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Wild. Never, never.

L. Gal. Turn your face away, and give me leave

To hide my rising blushes: I cannot look on you,

[As this last speech is speaking, she sinks into his arms by degrees. But you must undo me if you will

Since I no other way my truth can prove,

-You shall see I love.

Pity my weakness, and admire my love.

Wild. All heaven is mine, I have it in my arms,

Nor can ill fortune reach me any more.

Fate, I defy thee, and dull world, adieu.

In love's kind fever let me ever lie,

Drunk with desire, and raving mad with joy.

[Exeunt into the bed-chamber; Wild. leading her with his arms about her."

Well might Pope say of our fair authoress, under her assumed poetic name of Astrea,

"The stage how loosely does Astrea tread,

Who fairly puts all characters to bed."

The play of which we are speaking ends in Wilding's marrying Charlotte, and becoming reconciled to his uncle, whom he has already contrived to rob of the writings; while Sir Timothy marries, by mistake, the kept-mistress, Diana.

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In the comedy of Sir Patient Fancy,' the principal materials for the plot are a Lady Nowell, a rather far-gone blue-stocking, who is in love with Leander Fancy, Sir Patient's son; while there is a warm and mutual attachment between Leander and her daughter Lucretia, who has been promised by her mother to a foolish Devonshire knight," named Sir Credulous Easy. Lucretia's brother, Lodwick, is in love with Isabella, the daughter of Sir Patient Fancy; while the lady of this knight, as a matter of course, has a gallant. With these materials the intrigue of the piece is kept up with great spirit. The attempts of the learned Lady Nowell, to seduce Leander from her daughter; the intrigues of Lady Fancy, and the hypochondriacal temper of Sir Patient, whose belief that he is a hopeless invalid is taken advantage of to deceive him, lead to many scenes that are highly comic. The same remarks will apply to 'The Town Fop; or, Sir Timothy Tawdrey,' although the scenes here are coarser, if not more licentious, than in the former. A marriage has been negociated between Tawdrey and Celinda, who is the sister to Friendlove, and the lover of Bellmour, the nephew of Lord Plotwell. Friendlove is in love with the Lady Diana, Lord Plotwell's niece. It is a play of interminable cross-purposes and

mistakes, which must have told with admirable effect on the stage, at a time when the low scenes, between Sir Timothy and his worthless companions of both sexes, were not contrary to public taste. In The Lucky Chance; or, the Alderman's Bargain,' the prejudices against the citizens are again brought into play. Sir Feeble Fainwood is an old alderman, who is married, contrary to her sentiments, to a young lady named Leticia. She has been contracted to Belmour, who is supposed to have died in Holland, but who is present throughout most of the piece in disguise. Sir Cautious Fulbank is an old banker, married to a young wife, Julia, who is in love with Gayman, "a spark of the town." Bredwell, Leticia's brother, and apprentice to Sir Cautious, is in love with Sir Feeble's daughter, Diana. It is evident that, with such materials for a plot as these, a writer like Mrs. Behn would produce an infinite variety of stirring scenes; and such is the case. Gayman's pursuit of Julia, and Belmour's intrigues, in concert with herself and her maid, to hinder the possession of Leticia by the old alderman, run through the piece. On the night of his marriage, while Belmour takes his place, Sir Feeble is allured away from his young bride, by a false message, purporting to come from Sir Cautious, announcing a tumult in the city, and requiring his presence. Sir Cautious, at the same time, is kept up by the alarm of thieves, while Gayman is with his wife. The alderman, armed from top to toe, proceeds to the bankers; and the misunderstanding between them leads to one of the most comic scenes in Mrs. Behn's writings; but its length, as well as the coarseness of some parts, precludes us from quoting it. From this great skill in conducting the intrigue of her pieces, the longest of all Mrs. Behn's comedies, "The Rover," never flags in interest.

Such, as a writer of Comedies, was Mrs. Aphra Behn, and she certainly held no low place in English literature. Of her Novels we may perhaps speak at length on some future occasion. Her comedies certainly possess great merit; and, were it not for their licentiousness, do not deserve to be forgotten. They may be cited as the most perfect models of the drama of the latter half of the seventeenth century, possessing, in a high degree, both its merits and its defects. In her coarse licentiousness, she perhaps rather pandered to the depraved state of the town, than obeyed her own feelings. Her subject is constantly love, and that love is always sensual; yet we trace, from time to time, the existence of tenderer and purer sentiment, which always betrays the heart of the writer. 1.—1.

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We learn, from one of her contemporaries, that she was both loved and respected. "Those," he tells us, "who had the happiness to be personally acquainted with her, were so charmed with her wit, freedom of temper, and agreeable conversation, that they, in a manner, adored her." A lady, who enjoyed her intimacy, has left the following character of her. "She was of a generous, humane disposition; something passionate; very serviceable to her friends in all that was in her power; and could sooner forgive an injury than do one. She had wit, humour, good-nature, and judgment; she was mistress of all the pleasing art of conversation; she was a woman of sense, and consequently a lover of pleasure."-This consequence, whatever it may have been in the days of Charles the Second, is not so evident to us now. The female writer we are quoting adds, "For my part, I knew her intimately, and never saw aught unbecoming the just modesty of our sex; though more gay and free than the folly of the precise will allow." This character is probably an indulgent one, and we must make an allowance for the age in which it was written. The comedies she has published can hardly have come from a mind that was uncorrupted with vice. That she possessed genius, all who read her writings must agree; and, like many other men and women of genius, she seems to have passed an eventful and chequered life, at the end of which her remains found a resting-place in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey.

From the defects mentioned above, Mrs. Behn's dramatic writings cannot now be generally read-at all events, they could not be given to the public in a popular form, but, if any one would form an exact notion of the manners of the British capital in the latter half of the seventeenth century, we could recommend him nothing better than to study the comedies of Aphra Behn.

ART. II. Bishop Berkeley on Tar-Water.

Siris: a chain of Philosophical Reflexions and Inquiries concerning the Virtues of Tar-Water, and divers other subjects, connected together and arising one from another. By the Right Reverend Dr. GEORGE BERKELEY, Lord Bishop of Cloyne, and Author of The Minute Philosopher.-Second Edition. London: 1744.

Remarks on the Bishop of Cloyne's Book, entitled Siris, &c., as far as it relates to Tar-Water. By RISORIUS, M.A. Oxon.-London : 1744.

Siris in the Shades: a Dialogue concerning Tar-Water, between Mr. Benjamin Smith, lately deceased, Dr. Hancock, and Dr. Garth, at their Meeting upon the Banks of the River Styx.-London: 1744.

Anti-Siris, or English Wisdom, exemplify'd by various Examples, but particularly the present general demand for Tar-Water, on so unexceptionable authority as that of the R- -t R- -d Itinerant Schemist, and Graduate

in Divinity and Metaphysicks. In a Letter from a Foreign Gentleman at London to his Friends Abroad.-London: 1744.

A Cure for the Epidemical Madness of Drinking Tar-Water, lately imported from Ireland. By a certain R- -t R- -d Doctor. In a Letter to his L p. By T. R., M. D.-London: 1744.

A Letter to the Right Reverend the Bishop of Cloyne, occasioned by his Lordship's Treatise on the Virtues of Tar-Water. Impartially examining how far that Medicine deserves the Character his Lordship has given of it.London: 1744.

Reflexions concerning the Virtues of Tar-Water, wherein is proved, by experience, that its present Preparation is not founded on Philosophical principles; and that, as now prepared, it may probably occasion more Diseases than it can possibly cure; with Hints for its Improvement, so as to make it a most efficacious and pleasant Medicine. By H. JACKSON, Chemist.-London: 1744.

An Account of some Experiments and Observations on Tar-Water: wherein is shown the Quantity of Tar that is therein and also a Method proposed, both to abate that quantity considerably, and to ascertain the strength of the Tar-Water: which was read before the Royal Society. By STEPHEN HALES, D.D., F.R.S.-London: 1745.

A Letter to T- P, Esq., from the Author of Siris;' containing some further Remarks on the Virtues of Tar-Water, and the Methods for preparing and using it.-London : 1744.

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Remarkable Cures perform'd by Tar-Water; collected out of the Gentleman's Magazine,' &c.-To be had of the Proprietor of the Tar-Water Warehouse, in Painter's Court, Bury Street, St. James.

The Bishop of Cloyne Defended; or Tar-Water proved Useful, by Theory and Experiments in Answer to T. R., M.D., Author of 'Epidemical Madness Cured.' By PHILANTHROPIC.-London.

MEDICINE, although pre-eminently an art of observation and experience, is, to this present day, so conjectural and uncertain, as to leave a constant opening to quackery and empiricism. This is in part owing to the subtle and complex character of the animal functions; which, when an abnormal state is superadded, baffle all experience in the ordinary action of medicines, or therapeutic agents; but it is also still more frequently owing to a too hasty and careless diagnosis, founded upon imperfect observation, or deficiency in minute knowledge of pathological anatomy.

Regular professional men are too sensible of their deficiencies and difficulties, and are too keenly alive to the uncertainty of the power of their art, backed even by the most powerful chemical and mechanical agents, to venture to speak boldly and decisively, so as to gain the entire confidence of their patients. On the other hand, the bold and unblushing assertion of the empiric, of a never-failing remedy, constantly reiterated, inspires confidence in the invalid; and not unfrequently tends, by its operation on the mind, to assist in the relief, if not in the eradication, of disorder. Such is the general history of the origin and success of quackery and empiricism; for we do not allude here to the philosophy which was in this infancy of science, promulgated in combination with the marvellous. The Admirable Secrets' of Albertus Magnus; the 'Natural Magic' of Baptista Porta; the 'Demones' of Cornelius Agrippa; the 'Elixir of Life' of Van Helmont; or the 'Fairy' of Paracelsus-these were chemical, or rather alchemical, quacks, who first introduced powerful therapeutic agents, as mercury, antimony, or opium, or who rebelled against the long prevalent doctrines of the ancients, on principles, in which the light of a new science— chemistry-was struggling fantastically enough into day, from amidst the hideous phantasms of a wonder and miracle loving age. We allude to simple quackery, in which the observation of all times, and the experience of all ages, are coolly put aside, to give way to some new, and almost untried, remedy or nostrum. "Man," said Southey, "is a dupeable animal. Quacks in medicine, quacks in