which it relates. The ufe that Mr. Macpherson has made of it, is apparent from almoft every page of his hiftory. A ftill more valuable use may be made of thefe Papers by any future hiftorian, who fhall examine and compare them with fuperior attention, weigh their evidence with greater fcrupulofity, and have less predilection for the Stuart family.

ART. VI. Difcourfes on Practical Subjects. By John Moir. 12m0. 3 s. fewed. Cadell. 1776.

THE

HE fubjects of thefe Difcourfes are-The Birth of Chrift -the Genius of the Gofpel-the Inefficacy of Preaching -the Delicacy of the finer Affections-the Death of a Friend -the felicity of generous Difpofitions.

As to their merit, our Readers will be enabled to form a juft idea of it from a few extracts which we fhall lay before them. The firft fhall be given from the difcourfe on the Genius of the Gofpel, in which Mr. Moir takes occafion, from Luke xix. 41, 42. And when he was come near, he beheld the city and wept over it, &c. to fhew, that Christianity breathes a spirit of benignity; that the great defign of it is the welfare and reformation of the world; that nothing, but our own impenitence, can render it ineffectual; and that the very worst of men are finally given up by heaven with reluctance.

In this difcourfe we find the following reflections on our Saviour's character:

In the breast of the mild and merciful Jefus, in fpite of a thou fand provocations, refentment gives way to pity; and the miferies of his molt implacable enemies affect him much more deeply than the repeated Hofannas of his friends. That innate impatience and pride, which render the heart of man fo little able to bear controal or brook affronts, and which must have been fo natural on this occafion, is intirely fuppreffed by the force of much nobler principles: every little angry paffion feems for the prefent fufpended, or rather extinguished his foul; and the warmeft fentiments of clemency and compaffion engrofs all the faculties and feelings of his heart: he beholds his unprovoked perfecutors, approaches the scene of his unmerited fufferings, and faces all the malignity of hell and earth, not with the indignant rage of innocence in diftrefs, but with the tenderelt mercies of a benignant Deity; fuperior to the weakness, but fufceptible in the highest degree of all the great and melting tones, of nature. How becoming this noble and elevated frame of mind in the bleffed Author of that religion, which grafts the fublimeft fyftem of action on the pureft benevolence! Never was generolity fo fuperlatively great, never was the forgiveness of injuries fo divinely magnified, never was fenfibility expreffed in fuch a rich luxuriant guth of heavenly affections, as in this memorable inftance-Unmindful of the cruel ufage he received-from his countrymen-anmindful of their meditated malice and wickednefs against him-unmindful of his own fame and reputation, which he knew would be established in 7 their

their deftruction-unmindful of the many dark and hellish plots they repeatedly hatched to difpatch him-unmindful of the ignominious death to which he forefaw they would bring him-unmindful of the outrage he was fure they would do, both to his memory and cause, when he was gone-HE BEHELD THE CITY, AND WEPT OVER IT.Did ever the world fee any thing like this before! Was ever clemency fo wonderful! was ever compaffion fo divine! Where now your brightest examples of all that dignifies and adorns humanity? Bring forth the purest and most celebrated characters of antiquity, exhibit them in the fairest colours and the finest attitudes, and do the utmost justice to their mighty exploits and aftonishing virtues; but let, the belt of them hide their heads, and bow with reverence in His prefence, who uniformly fpake and acted as never man did: for, though he knew all that was in their power, and all that was in their hearts against him, the fingle with he indulged was a wish for their welfare. He upbraids them indeed with ingratitude, as well he might; but his upbraidings are mingled with a tenderness and pity, which no heart but his could feel, which no language but his could express.'

In the difcourfe concerning the Inefficacy of Preaching, our Author expreffes himself in the following manner in regard to Preachers:

To improve the world in true and fubftantial worth, is an object to which we implicitly facrifice every thing: and the queftion is, By what method fhall we most effectually accomplish that end? Surely, not by a torrent of popular phraseology, by spinning out the artificial cobwebs of the fchools, by quibbling metaphyfics, chopping logic, or speaking to our hearers, as if perfectly indifferent whether they heard us or not. Would to God, opinion gave way to truth, fpeculation to perfuafion, the language of art to that of nature, and long laborious difquifitions to the fimple effufions of fentiments and experience!

He is a quack with a witnefs, who prefcribes a remedy without being able to point out the fore. Our vices are evidently owing more to prefumption than ignorance. The rake is often as fenfible as you, that his conduct is criminal: but reafon is blinded; confcience, modefty, and fhame, have loft their influence; and he is hurried to his ruin by every intemperate fiend that lays hold on his foul. The cafe is the fame with all mankind, in proportion as under the dominion of iniquity. More perverfe than ftupid, to reform their manners we need only intereft their affections: they die, merely because they will not live. Meddle not once then with the judg ment, till you have difputed fuccefs fully the fettled propensity of the heart. If ignorant, by all means inftruct them: convince them of their danger, and they will avoid it: fhew them how infeparably ruin is connected with impenitence, and they dare not ftand till and perith make them certain that there is indeed a Heaven, and a Hell; that virtue ends in the one, and vice in the other, as naturally as health does in life, and fick nefs in death; and relief is not more acceptable to the oppreffed, reft to the weary, or light to the blind, than a Saviour will be to them. But, for God s fake, for theirs, for your own, dally not a moment with their reafon, while

you

you may drag them where you will by their feelings. Nothing cañ be more capricious than the former, or more foft and pliable than the latter. By fpeaking to the heart and confcience we have fome chance of fuccefs; by fpeaking only to the understanding, none at all.

• The heart is the life of the moral, as well as of the natural fyftem. Here we muft feek for the motives, and fprings, and principles of action, and, according as felfifh or liberal, pronounce concerning them. Once get poffeffion of the heart, and you may fofted and fubdue, mould and melt, your hearers at pleafure. Secure this pafs, and the victory is yours; till then your strongest efforts will mifgive, your beft laid ftratagems prove abortive. But how can they expect to accomplish this arduous enterprife, who never attempt it? I can very well fee the ftrength of your reasoning, without feeling it but till you raise certain emotions in my bofom, and awaken my confcience, you cannot furely produce that strong, permanent, and operative principle, which, in order to my being a Christian, muft reduce my appetites, and regulate my life.

There is a keen and delicate fenfibility, a great and willing warmth, a growing vigour of fentiment and expreffion, which marks the ftrain of true perfuafion, and which I will not hesitate to pronounce the very Soul of Pulpit Eloquence. While the Preacher finds his conceptions heated and enlarged with the great doctrines and discoveries of the Gofpel, every grateful affection burns within him, transports ravish his heart, and raptures fire his tongue: divine light flashes around him, his ideas brighten as his paffions glow, fentiment fwells with the vigour of imagination, and the accuracy of his judgment keeps pace with the ardour of his heart. How pitiful, on the comparifon, must not they be, even in their own eyes, who can dwell on thefe affecting fubjects without betraying one pious emotion! Yet the Profeffor of Mathematics fhall treat of quantity and number of lines and angles, fuperficies and folids, with as much, if not more, vivacity and concern, than HE who virtually comes from heaven to tell us how we must be faved. Such dull, infipid, criminal coolness is the more fantastic in men of fcience, that the moft ignorant can fee through the hollowness and affectation of it. One or two, perhaps, in a few congregations, may difcover the beauties of a fine compofition; but, moft affuredly, the whole of every congregation, at all times, in all places, on all occafions, defpife and execrate a dead, inactive DELIVERY.'

One extract more, and we have done. In treating of the Felicity of generous Difpofitions, we have the following character of

the fair fex:

The exercise of benevolence feems peculiarly congenial to the female character; and among a thousand amiable things, in which women are evidently fuperior to the other fex, this is none of the leaft. Their frames are much more fufceptible of foft and generous impreflions than ours, and they are lefs able, perhaps lefs willing, to ftifle the many tender emotions of pity, which agitate their fouls, than we are. The truth is, and why fhould we attempt to hide or difguife it they have an ardour and openness of fenfibility about

them,

them, which we have not: and whatever of foftness, or delicacy, belongs to the ingenuous expreffion of humanity, is fingularly characteristic of their natures. Formed by the hand of Heaven for fweetening the fcenes of domeftic life, their hearts are originally modelled and tempered for the mildeft and dearest attachments. It is in tenderness, in fentiment, in fublimity of affection, and gentlenefs of foul, their chief excellence lies: for, though they fhould yield to us in ftrength and steadiness, extent and elevation of undertanding, in whatever relates to feeling at least, which is by far the nobleft and divineft part of the fyftem, they rife infinitely above us. Hence their pity is more foothing, their fympathy more intenfely affecting, and all their attentions much more interesting and grateful than ours. Mafculine fenfibility fill conveys an idea of feverity or rigidness, which but ill comports with offices of tenderness, and yet without which our compaflion were unmanly and effeminate: but female fenfibility is a celestial dame, that melts without mortifying; the fweeteil emanation of Divinity, that cheered the benighted breats of niortals; fo inexpreffibly gracious and acceptable, that Nature feems to have defigned it chiefly for a SYMPHONY to the querulous voice of diftreffed Humanity: and thofe of the fex, who cultivate most the chafte and elegant refinements of the heart, minifter and prefide, with the meeknefs and benignity of angels, in all those lenient and winning affiduities, which relax the rigour of misfortune, and leffen the calamities of life.

Indeed, the cares of a family, and repeated inftances of ingratitude, may, in time, reprefs the generous ardour of compaffion in them, as well as in us; for old age in both fexes is often tinctured with a fternnefs, of which in an earlier period we have no conception. But there is hardly a young woman to be found, even among the gay and the fashionable, who, in certain circumstances, can withhold either the tear of pity, or the boon of generofity. In the very abfence of Virtue, where the mind broods not over the endearing consciousness of its own worth; where true Restitude, the living badge of internal greatnefs, has no place; and where Innocence, the blytheft and fweeteft companion that ever vifited the fhades of folitude, no longer inhabits the female breaft; amidst habitual fallies of levity and merriment, perpetual attention and conformity to the minuteft peculiarities of the mode, and an everlafling fucceffion of incident and bustle, where impertinence is thought vivacity, dilimulation truth, wantonnefs nature, and affectation grace; BENEFICENCE often steps forth in a figure fo majelic and commanding, that Selfishness flies before her, and all the little fpe&tres of Intereft and Ambition are fain for a while to hide their heads in filent confusion. How much more amiable and affecting the exertion of this noble difpofition, where the Graces in all the bathfulness of virgin modeity dance attendance, and where the Virtues with a dignified afpect fmile the highest approbation!

There is not, perhaps, a more engaging and lovely objet, in all the creation of God, than an elegant Young Lady, equally diftinguished by birth and fortune, attending in this manner to the wants of what the conceives to be modeft worth, and generously ftooping to fupply them. O ye Fair! what additional charms might you not REV. Apr. 1776.

X

derive

derive from the bounteous diffufion of that wealth, which often renders you fo exceedingly ridiculous! How would it heighten every grace, and give your fex an unlimited empire over every heart! Af furedly, the ranks with the higheft order of intelligent natures, whose affections are thus happily attuned to every tender and humane emotion for you muft fuppofe her poffeffed of fentiments, and modes of thinking and acting, which have but few precedents in life, who, in fpite of all that distracts and inflames intemperate youth, can work herself up to fuch a pitch of virtue. Abject and uncultivated minds poffefs no liberal ideas, have no excentricity, dare not rife above the flavery of custom, want that true ardour which is effential both to great conceptions and prompt exertion; and the circle, which limits and contracts their best emotions, is the trite and felfith circle of the vulgar. But her character is formed on more exalted principles her heart, engroffed by no mercenary and degrading fyftem, takes a much nobler range, and her actions every where proceed on a larger fcale. How many in her circumitances, with fpirits not half to joyous, and figures much lefs formed to pleafe than hers, are yet to totally ingulphed in the fashionable formalities of life, as totally to forget what they owe both to themfelves, and to all the world! They feem as if they durft not hazard a thought beyond the pitiful fyftem of diffipation, which the worthlefs of every kind fo artfully introduce and patronize. The unvaried rotations of the day, and inceffant repetitions of the evening, take up their whole attention; and all their pains and powers are most fhamefully devoted to the toilette, and fantastic finery of the times. What they lavish thos heedlessly in fuperfluous extravagance, on the embellishment of charms which no art can long preferve, on decorations which, like the bloffom of the fpring, reflect at most but a temporary luftre, on the acquifitions of pleafures which have no durable fubitance, sнg carefully accumulates for indulging the more grateful and heartfelt luxury-the luxury of DOING GOOD. Superior as fhe is to want, in all its frightful and hideous forms, her lively and fympathetic ima gination is no ftranger to the cruel inroads it is daily making on human felicity. How different her manner from theirs, whofe infufferable haughtinefs and aufterity is a fund of eternal uncafinefs to all about and below them! Alas! fhe is too fufceptible of forrow and fuffering, in every part of her own tender and fentimental frame, ever to be the author of them in another. How much is the fhocked with the crimes and impurities, which tarnish and degrade humanity yet would the not wish to exchange her being, unless perhaps, ! for that of fome pitying Angel, to wipe away the tears from the eyes, to mitigate the fufferings, and catch the fighs of the wretched, as they constantly afcend, like cloudy columns of fragrant incenfe, before the heavenly throne.

Whether you trace her through public or private life, the fame decent and dignified deportment, the fame amiable ferenity and equanimity of temper, the fame unruffled fweetnefs and affability of manners, the fame foaring and difinterefted benignity of foul, ftill point her out as a Model to her fex, in every grace that adorns, in every virtue that exalts, in every fentiment that endears them. With a tafte for all thofe endowments, whether of head or heart, which could