A that the world is a wilderness to him who is destitute of a friend. A wilderness, too, not of flowers or of plants, of rocks and of mountains, wild, yet not remote from beauty or sublimity; but a wilderness of weeds, or a sterile, parched, and burning desert. In the deepest recess of Nature, he, on the contrary, who feels the fine impulses of the heart, wanders not alone. In the midst of a Court, the Statesman nauseates the smile and the whisper, which invade him, unless his heart acknowledges to his judgment, that his glory is not wanting in the applause of those, for whose interests and happiness it ought to be his pride and his glory to labour. — I know that our expectations are vain, and our hopes idle, when we presume to expect common men to concentrate their hopes, wishes, and interests, in the duties of a Patriot! But I would whisper in the ear of a Minister of State, that if he would satisfy his hopes, his wishes, and his interests, completely and to the consummation of them all, he will divest himself of every thought that has not a collateral, if not an immediate direction, for the interests of the Country whose Minister he is. If he perform this imperative duty, rewards of every kind àre sure to follow: rank, riches, and honour. Rank, conferred by his Prince; riches, in the gratitude of his fellowcitizens; and honour, that will carry him through the heart of an Enemy's country. Like the ebryso-magnet of Strada, he will attract iron and gold wherever he goes: for as is the diamond among stones, roses among flowers, and the bird of Paradise among birds, so is Patriotism the best and most beautiful of all the virtues." We pass on to the article of " Literature," which contains much that is curious. Here, too, we find the old and hackneyed complaint, that Talents are not properly rewarded. "One of the principal causes why Genius, in this cold and calculating world, succeeds so ill, may be traced to that indifference with which men, whose lives are occupied in a contemplation of the beautiful and the sublime, regard all temporary advantages. Knowing but little of the baseness of men, till experience teaches it in misfortune; easily cheated by others, and too easily deluded by their imaginations, and the excellence of their natures, they feel at length the value of wealth, by becoming dupes to the cunning, and martyrs to the mean and contemptible villainy of others.Such is the principal cause that contributes to make such men indigent, and Erasmus lived with to keep them so. difficulty, and died in poverty. Cervantes perished in the streets of Madrid. Camöens, to the eternal disgrace of his age and country, died in an hospital in misery and ruin. Chatterton, the finest youthful genius that ever adorned a country, was left to suicide. Artedi was buried at the cost of another; - and Castell, who devoted a large fortune, and seventeen years of unremitted application, to his Lexicon Heptaglotton, and who assisted in the formation of the Walton Polyglott Bible, was rewarded neither in proportion to his learning, his abilities, or labour. Butler received no profit for his Hudibras from the profligate and worthless Charles: he lived in want, and received interment at the cost of a friend. Linnæus never received more than a ducat a sheet for any of his writings, though he wrote forty different works. I have tried,' said that illustrious character, whether diligence and unremitted labour can create respect. In this attempt I have enfeebled my frame; and what is worse than all, I am killing myself without the satisfaction of leaving a provision for my children.' In this distressing condition he remained for several years. Here let us stop it is a subject too painful to be dwelt upon! A Judge is permitted to enjoy his perquisites; a Bishop his rents; a Rector his tenths; a General his pay; and the Statesman his salary: but the Poet-Oh, spirit of the immortal Spenser!-the Poet is doomed to drink the bitter cup of poverty and sorrow. Such is the fate of the Poet! Let no one, therefore, of inferior qualifications, complain, if he receive no compensation for his merits, and no reward for his industry. "But indigence is not the only evil that literary merit has to dread. The envy which assails it is far beyond the calculation of a good man, and equally beneath the attention of a wise one; yet it operates on the happiness of both! Parmenides, whose code of laws was an honour to Elea, screened himself from the envy of the multitude in the retirement of philosophy. Pythagoras was the victim of a party at Crotona, and died in wandering from town to town. Thucydides was banished from Athens for a period of thirty years; and Libanius was driven from city to city by the envy and jealousy of rivals. Few men were more pestered with the malice of their contemporaries than Cicero ;while Galen was so envied by his brother Physicians, that he became at length apprehensive of his life.-Galileo was imprisoned in the dungeons of the Inquisition; quisition; Copernicus was screened from persecution only by his death; Ramus, whose writings contributed so much to banish Aristotle from the schools, was twice obliged to quit Paris, to avoid the vengeance of Bigotry, and perished at last in the massacre of St. Bartholomew. Dr. Harvey, who taught the circulation of the blood in animals, and Dr. Hales, who proved the circulation of the sap in trees, both encountered the opposition and envy of their contemporaries. Linnæus struggled long against the prejudice of his opponents, while his writings were suppressed at Rome, and condemned to be burnt! The Clergy of the Parliamentary Army heightened the death of the excellent Chillingworth by their meanness and barbarity. Campanella encountered a host of enemies at Rome, Naples, and Bologna; was imprisoned, tried as a criminal, and put seven times to the rack. The reputation of the Cid armed all the wits of Paris against Corneille; and Domenichino was so envied by the painters at Naples, that he became utterly weary and disgusted with life. It is enough to bring the moon from Heaven!These instances, worthy of occupying a page in Valerianus's Treatise on the Infelicity of the Learned, are sufficient arguments, with the weak and the worldly, to reconcile their vanity to the measure of their ignorance. With opportunities to know, and to feel, the force of all this, who can peruse without indignation the following sentiments of Horace Walpole? A Poet and a Painter,' said that Right Honourable Personage, may want an equipage and a villa, by wanting protection; but they can always afford to buy pen, ink, and paper, colours and pencil.' Pen, ink, and paper, colours and pencil! And pray, my Lord, where is the satisfaction of having pen, ink, and paper, colours and pencil, if a man has a large family, and little to eat and little to drink?Could Vanity ever have so measured its folly as, for one moment, to let you suppose, that you were equal to Homer, to Camöens, to Tasso, to Cervantes, to Erasmus, and to Butler? And yet, I tell you, my Lord of Orford, that every one of those illustrious men not only lived, but died, and were buried in want! One work of genius ought to make one man's fortune. You, my Lord, had meat, and drink, and fine clothes, and fine houses-ah, and you had also talents! Yes, my Lord, you had talents, but you had no genius: neither were you a lover of genius. May Heaven defend the sacred Republick of Letters from such a proud, conceited, superficial coxcomb as this! A man who, because want never reached him, seems to have supposed that want could never reach the good!" All this reads well, and there is too much truth in it. But, if we could whisper so much in the ear of the genus irritabile, however great the merit of a Poet, it can rarely be expected, in the ordinary course of the world, that he should acquire riches. A Pope, a Byron, a Southey, or a Scott, are not of every day's occurrence. Nor is POETRY to be considered as a trade, by which a man is to maintain his family. We speak not this in disparagement of a talent for which we entertain the profoundest veneration; but as a hint that an Author may now and then be too sanguine in his expectation of pecuniary remuneration. We turn with satisfaction to "Instances of Esteem with which Lite rary Men have been honoured." "The whole city of Athens went into mourning for Euripides: on his monument was placed the following epitaph: The glory of Euripides has all Greece for a monument.' Eschylus was loaded with honours and benefactions by Hiero; and the Sicilians performed theatrical pieces at his tomb every year. Pindar and Bacchylides divided the favour of the Sicilian king; the figure of Sappho was imprinted on the coins of Mytilene; the Ephesians desired to place Heraclitus at the head of their Republick; the Agrigentines offered Empedocles a throne; Theocritus was valued in the Court of Ptolemy; and three hundred and fifty statues were erected at Athens in honour of Demetrius Phalereus. The Eleans extended their bounty to the descendants of Phidias; Alexander spared the house of Pindar; Archelaus, king of Macedon, erected a magnificent tomb over Euripides on the banks of a river, the waters of which were so cool, so limpid, and delightful, that they invited every traveller to drink and quench his thirst. Lucius Accius was so much esteemed as a Poet at Rome, that a Comedian was fined for ridiculing him on the stage; Marcellus paid every honour to the body of Archimedes, though an enemy; and few men were more honoured, when living, than Livy. Pliny and Tacitus were the friends of Trajan; Arrian was the preceptor and friend of Marcus Aurelius; Carthage, and several other cities, erected statues in honour of Apuleius; while Ausonius was made Questor by Valentinian, Consul by Gratian, and highly esteemed by the Emperor Theodosius. Cassiodorus was made Governor of Sicily, created sole Consul, and promoted to be private secretary to Theodoric. Arcadius and Honorius erected a statue in honour of Claudian; and Agropolita (one of the Byzantine Historians) was sent Ambassador to the Pope, and to John, Prince of Bulgaria. Alcuin was admitted to the friendship of Charlemagne ; Alexander was highly esteemed by Urban VIII.; Alamanni was the confidential friend of Francis I. in whose arms died Leonardo de Vinci. Arnaud was beloved by Henry IV. of France; and Paulus Æmilius enjoyed the favour of Lewis XII. Abulfaragius was made Bishop of Lacabena and Aleppo. The tomb of the Persian Anacreon is the theatre of annual rural amusements; and Lope de Vega, the idol of his age, was buried with a pomp and magnificence never before witnessed in Spain to a private person. — Petrarch, honoured with the friendship of many illustrious men, was crowned as a Poet in the capital of Italy; the daughters of Donatus were portioned at Florence at the public expence ; Æneas Sylvius was crowned with laurel by the Emperor Frederick's own hand; Vida was created Bishop of Alba in reward for his genius; and Ariosto was employed as an Ambassador from the Duke of Ferrara to Pope Julius II.; he was made Governor of Graffignana, and crowned with laurel by Charles V. Albani was honoured with the correspondence of several Princes; Rubens became an Ambassador; Newton arrived at wealth and honour; Prior and Grotius were Ambassadors at Paris; Boileau enjoyed the benefits of princely munificence at Auteuil; Addison became Secretary of State; the family of Fontaine were exempt from all taxes; Christina softened the misfortunes of Borelli; while Heinsius was honoured by his Country, and flattered by the approbation of several foreign Monarchs. -Such are the honours and distinctions which have been consecrated to some who have possessed talents and genius. For though, for the most part, men, possessing either the one or the other, are, when ningling with mankind, cheated by the worldly, envied by groups of many orders, and calumniated by the base and ignorant; some minds, rich in their own excellence, have never, even in the iron age, been wanting, who have scattered roses in the paths of Virtue; and who have secured from indigence and despair those labourers in Science, and those cultivators of the Arts and of Philosophy, who, but for the fortunate assistance of some nobler mind, might, from disease, sensibility, or unrewarded industry, have sunk beneath the burden of a ruined fortune." head of "Science," only one short From much that is good under the article shall be selected. "From the difficulty in regard to the origin and uses of evil, a subject on which wisdom itself is taught to pause, though not to doubt, has arisen that most degrading of all mental errors, ATHEISM. The word Atheist is a term used for the purpose of distinguishing that order of men, whose ignorance is rendered contemptible by the folly of their vanity, and by the arrogance of their pride, presumption, and pretensions. Little knowledge have they of Science, and still less of Nature's primitive forms and qualities.—Involving a vicious imagination, a credulous conception, and a warped judgment, an Atheist is as much a lusus naturæ, as any object that, in any age, has disgusted the eye of a Naturalist. For, presuming to decide where he ought to doubt; and hesitating, when effects allow exact precision; ignorant that chances are the results of secret causes -that it requires the same gigantic power to annihilate, as it did to create— that to govern, requires no greater exertion than to form―and that, even should Necessity have a power of existence, it possesses no power of effecting changes; with a mean idea of man, a superficial knowledge of Nature, and a total ignorance of primitive causes, an Atheist gives eternal life to magnets, yet refuses it to man! His is the hated creed, which makes the day of death the day of ruin!-Beginning in presumption, he continues in doubt; and, meeting with difficulties far beyond the measure of his feeble intellect, his faculties confused-his judgment lost, and his imagination afflicted with the plague-be loathes to die! His food, as it were, is poison, and his drink are bitters. Believing not in a God, he is the artificer of his own misery, and an object_of mental disgust, wherever he goes. For a nest of serpents is not more horrible to the fancy, than a faction of Atheists. Oh! for that sacred and exalted time, when we may be permitted to see a new satellite, a new planet, a new sun, perhaps a new system, rising from the void and formless infinite!'- To enter into what Marcus Antoninus calls an honourable familiarity with Nature, by ranging through the visible sphere with an eye of Poetry, and the judgment of Philosophy, is to form one of the best grounds for theological belief. Since every object which we see becomes a monument, attesting the existence of an Original Cause; to whose benevolence every object bears witness; and of whose beauty, harmony, and grandeur, the whole Universe, in detail as in combination, is a temple, through which we are led, step by step, to the sanctuary of the ETERNAL." 60. A Defence of the Doctrines of the Trinity and the Atonement, as maintained by the Church of England: in an Address to the Inhabitants of St. Alban's, and its Vicinity: occasioned by a Pamphlet, entitled A Letter to Trinitarian Christians, by W. Marshall, Minister of the Unitarian Chapel, St. Alban's, Herts. By the Rev. Thomas White, M. A. Minister of Welbeck Chapel, St. Mary-le-bone. 12mo. pp.40. Rivingtons. NOT having been so lucky as to meet with the good woman who; when applying to Mr. White for relief," offered Mr. Marshall's 'Address' to him for sale as a godly book,' and told him that it was the last of twelve which she had purchased at St. Alban's, and sold about the country;" we shall not further enter into the arguments here used against the 'Address,' than to state, that Mr. White disclaims all personal animosity, and all uncharitable rancour. "It is my earnest desire that I may not offend in this respect; and that, if my reasoning should not appear satisfactory, my spirit and temper may, at least, be such as to reflect no discredit on the doctrines which I think it my duty to advocate.-May the same disposition prevail in all who turn their attention to this subject!" In briefly answering the inquiry why the Unitarian opinions ["faith," says Mr. White, "I cannot call them,"1 excite so much horror? he adds, "I will not pretend to say that they are worse than avowed Atheism, or the most profligate vice;' but I will assert that they are scarcely less dangerous. Such is the manifest absurdity of Atheism; such the abhorrence universally excited by gross profligacy; that men are not likely to be encouraged in them by the countenance of any respectable characters: but Unitarianism veils itself under the name and profession of Christianity, whilst it robs that religion of its vital principles. It makes great pretensions to reason and philosophy; it flatGENT. MAG. November, 1816. ters the pride of human nature; it leads men to a false estimate of their own character; and thus throws such impediments in their way, that they are little likely to embrace the humbling but consolatory doctrines of the Gospel." 61. Christianity liberal according to the genuine and full Import of the Term : a Sermon, preached at the Visitation of the Rev. the Archdeacon of Wilts; holden at Mariborough July 23, 1816. By Walter Birch, B. D. Vicar of Stanton St. Bernard's, and Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. Published at the request of the Clergy present. THERE is such a regular train of reasoning carried through this Discourse, and one part so much depends on another, that it would in some degree be doing the Author an injustice to select any single passages from it as specimens of the whole. Let it suffice therefore to say, that a vein of no common, yet of an unaffected, eloquence pervades it. The design character is essentially and emphaof it is to shew, that "the Christian tically liberal.” For this purpose 66 we are presented with the supposed case of a philosophic Heathen, a man of liberal and lofty sentiments, indulging a train of reflection con genial to such a mind, and gradually led on to the study of the Christian system by the contemplation of some of the great truths of the religion of Nature." One would, perhaps, have expected that the necessity of an atonement should have entered into the contemplation of this enlightened Heathen, as he must have seen it evinced by the propensity of man, in all ages and countries, to seek for a reconciliation with a higher power through the means of sacrifices. Yet we are inclined to give the Preacher credit for having omitted the consideration of this point, not so much from oversight, as from an opinion that it would not have conduced to his main object, which probably was to convince those who entertain a prejudice against Christianity as it tended to confine and narrow the minds of its professors, but who, no longer seeing the sacrifices that were so genes raily practised in the Heathen world, do not perceive the need of the one only effectual offering." In the notes, we meet, amongst many other references to writers of the highest authority, with several passages from Plato, which the Scholar and the Divine can scarcely fail to read with renewed pleasure and satisfaction. 62. Sacred Sketches from Scripture History; containing Belshazzar's Impious Feast -Jephtha-The Translation of Elijah-The Widow of Sarepta-The Annunciation The Nativity · The Crucifixion-The Ascension-and other Poems. 8vo. Law and Whittaker. THIS is the first Publication of an ingenious and worthy Lady, the Authoress of the Poem on "Moscow" (see p. 54); and it is highly creditable to her, evincing at the same time a thorough knowledge of the subjects selected, and a good taste in describing them. 63. Essays in Rhyme, on Morals and Manners. By Jane Taylor, Author of Display, a Tale, &c. &c. 12mo, pp. 174. Taylor and Hessey. WE have been so well pleased with several of the former publications of this Lady, that we opened the present Essays" with some degree of interest: yet, though we admire the good sense and serious sensations of Miss Taylor, we prefer her works of imagination to any "Rhymes" on religious subjects, particularly when treated in a somewhat too familiar style. Miss Taylor has evidently read Mr. Crabbe's peculiarly excellent Poems; but has not quite attained the exquisite simplicity by which they are distinguished. We do not mean to blame this wellintentioned lady for being too serious; but we think her pleasantry better than her preaching; and that she can be pleasant, the following description will amply testify : square, "In yonder red-brick mansion, tight and [the Mayor. Just at the town's commencement, lives Some yards of shining gravel, fenc'd with box, [knocks: Lead to the painted portal-where one There, in the left-hand parlour, all in state, Sit he and she, on either side the grate. But though their goods and chattels, sound and new, Bespeak the owners very well to do, [tray His Worship's wig and morning suit beSlight indications of an humbler day. them more. Now, like a pair of parrots in a cage, They live, and civic honours crown their age: [tled there, Thrice, since the Whitsuntide they set- Proud in official dignity, the dame This is extracted from a Poem called "Prejudice;" but we forbear to copy the picture of the Mayoress's |