against the bad practices of defigning or fuperftitious men, added but two poffitive duties, and thofe of very plain and easy fignificancy; and, in their defign and operation, perfective of the Chriftian life. "Add to all this that other great doctrine of the Gospel, on which all our expectations of future happiness feem to turn, and that is the mercy and placability of the Deity, who, though of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, has yet affured us, that if we endeavour, faithfully and fincerely, to do his will, and, from human frailty, fail in the performance, he will confider, and compaffionate, and forgive our mifcarriages, through the mediation and redemption of Chrift Jefus *.” Speaking of the worthy Archbishop's character in private life, our Editor observes that. "No master was ever more carefully obeyed, or more cordially lamented, than he was by all his fervants; and indeed he deferved it. He fhewed himfelf a fort of father to them, by making in his will a very handfome provifion for all thofe, who had lived any time with him. "In the year 1753 he was feized with a violent fever at Lambeth house, which brought him to the brink of the grave. And though he did in foine measure recover, yet from that time he might be rather faid to languish than to live. He retired to Croydon, declined all public bufinefs, as far as he could, and faw little other company than his relations and particular friends. "After languifhing, as we have obferved, for about four years, he calmly refigned his foul into the hands of his Creator on March 13, 1757, and was buried in a private manner in the vault of Croydon church, according to the exprefs direction of his will. "Though he abfolutely forbad a monument, it is hoped that this small one to his memory, of his own raifing, will neither be unaceptable to his friends or the public. "He left to the incorporated fociety for the relief of the widows and fons of poor clergymen, the fum of one thoufand pounds. And to the mafter and fellows of Corpus Chrifti college, in Cambridge, for the time being, the fum of one thou The bishop of Bangor's fermon before the incorporated Society for propagating the Gofpel in foreign parts, February 17, 1737-8. X 3 fand fand pounds, old South-fea annuity ftock, intending it (to ufe his own words) as his acknowledgment for favours conferred on his relations, and as his contribution towards rebuilding the faid college. But if, after the lapfe of a competent number of years, no profpect arifes of building the faid college, then the dividends and favings on the faid stock are to be difpofed of at the difcretion of the Mafter, in the neceflary repairs of the old house, or in acts of charity, fuch as helping poor scholars, or honeft decayed fervants." We are alfo told that he laid out above 6000 pounds in repairing and adorning the houses and gardens at Lambeth and Croydon. We must not conclude without citing a circumstance mentioned by the Editor, which reflects peculiar honour on the Archbishop's memory, viz. that the dignities conferred on him, were all unfolicited, and owing folely to his merit, which alone recommended him. With respect to the fermons here reprinted, as this is not their first publication, we are not to enter into a particular account of them; they are already in the hands of the public, and are fufficiently known: but for the fatisfaction of such as may not have feen them, we fhall juft mention the occafions on which they were delivered. The firft Difcourfe was preached before the incorporated Society for the propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts. The fecond, before the Governors of the feveral hofpitals of the city of London. 'i he third is a 30th of January fermon before the Houfe of Lords. The fourth, was delivered before the Society correfponding with the incorporated Society in Dublin, for promoting English Proteftant working fchools in Ireland. The fifth, on occafion of the rebellion in Scotland, in 1745. The fixth, a Faft-fermon, at Kenfington, Jan. 7, 1748. The feventh, before the Governors of the London Infirmary, for the benefit of that most useful charity; to which alfo the profits of the prefent edition will be appropriated. G The Antiquities of Athens. Meafured and delineated. By James Tis many years fince the ingenious Authors of this elegant rder order to take exact admeasurements and delineations of fuch remains of ancient Architecture, as might be found ftill fubfifting in the city of Athens and the country adjacent; a defign for which every lover of the fine arts then admired their spirit and refolution, as much as we must now applaud the care and attention evidently beftowed in the execution of it. . Their motives to fo arduous an undertaking do no less honour alfo to their judgment and tafte; there being no part of Europe, as their firft propofals truly intimated, which more defervedly claims the attention and excites the curiofity of the lovers of polite literature than the territory of Attica, and its capital, Athens; and this not only on account of the figure it makes in hiftory, from its production of the greateft men both in arts and arms, but alfo on account of the antiquities ftill remaining there; monuments of the good sense and elevated genius of the Athenians, as well as the most perfect models of what is excellent in Sculpture and Architecture. It is very juftly observed, indeed, that of all the countries which were embellished by the Ancients with magnificent buildings, Greece appears principally to merit our regard; fince, if we believe the Ancients themselves, the most beautiful orders and difpofitions of columns were invented in that country, and the most celebrated works of Architecture were erected there; to which may be added, that the most excellent treatifes on the art appear to have been written by Grecian Architects. Now Athens having the manifeft fuperiority over the other parts of Greece, our Artifts, we are told, refolved rather to examine that fpot than any other; flattering themselves, that the remains they might find there, would excel in true taste and elegance every thing before publifhed. We are farther informed, alfo, that they were fo happy as to find them fully anfwer their highest expectations. Left they should be conceived, however, to have thought too highly of the Athenian buildings, and fhould thence fuffer by the over-hafty opinions and unadvised cenfures of the inconfiderate, they judged it expedient to give their reafons and authorities for holding these antiquities in fuch high estimation; efpecially as fuch reafons might ferve, at the fame time, as an apology for themselves, and the best juttification of their undertaking. We are perfuaded that the Reader will not be displeased at our tranfcribing this part of Mr. Stuart's preface, although our quotation must be conceived in fome measure defective, for want of the feveral claffical annotations by which it is illustrated. "After the defeat of Xerxes, the Grecians, fecure from in-. vaders, and in full poffeffion of their liberty, arrived at the height of their profperity. It was then they applied themselves with the greatest affiduity and fuccefs to the culture of the arts. They maintained their independency and power for a confiderable time, and diftinguished themselves by a pre-eminence and univerfality of genius, unknown to other ages and nations. During this happy period, their most renowned Artifts were produced. Sculpture and Architecture attained their highest degree of excellence at Athens, in the time of Pericles, when Phidias diftinguifhed himself with fuch fuperior ability, that his works were confidered as wonders by the Ancients, fo long as any knowlege or tafte remained among them. His ftatue of Jupiter Olympus, we are told, was never equalled; and it was under his inspection that many of the most celebrated buildings in Athens were erected. Several Artifts of moft diftinguished talents were his contemporaries, among whom we may reckon Callimachus, an Athenian, the inventor of the Corinthian capital. After this a fucceffion of excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects appeared, and thefe arts continued in Greece at their highest perfection, till after the death of Alexander the Great. In the mean time, Painting, Sculpture and Architecture remained in a rude, uncultivated ftate among the Italians. But when the Romans had fubdued Greece, they foon became enamoured of thefe delightful arts. with ftatues and pictures, the fpoils of that conquered country; They adorned their city and, adopting the Grecian ftyle of Architecture, they now firft began to erect buildings of great elegance and magnificence. They feem not, however, to have equalled the originals from whence they had borrowed their tafte, either for purity of defign or delicacy of execution. For, although thefe Roman edifices were molt probably defigned and executed by Grecians, as Rome never produced many extraordinary Artifts of her own, yet Greece herself was at that time greatly degenerated from her former excellence, and had long ceafed to display that faperiority of genius which diftinguifhed her in the age of Pericles and Alexander. To this a long feries of misfortunes had reduced her; for, having been oppreffed by the Macedonians firft, and afterwards fubdued by the Romans, with the lofs of her liberty, that love of glory likewife, and that fublimity of spirit, which had animated her artists as well as her warriors, her fatefmen and her philofophers, and which had formed her peculiar.character, were now extinguished, and all her exquifite arts languifhed, and were near expiring. They. were indeed, at length, affiduoufly cherished and cultivated at Rome. That city, being now miftrefs of the world, and poffeffed of unbounded wealth and power, became ambitious alfo of of the utmost embellishments which thefe arts could beftow. They could not, however, though affifted by Roman munificence, re-afcend to that height of perfection, which they had attained in Greece during the happy period we have already mentioned. And it is particularly remarkable, that, when the, Roman Authors themselves celebrate any exquifite production. of art, it is the work of Phidias, Praxiteles, Myron, Lyfippus, Zeuxis, Apelles, or, in brief, of fome Artift who adorned that happy period and not of those who had worked at Rome, or had lived nearer to their own times than the age of Alexander." It appeared, for thefe reafons, that Greece was the place where the most beautiful edifices had been erected, and where the pureft and moft elegant examples of ancient Architecture were to be difcovered. Many Authors, indeed, had occafionally mentioned the remains of the Athenian art, as works of great magnificence and moft exquifite tafte; but their descriptions were in general fo confufed, and their meafures fo infufficient that the ableft Architects found it difficult, if not impoffible, to form any diftinct idea of the buildings fuch Authors defcribed; their writings feeming to be rather calculated to raife admiration than to fatisfy curiofity or improve the tafte. On the other hand, Rome, who borrowed her arts, as above obferved, and frequently her Artificers, from Greece, being thereby adorned with magnificent structures and excellent fculptures, a confiderable number of them had been published, in the collections of Defgodetz, Palladio, Serlio, Santo Bartoli, and others. So that, though many of the originals which they copied are fince deftroyed, yet the memory, and even the form of them, feemed to be securely preferved; as the industry of those excellent Artists had difperfed reprefentations of them throughout all the polite-nations of Europe. In the mean time, Athens, the mother of elegance and politenefs, whofe magnificence fcarce yielded to that of Rome,, and who for the beauties of a correct style must be allowed to furpass her, had been almost totally neglected; fo that had no exact copies of them been made, her beautiful fabricks, her temples, theatres and palaces, fallen into ruins, would have funk, into oblivion: pofterity, as our Artists obferve, having justly to reproach us, that we fhould leave them no tolerable. idea of what was fo excellent and fo deferving attention; but that we fhould fuffer the perfection of an Art to perish, when it was in our power to have.retrieved it. The reafon, indeed, why thefe Antiquities had been thus neglected, our Artifts tell us, is obvious: " Greece, fince the revival |