A Sermon, preached at the Drum-Head, in the Queen's Square, Lancafter, Sunday, October the ift, 1786, before Major-General Sir George Ofborn, Bart. and many of the Officers and Soldiers of the 40th Regiment, upon the Delivery of the New Colours, To which are added, the Form of the Confecration of the Colours, and the Regimental Orders given out by the Coloncl. By George Vanbrugh, LL.B. 4to. 15. Johnfon. Love the brotherhood; fear God; honour the king;' are the well-chofen words which Mr. Vanbrugh has felected for the fubject of his fhort exhortation. This Sermon, with the defcription of the ceremony annexed, reminded us of the period when religion and war went hand in hand; when the ceremonies of the former fanctified the latter; and the hero fought with redoubled ardor, while he reflected that he contended in the cause of God, under the banners of Chrift. In this inftance we have the form of a religious ceremony, without the wildnefs of enthusiasm: the folemn and judicious rites, which attend the delivery of the colours, render them a facred depofit, and their defence becomes not only the injunctions of duty, but almost of religion. Mr. Vanbrugh's Sermon is well adapted to this ceremony, and to the peculiar fituation of his audience, who diftinguifhed themselves very particularly in the late war. Thoughts on the Progrefs of Socinianifm; with an Enquiry into the Caufe and the Cure. To which is added, A Letter to Dr. Prices on his late Sermons on the Chriftian Doctrine. 8vo. Johnfon, Is. This is a ferious address, and an earnest exhortation to minif, ters of all denominations, to oppose the progrefs of a doctrine which is reprefented as pernicious and unfcriptural. The authors point out, with great acuteness, the caufes of the Socinians' triumph, and, in this enumeration, of course fuggeft the conduct to be pursued on the one hand, or avoided on the other. We fhall felect no part of this pamphlet, because we think the whole ought to be read together. It is addreffed, we have faid, to mi nisters of all denominations; and this comprehenfive affociation gives, occafionally, an apparent contradiction to the different counfels: the Thoughts? too, are the production of different perfons, and do not at all times feem to unite with fuccefs. After frequent examinations of this pamphlet, and comparing different paffages, we are not well able to explain their opinions on the Trinity, or the line of oppofition which they would recommend to the antagonists of the Socinians. The Letter to Dr. Price is candid and refpectful: the authors, however, think him deficient in his filence concerning the Holy Spirit, and not flating fome of the leaft exceptionable views of the doctrine of the Trinity. Here again we are at a loss; but they expressly tell us that they are not Athanafians. We think that that the difficulties which they feel in understanding one paffage of Dr. Price's Sermons, may be obviated by a little reflection on the tenor of the author's opinions and reafoning. MEDICAL. An Efay for a Nefological and Comparative View of the Cynanche Maligna, or Putrid Sore Throat; and the Scarlatina Anginofa, or Scarlet Fever with Angina. By William Lee Perkins, M.D. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Johnfon. : There is little novelty in this Effay it is in many respects a compilation, with a view of pointing out the diftinctions between the fore throat attending fearlet fever, and the malignant fore throat. This undoubtedly may be often done; but we believe it to be always ufelefs, for a judicious practitioner will attend to the ftate of the fever, and of the strength, compared with the appearances of the ulcers themfelves, The author is very appre henfive of doing mifchief: he does not reflect that young men, in colleges, learn to be very active; and, from practice, often to stand ftill and look on while nature is doing her own work. While the pulfe and strength keep up, whether the ulcers are attended with a fcarlet eruption, or the more dark efflorefcence of the putrid fore throat, little need be done: when they fail, it is then time for affiftance; but the eruption will not greatly contribute to the practitioner's inftruction. The treatment, as it refpects the delirium, is of more confequence; but this is not materially influenced by nofological confiderations. An Account of the Effects of Swinging, employed as a Remedy in the Pulmonary Confumption and Hectic Fever. By James Carmichael Smyth, M. D, F.R. S. 8vo. 25. Johnfon. Dr. Smyth deferves praise for his attempt to revive the ufe of a mode of exercise apparently ferviceable; but there is a great degree of difingenuity in concealing the original fources from whom the whole merit is derived. When he told us that Celfus, Cœlius Aurelianus, the elder Pliny, and fome others,' had recommended failing, he ought to have added, that they recommended fwinging alfo, from the inftructions and experience of Afclepiades. The effects mentioned by Coelius, Etius, and Antyllus, are thofe which Dr. Smyth has mentioned: they do not fay indeed that it diminishes the velocity of the pulse, but that it leffens fever, checks colliquative fweats, and produces fleep. The reader may fee the whole fyftem in the eleventh chapter of the fixth book of Mercurialis de Arte Gymnaftica: we have reafon to think that our, author has feen it before, fince Mercurialis as well as Dr. Smyth obferve, that Celfus mentions fwinging as a fubftitute for failing; an opinion that is not fairly deducible from the words of Celfus, in the paffage referred to. In the cases with which Dr. Smyth endeavours to establish the ufe of this remedy, the effects of fwinging feem to be confiderable; and thefe, at least, deserve much attention. It is not, how however, cafy, a priori, to afcertain the fuperiority of this motion over the continued motion of a chair or carriage; yet, from its producing naufea and its confequences, there is probably a great difference in their effects. The ufe of the hyoscyamus in hæmorrhages, the author modeftly obferves, is not commonly known; but he ought to have added, that it was very generally employed by the older phyficians, and is particularly recom mended, if we mistake not, by Mr. Boyle. An Efay on the Virtues and Properties of the Ginfeng Tea, by Count Belchilgen, M. D. formerly Phyfician to the Empress Queen of Hungary, Knight of St. John of Jerufalem. And J. A. Cope, M. D. and P. R. B. With Obfervations on the pernicious Effects of Tea-drinking in general. 8vo. 1s. Randall. Count Belchingen and Dr. Cope feem to be nearly related to the crowd of ideal gentlemen who affift us with Systems of Geography, Tranflations of Jofephus, with Hiftories either of England or the Bible. Dr. Cope ought to have corrected his friend's language, for the good people of England may die before they could find, from the following paffage, whether he has chemically analyzed the bleffing of life, or the restoration of health they might wafte the midnight oil, or be confumed by the hectic which nocturnal lucubrations produce, before they could difcover how fubfequent atteflations of effects can prove a chemical process. In fhort, without meaning to enter into a phyfical analyfis of all the properties of the ginfeng tea, which would be offering little lefs than a jargon to thote out of the profeffion, 1 am warranted to fay, that as the prefervation and restoration of health form the greatest bleffing of life, I can, both from a che. mical procefs of this, as well as the most repeated and confirmed experience of its effects (which the fubfequent atteftations to this Effay will fully prove), recommend it as one of thofe beneficent difpenfations of Providence, which, in its various bounties, it has been graciously pleafed to beftow upon mankind.' This whole pamphlet offered only a feries of difappointments. We expected the knight of St. John would have faid fomething difcriminated and clear on the fubject, without tranfcribing the language of every quack-bill which has offered a ftrengthening medicine; no-the obfervations on tea drinking might be ufeful they are copied from another work, Ginfeng at least would be defcribed there appears to be no fuch ingredient in the medicine. We muft leave the fubject then in the fame myflerious ftate that we found it; adding only, that the medicine must be a very useful one, fince one of the young ladies, in the certificate annexed, after drinking it a month was quite another person.'-We have reafon to believe that the identity would have been as much changed, if fhe had drank rosemary and pepper-mint teas. The botanical remarks at the end are too ridiculous for a 'moment's notice. MISCELLA NE O U S. The Natural Hiftory of Birds; containing a Variety of Facts felected from feveral Writers, and intended for the Amusement and Inftruction of Children. With Copper-Plates. Part I. Svo. 15. 6d. plain. 25. coloured. Johnson. This is a pleafing and an useful little compilation: it contains a fhort account of the two firft orders of Linnæus, the accipitres and picæ, with etchings, accurately defcribing the diftinguishing parts of the feveral genera. There is as much of fyftem in this work as is neceffary to give correct ideas, but not fo much as to difguft, or be with difficulty underflood, while the other details are entertaining, and to a young mind highly interefting. On the whole, we are much pleafed with the defign, and, in general, with the execution. Buffon feems to have been the compiler's chief fource, and fome of his errors are occafionally copied; but they are not of fufficient contequence to injure the work in any great degree. We with the author fuccefs in the prosecution of his plan, which deferves great commendation. The Theatre of Education. A New Translation from the French of We reviewed a tranflation of this work in our Fifty-fecond Volume, p. 39. and to that article we must refer for an account of its plan, and execution. We are not told why a new tranfla. tion was required: the former, though fomewhat incorrect, conveyed the meaning of the author very well: the new one, though in many refpects different, and fometimes better, is not, however, unexceptionable. An Apology for Negro Slavery: or the Weft-India Planters vindicated from the Charge of Inhumanity. The Second Edition, swith Additions. 8vo. 25. Faulder. In our Sixty-first Volume, p. 240. we reviewed the first edition of this work; fince that time the author has, in many refpects, enlarged it, and rendered it more valuable. He is an able apologist, and has added his name to the work, fince the anonymous antagonists of Mr. Ramfay were accufed of writing what they were ashamed to own. Mr. Gordon Turnbull, however, gives the most favourable account of the management of the Negroes, and the methods of the humaneft planters. They are not always fo well treated as he wishes to reprefent, and as he has probably feen them The planters will, we hope, be at laft willing to believe, that Negro flavery is not effential to the proper cultivation of their eftates. A Critical Review of the Works of Dr. Samuel Johnson, containing a particular Vindication of several eminent Characters. 8vo, 15. 6d. Rufied. This buzzing fly has teazed and puzzled us; for we at first remembered the Deformities of Johnson no more than the gnat which tung us in the heat of laft fummer. But, on recollection, we thought that, from the mildness of the feafon, he might be revived more early, and fooner acquire his native virulence, than in colder fprings. To drop the metaphor, the author of the Deformities is become a Critical Reviewer: he speaks of his work, as published last year, and of lord Kaims, as one of its admirers. We were pleafed to find that not only the ports of France, but of the other world, were opened to us; and anticipated much fatisfaction, a fatisfaction fuperior to drinking French wines, from this communication. Yet, of this last year's publication, we remembered nothing: by a lucky hint, in the middle of the pamphlet, we were referred to its real title, and found it recorded in our Fifty-fourth Volume, as a publication in the middle of the year 1782. We can only fuppofe that the author has flept in this interval, and recorded his dreams, or that the pamphlet, undiflinguifhed at its first publication, is now adorned with a new title. He ftill abufes Dr. Johnson with great violence, and will not now allow him any merit; though we muft own, that he said something about his learning and abilities in the former pamphlet. Really the paroxyfin is very strong; and we hope that he is properly taken care of; yet, like most people in that fituation, he is often fhrewd, and occafionally fenfible. If it will give his friends any fatisfaction, our medical reviewer fhall be deputed to attend a namefake; we cannot allow him to be a brother. Efays on Various Subjects, Critical and Moral. By William Belchier, Efq. 2 vols. 8vo. 55. in Boards. Jamefon. As copies of our author's Effays remained in the bookseller's warehoufe, he feems to have collected them together, and added a new title; hoping, perhaps, that together they may obtain that notice which, in their feparate ftate, they had failed of procuring. The Letters on Wit and Humour were noticed in our Fifty-feventh Volume, p. 79; the Review of Locke, in the Fifty-ninth, p. 94. The Grammatical Strictures, and the Review of Buller's Analogy, have, we believe, occurred in our other volumes; but we have not been able to difcover the different articles. At all events, they do not merit particular examination: we have had fufficient opportunity of appreciating our author's critical and metaphyfical talents; and, in these works, he does not foar above his former crude attempts. A Panegyric on Great Britain, in Imitation of the Funeral Orations of the Ancients. By Edward Hankin, A. M. Second Edition. δυο. 6d. Hookham. We reviewed the first edition of this Panegyric in our Sixtyfirst Volume, p. 477. Mr. Hankin tells us, that it has been well received; and, as may be expected, a new edition is the confequence. The Panegyric feems to have been re-printed without additions or alterations. |