the attention of his readers to the subjects of devout medita tion, and closes some remarks on the works of creation with the following sentences. Above all, muse with grateful emotion on that astonishing love which redeemed you from ruin. Joy in God through our head, Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the atonement. Meditate on the wonders of redemption. This is every syllable that a Christian preacher has thought fit, while professedly pointing out the objects of devout meditation, to say, on a theme that gladdened the hearts of patriarchs, and inspired the songs of prophets,-on which the apostles delighted to expatiate,-which filled the martyrs with transports, which engrosses the thoughts of the faithful, and will for ever animate the joys of heaven.

Dr. Laurie is throughout consistent with himself. His second sermon is on benevolence. Part of his plan is to describe the character of the benevolent. But to pity the igno rance and corruption of men, to relieve the spiritual maladies of their nature, or to countenance projects for the diffusion of Christian knowledge, so far as appears from his description, does not form a part of genuine benevolence. In urging upon his hearers the cultivation of this virtue, which is eminently Christian, and enforced in scripture by so many touching considerations, while he insists largely, largely at least for so expeditious a divine, on its amiableness, its pleasantness and utility, he despatches every thing of an evangelical turn in the following words.

God is love and let the precepts and the example of the God of peace be ever present to your minds. "This is his commandment, that you should love one another." It is not grievous, and "in keeping of it there is great reward." Therefore "let brotherly love continue." For Christ's sake cultivate benevolence, and imitate with diligence that blessed Redeemer, "who went about constantly doing good." Amen.' p. 35.

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These sermons not only savour little of Christian principles; in some parts they appear to us of a pagan cast. Their spirit is anti-christian. He whose virtue is formed on evangelical principles, wishes rather to be virtuous than to seem so. The regard to fame, which Dr. Laurie so often inculcates, finds no support in the lessons of Christ or his apostles. They never enjoin any duty as a means of rising high in the scale of renown. pp. 38. 136. The following sentence is much more in the spirit of the Stoics than in that of Christ. How enlivening the belief, that genius, that beam of glory, which has brightened almost every land, shall not be extinguished; that when the tide of time has rolled away, this celestial fire shall never be quenched. p. 52. The same spirit seems to have dictated the following words.

• When a man whose bosom once glowed with high sentiments of independence and honour, is conscious that he neglected to manage his affairs with prudence, that, in conséquence of his careless habits, and culpable inattention, he is walking on precipices-and sees before him the gulf of degradation; when he remembers the day that he ensnared the unsuspecting friend of his youth, deceived an aged parent, spent the provision of the orphan, exerted so much invention to evade the law, and exercised that ingenuity in "dissimulation's winding way," which in a better cause might have immortalized his name his feelings must be agonizing as the pains of the damned, and awful as hell's torments!" P. 143.

It can hardly be imagined, that in composing these sermons Dr. Laurie had any regard to the edification of his hearSuch contradictory statements as the following, he could never think would answer that purpose.

ers.

Is it the proper way to produce benevolence, to maintain that the human race are perfidious, selfish, and ungraceful? While many descend to nefarious practices, thousands retain the nicest perception of what is right, the most fixed detestation of what is base, and for no pleasures under the sun would they be persuaded to sacrifice those of piety and virtue.'

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The subjects, indeed, that Dr. Laurie pretends to treat, are very important. But if he undertake to discuss a subject,if, for example, he profess to display the danger of human depravity, he shall close his sermon without uttering half a dozen sentences upon the subject. If he propose to point out the benefit of devout meditation, he will say, after a few words upon what is common to it with other kinds of meditaItion, suitable contemplation of the works of creation, providence, redemption, (as might be illustrated, did time permit,) is calculated to produce gratitude, adoration, trust, and inte grity.' p. 144. He says just what is useless-and then makes an apology for omitting what might be profitable. But we may remark farther, that what he does say is inaccurate. We may take the sermon on the atonement in illustration. His design is to evince the expediency of that interposition. This expediency he deduces from the depravity of man,--the inefficacy of other modes of expiation,-the character of the divine government, and the prophecies respecting Christ's death and sufferings. The last particular, it is evident, determines nothing as to the expediency of atonement by the death of Christ, any more than the history of his sufferings contained in the Gospels. Not to mention the impropriety of using the phrase depravity of human nature, instead of the guilt of man, the expediency of the atonement by the sufferings of Christ, appears, not from either of the three first particulars, considered separately, but from them altogether. But it is,

perhaps, somewhat unreasonable to expect a fashionable preacher to discourse with accuracy or precision.

As to the hortatory morsels of these sermons, they are such as might be expected from the strain of the other parts. Having, at the end of the year, inquired of his hearers, how have you spent all its solemn days,' he coldly says,-If their recollection is bitter, be penitent for past offences, and behave, for the future, as it becomes those whose time shall soon be swallowed up in the abyss of eternity. p. 315. The efficacy of such an exhortation can hardly be doubted. Having said, the exercise of benevolence is a source of pleasure, he subjoins, Yield to the dictates of brotherly love, and taste one of the purest pleasures of your nature.' p. 33. If the apostle had received a few lessons from Dr. Laurie, he never would have said, "Walk in love as Christ who hath loved us ;"-and if Dr. Laurie had studied the exhortations of the apostle, he never would have talked in his present style. Though we cannot, therefore, recommend these sermons as sources of instruction, or as excitements to piety or virtue; we can recommend them as fair and faithful examples of the fashionable mode of preaching—a fashion, which has for its object, to amuse religiously without amending.

Art. XI. Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. A Romaunt. By Lord Byron. 4to. pp. 230. Price 17. 10s. Murray. 1812.

To be at once young, and noble, and a poet, is to insure a large measure either of applause or of censure. Hereditary rank and youth afford an undisputed, and not inglorious exemption from the lighter cares of contributing to the amusement and instruction of society, as well as from the more arduous duties of active life; but this privilege is granted upon the very equitable condition, that the voluntary service of titled poets and beardless statesmen shall, if successful, be rewarded with louder acclamations, or punished if unsuccessful with more severe reproach, than the efforts of other men.

The case of Lord Byron is a remarkable illustration, we think, of the rigid adherence of the world to these principles of criticism. His earlier performances were smart and lively enough; but at the same time pert, and sour, and splenetic; and their passage to oblivion would probably have been rapid and unnoticed, had not the rank and age of their author contributed to hold them up for a while to the derision of the irreverent multitude. With a resolute, and, as the event has shewn, a very just confidence in his own talents, Lord Byron

has however again demanded the applause, and dared the censure of the world; and the world, at length discovering that Lord Byron is really a man of genius, and a poet, is at least as profuse in its encomiums at present, as it was formerly liberal in its satire. Lord Byron, moreover, it must be observed, when he appeared before the public in his minority, either had no opinions on the great questions with which the political world is agitated, or was wise enough to keep them within his own bosom. He is now an advocate of Catholic emancipation, and an adherent (if we are not mistaken) of a political party. The distributors of fame and popularity may, perhaps, have been influenced, in their eulogiums on the noble author's poetry, by adverting, unconsciously it may be, to his senatorial character. For our own part, we must avow, that while we are as ready as the most sanguine of his lordship's admirers to bear testimony to the propriety of this revolution in the public opinion, we think that, like most other revolutions, it has proceeded much beyond the point to which, in sound discretion, it ought to have been extended; and though we doubt not, that Lord Byron's poem will long be read and praised, we are also very certain, that the praise which it receives will become fainter, and be more mixed with expressions of a different character, in proportion as they who read and they who criticise, are less under the influence of those motives to which we have alluded. Any man, whose knowledge of this work extends only to the title page, will probably be much deceived in the expectation he will form, as to the style and subject of the poem. To those who may have been induced to anticipate in Childe Harold, a Romaunt,' a tale of tournaments, and castles, and princesses, it may be useful to know, that fancy could hardly form a being more unlike their old acquaintance, Amadis de Gaul, than is the hero of Lord Byron's poem. Harold is an English country gentleman, who in the year 1809 left his native country, and journeyed from Lisbon to Cadiz, and from thence was tossed on the Mediterranean,

.

Till he did greet white Achelous' tide,

And from his further bank Ætolia's wolds espied.'

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Still more remote in character than in time from the paladins of ancient chivalry, Harold does not traverse the world to disarm the oppressor and succour the destitute, but to relieve the dreariness and lassitude of a heart oppressed by the unbounded gratification of sensual appetites, and unable to relish the only happiness, to the attainment of which his life had been devoted. There is much truth and force in the picture of this unhappy being, and the moral to be deduced

from it is exceedingly valuable; but however interesting and affecting it may be to contemplate the workings of a powerful mind, degraded in its own esteem, and in vain seeking for repose, it is after all a gloomy and a painful prospect. Lord Byron, therefore, has judiciously introduced upon the canvas another personage, who is certainly a much more agreeable 'companion we mean the noble author himself, who, happening to wander through the same countries, at nearly the same period, has, in his own person, described those scenes, and expressed those sentiments, which were of too cheerful a character to suit the disconsolate feelings of the imaginary traveller. There are, however, some inconveniences attending this arrangement of the several parts, appropriated to the author and to the hero of the poem. Sometimes the Childe forgets (accidentally, we believe,) the heart-struck melancholy of his temper, and deviates into a species of pleasantry, which, to say the truth, appears to us very flippant, and very unworthy the solemn person to whom it is attributed*. At other times, the noble poet is himself made to give expression to opinions and feelings, which would have much better suited the wretched Harold, and would have added to his portrait a shade still deeper and more affecting, perhaps, than any with which the artist has already clouded itt. Occasionally, too, we lose sight of the Childe for so long a period, that we really feel some anxiety as to the fate of this very miserable and interesting personage, till the poet, anticipating the apprehensions of his readers, very seasonably éxclaims,

But where is Harold? Shall I then forget

Το urge the gloomy wanderer o'er the wave,' &c.

As however the story of Childe Harold is still incomplete, and any criticisms upon the structure of the poem may perhaps be premature, and as we are told that a fictitious character is introduced for the sake of giving some connection to the piece, which makes no pretension to regularity,' it may be a sufficient answer to any objections to the plan of this Romaunt, that the author has already disavowed any intention of regularity and system.

The measure which Lord Byron has adopted is that of Spenser, nor do we think he could have found any other metre equally suited to the peculiar character of his poetry. That this measure will admit either the droll or the pathetic, the descriptive or sentimental, the tender or satirical," is an opinion of Dr. Beattie's, which is quoted by the noble