carries the evidence of fenfe, and difplays itself before our eyes. We fee the Almighty manifeftly purfuing the finner with evilWe fee him connecting with every fignal deviation from duty, thofe wounds of the fpirit which occafion the most exquifite torment. He hath not merely promulgated his laws now, and deJayed the diftribution of rewards and punishments, until a future period of being. But the fanctions of his laws already take place; their affects appear; and with fuch infinite wisdom are they contrived, as to require no other executioners of justice against the finner, than his own guilty paffions, God needs notcome forth from his fecret place, in order to bring him to punishment. He needs not call thunder down from the heavens, nor raise any minifter of wrath from the abyfs below. He need only fay, Ephraim is joined to his idols; let him alone: and, at that inftant, the finner becomes his own tormentor. The infernal fire begins, of itself, to kindle within him. The worm that never dies, feizes on his heart,

6

Let us remark alfo, from this example, how imperfectly we can judge from external appearances, concerning real happiness or mifery. All Perfia, it is probable, envied Haman as the happiest perfon in the empire; while yet, at the moment when we now confider him, there was not within its bounds, one more thoroughly wretched. We are feduced and deceived, by that falle glare which profperity fometimes throws around bad men. We are tempted to imitate their crimes, in order to partake of their imagined felicity. But remember Haman, and beware of the fnare. Think not, when you behold a pageant of grandeur difplayed to public view, that you difcern the enfign of certain happiness. In order to form any juft conclufion, you must follow the great man into the retired apartment, where he lays afide his difguife. You must not only be able to penetrate into the interior of families, but you must have a faculty by which you can look into the infide of hearts. Were you endowed with fuch a power, you would most commonly behold good men, in proportion to their goodness, fatisfied and eafy; you would behold atrocious finners, always reftlefs and unhappy.'

Sermon VIII. On our Ignorance of Good and Evil in this Life. In this difcourfe the author vindicates the wisdom of Providence, by fhewing the many useful purposes, which this ignorance ferves to promote.

It ferves, he fays, to check our presumption and rashness, and to enforce a diligent exertion of our rational powers, joined with a humble dependence on divine affiftance. It moderates eager paffions refpecting worldly fuccefs. It inculcates refignation to the difpofal of a Providence, which is much wiser than man. It reftrains us from employing unlawful means, in order to compafs our most favourite defigns. It tends to attach us more closely to thofe things, which are unquestionably good; and leads our thoughts and defires to a better world. It is there

fore

Fore fuch a degree of ignorance as fuits the prefent circumstances of man better than more complete information concerning good and evil.'

Sermon IX. On religious Retirement.-In this difcourfe the author makes the following ingenious obfervation :

• In converfing with a fellow-creature on earth, it is not with his body we converfe, though it is his body only which we fee. From his words and actions we conceive his mind; with his mind, though invifible, we hold correspondence, and direct towards this fpiritual effence, our affection and regard. In like manner, though here we behold no more of God than what his works difplay, yet, in thofe difplays, we are capable of perceiving the Universal Spirit, and of holding correfpondence with this unfeen Being, in veneration, gratitude, and love.'

Sermon X. On Devotion.

Sermon XI. On the Duties of the Young.

Sermon XII. On the Duties and Confolations of the Aged. -The author very properly fuggefts the confolations, which religion adminifters at the clofe of life. But it may be obferved, that nature likewife affords fome confolations at this awful crifis, which it may be of use to confider. If we may reafon by analogy, it feems very probable, that there is not that pain in death, which we are apt to imagine. We have not the leaft idea of having fuffered any uneafinefs at our entrance into life, why then fhould we fuppofe, that our tranf ition from this ftate of existence to another will be attended with more fenfible convulfions ?-As the human frame finks into diffolution, it is natural to fuppofe, that the fenfe of pain. proportionably fubfides. To die is but to fleep. And we know, that fleep fteals foftly and imperceptible on the fenfes, and plunges the foul at once into a pleafing infenfibility.There are many other confiderations of this nature, which might be alledged, were not this a digreffion from the point in hand.

Sermon XIII. On the Power of Confcience. In this difcourse the author illuftrates the following obfervations: that a fense of right and wrong in conduct, or of moral good and evil, belongs to human nature; that it produces an apprehenfion of merited punishment, when we have committed evil; that though this inward sentiment be ftifled during the feafon of profperity, yet in adverfity it will revive; and that when it revives, it determines us to confider every diftrefs, which we fuffer, as an actual inflition of punishment by heaven.

Sermon XIV. On the Mixture of Joy and Fear in Religion.

Ser

Sermon XV. On the Motives to Conftancy in Virtue.

Though these subjects are common and familiar, and the author's arguments, in general, fuch as have been frequently ufed by others; yet, by a beautiful style, he has given them a peculiar luftre, like that inimitable funfhine which Titian is faid to have diffufed over his landscapes.

As fimplicity is one of the greatest beauties in language, we are inclined to think, that the common grammatical arrangement of the words in the following fentences would have been more agreeable.

How comfortable the reflection that him no poor man can upbraid for having with-held his due; him no unfortunate man can reproach for having feen and defpifed his forrows.'- No fooner are they overtaken by diftrefs, than to religion they all fly.'

There is an incongruity in the following metaphors:

• Who but muft drop a tear over the ruins of human nature, when he beholds that morning, which arofe fo bright, fetting in fuch untimely darkness; and those abilities, which were fitted for fining in the higheft ftation, facrificed at the fhrine of low fenfuality. Such profpects fhed a pleafing tranquility over the old age of the righteous man. They make the evening of his days go down unclouded; and allow the fream of life, though waxing low, to run clear to the laft drop.

There is fome little impropriety in the following phrafes.

The world may call them men of pleafure; but of all ethers they are the greatest foes to pleasure.'

The words, of all others, are not only redundant, but imply an abfurdity, For, to fay, that men of pleasure are of others, is to fuppofe, that they are not themselves.

The neglect or fcorn of the world expofe [expofes] them not to any contempt in his fight. To weary [to be weary] in well-doing. No where fall (will] you find them without fome form of religion.' How fair foever it may show [appear] to the world.'. When he looks up to that invifible hand, which operates throughout the univerfe.'

He fhould rather have faid, When he fees the operations of an invifible hand; or, When he looks up to that almighty' hand, &c.

There are other fimilar inaccuracies in this volume; but they do not affect the merit of these admirable difcourfes.

Poems.

Poems. A new Edition, with Additions. By Thomas Warton. 8vo. 3. Becket.

THOSE flowers of Parnaffus, which have been separately approved and admired by almoft all taftes, will hardly cease to be admired and approved when plucked by the hands of the Mufes, and formed into a never-fading chaplet to crown the brows of their favourite fon a chaplet, adorned, as Milton fays, with what to fight or smell is sweetfrom the mixed blooms of which, agreeably to the poet's hopes, fome diftinguished flowers have caught the glance of royalty;

and, rich in nature's hue,

Entwined her diadem with honour due *?..

But, to quit the fragrant fteeps of Parnaffus, for the barren wastes of criticism, this edition of Mr. Warton's Poems is en riched with fome performances which have never before been printed: two mifcellaneous pieces, nine odes, and seven soned nets. To thefe we fhall now proceed to advert and we shall advert to them regularly as they occur in the publication.

The Infcription in a hermitage at Anfley Hall in War wickshire,' is beautifully fimple and elegant. Old Orpheus is fabled to have inticed mankind from their rude rocks and caves into civilization and fociety-if we had many fuch poets as Mr. Wafton, mankind would return to their caves and their rocks; and honeft Orpheus muft do all his work over again. The enviable inmate of the hermitage is fuppofed to fpeak through the whole infcription, the fourth ftanza of which concludes with this truly poetic image:

Then, as my taper waxes dim,
Chant, ere I fleep, my meafur'd hymn;
And, at the clofe, the gleams behold
Of parting wings bedropt with gold.'

The Monody written near Stratford upon Avon,' does not difgrace its author, nor the bard divine,' who there

firft, at Fancy's fairy-circled shrine,

Of daifies pied his infant offering made.'

For the Ode to Sleep' it should seem that we are indebted to fome cruel fair. It is affecting-with regard to its readers it does not nurse, it murders fleep. But her crown of pop. pies,' we think, fhould not be placed on the poet's breaft The concluding lines contain undoubtedly a very grand idea

* See Mr. Warton's poem on the king's marriage, 1761, p. 15 of this edition.

'Nor

Nor would the dawning day my forrows charm
Black midnight, and the radiant noon, alike
To me appear, while with uplifted arm

Death ftands prepar'd, but ftill delays, to ftrike

Yet we think we trace him, as Dryden fays, in the fnow of Milton;

And over them triumphant Death his dart

Shook, but delayed to ftrike

where the inimitable paufe upon the first fyllable book, gives you the giant portrait of Death, hanging over his with-holden ftroke, almoft (we were going to fay quite) as forcibly, as the pencil of a Reynolds, or a Mortimer.

The Hamlet,' an ode defcriptive of the happiness which awaits the inhabitants of hamlets, is picturesque and pleasing. If the images be not altogether new, the fubject, and not the poet, is in fault.

We should not wonder to hear the reader of this ode, like the hero of antiquity, choose rather to be the first man in Mr. War-ton's village, than the fecond at Rome.-If the rhyme would fuffer us, we could wish, in the last line but three, to change wore into worn; for the fake of our old friend, Grammar.

Ode the third, written at Vale-royal abbey in Cheshire,' breathes the genuine spirit of Gray; whofe Elegy, we do not doubt, accompanied our poet, while he ftray'd

Oer the forgotten graves and scatter'd tombs.'

The abbey, where the fcene of this contemplative poem is laid, was

-rear'd by charity's mifguided zeal,'

in confequence of a vow made by Edward I. on his return from the crufade. Some of the poet's reflexions are general; many of them arise naturally from the time in which, and the occafion on which, the abbey was founded: all are equally and elegantly moral. Of Ambition he has given us a most superb and masterly sketch

• Sore beat by ftorms in glory's arduous way,
Here might Ambition mufe, a pilgrim fage;
Here raptur'd fee, Religion's evening ray
Gild the calm walks of his repofing age.'

The First of April,' ode 4, is a delightful landskip, painted from nature, on that day; where the frenzy rolling eye of the poet, or of the painter (which you will), has been careful to omit no one ftriking, peculiar, chara@eriftic object. Like other painters, our artift has introduced himself into his piece; and, if our readers will promife not to interrupt his meditations, we will give them a fhort peep at him⚫ Mufing