efting advice on the fubject, and means of ensuring conjugal felicity, concluding this extraordinary treatife :-perhaps the most extraordinary that ever appeared fince the invention of printing.

K-n-k

Preached before

A Paftoral Cordial; or, an Anodyne Sermon*. their Graces N. and D. in the Country. By an Independent Teacher of the Truth. 4to. Is. 6d. Hinxman.

T is no new thing for a Poet to compofe a Sermon. A venerable Bard of antiquity gave us an excellent one against Adultery; and a comical Bard of our own times has here given us one against -it is not eafy to fay what-; nevertheless, it is a droll thing, and well pointed at a variety of objects in the political world."

But, although it may be fomewhat difficult to define this poetical preachment affirmatively, it is no hard matter to fay what it is not; and, among other negatives which may be safely maintained, we run no hazard in venturing to pronounce, that it is no Anodyne. On the contrary, there are perfons upon whom it cannot fail to operate in a very different manner :

Ridiculum acri

Fortius & Meliùs

The great Perfonages hinted at in the title-page, in particular, would hardly fleep under the word; and the Gentlemen of the Cocoa-tree may alfo probably be kept from napping: for our Independent Teacher seems, indeed, to be no respecter either of perfons or parties. Of the Cocobites he gives his opinion in the following terms; fpeaking of the rivalship and oppofition which their Graces have met with :

The men of Cocoa take the lead

Not for their enmity to Pit,

Nor for the love they bear the Tweed,
Nor for their valour, nor their wit;
Nor for their loyalty, in brief,

Which they have very lately flipt on,
But for their faith and firm belief

In fecond fight, and Mother Shipton.

From the following Text.

The battle is not to the strong,
Nor to the swift of foot the race;
But time and chance to all belong,
Whether they're in or out of place.

What

What he means by the laft line is thus ludicrously explained in a Note. "Some Refiners pretend, that the pertinacity, with which the Cocobites, like the Jews, are conftantly looking for a fecond Redeemer, or Meffiah, and that their faith in Mother Shipton, means their zealous attachment to the Church, that is, to the old infallible Church, whofe Infallibility is founded upon Anility: a term ufed by Schoolmen for the most perfect kind of Tradition; for Tradition derived from the most remote age, which is DOTAGE."

Among other smart ftrokes* aimed at the D-es N. and D. are the following;-fome great things as well as perfons, likewife coming in for a jerk or two, en paffant:

Your Graces fhould have been inclin'd

To move like planets in your places,
To plodding one have been confin'd;
One to the circle of grimaces.

I mean oblig'd only to plod,
To plod and not to understand;
No more oblig'd than a white rod
Is bound to be a Conjurer's wand.
A thing defign'd to catch the eye,
That knows no other end or trick,
All that is fignify'd thereby,
Is nothing more than a white stick.

'Tis borne by Chamberlains and Shrieves,

But why I can no more explain,

Than why a Bishop wears lawn fleeves,
Or why a Page must bear his train;

Or why Archbishops should not rather
Give up to God with one accord,

The title of Moft Reverend Father,
And be content with that of Lord.

The principal merit, however, and, indeed, the main fcope of this jocular performance, we apprehend, to confift in the droll balancing of the refpective political weight and influence of the contending par ties; that of the two D-'s, and that of Lord B. or, as the Author expreffes it, fpeaking to their Graces,

Tho' you are worsted in the battle,

There ftill arifes a difpute,

Which may be difficult to fettle,
Who is the weaker, you or Bute?

But, as he facetioufly concludes, it is of little confequence which way the question is determined :

Taking it either way for granted,
Seeing you're out, and he is in,

There's ftill a point to be defcarted;
Whether it fignifies a pin.

Rev. Feb. 1763.

H

Here

Here we have another Note, but in a more ferious strain, on the fignificancy of Prelatical titles. "The title of Most REVEREND Father, fays he, is impious. Surely God the Father is the Father moft worthy of Reverence! As to the title of a Spiritual Lord, I fee no inconvenience in their affuming it; at leaft, like your Grace, or your Worship, it implies no impiety: it only implies nonfenfe. Where is the fenfe of a Spiritual Lord or a Heavenly Lord? All the Lords that we know, are either British Lords, or Irish Lords; carnal, fubftantial, and Terra Firma Lords."

A drole and feasonable hint is thrown out, with respect to the indifference with which we who are not perfonally or privately interested in the grand queftion, who is in, or who is out, ought to regard it. Still addreffing himfelf to their Graces:

If you are treated ill, and put on,

'Tis natural to make a fufs;

To fee it and not care a button,
Is just as natural for us.

Perhaps from men of greater fashion,
Greater profeffions you may draw,

You may extract all their compaffion,
The Extract is not worth a ftraw.

Like people viewing at a distance
Two perfons thrown out of a cafement,
All we can do for your affiftance,
Is to afford you our amazement.

We fee men thrown from a high flory,
And never think the fight's fo odd,
Whether the Patient's Whig or Tory,

But take things as it pleases God.

For an impartial Looker on,

In fuch difafters never chufes,

"I'is neither Tom, nor Will, nor John,

'Tis the phenomenon amufes.

This cannot fail of reminding every one who has read Swift, of a graver reflection of the Dean's to the fame purpose: "Par ty is the madness of many, for the gain of a few."

By this time our Readers will perceive that this Independent Teacher of Truth, is not quite a new acquaintance. The fimilitude of manner between the prefent work and the Crazy Tales*, the Two Lyric Epiftlest, and one or two other pieces of a like kind, will naturally point out this merry Parfon of Parnassus ; whom we can with pleasure compliment on his having now ap

* See Review, vol. XXVI. page 4.50%

Ibid, vol. XXII. p. 437.

proved himself, more than heretofore, both merry and wife: there being no indecency mingled with the well-timed levity of this agreeable and exhilarating Anodyne.

Obfervations on Dr. Hunter's Medical Commentaries. By J. Garnor, M. D. 8vo. 6d. Sandby.

TH

HIS Gentleman, who very cavalierly affumes the character of a Connoiffeur, or rather of a Hypercritic, in Anatomy, fubfcribes to Dr. Hunter's prior injection of the human Teftis, to his being the firft pofitive Affertor of the Abforption of the Lymphatics; and to his earliest Demonstration of the Ducts of the Lachrymal Glands: of courfe difallowing young Mr. Profeffor Monro's claim to any discovery on thefe heads. But left the Writer of the Commentaries fhould be credited with a compleat advantage in the debate, Dr. Garnor employs twenty-fix pages in attempting to prove, from Haller and others, that the veins containing the red blood, do alfo abforb. This truly is a piece of as empty parade as we can recollect to have seen in print; fince Dr. Hunter has only doubted, but not denied, the abforbing faculty of the red veins; exprefsly faying, “Authors of the beft credit had given fuch arguments in favour of Abforption by veins, that I dared not, even in my own mind, determine the question." To what purpose then have we fo many fuperfluous quotations from different Anatomifts, with scarcely one valuable* argument or obfervation of Dr. Garnor's

own?

"But

We can recollect but one difcovery of our Author's, and of which he only feems almoft fure. It occurs exprefsly in these words. their orifices, [thofe of the Lacteals] opening into the inteftines, very probably, are larger than thofe of the venal branches, and, therefore, would not fo readily be closed, by a conftricting cause, would more eafily imbibe the injected liquid. Befides, they were not wounded, like the veins.". Now we are informed by different Anatomifts, that the orifices of the Lacteals are fo extremely fmall, as not to be difcernible through the largest magnifying glaffes. And for this reafon an eminent medical Author thinks, the Archæus which Helmont was for placing in the ftomach, as a kind of intelligent Guardian of the conftitution, should have been stationed, about thefe orifices of the Lacteals; from the very interefting circumftance of their being the inlet or aperture into the general mass of blood; by which all the vital functions were to be fuftained; from which all the neceffary fecretions were to be made; and into which nothing that was incompatible with thefe purposes was defigned to be admitted. We are at a lofs, therefore, to imagine, what fuperabundant magnifier Dr. Garnor availed himself of, to make this

H 2

fuppofition,

own? Some of thefe cited and tranflated paffages are probably the fame, which have prevented Dr. Hunter's determining the queftion in his own mind. But though this laft Author may justly claim a philofophical liberty of diffenting, with decency, from Baron Haller, or any eminent Anatomist, on any anatomical or phyfiological point; yet we humbly conceive, the liberty affumed by our prefent Author, to interfere in fuch a debate, and pretend to determine between them, is principally or folely found ed on the liberty of the prefs. Dr. Hunter and Dr. Monro are both fated to be wrong, on different topics of their late debate, that Dr. Garnor, who has appointed himself Umpire between them, may be unexceptionably and fovereignly right. To give him, his full due, in the civileft terms, he is not guilty of the leaft felf-diffidence on this occafion; and all the reflection we fhall make on fuch a conduct, may be aptly couched in two words,Rifum teneatis?

But our Author, not content with having rendered himself thefe extraordinary honours, endeavours to give equal evidences of his fuperiority in language and criticifm; obferving very floridly," The dress of language, in which this production [the Commentaries] is exhibited to the eye of the public, is tarnished with a few ftains." His profound inveftigation then discovers has printed instead of have, (Comment. p. 84) its omitted after and, p. 59.—a no, which he knows not how to digest, p. 40.and the expreffion of the laceration of the bag in a rupture, p. 71: which he very archly fuppofes must fignify, "that the rupture, is poffeffed of a lacerated bag:" but which certainly proves the Suppofer poffeffed, not with the fpirit of criticifm, but of caviling, Thefe ftains are the fum of what his utmost efforts have difcovered, in upwards of a hundred large pages in quarto. And were the Commentator, to give him up thefe few fyllables, as fo many crumbs of fubfiftence, what wonderful comfort could they afford him; or what triumph could they add to his critical. Rowers? There was not the leaft fear of his ftopping once at the remaining hundred pages, to point out any excellence or elegance. This is utterly inverting the conduct of Horace as a Critic, who immediately overlooks a few blemishes, where he difcerns many beauties: but, perhaps Dr. Garnor intends to reform Horace's manner of criticizing; as well as to perfect Dr. Hunter and Dr. Monro in the fcience of Anatomy. The whole truth, however, is, that his exceptions are, for the most part, mere quibbling.

fuppofition, (which feems a mere fuppofition to us) fo very probable to. himself. Perhaps it might have fome analogical proportion to that metaphyfical magnifier, through which he may have beheld the extent of his own abilities.

For