with this Latin compliment, Cum tales fint, utinam effent noflri; but the important and uncere duty which I owe to the preservation of the ecclefiaftical and civil eftablishments of my country, obligeth me thus to invert the compliment, and no doubt but it will be efteemed highly uncomplaifant by the whole fraternity of feparatists, Cum tales fint, gaudeo non effe noftros.'

We need fay no more, furely, of this noble Defence; the extracts we have given will speak for themselves.

ART. IV. An Elegy on the Ancient Greek Model. Addreffed to the Right Reverend Robert Lowth, Lord Bishop of London. Cambridge printed; and fold by T. Payne, London. 410. 1 s. 6d.

1779.

W

HATEVER be the modern idea of elegy, it was anciently applied to very different purposes than at prefent. Originally appropriated neither to love or lamentation, it was equally extended to every fubject that was confidered as ferious or important: and fo far from being confined to the trifling difplay of amorous impatience, or to reiterate the complaints of funeral forrow, the elegiac mufe not unfrequently mares animos in martia bella

Verfibus exacuit.

In fhort, whatever related to the conduct of human life, or the interests of fociety, was looked upon to come within her province. Hence, the ftrains of elegy, accordingly as the occafion demanded, were political, patriotic, or prudential. Such are the elegies of Solon, and Tyrtæus, and the gruas of Theognis. In imitation of these models is written the Elegy before us.

The Writer's object will be beft feen by the following introductory lines:

Mourn! Son of Amos, mourn! in accent fharp
Of angry forrow ftrike thy heav'nly harp.
Mourn! thou sublimest of the fainted choir!
Those lips, that, touch'd with thy cœleftial fire,
Clear'd, from the gather'd clouds of many an age,
The bright'ning flame of thy prophetic rage;

Thofe lips, thro' Learning's facred sphere renow n'd,
Have ftain'd their glory by a fervile found.
Envy with ranc'rous joy these accents heard,
And dwells with triumph on the fatal word;
Waging against Renown eternal wars,
Thus the infults the merit fhe abhors:

• "How has the radiance of the mitre ceas'd!
Oblivion's poppy fhades the proftrate priest:
In dark Servility's expanding cave

Forgotten prelates hail thee from the grave;

See Ifaiah, chap. xiv.

O Lucifer!

O Lucifer! of prophecy the ftar,

Rolling through Hebrew clouds thy radiant car
Art thou too fall'n as we? Can Flatt'ry's tide
Drown thy free fpirit and thy Attic pride?
Is this the man who spoke, in language ftrong,
The praife of Liberty's Athenian fong?
Bleft are her notes, but curit the fordid things
That prieftcraft offers to the pride of Kings;
For never, never thall fair Freedom's hand
Enroll one prelate in her facred band!"

Peace! Envy, peace! nor deem, with bigot rage,
Long labours cancell'd by a hafty page.'

He then digreffes in praife of thofe mitred fages, who have approved themfelves the friends of freedom

and the people;

though not without an oblique glance at fuch, as

fond of dull repose,

Without a dream of Learning's friends or foes,
Enjoy their table, or from thence withdrawn,
Sink in foft flumber on their fleeves of lawn.'

The names that are mentioned with peculiar approbation, are Langton and Hoadley amongst the dead, and amongst the living Shipley and Law.

Refuming his fubject, he proceeds:

Lowth! we faw thy radiant name on high
Amid the pureft lights of Learning's fky;
And long, if true to Freedom's guiding voice,
Long in thy fplendor fhall that sphere rejoice;
One paffing vapour fhall diffolve away,
And leave thy glory's unobstructed ray.
But while on Fame's high precipice you ftand,
Be nobly firm! nor bend the virtuous hand,

Fill'd with rich fweets from Freedom's flow'ry mead,
To pluck Servility's oblivious weed!

High in the Court's rank foil that creeper winds,

And oft with dark embrace the Crofier binds;

While fqueez'd from thence the fubtle Prelate flings
Its lufcious poifon in the ear of Kings'.

After juftifying the motive of his addrefs, and doing juftice alfo in the most ample manner to the very respectable character to whom it is directed, he adds:

• Shall Lowth adapt no more his Attic style
To the Meridian of my fav'rite ifle?
But feebly speak, in France's languid tone,
Faint as beneath Oppreffion's burning zone?
Or, blazing only with a bigot's fire,
Awake the flumb'ring flames of regal ire;
Stretch the ftate-theorist on Priftehood's rack,
And from the pulpit † aim the personal attack?
Far other precepts fuit the hallow'd fage.'

See the late fermon by the Bishop of London, and his note on Dr. Price.

He

He then takes occafion to compliment a late attempt to reftrain the practice of adultery, and accounts for the trefpaffes of woman, by fuppofing that,

When her guard, in Luxury's venal hour,

Yields his chafte foul a prostitute to Pow'r,
Heav'n, in juft vengeance on the abject flave,
Corrupts the pureft gifts its bounty gave.'

Whether this theory be altogether true or not, we shall not at prefent, take upon us to determine. To correct the rank abuses of the time,' he calls upon the diftinguished prelate, to whom his poem is particularly directed, in the following animated lines.

Rife, then, O rife! with Hoadley's spirit fir'd,
But in thy richer eloquence attir'd:
Teach us to guard from ev'ry mean controul
That manly vigour of the judging foul,
Which Faith approves, which Loyalty allows!
Teach us, while Honour to thy doctrine bows,
That Duty's praise in no blind worship lies,
But Reason's homage to the juft and wife!
So to thy Country, to thy God endear'd,
By Heav'n protected as on earth rever'd,
May thy mild age in pureft fame rejoice;
In fame, where Envy hears no jarring voice!
So may Religion, with divine relief,
Drop her rich balm on thy parental grief!
May that fweet comforter, the heav'nly Mufe,
Who fondly treasures Sorrow's facred dews,
In Glory's vale preferve the precious tear
Shed by paternal Love on Beauty's bier!
And O! when thou, to Learning's deep regret,
Muft pay at Nature's call our common debt;

While life's laft murmurs fhake the parching throat,
And Pity catches that portentous note;
While in it's hollow orb the rolling eye
Of Hope is turn'd convulfive to the fky,
May hole vifitants, each fainted feer
Whofe-w ll known accents warble in thine ear,
Defcend, with Mercy's delegated pow'r,
To foothe the anguish of that awful hour:
With lenient aid release thy ftruggling breath,
Guide thy freed spirit through the gates of Death,
Shew thee, emerging from this earthly storm,
Thy lov'd Maria in a feraph's form,

And give thee, gazing on the Throne of Grace,
To view thy mighty Maker face to face.'

This bold expreffion of exalted piety was borrowed from St. Paul, by the great Condè, the fublime and enviable circumstances of whofe death are thus defcribed by the eloquent Boffuet." Oui, dit-il, nous verrons Dieu comme il eft, face à face, il repetoit en

After the ample extracts we have given of this truly liberal and manly performance, to add any further commendation, might feem fuperfluous.

AT. V. The Duty of univerfal Benevolence enforced; in Three Sermons: To which is prefixed a fhort Addrefs to the Lincolnfhire Clergy. By the Rev. H. Hodgson, B. A. of Peterhouse 8vo. I S. College, Cambridge, Curate of Market Rafen. Printed at Gainsborough, and fold by Rivington. 1778 *.

V

ANITY of vanities, fays the preacher, all is vanity!" The church is no fanctuary from it, and Sunday is no Sabbath-day to it.' It will force its way even to the pulpit, and play fuch phantaftic tricks before high heaven as make the angels weep.' As for beings of a lower fphere, and of a groffer compofition, they will be more inclined to laugh at the farcical exhibition; for when the queftion is put, whether Man had better be merry, mad, or melancholy, he will prefer the former: because life itfelf, without the vanity of coxcombs, both in and out of the church, will furnish him with too many materials for the exercife of the two laft.

This Rev. H. Hodgson of Peterhoufe College, Cambridge, hath unfortunately taken it into his head that he is a genius!

Some Demon whifpered' it to him: and fince that fatal moment, the poor man hath been in a delirium: and like others of his brethren, the curate of Rafen ftalks abroad with the fancied majefty of a king, and waving his fceptre while he nods his laurelled head, he furveys his work with filent rapture: till fwelling with the great idea, he gives it utterance and like another Nebuchadnezzar, before he was driven from among men to graze with the beafts of the field, he proclaims what he hath done by the might of his power.'

This Curate of Rafen muft certainly think himself capable of

"Things unattempted yet in profe or rhyme;" for it is a maxim with him, that an ounce of a perfon's own reason is worth a tun of any other's.' He adopts this maxim principally for his own fake: for though the expreffion is general, the meaning is undoubtedly particular; and it is the Rev. H. Hodgfon's ounce that carries all the weight in his fcale.

Latin, avec un gout merveilleux, ces grands mots : Sicuti eft: facie ad faciem, et on ne fe laffoit point de le voir dans ce doux transport." Oraifon Funebre de Louis de Bourbon.

• An earlier account would have been given of thefe Sermons, and of the Author's Effufions of the Heart, &c.' but we were unable, till very lately, to procure copies of them.

This

This Author tells us, that he hath a quarrel with the word faith, and for that reafon he always carefully avoids ufing it.' And the caufe why he hath picked this quarrel with that poor word is, he informs us, from its having been prostituted by divines, fo that it feldom or never raifes an idea of its fcriptural fignification in the unenlightened mind.' Thence,' fays he, arofe my quarrel with it.' My quarrel!—Yes, Mr. Hodgfon's-and who, or what can ftand when He is angry?" Faith, from hencefo:th and for ever, must be kicked out of door, to wander like a battered prostitute, to be picked up by fome poor cull of methodism, till it hath loft its influence over the groffeft fool amongst them, and is left to rot and perifh on a dunghill!-Alas! poor faith! what haft thou got by keeping company with divines!

Mr. Hodgfon is not fufficiently acquainted with critics and commentators on the bible, to have a quarrel with fuch fort of folks. No! in truth. They are a race of men (fays he) to whom I pay little regard.' He may have heard of the names of a few of them: but the reft are huddled together in an heap with people that nobody knows; and if he had perchance heard of their exiftence, his high rank would not have fuffered him to remember their names, had they been announced by his valet.

But we have made our introduction fo long that, as John Bunyan fays of a certain episode, which he wrote, that it was like to fwallow up the whole of the performance; fo we may fay of our exordium, that it will contain much more than the doctrine, the argument, the illuftration, and the inference; for in one word, if we are afked, what is our opinion of Mr. Hodgson's Sermons and Addrefs, we can only fay, even by the help of candour itfelf, that they treat of fomething about being good and doing good. And now having faid this we have faid

all.

A&T. VI. Efufions of the Heart and Fancy: in Verfe and Profe. By the Rev. Henry Hodgson, B A. of Peterhouse College, Cam bridge; and Curate of Market Rafen, Lincolnshire. 8vo. 3s. 6d. Sewed. Rivington. 1779.

'IT

T is a matter of the highest concern,' fays this Writer, to a periodical effayift, to endeavour to preserve the literary taste, as well as the morals of his cotemporaries from contamination: and therefore, he ought to keep a watchful eye over the prefs.'-Now, this is one part of the HIGH CONCERN of us Reviewers: and fuch Authors as Mr. Hodgfon fhall be convinced of our vigilance. We will endeavour to preferve the literary tafte, as well as the morals, of our cotemporaries from contamination,' by warning them not to come too near REV. Nov. 1779. Z

the