Bowles is fully entitled to this fpecies of confideration. He who has already published three volumes of poetry, which are widely circulated, and have given delight to thousands, cannot but be acknowledged to have fixed his reputation on a permanent basis. If Mr. B. has more difficulty than many of his contemporaries, in continuing equal to himfelf, it is because he has already raised the fcale of expectation fo high. Some of his former poems (as, for inftance, St. Michael's Mount, &c.) are fo rich in harmony, and in fentiment poetical, moral, and religious, that to equal them cannot be eafy, even to the fame mind by which they were produced. It is, however, easy for us to fhow by fpecimens that he is ftill entitled to the admiration of his readers. The following juft and animated eulogy on our country will be acceptable to every patriotic fpirit.

"But temperate airs are thine,
ENGLAND; and as thy climate, fo thy fons
Partake the temper of thine ifle, not rude,
Nor foft, voluptuous, or effeminate ⚫
Sincere indeed, and hardy, as becomes
Those who can lift their look elate, and fay,
We ftrike for injur'd Freedom; and yet mild
And gentle, when the voice of Charity

Pleads like a voice from Heav'n; and, thanks to God,
The chain-that fetter'd'Afric's groaning race,

The murd'rous chain that, link by link, dropp'd blood,
Is fever'd; we have loft that foul reproach
To all our virtuous boaft! Humanity,
England is thine! not that falfe substitute,
That meretricious fadnefs, which, all fighs
For lark or lambkin, yet can hear unmov'd
The bloodieft orgies of blood-bolter'd France;
Thine is confiftent, manly, rational,
Not needing the falfe glow of fentiment
To melt it into fympathy, but mild,
And looking with a gentle eye on all.
Thy manners open, focial, yet refin'd,
Are temper'd with reflection: Gaiety,
In her long-lighted halls, may lead the dance,
Or wake the fprightly chord: yet Nature, Truth,
Still warm th' ingenuous heart: there is a blush
With thofe moft gay and lovely; and a tear
With those moft manly. TEMPERATE LIBERTY
Hath yet the fairest altar on thy fhores;
Such and fo warm with patriot energy,
As rais'd its arm when a falfe Stuart fled;

Yet

Yet mingled with deep Wifdom's cautious lore,
That when it bade a papal tyrant paufe,

And tremble, held th' undeviating reins

On the fierce neck of headlong Anarchy." P. 129.

The fragments of that extraordinary genius, Mifs E. Smith, of which we spoke with a natural enthufiafin *, have drawn from the poetical mind of Mr. Bowles, a tribute to her memory, no less elegant than animated, which we here fubjoin:

"Oh! wert thou then fome gentle spirit pure, Sent on this earth to teach, exalt, allure;

And, fcarce the task perform'd, to close thine eyes
On human griefs, and human Vanities?

"Yes, gentle fpirit! in the bloom of youth,

Twas thine to teach Faith, Meeknefs, Wifdom, Truth;
To look on Nature with a poet's glance,
Yet fcorn the fickly fopperies of romance;
With modefty and learning, fide by fide,
Win without art, excel yet feel no pride!
"Alas! a harder task remain'd,--to bear,
Meekly, the weight of fickness and of care;
The long-lov'd landscapes of the peaceful Wye,
And Piercefield's rocks, to leave without a figh;
In difappointment and diftrefs, to cheer
A mother's grief, and fteal away her tear;
Then fink thy felf, confuming by degrees,
Beneath the wafting touch of flow difeafe;
Sink, pale and paler ftill, yet wear the while
The fame calm fweetnefs, the fame gentle fmile.
"He who could fee, flow finking into fhade,
Virtues like thefe, unfolded but to fade,

Nor feel one tear of generous pity start,

Tho' to thy name unknown, has not a human heart." P.133

A more appropriate and pathetic commendation has feldom been paid; and among the minor poems in this volume, there are few that are not diftinguished by fimilar marks of excellence. The poems of greater extent and effort are, "Old Time's Holiday, "the Vifionary Boy," and "the Sylph of Summer;" all of which abound in paffages of the moft rich and varied poetry. There is, however,

Vol. xxxiii. p. 317.

in these fomething to which we object; namely, a degree of occafional obfcurity and abruptnefs of tranfition, which belong not properly to the clear and claffical style of this author. If he has at all fuffered his better tafte to be corrupted by the bad example of Southey, whom he praifes, we regret it, but truft that the illufion will only be tranfient; and though he talks in one place of having "clofed his book for ever,' we hope that his genius will not let him do it; and that we fhall have to commend, without referve, what he shall continue to write in his own original and elegant style.

ART. IV. An Illuftration of the General Evidence, eftablishing the Reality of Chrift's Refurrection. By George Cook, A. M. Minister of Laurencekirk. 8vo. 323 pp. 7s. Longman and Co.

THIS

1808.

HIS is a well written and valuable work. We have always been inclined ourselves to look upon our Saviour's Refurrection, as a strong proof of his divinity and heavenly miffion, diftin&t from all other evidences. Thofe circumftances of his life, and miniftry, and paffion, which fulfilled the ancient prophecies, were brought to pafs through the ignorance and infatuation of the oppofing Jews; but his refurrection was fo immediately, and pointedly placed before them, his laft prophecy of it, was fo contiguous to the fulfilment, that inftead of depending for its accomplishment on any blindness or perverfe prejudices of the oppofing party, they had every poffible opportunity given them, of thwarting the fulfilment of the prediction, and of expoling its fallacy, had it not been divine. Instead of this, the event appears to have been fo notorious as to serve to expofe the weaknefs and folly of all attempts to contradict. it; and we ourselves, in times fo remote from the event itself, are able to trace and difcover such a marvellous coincidence and combination of circumftances, as must serve to overthrow all doubts that could arise upon the subject. Mr., Cook feems to have viewed the matter in the fame light, and to have made it his business to collect, arrange, and explain thefe feveral circumftances, in which he has acquitted himself moft ably. Many facts are placed by him in fo ftrong a light as to be irrefiftibly convincing; and we not only give him credit for having proved his point, but for having brought forward

fuch

fuch teftimonies, as no good judge of evidence could possibly fet afide. Where we find nothing to object to, our labour is fhortened. We would with, indeed, to give the reader fome fpecimens of the work, but can produce only a very few of the many that we could have wifhed to bring before him. The book is entitled to be registered as a flandard book upon this particular fubject, and as fuch we with to make it known to all Scholars and Divines.

The first extract with which we fhall prefent our readers, relates to the conduct of the Apostles, after the death of Jefus fuch a blow to their hopes and expectations, that had it not been done away by his refurrection, it is impoffible to conceive that they could have acted as they did act. The argument is not new, but it is well expreffed. In juftice to the author, however, we muft obferve, that the work is by no means deftitute of original ideas, but as most of thefe occupy many pages, or are thrown into long notes, it would exceed the limits of our review to attempt to tranfcribe them.

But this hope of eternal life which ultimately, in a great meafure, reconciled them to the humble condition, to the poverty, in which they were to continue while upon earth, refted entirely upon the divine miflion of Jefus, or upon his refurrection; he bimfelf often told them fo; and indeed it was fo evident, that all of them, without any particular information, muft have perceived it.

"If, then, they faw [had feen] him, in place of rifing from the grave, mouldering into duft, they must have been fatisfied that all his promifes were deceitful; that the delightful profpects of future blifs which he had fet before them could never be realized. How fevere must have been this difappointment; with what feelings of indignation would they reflect on the memory of a man who had not only deceived them, but who, by doing fo, had led them to renounce all which was most dear to them? In what manner would men in this fituation naturally act? They could not fail to regret their credulity, to think with much forrow on the part which they had acted; they would be eager to hide themselves from thofe who had been the most frequent witneffes of their delufion; to return to the ftations in life which they had aban. doned; and to renew the kindly intercourfe, which their ill. directed zeal had induced them to fufpend.

"And, accordingly, we find that the apoftles did act precifely in this manner. Depreffed by the melancholy event of their Master's death, and dreading that he was for ever feparated. from them, they difperfed, and refumed the profeffions which for him they had forfaken. And if they thus acted when their hopes were rather thaken than deftroyed, is it not natural to conclude,

that

that they would be confirmed in this courfe of conduct, when they found that what they dreaded had actually happened.

"Yet the fact is, if we fuppofe that Jefus was an impoftor, that the apoftles moft unaccountably departed from this conduct, when they must have been completely convinced of its propriety; for, from the time that their credulity was expofed, and their disappointment certain, their zeal for the honour and glory of Jefus was renewed, and became more ardent than before; they profeffed to remember him with the most enthusiastic veneration; they declared that they looked to him for the bleffing of God in this world, and for eternal falvation in the next. The most probable account of this change furely is that which they themfelves gave, that, at the time which Jefus had mentioned, he did rife from the dead; and, by repeatedly fhewing himself to them, diffipated the alarm which had fhaken their conftancy, and fully eftablished them in the belief of his exalted character, and of the doctrines which he had revealed to them. Unless this was the cafe, we must believe that they threw afide all regard to what they had juft fhewn to be their own feelings and their own fentiments, at the very time when every doubt refpecting the propriety of these muft neceffarily have been removed from their minds." P. 35.

The whole of Mr. Cook's reafoning has the fame tendency, namely, to fhow that what really did take place, in the days of the apoftles, as well as afterward, could not have taken place, fuppofing the refurrection of Jefus had failed, without the most extravagant and prepofterous dereliction of all the common principles of moral conduct. And this, not with respect to the apoftles only, but in regard to converts and even enemies. Mr. Cook very ably combats the pofitions of Gibbon and Hume, clearly fhowing, that fo far from Chriftianity being indebted for its propagation to the circumftances which they infift upon, all thofe circumftances, when duly examined, muft have operated against it; and that fo far from the religious ftate of the Roman Empire, in particular, having facilitated the diffufion of the Golpel, we are conducted to this plain conclufion, that we must feek, in the pofitive evidence of our religion, for the only fatisfactory caufe of its rapid and extenfive propagation." Mr. Cook argues very ably and correctly upon the combined impreflions which Chriftianity must have made upon the minds of Pagans. That if, for instance, there was fo much of the marvellous in the power exhibited by Jefus and his Apoftles, as forcibly to attract their attention, there was yet fufficient to alarm and offend their prejudices in the lowly appearance of the Metliah, his fufferings and death, and in the mean profeffions and

Q

BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XXXIV. SEPT. 1309.

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humble