But the chief fource of his calamities was the malignity of his foes. Inferior to him in abilities, they were fuperior in cunning, and all the infidious arts which need no inftructer but a bad heart. The world loves to triumph over a great fpirit in its fall, and avenge itself of that fuperiority which it displayed in its luftre. Hence, when he dedicated his oratory to the Paraclete, or Holy Spirit, the malignant zealots of the age found him guilty of herefy. "A church," faid thefe diabolical faints," may be dedicated to the Holy "Trinity, or to the Son, but not to the Father or the Spi rit." He had written on the Trinity, and attempted to explain myfteries which are above all human comprehenfion. Although he had not departed from the doctrine of the church, he was again found guilty of herely, and condemned with his own hands to commit his 'book to the flames. If he vifited Heloifa in the Paraclete, which he had erected for her pious retreat; "Yes," faid his enemies, with a malignant fimile, "a eunuch can do fomething." If he forbore to vifit her, he was accused of cruelty and hardheartedness. Perfecution followed him to the defert; and the heart of Abeillard never knew repofe till it ceased to throb. Among the extraordinary characters that illuftrated or difgraced this period, our author diftinguishes Arnold of Brefcia, and Tanchelm of Antwerp. The firft viewed the depraved manners of the age, and the intemperate lives of the monks and clergy, with the zeal of a reformer; and, af fuming the guife of fanctity, and the auftere drefs of the religious orders, opened his invectives and exhortations in the treets of Brefcia. He directed his zealous declamations against the bishops, the clergy, the monks, and even the Roman pontiff himfelf. After various turns of fortune, after having been put to filence, and condemned to exile, he found that fuccefs had attended his exertions; that the pope had retired; and that the gates of the capital were open to receive him. Arnold took fire at the news; and he fancied that, like Junius Brutus, he was called on once more to give liberty to Rome. Senfible of his influence, he harangued the people; he talked of their forefathers, the ancient Ro mans, who, by the wifdom of their fenate, and the valour of their armies, had fubdued the moft diftant nations of the earth. He dwelt on the names and the atchievements of the Bruti, the Gracchi, and the Scipios; and, of these men, faid he, are not you the children? He spoke of the pope as of a depofed and banished tyrant: " But fhould you again "be difpofed," continued he," to admit him within thefe ENG. REV. Vol. IX. April 1787. walls, T walls, firft fix your own rights, and determine his. He is but your bishop; let him therefore have his fpiritual ju"rifdiction. The government of Rome, its civil establish"ments, and its territories, belong to you. These you will "keep, if you have the fpirit of men, and the heart of "Romans." Fired by this harangue, the people, headed by the most difaffected of the nobles, attacked the few cardinals and churchmen who remained in the city; fet fire to the palaces, and compelled the citizens to fwear obedience to the new government. Eugenius, the pope, at laft interpofed; and, after having excommunicated the ringleaders of the faction, marched against the enemy, and foon restored peace. But for a fcholar of Abeillard to have formed the idea of attacking the Roman pontiff in the very centre of his power, and concerted a plan of restoring the republic of Rome to its pristine glory, presents a phenomenon in the twelfth century. Tanchelm, of Antwerp, was a fanatic as extraordinary in his way; but fanatics are the production of every age. Having beheld Heloifa as a lover and a heroine, let us finish the picture by contemplating her as a faint. Abeillard had enjoined fome fevere regulations with regard to the conventual life, fuch as abftinence from particular meats, and from wine; Heloifa, in reply, expreffès the fentiments of a philofopher and an enlightened Chriftian. Truly, thofe things are of little value which neither prepare us for the kingdom of God, nor at all recommend us to his mercy. Such are all external practices, which are common to the reprobate and the faint, to the hypocrite and the fincere Chriftian. It was the diftinction of external and internal works which made fo wide a difference between the Chriftian and the Jew. The apofile determines charity to be the fulfilling and the end of the law; and it is by this virtue alone that the fons of God are known from the fons of the devil. He even utterly annuls the value of fuch works to enhance the merit of faith and internal re&titude. Read his addrefs to the Jews in the epifle to the Romans. He permitted the ufe of all meats; it was only the danger of fcandal which he advifed to be avoided. His writings every where inculcate thefe maxims. And did not our Saviour himself, when he fent out his disciples to preach, use the fame indulgence? If ever, caution was then peculiarly neceffary; yet he told them to eat and drink whatever the hofpitable kindness of their friends fhould fet before them. It is true, Paul forefaw that the time would come when men would depart from this difcipline of his Mafter and of himfelf. Thus he writes to Timothy: The Spirit faith plainly, that, in the latter times, fome fhall depart from the faith, giving ear to the fpirits of error, and to the doctrines of devils; forbidding to marry, commanding to abftain from meats, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by them them who believe, and who know the truth; for every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected which is taken with thanksgiving.' If external appearances be regarded, John and his difciples, with their wonderful abftinence and macerations, may be preferred to Christ and his apoftles. They themselves feemed conscious of a fuperiority when, murmuring, they faid "Why do we and the Pharifees faft fo much, while thy difciples do not faft?" St. Austin is full upon this matter; and, reflecting how much the reality exceeded the femblance of virtue, he boldly pronounces that external actions fuoperadd nothing to the merit of our internal difpofitions. I refer you to his writings. Virtue alone is pleafing in the fight of God. They who equally poffefs it will from his hands receive the fame reward, though their actions may widely vary. It will be the employment, then, of the true Chriflian to attend to his heart; there to plant the feeds of virtue, and from it to eradicate vice. What may be the fhew of his actions, he will be little folicitous. We read that the apostles, even in the company of their Master, were so ruftic and ill-bred, that, regardless of common decofum, as they paffed through the corn-fields, they plucked the ears, and ate them, like children. Nor did they waf their hands before they fat down to table. "To eat with unwashed hands," faid our Saviour to those who were offended, " doth not defile a man ;" and he inftantly added what thofe things were which bring defilement with them, "evil thoughts, homicides, adulteries," &c.thefe come from the heart, and they defile a man.' If the mind be not previously corrupted, that is, if the will be not vicious, no actions can be bad. That is the fource of evil. If we be ftudious to please Him, who is the fearcher of hearts, and who reads our fecrets, it is the motive of our actions that we fhall be careful to regulate. The widow's mite was more acceptable than all the fplendid offerings of the rich. He, who does not need our fervices, regards the intention, and not the gift. "The Lord looked kindly on Abel and his offerings;" he faw the difpofition with which he came, and he was well pleafed." The difpofition is more grateful to Heaven when the action which accompanies it engages less of our attention: Let us then determine to learn Christian prudence, and to imitate rather Jacob, who entertained his father with a difh of homely food, while Efau was beating the woods in queft of rarities. I love not pharifaical maxims. David fays, "The vows I make to thee, O Lord, are within my heart; from thence I will praife thee." And does not the poet Perfius fay, Ne te quæfiveris extra, Look not for thyfelf from home! It would be endlefs to quote the opinions of all those authors, profane and facred, who fhew us the infignificancy of outward per formances. The contrary doctrine would tend to bring back Judaifm; to fubftitute the works of the law, and its intolerable flavery, for the liberty of the gospel, and to the fweet yoke of Christ, and his light burden. Yet our Saviour himself called us to this new profeffion. We know what, in "The Acts of the Apoftles," was faid to thofe unwife Chriftians who wifhed to retain the practices of the law. Do you then, Abeillard, follow Chrift in his indulgent maxims; imitate that apostle whofe name you bear, proportioning your precepts to the weaknefs of our nature. Allow us ample time to celebrate the praises of our Maker. This is the facrifice which is most pleafing to him. He rejected the flesh of bulls and the blood of goats; but the offering of praife he accepted, and he liftened to the vows of the heart.' When we compare the letters of Abeillard and Heloifa, we are furprised to find that the lady not only excels in elegance of tafte, but in philosophy and in theology. There is fometimes a native elegance in the female mind, which, when cultivated by an acquaintance with the claffics, fhoots fpontaneously into all the forms of mental improvement and moral beauty. We make no doubt but that the amiable, the he roic, though romantic character of Abeillard's wife, fuggested to Rouffeau the idea of the new Heloifa. Mr. Berington makes fome obfervations on Pope's Epiftle from Heloifa to Abeillard; they are of the critical kind; we mean to make fome of a moral nature. The indelicacy of that poem is indeed fo grofs as equally to offend our mo defty and our tafte. What means this tumult in a veftal's veins? This is, indeed, the text on which the whole poem is a commentary. Was the recital of Abeillard's woes, after an absence of many years, to excite no other effect in his wife than a tumult in her veins? A naked lover bound and bleeding lies. Where, where was Eloife? her voice, her hand, An elegant painter would have thrown this operation into the fhade; but Pope makes it the principal figure of the piece, and places it on the foreground. Various fcenes in the hiftory of Abeillard have been defcribed by the pencil, but this has hitherto been omitted. Nothing fhould be defcribed by the pen that decency forbids to display with the pencil. This circumftance is ftill uppermoft in her mind; For thee the fates, feverely kind, ordain Come, Come, Abelard! And love's warm tide for ever ftopt in thee. The moft abandoned ftrumpet that walks the ftreet could not have conceived or uttered any thing fo grofs as thefe laft lines. Still on that breast enamour'd let me lie, Whoever will take the trouble to compare the original letters with Pope's imitation, will discover what wondrous pains he has taken to turn a fine woman, a penitent, and a faint, into a common prostitute. Mr. Berington's ftyle is animated and poetical, but juvenile, flowery, and fometimes affected. He indulges too much to his imagination, and requires the calm and correcting hand of criticism. As an enlightened and philofophical catholic he merits praife; as the hiftorian of a romantic period, he is entitled to much approbation; as a writer, his Byle poffeffes many beauties, clouded with many faults, We frequently meet with words that our language has not adopted; and with affected and tumid phrafes that criticifm difavows. If he purfues his hiftorical researches, as he has promised, he must learn to reftrain the flights of his ima gination, and prune the luxuriancies of his pen, ART. VIII. Obfervations on the Circulation of the Blood, and on the Effects of Bleeding. By John Hunt, a Member of the Corporation of Surgeons. 8vo. ftitched. 2s. Johnson. London, 1787. THE difcovery of the circulation of the blood is an im portant epoch in the hiftory of phyfic, and to it we are entirely indebted for all the fubfequent improvements in phyfiology, fo intimately connected with the rational practice of that art. An event which exploded the fantaftic theories of former times, afforded a powerful incitement to ingenuity to fupply the void of fcience, and establish a fyftem of fpeculative doctrines more confonant to the recent attainments in natural knowledge. Mechanical philofophy at the fame time extending its influence over Europe, phyficians were induced to adopt the principles of this fcience, T 3 for |