There is much humour and spirit in feveral parts of it. The account of the language of Arcadia partakes a good deal of the language of Swift: There are two rules, which, above all, are very effential; the firft is, to exprefs nothing plainly, but always with exaggeration, figure, metaphor, or allegory. In purfuance of this rule, we must take great care to guard ourselves againit faying, I love. This fignifies nothing; we muft fay, I am the victim of love; a fecret flame confumes me; I languish night and day; a fwect anguish preys upon me; and many other like expreflions. A lady is handfome, that is to fay, fhe effaces all that nature has formed mot beautiful; he is the mafter-piece of the gods; it is not poflible to fee her without loving her; fhe is the goddefs of beauty; the mother of the graces; the charms all hearts; fhe is Venus, acknowledged by Love himself. The fecond rule confifts in never uttering a word without one or more epithets. For inftance, it would be ridiculous to fay, love, indifference, regret; we muft fay, tender and paffionate love; cold and cruel indifference; mortal and piercing regret; ardent fighs; profound and bitter grief; enchanting beauty; fweet bope; proud difdain; contemptuous fcorn; and the more of thefe epithets there are in a phrafe, the more beautiful and the truer Arcadian it is. As to the words which compofe the language, they are in very small number, and it is this which facilitates the learning of Arcadian. The following are nearly all. Love, hatred, tranfports, defires, fighs, alarms, hopes, delights; pride, beauty, cruelty, ingratitude, perfidy, jealoufy; I die, I languifh; felicity, despair; the heart, the fentiments; charms, attractions, enchantment, rapture; complaints, forrows, anguifh; life and death; happinefs, miffortune, deftiny, fate, barbarity; care, tenderneís, tears, vows, oaths; bloom and verdure; rivulets and meads; reverics, images and dreams; morn and eve. Thefe are nearly all the words of the Arcadian language; there is nothing more to do, as I have observed before, than to add to them various epithets, as fuft, tender, charming, admirable, delightful, horrible, furious, dreadful, mortal, fufceptible, mournful, profound, lively, ardent, fincere, perfidious, happy, tranquil, calm; the following phrafes, efpecially, are moft convenient. What I cannot exprefs; what is not to be defcribed; which it is impoffible to conceive; which furpafles all exprefiion; above all utterance, and beyond all imagination. This little collection affords matter for whole volumes in folio, written in the Arcadian tongue. There yet remains one obfervation to make, which is, that we must take care that we join to our words none but fuitable epithets; for inftance, were we to fay, a dear and delightful diftrefs; this would be a ridiculous and ill-matched expreffion.' The readers of the old romances will recognife their acquaintances in in other parts of this work, which, however, rather falls off in point, towards the clofe. No account is given of the original author. RELIGIOUS. Thirteen Letters on various religious Subjects, recommended to the ferious Attention of devout Members of the Church of England. The Profits of thefe Letters to be appropriated to the clothing fome poor Children of Eaft Dereham. 8vo. 25. Webster. 1793. Thefe Letters, chiefly written by various authors, are collected by the editor, from the pious motive of procuring to the important fubjects of religion, a more favourable reception with the public. The fuperior excellence of the Chriftian religion, in general, the duty of complying with its divine precepts, the nature of the feveral facraments, with the obligations to a religious life, and the everIfting rewards attending it, are all described in ftrong colours, and warmly recommended to the most serious confideration of mankind. While we highly applaud the defign of these various Letters, in their separate state, we cannot but approve of the falutary view with which they are colle&ted into this production. A Sermon preached at Chrift-Church, Newgate-freel, before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, the Aldermen, Sheriffs, and Governors of the Royal Hofpitals of the City of London, on St. Matthew's Day, Saturday, the 21ft of September, 1793. By the Rev. George Richards, M. A. 4to. IS. 1793. The contents of this difcourfe are well enough fuited to the occafion, but their publication we think an unneceflàry measure. The author dwells with great propriety on the neceflity of carly religious inftruction, and deprecates the mifchiefs of free-thinking in a manner becoming a minifter of the Chriftian religion, but we do not find thefe points urged either with ability or novelty in many inftances. The Three Woe Trumpets; of which the First and Second are already paft; and the Third is now begun; under which the feven Vials of the Wrath of God are to be poured out upon the World. Being the Subftance of two Difcourfes, from Rev. xi. 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, Delivered at the Chapel in Parliament-court, Artillery-ftreet, Bifhofgate-freet, on February 3, and 24, 1793. By Elhanan Winchefter. Svo. 15. Parfons. Parfons. 1793. The public have had many opportunities of judging of the compofitions of this writer. In this, which is the fecond edition, we do not difcover any new matter that requires mention. The The Regard due to the Divine Judgments confidered; in a Sermon, preached at the Lord's Day Evening Lecture, at Hare-Court, Alderfgate-freet; Nov. 17th, 1793. By John Humphrys. 8vo. IS. Parfons. 1794. A trite compofition, in which the author represents the anarchy of France as an example of divine vengeance on the people of that country for having forfaken Christianity. MATHEMATICA L, &c. The Arithmetical and Mathematical Repofitory; being a new improve ed Syftem of practical Arithmetic, in all its Branches, defigned for the Ufe of Schools, Academies, Counting-Houfes, and alfo for the Benefit of private Perfons who have not the Affiftance of a Teacher. By John Eadon. 4 Vols. Vol. I. Svo. 6s. 6d. Robinsons. 1793. The reader cannot complain of want of variety in this volume. The fubjects generally treated of in elementary books of arithmetic, are all to be found here, and befides, a fhort account of logarithms, annuities, the purchase of freehold eftates, the ftrength of timber, the fliding rule, fome geometrical problems, menfuration of furfaces and folids, artificers work, and fpecific gravities. There is alfo a variety of problems taken from different parts of philofophy, The rules are laid down with plainnefs, and the number of examples to each may make the work ufeful in fchools and academies. The common mode is followed of giving a variety of rules, before the learner is brought to vulgar and decimal fractions: and hence it is not uncommon for boys to leave school without having arrived to thefe ufeful parts of arithmetic. We cannot but think, that if arithmetic were taught from pure numbers alone, without reference to money, weights, meafures, &c. that is, that if the four fimple rules of addition, fubtraction, multiplication, and divifion, were first taught in pure numbers, without troubling the boy to copy every example in his book, then the rule of proportion, and then vulgar and decimal fractions, the learner would have acquired such a facility in managing numbers, that the application of them to the other rules would be made with ease. Indeed our author recommends to fuch as are to go through the whole of arithmetic, and proceed from thence to menfuration, algebra, &c. to learn fractions immediately after reduction; but the lefs time the boy has for school, the more incumbent is it on his teacher to inftruct him in pure arithmetic, the application of which to varic us things in common. life, will be the lefs difficult, as he is better acquainted with numbers. We have feen with what facility numbers may be learned by practice at a fchool, where the boys were daily exercifed in them, without any paper or flate. As they ftood round in claffes, queftions were asked them, which they folved extempore, and thus a lad of common capacity may be made in a fhort time mafter of numbers. But But in general, too much time is employed in their copy-books, the rules are to be copied, the fums are to be copied, and the knowledge is, inftead of being in the learner's head, too often confined to the copy book. Directions for making an univerfal Meridian Dial, capable of being fet to any Latitude, which shall give the mean folar Time of Noon, by infection, without any Calculation whatever By Francis Wollafton, F. R. S. 4to. IS. Wilkie. 1793. Mr. Wollafton communicated this Memoir to the Royal Society, and not gaining admiffion for it in their Tranfactions, with the utmoft deference to the judgment of his colleagues, he now conceives that his fervices may in this form be made acceptable to the public, The dial is formed by making a meridian line, the axis of a curve, on whofe abfciflir, correfponding to the days of the year, ordinates are drawn, reprefenting the equation of time for each day. Thus, the image of the fun pafling over this curve, which is to be placed in a box adjusted for the latitude of the place, will fhew the exact time of noon for that day. By means of fuch an instrument it is conceived, that the clocks in country places, which now go fo egregioufly wrong, will, with the utmost eafe, be rectified: for the clock-fetter need not trouble himself about the equation of time, but fimply look at his inftrument, and get his clock right in a moment. We need not point out to aftronomers the difficulty of laying down, with accuracy, a curve of this nature, and confequently the expence of fuch an inftrument; for there are other objections, which, perhaps, have already ftruck the generality of our readers. Suppofing the inftrument complete, and fet up in a country village: for a few days Hodge will gape with pleafure after the fun's image, he will feize with rapture his watch at the appointed time, and till the wonder has ceased, make a boast of the punctuality of his clock; but foon Hodge finds he has fomething else to do, befides dancing attendance upon the fun for ten minutes or a quarter of an hour; he will leave the inftrument to itself, or, perhaps, fhew it as a curiofity to his neighbours at every feaft. Again, Mr. Wollafton is not acquainted with a fecret, which we will now, though it is death to the inftrument, communicate to him. In the greater part of the country parishes, it is found expedient, that the clock fhould be often confiderably more before the fun than is juftifiable on the principles of aftronomy. We will not pretend to juftify our countrymen for this violation of the laws of the planetary fyftem, but we apprehend Mr. Wollafton will find it very difficult to perfuade them, that it is not beneficial to agriculture. CRITICAL REVIEW. For AUGUST, 1794. The Mysteries of Udolpho, a Romance; interfperfed with fome Pieces of Poetry. By Ann Radcliffe, Author of the Roman e of the Foreft, &c. 4 Vols. 12mo. 11. Boards. Robinsons. 1794. 6 THIN HINE too thefe golden keys, immortal boy! Of horror, that and hrilling fears, Or ope the facred fource of fympathetic tears." Such were the prefents of the Mufe to the infant Shakfpeare, and though perhaps to no other mortal has the been fo lavish of her gifts, the keys referring to the third line Mrs. Radcliffe must be allowed to be completely in poffeflion of. This, all who have read the Romance of the Foreft will willingly bear witness to. Nor does the prefent production require the name of its author to afcertain that it comes from the fame hand. The fame powers of defcription are displayed, the fame predilection is difcovered for the wonderful and the gloomy-the fame myfterious terrors are continually exciting in the mind the idea of a fupernatural appearance, keeping us, as it were, upon the very edge and confines of the world of fpirits, and yet are ingenioufly explained by familiar causes; curiofity is kept upon the ftretch from page to page, and from volume to volume, and the fecret, which the reader thinks himself every inftant on the point of penetrating, flies like a phantom before him, and eludes his eagernefs till the very laft moment of protracted expectation. This art of escaping the gueffes of the reader has been improved and brought to perfection along with the reader's fagacity; juft as the various. inventions of locks, bolts, and private drawers, in order to fecure, faften, and hide, have always kept pace with the ingenuity of the pickpocket and houfebreaker, whofe profeflion it is to unlock, unfaften, and lay open what you have taken fo much pains to conceal. In this conteft of curiofity on one fide, and invention on the other, Mrs. Radcliffe has certainly the advantage. She delights in concealing her plan with the C.R. N. ARR. (XI.) Aug. 1794. Сс moit |