profeffion of Chriftianity cannot be upheld without a clergy; a clergy cannot be fupported without a legal provifion; a legal provifion for the clergy cannot be conftituted without the preference of one fect of Chriftians to the reft: and the conclufion will be fatisfactory in the degree in which the truth of these feveral propofitions has been made out.' In all Mr. Paley's arguments on this fubject, we perceive fo strong a conviction of the utility of establishments, that we fear, in fome eyes, it will detract from the merit of his work. We have repeatedly perufed his arguments with attention, but we can detect no error. We fhall tranfcribe a paffage, as a fpecimen of his reafoning on thefe fubjects. After the fate has once eftablished a particular fyftem of faith as a national religion, a queftion will foon occur, concerne ing the treatment and toleration of those who diffent from it. And this question is properly preceded by another, concerning the right which the civil magiftrate poffeffes to interfere in matters of religion at all; for although this right be acknowledged whilft he is employed folely in providing means of public instruction, it will probably be difputed, indeed it ever has been, when he proceeds to inflict penalties, to impofe restraints or incapacities on the account of religious diftinctions. They who acknowledge no other juft original of civil government, than what is founded in fome ftipulation with its fubjects, may with probability contend that the concerns of religion were excepted out of the focial compact; that in an affair which is tranfacted between God and man's own confcience, no commiffion or authority was ever delegated to the civil magiftrate, or could indeed be transferred from the perfon himself to any other. We, however, who have rejected this theory, because we cannot discover any actual contract between the state and the people, and becaufe we cannot allow an arbitrary fiction to be made the foundation of real rights and of real obligations, find ourselves precluded from this diftinction. The reafoning which deduces the authority of civil government from the will of God, and which collects that will from public expediency alone, binds us to the unreferved conclufion, that the jurifdiction of the magiftrate is limited by no confideration but that of general utility in plainer terms, that whatever be the fubject to be regulated, it is lawful for him to interfere, whenever his interference, in its general tendency, appears to be conducive to the common intereft. There is nothing in the nature of religion, as fuch, which exempts it from the authority of the legislator, when the fafety or welfare of the community requires his interpofition, It has been faid indeed, that religion, pertaining to the interefts of a life to come, lies out of the province of civil government, the office of which is confined to the affairs of this life. But in reply to this objection, it may be obferved, that when the laws interfere even in religion, they interfere only with tem temporals: their effects terminate, their power acts only upon thofe rights and interefts, which confefedly belong to their difpofal. The refolutions of the legislature, the edicts of the prince, the fentence of the judge, cannot affect my falvation ; nor do they, without the moft abfurd arrogance, pretend to any fuch power but they may deprive me of liberty, of property, and even of life itself, on account of my religion; and however I may complain of the injuftice of the fentence, by which I am condemned, I cannot alledge, that the magistrate has tranfgreffed the boundaries of his jurifdiction, because the pro perty, the liberty, and the life of the fubject, may be taken, away by the authority of the laws, for any reafon, which, in the judgment of the legislature, renders fuch a measure neceffary to the common welfare. Moreover, as the precepts of religion may regulate all the offices of life, or may be fo conftrued as to extend to all, the exemption of religion from the control of human laws might afford a plea, which would exclude civil government from all authority over the conduct of its fubjects. Religious liberty is like civil liberty, not an immunity from reftraint, but the being restrained by no law, but what in a greater degree conduces to the public welfare.' The next fubjects of attention are Population and Provifion; and of Agriculture and Commerce as fubfervient thereto.' The remarks on population are not new, but they are fo plainly and connectedly delivered, that their force will probably be felt more fenfibly than when they have appeared in other forms. The moit ftriking and ufeful part of this chapter is, on the connection between population and employment; and again, on that between population and trade, even where no one article of human fubfiftence is imported. There are few speculations more pleafing, than to trace these remote connections in fubjects fo greatly fubfervient to human happinefs, and almoft to our existence. We would, on account of ite intrinfic merit, ftrongly recommend this part of Mr. Paley's work. The chapter concludes with mentioning fome impedi ments to agriculture; among which are the rights of common, (he fhould rather have faid manerial rights, for those of common are not fo generally injurious) and tythes. The laft operate, in Mr. Paley's opinion, as a bounty on pafturage, and • The burthen of the tax falls with its chief, if not with its whole weight, upon tillage; that is to fay, upon that precife mode of cultivation, which, as it hath been shown above, it is the business of the state to relieve and remunerate, in preference to every other. No measure of fuch extenfive concern, appears to me fo practicable, nor any fingle alteration fo beneficial, as the converfion of tithes into corn-rents. This com mutation, I am convinced, might be fo adjusted, as to fecure to the tithe-holder a complete and perpetual equivalent for his VOL. LX. Sept. 1785. intereft, P intereft, and to leave to induftry its full operation and entire reward.' The volume concludes with Remarks on War and Military Establishments; but, as the pen of the moralift will be little regarded in the eager claims of contending nations, we need not enlarge on this fubject. That part of the chapter which is more interesting, as it relates more nearly to domestic polity, and of courfe to human happiness, is on the comparative advantages and disadvantages of a standing army? These are enumerated with judgment and propriety. We have now purfued our author, in a brief detail, through this large volume, in which we have found much to praife, and little, very little, to blame. Thofe, indeed, who may be more diffatisfied than ourselves with feparate parts, fhould read the whole with attention; for the reasoning is conducted with fo much art and precifion, the connections are so minute, that we fometimes begin to doubt of the corollary, though we afterwards find it drawn with accuracy, from an unexceptionable propofition. We mention this precaution against hafty and partial criticifm, because we have been more than once on the brink of the precipice. We need not now repeat thofe commendations which we have fo freely intermixed with our account of the work itself; and we fhall only add, that the language is as clear and accurate as the principles are juft and unexceptionable. It is always to be diftinguished for its precision, and that kind of elegance, which arifes from proper words in proper places.' There are few fentences which a critic would wish to amend ; and there is fometimes an expreffive energy, which few could reach. La Pucelle; or, the Maid of Orleans: From the French of Voltaire. The First Canto. 4to. 25. Wilkie. THOS HOSE works whofe merit depend on the brilliancy of wit, the acutenefs of fatire, and peculiar turns of language,. are tranflated with difficulty, and their beauties are very imperfectly preferved. On this account, the humorous works of Swift, the inimitable Hudibras, and fome others of the fame kind,, lofe their fpirit in the tranflation; and our neighbours, with little fuccefs, look for that humour wirh which we are fo much delighted. La Pucelle, on the contrary, has hitherto had no proper reprefentative in English; and we approach only to the fprightlinefs and fimplicity of Fontaine. In our forty-ninth volume, we reviewed a probationary canto of the former, which ftepped forward with an epic dignity, and feemed Our prefent translator His Hudibrafic fuits and his fancy is ready to difdain the quirks, the quips, and wanton fmiles,' of the original. It was Cato at the Floralia. comes nearer the author in his form. better with the comic vein of the story, to finish what Voltaire fometimes leaves incomplete: yet, on the whole, he is a faithful, and often a happy, tranflator. He has with-held the rest of the poem, from a diffidence of fuccefs but profeffes that he is not ftudious of profit,' though his affluence is not fufficient to make him indifferent to lofs. There are two very refpectable defcriptions of men to whom the translator muft particularly addrefs himself: the periodical critics, who avow themfelves the guardians of the public talle; and the men of grave characters, who, alarmed at the name of Voltaire, may, on this occafion, feel themselves the guardians, and prepare to enter the lifts as the champions, of the public morals. To the former the tranflator muft announce himfelf the writer of amusement, and not of profeffion; but he wishes not, under any pretences, to obtain more than his due, and his object is not to preclude criticifm, but to depreciate feverity. Acquainted with the original, the ftyle of which, like that of all fatyrical writings in French verfe, is clofe, compreft, and abrupt; they must be fenfible of the difficulties of the undertaking, and it is only for the indulgences to which these may be entitled, that he prefumes to folicit. If, therefore, in adapting the poem to an English drefs, the tranflator has here and there been tempted to ufe fome little latitude in the conflruction, he has only to throw himself on the candour of his judges, and to hope that he has neither been fo frequent, nor fo licentious in the use of it, as to deftroy the general fenfe and spirit of the author, to amplify his compreffion into weakness, or overlay the character of his wit with fuperfluous ornament. To the latter, the tranflator finds it lefs difficult to addrefs himself, for his literary delinquency he feels to be greater than his moral. The Pucelle is ufually marked with the most exceptionable of its extraordinary author's productions, but the translator cannot fubfcribe to the propriety of this difpofition; he allows, indeed, that the poet's wit is fometimes too wanton, and his fatire fometimes too undiftinguifhing; but the frippery of a declining fu perftition, the abufes and corruptions of popery in particular, and of prieftcraft in general, feem to be the juft object of the one; and to entertain the fancy rather than taint the mind, is the obvious tendency of the other. It was under this aspect of the work, that the tranflation was undertaken, in which the tranflator trufts nothing will appear to juftify claffing him amongst the open, or the infidious, enemies of virtue or religion.' We have preferved the author's defence entire, because we think it candid, and in general juft; but we fear, that though P 2 the the objections to this poem are foftened by his fatire being called too undiftinguishing, and his licentious wantonnefs entertainment of the fancy, yet, together, they have raised such a hoft of enemies, as to prevent the fuccefs of a translation. While we are pleased with the author's wit, and amused with his descriptions, we cannot approve of undistinguishing attacks or lively fancy. No one, as Mr. Paley obferves, can answer to a fneer, or obviate the effect of a warm defcription by a moral leffon. It is, however, our present business to examine the tranflation; not to fit in judgment on the original. As the author had prepared us for a little amplification, we were not surprised to find an additional couplet, to express a word or two, which could not be introduced into the former one; we were generally amused at the eafy flow of verfification, and often at the happy imitation of the original. But the following lines, though lively and harmonious, are a little too far extended for the original, which we have fubjoined. Le diner fait, on digère, on raisonne, Le couple heureux s'enyvre encor d'amour." The scene now fhifts, the grave Sorbonne } |