Such are the outlines of this incomparable Sketch, which,. becaufe fimple, becomes practicable, efpecially in fuch a confined territory as Corfica. The generous concern expreffed by the author for the common rights of mankind cannot be fufficiently commended; and the ease and perfpicuity which runs through the whole of this little pamphlet render it a valuable present to the public. XI. The Peerage of Scotland: A Genealogical and Hiftorical Account of all the Peers of that Ancient Kingdom; their Defcents, Collateral Branches, Births, Marriages, and Iffue. Together swith a Like Account of all the Attainted Peers; and a Complete Alphabetical Lift of thofe Nobles of Scotland, whofe Titles are Extinct. Collected from Parliament Rolls, Records, Family Documents, and the Perfonal Information of many Noble Peers. Also the Paternal Coats of Arms, Crefts, Supporters, and Mottoes, moft elegantly engraved. 8vo. Pr. 6s. Cadell. THIS HIS publication may be confidered as a fupplement to Collins's English peerage. It affords little or no room for criticism, fince it is merely a compilation from former peerages, with additions carried down to the present time, collected from oral or other informations. Upon inspection, we find very little to repréhend; and the plates of the arms are well executed, a few orthographical mistakes excepted. We have already reviewed a work of the fame kind, from whence this performance feems principally to have been extracted. In general, the ftate of the peerage of Scotland, especially of the old families, is better afcertained than that of England. Robert Bruce, the greatest of the Scotch kings, had received a private education from his father, and was, for thofe times, an excellent claffical scholar, and even a poet. James I. of Scotland, while a prifoner in England, was a pupil to Chaucer, lived at Croydon in the neighbourhood of London; was the friend and companion of Henry V. of England, (who had himself an univerfity education) and was an adept in all the polite literature of that age. The art of writing under thofe two princes was brought to great perfection in Scotland, and the fondness of their ancient families to tranfmit their genealogies, undoubtedly contributed to the prefervation of their high antiquities. After the reign of Edward I. of England, and even before that time, many ancient Scotch charters very beautiful written, are extant, which we may very reasonably afcribe to the excellent queen Margaret, an Anglo-Saxon princess, and wife to Malcolm III. who, though an illiterate prince, was an indulgent indulgént husband, and left his wife at liberty to polish and improve the manners of the Scots, which fhe did to a degree hardly credible. Some Scotch manufcripts, of her age, of fur prising beauty, we are told, are ftill extant in foreign libraries, to which they were carried to avoid the Gothic rage of the reformers. Other circumstances concur to render the peerage of Scotland lefs intricate than that of England. The principal is, that there was a much less fluctuation of landed property in the former than in the latter; and therefore the lineages of the principal landholders were better known and lefs interrupted than in the southern parts of the island, where they were dif ordered by the acquifitions made by commerce. As a further recommendation of this work, we must remind our readers, that when the present race of peers in Scotland is extinct, it cannot be fupplied by new ones, and therefore collections of this kind ought to be encouraged; not to mention that heraldry is more indebted to Scotch ftudents than those of any other nation. XII. Sermons on several Subjects. By John Ogilvie, D. D. Minifier at Midmar. 8vo. Pr. 2s. 6d. Becket and de Hondt. THE HE author of thefe difcourfes does not attempt to entertain the reader by any peculiar beauties of ftile and fentiment; nor does he endeavour to work upon his imagination by animated descriptions of virtue and vice, a refurrection and a future judgment, heaven and hell, or any of those awful and momentous topics which religion affords. His intention is to explain and enforce, upon chriftian principles, fome moral truths of univerfal importance; and it is his opinion, that the fame fimplicity ought to characterize the fermons of the Chriftian preacher, which is required to distinguish his manners.' This volume contains fix difcourfes. In the first the author has made feveral just and pertinent obfervations on the cause and confequences of prejudices against religion. In the second he endeavours to point out the internal evidence of Christianity. For this purpose, he takes a fhort view of man as he ftands at prefent; he fhews the weakness and frailties of human nature; and confiders the Christian scheme, as it is peculiarly adapted to fupply his greatest and most con-fpicuous defects. The nature, importance, and advantage of Chriftian circumfpection is the fubject of the third difcourfe. The duty of charity is explained and recommended in the fourth. The VOL. XXIII. April, 1767. U fifth fifth represents the vanity of human enjoyments; and in the fixth the author fhews the neceffity and advantages of practice as the teft of faith. As a specimen of his ftile and manner, we fhall give an extract from the first difcourfe. Having obferved, that men, to whom the character of being afhamed of religion is properly applied, either fall into this conduc from a foolish defire of fingularity, or by not separating the arguments from the character of the perfon they propose as a model of imitation, or Jaftly, by prefuming that they are not intentionally wrong, he makes the following remarks on each of these arguments. 1. As to the firft, fays he, we may obferve, that persons who are afhamed of religion from no other motive than a mean affectation of fingularity, are generally convinced themselves that their practice is not agreeable to the dictates of reason; and therefore they endeavour carefully to conceal the real inducement upon which they act from the cognizance of mankind, as being inwardly conscious of its invalidity. To defire these perfons to reflect, that neither truth nor falfhood depends upon the flu&uating opinions of individuals or focieties; to inform them, that it is therefore as ridiculous to act as if they difbelieved any doârine of revelation merely because it had obtained univerfal credit, as it would be to deny that there have been, Tuch perfons as Alexander and Cæfar, because the fact is not commonly called in queftion; this method of reafoning would be wholly fuperfluous, because of this truth they are already afcertained. I would, therefore, only afk fuch men to advert, whether, by indulging this habit, they are not dashing upon that rock which they moft fedulously study to avoid? Let them reflect, whether, while they declaim against Paffion, they are not themselves fubmitting to her government, by proceeding in a courfe which they pretend not to juftify. Let them think, while they brand enthusiasm with ignominious epithets, whe ther they theinfelves are not the groffeft enthufiafts, if that title may be appropriated to perfons who are actuated by an impulfe which they know to be wrong, but do not endeavour to refift. If they would hear with indignation the name of furious zealot applied to their own characters, let them confider what defignation can be more jufily appropriated to perfons who have inlifted in the fervice of pallion, and are every moment facrificing conviction to caprice. We need only to change a few circumftances, and all the epithets of reproach which the Freethinker liberally beflows on the Religionist, may, with equal reafon, be retorted on himfelf. The only difference betwixt the extreme on either fide is, that the latter fuffers himself to be led too far by adhering to maxims which are originally founded on reafon, while the former inflexibly purfues a course of which he is fenfible, in many cafes, that reafon difapproves. The man of principle, therefore, even fuppofing his conduct to be in fome measure culpable, is as much preferable, upon the whole, to him who is afhamed of religion from the affectation of fingularity, as a man who errs with a good intention is to him who commits the fame fault in defiance of conviction. 2. The fecond plea by which men attempt to vindicate their being ashamed of religion, will be found, upon exami-. nation, as unequal as the firft. It proceeds, as I already obferved, from confidering the character of the perfon whom they propose to imitate, and being kept by this circumftance from weighing his arguments. This plea is exhibited with a good deal of oftentation by fome advocates of infidelity, who seem to exult in the number of great names which can be produced on their fide of the queftion. The defenders of Christianity generally reply, by making out a list of the oppofite party; and the impartial are left to decide on either part, as they are differently prompted by taste and difpofition. Without repeating what hath been advanced on either fide, I fhall only inquire at prefent, how far the Freethinker, fimply confidered as fuch in any fenfe of the word, may be faid to difcover an enlarged understanding. That persons of unquestioned penetration and difcernment have, on fome occafions, maintained loofe and and dangerous opinions in the matters of religion, is a truth which experience will not permit us to question. But let it be remembered, that the point in dispute is not, whether a man of understanding ever was an infidel; but how far it is confiftent with this character to propagate doctrines which are prejudicial to fociety? I fay, Chriftians, prejudicial to fociety; because the man who is afhamed of Chrift, and who endeavours to infufe his fentiments into others, acts fuch a part as is unworthy any member of that body, which is in a great measure supported by the pofitive inftitutions of Christianity. Setting afide every other benefit, is not the appointment of one day in seven an excellent mean to preserve a proper union, and free circulation of fentiments, among the different members of any one community? and are not the perfons who at this time difpenfe the ordinances of religion to be regarded, it not as the fervants of God, yet at least as necessary friends of the interefts of fociety? Confidered, therefore, merely in a political light, is not every attempt to fubvert this inftitution, or to turn the difpenfers of thefe ordinances into ridicule; is it not, in fact, a blow levelled at the foundation of government? and is it not ultimately fubverfive of one rule by which fociety is cc mented? Is it then the work of reafon, or fhall we regard it as the mark of fuperior understanding, to propofe the means of effectuating such an end? At this rate, reafon would be to every man the greateft poffible difadvantage, as an high degree of it would only qualify him to become univerfally pernicious to mankind. • Whether, therefore, the perfons who are afhamed of religion are or are not poffeffed of intellectual qualifications in other refpects, yet we may fafely conclude, that, in this particular inftance, they exhibit no proof of them. At the fame time that we admire the fubtlety and acutenefs of their arguments, we queftion their integrity, and impeach their prudence. Confidering Christianity, therefore, merely as an human inftitution, we can regard an infidel of any denomination in no other light than as the markfman who whets his arrows with fkill, but dips them in poifon. Upon the whole, the man who confiders his being afhamed of religion as the mark of an enlarged underftanding, merely because it is an imitation of that person whom he regards as a model, ought, for the fame reafon, if he admires the Iliad or Cyropædia, to be an heathen, because this was the religion of Homer and Xenophon. The laft, and indeed the only fpecious plea to which men who want to fupport themselves in this practice have re course, is the pretended innocence of their intention. After having impartially confidered the arguments in favour of an open adherence to certain principles, and having examined the inducements by which they are led to act as if they disbelieved them, they cannot find that their practice is unfupported by argument; and therefore their error, if they have been mifled, is owing to ignorance, and not to intention. The fallacy of this plea lies in the ambiguous meaning which is affigned to the word impartial. It was obferved, in the beginning of this difcourfe, that we can never expect to obtain perfect impartiality in the course of any inquiry which relates to happiness. In fact, it is obvious, that we must, in every process of this nature, be interefted either in favour of one party or another. We cannot read a detail of torical tranfactions without being prepoffeffed in favour of fome particular character, though our reason may inform us, at the same time, that it is far from being intrinsically valuable. In peru fing, for inftance, the hiftory of thofe revolutions by which the Roman republic was overturned, is not the man who is captivated with the fhining qualities of Cæfar, and who becomes interested on his fide, convinced that he was at the bot tom a murderer and a tyrant, who meant to facrifice the liberty of his country to the purposes of ambition? Yet the fpeci |