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order, as willed by the Almighty, bestow upon the vaft and multiform fyftem of the universe.'

P. 232.

With this view of the confiftency of prophefy is properly connected the fuperior morality of the prophets themfelves, and the enlarged ideas they give us, both of the creation and the Creator. And thus the prophetic compofitions, like the divine productions, exhibit that unity of defign and harmony of parts which it is equally impious and abfurd to represent as the fortunate refult of contingencies, or a fuccefsful effort of ingenious impofture.'

The feventh difcourfe inquires into the motives by which the Hebrew prophets could be actuated, and proves clearly that thefe could be neither interested nor political. They could not aim at popularity, nor the favour of the fovereign; riches were evidently not their object; and it is equally ob vious they were not actuated by enthufiafm or fanaticifm. The honour of God, and the advancement of his religion, were the fole ends which they had in view; and

never did the prophets of Ifrael betray any private or temporal aim, or deviate, even in a fingle inftance, from the pure and fublime object which they avowedly laboured to attain. In wealth and in poverty, in triumph and in defeat, when feated like David upon a throne, or like Amos tending the herds, they invariably declared themselves to be employed as the minifters of Jehovah in revealing his will to mankind.' P. 282.

In the eighth difcourfe is drawn an admirable comparison between the fates of the two fpecies of prophefy, the facred and the profane. The firft proceeded from

the one God, pure, fpiritual, and invisible, the maker and the preferver of worlds, the high and mighty One, who is from everlafting. It began in the infancy of nature, with the firft inhabitants of the earth, from whom have been derived all the nations of the globe. It was occafioned by circumstances the most interesting and awful which a reasonable being can contemplate; the fall of a new race of creatures by fin, and the benevolent intention of the Creator to restore them to life and imn.ortality.' P. 288.

It has been the object of attention from that time to this, and will not cease to be fo till the religion of Chrift,

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pure and fpiritual, founded on perfect morality and rationall piety, promoting peace on earth, and conducting man to heaven, fhould triumph over worldly fuperftitions, and unite all the inhabitants of the globe in one bond of facred brotherhood and love, obedient to their common Redeemer, and protected by the univerfal God.' P. 310..

The ninth and laft difcourfe takes a bird's-eye view of the prefent state of the earth, and brings to a point the judicious obfervations made in the preceding difcourfes. It proves clearly that we have fure and certain and never-failing evidences of the truth of our religion. It points out how much infidelity is baffled in its endeavour to account for the prefent appearances of the moral world, and that the approaching and final fall of the papal power will increafe its difficulties ftill more. On the whole, we recommend this work ftrenuously to the younger clergy and to ftudents in divinity. On the topics here brought forward they may dilate with great advantage to their congregations and themfelves; and both from the fubject felected and the manner of treating it, the folidity of the arguments, the energy and perfpicuity of the ftyle, and the vein of piety which pervades the whole, this writer deferves well of the Bamptonian lecture.

A concife Hiftory of Greece, from the earliest Times to its becoming a Roman Province. In Three Volumes. By John Payne, Author of the Epitome of Modern Hiftory. Illuftrated with Maps, and feveral Copper-Plates. Vol. I. 8vo. 95. Boards. Johnson. 1800.

As literary merit depends on the excellence, not the multiplicity of compofitions, we are not influenced, in forming an opinion of this hiftory, by the copious lift of Mr. Payne's works, from which it appears that he has exercifed his pen as a lawyer, a politician, a financier, an hiftorian, and a geographer. It cannot be fuppofed that he excels equally in all thefe departments; and perhaps it may be affirmed, with truth, that he does not, in any one of them, rife above mediocrity. The cafe, however, is not the fame in the walks of literature as in thofe of poetry, where mediocrity is neceffarily confidered` as difgraceful. In politics, hiftory, or geography, a writer who neither foars high nor finks low may yet be refpectable.

Mr. Payne dedicates his work to the earl of Moira, whom he compares with Thucydides and Xenophon. In his preface, he gives his opinion of former publications relative to the history of Greece; but he does not very accurately difcriminate their merits.

After a sketch of the early Grecian hiftory, our author exhibits a fhort view of the oracles, and makes juft obfervations upon thofe vehicles of impofture. He proceeds to treat of the Olympic games and other feftivals, which he properly defcribes. In the hiftory of Sparta, he rather leans to the opinions of other writers refpecting the propriety or utility of the

inftitutions of Lycurgus, then ventures to promulgate his own fentiments, though he had ample scope for remark.

Speaking of Pitiftratus the Athenian ufurper, he with reafon controverts the opinion of Mr. Mitford, that a real attack was made on the life of that demagogue. He fays,

As no ancient author has thrown out a furmife to fupport fuch an opinion, it must reft alone on the reafons which that gentleman affigns for holding it; which are, that the account given came from his enemies; that the belief of a real atten pt to affainate him prevailed at Athens for a confiderable time; and becaufe, if it had been a fraud, it was never detected.'

P. 100.

To this paffage Mr. Payne has fubjoined a note, which we think is not injudicious.

That Pififtratus did not fcruple to impofe on the people of Athens, appears from a fubfequent event, which the above author gives from Herodotus, without expreffing any doubt of the fact. It relates to the means which were taken to reinftate Pififtratus in power when he was afterward driven into exile, which were by` dreffing a gigantic woman in complete armour, and adorning her with the characteristic enfigns of Minerva, feating her in a magnificent car, and caufing her to be conducted through Athens in great ftate; whilft fhe, in the authoritative tone of a goddess, commanded the Athenians to receive Pififtratus. Surely this is a much lefs credible ftory than the firft, and, if admitted, tends very much to ftrengthen the opinion that the firft was a mere trick; for no one would have dared to play off fo palpable an impofition, except upon a people whofe grofs credulity had been before experimented upon.' P. 100.

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He maintains, in oppofition to Mr. Mitford, that Xerxes really ordered lathes to be inflicted, by way of punishment, on the Hellefpont; and we do not fee foficient reafon to dispute the authority of Herodotus on this occafion. A weak tyrant, in a paroxylin of arrogance and folly, may have given fuch an order, however abfurd it may appear to a reflecting mind.

The chief incidents of the war between Xerxes and the Greeks are related from the best authorities; and the unprincipled character of that defpot is ftigmatifed with merited

cenfure.

The illuftrious adminiftration of Pericles is thus introduced:

By the death of Cimon, Pericles enjoyed the full confidence of the Athenian people without a rival, when a new era in the hiftory of Athens commenced, which may be defcribed as the age of luxury

and the arts.

• Pericles was descended from one of the most illuftrious families

in Athens. His natural endowments were of a very fuperior kind, and his education had been fuperintended with the utmost care. His philofophical inftructor was Anaxagoras of Clazomenæ, from whofe leffons he acquired a much more enlarged and juft knowledge of nature than had before been taught; the doctrines of that philofopher tending to overthrow the fuperftitious practices and opinions which prevailed among the Athenians; fo that Anaxagoras, and all his difciples, were generally charged with atheifm. Pericles engaged early in public affairs, gained the afcendency over all his com petitors, became at length, and continued to be till his death, mafter of the affections, and no lefs of the liberties, of the Athenian' people; and though mafter, yet guardian and promoter of the latter. His abilities as a statefman were eminently great; he was likewife an able general, and a most powerful erator. He rendered Athens the most eminently distinguished ftate that ever existed; but whilft fo productive of every thing great and glorious, it was it the fame time deeply infected with faction, licentioufnefs, and wild tumultuary caprice.

Although from his birth and fortune Pericles might have been expected to devote his great abilities to the interefts of the aristocra◄ tic party in the Athenian commonwealth, yet, when he started in life, he appeared only in a military capacity, in which he acquired great reputation, and declined taking a decided part in politics, until the death of Ariftides, the banishment of Themistocles, and the abfence of Cimon on diftant expeditions; when Pericles appeared confpicuoufly in the adminiftration, yet choofing rather to court the favour of the multitude than of the great and few: in private life he was neither convivial nor jocofe; fecluding himself from company, and at all times fupporting a dignity of deportment, which, according to Plutarch, was never laid afide even in his unbended hours. P. 235.

Of the celebrated funeral oration delivered by Pericles in honour of those who had fallen in the war between the Athenians and the Lacedæmonians, the fubftance is given by Mr. Payne with fome fpirit. To exclude it entirely, would have been a cenfurable omiffion; yet Mr. Mitford has contented himfelf with referring his readers to the original, on the idle pretence that it denies abridgement.'

In this volume, the hiftory is brought down to the thirteenth year of the Peloponnefian war. The concluding chapter treats of the character and manners of the Athenians,' includes a comparative view of the manners of the Greeks with thofe of other nations their contemporaries,' and deferibes the state of the arts and fciences among them. Referring to the time of Draco, the writer fays,

That their degree of civilifation and fimplicity of manners greatly excelled the mafs of mankind coeval, is apparent; for even

the laws of Draco prove a virtuous age in Greece, when crimes were held to be fo heinous, that every degree of criminality was punishable by death.'. Vol. i. P. 436.

In oppofition to this inference, it may be contended, that fuch laws may prove a vicious age, when crimes were fo numerous and atrocious, that the most rigorous and cruel punifhments were deemed, by a legiflator who enjoyed the reputation of wifdom, neceffary for the coercion of the people. We do not offer this remark in juftification of the inhumanity of Draco (for no ftate of focicty can justify fuch laws), but merely in the way of argument, to fhow that the conclufion drawn by Mr. Payne is by no means indifputable.

There is little originality in this or any other part of the work; but, upon the whole, it is a judicious compilation, and may be recommended to those who wish to become fo far converfant in the Grecian history as to avoid the reproach of grofs ignorance, and at the fame time are too idle to devote any large portion of time to their studies.

The Political Economy of Inland Navigation, Irrigation and Drainage; with Thoughts on the Multiplication of Commercial Refources; and on Means of bettering the Condition of Mankind, by the Conftruction of Canals, by the Improvement of their various Capacities for Commerce, Transfer, Agriculture, Household Supplies, and Mechanical Power; and by the unlimited Extenfion thereof into the remoteft Interior of Great Britain and of Foreign Parts. By W. Tatham. 4to. Boards. Faulder.

THE advantages of inland navigation to a country are every day more fenfibly felt; and if at times unneceffary works have been undertaken, and wild fpeculations have been introduced by thofe who confider the profit of cutting the canal, aftead of the profit to be derived from the canal when cut, thefe partial abuses of an inftitution do not greatly diminish the general good which may accrue from it. A canal facilitates the communication between countries, and may be rendered ferviceable to navigation to a much greater extent than has been hitherto attempted, or is probably conceived. The height of a mountain, or the depth of a valley, and other difficulties in the way of the engineer, are feldom infurmountable; and if nations, barbarous in comparifon of the English, fuch as the Ruffiars and Chinefe, can execute works of this kind more than thrice the length of our island, it must be a reflection on the talents of our engineers, and the fpirit of the managers of our commerce, if nature have interpofed any obftacle in this country which is regarded as irremediable by the exercife of fkill and perfeverance.

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