trine of the Trinity; and that in nearly the fame declamatory ftrain of which we have already given feveral fpecimens, tho' with a diverfity of thoughts: towards the latter end of this little piece, however, we have fomewhat more valuable than decla nation, viz. a collection of well-chosen texts from the New Testament, all tending to establish the Unitarian Faith. On the 8th of July, 1741,' fays the Journal, we took leave of our friends, and departed from Lewis, with a fet❝ting fun. We intended for St. Kilda, but at midnight a • dreadful tempest arose, and tumbled us to the weft for a couC ple of days. Then changing to the north, we were forced towards the fouth pole, in a still increasing ftorm, and in • the distraction of wind and waves, were flung about, and cut, and bruifed in a miferable way. The fea ran mountains high, and broke upon the fhip with fo much rage, that we thought every moment old Ocean was coming down the hatch-way, and would lodge us in an inftant at the bottom of the frightful deep. Never were poor.mortals in a more deplorable ftate.-The continued deep-heels of the • veffel, the fhocking rumbles from fide to fide, the roars of thunder, and the lightning's flafh, no words can picture to the mind: and a thin plank the only fence. Intonuere poli. Inhorrefcit mare. We mounted up to heaven. We go down again to the depths. We reel to and fro, and our fouls are melted because of trouble. All the wifdom of the mariners was fwallowed up. Their fkill and navigation 'were of no fervice. It was buried, as it were, with themfelves in the rolling deep.-They let the veffel drive. They gave her up to the mercy of the winds and waves. In this condition we paffed the tumbling bay of Biscay, went by the mouth of the ftrcights of Gibraltar, and ran at the rate of nine knots an hour, till we got to the fouthward of the tro* pic of Cancer. A knot, reader, is a mile, and of confequence we drove 216 miles a day. This continued for fix days, and then it was a flat calm,' The fhip was now in a fad condition; the liquors deftroyed, provifions gone, and every perfon on board maimed, bruifed, or, in fome respect, hurt. In this plight, our Journalist, with her companions, put into St. Nicholas, one of the Cape Verd iflands, belonging to the Portuguese. Of this ifland, its products, inhabitants, religion, &c. we have now a description; with a moft curious account of the Princefs Zulima, niece to Abdalla, governor of St. Nicholas. This This extraordinary expedition, we think, from the calculations we have made, abfolutely impoffit le. excellent excellent Tombutian lady had been turned from the religion of her own country, (heathenifm) to popery; but on a more thorough acquaintance with the latter, the became greatly difgufted, and had conceived a violent prejudice against Christianity in general: our Journalist, however, becoming acquainted with Zulima, gives her a jufter idea of the Chriftian faith; and in a very animated and ftriking converfation, maintained on both fides with uncommon fpirit, Mrs. Benlow fhews how the religion of the son of God was corrupted by popish innovations; not forgetting to work the inventors of the unfearchable mystery, very handfamely; then relates the rife and progrefs of the reformation; and invites the princefs to accompany her to England, and become a member of the proteftant communion. This amiable princefs accepts the invitation, with the consent of her uncle; and is now,' fays Mrs. Benlow, one of my family. She is a pious upright Chriftian, and tho' as black as the collyed night, is as ingenious, fentible, and agreeable a woman as can be found among the daughters of England.'-The fine conversation between Mrs. Benlow and Abdalla, the royal moor, concerning revelation, and natural religion, fhews the author to great advantage. He is, indeed, a various and an aftonishing man: His invention, fancy, good fenfe, and wild, excentric flights, are not eafily to be paralleled. . On their return homewards, our party agreed to amuse away the time by the old expedient of ftory-telling. The lot fell upon Mifs Weft to begin. As every one was to recite the ftrangeft affair that ever befel them in life, this lady gives the hiftory of an adventure that happened to herself. It is a fine piece of imagination, as we fuppofe; and will afford high entertainment to thofe who can relish any thing fo romantic. In it we have a specimen of our author's poetical talents. A man of fo much fire and fancy cannot be supposed to be a very bad poet: the following lines will fhew how much this gentleman has been favoured by the paftoral muse. Sheperdefs, enough you've ftrove; To his fame you muit turrender : It is graceful to be tender. But to return to our voyage. Ten leagues to the N. W. of St. Kilda, fays Mrs. Benlow's journal, lies a fine little country called the Green Island. Here our returning voyagers landed; here they met with a most delightful adventure; and here comes in the hiftory of the beautiful, the graceful, the enchanting Mrs. HARCOURT.-Here too we have done with the Journal. This lady was mistress of the Italian, Spanish, French, Por-. tuguese, High Dutch, Sclavonian, and Latin languages. In religion fhe fhined with great luftre. She was a warm and • fine pleader for the authority of Chriftianity, and the did revelation great honor by a conversation worthy of it. Her • Chriflianity was without any regard to human authority. True reafon the thought muft claim kindred and common parentage with pure and undefiled revelation. The rule of rectitude and Christianity, fhe imagined at perfect unity, and brought her religious things to the teft of common fenfe and fcripture. She abhorred bigotry, and an impofing fpirit. She was the conftant friend of truth and liberty. The theology of Athanafius the confidered as the most deftructive of all pious inventions. She detefted the ecclefiaftical power that maintained it, and was indefatigable and expenfive in promoting the spread of that heavenly religion which is according to the mind of the Lord Jefus. The piety of Mrs. Harcourt was likewife very glorious. The fcriptures were her conftant study, and her whole life a manifestation of a heavenly temper. She was the most regular of mortals in her devotions, public and privat. • With her best abilitys fhe worshipped, and never miffed the ftated hours in her chapel and clofet. Nor was it from the leaft degree of fuperftition that all this proceeded. She had ⚫ too much fenfe to imagine the deity can be perfuaded to re⚫cede from the fettled laws of the univerfe, and the immutability of his nature: but she knew the perfections of God are a ground and reafon of prayer, and that it is both an act and a means of virtue.' We know not what to make of Mrs. Harcourt's nunnery; but the following is our author's account of it. When this lady was travelling with her father over Europe, the became acquainted with fome noble nuns in feveral monafteries, and was fo pleased with the goodness of their lives, that the determined to found a reclufe fociety of proteftants, as foon as it was in her power; and immediately after her father's death, proposed the scheme of her Inftituto to fome ladies of her acquaintance, of several na• tions. As they were all her admirers, and faw the defign the most rational and agreeable thing in the world, they came into it at once. A beautiful cloyster was built on her • estate in Richmondshire, and a charming fummer vill in the *We are told fhe was the daughter of a Yorkshire gentleman, and born in the north-riding of that county. Green - Green Iland, which was her father's property. In these fine folitudes, thofe agreeable women, of diftinction and large fortunes, paffed their lives, in the happieft manner., They renounced cuftom and falfe notions-the noife and • fplendor of the world; and in the flowery retreat, preferved the fupremacy of confcience, and enjoyed the nobleft, rational delights. They confecrated their lives to religion, and devoted their beft fervices to the moft glorious of immortal beings. Happy fociety! I believe there is nothing like it upon earth. Reafon and revelation, good fenfe and good breeding, good humour and plentiful fortunes, are there united, to complete the felicity of mortals. Their religion is the pure worship of the UNIVERSAL FATHER, without the leaft tincture of Athanafian corruption.-And as they have no morofe fuperior, with a defpotic authority, to cross and perplex them, but exercife that office the year about in their turns, fince the death of Mrs. Harcourt, are under no vow of celibacy, to fupprefs a legal inclination; nor obliged to continue members any longer than they please, but may quit the fociety at any time, upon forfeiting only one hundred pounds, entrance-money paid down on coming in." -Our author adds many other particulars concerning, and culogies upon, this female fociety; the conftitution of which he warmly recommends to imitation. These ladies convinced me,' fays he, that if women of genius apply, they can out-do the men of genius in arts and letters. Were I to give you a 'hiftory of some manufcripts written by these ladies, which I have read, you would be very greatly surprised: but the fociety will not fuffer any thing belonging to them to appear.' In concluding his account of the Green Ifland, our author introduces an account of Mr. Hanmer, man of great learning, and fine tafte for the ingenious arts. He has united them and the liberal exercises, with a divine philofophy, and made them fubfervient to virtue and a happy life. He has fchemed out for himself a fyftem of felicity that is vastly fine, and is, I believe, as happy a man as can be found in the world. He has all the bleffings of time in his poffeffion, and while he enjoys them, maintains a temper that expreffes itself illuftrioufly in relation to the honor of God, and the good of mankind. a This gentleman was not of the chriftian fide for many years. The Chriftianity he faw in the realms of popery, and the fad reprefentations of our holy religion given by the unhappy Athanafian priests, prejudiced him so much * We are entirely of the author's opinion. • against ⚫ against all revelation, that he concluded it to be entirely the work of theological heads, and on account of too many deplorable prieftly inventions, rejected the fcriptures, as a thing that could not have the ftamp of divine authority, if they produced the dreadful doctrines which priests of all denominations drew from thence.-This made him renounce the religion he had been baptifed into. I found him a thorow infidel, when, by accident, I faw him at Moffat wells <laft summer, as I came from Edinburgh to Carlife. At this town happened a remarkable converfation be tween our author and Mr. Hanmer, which we here find recited at large. It contains a moft curious debate between the ingenious deift and the Chriftian: in which both fides seem to have perfect fair play, and neither encounters a man of straw, fet up on purpose to be knocked down, at all events; as is too often the practice with writers who follow the Socratic method of argumentation.-And the refult of the difpute, which takes up fmewhat more than forty-two pages, is the entire conversion of the infidel. This part of our author's work is an ingenious and fpirited defence and illustration of the principles of Chriftianity-according to his idea of it. The converfation with the candid infidel ends at page 403 of this volume, and concludes our author's firft letter to his friend Mr Jewks. A po tfcript of a hundred and two pages, and a poftilla of twenty-two, are annexed. In the former we have a further defcription of the Green Island, and an account of a neighbouring rock called Scalpa: as to the Green Island, it affords a number of curiofities, and monuments of antiquity, the account of which our author threw into this postfcript, that they might not intrude too much on the narrative in the preceding part of the work. The defcription of this charming, wondrous ifland, like the reft of this gentleman's drawings, is artfully and highly finished;-and the feveral particulars may all be very true, for ought we know to the contrary but if they are true, we must say, we think our author has been fingularly happy in thofe accidents that brought him acquainted with fo many furprising curiofities of art and nature; the recital of which feems to give him the most exquifite delight. In this poftfcript fome curious notes are introduced, for which the author will not fail to be complimented with the title of infidel, or free-thinker at leaft: indeed he is certainly a very free-thinker. Speaking |