fect: fhe was a worthy fenfible woman, and left him after three years to regret the lofs of a rational companion.

• His attachment to religion was a principle imbibed from his earliest years, which continued fteady and uniform through life. The body of Chriftians to whom he particularly united himself were the Independents, and his fyftem of belief was that of the moderate Calvinifts. But though he feems early to have made up his mind as to the doctrines he thought beft founded, and the mode of worship he most approved, yet religion abstractedly considered, as the relation between man and his Maker, and the grand fupport of morality, appears to have been the principal object of his regard. He was lefs folicitous about modes and opinions, than the internal spirit of piety and devotion; and in his eftimate of different religious focieties, the circumstances to which he principally attended, were their zeal and fincerity. As it is the nature of fects in general, to exhibit more earneftnefs in doctrine, and ftrictnefs in difcipline, than the establishment from which they dif fent, it is not to be wondered at that a perfon of Mr. Howard's difpofition fhould regard the various denominations of fectaries with predilection, and attach himself to their moft diftinguished members. In London he feems chiefly to have joined the Baptist congregation in Wild-ftreet, long under the miniftry of the muchrefpected Dt. Stennett. His connexions were, I believe, leaft with that clafs called the Rational Diffenters; yet he probably had not a more intimate friend in the world than Dr. Price, who always ranked among them. It was his conftant practice to join in the fervice of the establishment when he had not the opportunity of attending a place of diffenting worship; and though he was warmly attached to the interefts of the party he efpoufed, yet he had that true spirit of catholicifm, which led him to honour virtue and religion wherever he found them, and to regard the means only as they were fubfervient to the end.'

Two years after the death of his firft wife, he found a more fuitable companion in mifs Leeds, of Craxton in Cambridgehire; and his time was divided between his eftate at Cardington, near Bedford, and Watcombe, in the New Forest, in the most active and useful benevolence to all around him. This part of Mr. Howard's conduct leads Dr. Aikin to some reflections on the management of the lower ranks, who, at a certain period of improvement, may be intrusted, he thinks, with their own happiness, and become in their general conduct independent of their fuperiors, however judicious and beneficent the guidance may be. The reflections are incidental, and need not draw us into a difquifition, which after all might be only a war of words. The meanest trade requires tuition; and yet

the

the cultivation of the mind is to be neglected, and men fum moned to decide on intellectual fubjects, while each of the mental faculties has neither been matured by experience, ftrengthened by exercife, or enlightened by inftruction.

Mr. Howard's conduct, in the education of his fon, has been the subject of much animadverfion. He was guided by two principles: the one that the bufinefs of education com menced with the first dawn of the mental faculties; the other, that children, born with strong paffions and defires, unregu lated for a time by reason, were fit fubjects of abfolute autho rity, and the firft leffon to be taught was unlimited obedience. The first was proper, but the latter evidently erroneous, fince it tended to check the principle of reafon, or prevent it from expanding. It is added, that the coercion was calm and gen tle, but teady. The boy's mind, however, was naturally weak, or the coercion must have been violent, for Mr. Howard himself observed, that he believed his fon would have put his finger into the fire if he commanded him.' This could be the refult of no gentle means, but the apprehenfion of fomething which he had not experienced, or the dread of what he had felt. A weakness of mind, however, whether natural or the effect of an erroneous education, is not connected with madnefs; and no part of his fyftem could have a tendency to bring it on the whole was conftitutional, and Mr. Howard had nothing to reproach himself on this account.

In 1756 Mr. Howard, in his way to Lisbon, was taken by a French privateer, and fuffered all the indignities which thefe lawless mifcreants often inflict, and for a time the diftreffes of a prifoner of war. This probably first led him to confider the fubject; but the paffion only began to blaze in 1773, when he ferved the office of theriff for the county. Since that period, his labours have been often the fubject of our observations in different parts of this Journal; and Dr. Aikin gives a very judicious analysis of his different publications.

His death was occafioned by a fever highly malignant, which he fuppofed that he caught by vifiting a young lady at Cherfon, in one of the worft ftages of it, when he found the effluvia highly offenfive. Dr. Aikin feems to think that it was the effect of cold, as it only attacked him five days afterwards; it is probable, however, that the cold was the exciting caufe, rouzing the dormant venom to activity by the temporary depreffion of the vital powers. James's powder feems to have affifted its debilitating effects. We fhall conclude this very judicious life of an excellent man by tranfcribing fome parts of Dr. Aikin's description of his perfon and delineation of his character.

7

• The

The first thing that ftruck an obferver on acquaintance with Mr. Howard, was a stamp of extraordinary vigour and energy on all his movements and expreffions. An eye lively and penetrating, ftrong and prominent features, quick gait, and animated gestures, gave promife of ardour in forming, and vivacity in executing his defigns. At no time of his life, I believe, was he without fome object of warm purfuit; and in every thing he pursued, he was indefatigable in aiming at perfection. Give him a hint of any thing he had left fhort, or any new acquifition to be made, and while you might fuppofe he was deliberating about it, you were furprised with finding it was done. Not Cæfar himself could better exemplify the poet's

Nil actum credens, dum quid fupereffet agendum.'

'I remember that, having accidentally remarked to him that amongst the London prisons he had omitted the Tower, he was so ftruck with the deficiency (though of trifling confequence, fince confinement there is fo rare), that at his very first leisure he ran to London, and supplied it. Nor was it only during a fhort period of ardour that his exertions were thus awakened. He had the ftill rarer quality of being able, for any length of time, to bend all the powers and faculties of his mind to one point, unfeduced by every allurement which curiofity or any other affection might throw in his way, and unfufceptible of that fatiety and difguft which are lo apt to fteal upon a protracted purfuit. Though by his early travels he had fhewn himself not indifferent to those objects of taste and information which ftrike the cultivated mind in a foreign country, yet in the tours exprefsly made for the purpose of examining prifons and hofpitals, he appears to have had eyes and ears for nothing elfe; at least he fuffered no other object to detain him or draw him afide. Impreffed with the idea of the importance of his defigns, and the uncertainty of human life, he was impatient to get as much done as poffible within the allotted limits. And in this difpofition confifted that enthusiasm by which the public fuppofed him actuated; for otherwise, his cool and fteady temper gave no idea of the character ufually diftinguished by that appellation. He followed his plans, indeed, with wonderful vigour and conftancy, but by no means with that heat and eagerness, that inflamed and exalted imagination, which denote the enthufiaft. Hence, he was not liable to catch at partial representations, to view facts through fallacious mediums, and to fall into those mistakes which are fo frequent in the researches of the man of fancy and warm feeling. Some per fons, who only knew him by his extraordinary actions, were ready enough to bestow upon him that fneer of contempt, which men of cold hearts and felfish difpofitions are so apt to apply to whatever has the fhew of high fenfibility. While others, who had a flight acquaintance with him, and faw occafional features of phlegm,

and

and perhaps harshnefs, were difpofed to question his feeling alto gether, and to attribute his exertions either merely to a sense of duty, or to habit fand humour. But both thefe were erroneous conclufions. He felt as a man should feel; but no fo as to miflead him, either in the estimate he formed of objects of utility, or in his reasonings concerning the means by which they were to be brought into effect. The reformation of abuses, and the relief of mifery, were the two great purposes which he kept in view in all his undertakings; and I have equally feen the tear of fenfibility start into his eyes on recalling fome of the distressful scenes to which he had been witness, and the spirit of indignation flash from them on relating inftances of baseness and oppreffion. Still, however, his conftancy of mind and felf-collection never deferted him. He was never agitated, never off his guard; and the unfpeakable advantages of fuch a temper, in the fcenes in which he engaged, need not be dwelt upon.'

Letters to the Members of the New Jerufalem Church, formed by Baron Swedenborg. By Jofeph Priestley, LL, D. F. R. S. 8vo. 15. 6d. fewed. Johnson. 1791.

THE

HE Addrefs to the Methodifts is followed by Letters to the Followers of Emanuel Swedenborg; but they are not of the fame conciliating caft. They are curious in their fubftance, as they contain a rational account of what has hitherto been obfcured by myftics, or mifrepresented by enthusiasts: they are interefting, as they fhow to what an extent the human mind can wander when employed on fubjects not adapted to its powers, and in investigations which it can neither comprehend nor judge of.

The manufcript of thefe Letters fuffered in the fatal riots of July, and they are now partly published from a corrected copy formerly taken, and in part recompofed. This fubject, of course the nearest to his heart, and the lofs, which, as authors and philofophers we can feel, is a little expatiated on. To Dr. Priestley it must be more fevere, becaufe his theological works are certainly, in his own opinion, meritorious; calculated to inform and enlighten mankind in a fubject of the nearest concern. His inftances and his arguments, however, relate to works of ingenuity and innocent amufement; but our author's are of a different kind, and their lofs is confequently more important or more trifling according to the opinion formed of their nature and tendency. Some juft reflections on the influence of the repeated affertions of a man not apparently infane, though the affertions are highly improbable, on the want of concurrent teftimony, follow: a fhort account of Swedenborg, with a lift of his works, conclude the preface. As the tenets of baron Sweden

borg

borg may be new to many of our readers, we fhall enlarge a little on the fubject of thefe Letters.

Dr. Priestley endeavours to conciliate his fellow-christians by remarking, that they think nearly the fame of the corruptions of Christianity, and particularly of the doctrine of the Trinity. Their idea of God is, however, a fingular one: they fuppofe that he always exifted in a human form; but, for the fake of the redemption of the world, he affumed a material body, though not a human foul. This redemption, they think, confifts in regulating the heavens, and fubduing the evil fpirits; it faves man, and preferves even the integrity of angels; and was effected by numerous trials and temptations, particularly the Paffion of the Crofs. Befides the divinity and humanity of God, therefore, they admit of the operation of them both in the Lord Jefus : their Trinity confequently commenced at the incarnation, and continued only through its period. The fpiritual fenfe of the fcriptures they confider as having been revealed to M. Swedenborg alone; and in man the affections and paffions, they think, are the effects of good and bad angels, while temptation confifts in their ftruggles. There is, befides, M. Swedenborg tells his difciples, an univerfal influx from God into the minds of men, particularly infpiring them with the belief of the divine unity, and this eflux is compared to the light of the fun in the natural world. We must add the rest in Dr. Priestley's own words:

There are, fays M. Swedenborg, two worlds, the natural and the fpiritual, entirely diftinct, though perfectly correfponding to each other; that at death a man enters into the fpiritual world, when his foul is clothed with a body which he terms fubftantial, in oppofition to the prefent material body, which he fays is never to rife out of the grave. "After death (he fays) that a man is fo little changed, that he even does not know but he is living in the prefent world, that he eats and drinks, and even enjoys conjugal delight as in this world; that the resemblance between the two worlds is fo great, that in the spiritual world there are cities, with palaces and houses, and alfo writing and books, employments and merchandizes; that there is gold, filver, and precious ftones there. In a word, he fays, there is in the spiritual world all and every thing that there is in the natural world, but that in heaven fuch things are in an infinitely more perfect state." Univerfal Theology, No. 734. Into this fpiritual world, M. Swedenborg says, that he, though living in this, was admitted, so that he converfed with Luther, Melancthon, and many other perfons, as well as with angels.

You believe that the coming of Chrift to judge the world, and to enter upon his kingdom, is not to be underflood of a perCRIT. REV. N. Ar. (IV.) Feb. 1792.

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