiles innocently in your face, and wishes to do you every good, or the worfe than madman, who frowns, lours, and grins at you, without withing to do you any good!'

The foregoing distinction is, at least, well imagined, and we give the lively and benevolent writer credit for it; hoping, at the fame time, that this will convince him, that even the monthly madman, whofe genius is periodical, and whofe paroxyfms of critical wit increafe with the moon, †' may poffibly have a grain of candour in his difpofition.

J. B.'s very obliging letter is received; and will, poffibly, be farther noticed in our next.

Words used by a critic, in giving an account of a former tract published by our Author, entitled, The Cafe philofophically ftated be tween Great Britain and her Colonies; of which we alfo made fome mention, in our Review for Feb. last, p. 156.

+ Vid. our Author's preface, written exprefsly against the Reviews, in revenge for their condemnation of his Cafe ftated,' &c.

R

THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For NOVEMBER, 1778.

ART. I. Warton's Hiftory of English Poetry, Vol. II. CONCLUDED. See Review for Sept. Art. IX.

ET us pass over the unembellished reign of Henry the Seventh, when the Muses, if Mufes they might be called, produced nothing more than homilies in rhyme, and were minifterial only to make creeds halt on lame feet, and controversy jingle. The fpirit, the humour, the genius of Chaucer were no more. And what fhould occafion the miferable change? What, but turning the yet fcanty ftream of Science into the channel of school-divinity, where its waters were loft, and its current obfcured, in the moft noxious weeds!

One folitary verfifier is all that Mr. Warton has noticed in this confiderable reign. His name was Hawes; and his principal performance was called The Temple of Glafs: the only valuable part of which, the imagery, is chiefly borrowed from Chaucer's House of Fame. He also wrote another poem, of some eminence, called, The Paftime of Pleafure. Of this we have here a long analyfis, which legat quicunque volet.

About the close of this reign was printed Alexander Barclay's Ship of Fools:

It was finished in the year 1508, and in the college of faint Mary Ottery, as appears by this rubric, "The SHYP OF FOLYS, tranflated in the colege of faynt Mary Otery, in the counte of Devonfhyre, out of Laten, Frenche, and Doch, into Englifhe tonge, by Alexander Barclay, prefte and chaplen in the fayd colledge, M.CCCCC.VIII 2. Our author's ftanza is verbose, profaic, and tedious and for many pages together, his poetry is little better than

a In folio. A fecond edition, from which I cite, was printed with his other works, in the year 1570, by Cawood, in folio, with curious wooden cuts, taken from Pinfon's impreflion, viz. "The SHIP OF FOOLES, wherein is fhewed the folly of all lates, with divers other works adjoined to the fame, &c." This has both Latin and English. But Ames, under Wynkyn de Worde, recites" The Ship of Fools in this World." 4to. 1517. HIST. PRINT. P. 94.'

VO L. LIX.

a trite

a trite homily in verfe. The title promises much character and plea fantry but we shall be disappointed, if we expect to find the foibles of the crew of our fhip touched by the hand of the author of the CANTERBURY TALES, or expofed in the rough yet strong fatire of Pierce Plowman. He fometimes has a stroke of humour: as in the following ftanza, where he wishes to take on board the eight fecondaries, or minor canons, of his college. "Alexander Barclay ad FATUOS, ut dent locum OCTO SECUNDARIIS beata Maria de Ottery, qui quidem prima hujus ratis tranftra merentur "

Softe, Foolis, fofte, a litle flacke your pace,

Till I have space you to' order by degree;

I have eyght neyghbours, that firft fhall have a place Within this my fhyp, for they most worthy be: They may their learning receyve coftles and free, Their wales abutting and joining to the fchooles"; Nothing they can, yet nought will they learn nor fee, Therefore fhall they guide this one fhip of fooles. The ignorance of the English clergy is one of the chief objects of his animadverfion. He fays,

For if one can flatter, and beare a hawke on his fift,

He fhal be made parfon of Honington or of Clift.

Thefe were rich benefices in the neighbourhood of faint Mary Ot-
tery. He difclaims the profane and petty tales of the times.
I write no jeste ne tale of Robin Hood',

Nor fowe no fparkles, ne fede of viciousnes ;
Wife men love vertue, wilde people wantonnes,
It longeth not my fcience nor cuning,

For Philip the fparrow the dirige to fing.

The laft line is a ridicule on his cotemporary Skelton, who wrote a LITLE BOKE OF PHILIP SPARROW, or a Dirge,

For the foule of Philip Sparrow

That was late flaine at Carowe, &c. %

And in another place, he thus cenfures the fashionable reading of his age: much in the tone of his predeceffor Hawes,

For goodly fcripture is not worth an hawe,

But tales are loved ground of ribaudry,

And many are fo blinded with their foly,

That no fcriptur thinke they fo true nor gode

As is a foolish jest of Robin hode *.

As a fpecimen of his general manner, I infert his character of the Student, or Bookworm: whom he fuppofes to be the First Fool in the veffel.

b Fol. 68.'

To the collegiate church of faint Mary Ottery a school was annexed, by the munificent founder, Grandifon, bishop of Exeter. This college was founded in the year 1337.' d. Know.' g. See Skelton's Works,

• Fol. 2.'

f Fol. 23.

p. 215. edit. 1736. This will be mentioned again, below.'

Fol. 23.'