What a fwell of language concludes Dr. Worthington's paraphrafe on the Lord's prayer! All power is derived from thee, as the Source of all existence, and all the glory must return into thy hands at that grand revolution of things-that awful crisis, when a period fhall be put to time itself with all its eventswhen the earth fhall be diffolved, the elements melt with fervent heat, and all vifible nature be deftroyed-when the number of thine elect is finally accomplished and lodged in the heavenly granary when all the bleffed purposes of providence and of grace have received their completion-then fhall the Son alfo himself deliver up the mediatorial kingdom into thine hands, that God the Triune God, may be all in all-then fhall it be the unceafing and never-ending employment of angels, arch-angels, cherubim and feraphim, spirits who kept their first eftate, and all the company of the redeemed, clothed in white raiment, and having palms of eternal victory in their hands-then they will all unite in one univerfal chorus-evermore praifing thee.' But our Author doth not always foar on flaming pinions

beyond the visible diurnal sphere :" he frequently finks into a very mournful whine of confeffion: and in one of those lamentable humours, he thanks the divine and adorable Majefty of the incarnate Word, that when no eye pitied us, yet that the bowels of his compaffion yearned in our behalf-commiferated our cafe, and came down to our help.'

The Puritan divines of the laft age were fond of introducing myftical allufions and metaphors, from the Old Teftament, into their prayers: the greateft part of which being of a local nature, must have been perfectly unintelligible to the common people. Nevertheless, from their found, more than the fenfe they conveyed to the understanding, the people grew very fond of thofe obfcure phrafes: and a prayer, formed on the fimple model delivered to us by our Lord, was deemed to be infipid and spiritless.-A popular divine never failed to raise a figh, or excite a groan, when he introduced the following text into the train of his confeffions, "May our mourning be like the mourning of Hadradrimmon in the valley of Megiddon !”— No matter who Hadradrimmon was, or where the valley of Megiddon was fituated, or what the mourning was about: there was fomething doleful in the found: and that was enough.

The lively paffions were equally with the forrowful ones under the controul of a magical text, artfully introduced at the proper moment. The following, from the Canticles, hath performed wonders in that way; Or ever I was aware, my foul

made me like the chariots of Aminadab." Dr. Worthington talks in his prayer of nezer, and fpeaks highly of the efficacy and of the physician there.'

K 3

of

fetting up his Ebethe balm of Gilead,

Suck

Such expreffions are, in our opinion, wholly improper for focial worship. They convey no meaning, or a wrong one, to weak minds. The language of prayer ought to be as clear and fimple as poffible-divefted of all myftical allufions-all metaphors and figures of fpeech-all pompous, complimentary phrafes as well as grofs and vulgar epithets, or trite and familiar terms. Social worship fhould be confined as much as poffible to general principles of religion, and the common duties of moral and Chriftian practice. Controverfy fhould be kept aloof from this facrifice of mutual love to our common parent: and the preacher who introduceth his own fpeculations into his public prayers, must be very ignorant, or very prefuming, or, what is worse, a dupe, for intereft's fake, to the prejudices of others, who will have a prayer as well as a fermon, Calvinifm all over!

Dr. Worthington may think himself flighted, if we do not produce fpecimens of his meditating as well as his praying gifts and graces. In his Good-Friday meditation, he ponders in this wife with himfelf on the paflion of our Lord. In the Gethfe

mane he must likewife experience the out-pourings of his father's wrath in our place and ftead. Here it was that his righteous foul became exceeding forrowful, even unto death. Here it was that the fpotlefs victim began to feel the dreadful weight of imputed guilt and the terrors of avenging juftice-when his inward agony forced his blood from his veins through his threefold vefture--when himself lay proftrate on the earth with his garments literally rolled in blood-when, as the furety of the covenant and a fubfiitute for his people, he actually bore the fins and carried the forrows of the whole world; and with the names of every true Ifraelite on his heart, our great High-prieft, Jefus, the Son and Lamb of God, fuftained that punishment for fin which must otherwise have been levied on finners to all eternity."

So much for our Meditant at the bottom of the mount: let us, before we take our final leave of him, attend him to the top, when he fwells into rapture, and dances in allegory. • And now the great High-prieft, Jefus Chrift, the Son of God, and God the Son, is for paffing into the heavens, to be glorified himself with that glory which he had with the Father before the world began. When Elijah was taken up into heaven by the miniftry of Seraphs, fublimely ftiled a chariot and horfes of fire, the afcending prophet dropped his mantle on the plaintive Elisha below, with which Elifha fmote the waters of Jordan, fo that they parted hither and thither and Elifha went over-fo the afcending Saviour entailed his bleffing, and, as it were, bequeathed his mantle to the children he left behind, wherewith they are able to fmite the waters of affliction and temptation, nay of death itself, which shall cleave in twain like a fcroll that is rolled back, and leave a way for the ranfomed of the Lord to pass over,'

We

We had nearly forgotten to inform our Readers, that Dr. Worthington's Exercifes of devotion are laid at the feet' of Dr. Horne, Vice-Chancellor of the Univerfity of Oxford, whose patronage is implored' in the moft humble ftrain and whofe labours are complimented in the most exalted ftile of panegyric. Such exercises indeed may fuit the orthodoxy of Dr. Horne; but his ingenuity required a better facrifice.

AT. XI. The Georgics of Virgil, tranflated into English Blank Verfe. By William Mills. 4to. 6s. Boards. Robfon, &c. 1780.

THE

HE principles of poetic tranflation being fo well known. and understood, we the more wonder that a Writer who, appears to poffefs fome portion of tafte as well as dearning, hould fo far miftake his own powers as to attempt a translation of a poem that has ever been confidered as the mafter-piece of one of the first poets that any age or nation has produced; a poem which exhibits the happieft combination of judgment and enthusiasm. The tranflation, as far as we have compared it with the original, is fufficiently faithful and clofe; but closenefs and fidelity are but parts of a tranflator's province. Unlefs fome portion of the original fpirit be transfufed into the copy, it muft of neceffity be vapid and uninteresting. How far Mr. Mills's tranflation falls under this predicament, will appear by comparing any part of it with the correfponding paffage in the original.

Me may the Muses I to all prefer,

Whofe facred priest I am, fmit with the love
Of poefy divine, receive, and teach

The ways of heav'n and number of the flars;
The différent eclipfes of the fun,

And all the labours of the changing moon;
What is the caufe of earthquakes, by what force
Swell the deep waters of the ocean's tide

Burfting their bounds, and then fubfide again :
With fo much hafte why winter funs decline,
Or what retards th' approach of fummer nights.
But if about my heart the languid blood
Too flowly flow, forbidding me to reach
Nature's fublimer parts, may rural scenes
And purling brooks in fertile vallies please,
Streams may
I love and woods inglorious.
Where are the fields? Oh where is Sperchius,
And mount Taygeta, where Spartan virgins
Perform'd their frantic Bacchanalian rites ?
Who will convey me to the pleasing vales
Of Hemus cool, and with the mighty fhade
Of spreading branches cover me from heat?

How unanimated and profaic! how little is the resemblance between this and the genuine raptures of the Mantuan bard!

Me vero primum dulces ante omnia Muse,
Quarum facra fero ingenti perculfus amore,
Accipiant; cœlique vias et fidera monftrent,
Defectus folis varios lunæque labores:

Unde tremor terris: quâ vi maria alta tumefcant
Obicibus ruptis, rurfufque in feipfa refidant:
Quid tantum oceano properent fe tingere foles
Hyberni: vel quæ tardis mora no&tibus obftet;
Sin, has ne poffim naturæ accedere partes,
Frigidus obftiterit circum præcordia fanguis;
Rura mihi, et rigui placeant in vallibus amnes,
Flumina amem fylvafque inglorius. O ubi campi,
Sperchiufque, et virginibus Bacchata Lacenis
Taygeta! O qui me gelidis in vallibus Hæmi
Siftat, et ingenti ramorum protegat umbra!

FOREIGN LITERATURE.
(By our CORRESPONDENTS.)
FRANCE.
ART. I.

RECHERCHES fur les Caufes des Affections Hypocondriaques, appellées communément Vapeurs, &c. i. e. Inquiries concerning the Caufes of thofe Hypocondriacal Complaints, generally known by the Name of Vapours; or, Letters of a Physician concerning these Complaints-To which is added, A Journal of the State of the Body, relative to the Perfection of Perspiration and the Temperature of the Air. By CLAUDE REVILLON, M. D. Member of the Academy of Sciences of Dijon. 8vo. Paris. 1779.-There are two circumstances adapted to prepoffefs a judicious Reader in favour of this work, even before he is entirely acquainted with its contents. The firft is, that the Author adopts, with refpect to the diforder in queftion, the maxim of Montanus, Avoid phyficians and medicines, and you will be cured; and the fecond is, that M. REVILLON, himself, was, during fifteen years, feverely vifited with a nervous diforder, of which he difcovered both the principle and the cure. We muft, however, obferve, that our Author is not fo injudicious as to carry the maxim of Montanus too far. He recommends certain remedies to ftrengthen the ftomach; but a proper diet and regimen are the great objects on which he places his chief dependence for the recovery of his patients.-He confiders the fuppreffion or diminution of infenfible perfpiration, as the immediate and efficient caufe of hypocondriacal and hyfterical diforders, whatever circumstances, of a more remote kind and influence, may have contributed to bring them on: he fhews, by a number of curious experiments, made on himself and others, that, in order to keep the body in a right ftate, the matter exhaled by infenfible. perfpiration

perfpiration must be more than equal to all the other fenfible evacuations by ftool, fweat, &c. More efpecially he obferves, that the matter of this kind of perfpiration, when fuppreffed and retained within the body, is carried to different parts, where it occafions obftructions, and affecting chiefly the organs of digeftion, produces flatulencies, cholics, head-achs, diarrhoeas, or conftipation, while the grofs, viscous and acrimonious juices, that arife from vitiated digeftions, re-act upon the caufe that produced them, contracting and clofing the pores through which infenfible perfpiration must be performed.

Having determined the cause, our Author proceeds to the method of cure, which has fucceeded on himself, and which deferves attention. For this method, and the curious journal of the state of his body, which the Author kept during ten weeks, we must refer the Reader to the work itself, in which he will meet with fome fanciful things, but on the whole, will find, if we are not mistaken, judicious directions, and useful inftruction.

II. Table Analytique et Raifonnée des Matieres contenues dans les XXXIII Volumes en Folio du Dictionnaire des Sciences, des Arts, et des Metiers, & dans fon Supplement.-i. e. An Analytical and Philofophical Table of the Matters contained in the XXXIII Folio Volumes and the Supplement of the Dictionary of Sciences, Arts, and Trades, &c. Volume I. Folio, 944 Pages. Paris. 1779. Much has been faid for and against the famous Encyclopedie of Paris. The undertaking was certainly great and arduous, and its Authors would have had an undoubted right to the encouragement and applaufe of the Public, had they not ufurped a kind of defpotifm in the republic of letters, introduced a spirit of cabal and faction into the temple of Science, and attempted alternately to affail and undermine thofe truths that are the great fupport of fociety and morals, and which even the authority of human government fhould render refpectable, to those who are fo unhappy as to look no higher. With all its faults, however, the Encyclopedie is a valuable work; it contains a great treasure of knowledge; but it often embarraffes instead of enlightening uninftructed readers. Such frequently stand in need of a guide to connect the fcattered branches, that belong to one general article, to conduct them without perplexity from one place to another, where the points of communication are wanting, and above all, to enable them to keep clear of the contradictions which are to be found in feveral articles of that great work, that relate to one and the fame fubject. It is propofed to remedy these inconveniencies in the work before us, which may be confidered as an excellent philofophical abridgment of the Encyclopedie; the contents of that celebrated dictionary being reduced to an uniform and confiftent fyftem of universal science.