hardships to which they were expofed) were fortunately brought off by a Ruffian fhip. The manner in which these real Robinson Crufoes fubfifted, for fo many horrid and tedious winters, in their inhofpitable, frozen defart, forms a very curious and interesting story, and the particulars do great honour to the ingenuity, the patience, and the fortitude of these poor mariners; who, in our estimation, are much better entitled to the name of HERO, than either "Macedonia's Madman, or the Swede." Art. 19. A Sketch of Materials for a new and compleat History of Cheshire. The Second Edition; with an entire new preface, an account of further materials, and a plate of Hugh Lupus's fword". 4to. 2s. 6d. Bathurst, &c. The ingenious Author of this Sketch (Dr. Gower) has here given, befide his well-written preface, above mentioned, an account of fuch new materials for his intended History as he hath been favoured with, fince the publication of the first edition of his Sketch, published in 1771: vid. Review, vol. xlvi. p. 199: fee, alfo, a further account of this great undertaking, Review, vol. xlix. p. 304. Thefe additional materials are both ample and important; and there now feems to be no doubt but that the work will meet with every kind of encouragement, notwithstanding the prodigious labour and expence with which it will be neceffarily attended. Art. 20. The Gentleman and Builder's Director; containing plain and familiar Instructions for erecting every Kind of Building, according to their refpective Claffes, as regulated by an Act of Parliament, paffed laft Seffions, for the better regulating of Buildings, and more effectually preventing Mifchiefs by Fire. To which is added a Plate; fhewing at the first View, the external and Partywalls for each Clafs of Building. Alfo a Section of a Stack of Chimneys, with Directions to build them to prevent Smoaking. By William Robinfon, Efq; Architect and Surveyor at Hackney. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Kearfly, &c. William Robinfon, Efq; the Juftice +, and William Robinson, Efq; the Surveyor, both of Hackney, being probably the fame perfom under two defignations, it is prefumed he now appears in his more familiar character; and that he may be better able to lay out the law of brick and mortar, than to treat of it more diffufively: which is at leaft a candid allowance in his favour at first opening the pamphlet. The formal precision in our Acts of Parliament is not readily intelligible to common workmen, when dictated to under a variety of circumitances; digefts therefore of fuch acts must be of great use to them, if clearly and correaly made: but Mr. R. does not appear to have yet arrived at the literary expertnefs neceffary even for fuch an undertaking. The natural diftribution for a digeft of the laft Building Act, would have been to allot a distinct chapter to each class of buildings fpecified in the Act, containing all the circumstances provided for by law under regular and uniform fubdivifions; with notes referring to the sections in the Act itfelf, where the legal matter is to be found. Now though Mr. R. had fome obfcure idea of this kind, *The fword of dignity, of the Earldom of Chefter. + See Review for last Month, p. 193. Rev. Oct. 1774. Y he he either was not allowed, or did not allow himself, time to mature it; for after defining the claffes of buildings in their order, he begins his arrangement again and again, for the particulars under each, though not fo clearly as might have been wifhed; by which means a Builder must search three or four places for what relates to one house: and his head titles being all in the fame ftyle, without any regard to fubordination, the reader on opening the leaves knows not where he is, but wants an index even to a pamphlet of 5 pages. Add to this, that though law language is not always the most cor.. rect either in ftyle or grammar, yet the writer of a familiar manual of this nature, being releafed from the jargon of the courts, might have expreffed himself much clearer and better in many respects than Mr. R. has done: if he has any more of these schemes in agitation, we would recommend Mr. Scott's Digeft of the Highway A&t to his perufal; and a good old home-fpun proverb to his confideration, which fays, the more hafte the worse speed. Art. 21. An Effay on the Clergy; their Studies, Recreations, Decline of Influence, &c. &c. By the Reverend W. J. Temple, LL. B. Rector of Mamhead in Devonshire. 8vo. I s. 6 d. Dilly. 1774. This effay is divided into twelve chapters, the first of which contains a very fhort and fuperficial abftract of the hiftory of religion; in the second, the Author points out fome of the benefits derived to mankind from revelation; in the third, he fhews the utility of the facerdotal character; in the fourth, which contains two pages only, he tells us, that among the Jews, lameness and deformity excluded from the Priesthood; that in Egypt and India, none but particular perfons and families officiated in holy things; that among the Greeks and Romans the care of religion was committed to the noblest houses, and principal perfons and magiftrates of the ftate, &c.-A more diligent attention to fome of thefe circumftances might be of fome efficacy, he thinks, in reviving the declining influence of the Clergy, and confequently of piety and morality. The fifth chapter contains a plan for the ftudies of the clergy. It is addreffed to a perfon who is fuppofed to be near the age of admiffion to Deacon's orders, and is intended to form not only a moral, christian Preacher, but alfo to qualify thofe who may rife to prefer. ment in the church, to bear an active and useful part in the common. wealth, and to clear them, among other imputations, from that of even their great friend, Lord Clarendon, who fomewhere in his life makes this fevere reflexion--that Clergymen underftand the leaft, and take the worst measure of human affairs, of all mankind that can read and write. Whether the Clergy will think themselves obliged to Mr. Temple for this plan of study or not, we cannot fay; to us it appears a very imperfect, and injudicious plan. Our readers may judge of it from a very small specimen-Mr. Temple feems very defirous it should be known that he understands French and Italian, and without a fuitable proficiency in thefe languages, his plan, he fays, cannot be purfued. Accordingly, after recommending the study of the holy fcriptures in Mentioned in Review, vol, xlix. p. 498. the the original, he goes on as follows: Let Jofephus, the Antiquitès Judaiques of Bafnage, and les Meurs des Ifraelites of Fleury, be your Commentary on the Old Teftament; when doubtful and at a lofs on the New Teflament, Clarke, Locke,' Le Clere, Hammond, will afford you a faithful and fatisfactory interpretation. You may then proceed to ecclefiaftical history. Mofheim's abridgement is a fenfible, and generally a candid, work. You may also read, in part at leaft, the excellent larger hiftories of Fleury and Bafnage. There is likewife a very amiable and stimulating picture of the manners of primitive chriftianity in the Moeurs des Chrétiens of the former. Beaufobre's Hiftoire de Manichèe, and du Manichéifme is equally entertaining and profound. We are indebted to M. Lenfant for an admirable relation of the Councils of Pifa, of Conftance, of Bafle, fo formidable to the pretenfions and domination of Antichrift. You can hardly read too often the account of the laft famous Council at Trent, by that great hiftorian and politician Father Paul. When you read Seneca, Epictetus, Antoninus the great and good, you will think more highly of our own nature, and burn to resemble the divine. The elegant and picturefque pencil of La Bruyere, will fhew you the manners and fentiments of those we daily live and converfe with. Pascal and Nicole are pious and eloquent moralifts. Locke is as the founder of just and rational metaphyfics. The treatife of civil government of the fame great man, with Sidney and Montefquieu, have fupplied every thing that was wanting in Plato and Ariftotle on the nature of political inftitutions. Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, with Diodorus Siculus, will give you all the Greek hiftory. In your study of that of Rome, you will be equally pleafed with the profound copioufnefs of Dionyfius Halicarnaffenfis, and the eloquent brevity of Livy. Then come the precious remains of a Polybius, of a Salluft, of a Tacitus, with Cæfar the hiftorian of nature. Appian, Herodian, Dio Caffius, A. Marcellinus, though inferior in the art of writing, are valuable and worthy of perufal, upon account of the facts and information they contain. After a long feries of tyranny, horror, and anarchy, you will fee the genius of civil wisdom in affairs, with the precifion of Thucydides and eloquence of Tacitus in compofition, begin as it were to revive and wake from their iron flumber in Machiavel and Guicciardini. Davila will give you a manly and fenfible relation of the calamities and miferies of France, under her weak, or bigoted, or frantic Princes. The great merit of Thuanus and Sully is univerfally known.' This, furely, is a fufficient fpecimen of our Author's plan, and we leave our Readers to their own reflections upon it. In the remaining chapters of his Effay, Mr. Temple treats of the ftyle of the pulpit, the decline of the influence of the clergy, the progrefs of infidelity, non-refidence, the external appearance, and recreations of the clergy, &c. and concludes with fome reflections upon tefts, or fubfcription to articles in matters of religion; but what he says upon this fubject is weak and trifling. POETICA L. Art. 22. Folly; a Satire. 4to. 6d. Payne. 1774. The following lines on Otaheite fhew that this careless Author is fuperior to the common tribe of rhymers : Y a ⚫ There • There no rash elbow shakes the defperate box, • Driven by his fon from Latium's happy feat, Nor fear'd left envious Jove should here again Beheld, as in Hefperian plains, the wood The turf, unwounded by the trenching fhare, Now nofeless youths, complaining through the groves Curl-pated flaves fhall harrow up your plains, But, hold, my mufe! nor think thy feeble lay, Art. 23. The Graham, an Heroic Ballad: in Four Cantos. By Thomas Blacklock, D. D. 4to. 2 s. 6 d. The profeffed intention of this poem is to cherish and encourage a mutual harmony between the inhabitants of South and North Britain. To this end Dr. Blacklock has exhibited, in ftrong colours, fome part of thofe miferies which their ancient animofities had occa fioned. His GRAHAM is an affecting story, in which love and jealoufy have a principal fhare; but when he tells us, previoufly, that this ftory is a fiction, by a compliment to our humanity, he robs himself of a leading intereft in our attention. These matters should not be confeffed beforehand. His flanza is of a particular conftruction, perhaps too monotonous. By fanguine proof, ye nations, taught What various ills from difcord rife, Which nought can leffen or deftroy.' Arte Art. 24. The Poetical Works of Robert Lloyd, A. M. To which is prefixed, an Account of the Life and Writings of the Author. By W. Kenrick, LL. D. 8vo. 2 Vols. 6 s. fewed. Evans. 1774. The poems of the late very ingenious, but very unhappy Mr. Lloyd are here elegantly reprinted, with confiderable additions from the St. James's Magazine, a periodical work in which that writer was concerned; and which was fon difcontinued, for want of encourage. ment: though far fuperior to moft other publications of the kind. Dr. Kenrick, the prefent Editor, has prefixed a well-written life of the Author; in which he justly reproaches the Public, for the unaccountable neglect that Mr. Lloyd's poems have met with, from the time of his decease, while applaufe hath been lavishly beflowed on very inferior writers.-In this account of Mr. Lloyd's writings, there is a mistake, which we are defired to notice, with a view to its being duly rectified, in any fubfequent edition. Dr. K. observes that Mr. Lloyd, in conjunction with Mr. C. Dennis, undertook a tranflation of the Contes Moraux of Marmontel; a hafty performance, that did them little credit, and would have done them fill lefs, had not a second attempt by Mr. Colman to tranflate that elegant author, at greater leifure, proved almost equally abortive.'-We are authorized to fay, that Mr. Colman was not the author of the tranflation of Marmontel here alluded to.-Dr. K. muft have been misinformed. Art. 25. England's Tears: a Poem. Infcribed to BRITANNIA, To which is added, Advice to the Voters of Great Britain, at the approaching General Election. 4to. I s. 6 d. Kearfly. 1774. This maudlin Mufe blubbers moft woefully about the degeneracy of Britannia's fons : Ah! how unlike these were days of yore, E'er gold, that bane to virtue, curs'd our shore Or fields inclos'd-monopolies practis'd- We heartily with this Writer had been better advised, ere he printed thefe confounded caterwauling verses! Art. 26. The Resurrection of Liberty; or, Advice to the Colonifts: a Poem. By the Ghost of Churchill. 4to. 2 S. Allen. 1774. This Author, too, fhould have been better advised: fee the preceding Article. Both the Ghoft of Churchill, and the Tear Mer chant plead their juvenility in extenuation of the imperfections that may be found in their pieces:-What concern have the Public with the age of a bad writer? Art. 27. Hebé, an Heroic Poem on her Majefty. 4to, 1 s. 6d. Allen. 1774 "Tune, tune Apollo! tune! O tune the lyre-” Apollo must be an hard-hearted deity, indeed, if he refused to tune the man's lyre, after his affiftance had been so pathetically invoked! See our account of the quarto edition, printed by subscription, ip the year 1762. Rev. vol. xxvi. p. 385. Y 3 This |