that kind will go down, unless the Author's epitaph be fomewhere engraved in Gothic characters. Oh horrid,' fays he, methinks I hear fome of your Virtuofi cry out, a work planned and wrote in our own coun try! why can any one that has the leaft concern for his reputation, think of reading it ?—If it had the fanction only of two or three centuries (and what antiquity is that for a book) one might bear to turn it over, to read a page or two perhaps, but a work that still smells of the prefs! Infufferable! there is no bearing it near one! and it would be ftill worfe, if its Author was living. Why, really Gentlemen, the Author is living; he is upon my word; and, what is more, is not at all anxious to procure his book the advantage that would accrue to it from his being dead. Hey! what! the Author living, and we read his book? worfe and worfe! there is no bearing this; we must really wait till the Author is dead, Sir, before we can think fo much as of looking upon his title-page. Indeed in your little novels and romances, the thing is not of fuch confequence. One may even be acquainted with the Authors. We dine almoft every day in company with fome one or other of them, and give the rest wherewithal to get them a dinner. By this means we acquire a privilege of diverting ourselves, when we please, at the expence of the Author, and his book, without pretending to be in the leaft acquainted with the rules of compofition. Study is a fatiguing thing, and ferves for nothing but to fill one's head with doubts. In thefe affairs we act upon an inftinctive principle of taste that never fails us; an Author muft hit this if he is defirous to pleafe; otherwife, he may affure himself, our cat-calls are always ready for him. We good-natured creatures, who set up for the standard of polite taste, feldom let a morning pafs without reading ⚫ over fome new pamphlet, while the Valet is dreffing our hair; and very frequently the Author is waiting in another room, impatient to know the fate of his piece, from the judgment we form of it. It is not requifite to gain our approbation, that the Au<thor writes in a noble ftile, at once plain and intelligible; that his work throughout contains a useful moral; that his characters all think and act confiftently, and that the whole is interfperfed with the most judicious reflections; or, laftC ly, Ii 3 ly, that he has with equal force of colouring, painted the < beauties of virtue, and the deformity of vice: all this • paffes with us for mere pedantifm; and are we not in the right, pray, when we have laid it down as a rule, that an Author fhould write with no other view, but to amuse his • Readers? But if an Author gives us a natural and lively description of a Petit Maitre, with his fashionable air, fimpering, < fmiling, and abounding in fmart repartees; if he has carefully avoided clogging his work with the lumber of reasoning; and endeavours wholly to amufe, and not inftruct. If a tafte for trifling runs through the whole of his performance, and that pretty nothingnefs, which fo much delights the delicate ear, or especially if he ftrikes out fomething new in this way: oh! then we are in raptures! transport❝ed out of our wits, we hug the dear book, we double down • a leaf where it most charms us, and then away we hurry to the toilet of fome fashionable Lady.-Dear Madam, here is fomething new, beautiful, divine! ah! there is no reading it, it must be devoured! See! there is a paffage-We fhew the leaf doubled down-the paffage is read :-no body ⚫ understands it; fo much the better; but every one is in raptures with the prettinefs of the thought-The whole book is in the fame tafte, fay we-The Author is a Phonix, and his book an invaluable treasure. This is the first copy that has yet appeared; therefore we may this very afternoon take the honour of a thousand expreffions, and witty turns, that have never yet been heard of. Ah, what a pleasure it is to talk in a stile unlike every body else* !' Our Readers will excufe our not giving any abstract of the piece itself, as it would be too dry and barren, without running into thofe occafional embellishments, which would swell the article beyond bounds. Let it fuffice to fay, it is founded on the circumstance of an old woman's being run away with by a young Monk: to which adventure the Author has annexed a variety of epifodes, and has worked up the whole in a manner pleafing and poetical. The other piece, containing the complaints, occupation, and reveries of Iphis, in the absence of Amaranta, is We fuppofe the Writer means here to reflect on the fingularity and nothingness, as we have heard it called, of Triftram Shandy Poor Triftram! alas, how much obloquy will the peculiarity of thy idiom, and the hereditary whimficalnefs of thy family opinions, bring upon thee! written written in the true fpirit of a lover. His attempt to drown the remembrance of her in wine; and the prevalence of beauty over the charms of the bottle, which compleats Cupid's revenge, being thus agreeably verified, we fubjoin the following extract as a specimen of the Author's poetical abilities. AIR. Not thus felt my breaft when in love's gentle bands When our days undisturb'd ftill roll'd on in their spring, When our lips wanted language our flames to disclose, I feign'd fome flight quarrel her paffion to prove ; When confounding thofe fighs, and thofe fears with my own, When delight fprang from doubt, where moft worth I could trace, In her sweetness of temper, or charms of her face. RECITATIVO. Alas! deluding image of my joy, Why haft thou fled? why ftill perfift'ft to fly? AIR. Come then, jolly Bacchus, affift me to banish, Before thy bright nectar in fumo shall vanish The pangs of fond paffion and jealoufy's fmart. Like Silenus, alone I'll delight to grow older, Midft the cluck of the bottle and clink of the glass. AIR. But foft!-what rapt'rous dream of bliss! 114 Bacchus Bacchus avaunt!—I call'd not thee';— · Thefe are the fweets I still prefer : One fmile, one fingle look from her.. On the whole, tho' we think there is much merit in the publication before us, we imagine it is of that kind which will not take with the majority of Readers. K-n-k The Trinitarian Controverfy Reviewed: Or, a Defence of the Appeal to the Common Senfe of all Chriftian People," &c. Wherein every particular advanced by the Rev. Dr. Mc. DosNELL, in his fincere Chriftian's Answer to the Appeal, is afftinctly confidered; feveral other Subjects relative to the Qu tion are difcuffed; and an humble Attempt is made to put a fra Period, if poffible, to this Controversy, by a folemn Address to the most judicious Defenders of the Athanafian Trinity. By the Author of the Appeal. 8vo. 5s. Millar. T is fcarce poffible, in our opinion, for a serious and impartial Chriftian to perufe this performance, without being highly pleafed with the manner in which it is writter, and the fpirit that breathes through the whole of it. The Author appears in the character of a candid and modef Enquirer after truth; of a zealous and confiftent Proteftant: fhews nothing of that violent and angry fpirit which i but too frequently to be met with in controverfial writing upon religious fubjects; treats his adversary with due freedom, but in fuch a manner as becomes a Gentleman and i Chriftian; and feems, indeed, to have no other view in wh he writes, but to vindicate the cause of important truth, without confidering what worldly inconveniencies his honest freedom may expofe him to. Who the Author is, we know not: his Antagonist ende vours to give bad impreffions of him, for not having prefixe his name to the Appeal: in anfwer to which, hear what h fays. As my name was of no confequence to the public, I ¿ not think it neceffary: and if I had prefixed my nam ? you would probably have charged me with infolence ar prefumption. Befides, my name has no relation to the guments proposed; if they are good and folid, they oug to be admitted, without any regard to the Author's name; they are weak and trifling, they may be eafily answered. • With refpect to your manner of treating me upon this occafion, I am difpofed to impute it to a warm zeal for what you efteem the caufe of God, which fometimes carries you beyond the ftrict bounds of Chriftian charity: and in return for what you have faid, I heartily with you all fuccefs in your minifterial office, with refpect to thofe points in which we are agreed. As to the Author of the Appeal, it is fufficient for Chriftian people to be acquainted, that he profeffes himself at this time, a Minister of Chrift, officiating in the Church of < England: that he has fairly and openly declared his dissent from the Athanafian forms in that very congregation, where he declared his affent and confent, when he took poffeffion of the living: that he has profeffed his refolution never to < fubfcribe the Thirty-nine Articles, nor to declare his affent to forms which he thinks contrary to the word of God. Farther, he thinks himself under no obligation to refign his minifterial office, as he omits no parts of the Lithurgy, but fuch as the Church had no right to impofe: that the Church itfelf, in which he officiates, is founded upon the rights of • Minifters and People, to judge and practice for themselves • in matters of religion; without which we must have lain to this very day in the grofs corruptions of Popery: that he profeffes a dutiful fubmiffion to his Superiors in all lawful inftances, that do not break in upon that duty he owes • to the great Shepherd and Bifhop of our Souls. When you charge the Author of the Appeal with pretending to a readiness to fuffer any thing in this glorious caufe; let it be observed, that as he profeffes himself a Minifter of Chrift, he is very fenfible of his duty, if he should ⚫ be called upon to fuffer any distress upon account of his religious principles: but if he has expreffed himself too confidently upon this point, he readily acknowleges it as a fault. The example of St. Peter, Cranmer, one of our 'first Reformers, and many others, fhould teach us to be humble, and diffident of our own ftrength; and should oblige us to be more follicitous to approve our fincerity to God and Chrift, by filent acts of refignation, and a strong • resolution formed in the heart, than to recommend ourfelves to men, by rafh and confident boaftings. However, it is proper Chriftian people fhould be affured, that the Author of the Appeal thinks himself in earnest, and humbly hopes, by the affiftance of God, to be able to take up the Crofs |