charity to men will be found defective and vain. But this we know alfo, that in the heart which is deftitute of fairness and candour, the Spirit of God certainly dwells not; and that whatever appearances of religion the uncharitable man may affume, on him the Sovereign of the universe looks with no favour.. -Thou, who art a man full of frailties, who standest in need, not merely of impartiality in thy divine Judge, but of indulgence and mercy; thou who imploreft daily this mercy from him, and prayeft that he would remember thou art duft, and not to be strict to mark iniquity against thee; dareft thou, with thofe very prayers in thy mouth, proceed to judge without candour of thy brethren, and upon the flightest grounds to reprobate and condemn them? O thou hypocrite! (for by what other name can we call thee?) vain are all thy pretenfions to piety. Ineffectual is every plea which thou canft form for mercy from heaven. The precedent which thou hast established against thyfelf is decifive. Thou haft dictated the fentence of thine own condemnation.

Some fmatterers in criticism have prefumed to find fault with Dr. Blair's language; but, in endeavouring to expofe his ignorance or inattention, they have only betrayed their own. The tell us, for inftance, that were is never ufed for would be though every one in the leaft acquainted with the best English writers, knows that it is frequently fo ufed with great elegance and propriety. Thefe critics, therefore, remind us, not indeed of the pot calling the kettle black-arfe, but, what is ftil! worfe, of the chimney-fweeper, who, by running against every well-dreffed perfon, endeavours to make them as dirty as himself.

Experiments establishing a Criterion between mucaginous and purulent Matter. And an Account of the Retrograde Motions of the abforbent Veffels of Animal Bodies in fome Difeafes. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Cadell.

In an advertisement, prefixed to this pamphlet, we are given to understand, that the Æfculapian Society at Edinburgh, foon after their eftablishment, offered a gold medal for the best criterion between pus and mucus; and in March 1778, conferred it on the late Mr. Charles Darwin, for this collection of experiments.

The life of this ingenious and much-lamented young man, is related, to us, in the following words.

"Mr. Charles Darwin was from his infancy accustomed to examine all natural objects with more attention than is ufual, firft, by his fenfes fimply; then by tools, which were his playthings.

Ggg 2

By

By this early ufe of his hands, he gained accurate ideas of many of the qualities of bodies; and was thence afterwards enabled to acquire the knowledge of mechanics with eafe and with accuracy; and the invention and improvement of mechanics was one of the first efforts of his ingenuity, and one of the first fources of his amusement.

"He had frequent opportunities in his early years of obferv. ing the various foflil productions in their native beds; and defcended the mines, and climbed the precipices of Derbyshire, and of fome other counties, with uncommon pleasure and obfervation. He collected with care the products of these countries, and ex amined them by fuch experiments, as he had been taught, or had difcovered: hence he obtained not only distinct but indelible ideas of the properties of bodies, at the very time when he learnt the names of them; and thus the complicate fcience of chemistry be came not only eafy, but delightful to him.

"About the age of nine he travelled into France with an ingenious botanist, Mr. Dickenfon of Blimbill in Shropshire, and thus acquired a tafte for that branch of fcience; and had at the fame time his ear accustomed to the tones of the French language, without taking off his attention from his favourite pursuit of the properties and diftinctions of natural bodies.

Ye claffic fchools! ye not only overcome the ftruggling ef forts of genius, and bind his Proteus-forms, till he speaks the language you require, but you then divert his attention from the nice comparifon of things with each other, and from affociating the ideas of caufes and their effects; and amufe him with the loofer analogies, the vain verbal allufions which conftitute the ornaments of poetry and oratory! Mr. Darwin acquired a competent knowledge of the Latin and Greek languages, chiefly by reading books of useful knowledge, or which contained the elements of fcience and which were more agreeable to him than the monftrous and immoral tales of heathen mythology, or of fabulous history. He was of opinion, that to ftudy thefe dead languages fo accurately as to criticife their beauties, and at a time when all their books of real value had been repeatedly tranflated, was a prodigality of labour, which might fuit the retirement of a pedant, but was unbecoming an active philofopher: that to acquire a taite for Greek poetry by years of ill-employed induftry, was not much more important than to acquire the power of playing well on fome one mufical inftrument: and that, in the fchools of language as in the fchools of drawing, a man of science should learn the use of the pen and pencil, as far as they are concerned in the expreffion or communication of distinct or ufeful ideas; but to waste the first twenty years of life in learning the metaphors of language, or the drapery of drawing, might Terve thofe, who made poetry or painting a profeffion; but was liable to dif quality the mind for the more energetic purfuits of business or philofophy,

"During

During the time employed in the acquifition of thefe languages, befides his occafional advancement in botany, foffile history, and chemistry, he had the opportunity of learning the outlines of anatomy; and of applying himself to natural philofophy experimentally; as well as to the elements of algebra and geometry; and, whenever it was in his power, he feduloufly fought the fociety of ingenious men, who were judges of his acquirements and fagacity, and whofe attention flattered him, at the fame time that their conversation improved him.

"Nor amid thefe acquirements of knowledge was his taste for morality neglected; for his ingenious mother, even to her latest hour, instilled into his breast a fympathy with the pains and with the pleasures of others, by fympathizing herfelf with their dif tress or exultation: fhe flattered him into a fenfe of honour by commending his integrity, and fcorn of falfhood, before her friends, and taught him prudence by pointing out to him the ill confequences of the bad conduct of others, whofe names or perfons he was acquainted with and as fhe had wifely fown no feeds of fuperftition in his mind, there was nothing to overfhade the virtues he had impln ted.

About the commencement of his fixteenth year he was induced by the advice of his friends to admit himself of Chriftchurch College in Oxford, and paffed a year rather against his inclination in that Univerfity; where he thought the Vigour of the mind languifhed in the purfuit of claffical elegance, like Hercules at the diftaff, and figh'd to be removed to the robufter exercises of the medical schools of Edinburgh.

"Here his genius breathed its natural element, fprung aloft, and foared on ftrong and glittering wing, till the arrow of contagion reached his flight, and plunged him into the grave!

"Too oft, when virtue launches her adventurous skiff to save her wreck'd companions, fhe perishes in the wave herself!--Such is the government of this world!-

"At this Univerfity he not only heard the numerous medical lectures with unwearied attention, duly visited the general hofpital, affifted his much-valued friend Dr. Duncan, in his public difpenfary, was bufied in the difputations, and treatifes of the medical focieties; but undertook the care, and attended with diligence all the fick poor of the parish of Waterleith, and supplied them with the neceffary medicines.

"Here it was, about the end of April, that he had employed the greateft part of the day in accurately diffecting the brain of a child, who had died of the hydrocephalus internus-That very evening he was fiezed with a fevere headach, to which on the next morning febrile fymptoms fupervened, with delirium, pretechiæ, hæmmorrhage, paralyfis of the bladder, and other circumstances of extreme debility which terminated in death.

Mcdical Cafes, by Dr. A. Duncan, Preface and Page 353.

The

The following character is extracted from the medical and philofophical commentaries, published periodically at Edinburgh, vol. 5. p. 332, and v. 6. p. 227.

Thus was the medical world deprived of a young man, from the continued exertions of whofe industry and genious there was reafon to entertain the most fanguine expectations; with great natural acutenefs he poffeffed the most unremitting industry; and during his three years refidence at Edinburgh to receive and communicate information constituted his greatett pleafure. This admirable young man, whote early exertions were, thus calculated to raife fuch high expectations, was cut off ere he had reached the twenty-first year of his age. By his death the public has been deprived of an individual, by whofe genius and industry the art of medicine might have been much improved: his teachers have loft a pupil, who might have been the boaft of every feminary of education, where he happened to have been placed; and thofe, who were the companions of his ftudies, have been bereaved of a friend, to whofe extenfive knowledge and deep penetration they could have had recourfe on every difficulty."

In this pamphlet is contained an account of the retrograde motions of the abforbent veffels of animal bodies in Home difcafes, by the fame author; formerly written, we are informed, in claffical Latin, and defigned for his inaugural thefis. In a future review we may be led to make an extract or two from each of these performances, though we recommend to our medical readers the perufal of the whole.

K.

Speech of Edmund Burke, Efq; Member of Parliament for the City of Briflol, on prefenting to the Houfe of Commons, on the 11th of February, 1780, a Plan for the better Security of the Independence of Parliament, and the economical Reformation of the civil and other Eftablishments. Dodfley. 2s.

We shall here gratify our readers with a few more extracts from this very masterly performance.

"In page 36, Mr. Burke fays,-"Coming upon this ground of the civil lift, the first thing in dignity and charge that attracts our notice, is the royal household. This eftablishment, in my opinion, is exceedingly abufive in its conftitution. It is formed upon manners and cuítoms that have long fince expired. In the first place it is formed, in many refpects, upon feudal principles. In the feudal times it was not uncommon, even among fubjects, for the loweft offices to be held by confiderable perfons; perfons as unfit by their incapacity, as improper from their rank, to occupy such em

ployments.

ployments. They were held by patent, fometimes for life, and fometimes by inheritance. If my memory does not deceive me, a person of no flight confideration held the office of patent hereditary cook to an Earl of Warwick-The earl of Warwick's foups, I fear, were not the better for the dignity of his kitchen. I think it was an Earl of Gloucester who officiated as steward of the household, to the Archbishops of Canterbury. Inftances of the fame kind may in fome degree be found in the Northumberland-housebook, and other family records. There was fome reafon in ancient neceffities for thefe ancient cuftoms. Protection was wanted; and the domeftic tie, though not the higheft, was the clofeft.

rate.

"The king's household has not only feveral ftrong traces of this feudality, but it is formed alfo upon the principles of a body-corpoIt has its own magiftrates, courts, and bye-laws. Thismight be neceffary in the antient times, in order to have a government within itself capable of regulating the vaft and often unruly multitude which compofed and attended it. This was the origin of the autient court called the Green Cloth-composed of the marshal, treasurer and other great officers of the household, with certain clerks. The rich subjects of the kingdom, who had formerly the fame establishments (only on a reduced scale) have fince altered their œconomy; and turned the courfe of their expence, from the maintenance of vast establishments within their walls, to the employment of a great variety of independent trades abroad. Their influence is leffened; but a mode of accomodation and a ftyle of fplendour, fuited to the manners of the times, has been encreated. Royalty itself has infenfibly followed; and the royal household has been carried away by the refiftlefs tide of manners: but with this very material difference. Private men have got rid of the establishments along with the reasons of them; whereas the royal household has loft all that was ftately and venerable in the antique manners, without retrenching any thing of the cumbrous charge of a Gothic establishment. It is fhrunk into the polished littleness of modern elegance and perfonal accommodation. It has evaporated from the grols concrete, into an effence and rectified spirit of expence, where you have tuns of antient pomp in a vial of modern luxury.

But when the reafon of old establishments is gone, it is abfurd to preferve nothing but the burthen of them. This is fuperftitiously to embalm a carcafe not worth an ounce of the gums that are used to preserve it. It is to burn precious oils in the tomb; it it is to offer meat and drink to the dead,-not fo much an honour to the deceased, as a difgrace to the furvivors. Our palaces are vaft inhospitable halls. There the bleak winds, there" Boreas, and Eurus, and Caurus, and Argeftes loud," howling through the vacant lobbies, and clattering the doors of deferted guard-rooms, appal the imagination, and conjure up the grim fpectres of departed tyrants-the Saxon, the Norman, and the Dane; the ftera Edwards and the fierce Henrys-who stalk from defolation to defolation, through the dreary vacuity, and melancholy fucceffion of

chill