nay, even tho' his perfon, if not a deformed one, has not all that fymmetry, or advantageous ftature, which we oftener wish to fee than we meet with.

Among this writer's general rules, fome are as exceptionable as they are new. Thus, when he fays, in aftonishment and furprize, arifing from terror, the left leg is drawn back to fome diftance from the other;' &c. he does not seem to have confidered what might be the actor's cafual fituation on the ftage; for, if placed on the right-hand fide of the stage, he would, by fuch a pofition as the author directs, turn his back to the audience: which would prove very unpicturesque, and all expreffion of feature would be loft.

When he says, impatience and regret at being detected in an iniquitous defign, may be heightened by fhuffling of the feet, without moving from the fpot,' he feems to have forgot he was fpeaking of tragedy only; confequently of ferious Characters, in which no fuch movement could be made, without a caft of the ridiculous, improper for the occafion. Such behaviour in an Iago, or a Renault, when under the reproach of an Othello, or a Pierre, would give too comic a turn to the fcene: might we not fay, with the poet,

-Non erat hic locus.

Yet this action is not unnatural, when properly made ufe of, as it has often very happily been, by two celebrated performers of the prefent time, in expreffing the fneaking fear, and aukward confufion of an Abel Drugger, when introduced to the folemn and tremendous Dr. Subtle, the conjuror.

In fect. 8. this gentleman, in treating of the management of the hands and arms, has the following remarks. • We

come now,' fays he, to a very critical article in the actor's conduct. There is fcarce a line to be uttered by himself, or to be attended to when spoken by others, which does not · require a particular movement; nay even in plain narrative of common incidents, they must be far from idle.

But as to the expreffion of the paffions, there is not one of ⚫ them that does not demand the jutteft emphasis in their movement and attitudes; and all of thefe are to vary according to the feveral turns the poet may give to one and the fame ⚫ paffion.

What a noble attitude may cach hand and arm be thrown into, by a general giving his command at the head of his troops? The right hand extended in a direct line from the ⚫ articulation of the fhoulder-blade, and the truncheon placed by the hand into nearly the fame direction, while the left • fupports his robe, half thrown back, from the ground.'

He

He is certainly right as to what he delivers in the two first paragraphs, and his direction in the third fhews a good taste. But, caveat actor! left, when he chufes that attitude, (from the want of a natural manner of coming to it, and a graceful execution in the ufe of it) inftead of the dignity and ease of a hero, he afford us a fpectacle as ftiff, unfeeling, and lifelefs, as the wooden layman of a painter, placed in that pofition by the artist, to hang a piece of drapery on; from whence he purposes to catch the lights and fhades in the various foldings thereof; but from whence he will never think of drawing his figure*.

In the fame fection he recommends to actors the study of paintings, ftatues, and prints; which that great performer, Mr. Booth, ufed to confult, to very good purpose +. Our author, however, feems too particular in his directions, for the movement of the head, arms, legs, &c. and for the expreffion of the face and eyes. The beft inftructions for graceful pofitions, &c. are doubtlefs to be gathered from the study of the capital drawings; whence the young actor may greatly im prove his natural talents: but he must take care, left any pofitions or a titudes thus acquired feem too mechanical; which they certainly will, unlefs ftrong natural feelings, and a found judgment, direct him in the ufe of them. In expreffions of the face they are certainly to be confulted with great caution. If the actor conceives properly, his expreffion of countenance will be anfwerable: the eye will be rightly directed, if the mind is not idle, or uninformed. We have fchool-drawings that very well exprefs the different paffions of love, hatred, rage, fear, pity, contempt, joy, grief, pain, pleasure, &c.

* Which Hogarth, and other defervedly eminent profeffors of that art, have frequently acknowledged they fhould have been glad to have caught from the late Mr. Booth.

+Mr. Booth's attitudes were all picturefque. He had a good tafte for ftatuary and painting; and where he could not come at original pictures, he fpared no pains or expence to get the best drawings and prints. Thefe he frequently ftudied, and fometimes borrowed ' attitudes from; which he fo judicioufly introduced, fo finely executed, and fell into them with so easy a tranfition, that thefe mafter pieces of his art feemed but the effect of nature.

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Let not the reader imagine, from what I have faid, that all his actions were ftudied; tho' tudy improved him in many. His motions, in his most indolent and unguarded hours, were naturally graceful: but, on the ftage, they were at once the refult of na ture, warmed by paffio heightened by grace, and improved by CIBBER'S Lives of the Actors, Part I.

tafte.'

But were a man to work up his features into the feveral indications of them, merely from these copies, he would be in danger of giving us only a set of grimaces.-All countenances exprefs not alike; but if the player feel the paflion, and underftand the character, he will not fail to look and act it properly. -Some eyes, fome tones of voice, fome features, may be peculiarly formed to exprefs particular paffions more happily than others; but where the mind is rightly impreffed, tho' the actor should not be fo advantageoufly formed by nature as another, he will, nevertheless, give fatisfaction to the judicious' fpectator.

As our author obferves, volumes might be written on this fubject; but it is time for us to have done with it. Perhaps his performance will be thought the more valuable, for his having brought a great deal into a fmall compafs. Tho' we differ from him in a few things, we cannot, upon the whole, but recommend his pamphlet to the perufal of men of tafte Yet we could wifh he had not thrown in a trite obfervation relating to the cast of parts, which feems to hint at a particular actor, whofe age renders him unfit for the youthful lover; and which, by fome readers, may be mistaken as an invidious reflection on his appearance on the ftage, in general; a fort of cruelty too much given way to, and too much indulged by managers. Where softness and youth are not effential to the character, there are certainly many parts he might oftner appear in, and give not a jot lefs fatisfaction, than fome younger raw performers, who feem to have ufurped and taken them from him. His conftitution is good, his faculties strong; at his time of life, thofe excellent actors Wilks and the present laureat, were no ways unfit for any part they had ever played. Their perfons genteel as ever; their countenances as lively; their fpirits as much awake; their voices as ftrong and clear and their judgments riper. To have feen them in their grand climacteric, in the gay gentleman, and genteel coxcomb, would have fhamed our prefent theatrical gentry, with all their fancied advantages, as younger men: thofe excellent · performers retained the fire of youth at thrice the young man's age,

These Reflexions were written
by the late Mr Roger Richering

ART.

Com

ART. II. An Hiftorical Differtation on the Books of the New Teftament: or, an enquiry into their authority and particular character; with a hiftory of the methods by which thefe facred writings have been preferved and conveyed down to us. pofed from original authors. Vol. I. 8vo. 5s. Printed in the year 1755 [But without either name of place, printer, or bookfeller.]

T

HE author of this differtation appears, from a Latin de-, dication prefixed thereto, to be one Rob. Cockburne; but what his profeffion is, docs not appear, tho' we have been informed, that he is a layman, and a native of North Britain; which feems to be confirmed, by fome peculiar turns of phrafeology, now and then to be met with in the work.-In his Introduction, he obferves, that the Chriftian religion being calculated for people of the loweft understandings, the evidences for it must be of such a kind as are level to every. apprehenfion; for which reafon the proofs of its truth and certainty are founded, not on abftracted and speculative notions, but on facts of which every one is capable to form a, judgment.'-' According to this view of our religion, it is certainly no improper method to recommend it to the thinking, tho' uneducated, part of mankind, to make them acquainted with that feries of events which introduced it into the world, and attended the first appearance of the facred. books of the New Teftament; the united teftimony of fo. many writers, who lived at different times, and who were, • otherwise fo much divided in their religious opinions as to, agree almost in nothing elfe, to their genuineness and authority; the general and particular character of the first propagators of our faith; and the excellent tendency of their writings;-all these are matters of common and very important inftruction.'

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In order to give the reader a general view of his intended enquiry, Mr. Cockburne proposes to manage it in the follow-. ing method:

1. To prove that the books of the New Teftament have been acknowledged as the genuine writings of the apoftles, by... a conftant and uniform teftimony of the church inall ages.' 6 2. To make fome hiftorical reflections on the character of the apoftles, and on fome marks of their divine authority and miffion, exhibited to us in their own writings.'

3. To reprefent in a true light fome remarkable events which accompanied the propagation of the gofpel, and which were the means of recommeding the books of the New Teftament to a general notice.'

*It is fold by Mr. Millar, in the Strand.

7

4. To give the reader a feparate account of the particular ⚫ defign and import of each of these books, with fome history of the writers, illuftrated with such remarks as may be pro

< per to promote a serious and rational regard to them.

6

5. To prove that these books, whatever changes they might have fuffered by common accidents in a course of many ages, have been fo well preferved as to have undergone no material alterations.

6. To furnish the reader with a particular hiftory of the • various methods of Providence by which these writings have ⚫ been preserved and tranfmitted down to us.'

The two laft mentioned articles of this enquiry are wholly referved for a fecond volume, as well as part of the fourth.

The firft chapter of the first part of this work contains a proof, that there has been a conftant agreement among Chrif tians, concerning the books of [the] New Teftament. For, as Mr. Cockburne obferves, whatever differences Chriflians ⚫ might have had, concerning matters of particular belief or practice, it is certain, that every fect of this profeffion, who could deferve the name, in every age of the church, have agreed to acknowledge a certain number of books as the genuine writings of the apoftles: thefe were not only allowed to contain an authentic account of our Saviour's life and doctrine, but were confidered in a higher rank of authority, as being of a divine original, and compofed under an infal lible direction, and were in this character diftinguished from mere human productions.'-In order to prove this uniform and conftant belief concerning the books of the New Testąment, he produces evidence of it,

r. From the decifions of councils :

2. From the concurrent teftimony of particular writers, and those most approved, in every age of the church.'

In producing the decifions of councils, in confirmation of the canon of the New Teftament, as we now receive it, our author traces the proofs thereof backwards, from the time of the reformation, through many other intermediate ones, up to the council of Carthage, which met anna 397, and is fuppofed to be the third of that name. This fynod, confifting of 217 bithops of the church of Africk, he obferves, reckoned the books of the New Teftament as we now receive them, but is the firft which mentioned the Revelation in this number, tho' retained in all fucceeding ones without exception.-He adds, we have the fame catalogue of the canonical books of the New Teftament, in the 60th canon of the council of Laodicea, held between the years 360 and 370, with this dif

ference,