In the third difcourfe the author relates the ftory of the Le vite and his concubine, mentioned in the xix. chapter of Judges. It is almost impoffible for a torpid monk to read the following, apology for the Levite without a finile. The Levite wanted a companion to share his folitude, and fill up that uncomfortable blank in the heart in such a situation for notwithstanding all we meet with in books, in many of which, no doubt, there are a good many handfome things faid. upon the sweets of retirement, &c. . . . yet ftil it is not good for man to be alone: nor can all which the cold-hearted pedant ftuns our ears with upon the fubject, ever give one anfwer of fatisfaction to the mind; in the midft of the loudeft vauntings of philofophy, nature will have her yearnings for fociety and friendfhip; a good heart wants fome object to be kind to--and the beft parts of our blood, and the pureft of our fpirits, fuffer moft under the deftitution. Let the torpid monk feek heaven comfortless and aloneGod fpeed him! For my own part, I fear, I fhould never fo find the way let me be wife and religious-but let me be man: wherever thy providence places me, or whatever be the road I take to get to thee-give me some companion in my journey, be it only to remark to, how our fhadows lengthen as the fun goes down ;- to whom I may fay, how fresh is the face of nature! how sweet the flowers of the field! how delicious are these fruits! : Alas! with bitter herbs, like his paffover, did the Levite eat them for as they thus walked the path of life together, fhe wantonly turned afide into another, and fled from him.. Many a bitter conflict would the Levite have to fuftain with himself-his concubine-and the fentiments of his tribe, upon the wrong done him :-much matter for pleading; and many an embarraffing account on all fides: in a period of four whole months, every paffion would take it's empire by turns; and in the ebbs and flows of the lefs unfriendly ones, pity would find fome moments to be heard; Religion herself would not be filent; charity would have much to fay; and thus attun'd, every object on the borders of mount Ephraim, would folicit the recollection of former kindness, and awaken an advocate in her behalf, more powerful than them all.’ In this conflict, it seems, the tender paffions prevail: and a reconciliation enfues. From the manner of conducting this drama, our author illuftrates the courtesy which the dramatis perfonæ of every other piece may have a right to claim, and concludes with excellent advice against rash and indiscriminate cenfure. In the fourth difcourfe the author expofes the meannefs and malignity of an avaricious principle, by obfervations deduced from the behaviour of Felix towards St. Paul. Every generous and benevolent heart muft applaud the following fenti ments. : Even at the beft, and when the paffion feems to feek nothing more than it's own amufement,- there is little-very little, I fear, to be faid for it's humanity.It may be a sport to the mifer,- -but confider, it must be death and deftruction to others.The moment this fordid humour begins to governfarewell all honeft and natural affections! farewell all he owes to parents, to children, to friends! how faft the obligations vanish! fee!he is now ftripped of all feelings whatever the frill cry of juftice,--and the low lamentation of humble diftrefs, are notes equally beyond his compaís. -Eternal God! fee!-he paffes by one whom thou hast juft bruifed, without one penfive reflection:- -he enters the cabin of the widow whofe husband and child thou haft taken to thyfelf,——exacts his bond, without a figh! Heaven! if I am to be tempted,--let it be by glory,--by ambition, by fome generous and manly vice :-if I muft fall, let it be by fome pathon which thou hast planted in my nature, which shall not harden my heart, but leave me room at leaft to retreat and come back to thee.' · The fubject of the next difcourfe is the parable of the prodi gal fon the young's man departure, and return to his father is very pathetically defcribed. But,ye who have trod this round, tell me, fays the author, in an exquifite ftrain of irony and fatire, in what words fhall the poor inconfiderate youth give in to his father, the fad items of his extravagance and folly? -The feasts and banquets which he gave to whole cities in the eaft,-the costs of Afiatick rarities, and of Afiatick cooks to dress them--the expences of finging men and finging women,--the flute, the harp, the fackbut, and of al kinds of mufick-the drefs of the Perfian courts, how magnificent! their flaves how numerous !their chariots, their horfes, their palaces, their furniture, what immenfe fums they had devoured!what expectations from ftrangers of condition! what exactions! 'How fhall the youth make his father comprehend, that he was cheated at Damafcus by one of the best men in the world; -that he had lent a part of his substance to a friend at Nineveh, who had fled off with it to the Ganges ;-that a whore of Babylon had swallowed his beft pearl, and anointed the whole city with his balm of Gilead;-that he had been fold by a man of honour for twenty fhekels of filver, to a worker in graven E 3 ima images that the images he had purchafed had profited him nothing that they could not be tranfported across the wildernefs, and had been burnt with fire at Shufan;--that the apes and peacocks, which he had fent for from Tharfis, lay dead upon his hands; and that the mummies had not been dead long enough, which had been brought him out of Egypt: -that all had gone wrong fince the day he forfook his father's house.' Our author concludes this difcourfe with fome pertinent remarks on the cuftom of fending young gentlemen to make the tour of Europe, who frequently return the fame objects of pity with the prodigal in the Gospel. The last sermon in this volume, which was preached on the inauguration of his prefent majefty, contains a general review of our national bleflings, with a fuitable application. [To be concluded in our next. ] VII. A compendious Hebrew Lexicon, adapted to the English Language, and compofed upon a new, commodious Plan; to which is annexed, a brief Account of the Conflruction and Rationale of the He brew Tongue. By Samuel Pike. 8vo. Pr. 4. Dilly. TH HE learned Dr. Taylor, in the preface to his Concordance, remarks, that in the common lexicons "the con jugates and derivatives of Hebrew words are not to be found, but under their proper roots; and therefore before a man can readily use his lexicon, he must be well acquainted with the feveral structures and variations of the Hebrew words; that is to fay, he must be a confiderable proficient in the language. This muft needs be a great embarraffinent to a learner, and though there are rules for finding the roots, they are so tedious, and oblige one to spend fo much time in turning over the lexicon, that the investigation is very difgufting and difcouraging." To remedy this inconvenience, our author has thrown together into one paragraph all the roots which have the fame permanent radicals. By which means the learner will find the root at once, by turning to thofe radicals, which he has vifibly before him in the Hebrew bible. To prevent confufion, he has kept the several roots diftinct from each other, in the fame paragraph, by a fhort line between them, and arranged them, as often as it was convenient, in a uniform order. 1. He has placed the two permanent letters, if they by themselves make a root; 2. the root in which the fecond radical is doubled; 3. the root in which the third radical is ; 4. the root or roots in which the 1 or are inferted as the second ra-* dical ; dical; and laftly, fuch as are completed by prefixing or or N. For instance; under thefe two permanent letters 2, where there are no lefs than eight roots thrown together, they are נכל יכל כילכול,כלה,כלל ; ranged in the following order .כלא and,אכל Under the roots are placed the derivatives; and, if the words are not common, the paffage in the Bible in which they occur, is mentioned. The primitive, or radical idea is printed in italics, and fome obfervations interfperfed, to fhew how it is preferved thro' the various fignifications, or applications of the root. This method is certainly useful; but imagination often forms the connection; and the lexicographer derives one word from another, with which it has no affinity. There are likewife in the Hebrew feveral words whofe radical idea is only preferved in the Arabic *, or fome other oriental dialect; the lexicographer fhould attend to thofe dialects; Mr. Pike does not. In his performance. we find fome exceptionable derivations, which he seems to have learned in the school of Mr. Hutchinfon; but as he has undoubtedly facilitated the investigation of the Hebrew roots, he deferves the thanks of thofe who are dcfirous of learning that language. VIII. The Double Miftake; a Comedy. As it is performed at the Theatre-Royal in Covent-Garden. 8vo. Pr. is. 6d. Davies. Y the motto prefixed to this comedy, Depreffa refurgam, we unfortunate female; a circumftance which naturally inclines us to treat it with tenderness. When the ladies are put upon ways and means, we are very defirous that they fhould fucceed in raising the neceffary fupplies. In the prefent inftance, jaða, eft alea, the business is done; and our cenfures cannot prejudice the author's theatrical interefts. Many parties were formed in favour of the piece without doors, and it was confidered by fome as a bill fent over from Ireland. However that may be, it was carried through the house by a large majority, and it now lies before us for our affent. Impartiality, however, and our duty to the public, oblige us to declare, that notwithstanding the fhifting the scene, the modernizing fome circumftances, together with the change of * See 'w, Crit. Rev. vol. xix. p. 331. fome halting blank verfe into high-flown profe, and the addition of two or three characters wholly foreign to the fable of the piece, the new comedy of the Double Miftake is little elfe than an alteration of an old play called Elvira, or, The worst not always true; which stands the firft in the twelfth volume of Dodfley's collection. To make this clear, for the fake of those who have not leifure or opportunity to confult the book itself, we shall first set down the Dramatis Perfone of the old play, opposed to the characters which answer to them in the Double Miftake : The characters of Mr. Belmont and Lady Bridget are mere excrefcences, ferving only to protract ufelefs dialogue; and Lady Mary is injudicioufly fubfiituted to supply the place of Francifca, Donna Blanca's woman. The ftory of Elvira is as follows: The play opens at an inn in Valencia, and the following extract is part of a scene that paffes there between Don Fernando, newly arrived, and his friend Don Julio, whom he had fent for to the inn. Don Fer. Ah, Julio, how fond a creature is the man, As two whofe hearts in wedlock-bands were join'd, Belonging |