inoculation, than by all the figures of fpecch that could be put together.

Our author proceeds to inveftigate the ftyle of Fenelon, Cheminais, Thomas, whofe panegyrics he thinks have much of the ftyle proper for preaching, and others both French and foreigners. We cannot follow him through all the rules he lays down for the perfection of the Chriftian orator; in general they evince his tafte and judgment, but we could not help feeling indignant at seeing one whole chapter devoted to giving rules for paying compliments in pulpit difcourfes. Established fage, fays he, no longer permits the minifters of the gospel to preach the faced word before the rulers of the world, without burning at their feet fome grains of incenfe. He adds, that kings are to be pitied who cannot efcape flattery even in the pulpit; but furely thofe preachers are more to be pitied who, even in the pulpit, cannot forbear flattery. Still more are we shocked when we read, that compliments are beft introduced in a paraphrafe of the holy fcriptures, or in a prayer to God.

We must not omit to remark that this treatife has received great additional value from the notes with which it has been enriched by the tranilator, who has fometimes illustrated and fometimes corrected the ideas of the abbé by a number of well-chofen quotations from our beft critics and authors, and fometimes from thofe of other nations. The talk itfelf of tranflation is fufficiently well executed. Here and there are blemifles in the ftyle: one goes to form his tafle.-Let the orator avoid, as most dangerous rocks, thofe enfnaring fallies which would diminish the impetucfity of his ardour. A ftrange confufion of metaphors; fallies that enfnare, which fallies are rocks, and which rocks diminish ardour. Les myfleres, translated myfteries, by which are meant the facraments, &c. had been better with the article, the myfteries, which would have determined it to the fpecic fenfe; without the article, it means myfteries in general.

Plutarch's Treatife upon the Distinction between a Friend and Flatterer: with Remarks. By Thomas Northmore, Efq. M. A. F. S. A. 8vo. 4s. Boards. Payne. 1793.

TH

HERE is no writer of antiquity whofe works more deferve a ferious perufal than thofe of Plutarch, whether we confider him as an hiftorian or a moralift. His opinions, indeed, are frequently erroneous, his ftories are fometimes improbable, and his language is not always correct; and of his reflections it may be faid,

His thoughts too closely on the reader pref,
He more had pleas'd us, had he pleas'd us lefs.'

But

But to a perfon who can read the opinions of others without prejudice, who are charmed with originality of conception, and with grave and dignified fentiment, who recal with plea-fure the interefting remarks of ancient fages and heroes, and are willing to be made acquainted with the greateft incitements to virtue, no writer will be more entertaining, none more improving, than Plutarch.

The Treatife on the Distinction between a Flatterer and a Friend has been very much and very defervedly admired, as one in which is united all the delicacy that characterifes Cicero's Treatife on Friendship, with the penetration that dif tinguifhes Theophraftus' Moral Characters. One or two quotations from Mr. Northmore's tranflation fhall be laid before the reader, whence he may judge of the nature of the original work, and the merit of the tranflation. The Treatife is addrefled to Antiochus Philopappus:

It is remarked by Plato, my friend, that all men are inclined to regard as venial a more than ordinary fhare of felf-love; and yet fuch a propenfity is attended with this bad confequence, befide fe- veral others, that it incapacitates us from making an upright and unbiaffed judgement of ourfelves; for love is blind to the imperfections of the object beloved, where we are not accustomed to reverence and purfue that condu&t which is honourable and virtuous in preference to that of private intereft and affection. And hence we lay ourfelves open to the arts and machinations of the flatterer who poffeffes in this our felf-fondness a citadel whence he may make his attacks upon us, well knowing that every fe'i-lover, being the first and greatest felf-flatterer, admits without difficulty another who he thinks will approve and bear witnefs to his actions. For furelyi he who is juftly reproached with being fond of flattery is alfo very partial to himself, and through abundance of felf-kindness not only wifhes to inherit the various perfections which may entitle him to the good opinion of others, but really believes he does fo; and though it be laudable enough to encourage the wifh, yet we should be very cautious how we indulge in the belief. Now if truth, as Plato fays, be a particle of the Divinity, and the origin of all good to gods and men, the flatterer is certainly in danger of being an enemy to the Gods, and above all to the Pythian Deity; for he conftantly oppofes that famous oracle of his know thyfelf--by teaching every one to deceive himself, and keeping him in ignorance of the good and ill qualities that are in him, and thus, the former are held in a ftate of imperfection, and the latter become totally incorrigible.'

The next paragraph is an agreeable fpecimen of Mr. Northmore's abilitics as a tranflator: fome, however, may probably difpute the propriety of the tranflation in the firft fentence:

and the addition of the word furely, in the third line, is certainly improper: it rather weakens the paffage, and has no correfponding word in the original.

The following is a judicious reprefentation of fome prominent features in the character of a flatterer:

But the moft artful part of his conduct is yet to come; for perceiving that a proper freedom of expoftulation is allowed univerfally to be the very voice and language of real friendship, and as peculiar to it as found is to any animal; and that a timid behaviour, which dares not boldly deliver its fentiments, is repugnant to that liberal openness and fincerity of heart which becomes the true friend; he has not let even this escape his imitation: but as skilful cooks make ufe of high feafonings to prevent the ftomach being fatiated by sweet and luscious meats, fo the expoftulatory freedom of the flatterer is neither genuine nor ufeful, but, winking as it were under frowns, tends only to footh and gratify.

Upon thefe accounts then the flatterer is difficult to be caught, like fome animals which, through the bounty of nature, escape purfuit by affuming the colour of the fubjacent earth, or herbage that, furrounds them. But, fince he deceives us by being difguised under the resemblance of a friend, it is our bufinefs to expofe and detect him, by laying open the difference between them, fince he is clothed, as Plato fays, in foreign colours and ornaments, having none properly of his own.

'Let us confider then this matter from the beginning. We have faid that friendship, for the most part, takes its rife from that fimilarity of temper and difpofition, whereby we embrace the fame manners and cuftoms, and delight in the fame ftudies and pursuits; according to thofe lines of the old bard,

· Age is moft pleas'd when in fweet converse join'd
With hoary age, fo youth delights in youth,

And female foftnefs harmonizes best

With kindred tenderness, th' infirm th' oppreft
Bear to th' oppreft, a fympathy of woe.'

The flatterer then, well knowing that all intercourfe of love and friendship is grounded in a fimilitude of paffions, here first endeavours to make his approaches, and to pitch his tents, as hunters do in the range and pasture of a wild beaft; and here he gradually advances, by adapting and accommodating himself to the fame purfuits, occupations, ftudies, and mode of living, until you are betrayed into his hands, and become mild and familiar to his touch; thus he takes care to cenfure whatever and whomfoever he perceives to incur your displeasure, and applaud whatever meets your appro bation with extravagant fervour, in order that he may appear far to exceed you by his admiration and aftonishment, and confirm you

in the opinion that his love and hatred arife more from judgement than affection.

'How then are we to convict this hypocrite, and by what dif tinctions is he to be detected, fince he does not really resemble the friend, but imitates only his likeness? In the first place we ought to obferve the equability and confiftency of his life and conduct, whether he delight always in the fame objects, and be uniform in his approbations, whether he regulate his behaviour according to one rule, and afford a proper example in his own life, for fuch conduct alone becomes the free and ingenuous admirer of real and true friendship; fuch only is the friend. But the flatterer having as it were no one fixt refidence of behaviour, nor choofing a life to please himfelf, but moulding and conforming himself entirely to the will of another, is neither confiftent nor uniform, but ever various and changeable, flowing about in every direction, from one shape to another, like water turned out of its courfe, and adapting itself to the foil which receives it. The ape, it feems, is caught while in his endeavours to imitate man, he accompanies his various motions and geftures, but the flatterer allures and attracts others by imitation, though not all in the fame manner; for with one he fings and dances, wrestles and boxes with another, and if he chance to fall into the company of any who are fond of hunting and hounds, he scarcely refrains crying out in the words of Phædra;

'O how I love to hear the hunter's fhouts

1

Ring through the echoing woods, by the Gods! I love

To hear the full-mouth'd pack, and chace the dappled ftag;' and yet he cares not a rush for the ftag, his only care is to entrap the hunter. If indeed he be in pursuit of any young man who is fond of literature, inftantly he is enveloped in books, his beard hangs down to his feet, his cloak is ragged and threadbare, he is indifferent about every other concern, while the numbers, rectangles, and triangles of Plato are perpetually in his mouth. If again any rich, idle, debauchee, come in his way,

The wife Ulyffes foon ftrips off his rags,'

his threadbare cloak is thrown away, and his beard is mowed down like an unproductive harvest, while he indulges freely in the bottle and the glafs, and in ridiculing and fcoffing at the philofophers. Thus they fay at Syracufe, when Plato arrived there, and Diony fius was enthufiaftic in the study of philofophy, that the whole pa, lace was full of duft and fand on account of the great concourfe of geometricians, who defcribed their figures there; but when Plato fell into difgrace, and Dionyfius, forfaking his philofophy, betook himself again to drinking, debauchery, and every fpecies of felly and intemperance, inftantly were all transformed as by the cups of

Z 3

Circe,

Circe, and unlettered barbarifir, ftupidity and oblivion overwhelmed them."

The notes, at the end, are judicious and felect; the tranflation, if it has a few blemishes, has alfo many beautics; we think Mr. Northmore has adopted the true mode of tranflating, which ought not to be conducted with fuch great freedom as to lofe fight of the idea of the original, nor yet, with fuch caution and literal precifion, as to offend against the idioms of different languages.

We are informed that all the moral treatifes of Plutarch are at no great distance of time to be prefented to the public in an English drefs; and, from the abilities engaged in the undertaking, it will, we doubt not, be conducted with correctness and elegance. The tranflation will be by different gentlemen, most of them of high character in the literary world, who, we doubt not, will afcertain, with all the accuracy that they potlibly can, the true readings of this difficult, and corrupted author.

The Siege of Berwick, a Tragedy, by Mr. Farningham: as performed at the Theatre-Reza, Covent-Garden. 8vo. 15.62. Robfon. 1794.

ME

R. Jerningham has long been known to the public, as the author of a confiderable number of poetical compofitions, of which many are laboured into harmony and elegance, though none can be faid to rife into ftrength or pathos. The general character of his ftyle is what the French call recherché. It was therefore previously to be fuppofed, he would not greatly fucceed in the dramatic line, and we fear the judgment of the public on the prefent piece, has not contradicled the preconceived idea. The piece is founded upon an incident during the fiege of Berwick, in the reign of Edward III. when fir Alexander Seaton, the governor, refused to furrender the town, though at the hazard of lofing his two fons, who being taken prifoners in a fally, were threatened with death unlefs the town was delivered up.

The play opens with the mention of a truce, we are not told for how long a time, which is to take place the next morning; the fons of Scaton eagerly beg to employ the remaining hours. in a fally; to which enterprize they have been inftigated by a vifion, which appeared feparately to each of them during the night. The father gives an unwilling confent, and endeavours to conceal the affair from his wife Ethelberta. In the fecond act he learns their party is defeated with great flaughter, and themfelves taken prifoners. While he is imparting this news to Ethelberta, and endeavouring to confole her, a herald

arrives