friend's letters, which strongly indicate the value and sincerity of his Christian profession. One of them is as follows. My dear sir, Sherborne, Dec. 22, 1810. I feel a pleasure in writing to you, but, being very ill qualified for letter writing, I am averse to the task. I am very much indebted to you for those two excellent little books, which you were so kind as to send me. The account of Mr. Cowper 1 have perused to day, and find no fault but with its brevity. Do not suppose that accounts of the deaths of wise and pious men tend at all to depress my spirits. There is something peculiarly pleasing in accompanying such persons through all the stages of affliction and pain, and in seeing how they are supported, as nature sinks and disease increases, and even in the article of death itself, by the invisible hand of God. With what pleasure do we shut the book, and say: "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his !" I hope it had pleased the Almighty Disposer of events, previously to my indisposition, to give me some desire after an interest in Christ: but I did not feel, thatlove for God, and desire to serve him, which I hope I now feel. I think I shall ever have to bless his holy name, that I have been afflicted. It is a good thing to be instructed in the school of affliction: there we learn many things, which, in a time of health and prosperity, we should nave slightly passed over, and soon have forgotten. Pray for me, that I may never forget the goodness of God, or be drawn off, by temptation, from following the road that leads to eternal life. pp. 24, 25. Art. XV. Miscellaneous Poems; by George Daniel. 12mo. pp. 130. Price 6s. 6d. Sharpe and Hailes. 1812. MR. R. DANIEL seems to have taken laudable pains to qualify himself for the task of writing verses; and accordingly not only discovers a tolerable familiarity with some of our most accessible poets, but has really acquired the habit of arraying common place thoughts in a pleasing and approved poetical dress. It will create no very strong prejudice in his favour, however, to find him making his first attempts in the department of satire. If it be true, that the most encouraging omen in a youthful mind, is a devoted admiration of real or supposed excellence; we can scarcely hesitate to admit the counterpart of the proposition, that an early perception of deformity is an almost unconquerable obstacle to high attainments. We would not be supposed to insinuate, however that Mr. D. has much to answer for on the score of abuse of talent. Art. XVI. The London Vocabulary, English and Latin designed for the to possess some original merit ; and in fact, this little work is the descendant of one of our oldest school vocabularies. About the middle of the seventeenth century, John Amos, generally called Comenius, from Komensky the place of his nativity, who had been compelled by persecution to emigrate from his bishopric, Fulneck in Moravia, was invited to England to regulate some of the public schools; a work for which his extensive learning and acquaintance with similar institutions, not only in his own country, but in Poland, Sweden, and Transylvania, eminently qualified him. Besides several regulations which still exist, though va riously modified, he introduced into them his Orbis pictus, a kind of Encyclopædia with cuts and references, in English and Latin. The text of this work is the foundation of the present vocabulary; but it is with regret that we miss the old plates however rude. Pictures are an excellent mode of conveying instruction to children, and applicable át a much earlier age than is generally imagined. The pupil, accustomed to graphic representations of objects, rapidly learns to discriminate those which afford the correctest idea of things with which he is acquainted, and becomes a judge of accuracy in drawing, before his taste can be influenced by prejudice, or his decisions warped by authority. We are therefore surprised that Comenius's idea has not been more improved upon in this country. Of late a very judicious attempt has been made in "the book of trades" but on the continent it has been carried to a much greater length. Baseldon, whose experiments in pædagogics were frustrated by the trash with which they were combined, gave a beautiful specimen in his Elementar-werk, for which the plates are exquisitely engraved by Chodowiecki and Bertuch's Picture-book is a never failing source of amusement and instruction in the nurseries of France and Germany. As an assistance in acquiring a knowledge of languages, such representations most effectually supply the defect of conversation in a foreign idiom. It is much more easy for a child to attach the word caput to the idea conveyed by a representation of a head, than to learn that the English word head and the Latin word caput convey the same idea. Pictures also afford a ready and pleasant expedient of rehearsing a lesson; and may be made to serve for language, in the same manner as outline maps are made use of in geography. The omission of them therefore, in the London Vocabulary, relinquishes a principal advantage of the book. In point of arrangement, however, this edition is considerably improved, and there are a number of useful notes. Art. XVII. Sleep, a Poem in Two Books. With other Miscellaneous Poems, to which is prefixed a Dissertation on Poetical Composition. By William Grisenthwaite. 12mo. pp. 82. Baldwin. 1812. As it appears from the Preface that no very urgent despatch was made use of, either in the composition or publication of this little volume, we are rather surprised it should at length make its appearance with so very few marks of elaboration about it. In point of plan, the principal poem in the collection is disorderly in the extreme. It can only be looked upon, in fact, as an unconnected assemblage of thoughts and images suggested by some association more or less remote, with the word which stands foremost in the title page; and a melange of this kind, it is obvious, pursued through two books, is in no small danger of producing such an exemplification of the monosyllable, as an author can scarcely be supposed to contemplate without dismay.It was quite unnecessary to print the preliminary dissertation. 2 Z Vol. VIII. Art. XVIII. Essay on Fiorin Grass; shewing the Circumstances under which it may be found in all Parts of England; its extraordinary Properties, and great Utility to the practical Farmer; tending to prove that as, unlike all other Grasses it endures without injury the extremes of heat and cold, wet and drought, and is indifferent to depth or richness of soil, it is admirably adapted for cultivation in young plantations and waste lands. By William Richardson, D.D. 8vo. pp. 58. Phillips, George Yard, Lombard Street. 1810. THE title of this pamphlet, which we have transcribed at length, is sufficiently indicative of its contents. It is an eulogium on the properties of the Agrostis stolonifera of botany, (which has generally been esteemed a hurtful, or at best a useless plant,) by a reverend agriculturist of Clonfede in Ireland, who has been very assiduous in cultivating it himself, and in recommending it to general attention. Having never had opportunities of witnessing experiments upon this grass, we are unable to decide how much of our author's patronage may be attributed to some accidental prepossession, or what share of it is the result of a more intimate acquaintance with its utility than others have had the privilege of acquiring nor can we, without injustice to one or the other party, either place implicit credit in the assertions of his opponents, or ascribe the whole of their enmity against the poor Fiorin to the propensity inherent in the human mind of decrying what appears to be too highly praised. We are well convinced by our own observations of the truth of our author's assertions with respect to its universal prevalence in almost every neglected spot. Situations where no other grass would flourish abandoned quarries, obsolete roads, the northern sides of buildings, shaded plantations, &c. cer tainly do produce the plant in question abundantly; and, we apprehend, there is no part of the kingdom where an ample supply of its stolones, or Buckers, might not be readily obtained. A plant growing naturally so readily, may be premised readily to admit of a cultivation, which would increase its propagation almost any where to an amazing degree, particularly as it is evidently gregarious: And its time of vegetation being continued through nearly the whole winter, crops may be obtained late in the season. Its shoots, like those of most plants which increase extensively by stolones are extremely tenacious of life, every joint resembling, in some degree, the bulb or tubes of some other vegetables, and the hay (if it can be called so retaining this principle, is uninjured by wet or the vicissi tudes of the weather at at the time that it is collected. But our author does not shew, that, when this principle is extinct, it is superior or equal to common hay from grasses and plants more rapidly dried. In the usual process the healthy plant is almost instantaneously killed; and its juices, in their full perfection, inspissated, and thus preserved from farther change, în a manner somewhat similar to the making of malt. But the Fiorin hay long retaining a lingering vegetation, will gradually pine away and undergo changes previous to the ultimate extinction of the vital principle, which must leave the remainder in a very different condition. If, however, the plant be, as our author asserts, grateful and nutritive to cattle, this consideration would only indicate the necessity of consuming the fodder within a reasonable time of its being cut down. At any rate the subject merits the attention of such as are likely to be benefited by it, and have an opportunity of trying its merits: and Dr. Richardson deserves no small praise from the agricultural interest of the kingdom, for having pressed his point with so much perseverance and enthusiasm. 8vo. Art. XIX. The Deity of the Saviour the Riches of Christianity. A Sermon, preached at the Rev. A. Douglas's Meeting, Reading, on the 8th of December, 1811. By B. Davies, D. D. pp. 49. Price 1s. 6d. Black, Parry, and Kingsbury. 1812. IN this sermon, the respectable and pious author illustrates, in a series of propositions, the vast importance of the Deity of Christ, in the Christian system. This doctrine, he observes, stamps a peculiar dignity on divine revelation, exalts our conceptions of the love of God in human redemption, forms the proper basis of the expiation of our sins, accounts for the style in which the love of Christ is celebrated in the New Testament, invests him with dignity and glory as our advocate with the Father, makes our relation to him a source of honour and happiness, and raises the Christian religion above every other scheme of philosophy or religion. In elucidating these heads, our author makes it appear, that the divinity of Christ is not a point of mere speculation, but of great practical consequence; since it materially affects every branch of Christian doctrine. We cordially recommend this devout, scriptural, and judicious discourse, to the attentive perusal of all who believe in the deity of Christ it will teach them to make a proper use of their orthodoxy. Art. XX. Tratado sobre el Ganado Merino, y las Lanas finas de Espana. Por D. Guliermo Bowles. Or A Treatise on Merino Sheep, and the fine wools of Spain. By William Bowles. Rendered into English by E. D. Edited by T. R. 4to. pp. 30. T. Boosey. 1812. WHAT a reader chiefly looks for in a pamphlet of this kind is ac curacy and fulness of statement. In regard to the former particular we have no fault to find with the tract before us: but we think it was possible to have comprised a good deal more information in the compass of thirty quarto pages. Why, for instance, should Mr. Bowles's Spanish be given, in addition to the English translation? and why are so many things said over again in the genuine letter,' which is appended from a gentleman in Spain,' giving an account of the sheep walks, and other curious particulars little known relative to that Country? The preface, besides a short memoir of the author of the treatise, (who it seems was an Irishman by birth, and died at Madrid in the year 1780) contains a good deal of speculation on the desirableness of introducing, not merely the Merino sheep, but something resembling the Spanish system of annual migration, into this Island. Art. XXI. Poems of Lugenio. 8vo. pp. 88. Sherwood, Neely, and Jones. 1811. IF climate has any influence upon genius, the volume before us holds out very slender encouragement to our young versifiers, to try the effect of a voyage to India,-in the interior of which country it is stated to have been composed. A more silly song than the following we dare to affirm has never been manufactured in any part of the globe since the institution of metre. A youth he told a piteous tale, He prais'd my eyes so bright and blue; But For how could I believe it true? And yet his words they did not fail The winning art of love he knew; He prais'd my eyes so bright and blue.' pp. 65–66. Art. XXII. Cicero de Senectute et de Amicitia, from the text of Ernesti, with all his notes, and citations from his Index Latinitatis Ciceronia : with the explanations of various passages from Gesner's Latin Thesaurus, and from books of more recent date, as well as from Grævius and all the commentators cited by him: &c. And an appendix, &c. By E. H. Barker of Trinity College, Cambridge. 12mo. pp. cliii. Longman and Co. 1811. THIS edition of Cicero's delightful dialogues on old age and friend ship, is printed in a very neat and convenient form, and with a correctness which does great credit to the press from whence it issues. Of the notes, so amply set forth in the title page, many are valuable and instructive, and will be found serviceable to the young student, not merely in assisting him to interpret his author, but to think for himself. At the same time we must be allowed to doubt whether they are not unnecessarily multiplied. A considerable part of the appendix, especially, is extremely irrelevant to the business of the book, and is written too, in the worst style of affectation and bombast. Art. XXIII. The Church in Danger: A Serious Letter to the Right Honourable Spencer Perceval, First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and of the Duchy of Lancaster. Earnestly recommended to the perusal of all the Members of both Houses of Parliament, and of every true Friend to the Constitution in Church and State. By a True Friend to the Church. 8vo. pp. 38. Price 1s. 6d. James Black. 1812. THIS is altogether one of the most ingenious compositions that our political literature has for some time produced. Its object is to throw discredit on the principles and conduct of the Honourable and Learned Gentleman to whom it is addressed ;—and in order to do this, the writer, instead of coming forward in an attitude of hostility, assumes the garb of a friend and flatterer, advances in his behalf representations and statements which are not a little mischievous to his interests, and welcomes as admissions, what are usually imputed as charges. The irony is upon the whole neatly sustained, and the serious' opinions of the writer have a tone of liberality that we should be truly happy to see more extensively diffused. |