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men, deferve particular regard, as he feems to write from an intimate knowledge of the fubject; neither vaguely nor theoreti cally. It is only becaufe the objects of this work do not properly admit of difcuffion in a literary Journal, that we pass it over fo curforily we mean to recommend the fubject, and the manner in which it is treated, as highly important and meritorious.

Ifagoge, five Janua Tufculana, for the Ufe of Grammar Schools. By the Rev. R. Lyne. New Edition. 8vo. 25. Haydon and Son. Plymouth. 1791.

Mr. Lyne's object is to avoid giving the learner too much af fiftance, and facilitating the acquifition of the language to fo great a degree, as to leave him ignorant of its nature and conftruction, while he endeavours with equal care to prevent his wafting time in obtaining, with much trouble, rules that may be eafily taught. Between thefe difficulties he fteers with fome fuccefs; but bred in the larger schools, we have adopted perhaps fome predilection for their methods, and we still think that what is easily attained does not alwas make fufficient impreffion on the mind. Those things which we learn with difficulty, we generally retain most fimly.

Interefing Anecdotes of Henry IV. of France, containing fublime Traits and lively Sallies of Wit of that Monarch. Tranflated from the French. 2 Vols. 12mo. 6s. feed. Debrett. 1791. Henry IV. is the idol of the French, and luckily for Louis XV. was his ancestor and a Bourbon. The hiftorian, the patriot, the collector of anecdotes, and the compiler of fecret memoirs, are confequently bufy in their different departments, to collect what hitory or tradition has retained, and to invent what will probably fafcinate the cager attention of the public on this fubject. Among thefe is our prefent author. His anecdotes are felected from different writers, ftrung together chronologically; but they are not told advantageously, nor very accurately, unlefs fome little inadvertences, as we fufpect, may be attributed to the translator.

A Letter from Percival Stockdale to G. Sharp, Efq. fuggefted to the
Author, by the present Infurrection of the Negroes, on the Island of
St. Domingo. 8vo.
Clarke. 1791.

15.

The late infurrection at St. Domingo has induced our author to retail hackneyed arguments against the flave-trade and flavery. This event might have infpired different thoughts, and fhown that, even in doing good, eager zeal may become highly injurious.

An Ac

An Account of the Syftem of Education, used at a Seminary for the
Admiffion of Pupils on a liberal and extenfive Plan. By the Rev.
R. Turner. 8vo. 6d. Williams. 1791.

It is remarkable that, in this account, there is no mention of the place where this feminary is fituated. The defign is to instruct boys, who are only admitted from five to ten years of age, preparatory to their going to public fchools. The termination of the flay at the feminary feems intended to be about the age of fourteen; but this will probably be at the option of the parents, and there appears more to be learnt than the generality of boys can attain at that time. Chronology, history, French, and geography, have alfo their fhare; and perhaps too much is crowded into this fhort space, to be diftinctly acquired. In other refpects, the plan feems judicious and ufeful..

Reflections on Duelling, and on the most efficacious Means for prevent-
ing it. 820.
Sewell. 1791.

IS.

Our author is an able and ftrenuous enemy to duelling. He argues with great force and judgment. But, as we have very lately, in reviewing the treatife annexed to Mr. Moor's work on Suicide, had occafion to give fome remarks on this fubje&t, we need not refume it,

Trial between Henry Martin, Efq. of the County of Galway, in Ireland, and John Petrie, Ejq. of the County of Effex, for criminal Converfation with the Plaintiff's Wife. 8vo.

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Ridgway. 1791.

Is. 6d.

Thefe examples of unprincipled profligacy are unpleafing. The pecuniary damages are trifling: contempt and infamy ought to be the future lot of those who fo groly offend the moral law and focial duty.

An Abstract of the Evidence delivered before a Select Committee of the House of Commons in the Years 1790, and 1791; on the Part of the Petitioners for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. 12/20. 25. Philips. 1791.

A difmal tale of woe, and fcenes that require reformation. But the enfe recidendum' is calculated only for defperate maladies: the prefent, we hope, will fucceed under a more lenient

treatment.

A fecond Letter addreffed to the Inhabitants of Warwick, in Reply to the Remarks upon the first Letter, Ec. By W. Field. Svo. 15. Johnson. 1791.

We are forry to fee a continuance of this altercation, and should

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be much more so, if such actions as Mr. Miller and his friend are accused of, could with juftice be afcribed to the ministers of any fect of Chriftians.

CORRESPONDENCE.

WE have received Mr. Belfham's letter, alluding to the complaint of his first volume not being treated with fufficient refpe&t; and it is, as may be expected, candid and judicious. We were very certain that it came from eager and inconfiderate friends; but it first appeared in a news paper, and was afterwards circulated pretty currently in private converfation. We mentioned the report with a defign of being enabled to contradict it; for mean and defpicable would be the critic who fuffered a difference of opinion to prejudice him againít real knowledge, judgment, and learning. As on fome political fubjects we differ from Mr. Belfham, without an explanation, our characters might have fuffered in this way..

THE complaint of Benevolus is, we think, without fufficient foundation; but we well know, that when an author is in poffeffion of an idea, he is apt to forget that his readers are not equally informed. We all, however, in future avoid every appearance of error. The remarks of correfpondents fo judicious and candid as thofe of Benevolus, we always receive with gratitude.

*

THE

CRITICAL REVIEW.

For FEBRUARY, 1792.

The Hiftory of Philofophy, from the carliest Times to the Beginning of the prefent Century; drawn up from Brucker's Hiftoria Critica Philofophiæ. (Continued from Vol. III. New Ar. P. 457.)

PHILOSOPHY affumed a confiftent and alluring form in

Greece, a country where polished taste and refined manners gave to whatever it borrowed a peculiar grace, and diftinguished its own inventions by their elegance and their utility. The former we cannot now feparate from the latter; nor is it of importance, for the accuracy of discrimination, the fo lidity of judgment, the force of mind, and the correctnefs of tafle which the Grecians, in the greater number of inftances, difplayed, fhow that they were fubtle, ingenious and refined. A nation, fo peculiarly diftinguished by natural talents, and by works of fuch fingular merit in every department, it may feem of confequence to trace, and we own that, in this enquiry, with a view to the prefent article, we have employed no little time and care. The difquifition would, however, be too difproportionate and extenfive, for we have found reason to differ from the greater number of authors. It is fufficient to obferve, that what may be called the continent of Greece seems to have obtained its inhabitants from Thrace and Illyria, the iflands from the Phoenician colonies, though this idea ought probably to be confined to the fouthern iflands, and particularly to Crete. In no refpect is this country indebted to Egypt for its inhabitants, and in a very remote, probably only in a fecondary way, to Allyria. Its earliest benefactors, or those who first reduced the favage and piratical hordes to order and reason, were Minos in the fouth, and Orpheus in the northern parts. The latter was certainly a Thracian, and the former we have much reason to think a Phoenician; nor does this idea greatly militate against the opinion we have expreffed respecting the intellectual attainments of the Phoenicians, when we confider their extenfive voyages, the varied information they must have obtained, and compare it with the real merit of Minos and his boafted legiflative code. Of Orpheus we have CRIT. REV. N. AR. (IV.) Feb. 1792.

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few

few accounts, and thofe not to be depended on. Like the Zoroafter of the Perfians, and the first Hermes of the Egypti ans, his name has only defcended to us; and his writings, if we give them their full fhare of merit, are but the imperfect recollections of his fcholars, more probably the fictions of a later age*.

If we look beyond the immediate fource of the population of Greece, it will be probable that Thrace and Illyria furnished two different races, a Scythian and a Celtic. That the Grecians were in general Scythians is highly probable, but there are many arguments to fhow that the western regions. were of a different religion, and of different manners, and probably at first had a different language. In manners and in religion, the Cretans alfo differed from the reft of the Greeks; but the fuperior genius of the Scythian race gradually affimilated the others nearer to itfelf. The oak of Dodona in the west; the Egyptian fable of Tartarus in the fouth, and the worship of Tellus in the east, are fuperftitions of diftant countries and a diffimilar nature. They were at last brought together, and formed a fyftem grofs and immoral in its foundation, but fpecious, elegant, and fafcinating in its form. It is time, however, to leave thefe general details, and to proceed to the hiftory of philofophy.

Prometheus, Linus, and Orpheus are the three early benefactors of Greece, of whom we know little except what this fabling nation invented, refpecting them, in fubfequent ages. To thefe fucceeded Mufæus, Amphion, and Hefiod, who to their mufical and poetical merit added the cofmogony, that they had learned from the east, perhaps from the school of Mofes, or at least from the fame fountain. Their system is wholly that of the Hindoos; and, from them alfo, as we have lately learnt, they probably derived the opinion, that the great benefactors of mankind potfelled fome portion of the divine nature, and deferved peculiar honours after death. The very fingular work, Sacontala, or the Fatal Ring, of which we gave a full account, inftructs us in this, as well as many other points of the early doctrines of Indoftan.

Epimenides, who fucceeded thefe poets and philofophers, was a Cretan, and from his country he borrowed the farce of fuperftition as well as his affected trances. Solon, from the teftimony of Plutarch, has taught us to confider him as an impoftor. Homer is next mentioned, who, in the opinion of his ad

* When Dr. Enfield tells us, from Brucker, that Cicero quoted Aristotle to prove that Orpheus never exifted, he might have added, that in the paffage,. Pactam Orpheum feems emphatical, and alludes only to a poet of this name, whofe exiftence he denies. Fabricius has already noticed this explanation.

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