miniftered by the Chriftians, St. Peter, St. Luke, and their Apoftolical or Evangelical affociates. A genuine Socinian participates fo freely of the freezing spirit of an Atheist, that he will stand still in any pofture of idiocy, rather than move into the warming belief of a miracle. He will contradict all hiftory, he will kick at all decency, he will convert Apostles into poisoners, and banish God from his own universe, rather than admit the existence of a miracle. Such is the fottishness of man, pretending to be wife against the wisdom of God! But, as Dr. Enfield proceeds with all this inhaled fpirit of a Condorcet and a D'Alembert together, -" the creed which Arius, according to the report of an historian by no means inclined to favour him," Socrates, " presented to Conftantine, on his return from banishment, was not contradictory to his avowed tenets and it is not to be credited, that, after having been for so many years refolute in his oppofition to the Catholic faith, he should at once abandon his principles, even when he had been permitted to retain them, by fubfcribing to the Nicene creed." Behold here the probity and the precifion of the Doctor in hiftory!" The Emperor," fays that very hiftorian, "willing to make a trial of Arius, fends for him to the Palace, and afked him if he concurred with the decrees of the Nicene Council," which averred (as we have seen from the Doctor before) the consubstantiality of the Son with the Father in the Godhead. "He readily, without any hesitation, before him fubfcribed the decrees concerning the faith, but subscribed them fophiftically." He, therefore, who could" not believe in the mysteries of confubftantiality and eternal generation," did formally fubfcribe his belief to them, and did therefore subscribe a creed directly contradictory to his avowed tenets." 66 So grofsly has the Doctor here falfified hiftory, even the very hiftory to which he refers, in order to fave the blafted credit of a knave and a heretic in one!" And the Emperor, in wonder at this" fubfcription," added even an oath. But Arius took this alfo fophiftically." Arius took a false oath. This indeed the Doctor has wholly omitted. But it is apparent in his own hiftorian. He fubfcribed and he fwore to his belief of that very doctrine, which he had always oppofed before, which he actually difbelieved at the time, and for his oppofition to, or disbelief of, which Dr. Enfield has applauded him as his continued principles. The world, perhaps, never faw a man fo bold in falfification, fo audacious in perjury applauded by one pretending to any character as a writer or as a gentleman before. "But the manner in which he acted fraudulently, as to his fubfcription, was this as I have heard;" that a fraud was committed by Arius in the oath and in the fubfcription, is hiftorically certain, and is therefore afferted pofitively $ 4 pofitively by the hiftorian. But the nature of the fraud in both is ftated upon report only; a report, however, that from its antiquity and certification comes very nearly up to hiftory itself, and even comes the nearer from the hiftorian's fairness, in difcriminating the reported from the pofitive incidents. "Arius having written his own opinion upon a paper, they fay, placed it under his arm-pit, and truly fwore he thought as he had written." In what picture of infamy muft fuch a juggler appear to every man of common honefty!" That this then was fo done," adds the hiftorian, confirming his credibility again by his cautioufnefs, "I hear as I am writing, that, indeed, the Emperor added even an oath to the subscription, I have collected out of the Emperor's own epiftles."* Such a cloud of darkness has that very hiftorian thrown around the head of Arius, who is fummoned by Dr. Enfield to thed a luftre of light upon him; a cloud properly fuited to the countenance, and a darkness congenial to the heart of such a knave! Yet," had his party prevailed during his life," as the Doctor concludes in a ftrain that even aftonishes our spirits which have been so long accustomed to his mood of wildness, "there can be no doubt [but] that after his death his name would have been enrolled among the faints." Could a Condorcet or a D'Alembert have fpoken with more fpite against the Christians? Yet even this fpite is exceeded by what follows."Having had the misfortune to be registered by the church, which called itfelf orthodox among heretics," he means, registered among heretics by the church which called itfelf orthodox," he can only be found by pofterity in the humbler lift of honest men." We have often heard of the popifh. canonization of knaves; but we here behold a Socinian, a deiftical, an atheistical one; we behold a man in despite of hiftory, of acknowledged hiftory, of plain fubftantial facts in it, one therefore confefied as the meanest and the lowest of knaves, obtruded upon the world for an honeft, because he was an heretical man, the natural faint of fraudulence either Arian or Socinian, the very dæmon of Deifm, the very genius of Atheism. These remarks we could continue upon others of Dr. Enfield's articles. But we withhold our hand. We have fingled out thefe, indeed, to fhow the malignant purposes of him, who was the original projector of the work, we believe, and appears the principal executor of it at prefent. Nor can Dr. Aikin be fcreened from the fcandal attached to fuch articles. He has published all the collected malignity of the other. We Socrates 1. 38, cannot cannot refrain therefore from expreffing our hopes, with exception only to one or two articles by Dr. Aikin, that a Biography fo drawn up, so published, fo grofsly contradictory to the truths of hiftory, upon record, and fo violently offenfive to the feelings of Chriftianity in our bofoms, may be treated with the indignation which it justly merits from the public. ART. II. Sketch of the Life and Literary Career of Auguftus Von Kotzbue; with the Journal of his Tour to Paris, at the Clofe of the Year 1790.. Written by himself. Tranflated from the German by Anne Plumtree. To which is fubjoined an Appendix, including a General Abstract of Kotzbue's Works. 8vo. Pp. 334. Symonds. THE celebrity which the works of this author have pro cured to him hath made him an object of public attention, not only on the Continent, but even in this country; indeed, to fuch a height has admiration been carried among us, that a ftagnation of original genius feems to have taken place in our own dramatic writers, and the brightest of them has been content to fhine in few plumes plucked from the gaudy offspring of the German poet. In the works of a writer fo much read, fo much imitated, there must be an extraordinary degree of merit, although we confefs, it is not of that description to which we are inclined to allow fuch fingular pre-eminence. We wish to fee great abilities devoted to other purposes than to degrade religion under the appearance of hatred to fuperftition, to decry all legitimate authority under the pretence of expofing tyranny, and to fanction the gratification of the moft ardent of human paffions, under the flimfy veil of fentimental love. The moft enthufiaftic of his admirers, we think, will not deny that fuch are the evident purposes of many of Kotzbue's dramas. But we will not here anticipate the observations we shall have occafion to make on his various writings in the progress of this article: he begins thus "As an author I have received my abundant share of applause and abuse, and fince both have been frequently alike undeserved on my part, it may, perhaps, not be wholly ufelefs to thofe young men who are ambitious of treading the fame flippery path to receive inftruction from a veteran." After a few pages of delight at the renewal of infant scenery, he proceeds to detail fome of the events of his earlier years; of the care which his mother took of his education he fpeaks in the most grateful terms. " She "She engaged tutors for my inftruction, young divines, whe," while anxiously waiting, till, in quality of their godly vocation, they should be called to the care of a flock, made me feel most heavily the weight of their fhepherds crooks. They, indeed, fpared no pains, within the sphere of correction, to make a most hopeful fheep of me, &c. &c." Under tutors of this defcription, he did not, it appears, make much progrefs; but being afterwards removed to the Gymnafium at Weimar under Mufæus, he proceeded in the common course of inftruction obferved there; exclufive of the learned languages, of which he speaks flightly, he applied himfelf to poetry, and the drama with all his native ardour. From his infancy, it should seem he was devotedly attached to the theatre, and this attachment was infinitely increased by the opportunities which he had of attending that amusement at Weimar, and the fociety of fome eminent writers with whom he was acquainted. All this is given in a playful and entertaining manner. We are not furprized to find him thus writing of the famous Goethe. "I cannot find words to defcribe the overpowering emotions excited in my foul, by this wonderful, philofophical, romance.* From that moment, I conceived fo enthufiaftic an attachment to its author, that, at his request, I would even readily have run my hands into the fire to feek for his loft fhoe-buckle!!" When an author is thus capable of fascinating the mind, and alluring it to fuch unlimited obedience, can it be faid that the doctrines of his work are not mischievous, and detestable in the extreme? And under fuch impreffions, was not Kotzbue a fit recipient of illuminifm? With a mind of such a texture it is not wonderful that " logic" fhould be "miferable," that lectures on "univerfal history" fhould be " dull," and that he fhould feel an "inveterate naufea" for all he learnt at school. At fixteen he became a student at the great academy at Jena. Here he ftudied Latin under Weideberg, and French under Boulet; but he neither difcontinued writing verfes nor acting plays. After one year's refidence at this place, he paid a vifit to a fifter at Duisberg; and even there he was not fatisfied without a private theatre. Actors were eafily to be found, but where to find a room? "This little town, as is commonly the cafe with little towns, was enveloped by a thick cloud of prejudices." They were at length relieved from their difficulty by the fathers of the Minorets, who accommodated them with a room in the convent. This compliance affords the author an opportunity of railing at the feverity of the Proteftant clergy in Germany, and of comparing their strictness with the liberality of the Monks. He thus wittily, for we prefume it was fo meant, concludes his obfervation: "Hell indeed is equally their bugbear for frightening their deluded creatures, but with them* there is still some hope of escaping from it; whereas with the Proteftant, 'tis once there, always there. In short, whoever is deftined to fall into the hands of a priest, will ftand a much better chance with a Monk than a fuperintendant.” In 1779 he returned to Jena, and applied, " with tolerable diligence, to ftudying the law." He thus characterizes the profeffors of Jena: "The old H, who entertained his audience with ribaldry, the dry S who never in his life produced but two jokes, which he was continually repeating, and at which nobody laughed but himself; the profing taftelefs W- and the worthy but uncouth Sch- were my preceptors. Had thefe been fo many players, in what different terms would he have defcribed them! Impartial Kotzbue! About this time he compofed a tragedy, called "Charlotte Frank :" and he gives a ludicrous account of his own perfonification of one of the characters. This was foon followed by a comedy, called "Wives a la Mode"-neither of these pieces we have seen. He finished his academical career at Jena, by taking the character of an opponent at a doctor's degree. Soon after which he returned to Weimar and was admitted an advocate"and here," fays he, "while I was waiting for clients, I continued to be myself a zealous client of the Mufes." In this place he continued, enjoying the fociety of his friend Mufæus, until the year 1781, when he went to Petersburg. It does not appear in what capacity he visited the Ruffian capital; but, according to his tranflator, he was for fome years Prefident of the High College of Juftice, in the territory of Efthland. During his refidence in Ruffia, he wrote a tragedy in five acts, called "Demetrius Czar of Mofcovy." He made. Demetrius a true Prince," but having, by an Ukafe of Peter I. been declared otherwife, the play was not permitted to be acted, until he (the author) had, in his own perfon, made a folemn declaration that he was "convinced of Demetrius's impofture." He foon after produced a comedy, called "the Nun and the Chamber Maid," and a romance entitled "the 66 * Monks. Sufferings |