path-way of former times? Will it juftify his filence, where the founder of the oration intended he fhould be eloquent? and will it excufe him for inferting eulogies on characters which certainly were not in the contemplation of Lord Crewe? To give a brief analysis of his oration, of what does it confift, but of a panegyric on poets and poetry, in which no one fingle benefactor of the Univerfity is mentioned, except Dr. Birkhead, a man whofe private character little entitled him to fuch particular distinction? Something, indeed, is faid of Alfred, but he is introduced more as a poet than as a founder; and inftead of being affociated with the noble army of benefactors, is claffed with Chaucer, Surrey, Sackville, Trapp, Lowth, and the two two Wartons. To the memory of the elder of the latter gentlemen, who was master of Winchester fchool, and preceptor to the orator himself, many handfome compliments are paid; "magiftrum aliquando meum, quem adeò ut parentem fum veneratus; cui quidem plus uni quàm cæteris omnibus me debere, nî profiterer palam, effem ingratiffimus." All this we must allow to be extremely natural but does it not convert the oration into a speech commemorative of the author's own friends and benefactors, rather than of thofe of the Univerfity at large? The author next proceeds to speak of poetry," quantum conferat ad judicium formandum." In a ftrain, ftill more foreign to the occafion than his eulogy upon Mr. Jofeph Warton, he complains of the" ingenium fervile" of Virgil and Horace, and of others, "qui fub imperatoribus vixerunt;' excufing Lucan only of the charge " pudenda adulationis." The author, it feems, entertains no good opinion of those bards who have beftowed their incenfe upon Kings; and he cautions the youth of the Univerfity," caveatis modò ab eorum admiratione qui tale quid in fe admittunt." He speaks highly of that liber animus, which will not debafe itself by any fuch turpitude; and particularly commends the Greek poets, quorum in fcriptis plurima paffim invenias, quæ longè a fervitute abhorrent, imò quæ libertatem vehementer fpirant.' Here the poet Milton (no benefactor to the University) is particularly pointed out to the admiration of the younger Academics. We are too well apprized of the political principles of Mr. Crowe, and of others of the refpectable fociety to which he belongs, not to perceive what is intended by this unneceffary introduction of the fublime regicide. The fame of a fermon on the study of politics, preached fome years ago before the Univerfity of Oxford, on the fifth of November, by the public orator, has not fo entirely died away, as to have left no impreffion on our memories. We therefore with that this vir fapiens et bonus, this libertatis quam amavit (in Mr. Crowe's opinion) juftus æftimator, videlicet, this John Milton, had not found his way into the oration, to the exclufion of many real friends of the University. As a republican we are not difpofed to pardon him, though as a poet we allow him the highest honours. As a republican, however, he is here manifeitly held up to admiration; and we cannot too feverely reprove the orator for ftepping afide from the courfe which he ought to have followed, in order to introduce the difloyal bard as an active citizen. In his defcription of the several qualities requifite to form the true poet, while we agree with the author, as to the feveral ingredients of his recipe, we deny that they were all to be found combined in his favourite Milton. "Imprimis, plurimarum et optimarum rerum cognitio, a longâ disciplinâ profecta; fed ante omnia, illud, quod nulla difciplina dare poteft, ingenium capax et fublime." So far the author of Paradife Loft was not deficient. But if, to constitute a true poet, we must of neceflity add " mens fincera et pectus ab omni fcelere vacuum"-if" turpitudo omnis amovenda eft, adhibenda autem fumma erga deum pietas, erga homines benevolentia," we are inclined to think that Milton will appear, in the eyes of all who are capable of found judgement, to have been not only Shakspearo fecundus but pluribus impar. We fhall not echo the fentiments of others in fupport of our opinion. The spleen and prejudice of Johnfon fhall not make us condemn the republican bard without mercy: nor fhall the qualifying periods of Mr. Crowe or Mr. Hayley (birds of the fame feather) prevent us from ftigmatizing his political principles with their due fhare of reprobation. The oration closes, as it began, with a compliment to the Univerfity. The compliment of the exordium is addreffed to the volunteer corps, formed of the undergraduates and fome of the clergy refident in the place. Of which we may obferve, that there feems to be fomething ludicrous in the author's ftiling it "præclara illa veftra confpiratio et confcriptio militaris." Nor can we perfuade ourselves that he does not mean to smile at the academical battalion, when he tells them, "exiftimo vos effe dignos, quos, non hæc mea exilis oratiuncula, fed potiùs pleniffima poetarum voces exornent." If the orator be not here ironical, we fear he is in tome danger of deferving his own cenfure pudendæ adulationis. The compliment to be found in his Peroratio is more judicious. It very properly applauds a new regulation lately made in the University, with respect to the public examination for degrees; a law which was truly, as the author has stated, 66 magno re magno cum affenfu promulgata atque lata." The form of examination, established by Archbishop Laud, was become, in a long courfe of years, fo defective, and so many means of evading its difficulties entirely, or of paffing through them without trouble and difcredit, had been invented, and were daily practifed, that it became highly neceffary for the Univerfity to correct the flagrant abufes committed. They have accordingly made a new ftatute, which promifes to put an end to that facility in taking degrees, which has for fo long a time overwhelmed the church with candidates for orders, who were not worthy of the meaneft pulpit belonging to it. We heartily join with the orator in congratulating the University on the fpirit it has manifefted, and in praying that it will not fuffer its energy to decline. "Pergite modò, et invigilate in legem veftram." So fhall the ftate be fupplied with men duly qualified to ferve God in his church, the ignorant fanatic fhall be excluded, and we shall cease to be infulted and mifled by a host of incompetent Apoftles, who have stolen into the fold while the keepers of the flock were flumbering. Academical teftimonials, it is prefumed, will hereafter bear witnefs only to real abilities: and the Bifhops will be inclined, we truft, to grant orders only to fuch as bear them, to the exclufion of the lefs informed; who, without paffing the Univerfity ordeal, obtrude themselves upon the world, as patterns of fanctity without fenfe, and of zeal without knowledge. We cannot clofe this article, without recommending to the public orator a little more regard to the occafion on which he fpeaks. It would not have difgraced him to have mentioned, in the moft liberal terms, many Kings of whom he has taken no notice. We are not of the number of those who think profe or poetry degraded by being applied in praise of the good, even though they fhould happen to be crowned. Were we, for inftance, poffeffed of the vena dives ourselves, we fhould feel no hefitation in celebrating the excellent monarch whom Great Britain at prefent enjoys, and in heartily befeeching God to blefs and preferve him; well perfuaded, that in fo doing we were, in a very laudable fenfe, fulfilling the Chriftian duty of honouring the King. ART. VIII. A Tour round Narth IVales, berformed during the Summer of 1798: Containing not only the Defcription and local Hifiory of the Country, but also a Sketch of the Hiftory of the Welsh Bards an Effay on the Language; Obfervations. on the Manners and Cluftons; and the Habitats of above 400 of the more rare Native Plants; intended as a Guide to future Tourists. NO. XXVI. VOL. VIS Ff Tourists. By the Rev. W. Bingley, B.A. F.L.S. of St. Peter's College, Cambridge. Illuftrated with Views in Aquatinta by Alken. 2 Vols. 8vo. PP. 984. Il. Is. Williams. London. 1800. NOTWITHSTANDING the various accounts which we have received, from the pens of different travellers and tourifts, of this interefting country, the work of Mr. Bingley cannot be deemed fuperfluous; for he has gleaned whatever is valuable from preceding writers, and added much that is inftructive of his own; avoiding, on the one hand, the fterile brevity of the flying tourist, and, on the other, the tedious amplification of the prolix hiftorian; thus compreffing, into a reasonable compass, a variety of ufeful information, which could not before be obtained, without the perufal of many voluminous and expenfive works. Mr. Bingley entered Wales from Chefter, by Britton, in Flintshire, proceeding, through Holywell, to St. Afaph, Conway, Bangor Ferry, Caernarvon and Llanberis; thence to the Ifle of Anglefea; then returning to Caernarvon he made the complete tour of North Wales, and came back by Shrewsbury. In his description of the different places which he visited, Mr. B. has judicioufly avoided those poetical embellishments which only lead to the difappointment of the unfortunate traveller who is induced by them to vifit the scenes themselves, and, confequently, to derive mortification from a fober comparison between art and nature, fiction and fact. His hiftorical notices are useful, and amply fufficient to convey as accurate an idea of the country as a mere vifitor would wish to acquire. His critical obfervations befpeak an intelligent mind; and in all his remarks, on the different topics to which he adverts, we are neither difgufted by a manifeftation of ignorance, nor offended by a difplay of affectation, As the Mona Antiqua of Rowland is a book not generally read, we fhall extract the account which that writer gives of a curious fect of Welsh Methodists, in a paffage quoted by Mr. B. "Whilft I was at Caernarvon, I was induced from curiofity, to attend fome of the meetings of a curious kind or branch of Calviniffical methodists, who from certain enthufiaftic extravagancies, which they exhibit, are denominated Jumpers. I will describe them from an account of one of their own countrymen, as my own obfervations did not lead me to be fo minute as he has been. • They perfuade themselves that they are involuntarily acted upon by fome divine im pulfe; and becoming intoxicated with this imagined infpiration, they utter their rapture and their triumph with fuch wildness and in coherence coherence-with fuch gefticulation and vociferation, as fet all reafon and decorum at defiance. This prefumption feized chiefly the young and fanguine, and, as it feems, like hyfteric affections, partly fpread ing through the croud by fympathy; its operations and effects varying according to the different degrees of conftitutional temperament, mock all defcription. Among their preachers, who are also very various in character, (illiterate and conceited-or well-meaning and sensible—or, too frequently I fear, crafty and hypocritical) fome are more diftinguished by their fuccefs in exciting thefe ftravaganzas. One of thefe, after beginning perhaps in a lower voice, in more broken and detached fentences, rifes by degrees to a greater vehemence of tone and gefture, which often fwells into a bellowing, as grating to the ear as the attendant diftortions are difgufting to the fight-of a rational man. In the early part he is accompanied only by fighs and occafional moans, with here and there a note of approbation; which after a while are fucceeded by whinings and exclamations; till, at length, one among the croud, wrought up to a pitch of ecstacy, which it is fuppofed will permit no longer to be fuppreffed, ftarts and commences the jumping; ufing at intervals fome expreffions of praife or of triumph. The word moft generally adopted is gogoniant."" (glory!) Between thefe exclamations, while labouring with the fubject, is emitted from the throat a harsh undulating found, which by the profane has been compared to a stone-cutter's faw. The con clufion, which I am almost ashamed to describe, has more the appear ance of heathen orgies, than of the rational fervour of chriftian devotion. The phrenfy spreads among the multitude; for, in fact, a kind of religious phrenfy appears to feize them. To any obfervations" made to them they feem infenfible. Men and women, indifcriminately, cry and laugh, jump and fing, with the wildest extravagance. That their drefs becomes deranged or the hair dishevel'd, is no longer an object of attention. And their raptures continue, till, fpent with fatigue of mind and body, the women are frequently carried out in a ftate of apparent infenfibility. In thefe fcenes, indeed, the youthful part of the congregation are principally concerned; the more elderly generally contenting themselves with admiring, with devout gratitude, what they deem the operations of the fpirit.' Their exertions are fo great at thefe times, that the hardeft labour they could be put to, would not fo much wafte their animal fpirits, or weary their limbs, as two hours fpent in this religious fury. Were their meetings feven times a week, inftead of once or twice, I am confident that the strongest conftitution could bear it but a very short time. "Befides these they have their general meetings, which are held once or twice in a year, at Caernarvon, Pwllheli, and other places in rotation. At thefe they fometimes affemble fo many as five, or fix thoufand people. They hold their general meeting at Caernarvon in open air upon the green, near the caftle; and not contented with the "Thefe preachings are altogether in the Welsh language." |