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Art. XVII. An Essay on the Character and Influence of the Stage on Morals and Happiness. By John Styles. Second Edition, with an Appen dix. 8vo. pp. 188. Price 3s. 6d. boards. Williams and Co. 1807. Art. XVIII. A Defence of an Essay on the Immoral and Antichristian Tendency of the Stage, against the animadversions of a critique in the fifth volume of the Annual Review. By John Styles. 8vo. pp. 68. Price 18. Williams and Co. 1807.

THE excellent design and the spirited execution of Mr. Styles's Essay, could not fail to obtain for it a very favourable reception with the public. We are glad to see that he has availed himself of the opportunity which its success has afforded him, to strengthen some of his arguments, to insert new illustrations, and revise the style; he has thus rendered it, notwithstanding several inaccuracies, still more worthy of permanent estimation. The most considerable addition is in the form of an Appendix, which is also published separately, to bind up with the former edition.

Mr. Styles's controversy with the Annual Review, is not a personal, but a moral one; it is not of private, but of general interest; and we are very well pleased to remark, that the talents of this advocate for Christian morality against the sophistry of a theatrical zealot, are conformable to the superiority of his cause.

The first sentences of the offending critique will enable the reader to judge of its character, while they assure him of our author's entire success in refuting and exposing it. "An attack on the stage is alike hostile to public instruction, to public morality, and to public happiness. The Fathers of the Christian Church, by conspiring to suppress the theatres of Greece and Rome, rebarbarized Europe, and condemned the victims of their mischievous tuition to a millenium of ignorance, vassalage, and woe!" We make Mr. S. responsible for the fidelity of this quotation.

This controversy has prompted our author to a more ample exami nation of the subject, and has produced a more complete evolution of the reasoning against theatrical amusements. His appendix, too, is much better written than his essay; partly owing, we suppose, to the friendly operation of time in improving his taste, and partly to the animating nature of his subject. As most purchasers of the essay will complete Ttheir work by procuring it, we are the less anxious to exhibit any spe cimens of the style. Many of the passages are unluckily obscured by typographical inaccuracy.

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Art. XIX. The State of Britain, Abroad and at Home, in the Eventful
Year 1808; by an Englishman of no Party. 8vo. pp. 41. Price 2s.
Tipper. 1808.

NOTHING but a respect for truth, however trite, could have in-
duced us to read through the production of this "Englishman";
who could certainly take no surer method of degrading any plan or

* Unus utrique error, said Horace, we forget where, and as all poets were prophets, he doubtless alluded to Mr. Styles's blundering title-pages. See Ecl. Rev. III. 335.

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opinion, than by undertaking the functions of its advocate. The present ritical state of the British empire, the expediency of providing against the concurrences of a deficient harvest and an interdiction of mercantile intercourse, the deplorable want of military science and skill among the officers of the British army, by which its honour has been tarnished in both hemispheres, the condition of the Irish peasantry, the prevalence of immorality and irreligion, are all subjects of vital importance, and cannot be too often thundered in the ears of a public, which seems absorbed in frivolous pursuits, and gazes with fatuitous indifference on the approach of calamity. But let them not be inculcated in a pamphlet only suited to excite astonishment, that a person who has read books and can quote Latin, should be able to write with an appearance of incapacity so perfectly infantile. One short sample will suffice; "a modern author has, with equal justice and truth, remarked, that prevention is better than cure."

Art. XX. A Sermon, preached at the Second General Visitation of the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Rochester, holden at Tunbridge in Kent, July 10, 1807, By the Rev. Phillips Monypenny, M. A. Vicar of Hadlow, in Kent. pp. 19. price 1s. Rivington, 1807.

THE subject selected by Mr. Monypenny on this occasion was the di

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versity of religious opinions; and his text was Eph. iv, 3. Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace. He first observes that this diversity chiefly respects the "smaller parts of Religion;" he then mentions, as the causes of this diversity; 1. the prejudices of education; 2. personal respect or deference; 3. the respective vices to which men are addicted; 4. a judicial blindness to which God in his justice may give men up for the abuse of their reason, &c." It is curious to observe a preacher so dexterously take the wrong causes, when it seemed almost inevitable for him to take the right: the first two are precisely as absurd as the assertion of a certain author, that "the first inhabitants of Ireland took possession of it by their valour;"-the third is wrong in the sense and in the terms of the author; for to what vice respectively are we to ascribe a preference for Calvinism or Arminianism, for Episcopacy or Presbytery, for Adult or Infant Baptism?"the fourth, even admitting the notion of judicial blindness to be well-founded, cannot be the cause, because God is the immediate author of it; it is more like the effect.

Mr. M. recommends honesty and sincerity as guides to the discovery of religious truth, and, not contented with exhibiting his inability for original composition, gives the following specimen of his talents at quotation; he eites the text John vii. 17, literally thus:

"If any man saith he will do God's will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself!" p. 18.

The practical exhortations, however, are not so exceptionable; 1. to exercise charity; 2. to adoin the truth by piety; 3. to "have a due regard to the Word of God, the only rule of faith, and to the doctrine of our Church, as laid down in her Liturgy, Catechism, and Articles of Faith."

P. 17.

Mr. M. has made some valuable discoveries; one is, "that the doctrine of that newly-arisen class of separatists in the ministry, the members of which

apply to themselves exclusively the title of Gospel Preachers, has arisen from some or other of these measures,"- -"fanciful accommodations, distorted passages, false translations, forced analogies, practised on the Sacred volume to corrupt its doctrines." The other is still more surprising;that "however" the questions relative to the Eucharist and transubstantiation" are determined, need nothing affect him who frequents and receives this Sacrament, as it is explained by our church in her articles, her cate chism, and her communion service !" p. 5.

If we have misunderstood Mr M. in any case, we beg him to excuse us, in consideration of a strange and unaccountable drowsiness that came over as while perusing his sermon; he must be well aware how difficult it is to form clear ideas when one reads or writes between asleep and awake. Art. XXI. Collectanea Oratoria; or, the Academic Orator: consisting of a Diversity of Oratorical Selections, appertaining to every Class of Public Orations, appositely arranged, and calculated for the Use of Schools and Academies. To which is prefixed, a Dissertation on Oratorical Pronunciation or Action; mostly abstracted from Professor Ward's System of Oratory. By J. H. Rice, small 8vo. pp. 491. Price 5s. bound. Longman and Co. 1808.

THE compiler of this work has deprived us of the pleasure of announcing it with entire satisfaction to the public, by the insertion of several improper articles. The whole of the section of " Dramatic" Oratory will be quite superfluous, and even offensive, to those who do not wish their children to become theatrical performers or critics. The section of “Sacred and Moral Orations," is injudiciously confined, almost entirely, to extracts from Fawcett's Sermons, in which many sentiments occur of injurious tendency. In other respects, the publication has high claims to public patronage; it includes a large quantity of useful matter; and contains many fine specimens of British eloquence, demonstrative, deliberative, and judi cial, not before adopted in similar works. One of the articles in the department" of the pulpit," is the " Morning and Evening Service," with the emphatic words expressed in the Italic character.

Art. XXII. The Christian Minister's Duty and Reward. A Sermon, addressed as a Charge to Mr. Richard Pengilly, when ordained Pastor of the Baptist Church at Newcastle upon Tyne, Aug. 12, 1807. By the Rev. W. Steadman, President of the Baptist Academy, in Yorkshire. Published from the MS. by R. Pengilly, at the Request of his Friends. 8vo. pp. 42. Price 2s. Gateshead, Marshall; Burditt. 1807. WE are sorry a discourse so full of admirable sentiments and exhorta

tions as this, should, through any circumstances, appear before the world in a form uncongenial with its moral merit. In every other respect, than as a model of composition, it deserves the solemn attention of students and ministers. The subjects of admonition, founded in Rev. ii. 10. are so numerous, that we cannot offer a satisfactory analysis of the performance within due limits. We shall rather admit some remarks, which exhibit the spirit of the preacher in a very amiable light, and inculcate that genuine principle of zeal, arising from piety, and co-existent with candour, which we are happy to think is increasingly prevalent amongst every party of

Christians. The state of things we hope, is somewhat mended since the time of St. Paul (Philipp. 11. 21.); it is not true that all seek their own interest, in preference to that of Christianity.

"You are, it is true, a Dissenter-a Baptist: I doubt not but you are so from the purest motives; and as such you cannot be thought indifferent to the peculiarities of that denomination of Christians to which you have joined yourself. But allow me to say, my brother, that your first and chief aim must be, not to make men Dissenters or Baptists, but Christians. And when the lesser points on which we separate from some of our fellow Christians employ our attention, which they very properly may do, our zeal for them must not arise from the consideration, that they are our distinguishing tenets; but from that of their being the truths and ordinances of Christ; and our endeavours to bring others to our views, must spring from a desire of making them somewhat more cofonrmed to the mind and will of Christ. Thus will self in every view, be abased; and Christ alone exalted." p. 17.

Art. XXIII. Thoughts on a general and explicit Union of the Congregational Churches; occasioned by an Address from the London Committee to Ministers and Churches of the Congregational Order: in a Letter to the Gentlemen of that Committee. By a Friend to the Union, 8vo. pp. 30. Price 1s. Burditt. 1807.

THIS "Friend to the Union" of Congregational Churches has substantiated his right to the title, by offering sensible admonitions and suggestions to the Committee for carrying the scheme into effect. The pamphlet merits the notice of all who feel interested in a plan, which is no doubt capable of being rendered beneficial to the denomination, but which, if ill-arranged, may be a source of embarrassment to its active friends, and of contention among those societies, whose efforts it is intended to combine.

Art. XXIV. A Chemical Catechism, with copious Notes, a Vocabulary of Chemical Terms, Useful Tables, and a Chapter of Instructive and Amusing Experiments. By Samuel Parkes, Manufacturing Chemist. Second Edition, with considerable additions. Large 8vo. pp. 631. Price 128. bds. Lackington, Symonds. 1807.

THIS is a very comprehensive and entertaining work; its characteristic

form, that of a Catechism, adapts it peculiarly for the purposes of regular tuition in schools and families, without disqualifying it for private perusal. We are sure that our readers will feel the moral and religious admonitions introduced in different parts, to be a strong recommendation of it to their patronage. The author has evidently studied the gratifica tion, as well as the instruction of his readers ; and, as we fully accord in his warm eulogium of chemical studies, we hope the perusal of his work will be suggested to young people in general, as a proper employment for hours that would otherwise be lost in idleness, or wasted upon books of fiction.

The following are the contents: "An Essay on the Utility of Chemictry to the Arts-Chap. 1. Introductory. 2. Of Atmospheric Air. 3. Of Caloric. 4. Of Water. 5. Of Earths. 6. Of Alkalies. 7. Of Acids, 8. Of Salts. 9, Of Simple Combustibles, 10. Of Metals, 11. of

Oxides. 12. Of Combustion. 13. Of Attraction, Repulsion, and Che mical Affinity. Additional Notes. Chemical Tables. Select Instructive. Experiments. Vocabulary of Chemical Terms. Index. Index to New Matter." The Additions are very considerable and important; a neat "etching on glass by fluoric acid," forms the frontispiece.

Art. XXV. Select Hymns. A Supplement to Dr. Watts's Psalms and Hymns, primarily designed for the Use of the Congregation assembling in the Chapel, Hoxton Academy, London. 12mo. 284 Hymns. Price 2s. bound. 2s. 6d. calf. Baynes, &c. 1808.

Art. XXVI. A Supplement to Dr. Watts's Psalms and Hymns'; selected from various Authors. By William Mason. 12mo. 291 Hymns.. Price 2s. bound. Button, Williams, 1807.

THESE publications are very similar in quality, as well as in price and

appearance; they necessarily include a considerable number of the same hymns, the beauty or piety of which has introduced them to general favour. This circumstance so much lessens the diversity which might naturally be expected from the difference of taste in the respective selectors, that it is not easy to discriminate them by any specific character. Their general merit and purity of principle, justify us in recommending them to the notice of those religious societies, for whose benefit they have been prepared.

Art. XXVII. The Claims of the Establishment; A Sermon preached August 30, 1807, at Croydon, in Surrey; by John Ireland, D. D. Prebendary of Westminster, &c. pp. 29. Price 1s. Hatchard. 1807.

DR.

R. Ireland vindicates the exclusion of non-conformists from civil power and official emoluments, on the broad principle, that the governors have a right to choose a religion for the governed, and to deprive them of civil rights, as offenders against the law, for refusing to be converted. He intimates that dissenters may think themselves well off in being indulged with liberty of worshipping God according to their consciences, and not being persecuted as the first Christians were under heathen Emperors. He is much to be commended for his loyalty, in conforming to the code of religion established by law because it is established; and we shall not offend him by doubting that the same loyal disposition would preserve to him. all the privileges of a good citizen, though the Bible in England should suddenly be supplanted by the Koran, or the throne of his Holiness should be erected in the palace of Lambeth. It is a more than common offence against propriety, that such a Political Essay should be preached in a church of Christ, and published under the semblance of a sermon.

Art. XXVII. The Juvenile Preceptor; or a Course of Rudimental Learning. Volume the fourth; containing a Spelling and Pronouncing Dictionary, arranged in four Parts, according to the number of Sylla bles. 12mo. pp. 333. Price 4s. bound. Nicholson, Poughnill near Ludlow; Symonds. 1307.

THE previous volumes of this course we have already noticed; the Spelling and Pronouncing Dictionary is intitled to the same general commendation, though we might easily except against particular articles of its plan or of its execution,

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