This Author expreffes a juft and manly refentment against thofe fhocking abufes of the pulpit, which pafs with the herd of illiterate and enthufiaftic hearers for found and favoury doctrine but which, in fact, are a burlefque on religion, and a moft fhameful infult on the common sense of mankind. Those empty indecent rhapsodies,' fays Mr Martin, always betray, but no where fo much as in the pulpit, a want of good manners, as well as common fenfe. It is not only fhameful, but fhocking to obferve, how the pulpit is fometimes prostituted by thofe pitiful puns, and fenfelets quibbles, thofe idle and indelicate ftories, which fome delight to retail in that folemn fituation, as if it were a mighty achievement to felect, and throw out fuch oddities as feem beft calculated to divert the foolish, and difguft the wifer part of mankind!'

We heartily with thefe reflections may have their proper influence on the fwarm of fanatical preachers which infeft the capital, and extend their baneful influence to the country. But we are afraid, that the moft candid remonftrances, and the moft poignant invectives, will fail of producing any falutary effect, where intereft joins iffue with ignorance, and convinceth the man of noife and nonfenfe, that by this craft he gets his bread.'

ART. VI. An Addrefs to the Public on an improved Plan of Education in public Schools. 8vo. I S. Evans. 1779•

THE

HE object of this Addrefs is of confiderable importance, and merits the attention of all who are entrusted with the education of youth. The Author (who, we find from an advertisement prefixed to this Address, is the Mafter of Scorton fchool, in the county of York') writes like a man of experience and understanding. He propofeth no vifionary and phantaftic plan, merely for the fake of departing from an established mode; but modeftly offers one, that appears, on the whole, to be well-founded, and might, if adopted by a skilful tutor, be attended with much fuccefs. He confiders the prefent method of education at public fchools, as too vague and indif criminate. Youth are treated in the fame unvaried manner, and their attention directed to the fame objects, let their future profeffions be ever fo different. This our Author deems a capital abfurdity in education; and he wishes to rectify it, by diverfifying, as far as requifite, the objects of tuition, and regulating the ftudies of the pupil by the views of his future profeffion and employments. As education is now generally conducted at public fchools, little, if any thing more is regarded, than the furnishing the pupil's mind with a certain degree of claffical knowledge:-often to the great neglect of the more refined parts of English literature, and generally, to the total negle&

of many branches of fcience, equally ornamental and beneficial to the fcholar, the gentleman, or the man of business.

Though it cannot be fuppofed (fays this Writer) that young people in general are capable of any long, intenfe, or methodical reafoning, yet as they do, and muft neceffarily reafon, judge and determine upon many occafions for themselves, it is of great importance to enable them, as early as poffible, to perform thefe operations aright. That education which aims at nothing more than ftoring the mind with knowledge, without enabling it to difcriminate and appreciate that knowledge, is certainly defective in the moft effential part. This is knowledge without judgment, which fetters and enflaves, without improving and invigorating the powers of the mind. However fpecious fuch qualifications may appear to incompetent judges, their real merit is inconfiderable. Thofe who are intended for learned profeffions, in which their fuccefs and eminence depend so much on acuteness and accuracy of reafoning, will owe no great obligations to that tutor, whofe inftructions have been applied to their memory rather than their judgment. In learning the dead languages, indeed, the attention of youth muft neceffarily be long confined to words, and the mere exercife of memory, before they can be competent judges of fentiment; but their preceptors fhould always remember, that words are of no ufe in any language, but as they are the vehicle of fentiment. If, therefore, they be accustomed too long to regard the former in preference to the latter, they will become pedants, or mere verbal critics, but never elegant or polite scholars.'

There is much truth in this remark, if there be no novelty in it. The general run of our public fchools affords perpetual evidences of a moft difgraceful neglect of the mind. But we would not infinuate any reflection on claffical knowledge. On the contrary, we efteem it abfolutely eflential to a finished education. It frequently lays the foundation of the most important acquifitions-gives an elegance to the mind, and opens on it beauties peculiar to itfelf:-and fuch as a mere English scholar will be fcarcely able to form any tolerable conception of. It will be the means of forming the pupil to the pureft and moft perfpicuous methods of compofition, and will beftow a grace and correctness on his common converfation. A man of found, claffical erudition may, by a difcerning critic, be diftinguished almost immediately from a perfon who was not originally, and who hath not been thoroughly converfant with the ancient models of all that is fublime in genius, and beautiful in expreffion: and who hath acquired all his knowledge from, and formed his tafte on tranflations, and English writers only. There will be a deficiency, which the best natural abilities, and the most extenfive English reading, will feldom, if ever, be able

to fupply. We pretend not to account for this: but we are perfuaded it is a fact; and from that perfuafion, would most earneftly recommend the study of the Greek and Roman claffics to all who are defigned for a learned profeffion, or for genteel life nor let them flatter themselves with a hope, which is chiefly fupported by indolence and vanity, that they can acquire a fufficient flock of knowledge to qualify them for their stations in life, without fubmitting to the drudgery of confulting the originals. This prefumption is the general refource of the lazy and the fuperficial, whofe understandings are of a flimsy contexture, and whofe acquifitions in fcience and literature are the unmellowed fruits of a vacant hour.

Our great predilection for the Greek and Latin claffics hath drawn from us this warm atteftation to their excellence and utility. And yet, we cannot help lamenting the wrong methods of education which prevail at most schools,-efpecially those which have been established on endowments. Boys are shackled and hampered by words. Their ideas are left by the mafter to shoot at random, and to open of their own accord. The memory is loaded, and the mind uninformed. The great objects of life are totally disregarded, and the boy is fent to college, or placed out for fome other employment in life, with a heap of words on his head, or the fables of antiquity, ill understood, floating in his imagination. This is all the mafter hath accomplished after fix, feven, and fometimes eight long years, of lecturing and flogging. Glorious acquifitions! How well prepared is the pupil to add a luftre to profeffion in life, where knowledge and found judgment are requifite! If, indeed, he is defigned for any profeffion, except the pulpit, his infufficiency will be a bar to his reaping any confiderable advantage from it. We fay, except the pulpit for this is too frequently an afylum for dunces. The parfon may be nothing more than a school-boy run to feed ; and what through ignorance and fuperftition among fome, and infidelity and indifference among others, there is now no ab. folute neceffity, that what is fown in weakness should be raised in power.'

TH

6

ART. VII. Scelta di Lettere familiari, &c. i. e. A Selection of familiar Letters, for the Ufe of Students in the Italian Tongue. By Jofeph Barretti, Secretary for foreign Correspondence, to the Royal Academy. 12mo. 2 Vols. 7s. 6d. Nourfe. 1779HE Author obferves in his preface, that the prefent felection will, perhaps, be deemed fuperior to every other in the beauty and variety of fubjects handled in the different letters, as well as in the correctnefs and elegance of language with which thefe fubjects are adorned.' He infifts much on the time and pains which he has bestowed, in order to give

his performance thefe two advantages, and to render it completely deferving of the public approbation.'

The task of felecting the fineft paffages from the works of agreeable writers, requires attention, tafte, and judgment, but is not commonly confidered as a work of much labour. Mr. Barretti, however, is of a different opinion: and as he has toiled through what appears to him a very arduous undertaking, with fo much Chriftian patience, it is pity he does not perfevere a few minutes longer, and gratify his reader, by fubjoining a table of contents, with the titles of the various fubjects treated in his eighty-fix letters. At prefent, his publication has neither index, contents, nor mottos, prefixed to the letters, expreffive of the fubjects treated in them: fo that, partly on this account, and partly from the long-winded, round-about manner, familiar to the Italian writers, we muft proceed a confiderable length in each letter, before we discover the fubject of it. Nor is this the only inconvenience arifing from fuch careleffnefs. A book fent into the world with fo little regard to the patience of the reader, produces a continued series of disappointments. Seeing a letter from Captain to Colonel you expect obfervations, perhaps, on the art of war, but are wearied with a common-place lecture of morality. You may hear of battles and fieges from a bishop, when you expected a fermon. A duke or earl entertains you with a difcourfe on the parts of speech; and a learned academician talks to you of the culture of pineapples.

We mean not, by thefe obfervations, to difapprove of the felection itself, which contains a great variety of letters equally entertaining and inftructive, and which, we are perfuaded, will be found far fuperior to any thing of the kind in the Italian Janguage. We with, however, that Mr. Barretti had taken the trouble to inform us, how he came poffeffed of the manuscript letters which he publishes, and from what books he extracted the printed ones. By this means, we might be enabled to learn what alterations he has made, and whether we are reading the works of Annibal Caro, or of Giuseppe Barretti. This is left doubtful in the Author's preface, in which he only faysE chi s'intende di ferivere, vedra ch'io non mi fono ne'feguenti fogli lafciato andar foverchio all' infingardia.' And whoever is acquainted with the art of compofition will perceive, that in the following fheets I have not allowed myfelf to be influenced by laziness.'

Se foggiungeffi, che, per procacciarle quefti due pregi, io mi fono criftianamente fconcio quanto doveva, & fenza il minimo - risparmio di fatica, &c.

Ff3

The

The most valuable letters in this felection are those which treat of the Italian literature, and explain the character, the virtues, and defects, of the Italian poets and hiftorians. We cannot, however, agree with Mr. Barretti (for we prefume, the opinion is his own), that Algarotti, Goldoni, and Beccaria, are rude and barbarous, and foolish writers.' If we except the greatest poet of the age t, the three names above mentioned are, perhaps, those which do moft honour to the lift of the late 1, or living authors of Italy. Their works are read and esteemed in their own country, and they have had the good fortune to pafs the feas, and to meet with much applaufe from foreign

nations.

* Vol. II. p. 248.

† Metaftafio.

Algarotti is dead, and has a magnificent monument at Pisa, erected to his honour by the King of Praia, with this infcription, Ovidij Emulo, Newtoni Difcipulo.'

ART. VIII. The Widowed Queen: or, Elizabeth, Dowager of Edward IV. delivering up her Second Son from Santuary: and, bilippa to Edward II. in favour of the Burghers of Calais. being a Poem, and Oration, to which Prizes were adjudged by the Provost and Senior-Fellows of Trinity-College, Dublin, in Hillary Term, 1777. Written by Jerom Alley. 4to. 1 s. 6 d. Wallis. 1778. HE eftablishment of literary prizes for the young ftudents at our univerfities, is an improvement on academical education, which does great credit to the prefent age and it is attended with advantages too obvious to escape the notice of the moft inattentive obferver.

TH

There is one circunftance refpecting these literary contefts, which ought, in our opinion, to have made part of the plan of their inftitution; namely, to have the fuccefsful compofition printed, at the public expence of the particular feminary where the prize has been adjudged.

It is true, that the Poemata Seatoniana, which are annually printed, do not feem to favour our opinion; but it must be confidered, that the cafes are by no means exactly fimilar, Among those who have taken their Mafter of Arts degree, and who alone are qualified to be candidates for Mr. Seaton's prize, the few, who are capable of diftinguishing themselves with credit, have generally, before that time, an established reputation, so that academical honours and rewards are no longer objects of ambition.

But with the young ftudent, who has a name and reputation to acquire, the cafe is totally different. And, indeed, facts prove that it is fo: of those who have obtained early academical honours (we confine ourselves to the English univerfities,

of