turn of mind in the reader) will either highly excite or totally extinguish curiosity. In these works will be abundantly seen, abuse and contempt of the Church of England and its ministers; vengeance and virulent denunciation against all offenders; scorn for morality and heathen virtue, with that kind of learning which the author possesses, and his peculiar style of composition. A few of the titles placed below will give some information to the reader respecting the merit and design of those performances. (1)

As many of the preacher's subjects are controverted and nice questions in divinity, he has some

of business, to bespeak a pair; and to get him to trust me until my master sent me money to pay him. I was that day going to London, fully determined to bespeak them, as I rode through the town. However, when I passed the shop I forgot it; but when I came to London, I called on Mr. Croucher, a shoemaker, in Shepherd's Market, who told me a parcel was left there for me, but what it was he knew not. I opened it, and behold there was a pair of leather breeches, with a note in them! the substance of which was as follows: 'Sir, I have sent you a pair of breeches, and hope they will fit.' I wrote an answer to the note to this effect: I received your present, and thank you for it. I was going to order a pair of leather breeches to be made, because I did not know that my Master had bespoke them of you. They fit very well, which fully convinces me that the same God who moved thy heart to give, guided thy hand to cut because he perfectly knows my size, having clothed me in a miraculous way, for near five years!" The plan of purveying for himself by prayer, with the help of hints in the proper place and season, answered so well, that he soon obtained, by the same means, a new bed, a rug, a pair of new blankets, doe-skin gloves, and a horseman's coat. His wife also tried her fortune, and with good success: gowns came as they were wanted, hampers of bacon and cheese, now and then a large ham, and now and then a guinea; all which things he calls precious answers to prayer." Quarterly Review, vol. xxiv.]

(1) Barbar, in two parts; Bond-Child; Cry of Little Faith; Satan's Lawsuit; Forty Stripes for Satan; Myrrh and Odour of Saints; the Naked Bow of God; Rule and Riddle; Way and Fare for Wayfaring Men; Utility of the Books and Excellency of the Parchments; Correspondence between Noctua, Aurita (the words so separated), and Philomela, &c.

times allowed himself relaxation from the severity of study, and favoured his admirers with the effects of an humbler kind of inspiration, viz. that of the Muse. It must be confessed that these flights of fancy are very humble, and have nothing of that daring and mysterious nature which the prose of the author leads us to expect. (1) The Dimensions of eternal LovE is a title of one of his more learned productions,' with which might have been expected (as a fit companion), The Bounds of infinite Grace; but no such work appears, and possibly the author considered one attempt of this kind was sufficient to prove the extent and direction of his abilities.

Of the whole of this mass of enquiry and decision, of denunciation and instruction (could we suppose it read by intelligent persons), different opinions would probably be formed: the more indignant and severe would condemn the whole as the produce of craft and hypocrisy, while the more lenient would allow that such things might originate in the wandering imagination of a dreaming enthusiast.

None of my readers will, I trust, do me so much injustice as to suppose I have here any other motive than a vindication of what I have advanced in the verses which describe this kind of character, or that I had there any other purpose than to express (what I conceive to be) justifiable indignation (1) [One of his poetical productions is described in the title-page, as "A clownish poem on the Shunamite,

A sinner call'd to be the Lord's delight;

By the despised William Huntington,

Both known and trusted now in Paddington."]

against the assurance, the malignity, and (what is of more importance) the pernicious influence of such sentiments on the minds of the simple and ignorant, who, if they give credit to his relations, must be no more than tools and instruments under the control and management of one called to be their Apostle.

Nothing would be more easy for me, as I have observed, than to bring forward quotations such as would justify all I have advanced; but even had I room, I cannot tell whether there be not something degrading in such kind of attack: the reader might smile at those miraculous accounts, but he would consider them and the language of the author as beneath his further attention: I therefore once more refer him to those pamphlets, which will afford matter for pity and for contempt, by which some would be amused and others astonished-not without sorrow, when they reflect that thousands look up to the writer as a man literally inspired, to whose wants they administer with their substance, and to whose guidance they prostrate their spirit and understanding. (1)

(1) [" When, in October, 1805, Mr. Crabbe resumed the charge of his own parish of Muston, he found some changes to vex him, and not the less, because he had too much reason to suspect that his long absence from his incumbency had been, partly at least, the cause of them. His cure had been served by respectable and diligent clergymen, but they had been often changed, and some of them had never resided within the parish; and he felt that the binding influence of a settled and permanent minister had not been withdrawn for twelve years with impunity. A Wesleyan missionary had formed a thriving establishment in Muston, and the congregations at the parish church were no longer such as they had been of old. This much annoyed him; and the warmth with which he began to preach against dissent only irritated himself and others, without bringing back disciples to the fold. But the progress of the Wesleyans, of all sects

the least unfriendly in feeling, as well as the least dissimilar in tenets, to the established church, was, after all, a slight vexation compared to what he underwent from witnessing the much more limited success of a disciple of Huntington in spreading in the same neighbourhood the pernicious fanaticism of his half-crazy master. The social and moral effects of that new mission were well calculated to excite not only regret, but indignation; and, among other distressing incidents, was the departure from his own household of two servants, a woman and a man, one of whom had been employed by him for twenty years. The man, a conceited ploughman, set up for a Huntingtonian preacher himself; and the woman, whose moral character had been sadly deteriorated since her adoption of the new lights, was at last obliged to be dismissed, in consequence of intolerable insolence."- Vol. I. p. 182.

On the passages in Letter IV., treating of Methodism, the Eclectic Review said: "Mr. Crabbe's representation of the Methodists in ge. neral, as addressing the Creator with daring flights of unpremeditated absurdity, if intended to apply indiscriminately, can only be excused, by supposing the writer ignorant and rash, instead of malicious and unprincipled. There is too much truth in his strictures on the author of the 'Bank of Faith.' The Arminian Methodists afford him as much amusement as the Calvinists. He makes no scruple of turning their internal conflicts, as well as the tenour and influence of their leader's preaching, into general and unqualified ridicule. The truth divine' is not secured from his satire, by the supreme authority of that Teacher', who thought proper to illustrate the spiritual change by this striking figure, and the evil spirit, solemnly described by an apostle as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour,' is ludicrously exhibited in Mr. Crabbe's verse as a dragon of romance,

'Whom sainted knights attack in sinners' cause, And force the wounded victim from his paws." With reference to the above strictures, the Poet added the following note in his third edition of the Borough :-"An objection is made to the levity with which the subject of religion is said to be treated in this letter. This the author cannot admit it is not religion, but what hurts religion, what is injurious to all true devotion, and at enmity with all sober sense, which is thus unceremoniously treated: false and bigoted zeal; weak and obstinate enthusiasm, ignorance that presumes to teach, and intolerant pride that boasts of humility; these alone are objects of his attack. author has not the less reverence for religion, because, in warring with fanaticism, he uses the only weapons by which it is said to be vulnerable; and he doubts not but he shall be excused (nay, approved, so far as respects his intention) by the public in general, and more especially by that part of it (and that by no means a small part), who think the persons so described, while they are themselves—

'Safe from the Bar, the Pulpit, and the Throne,'

An

are the very people, from whom, did their power correspond with their wishes, neither the Pulpit nor the Throne (if the Bar should escape) would remain in safety."]

Sects and Professions in Religion are numerous and successive General Effect of false Zeal Deists-Fanatical Idea of

Church Reformers - The Church of Rome - Baptists

Swedenborgians Universalists. Jews.

Methodists of two Kinds; Calvinistic and Arminian.

The Preaching of a Calvinistic Enthusiast-His Contempt of Learning Dislike to sound Morality: why- His Idea of Conversion His Success and Pretensions to Humility. The Arminian Teacher of the older Flock - Their Notions of the Operations and Power of Satan-Description of his Devices - Their Opinion of regular Ministers Comparison of these with the Preacher himself— A Rebuke to his Hearers; introduces a Description of the powerful Effects of the Word in the early and awakening Days of Methodism.