is rather unfortunate in choosing a subject. The "Resurrection" is too solemn for rhyming verse, however tolerable it might be in the style of Milton or Young. We would advise him to study the ancient and original English writers more, and the modern imitators less. Dryden is a much better model than Darwin. He would also have given a better spécimen of his learning had he translated into English verse. The extracts he quotes from Eschylus and Sophocles. His poem, however, has perhaps more merit than any of its readers may at first suppose.

· Classical Selections in Verse. 8vo. pp. 200. 1s. Robinson, Liverpool; Longman and Co., Cradock and Joy, London, 1808.

AMONG the multitude of poetical selections, which we have *seen, the present volume stands unrivalled in exquisite classical taste and elegance. Very few of the pieces have before appeared in similar compilations; and whether we consider their intrinsic beauty, or that of the typography, we have no hesitation in saying, that this is the cheapest and most elegant volume, in every sense of the word, which we have hitherto found. To the editor it does great honour, as displaying a refined taste; and to the Liverpool press of Mr. J. Smith it is equally creditable for accuracy and elegance. We have seen few books which approached so nearly in bright blackness and clearness to Didot's stereotype, as these "Classical Selections in Verse."

Quid Nunc? Selections from the Poems of the late W. Cowper, Esq. contrasted with the Works of Knox, Paley, and others; on Fashion, Cards, Charity, Clergy, Priest, Pulpit, Duelling, Slander, Lying, Duplicity, Domestic Happiness, Vice, Seduction. 8vo. pp. 47. 1s. 6d. Easton, Salisbury; Hatchard, London. 1809.

HAD there been less methodism in these selections, they would have formed a more useful and convenient monitor. To do good, it is necessary to avoid prepossessing against a thing the very persons whom it is designed to attract. The liberal-minded reader, however, will find very salutary poetical and prose observations worthy of the most serious and practical attention, on the subjects enumerated in the title..

MISCELLANEOUS.

An Abridgment of the Holy Scriptures, by the Rev. Mr. Sellon, late Minister of St. James's, Clerkenwell. Stereotype Edition. 18mo. pp. 208. Vernor, Hood, and Sharpe.

THE acknowledged excellence of this little Abridgment of the Old and New Testament rendered it a very proper work for a stereotype impression. There are very few parents so poor that they could not afford to purchase and read it frequently to their

children; nor are there any so rich or so learned as to require a more splendid edition or erudite work for the education of youth. The impressive simplicity, yet elegance of the language, will improve both the taste and heart of young persons; and the moral and pious reflexions which terminate each chapter, form such a code of morality as cannot be read without producing some salutary effect, without forcibly striking even the most obdurately depraved. Neatness, in every sense of the word, is the characteristic feature of this stereotype edition: but we have observed two literal errors. In p. 149, "place of the province" occurs for " peace of the province:" and p. 160, "public assembles," for public assemblies." Such errors in a work printed in the usual manner, would never be observed; but in a stereotype edition the utmost correctness is expected. Mr. A. Wilson makes it one of his “ standing rules," that "nothing is to be printed against religion; " we hope that he will add to it, that "no religious work is to be printed incorrectly." In the preface p. xix. indispensible is used instead of indispensable. The same thing occurs in Mr. Robinson's stereotype edition of Entick's Dictionary.

The Lady's Toilette; containing a critical Examination of the Nature of Beauty, and of the Causes by which it is impaired, with Instructions for preserving it to advanced Age; an historical Sketch of the Fashions of France and England; Directions for Dressing with Taste and Elegance; and Receipts [recipes] for preparing all the best and most harmless Cosmetics proper for a Lady's Use. 12mo. pp. 304. 9s.! Wyatt. 1808.

THIS book is entirely of French origin, although it is not avowedly translated from the French. Had its translator or compiler shown a little more regard not merely to morality but to public decency, he might have made a work somewhat amusing. He perhaps thinks, with some of our artists who employ themselves in painting naked or indelicate pictures, that an immodest work is the surest to meet a quick sale! The enormous price affixed to it, tends to sanction such an inference. In this he has been deceived, and we are happy to find that such an infamous plan is not so applicable to books as paintings. The directions for preparing the cosmetics betray such a total ignorance of chemistry, that we could scarcely believe that the book was printed since the end of the seventeenth century. Such contemptible nonsense never before disgraced English wire-wove paper.

A summary Review of the Evidence adduced from the Charges against His Royal Highness the Duke of York. 8vo. pp. 24. Is. J. T. Stockdale. 1809.

THIS Reviewer says, "We believe no man would be guilty of hanging a rat upon Mrs. Clarke's testimony." A jury of honest independent Englishmen we suspect would act otherwise. The original insinuation gainst Mr. Dowler's veracity, in this tract, does little to the cause it is meant to support; but so true it is, that "want of honesty is want of sense.

Aurora and Maria; or the Advantages of Adversity. A Moral Tale, in which is introduced a Juvenile Drama, called 2en Elizabeth, or Old Times new revived. By Elizabeth Somerville, Author of Leading Strings to Knowledge, a Mother's Lessons, &c. &c. 18mo. pp. 164. 2s. Cradock and Joy. 1809.

A very neat, interesting, instructive, and moral tale, replete with natural and affecting incidents, impressive examples, and salutary lessons, very well adapted to engage the attention and improve the minds of youth. Some persons may object to the introduction of any thing in the form of a drama, although it only constitutes one of the twelve chapters in which the work is divided. The almost impossibility, however, of educating children in the present age without some knowledge of plays, must excuse the introduction of a dramatic fable; and if such pieces are once admitted, it follows that moral ones should be preferred. Upon the whole, we have no hesitation in recommending "Aurora and Maria" to the attention of parents, as one of the most salutary and useful juvenile works, which does honour to the head and heart of the author. Miss or Mrs. Somerville appears to blend fancy and judgment in a manner very happy for the entertainment and instruction of youth.

A correct Copy of the Evidence taken before a Committee of the House of Commons, upon the Conduct of His Royal Highness the Com mander-in-Chief; in which are included several Documents that have

not yet appeared before the Public. 8vo. pp. 498.

Mutlow. 1809.

10s. 6d.

THIS Copy of the Evidence on the Inquiry into the Duke of York's conduct, is accurately printed from the minutes of the House of Commons. From the importance of the subject which it relates, it deserves a place in every library; and the price, considering the quantity of matter which it contains, and the present dearness of · paper and printing, is extremely moderate.

Sir,

REVIEWERS REVIEWED.

CRITICAL REVIEW.

To the Editor of the Antijacobin Review.

TOWARD the conclusion of my last letter, I left the Cri tical Reviewers vehemently abusing our Liturgy and Articles. Our clergy, of course, experience a similar treatment with the system to which they are bound to conform; and this, as might be expected, in exact proportion to their conscientious adherence to it. "The most inquisitive and enlightened of the clergy," indeed, "all the ministers of our Church who have any pretensions to biblical knowledge," we are informed, have embraced either the Arian or the Unitarian hypothesis." These clergymen, as

they hold sentiments "utterly at variance with the tenets which are maintained in the Liturgy of the Church," and act in open defiance of their professional engagements, incur no share of the reproach bestowed on their brethren, but belong to "the upright and the wise body of unitarian and rational Christians." The behaviour of these zealous unitarians, the critic considers as forming "a striking exception to the monotonous dulness," and "uninquisitive indolence of the rest of the clergy, who are represented either as selfish, dronish, "ignorant, time-serving fools, or malicious and persecuting bigots. The majority of the clergy," he says, "having an infallible guide in the ipse dixit of men who lived three centuries ago, and finding themselves perfectly at their ease in the good things which are attached to ob equious assent, never feel the will, nor harbour the presumption, of thinking for themselves." They are ministers, respecting whom, he says, "the great emoluments of the Establishment usually operate as a premium on their mental somnolency and indolence;" ministers whose " orthodoxy depends a good deal upon their having a proper quantity of flesh upon their bones; which flesh," arising from the assimilation of the good things "included in the luxury of tythes, is sure to generate a disposition to swallow the Athanasian Creed, and all other creeds which the legislature in its wisdom may impose;" ministers, who, "while in their orthodox zeal they would readily trample on the neck of Presbyterian or Catholic, would not scruple to testify their political complaisance by any act of servility which it might suit "their interest to execute, and their employers to impose." Even the venerable Bishop of London does not escape this censure. The sweets of nitred ease seem," our critics say, "to have relaxed his holy zeal, and to have made his lordship an apostate from the righteous cause which he once espoused." Those of our clergy who have defended the institutions of their Church against the attacks of Romanists and others, are charged with " malice and bigotry," and expressly characterised "the sordid, narrowminded, and time-serving ministers of the establishment,... who think that the worship of Mammon is very compatible with the adoration of God:" and although "peers, pastry-cooks, parsons, and lawyers have handled this subject," our critics have been shocked to observe that the most inflammatory expressions have issued from the sons of the Church." Those ministers who think it their duty to adhere in their public instructions to the doctrines of their Church, are represented as tied down "like swine" to "that trough of reputed orthodoxy, which is filled with the mere offal of theology;" and are "priests who do nothing but repeat the old common-place of ignorance and superstition," &c. &c. &c. (See Vol. 11, P. 423, 440, 441; 12, 99, 324, 374, 375; 13, 23, 30, 32, 211; 14, 169.)

In this manner do these impugners of the Divinity and Atonement of our blessed Saviour incessantly vilify every thing con, nected with our venerable Establishment, and labour to prepare men for their meditated attack upon it in the legislature. By such vile means are they endeavouring to alienate our attachment from the most admirable ancient institutions, and, in their own

Godwinian style, "to roll us forward to some higher state of moral existence and social bliss."

But there is one stratagem by which their nefarious purpose appears to be promoted, more than by all their other means together: that is, the confounding and identifying the genuine doctrines of our Church with the extravagancies of some modern sectaries. On this head, alas! if that consummate judge, Bishop Horsley, was not deceived (see his last Charge), some wretched generalship has been displayed by ourselves. The real case is this, while too many among us discover a lamentable indifference in respect to the vast concerns of religion; on the other hand, our nation is inundated with enthusiasts and schismatics. A species of them, in particular, which arose about the middle of the last century, have, by artful professions of friendship for us; by a dexterous admixture of important scriptural doctrines with rank enthusiasm; by an indefatigable zeal, a subtile organization, the exterior of sanctity, with occasionally the spirit of it; by arrogant pretensions to extraordinary inspiration, supported, with nice management, in the eyes of the vulgar, by their extemporary addresses, made an unexampled progress. Yet never, perhaps, since the days of the ancient Pharisees, was there a sect of religionists, whose grimace, pride, and self-conceit; whose obtrusive and disgusting fanatacism; whose ostentatious quackery, contempt for authority, and violation of all established order and decorum in religion; whose self-commissioned teachers, preaching children, and preaching women, threatened more mischief ultimately either to the Established Church of their country, or to all sober piety. For the peculiarities of this sect, therefore, the sincere friends of our Church, in common with the whole host of those persons who have no religion at all, justly feel a strong áversion. Against this sect it is very fashionable, and sometimes profitable, to declaim; and the minister would indeed deserve a mitre, who, by rational argumentation, the authority of Scripture, or other legitimate means, should stem the torrent of their baleful schism, and cause the whole stream of piety to move in its appointed course. But the zeal of some among us, in this employment, has greatly exceeded their knowledge. With the tares they have rooted up the wheat also: in avoiding Scylla they have split on Charybdis. Instead of combating definitely and accurately, with marked and pointed discrimination, the peculiarities and pro-. pagators of methodism, they have assisted in raising a hue and cry against some important doctrines, and strictly correct ministers, of the Church they are defending. Now this, Sir, is exactly what our enemies would have it be. This circumstance they do not fail to improve against us to the uttermost. Hence is furnished an easy and infallible recipe for the damnation of our orthodox divines. Every clergyman is now a methodist, and made responsible for whatever is obnoxious in that body of people, who holds doctrine in common with them which is not holden by his opponent. And by our Critical Reviewers, every doctrine of our Church is expressly called Methodism, or Calvanism (terms used by them es synonymous), and represented as big with every absurdity,

any