as I have not been used to the fmell of perfumes, I could never come within your atmosphere, except once indeed, when, in flying from two unmanneredly catchpoles, you ran full againft me in turning a corner, and did me the favour of joftling me into the kennel.

"One thing, however, Sir, I muft infift upon, which is, that you will forbear any contemptuous infinuations refpecting my friend Dick Shortland's family, fince you cannot boaft fo good a one and as to myfelf, Sir, you cannot be ignorant that your great-grandfather was a chimney-fweeper, as well as my own; and that, if it were not for that noble invention for which the world is indebted to a perfon who was great uncle to both of us, of liquid fhining blacking for fhoes, you could never have expected to maintain fo much confequence in life as even your neglected friend and humble fervant,

"HUMPHREY QUONDAM."

Of two friends whom the author mentions by name in his concluding paper, one is Mr. Beresford, whofe tranflation of Virgil forms the fubject of our fecond article. In the 61st and 62d papers that tranflation is mentioned as intended, and a large and good specimen is given from a part that does not appear in the prefent volume of the tranflation, the Georgics: it is the ftory of Orpheus and Eurydice, rendered with spirit from the fourth book of that inimitable poem. Mr. Beresford's contributions are fpecified. They are not numerous, but they are ingenious. The papers on the fubject of Mr. Beresford's tranflation contain alfo fome general remarks on the task of a tranflator. In the latter of them a foolish erratum of Zenophon for Xenophon twice occurs.

After what has been faid it seems fuperfluous to add, that our general fentence concerning this periodical paper is very favourable. The ftyle is pure and good, though not perfectly unexceptionable; and the topics are not only varied in a manner calculated to give effect to fuch a work, but are, for the moft part, handled with ability. There can be no doubt but that the Looker-on will take its place among the approved periodical papers of this country.

ART. X. A Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Durham, at the Primary Vifitation of that Diocefe, in the Year 1792. By Shute, Lord Bishop of Durham. The Second Edition, with an Appendix. 4to. 61 pp. 2s. 6d. Payne, 1794.

THE republication of this charge affords us an opportunity

of adding our testimony to the general approbation which

it received on its first publication. His lordship addreffes his clergy with true paftoral affection, and great zeal for the interests of religion, morality, and literature, and in a style no lefs elegant than the topics are well chosen.

While he fhows himself a friend to the principle of reform, than which nothing can be more falutary in itself, he feels with just apprehenfion the confequences of those intemperate and dangerous innovations, which, under the fpecious pretext of reformation, had then gone great lengths, but have fince that time been making further ftrides to overturn the conftitution, both in church and ftate. On the clergy, upon whofe exertions in their feveral fpheres the peace and good order of the community fo much depend, his lordship is anxious to imprefs a juft conception of the confequences of "thofe impracticable theories which tend to alienate the affections of the people from the laws and conftitution of their country;" and the then recent proclamation from the throne, and the feditious publications and proceedings which had given occafion to it, are topics which lead to thefe juft and feafonable reflections.

"The bleffings of peace and profperity which diftinguish this country from the other nations of Europe, as much as the prefent day from former periods in its own hiftory, it might have been expected would have precluded all grounds of difcontent. Yet this has been the moment chofen by our foreign and domeftic enemies, for their attempts to raife ideal jealoufies in the minds of the people, to alienate their affections from the laws and conftitution of their country, to depreciate and vilify the principles on which the revolution was established, and in fhort to deprive all national experience of its authority, and all political knowledge of the ftability of tried and approved principles. Sagacious and penetrating obfervers had watched the progress of the fecret machinations employed for thefe purposes; they had founded the alarm againft their probable effects; they had openly denounced thefe confpiracies againft the public peace and welfare: but the people at large, confcious of the general national profperity and the fecurity of their rights, were infenfible to thefe early admonitions; they were deaf to remonftrances of which they felt not the neceffity. Encouraged by the public acquiefcence and the total revulfion of all political forms and principles in a neighbouring king

*

*This is not the French fenfe of denounce, with them it means accufation; here expofal only; and it is ufed ftri&tly in the fenfe of the Latin word, from which, and not from the French, it is derived; denuntiare, i. e. palam dicere, exponere. We must not give up a good English word because the French have abufed the correfponding term.

dom,

dom, our innovators openly avowed the most antimonarchical fenti▾ ments, indulged in the noft invidious admiration of fyftems fubverfive of their own government, hazarded the moft groundless projects, and built their theories not on the basis of experience but the vifions of experiment." P. 7.

From the general political circumftances which intereft the nation at large, the bifhop proceeds to thofe which affect that establishment which fupports the national religion, and which the nation has wifely made an effential part of the conftitution: and in fpeaking of the laws enacted for its fupport, he repels the charge of perfecution; they reftrain no man's private fentiments; they pretend to no control over the mind; they prefcribe no other limit to public profeffions but fuch as is equally calculated to promote peace and charity among alt parties; fuch as was due to the national religion and to the honour of God and his revelation; by difcountenancing the rancour of uncharitable afperities, by forbidding the indecer.cy of fcandalous invectives against the national church, and the outrages of infidelity and blafphemy.

Thofe doctrinal points which the chriftian magiftrate has guarded by the law's external fanétion, and which have been of late years too much neglected, his lordship fhows it to be

"The christian minister's duty to expound, to illustrate, to defend, with all the talents which God has bestowed on him for the good of his flock."-" Diveft chriftianity of its faith and doctrines, and you defpoil it of all that is peculiar to it in its motives, its confolations, its fanctions, and its duties. You diveft it of all that made revelation neceffary; you reduce it to the cold and inefficient fubftance of what is called philofophy; that philofophy which has of late years fhewn itfelf not the friend of religion, learning and civil order, but of anarchy, conceit and atheifm: you reduce it to the obfcure glimmering of human knowledge; that knowledge which the first and greatest of the ancient philofophers confeffed to be totally infufficient to fatisfy the doubts and folicitude of an enquiring mind; and looked forward with a kind of prophetic exultation, to the period when divine Providence, in compaffion to the weakness of our nature, fhould enlighten mankind by that revelation of himself which modern philofophers reject." P. 17.

The probable causes that have operated to the neglect of the doctrinal points, are the fuppofed unfitness of such fubjects for general instruction, efpecially of the poor and uneducated, and the improper ufe made of them by enthufiafts who dwell upon them to the exclufion of the moral dutics: with refpect to the former, children and uneducated perfons, he thinks, are dealt unfairly by when they are fuppofed incapable of understanding the doctrines of faith.

"I doubt

"I doubt not but both one and the other understand more than we give them credit for, and much more than they can explain. But whatever our doubts of their capacity may be, the injunction is clear and pofitive, that to them the gospel should be preached ;" and as to the latter," If one extreme is wrong, the oppofite is an error at leaft as unfcriptural, and of as great magnitude as the other. It should be the bufinefs of the chriftian minifter fo to combine them in his paftoral inftructions, as to render the two duties fources of improvement to each other. He fhould animate the defponding chriftian, who confronts the severity of the law with his own imperfections, by thofe encouraging motives to repentance and amendment, and thofe fure hopes of falvation which are prefented to him in the covenant of grace: he fhould endeavour to infufe a life and energy and fincerity into the faith of others, by inculcating thofe active and indifpenfible duties demanded by the covenant of works." P. 20,

The mode beft adapted to answer the end of public inftruction, is next confidered under the three heads of fubject, form, and language; and his lordship is of opinion that the inconvenience which belongs more or lefs to all continued difcourfes on one text, would be avoided by detailing and expounding in fermons, fucceffive portions of fcripture, in the form of paraphrafe and illuftration, which would not exclude the graces of compofition.

The importance of the minifterial office, and the qualifications requifite for the due discharge of it, occupy the remainder of the charge; and though we have already given our readers fufficient fpecimens to enable them to form a judgement of the work from which they are extracted, we will not refift the defire of adding one more paffage, with which the feeling of every mind that has duly weighed the importance of the facred office will accord, and to which the younger part of the clergy cannot too anxiously attend,

"From what I have observed in different parts of this address, on fome of the duties of a parifh minifter, it is easy to collect, that his office is of no trivial confequence to fociety. Indeed there cannot be imagined a more important function. His fituation is diftinguished by the most interefting duties which may render him by turns, the teacher, the advifer, the friend, the guardian of his people. The faithful difcharge of his duties will enfure refpect; and the refidence, the habitual intercourse which that fidelity implies, will add affection to his character. A refponfibility for the intellectual improvement, the fpiritual welfare, the eternal intereft of his people is a very awful confideration. To direct the unformed and ingenuous perceptions of the young; to reanimate the dormant fenfibilities of the old; and to prefent to all ages and conditions fuch a picture of truth, as may warn them against the deceitfulness of this world, and prepare them effectually for another; are objects fufficient to employ the ableft talents,

and

and to intereft the beft feelings of our nature. An office which poffeffes fo many means of public fervice, I need not add, requires for the due difcharge of it, proportionate qualifications." P. 26.

For the qualifications, we must refer to the charge itself, to which is added in this edition, an appendix, containing directions for candidates, preparatory and fubfequent to their receiving orders; what is expected of them at their examination; together with a lift of books for the profecution and arrangement of their theological ftudies. In all which his lordship has manifefted a paftoral attention to the interefts of religion, to the good order of the church, and to the credit and convenience of the clergy, whofe facred functions we entirely concur with. him in thinking of the utmost importance to fociety :-important at all times, but more particularly fo at the prefent. To the parochial clergy it is, that the difcerning part of the public look for that antidote which their local inftructions and labours will fupply, to check the poifon which the enemies of our religion and country are infinuating into every pore: and it is by the line of conduct here marked out for their direction, that the great ends of their miniftry must be effected.

Never was there a time which called for their exertions 'more, and, to aniinate their labours, never were the times more favourable to demonftrate the utility and importance of their order than at prefent. From the wretched effects which refult from the want of fuch a refource in France to reftrain the wild ungoverned paffions of the multitude, they fee with strong conviction the neceffity and the value of religion; and they are therefore difpofed to receive its inftructions and refpect its teachers, who, notwithstanding the cry of those who would" rid the nation of its king, its nobles, and its priefts," will, in difcharging their duty to the public, experience the grateful and firm fupport which their important fervices entitle them to expect.

ART. XI. Imitations of Original Drawings, by Hans Holbein, in the Collection of his Majefty, for the Portraits of illuftrious Perfons of the Court of Henry VIII. with Biographical Tracts. Publifhed by John Chamberlaine, Keeper of the King's Drawings and Medals, and F. S. A. Nos. 1. II. III. IV. Large Folio. 81. Ss. Printed by Bulmer. G. Nicol.

A

Work more calculated than this to command, in all refpects, the admiration of the public, cannot easily be produced