in his laft page,-whether he fhould confider "this volume as ftill born, or fay of it, exegi monumentum." 66 In the firft fermon, which was preached after the interment of the Earl of Leven, June 20, 1802; Dr. Martin, from Pfalm cxii. 6. firft confiders "the claims of the righteous to an endeared and honourable name;" next, "the perpetuity of their fame;" and concludes with " exhorting his audience to cherish and preferve the memory of the righteous, especially of the EARL OF LEVEN AND MEL VILLE. Among the claims of the righteous to an ho-. nourable name, conjugal affection is particularly infifted on. "Hufbands love your wives," fays the Scripture. Nor is this more the command of God and the dictate of infpiration, than the fuggeftion, and the imperious call of propriety, and generofity and fenfibility. The carelefs and indifferent in this relation, not to fay the harsh and undutiful, cannot be esteemed or vindicated, whatever other claims may be fet up, or supposed, to command the respect and homage of the world. Where there is a defect of affection to the friend of one's bofom, the companion for life, the partner of his fortunes, the common parent of his children, there is a want of the beft fentiments of the heart, and the worthieft qualities of human nature. Female delicacy, and affection, and fenfibility, command and fecure tender affection, and unfhaken confidence; and, therefore, the pureft and moft permanent enjoyment. "Live joyfully with the wife whom thou loveft," fays the wife man; nor limits the period but with death; "for that is thy portion in this life," adds he, "and in thy "labour which thou takeft under the fun." She is endeared to a difcerning and worthy man, by many confiderations. He beft knows her good qualities: her happiness is greatly, I had almost faid wholly, in his power: her interefts are interwoven with his. But, efpecially, we perceive her claims on his tendereft affection, in every image fhe brings into the world, of herself, and of their father. Their lifping tongues are eloquent, and fuccefsfully plead for all his love. In what he has felt, in what the feels, in what she will feel, for them; in all their ails and joys, in all their conditions, acquirements and character, in all their calamities and all their happinefs; fhe filently, but effectually, renews, and heightens and fecures that conjugal character; that union of every the moft amiable fentiment, that fecures to her husband the esteem and approbation of the wife and good." P. 7. It is needlefs, perhaps, to inform our readers, that the fermon on "the praife of female piety" was "preached after the interment of the Right Hon. WILHELMINA, COUNTESS OF LEVEN AND MELVILLE!" The text is Prov. xxxi. 30. from which the Doctor discourses, 1. “On the fear of the Lord in general;" 2. "On its claim to respect refpeft and praife in the female character;" and 3. "Ot the praife to which a pious woman is entitled, and which. the fhall affuredly enjoy." From this difcourfe we extract the following paragraph, as a fair fpecimen of the author's manner, and becaufe no man could have publifhed it in a fermon, who did not himself think it very fine. It is, indeed, of no middle character: it is either very fine, or very defpicable. "The text brings in view favour and beauty, not to depreciate them in themfelves; for religion and good fenfe, no more than difcernment and good taste, do not neglect or despise symme try of form, delicacy of feature, expreffion of countenance, and all the nameless charms of a beautiful woman. But when, I befeech you, is a beautiful woman most beautiful? Is it not when the mind appears in the body; when the face is the mirror in which we behold the virtues and graces that adorn the foul; when gentleness, compofure, dignity; when generofity, compaffion, tenderness, and all the varying affections of good will; above all, when devotion, with its varying, and amiable, and hea venly affections, are fweetly and naturally expreffed, unconscious the while herself of the regard the commands? The homage due to excellence is cheerfully paid in the admiration and praises of a beautiful woman. In our high esteem and forward praife, we are led to think of a more blessed fociety, where mildness, and grace, and perfection reign. How naturally we do fo, we per. ceive, in fancy and the fine arts employing the beauties of the female form and female grace to reprefent the angels of God; the ferenity and dignity, the benevolence and devotion of the inhabitants of heaven." P. 66. · From these two extracts the reader will form his owni opinion of Dr. Martin's ftyle; for the apology which he makes for "the marks of hafte that may appear in the first difcourfe," cannot be admitted. However much his time may have been occupied " in the week preceding the fermon being preached," two years paffed away froin its being preached before it was publifhed; and during that period, any marks of hafte which appeared on the original com. pofition, might furely have been removed. We fhall now give a fpecimen of his fkill in logic, as well as of his acquaintance with a point of fome importance, which he un dertakes to difcufs in his fourth fermon. The fubject of the fermon is " Attachment to the Church of Scotland," which, from 1 Cor. i. 10. he preffes on his audience with great propriety and fome effect; but the following paragraphs do not, furely, indicate a Mafter in Ifrael. Perhaps "Perhaps I fhould not have mentioned on this occafion, our preference of the prefbyterian to the epifcopal churches, in which beyond all queftion, are men eminent and diftinguished for their piety and learning, their zeal and exemplary behaviour, had not, even at this enlightened period, in this age of liberality and en larged philanthropy, the long exploded bigotry of unchurching us altogether been revived, and affiduously propagated; and all but epifcopal orders, in one sense of the word epifcopal,' been re prefented as null and void, as intrufion and ufurpation. This is a doctrine fo very abfurd, that one fhould think it could never have been contrived or broached, not to fay maintained and propagated, by any who are acquainted with the first principles of moral fçience: a doctrine fo harth and cruel, one fhould think, as never to be entertained one moment by thofe who are acquainted with that bleffed fyftem which God hath given to man, kind: "God hath not given us the fpirit of fear," of unmanly "of fuperftition and bigotry," but of power and of love, and of a found mind." "Preferving all due refpect for the epifcopal churches, we obferve, That we do not fee from the beginning any distinction betwixt bishops and prefbyters, between prefbyterian and epif copal powers. We fee a greater conformity, in many things, among epifcopal churches, to that church which we all left at the Reformation, than we think can accord with the fimplicity of the primitive and apoftolical churches. We know alfo, that the great objects of edification and holiness, of comfort and joy, in the religious life, are promoted as completely by the labours of those overfeers of the flock of Chrift, who are diftinguished in our day by the name of prefbyters, as by theirs who are fet apart for the work of the miniftry by an uninterrupted fucceffion of mitred heads; and on whom, not grace only, but the very existence of the human foul, has been reprefented as de. pending." P. 137. Perhaps we have ftudied the controverfy concerning the validity of prefbyterian orders, with as much impartiality and diligence as Dr. Martin, and read as many works on both fides of the question; but the information communicated in the laft fentence of this extract, is quite new to us, and fuch as we more than suspect that our author could not authenticate. Dodwell, to whom in a note he seems to refer, has no where reprefented "the existence of the human foul as depending on the miniftry of mitred heads;" and though that great, and let us add, good man, has indeed advanced fome very extravagant notions in his " epiftolary difcourfe on the foul," we are not fure, but "the Commiffioner's minifter" might be as well employed in ftudy L BRIT, CRIT, VOL, XXVI, AUG. 1805. ing ing his works*, as in writing fulfome encomiums upon dead and living peers and peereffes. From those works he might certainly learn, that the reality of a matter of fact can never be ascertained merely by admitting the firft principles of moral Science; that the controverfy between epifcopalians and prefbyterians, is altogether about a matter of fact; and that it is not by studying the ten commandments, that a man can make himself master of ancient history, whether civil or ecclefiaftical! Moft of our readers, indeed, as well presbyterians as epifcopalians, will probably be of opinion, that though, in this extract, the author, as he fays himself, fpeaks in a firm tone," he speaks nonfenfe; and that when he fhall choose to enter the lifts of controversy, he will do well to engage with an antagonist of very inferior powers to thofe of Dodwell, left inftead of 66 . "Monumentum ære perennius," he exhibits only "Genus ftultitiæ "Per medios, fluviosque ruentis." ignes ART. V. The Lay of the Laft Minfirel. A Poem. By Walter Scott, Efq. 4to. 519 pp. Il. 5s. Conftable, Edinburgh: Longman and Co. London. 1805. T is a very legitimate part of the fkill of a poet when he is able to exalt his own family and friends, at the fame time that he difplays his inventive and amufing powers. This Mr. Scott has completely effected in the prefent poem; which is no lefs a celebration of the Scotts of Bucleugh, or Buckcleuch, and among them of Sir Walter Scott, from whom, we prefume, both his names are derived, than an illuftration of thofe manners with which he made us acquainted If it can with truth be faid of any man, that "much learning made him mad," it may certainly be faid of Dodwell. His knowledge of ancient philofophy, and of the opinions of the Christian Fathers, has feldom, if ever, been furpaffed; while his ingenuity was equal to his erudition. In judgment he was defective; but even amid his wildeft paradoxes, truths are fcattered, and hints thrown out, worthy of more attention than at prefent feems to be paid to them. in his delightful "Minftrelfy of the Scottish Border;"* and, at the fame time, a fair victory over his old bards in their own ftyle of compofition. We cannot conceive more talents and addrefs to be fhown in attaining these several ends, than are exerted in this pleafing poem: which at once gratifies curiofity on the fubject of manners, interefts the mind in the events of the tale, and excites admiration from the beauty and originality of the poetry. The Minstrel introduced to our notice by this poet is fupposed to have furvived the revolution, and to be travelling near a caftle, fome time the residence of the Dukes of Buccleugh, called Newark t, on the river Yarrow, in SelkirkThire. The dutchefs who receives him is the widow of the Duke of Monmouth, and he fings his lay in honour of the Scotts of Buccleuch. The lay is divided into fix cantos, which are fo many natural paufes in the fong. The description of the old Minstrel, and his admiffion at the caftle is good; but ftill better, to our tafle, his diffidence, and trials of All when he begins to entertain his noble audience. "Amid the ftrings his fingers ftrayed, And an uncertain warbling made- But when he caught the measure wild, The old man raised his face and smiled; In varying cadence, foft or ftrong, 'Twas thus the LATEST MINSTREL fung." P. 8. * See British Critic, vol. XIX. p. 570. + The caftle of Newark upon Yarrow, is mentioned in the notes to the Minstrelfy of the Scottish Border; vol. I. p. 3. It is there faid to have ftood," in a romantic and folitary fituation, on the claffical banks of the Yarrow." In the ballad we read of "five hundred men fhooting with bows on Newark Lee." The prefent poem is the best of all possible comments Border Minstrelly. L 2 P. 8. on the This |