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for sincerity, piety, and a liberal spirit, but for considerable critica ability. Nevertheless, we cannot perceive in his lucubrations, though so industriously pursued through one publication after another, that decisive evidence of superior clearness and certainty, in his explanations of the mysterious book on which he bestows so much labour, which would justify us in detailing them to our readers. The interpretations suggested in the author's "Signs of the Times" are here pursued, and supported by an appeal to history, and to the present state of Europe. Mr. B. entertains gloomy apprehensions concerning approaching events. With respect to this country in particular, he sees no salvation for it, but in national as well as individual reformation and he a fourth time lifts up his voice to rouse his countrymen to a sense of their danger, because our watchmen, in this quarter of the city, are all of them either still asleep, or, " every one is looking for his gain from his quarter *."

Some (says Mr. Bicheno) will, doubtless, pronounce the author an enthusiast; and a certain class may, perhaps, entertain harsher sentiments. But none of these things move me. I know the goodness of the ground on which I stand; and have that witness of the purity of my intentions, that I can neither blush nor fear. The truth or fallacy of what follows may not be altogether ascertained for twenty years to come (though, I think, the greater part will be determined much sooner); but, as I write neither for applause nor bread, it is, comparatively, of very little consequence to me, what, for seven, or twenty, years to come, this man, or that, may think, or say, of my productions. May I but be useful, in any measure, to my countrymen, to awaken them proper sense of the danger of the ground on which they, at this moment, stand; and to excite their attention to a subject in which they are most deeply interested; and, in the end, serve the cause of Christianity, which, though corrupted and so debased in profession, by its connection with the kingdoms which are of this world, as scarcely to be recognized, is, yet, from God; I shall then have a reward, which I prize more than the smiles of princes.'

to

This is the language of sincerity and benevolence; and, however visionary the author's conceptions may be concerning the fulfilment of prophecies, his religious, moral, and political exhortations merit the attention of the public.

Art. 46. Oriental Fables, Anecdotes, and Tales. Translated from the French. 12mo. pp. 176. 2s. 6d. Cadell jun. and Davies.

1797.

These pleasing stories are written with all that vivacity which the French know so well how to infuse into compostions of this nature; they are very short, very moral, and frequently very witty-but by what enchantment have the famous dean of Badajoz and the magician Don Torribio introduced themselves into a collection of oriental apologues?-Will our readers accept of the second as a specimen of the work?

* Isaiah, lvi. 11.

The

The Queen of Gor.

Katifa, queen of Gor, possessed every virtue and every failing; or, more properly speaking, she had all the capriciousness possible. She even piqued herself on wisdom, and said one day to the learned Zulbar: I am seriously endeavouring to gain a real knowledge of myself; but am much in want of some friendly aid in a study so worthy of a reasonable woman. Examine my character yourself, and form me such a picture of it that it may strike me at the first glance. Your character! replied Zulbar: but which, sublime majesty? Does your modesty lead you to imagine you have but one character? The flowers of the spring are less numerous and less varied than the virtues with which you are each instant embellished. In observing those virtues suddenly burst forth and shine, then disappear, then re-appear; in perceiving them mix, agree, and dispute with each other, I can adinire them like another: but who can possibly describe, or merely enumerate them? I have somewhere or other read, added the philosopher, that the moon wished to have a robe fitted to her shape, and of a colour suited to her complexion. The tirewoman she had sent for ingeniously said to her: O queen of the stars! you charm us at all times, and under ever form: but you are sometimes large, and sometimes small; sometimes bright, sometimes pale, and sometimes crimson. What measure can I possibly take of a shape which is never the same? What colour can I suit to a complexion which varies each night?' The translation is in general executed with ease and elegance. Art, 47. Memoirs of the Present Countess of Derby, late Miss Farren. Including Anecdotes of several distinguished Persons., 4to. Is. 6d. Symonds.

Satirical, and, we apprehend, malicious: but, possibly, there may be some truths in the pamphlet.

Art. 48. The Testimony of Truth to Exalted Merit; or a Biographi cal Sketch of the Right Hon. the Countess of Derby; in Refu tation of a false and scandalous Libel. 4to. 2S. Cawthorne. Panegyrical, and, it is to be hoped, all true. The complaisant author contradicts almost every circumstance that had been advanced . by his predecessor, [see the foregoing article,] whom he considers as a common malignant retailer of abuse and falsehood. An elegant print of the Countess is given as a frontispiece.

Art. 49. The Prompter; a Commentary on common Sayings and
Subjects, which are full of common Sense, the best Sense in the
World.
Printed at New York, 1793. Dilly,
London.

12mo.

IS.

Plain good sense and prudence are the mental characteristics of the Americans. Franklin exhibited these qualities, perhaps, in the most exquisite degree in which they were ever possessed by man; and he joined with them taste and humour. The writer of the present little volume evidently imitates the manner of the Doctor's " Poor Richard," but with inferior powers. Nevertheless, he says many things very sensibly; and some in a way which is calculated to produce effect. Art. 50. A New Biographical Dictionary: containg a brief Account of the Lives and Writings of the most eminent Persons and re

markable

markable Characters in every Age and Nation. By Stephen Jones. The second Edition, corrected, with considerable Additions and

Improvements. Small 12mo. 5s. Boards. Robinsons. 1796. Compilations which bring a large mass of information within a Emall compass, and offer it to the public at a cheap rate, are valuable contributions towards the diffusion of knowlege. We recommend this improved edition of Mr. Jones's Biographical Dictionary, as an excellent epitome of an important branch of knowlege. The matter is judiciously selected; the language is, in general, correct; and, by means of a very small but neat and distinct type, a vast number of articles are brought into a little pocket volume. The compiler informs his readers that upwards of 500 articles are inserted here, which are not to be found in the Biographical Dictionary in 12 volumes 8vo. and that many others are added to this new edition.

We observe a mistake in the biographical account of the late Dr. Kenrick, who is there said to have been the son of a citizen of London. His father was a very honest staymaker, at or near Watford in Hertfordshire; and, we believe, outlived his son, who is the subject of the article to which we refer.

Art. 51. A Review of the Conduct of the Prince of Wales, from his Entrance into public Life, till his late offer to undertake the Government of Ireland. 8vo. 29. Lee and Hurst. 1797. This able Reviewer, who is the champion of the illustrious personage mentioned in the title, undertakes a complete defence of the conduct of his R-1 Hss against those who have presumed to impeach it in their publications, &c. In the course of his arguments and observations, he is very severe on the characters and supposed views of those who have taken the other side of the question.

2s. 6d.

Art. 52. The Life, Opinions, Character, and Tragic Death of Count R***** au, commonly called F.G. Meyer; condemned to the Gallows, May 28, 1796, at Rotterdam, for five unparalleled Burglaries. By J. Sharp, Minister of the Gospel in Rotterdam. Translated from the Dutch and the French. 8vo. pp. 140. sewed. Brewman. 1797. To those who are fond of reading anecdotes of remarkable highwaymen, trials of criminals, and other publications of a similar nature, these memoirs will afford amusement. It relates strange adventures, describes tragic spectacles, and gives an account of free conversations, in which the sceptic and the minister of the gospel are the interlocutors. Our opinion of the utility of this class of publications naturally determines us to pass over the present tract with this general notice.

Art. 53. Instructions for the Treatment of Negroes, &c. &c. &c. 28. Shepperson and Reynolds. 1797.

12mo.

The substance of the instructions contained in this publication is said to have been given, so long ago as the year 1771, to the manager of a plantation in Barbadoes. They were evidently dictated by prudence and humanity; and it must be some relief to those who contemplate with abhorrence the state of slavery, to be informed that

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there have been, and still are, planters who follow so commendable a system of regulations.

Art. 54
The Rise of Mahomet, accounted for on Natural and
Civil Principles. By the late Nathan Alcock. M. D. in the Uni-
versities of Oxford and Leyden, Fellow of the Royal College of
Physicians, and of the Royal Society, London; and in the for-
mer University many Years celebrated Prælector in Chemistry and
Anatomy. 8vo. pp. 38. 1s. Sael. 1796.
IS.

It would be a sufficient reason for rejecting the religion of Mohammed, that it does not offer satisfactory evidence of a divine origin, even though it should not be practicable to give a full account of its rise and progress: but the refutation of its high pretensions will be more complete, if the manner in which it arose, and the causes which gave it establishment and permanency, can be ascertained. This has already been frequently attempted, and with tolerable suceess. It has been well observed that it is not at all surprising, that one who was alike instructed to preach and to fight should, by the united operation of force and persuasion, become the founder of a new religion, and of a new empire. In the ingenious tract now before us, the inquiry is pursued in detail; and it is satisfactorily shewn that both the civil and religious institutions of Mohammed were, with great penetration and judgment, adapted to the character of the eastern nations, to the circumstances of the times, and to the state of opinions among Christians, Jews, and Gentiles. Dr. Alcock has given a clear and concise view of the chief doctrines and institutions of this religious legislator, and has well illustrated their suitableness to the climate, to the character of the Arabians, and to the plans of conquest and empire which Mohammed had formed. He has also judiciously remarked that the Jews, at that time harassed by persecution, would easily pass over to a religion which acknowleged the divine authority of Moses, adopted circumcision, and professed the unity of the divine nature; that those Christians who denied the doctrine of the Trinity, and rejected image worship, would be easily enticed to adopt a system which in many particulars quadrated with their own principles, and which indulged the natural propensity of the oriental people to luxury and sensuality; and that Paganism, then on the decline, would be readily exchanged for a voluptuous religion, founded on the doctrine of fatalism. These suggestions will go far towards the solution of the problem, concerning the natural causes of the sudden rise and propagation of Mohammedism; and the pamphlet, a posthumous publication, deserves attention. The author has committed an error, in point of fact, in asserting that at this time the East was over-run not only with Arianism, but with Socinianism.

Art. 55. Some Account of the Life and Writings of the Rev. John Martin, Pastor of the Church meeting in Store-street, Bedfordsquare. 12mo. Is. 6d. Stockdale. 1797.

Mr. Martin is one of those bold men who, during their lives, have ventured to present the public with a portrait of themselves. Whatever may be the effect of such pieces of biography on the writer's re

putation,

putation, they are certainly of great use to others, as far as they exhibit accurate and faithful delineations of human characters. It is not ne cessary that the subject of such accounts should have filled an elevated station, or even that they should have supported an exemplary and meritorious conduct in life: it is sufficient for the purpose of instruction, if the character be drawn with an honest regard to truth. The minute details of any life, not grossly vicious, may be useful. Mr. Martin's memoirs are written with great frankness and particularity. They mark the progress of a mind early tinctured with enthusiastic sentiments in religion, and lay open the views, feelings, and charac-ter of a methodist teacher, more fully than perhaps could have been done by another hand. If the reader meet with many trifling anec dotes, and some weak observations, he may, nevertheless, be amused and instructed by contemplating a peculiar species of the human kind. The account is more correctly written than most of the author's former publications, which have been numerous.

Art. 56. Lettres à Louis XVIII, &c. i. e. Letters to Louis the Eighteenth, King of France and Navarre, on the Salvation of the French Monarchy. By M. DE ISLE. 8vo. 6d. Booker, London, 1797.

We allotted so many pages to the best work of this author, the Testament Politique du Comte de Mercy-Argenteau*, that we cannot but suppose the character of his productions sufficiently familiar to our readers. The present pamphlet is a farther effort to serve the cause of monarchy in France; and it displays, in a style somewhat too expanded, the same moderation of temper, and information of mind, which characterise his other productions. It is numbered as the first of a proposed series of letters.

Art. 57. An Account of Portugal, as it appeared in 1766 to Dumouriez; since a celebrated General in the French Army. 12mo. PP. 274. 4s. 6d. Boards. Law, &c. 1797.

was ap

This account of Portugal was drawn up when Dumouriez parently in the employ of the French court. It was printed in 1775 at Lausanne; and the Count of Aranda and the Count of Souza, in the name of their respective courts of Spain and Portugal, com-' plained of it to M. de Vergennes. A polite message, however, which represented the impossibility of punishing a foreign printer for an anonymous work, quashed the apprehensions of the author. A new, improved, and enlarged edition of this tract occurs in the Oeuvres Complettes du General Dumouriez + lately printed at Hamburg. The translator might well have availed himself of this greatly amended edition; but he has executed his task with propriety and attention in other respects, and has added to our geographical and statistical notices of that kingdom a convenient and insructive manual. Art. 58. A Narrative of the extraordinary Adventures, and Sufferings by Shipwreck and Imprisonment, of Donald Campbell, Esq. of Bar breck with the singular humours of his Tartar Guide Hassan

See Appendix to vol. xix. and to vol. xx. N. S.

+ Imported by De Boffe. See our Appendix, just published. Artaz

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