Contribute to gain: alfo, to lead a merce- derived confiderable affistance from Gary, fervile, and fordid life, foreign from Mr. Taylor, while tranflating the ambition and liberality. But trifling cou explanation of the Pythagoric fymverfation, furlinefs, pufillanimity, humi bols by Jamblichus; which, owing to lity, immoderation, ignobility, and mifanthropy, are the concomitants of illibe- the corruptions and errors in the rality." Greek text, was a very difficult task. Of the Similitudes of Demophilus, of Porphyry, and flourished early in Jamblichus was a celebrated difciple or the remedy of life, and his Pytha- the fourth century, under the Empe goric Sentences, it may be said, many of them are very obfcure and uninterelting. We fhall felect a few of the beft, however, for the gratification of

our readers.

"It is the fame thing to drink a deadly medicine from a golden cup, and to receive counsel from an injudicious friend." "Be vigilant in your intellectual part; for fleep about this has an affinity with real death."

"No one is free who has not obtained the empire of himself."

Of Democrates, as well as Demophilus, fcarce any thing is known, but that they were philofophers of the Pythagoric fect; but at what time they flourished is quite uncertain. Of the golden fentences of the former we prefent the reader with a fpe

cimen.

"He who does an injury is more unhappy than he who receives one."

Many who commit the bafeft actions often exercise the best difcourfe."

"Fools frequently become wife under the preffure of Inisfortunes."

"It is better to reprove your own errors than thofe of others."

"It is good not only to refrain from doing an injury, but even from the very

with."

"To be always intending to act, renders action imperfect."

ror Conftantine. Mr. Taylor (than whom no one is more qualified to appreciate his talents) fays, "that his writings are not fo elegant and graces ful as thofe of Porphyry; and that they are neither agreeable, nor confpicuous, nor free from impurity of diction. Hence, though they are not entirely involved in obfcurity, and perfectly faulty, yet, as Plato formerly, faid of Zenocrates, he did not facrifice to the Mercurial Graces. How

ever, though the furface of his conceptions is not covered with the flowers of elocution, yet his thoughts contain a moft admirable depth, and his intellect is truly divine."

Our limits do not allow us to add more, than that this work is elegantly printed, and, on the whole, does credit to the talents of its learned author. We could point out, however, fome fentences and paffages particu larly obfcure, which, nevertheless, may be owing, as the author hints, tó the faults of the original.

ART. II. An English Spelling-Book ; with Reading Lefons, adapted to the Capacities of Children: In three Parts; calculated to advance the Learners by natural and easy Gradations, and to teach Orthography and Pronunciation together. By Lindley Murray, Author of "Englih Grammar, adapted to the dif ferent Claffes of Learners."

to this excellent writer for his numeTHE public are infinitely indebted rous and valuable elementary works on the English language. We cannot give the reader a jutter idea of the work than in the words of the author, who fays, he has exhibited The author acknowledges to have his work in a fmall, compact ûzé,

"Since we are men, it is becoming not to deride, but bewail, the calamities of

fuppofing that this form is adapted to them a new biographical account of both to the nature of the fubject, and the author, or permit them to be to the perfons who are to ufe it. The printed off along with Dr. Beddoes' paper is fine, and the types are neatly biography, which accompanied the formed, and very diftinctly arranged. laft edition: unless, indeed, he badThefe are advantages fuperior, in the confented to let them go to the prefs author's opinion, to the benefit fup- without any life of the author at all. pofed to be derived from the ufe of Dr. C. B.'s reafons for being diffatispictures. Children may, indeed, be fied with the biography and obfervaamufed by exhibitions of this nature; tions of Dr. Beddoes are expreffed and, on fome occafions, they are, in a manner which does credit to the doubtless, very useful: but they ap- filial zeal of a fon, defirous to cherish pear to be foreign to the buliness and endear the memory of a departed of a fpelling-book; and, probably, parent:divert the young attention from the firft elements of learning, if they do not indifpofe it to a fubject poffefling fo little comparative attraction.”

To the truth of thefe obfervations we have only to add our affent; and to affure our readers, that this laft work is, in every refpect, worthy its author.

ART. III. The Works of Dr. John Brown. To which is prefixed, a biographical Account of the Author. By William Cullen Brown, M.D. THE editor of thefe celebrated works (of which this is the third edition) is the fon of the author, a gentleman of no mean confideration among the profeffors of medicine, having been lately one of the prefidents of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh.

In the preface to the work, Dr. Cullen Brown makes known his reafon for undertaking to become his father's biographer; a task which he justly confeffes to have placed him in a very delicate fituation, and one which he would not voluntarily have undertaken. He is not unaware of the difficulty of obtaining full credit for giving a genuine picture of the excellencies and failings of one fo near and fo dear to him in memory, however studiously he should endeavour to avoid the partiality naturally to be imputed to a fon. But the whole of his father's works were out of print, and another impreffion demanded; fo that it was neceflary either to prefix

"The materials," fays he, " with which Dr. Beddoes was provided, were too fcanty to enable him to draw up a proper and regular narrative; and the perions often milled him in matters of fact. The who fupplied him with thefe have too confequence has been, that a variety of inaccuracies, omiffions, and mif-fiatements, is difcoverable throughout his obfervations. But this is not all. It appears not only to the editor and his relations, that justice has not been done to his fabut to every old friend of the family, ther's memory. The very circumftance of a perfon's voluntarily undertaking the biography of a celebrated man, argues partiality in his favour; though it does not neceffarily imply fuch a degree of pargrapher to the failings and defects of tiality as might be apt to blind the biothe individual whofe character he undertakes to pourtray. But Dr. Beddoes, far from erring in that refpect, feems to have run into the very oppolite extreme. The foibles and imprudence of his author are fully expofed to view, without any extenuation of them (for which there was rous virtues of his honeft and warm heart ample room) being attempted; the numeare icarcely touched at; his genius is acknowledged, because that could not be denied; almost every compliment to his talent is qualified; his want of medical erudition confidently affirmed; his compofition, both in Latin and English, vilificd; the extent of his practice questioned; he is arraigned of bigotry and pedantry in his youth, and of irreligion and arrogance in advanced life; ftories, the merits of which were never fully unravelled during the lives of the parties concerned, now that they are dead and gone, are other tendency but that of injuring his ripped up afresh, and appear to have no author's memory, or the intercit of his furviving family; his perfon, which, in

confideration of the eminence of the man, ought to have been mentioned with decency, if not with refpect, is likened to that of the clumfy buffoon of Cervantes; his voice is mentioned to have been hoarfe, and almoft croaking; and his metaphors in converfation, though, according to Dr. Beddoes, vigorous, animated, and agreeable to all around him, were disagreeable to him, by whom his company was not detired a fecond time. These are but a very few inftances of the fneering and contumelious manner in which fo great a character is spoken of. That work which, by its own intrinfic worth, has wrought a revolution in medical reafoning and practice, and is diffeminated all over the civilifed world, is dedicated, forfooth, to the Ingenious, the Candid, and the Iumaue; as if medical men, who are not more remarkable than their neighbours for their ingenuity, candour, and humanity, by fuch a fuppliant addrefs, were likely to be induced, out of their vaft humanity, to purchase a book, from the perufal of which they did not expect at least as much advantage as to be an equivalent for its price! And, laftly, though the practice hitherto followed, with refpect to the employing of mottos to books, has been to pretix to a new book an appropriate quotation from a Greek or Latin claffic, or more modern author of long standing ;the title-page of the Elements of Medicme, which had been fo many years in cir culation, and had made fuch an uproar in the medical world, is adorned with a recommendatory quotation from Darwin's Zoonomia, a work of yesterday, the fole merit of which, at least with respect to the medicine it contains, lies in what fimilitude it has to, or rather in what it has borrowed from, the Brunonian doctrine.

phifing introduced by that great man, but Dr. Macdounel acutely conjectures, and Dr. Beddoes, by quoting that conjecture, feems to agree with him, that it was in a great measure owing to the countenance in difrefpecting his predeceffors,' which that author afforded him. To quote the various inftances of a fimilar nature, with which the obfervations of Dr. Beddoes abound, would be tedious and unprofitable. Suffice it to say, that the life which he has given does not, by any means, appear to be the work of a real friend either to the author or his doctrine; and the indelicacies with which it abounds would make it appear that the biographer had actually taken it for granted, that, when Dr. Brown paid the debt of nature, his children and friends accompanied him to the grave."

Such are the affigned motives for this young phyfician incurring the hazard of being fufpected of partiality, or blamed for inadequacy of style, rather than leave his father's chąracter unjustly pourtrayed. He fuppofes that the mention of many particulars which occur in the courfe of the narrative could not be very agreeable to his feelings; but he deemed it a duty indifpenfably impofed upon him, whatever regard he had to his own feelings and thofe of his relations, to facrifice every confideration to the caufe of truth. Of his father's obfcure birth, the young phylician fpeaks in a very becoming manner; for fo far is he from being afhamed to acknowledge it, he commendably takes a pleafure and pride therein, juftly conceiving it to be highly to his parent's honour. On this occafion he very aptly introduces the fentiment of the illustrious Roman, who, on being upbraided by a degenerate patrician with the lownefs of his origin, replied, "The only difference between you and me is, that I am the first of my family, and you the laft of your's.'

"In fhort, a vein of levity and difparagement pervades the production. Whenever a conjecture is hazarded by Dr. Beddoes, it is invariably prejudicial to his author; and wrong motives are ascribed to almost all his actions. Thus, when Dr. Beddoes mentions his having taken an abrupt leave of the family where, in his youth, he had been tutor, instead of fuppofing the poffibility that the fault lay on the fide of that family, he thinks it likely enough that he added the stiffness of pedantry to the fournefs of bigotry.' His It may eafily be imagined that the inftitution of the lodge Roman Eagle is life of Dr. John Brown, written by his attributed, not to the avowed and often- fon, will contain many particulars fible motive, but to the defign of gain- which another biographer would omit; ing profelytes to his doctrine.' His ad

miration of Bacon is not afcribed intirely for, notwithstanding the fenfible obto his refpect for the mode of philofo- fervation of one writer on this point,

and his anticipation of public opinion mended by his conftant friend and upon it, he cannot diveft himfelf of late fchoolmafter, Mr. Cruikshank, of thofe prepoffeffions which peculiarly Dunfe, and with whoan be also acted belong to, and are indeed interwoven fome time as ufher. His ftay in the with, his kindred alliance. This will family of this laird (fynonymous, as account for the infertion of fome par- Dr. C. B. fays, with a country fquire ticulars which had better have been in England) was not of long duration; "beomitted, and for the introduction of and, as Dr. Beddoes fuppofes, perfons whofe names it had been pru- caufe he added the stiffness of pedantry dent to conceal. We can make al- to the fournefs of bigotry," the filial lowances for a fon's warmth of indig- biographer feels himself imperiously nation at the recital of injuries done called upon to fet this matter in its to a parent; but this refentment is al- true light, especially as he will not lowed to affumé too coarfe a garb, allow the term pedantry in any manwhen, telling us of the difficulties and ner to be applicable to his father, bedifireffes of his father at the time he ing the common characteristic of a was thrown into the King's Bench half learned perfon. The ftory of his prifon, he fays thofe fufferings were feparation from this family, where he aggravated" by the rafcality of one conceived himself not treated with the of the Scotch bookfellers." Biogra- refpect due to his fituation, is told as phy, as a part of hiftory, fhould be follows. elothed with refpectful, if not dignified with elevated, language. Per- he was always invited to remain after haps Dr. C. B. will fay to us, Put dinner, and take one or two glaffes of yourfelf in my place; to which we wine; but this act of common civility fay, No. On the contrary, we tell was never thewn him when company hap him that he should put himself in the pened to be prefent. He had a very high and independent fpirit; and fuch indeliplace of a firanger, who fhould undercacy take to give the memoirs of his deceafed father.

Notwithflanding all this, and a few Scotticisms here and there, the admirers of Dr. J. Brown's Elementæ, or Medical Principles, cannot fail to -derive confiderable fatisfaction from the perufal of the new life of that learned man. Of thefe peculiarities in diction, landlord, when fpeaking of a laird in Scotland, or the wealthy owner of a manfion, but merely implying the word hoft, has an uncouth found; but, perhaps, in elucidation of what we object to, we cannot do better than tranfcribe the paflage to which we allude, the anecdote being not only important in itfelf, but alfo as throwing the tide of his profperity,

or rather of his affairs, into a new channel: it is, befides, one of thofe parts of Dr. Beddoes's life of the doctor, which the fon enters his abfolute caveat against. It relates to his fituation while preceptor in the family of a gentleman to whom he was recom

"When the family were by themselves,

of conduct very naturally hurt his feelings, and alarmed his pride: he was refolved, however, not to retire from the family on a pretence feemingly fo frivolous. At that time he was not aware, that, far otherwife than what happens in our more liberal lifter country, the families of condition on the Caledonian fide of the Tweed confider even those very perions, to whofe fuperior learning, talents, and probity, they intruft the cultvation of the mind and care of the morals of their children, as very little better than a fuperior kind of fervants. This is not one of the leaft contemptible relicts of feudal barbarity to be detected in the country. Accordingly, no perion, who has the fpirit of a man, can long endure the othec of tutor, or, as it has been abfurdly named, governor, in a Scotch family. A number of neighbouring lairds had been invited to dine with the family on a particular occafion. John Brown, as ufual, was prefent at table, but was allowed to retire to his own apartment, immediately after dinner, without an invitation to remain. When they had all drunk fo copioully as to be prepared for philofophical difcuffion, a query was started by fome one, to exercife their powers of difputation, concerning nothing lefs

2

than the decrees of Providence. After polis of Scotland, where he propofed a great deal of noisy and unprofitable al- to fupport himfelf by inftructing the tercation on both fides, it was at length ftudents of the university in the Greek refolved upon that the difputed point and Latin languages. There we will fhould be referred to John Brown, whom the landlord of the houfe had not confi- leave our afpiring genius to follow the dered as a fufficiently refpectable perfon fuccefs of his honourable and diligent to continue for the evening among his ig- career, and refume the narrative of norant guefts. A verbal meffage was ac- this extraordinary man's life in our cordingly fent to him from the head of the next Number, in which we propofe family, ftating the matter, and defiring alfo to treat of this fingular writer's his opinion. His temper being then ex-« Obfervations" upon falle fyftems of tremely irritable, in confequence of the contumelous treatment he had experi- medicine, as well as upon the means enced that evening, instead of replying taken for demolishing the one of Dr. directly to the point, he returned for an- Cullen (once his friend, but latterly fwer, That the decrees of Providence his adverfary), prevailing at that time. were very unjuft, which fo often made Do not these revolutions and coun

blockheads lairds.'"

This incident, as it is natural to fuppofe, occafioned a rupture between him and his employer, and induced the doctor to go to the metro

DRURY LANE.

ter-revolutions in fcience, and efpecially in the fcience of preferving health and life, urge us fhort-fighted but vain mortals to exclaim, O! ars longa, vita brevis?

THE DRAMA.

We are told that he is fo much the T has for fome time been faid, that hero, as not to be difmayed at this every theatrical dock belonging to first discomfiture, but, at a future one of our playhoufes is always occu- day, will again enter the lifts, again pied by certain favoured playwrights. ftart for the prize. If, at length, he This cannot be the cafe at this houfe, fuccefsfully arrives at the goal, we fince a young adventurer has been al- doubt not he will borrow the motto lowed to lay down at pleasure the of one of our peers, non fine pulkeel of his little bark, with unbound- vere;" for certainly, in the race for ed expectations of a profperous voy- public favour, we have not, to ufe a age to Argos in fearch of the golden vulgar phrafe, feen fuch a duft kicked fleece. Alas! how vain are human up for a long time on the boards of hopes!-the veffel was loft in launch- either theatre.

66

ing. But to change the metaphor. In the genealogy of a great house, The town had, for a confiderable it is not neceffary to enumerate the time, been led to expect a fuperla- abortions which have happened in it; tively rich treat in The Land we Live nor fhould we fpeak of this mifcar in; and on Saturday the 29th of De- riage in Drury Lane, but that we are cember it was ferved up to a nume- fure there might be better management rous and longing gueft. The first fomewhere, fo that fuch difappointcourfe was received with aufpicious ments would be lefs frequently met marks of fatisfaction, and was in a with by a generous public. It is a degree relished; but the cook had maxim, that an unprofesional man unkilfully blended the ingredients of makes the beft manager at the head his difhes, and, as the Oxonian faid, of the Admiralty, as he is the most had omitted the proper concomitants. free from bias. Now, we have reaBut we will be ferious on that which fon to believe that a profeffional genwas certainly a fubject of ferioufnefs tleman is at the head of the affairs of to the author, who, we understand, this concern; and that circumftance is a young barrifter of no unpromif- may account for the polite reception of ang talents in the way of his profeffion. that offer, which by other hands would VOL. III.

H