children, which hindered them from marrying again; then alledged the frailties and infirmities of nature, mentioned the temptations to which they were expofed, and begged his holinefs would permit them to yield. It may eafily be imagined that his request was not granted; he obtained, however, leave of audience for the ladies: Holy Father, faid they, we begged his Grace the Duke of Albany to reprefent to your Holiness our wants, the weakness of our fex, and the frailties of our nature. His holiness

fhewing no difpofition to grant their requeft, the ladies cried out, Holy Father thrice a week at least. "Thrice a week!" fays the pope, in great wrath," Il peccato di luffuria!" These unexpected words brought on an explication, and a good deal of pleafantry; and the request of the good ladies was granted.

ART. IV.

Elemens de L'Hiftoire D'Angleterre Elements of the History of England, from the Roman Invafion to the Reign of George the Second. By the Abbé Millot, Royal Profeffor of Hitory in the University of Parma, &c. 12mo. 3 Vols. 'Paris, 1769.

Tis certainly a compliment to the taste and wisdom of the prefent age, that hiftory is the prevailing and most fashionable reading. The fpecies is various indeed, but ftill it is hiftory. Our statesmen and high-bred politicians read Machiavel, and Cervantes, and Heber, and Hoyle. Our divines read the Hiftory of the Silent Old Woman of Cenchrea, and our patriots wear out their pillows with Catharine Macaulay. The paffion for this kind of reading seems to have been taking root in the days of the good-natured, facetious Johnny Gay, when the bookfeller folicited the elephant to

write the Hiftory of Siam ;

and it has thriven abundantly fince. The ever induftrious and public-fpirited bookfeller, whofe folicitudey for the inftruction and improvement of his countrymen, if detached from every other principle, is truly aftanishing, prepares hiftory in a thoufand different forms,, that no appetite may want its proper food. To enlarge and fortify the sender mir's of youth, foft foothing tales of Jemmy and Jenny Jeffamy; for the confolation of stale and mortified virginity, the affecting history of fome fruitless repentance; and for the relief of indigent genius, the genuine memoirs of fame fool of quality. Whether all these kinds of history have not their merit, we have neither time, nor inclination to enquire. We will attend the good, Abba,in his preliminary dif courfe, and hear his apologies for his Hiftory of England.

The grand hiftories of nations, in, which the most diftinguished actions are recorded with circumftantial minuteness, are

te

to be confidered in the first class of letters. If they are writter with truth, they may be confulted with fuccefs on a variety of fubjects, apparently fmall perhaps, but of great confequence a the discovery of important truths; if they are written with els gance, the reader who is mafter of his time, will find his ta gratified at once with his curiofity. We fhall not enquire whe advantage will be derived at last from this reading; but we wil venture to say that there is much to be forgot; and that, outd a multitude of large volumes, what ought to remain for the me mory will hardly be fufficient to compofe a fmal! one. We at taking it for granted, at the fame time, that the reader is c pable of digesting what he takes in; for, otherwise, a heape confufed ideas will be little better than the original vacuity d his mind.

We live in an age diftinguished for an avidity of learning Every parent is defirous that the minds of his children may b enlarged and enlightened, and it is univerfally allowed that t tory is the best school for this purpofe; that there the interd of fociety are beft difcovered, and thofe principles which form the basis of public and private virtue, most effectually inculca ed. To lay open more generally that fource of knowledge # which fo few can attain, muft certainly, then, be a work of in portance. Abridgements of hiftory may be confidered as many canals ifluing from a vaft head of waters, that communicate with ease the pure and ufeful element, without bringing any thing grofs cr fuperfluous along with them.

The ill-humoured critic may call these the works of idle. nefs, written for the indulgence of lazy readers; and unfavour able to folid learning and ftudy. But let him not forget to ac-j knowledge that they are the means of diffufing those treasures which the laborious fcholar has collected; that they communicate to numbers the effects of thofe ftudies they could neve purfue; and that while they bring together the riches that lie fcattered through an immenfe number of volumes, they fave the reader infinite pains without depriving him of any advantage. The fcholar is formed in the library, but a nation muft be inftructed by a few fuccinct and well-written volumes.

Excited by thefe reflections, I have undertaken to reduce hiftory to fuch objects as might be worthy the attention of those who are defirous rather of ufeful than of curious knowledge.'

The Abbé fometime ago publifhed the Elements of the Hiftory of France, upon the fame plan with the work before us: and that plan is certainly very judicious; for he lays it down as a rule not to be fo concife, as to leave any thing obfcure; nor on any occafion to be fo prolix, as to weaken the general force of his narrative.

He appears to have made himself well acquainted with our history and our principal hiftorians: and he thus expreffes his fentiments on Dr. Smollett and Mr. Hume:

• Two English authors, fays the Abbé, have lately written the hiftory of England; and their works have evidently that fuperiority which the natives of any country, in writing its hiftory, must have over foreigners. Their works, however, have Dr. Smollet is a mere relater no resemblance but in the title. of facts. Uniform in his narrative, and barren of fentiment, he neither affects the imagination nor the heart. Heavy and feeble in his ftyle, he fatigues the reader whilft he inftructs him.

• Mr. Hume has the happiness of uniting precifion and perfpicuity, and is at the fame time profound and elegant. He paints from nature, without any appearance of art. He catches the happiest point of view, and there he places his objects, or there his objects feem rather to range themfelves. Without harraffing the reader with a dry Gazette of military operations, he fails not to record every memorable atchievement. But his great object is to bring before the eye the manners the principles, the paffions, the follies of men; and to diftinguith between the extravagancies of fortune and the regular chain of causes and events. Never was, writer more fuperior to thofe prejudices that obfcure the truth of hiftory. If, as a' protestant, he is fometimes injurious to our holy faith, he neither diffembles the vices nor the follies of his own fect. If, as a fubject of Great Britain, he is attached to the political principles of his country, he feeks not to palliate thofe enormities that the enthufiafm of liberty has occafioned; he forgets not to do justice to the merit of different governments; he neither Matters the humour of the people, nor the interefts of the court. Always impartial amidst the violence of parties, he may be confidered as the grand regulator of the judgment of future ages. And he would certainly meet with no lefs applaufe from his countrymen than from foreigners, could they diveft themselves of party prejudices in favour of a man who has the great merit of being of no party. In one word, Mr. Hume's work is a treafure of philofophical and political knowledge; and, under a few reftrictions, [refpecting the Abbé's holy faith, no doubt] there is certainly nothing of the kind better calculated to form the philofopher, the ftatefman and the citizen.'

We can recommend the Abbé's work as a very judicious and ingenious abridgement, full of spirit and fentiment, and, under a few reftrictions,' a very ufeful hiftory of England.

Joannis

ART. V.

Joannis Davidis Michaelis Spicilegium Geographie Hebræorum_¿xteræ poft Bochartum. Pars Prima.-A Gleaning, after Bochart, of the foreign Geography of the Hebrews. By John David Michaelis. Part the Firft. 4to. Gottingen, 1769. Sold by Heydinger, in London.

THE

HERE are few queftions, of a literary nature, that are more difficult to be determined, with any degree of certainty and precision, than thofe which relate to the early geography of the world, the first fettlement of countries, and the origin and difperfion of nations. Subjects of this kind, from feveral concurring caufes, and efpecially from the fcantinefs and doubtfulness of evidence, muft neceffarily be involved in much obfcurity and confufion. Even the accounts of these matters which occur in the facred writings of the Hebrews are attended with the fame difadvantage. They are too concife, and too liable to a diverfity of interpretation, to be capable of affording fo full a light as could be defired from them.

What, however, we do meet with in the books of the Old Teftament relative to foreign geography, that is, the geography of the nations, countries, and places fituated out of Judæa, is exceedingly useful; and, when clofely Rudied, opens the way to the folution of many difficulties which would, otherwife, be totally inexplicable. There is no perfon who hath applied fo diligently and fuccessfully to this fubject as Bochart, or who hath treated it in a manner equally copious and learned. Indeed, his grand work, entitled Phaleg and Canaan, is almoft the only one that deferves to be mentioned; for the two discourses of Jofeph Mede, though valuable as far as they go, are very concife, and confined folely to the families of Japhet: and as to the writers who have fucceeded Bochart, they have done little more than copy from him. The best commentators have recourse to him, when any geographical perplexity occurs; and the few authors who have differed from him, and occafionally proposed new explications, have not been remarkably happy; relying on etymologies ftill bolder, and conjectures ftill lefs to be depended upon, than bis were. Cellarius feems to have been capable of excelling him, in feveral respects; but Cellarius only undertook to treat of ancient geography as exhibited in the writings of the Greeks and Romans, and it is but feldom, and in a curfory manner, that he explains the paffages of fcripture which relate to the countries at a diftance from Paleftine: fo that, upon the whole, we can apply to no one who is fuperior or equal to Bochart.

But, notwithstanding the great abilities and profound learning of Bochart, it was not poble for him both to begin and to

carry

carry on to perfection fo extenfive and difficult a work as that in which he had engaged. Some difadvantages which he laboured under, were owing to the age he lived in. Modern Afia was not, at that time, fufficiently known; and without a competent knowledge of modern Afia, it is not always in a perfon's power to defcribe, with becoming accuracy, the early ftate of that part of the world. Neither were the best books of travels then published; and even fuch as Bochart might have had recourse to, were too much neglected by him; agreeably to the custom of the learned in those days, who fcarce thought any thing worthy of their attention that did not conftitute a part of ancient literature. This circumstance was detrimental to him, both with regard to his geography and his history of the animals mentioned in fcripture; to which may be added, that he flourished long before he could have had the benefit of enjoying the affiftance that may now be derived from the geographical index which Affeman hath drawn from the Syriac writings, and inferted in his Bibliotheca Orientalis.

Befides the defects that are imputable only to the times he lived in, Bochart had fome errors which are fly and Pie perly his own. The fire and principal is, his indulging too freely to etymologies of proper names taken from the Hebrew language; fo that, in fact, he changes geographical queftions, which are entirely ofan hiftorical, nature, into, etymological ones. Nor does he payabat regard to ancient teflimonies, which they deferved, and particularly to the teftimonies of Jofephus, whose evidence he frequently not only difdains to examine with fufficient attention, but even fometimes to relate. Rather than feem ignorant of any thing, he has recourfe to very bold and uncertain conjectures; and when he has taken upon him the patronage of a doubtful and precarious fentiment, he employs all the variety of his learning in fupporting it relying more on the multitude than on the ftrength of his arguments. It might, alfo, be mentioned, that, in order to establish his etymologics, he affumes too great a liberty in adding, taking away, changing, and tranfpofing of letters.

Thefe faults of Bochart have occafioned fome perfons to look on him with contempt, and to diftruft his whole book, as in no degree to be depended upon: but herein they have been guilty of injuftice to a truly eminent man, who hath treated many queftions with excellent fagacity and judgment, and whofe very errors are inftructive. The only thing which was wanting to render his work extensively useful, and to throw all the light upon the foreign geography of the Hebrews that the nature of the fubject can admit of, was a proper fupplement, which fhould fill up his omiffions, and correct his mistakes. This APP. Rev. Vol. XLI.”

Nn

bath