history was a mere episode. This is the cardinal, the irredeemable fault of the work, and it must be ever fatal to its moral value; nay, even to its religious tendency. Perhaps, of the two, Gibbon's History is only the more positively irreligious in its tendency. If Robertson does not deserve to be regarded as an enemy to the cause of Christianity, he has at least forgotten what was due from its friends,-its ministers. The difference between the two great rivals is, that the one historian of Christianity is cold; the other insidious: the one is a faint friend; the other, a bitter foe: the one, a professional believer; the other, a philosophical infidel. The hero of the one, is Charles; that of the other, Julian: each almost equally opposed to the pure faith of Christ, and the best interests of man.

6

With all these abatements, the merit and value of Robertson's labours were such as will ever secure him an honourable name in the history of literature. He was one of the first who, treading in the steps of Montesquieu, directed the attention of persons in this country to the origin and progress of the present Establishments in Europe. His researches, however deficient in accuracy, exhibit marks of extensive and various reading, digested with sound judgement; and the results are arranged in the most distinct and luminous order. At the time when he wrote,' Mr. Stewart remarks, such an arrangement of ma'terials was the grand desideratum, and by far the most arduous 'task; nor will the merit of having first brought into form a mass of information so little accessible till then to ordinary readers, be ever affected by the controversies that may arise 'concerning the justness of particular conclusions.' With regard to the beauty of his narrative, the flowing, harmonious, and perspicuous strain of his composition, the purity of his English, there has never been but one opinion. There is a history lately come out,' writes Lord Chesterfield at the time, ' of the reign of Mary, queen of Scots, and her son, king James, 'written by one Robertson, a Scotchman, which, for clearness, 'purity, and dignity, I will not scruple to compare with the best 'historians extant, not excepting Davila, Guiccardini, and perhaps Livy.' This judgement has never been reversed. the art of narration,' his Biographer remarks, Dr. Robert'son's skill is pre-eminent;' and in this art,-in' the distinct'ness, perspicuity, and fulness with which he uniformly commu'nicates historical information, carefully avoiding every reference 'to whatever previous knowledge of the subject his reader may 'accidentally possess,'-a distinctness and perspicuity so conspicuous in the great models of antiquity, and in which Gibbon and some other modern writers have so signally failed, —Robertson's chief and characteristical excellence, as an historian,' must be allowed to consist. On these accounts, and for the

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mass of instructive information which his works embody, he will always be read with delight, and studied with advantage, although he can never be trusted as a guide. He is in some respects a model, in no respect an authority.

Of Gibbon's single, yet manifold work, equal in extent to the whole series of Robertson's historical labours, and in itself a bolder enterprise as well as a more difficult achievement,-we have given our opinion at length in our notice of Mr. Bowdler's edition of the History; and to that article we may refer those readers who set any value upon our judgement. We have been much pleased with Mr. Youngman's biographical memoir and his highly judicious remarks on the character of the Historian, for part of which we must make room.

Notwithstanding the objections to which it is liable, the ecclesias tical part of Mr. Gibbon's history is exceedingly valuable for its relation of facts; and may be referred to, under proper caution, with great advantage. Besides consulting the original writers, he made much use of Mosheim's work, "De Rebus Christianis ante Constantinum,” the most copious and impartial of all ecclesiastical compilations: and though his sentiments with regard to Christianity led him unhappily to introduce too frequently that " grave and temperate irony" which he learned from Pascal's Letters, yet, his pride secured him from the wilful misrepresentation of facts, and his diligent acuteness generally prevented him from mistaking them. The Christian church, being made " part and parcel" of the Roman empire, was a fit subject for the historian of its decline and fall. His view of it, as intimately connected with that fall, is equally in accordance with prophecy and fact. The prophet Daniel, interpreting to king Nebuchadnezzar the dream of a stone cut out of the mountain without hands, which destroyed the iron and clay feet of his image, tells him, "that in the days of those kings, shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever." The Roman emperors assisted in fulfilling this prophecy in two ways: 1. In persecuting the Christians, and so bringing on themselves the threatening," He that falls upon this stone shall be broken, and upon whomsoever it shall fall, it shall grind him to powder;" and, 2. By corrupting the Christian Church in endowing its bishops and clergy with wealth, and power, and civil authority, and thus assisting in forming the predicted man of sin, who was " to exalt himself above all that is called God and is worshipped." The persecution of the pagans in connexion with the establishment and corruption of Christianity, tended to weaken the empire by introducing jealousies and divisions; the superstition of the Christians served to extinguish the expiring flame of Greek and Roman literature, and their aversion to war contributed to injure the discipline and efficiency of the armies. The records of the faith, the charity, and the patience of the Christian

* Eclect. Rev. 3d Series. Vol. I. p. 285 et seq.

church, are hidden from human inspection, whilst history can only catch its coarse features, its pride, its intolerance, its fierce disputations, and its reciprocal anathemas. The attempt, therefore, of Milner, who aimed at writing the history of the true church, and yet at vindicating its authoritative establishment and consequent corruption by Constantine and Theodosius, might naturally be expected to be more partial and less accurate than that of Gibbon, whose bias led him to perceive, and to reprobate, the inconsistency of its conduct with its professed principles.

Considering the Christian Church as a combination of pure and spiritual religion, with mixed motives arising from human interests and passions, some of the second causes to which its establishment is attributed by Gibbon, are of undeniable efficacy: they served to propagate at least that part of it which tended to its corruption, as foretold in the New Testament. But that second causes could account for it as a whole, is a position utterly groundless. The claim of miraculous powers, could not, under the circumstances in which it was made, possess any efficiency, but on the supposition of its truth; and this is the great proof for the divine authority of Christianity The hope of immortality, and the zeal to which it prompted, being founded on the belief of the resurrection of Jesus, could only exist as a consequence of that event. The practice of rigid virtue, combined with the unvarying teaching of the Christian Scriptures, attest their Divine original; for from what merely human source did such perfect maxims of love to God and to man ever proceed? And the simple constitution, and kind and gentle discipline of the primitive church, manifest that human principles and human passions were not concerned in their establishment, especially when they are contrasted with the intolerant and proud domination of subsequent ages.

One other weighty charge has always been brought against that indelicacy of description which abounds in the history, and especially in the latter volumes. In his memoirs, Mr. Gibbon expresses surprise at the charge, and pleads in his defence, that the licentious passages are confined to the notes, and to the obscurity of a learned language, and that they are necessary to give a just picture of the times which his work describes. The apology is insufficient. There is an evident complacency in the descriptions complained of, which indicates a polluted mind and a vitiated taste. These, together with his inveterate hatred of revealed religion, continually manifested by the most subtle insinuations of fraud and falsehood, and the keenest irony against its professors, require the exercise of great vigilance and caution in the perusal of this, in other respects, most important and valuable history.

A candid mind impressed with the love of truth, and anxiously seeking its attainment, cannot but be struck with the plausible professions of reverence for Christianity, under the cover of which Mr. Gibbon perpetually aims to instil his own heartless scepticism into his reader. "Why," would such a one ask, "did he not avow his convictions honestly and openly? Why this continual mixture of sarcastic scorn and hypocritical reverence?" The reason is obvious. An unbeliever dares not encounter the inconveniences which a direct opposition to public opinion might occasion him. He knows, and feels, that his

sentiments are, at best, of no value; and he is unmanned by the consciousness, that when he has deprived another of the hope of immortality, founded on the faith of the Gospel, he has no compensation to offer him. Gibbon himself affords an instance of the truth of both these remarks. "Had I believed," says he, "that the majority of English readers were so fondly attached, even to the name and shadow of Christianity; had I foreseen that the pious, the timid, and the prudent, would feel, or affect to feel, with such exquisite sensibility; I might perhaps have softened the two invidious chapters, which would create many enemies, and conciliate few friends.””

Pp. x, xi.

Had those chapters been softened, or even suppressed altogether, although less alarm would have been excited, and less offence taken, the work would not have been less pernicious in its tendency. Gibbon's account of paganism, and his glowing portrait of Julian, are quite as exceptionable, and betray as much insidious malignity as the chapters referred to. With respect to his fidelity as an historian, it is going too far to assume that his pride always secured him from the wilful misrepresent'ation of facts.' We have adverted, in a former article, to his wilful unfairness on the subject of the preternatural darkness ' of the Passion.' There are other instances in which his pride was overborne by his prejudice. His gross misrepresentation of the conduct and character of Calvin, is a flagrant example. He refers to Chauffepié, the Continuator of Bayle, as giving the 'best account' of the proceedings in reference to Servetus; but Mr. Scott, the Continuator of Milner, on turning to Chauffepié, found a very different representation of the case from that which Gibbon has given. The fact is,' Mr. S. says, 'that able but in'sidious writer can support the charges he has brought against 'Calvin on this subject, only by placing implicit confidence in I whatever his own "best" authority has declared unworthy of 'credit! If the present is to be taken as a specimen of the 'Historian's adherence to the vouchers to which he refers us, 'it must tend very much to shake our faith in his statements, 'at least where his prejudices are concerned.' Without impeaching his general accuracy and fidelity as an historian, we cannot refrain from suspecting, that his treatment of his ostensible authorities would, on a thorough examination, be found, in a vast number of instances, equally unfair and deceptive. He cites them as witnesses, but he puts his own construction on their evidence. When shall a Christian Gibbon arise to vindicate the genuine character of the book of Divine Providence?

Art. IV. 1. Select Works of the British Poets, from Jonson to Beattie. With Biographical and Critical Prefaces by Dr. Aikin. 8vo. pp. viii. 808. Price 18s. London. 1829.

8vo.

2. Select Works of the British Poets, from Chaucer to Jonson. With Biographical Sketches by Robert Southey, Esq., LL.D. pp. viii. 1016. Price 18s. London. 1831.

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N these two volumes, we have another specimen of cheap literature. According to Franklin's notions of poets and poetry, they can form no part of a library of useful knowledge, but they are in themselves a library of-poetry. The first' volume was professedly intended chiefly for the use of schools, and for the libraries of young persons. It should have begun with Cowley, as Jonson is out of his proper place; and Waller might as well have been thrown back into the earlier series, had that publication been contemplated in the first instance. The selection includes the whole of Milton's poetical works, except his sonnets and a few of the minor poems; rather too much of Dryden; Philips's 'Splendid Shilling', and 'Cyder'; Parnell's most popular pieces; three of Rowe's, not worth the two pages they occupy; the best of Addison, Prior, and Gay; Green's Spleen', and other poems, complete; Tickell's 'Colin and Lucy,' and two or three other small affairs; an elegy of Hammond's; Somerville's 'Chace'; the greater part of Pope's works, not omitting 'Eloisa to Abelard'; the more decent parts of Swift; Thomson's poetical works, omitting only the Britannia; three short pieces by A. Philips; a selection only from Collins, all of whose odes ought to have been given; Dyer's 'Grongar Hill', and 'Ruins of Rome'; Shenstone's School'mistress', and a few others; Churchill's 'Rosciad'; Young's Paraphrase on Job', 'Night Thoughts', and 'Love of Fame'; Akenside's Pleasures of Imagination' (as first published), his Hymn to the Naiads', and two odes; Gray's Elegy', and Odes; a selection from Smollett, Lord Lyttelton, Dr. Johnson, the Wartons, and Mason; Goldsmith's poems; Armstrong's 'Art of Preserving Health'; Cowper's 'Task,' and a considerable proportion of his other poems; and Beattie's Minstrel.' The contents, it will be seen, are comprehensive enough; so that, with the exceptions we have indicated, the promise of the advertisement is fulfilled, that 'few poems are omitted, except 'such as are of secondary merit, or unsuited to the perusal of 'youth.'

Were we disposed to find fault with the selection, it would be that the volume contains more than is wanted. There was a time when all that could be scraped together as the works of 'the British Poets', passed for classic English poetry; and no library was deemed complete, that did not contain that farrago