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THE

BRITISH CRITIC,

FOR

JULY, AUGUST, SEPTEMBER, OCTOBER,
NOVEMBER, DECEMBER.

MDCCCXII.

Nemo adeò ferus eft, ut non mitefcere poffit,
Si modò culturæ patientem commodet aurem.

VOLUME XL.

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London:

PRINTED FOR F. C. AND J. RIVINGTON,
No. 62, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD;

By Law and Gilbert, St. John's Square, Clerkenwell.

MOTHE

ODLE

PREFACE.

in

NE branch of the new art of MNEMONICS We have always practised and taught, the art of remembering what good books have been published, any branch of knowledge. In many other things, we agree with Themistocles that the art of forgetting muft be the most defirable; and in particular we very quickly forget what books and authors we have been obliged to cenfure. Of these, therefore, no traces remain in our half-yearly Prefaces; which may not improperly be called, the beauties of literary recollection. First then, as ufual, for theological memorials.

DIVINITY.

The pleasure of commending a valuable work is fenfibly diminished, when the author can no longer enjoy the commendations he has earned. That this fhould happen in the cafe of Dr. Pearson, we particularly regretted. His pious and useful labours at Rempftone we had often celebrated; and when we faw him not only in the pulpit of Warburton, but at the head of a College in Cambridge, (Sidney) we rejoiced

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rejoiced at the well-earned diftinctions. But, though his Warburtonian Lectures were not a pofthumous publication, yet before we could give them due confideration, the author was no more. We did not indeed, in all points, adopt his opinions; yet our differences were not fuch, as would have leffened our regard for the living, nor will diminish our eulogy on the dead. He was a pious, learned, and able man, and his Lectures are worthy of the author.

A misfortune not much lighter has fallen. upon the next author, whom we have to celebrate. Blindness, accompanied by the total lofs of an income, at best but very fcanty, has been the vifitation of Dr. Bidlake, whofe Bampton Lectures † we lately reviewed. It is with much fatisfaction that we fee an active exertion of benevolence, in patronizing a fecond edition of thofe Lectures, for the benefit of the almoft deftitute, though well-deferving author; whofe misfortunes, we truft, will thus obtain the best worldly alleviation they are capable of receiving.

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The more we confider the vaft importance of the Doctrine of Atonement, and the profound and mafterly manner in which it has been treated, in all its bearings and results by Dr. Magee, with the more fatisfaction do we return to his republifhed and always improving volumes. But, beyond all the eulogies that we can accumulate, is the ftriking fact that a work, on fo abstruse a subject of Divinity, fhould be going from edition to edition, by the inceffant demand of the public. The fourth edition we understand to be now in the prefs, and to that we fhall again advert, if we find new matter of fufficient importance to juftify our return to it. Of trivial or even moderately ufeful books, a fingle notice may be quite enough; but where the fundamentals of + No. V. p. 455.

No. III. p. 238. and V. p. 467.

No. I. p. 13. V. p. 482.

Religion

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Religion are fo defended and illuftrated we cannot return too often to the work. To Mr. Gyles alfo, a young Layman, of ample property, we feel that a particular attention is due, for his learned and fatisfactory Effay on the Authenticity of the New Testament *. If fuch ftudies can be rendered general (we will not use so trifling a word as fashionable, on fuch an occafion) by examples of this kind, our aid fhall never be wanting to give them currency and commendation. To the zealous efforts of Dr. Buchanan in behalf of our common faith, and to his defire to fee its light diffused through the regions of the East, we cannot refuse our approbation ; but though, on this account, we have always recommended his labours to attention, we cannot recommend them to implicit adoption. It is in this manner only that we can speak of his Christian Researches ; referring for particulars to our more extended difcuffion of the fubject.

While Dr. Buchanan is labouring to excite the zeal of Chriftians in India, Mr. Maurice is expofing the Frauds of their adverfaries, the Brahmins ; frauds too grofs, in fact, to notice, had they not been eagerly caught up by Apoftate Chriftians, to lend, if poffible, fomething of a new colour to their inefficient arguments. With how little fuccefs they have laboured Mr. Maurice's book will fhow, Mr. W. Vanfittart alfo turns our attention to the Eaft, but for ftill a different purpose. He employs the works of oriental travellers to illuftrate felect paffages of the Old Teftament, a method always commendable, and hitherto by means exhausted.

Of the new and much augmented edition of Bowyer's Conjectures on the New Testament §, we

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