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this author, views the performance of a perfon, apparently perfuaded that no man living is right but himself. In defending christianity therefore, he defends only his Chriftianity, which as it is profeffed by no other person in the world, is doing little for the general cause. He feels, he fays," a clear conviction that Christianity cannot be vindicated adequately and confiftently against Deifm, by any votary of fyftems and establishments," p. 3. In another compofition of his, lately published, he fays, "It is with me an established maxim, that no man of understanding who does not labour under the most palpable and acknowledged prejudice, no man, who has proved himself by his life and writings a fincere lover of truth, can possibly be an advo cate for our prefent fyftem in church and ftate." How candid and how chriftian fuch a writer muft be, it is very easy to perceive; and though we allow him, as we always do, the praise of well meaning, we cannot conceive weak bigotry in opinion, and imprudence in avowal to be carried to a greater height. As, however, Mr. Wakefield can argue where prejudice has not difabled his reafon, he defends with fuccefs fome of thofe few, thofe very few, points of Chriftianity which he thinks it neceffary to retain. But he is a violent panegyrift of T. Paine, and even goes fo far as to fay that he has "not one perfonal or political immorality" to anfwer for. He fpeaks of him alfo as a phænomenon of abilities; yet he can find in fome affertions of this phoenix," not only the effence, but the quinteffence of weakness and abfurdity," many things alfo frivolous and unworthy of a man of fenfe, which certainly there are. The truth is that T. Paine is a clever fellow, but a very ignorant and impudent one, and confequently often gets beyond his depth. His forte is, as we have obferved before, ridicule: which generally obtains more credit than it deferves, from its liveliness. The extreme violence of Mr, W. against those who differ from his favourite opinions, is evinced in a note, at p. 4. against the worthy editor of the Gentleman's magazine, and fome of his coadjutors. Yet he would probably think us uncandid, if we were to avow our real perfuafion of what these fymptoms denote.

ART. 51. A liberal Critique on the prefent Exhibition of the Roya Academy; being an Attempt to correct the National Tafte; to ascertain the fate of the Polite Arts at this Period; and to rescue Merit from Oppreffion. By Anthony Pafquin, Efq. A New Edition. 8vo, Symonds, 1794.

IS.

To reprobate the injuftice, and expofe the ignorance of Mr. Pafquin's remarks, would be to comment on every paragraph of this pamphlet; and from doing this we shall readily be excufed. Not to mention that we should be levelling our artillery, (to borrow an expreffion from this elegant author,) at that which is "fcarce worth powder and shot." We rather choose to show him an example of our tenderness for reputation, which we fhould be very happy to fee him imitate, and pafs over thofe, whom we muft fuppofe to be the author's friends, by the ridiculous praife he has heftowed upon them, to point out an inftance of grofs mif-reprefentation and abufe.

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BRIT. CRIT. VOL. IV. DEC. 1794,

Of

Of Sir F. Bourgeois, Mr. Anthony obferves, "this furprizingly modeft gentleman has taken efpecial care, in the diftribution of the paintings in the prefent Exhibition, that if you turn to any point of the compafs, fome divine effufion from his pencil fhall cheer the vagrant eye." Now gentle readers, the Exhibition contained but we pictures, by the above artift, both which Mr. Pafquin has moft illiberally noticed. His praife and his cenfure, indeed, are equally mif. applied; and remind us of that nation of favages, to whofe optics, 'tis faid, all ftraight things appear crooked, and crooked things straight. What the general fentiment was, at the Royal Academy, on fecing fuch a man enter it as a Critic, we have not learned; but we may fuppofe, "To fee his grave obferving face,

Provoked a laugh throughout the place."

ART. 52. An Anfwer to certain Affertions contained in the Appendix to a Pamphlet extituled Minutes of the Proceedings on the Court Martial held at Portfmouth, August 12, 1792, on Ten Perfons charged with Muany on Board His Majefty's Ship, the Bounty, by Captain William Bligh, London. G. Nicol. 4to. 31 PP. Price 25. 1794.

We expreffed our opinion in the account we gave of the publication to which this is an answer, that Captain Bligh would notice it. He has immediately done fo, and we think in the propereft manner, fo much fo, that we hold it a duty to make his answer known as early as poffible after his accufation. Without entering into any perfonal vindication of himfelf, or indulging thofe feelings unavoidable to the predicament in which he is placed, he has produced authentic documents and testimonies from others, which contain the fullest and most fatisfactory refutation of all that was infinuated against his character. We cannot help thinking, that the friends of Chriftian will act the wifeft part, in throwing as much as poffible into oblivion, the transaction in which that young man acted fo confpicuous, and fo criminal a part.

* Vide Gay's Fable of the Monkey.

FOREIGN

FOREIGN CATALOGUE.

GERMANY.

ART. 53. S. Aurelii Auguftini Hipponenfis Epifcopi Sermones inediti, admixtis quibufdam dubiis. E membranis Sec. XII. Biblioth. Palat. Vindob. fumma fide defcripfit, illuftravit, indicibus inftruxit Mich. Denis, a Conf. Aul. Aug. & Primus ejus Bibliotheca Cuftos. Vienna, Large folio. 123 pp.

Whilft Mr. Denis, who has been engaged for fome time in compiling a Catalogue raisonné of the MSS. preferved in the Imperial Library at Vienna, was employed in defcribing thofe of the fecond clafs, confifting of fuch as have been prefented to the Library fince the time of Charles VI., he happened to meet with one, the tenth in the order in which they are arranged, belonging to the 12th century, in the margin of which was written, te liber eft congregationis S. Juftine de Padua; Deputatus in Monafterio S. Severini de Neapoli. On a more accurate examination, it appeared to be the fame that had been noticed by the celebrated Montfaucon in his Diar. Ital. c. 21. p. 319, but of which it does not feem that he had made any ufe. It must have been one of the MSS. which, having been collected from different convents in Naples, were fent to Charles VI., as King of the Two Sicilies. That no attention was paid to it by Montfaucon was most probably owing to a fufpicion entertained by him that it contained nothing new fo that the fatisfaction and honour of making this discovery were referved for Mr. D. In the volume are contained 25 inedited difcourfes, chiefly of a practical kind. The impreffion, in regard both to the internal and external form, is adapted to the edition of the works of this father, published by the Benedictines, to which this is intended to be a fupplement. In the margin are given summaries of the different difcourfes, and under the text short critical and explanatory notes by the editor. The fame good fortune has likewife directed Mr. D., during the progrefs of the important work just mentioned, to other fimilar difcoveries.Among these are a Panegyric in Hexameter Verfes, by Prifcian, the Grammarian to the Emperor Anaftafius Dicorus, and the conclufion of the didactic Poëm de Ponderibus et Menfuris, by Quintus Rhemnius Fannius Palemon, which had hitherto been confidered as loft. Gott. Anz.

ART. 54. Ariftotelis de Poëtica Liber Grace. In ufum Scholarum recenfuit Joh. Theoph. Buhle, Prof. Gotting. 8vo. Goetting. 1794.

This is nothing more than an edition defigned for the use of academical prælections, printed with fufficient correctness, and, in a few

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few inftances, with new conjectural improvements of the text. the Epistle to M. Ebert, of Brunfwic, prefixed to this work, the editor endeavours to fix the point of view in which we ought to regard the whole of this valuable fragment in its prefent ftate.He conceives that we no longer have the Poëtic in its original form, but that we now poffefs nothing more than mere extracts from it, to which a new, and very often an injudicious, arrangement has been given, and which is not unfrequently ftill further disfigured by interpolations.

Απτ. 55. Μοσχίωνος περί των γυναικείων παθών.
lier um Paffionibus Liber, quem-edidit F. O.
1793.
240 pp. in 8vo.

Ibid.

Mofchionis de MaDewetz. Vienna,

In this book we are prefented not only with a fyftem of inftructions on the obstetrical art, but likewife on the other different maladies peculiar to the female fex, as the title itfelf (de Mulierum affectibus s. morbis} declares. The learned Conrad Gefner had firft copied the work from a very incorrect MS. preferved in the Library at Augsburg, and his friend Cafper Wolf, a Phyfician at Zurich, promoted the impreffion of the Greek at Bafil, 1566, 4, which after the discovery of a Latin tranflation, was admitted into the Harmonia Gynaciorum, published there, and reprinted in 1586 and 1596, both in Greek and Latin, but without any further improvement. It was known that another MS. copy of this work was preferved in the Library at Vienna, from which Fabricius had taken the preface to it, published in his Bibliotheca Græca. This has been collated by Mr. D., Phyfician to the Archduchefs Mariana, of Prague, who has corrected the text not only from the various readings found in it, but likewife from his own conjectural emendations, and thofe of Gefner. It is remarkable that this book was firft compiled in Latin from Greek originals, for the fake of fuch practitioners as were unacquainted with the latter language; fo that the prefent work is to be confidered as nothing more than a very imperfect version of the Latin original, which was probably of a date much anterior to the tranflation that we have now before us; perhaps about the fifth century, or the time of Coelius Aurelianus, whose mode of practice the author feems chiefly to have adopted. The 11 chapters, from 152 to 163, in Gefner's edition, which are not to be found either in the Vienna MS. or in the Latin tranflation, and which certainly contain matter altogether unworthy of the author of the reft, are therefore defervedly rejected by Mr. D. as fpurious. To the tranflation are fubjoined annotations and corrections by the ediIbid.

tur.

ART. 56. Anthologia Græca: five Poëtarum Græcorum Infus ex recen fione Brunckiana. Tom. I. et II. Indices et Commentarium adjecit Frid. Jacobs. Leipfic, 1794. Large 8vo.

We have here the commencement of fuch an edition of the Greek Anthologia as we have long wifhed to fee; to the completion of which

We

we fhall therefore look forward with no fmall degree of impatience, Of the juftly esteemed Brunck it may be observed, that in his editions of different claffical writers he has paid little attention to the wants of others, but confidered chiefly his own convenience. Explanatory notes and illustrations are, perhaps, no where more neceflary than on the fmall poems admitted by him into his Analecta, which are fo infinitely diverfified, and where, in order to understand them, we must be previously acquainted with the perfons, times, and places to which they allude. Had the bookfeller himself really confulted the intereft of the literary public, he would at leaft have employed fome other perfon to have furnished this otherwife valuable publication, with thofe indexes of which it ftands fo much in need: a defect which will be here abundantly fupplied. From this edition are excluded all thofe larger poems, or collections of poems, which form the first volume of the Analecta; so that this publication is defigned to take in all thofe fmaller pieces only which conftitute the two laft volumes of Brunck, together with fuch others of the fame defcription as are dif perfed in a variety of other works. The two volumes now before us reach to the middle of the fecond volume of the Analecta. The type is certainly elegant, though fmaller than that of the Strafburg edition, and the impreffion correctly copied from Brunck, with this alteration only, that where that editor had himself on a more mature confideration rejected in the notes the alterations made by him in the text, the common reading is again restored, whilft the conjectural emendations of different paffages, propofed not only by Br. but likewife by other learned men, in works, many of which have not an immediate relation to the Anthologia, are here placed under the text. In his Commentary, which we are foon to expect, the editor will affign the reafons for the feveral changes made by himself and others in the text; to which will be added the requifite literary notices and indexes, agreeably to the plan already pointed out in the British Critic. We understand likewife that confiderable additions to the Anthologia have been tranfmitted to the editor from Rome. Ibid.

ART. 57. Joannis Laurentii Philadelphienfis Lydi Opufculum de Menfibus; e Codd. MSS. Bibliothece Barberin. et Fragmentum de Terre Motibus; ex Cod. Biblioth. Angelica Rom. Græce edidit, varietatem Lectionis et Argumenta adjecit Nic. Schow, Prof. Havnienfis. Leipfic, 1794, 8vo, 144 PP.

It would be extremely difficult to give a perfect and clear analysis of the prefent compilation, which confifts merely of extracts made from fome larger work, with little or no merit in the felection. Whether the idea first occurred to this Johannes Laurentius, who is better known under the name of Johannes Lydus, or whether he had before him at the time a more ancient work cannot now be afcertained, but we have unquestionably a proof of the existence of fuch in the Fafti of Ovid. The author appears to have conformed to the Roman ca

* Number III. Vol, II. p. 345.

lendar

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