declined several, in which his abilities and manners would have attracted general attention and respect, for a secluded village: and this, he afterwards exchanged for a county town, in which the congregation was notoriously heterogeneous and discordant. These circumstances concurred to foster that afflicting dejection, the disposition to which he seems to have inherited from his excellent mother.

The contrast which he has drawn of his own lot with that of others, (pp. 142, 150 ) is sufficient to shew that his feelings were not unadapted to poetical energy; and the various short compositions which he has left, though encumbered with prosaic lines (which he would probably have amended had be designed them for publication) suffice to prove that he might have become a reputable versifier, had his mind not been otherwise occupied. Almost all his pieces are on serious, if not on mournful, subjects. In one of them, however, the fertile source of equivoque in the occupations of a gardener, is amplified with a playful dexterity. The following address to the Eolian harp is neither the best, nor the worst, of the small selection here published.

♦ Unaided by Cecilian art,

Sweet chorister, thy notes impart

Sincere delight to me!

Thy simple octave entertains,
With all the mellow-flowing strains-
Of wild variety!

But silent thou, a useless toy,

Till due precautions we employ,

And hush the clam'rous throng.

In a devout position laid,

As if t' invoke celestial aid—

Then swells thy charming song!

So in a pensive mood, and sad,
(For souls there are, not always glad,
Nor such unknown to me)

Soft friendship charms the gloom away,
Its soothing breath revives the play
Of mental harmony.

The faithful preacher lays to view
The Christian system, pure and true—
A toneless harp to me!
Till vital breezes, from above,
Wake up the energies of Love-
Then sweet the melody!
My harp! in concord let us dwell,
Thy magic shall the spleen dispel
And anxious cares remove;
Till—all my tale of sorrow told,
I change thee for a harp of gold,

And join the choirs above!" pp. 168, 169.

The few of his letters that are given, do credit both to the writer and the selector. The private meditations eyince the devotional turn and habits, which, doubtless, chiefly contributed to the support of the author's mind, under its outward and inward trials. On the whole, this volume is not only interesting, but highly instructive: and the latter, both for imitation and warning, especially to young men designed for, or engaged in, the ministry of the gospel.

The papers here published, or reprinted, shew that Mr. W. was zealously intent on doing good. He successively found occasions of refuting Antinomians, Swedenborgians, and Roman Catholics; of consoling the afflicted, and advising his younger friends of both sexes. The writer of this article happened personally and intimately to know Mr. W. in the earlier. part of his course; and can bear his testimony to the indefati gable activity, not merely in preaching, but in the religious instruction of children, and in every mode of doing good, which characterised his deceased friend. His manners were delicate and amiable in a high degree. No young preacher of equal talents and acceptance, appeared to be more completely free from self conceit, or intrusive forwardness; and in many instances his ministry was signally useful. He did not trust to the precarious effect, of unconnected subjects for his discourses, when he had opportunity of pursuing a continued series: but a plan of this kind, which is inserted (pp. 13, 14) appears to us too defective to pass unnoticed, lest it should be adopted by any one implicitly as a pattern. Mr. W. proposed,

of

On Lord's day mornings, to pursue regular series of subjects, so as to form an accurate body of divinity. On afternoons, to discuss those pas sages wherein the gospel is summarily announced in successive passages scripture. This done, to succeed with the covenant of grace,' in its general disclosure, the Father's engagement to the son, &c. &c.; then to proceed with the promises of Christ, to Christ, in Christ, to the church in general, to saints in particular, &c.' pp. 13, 14.

The extreme danger of repetition, or of "wire-drawing," and hair-splitting" the proposed subjects, in proceeding on such a plan, is obvious: but it seems liable to weightier objections, especially from its exclusion of those practical topics, which so largely engross the writings of the New Testament. These formed the substance of our Lord's personal ministry; these mostly occupied, as indeed they occasioned, the epistles; on these, the apostles dwelt in their discourses; and by these, even the book of Revelation is pervaded. The sublimest doctrines of the gospel are usually introduced by the inspired writers, for the evident and avowed purpose of enforcing some point of Christian conduct. Mr. White had been too well

instructed from above, to lose sight of this indispensable object; his letters promote practical piety, or oppose practical evils; and his sermons were doubtless designed for the same great ends. But the question is, whether he might not have adopted a more effectual method of accomplishing them? It is a question, indeed, that concerns every minister, every student, every hearer of the gospel: and the most unexceptionable answer that can be given, is an appeal to inspired examples. What was our Lord's reply to Nicodemus? "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."-To the young Ruler?"Give all thou hast to the poor, and follow me."-To Martha? "One thing is needful." The apostle Paul, likewise was aware, that mankind in general know more than they practise, and that, without conviction of sin, they can feel no interest in the doctrines of salvation. When Felix therefore sent for him, to hear concerning the Faith of Christ, he "reasoned with him of righteousness, temperance, and judgement to come." While a vast proportion of the clergy fatally err, on the one hand, by keeping out of sight the peculiar doctrines of the Gospel, and on the other by substituting mere morality for evangelical holiness, the more enlightened of them, together with multitudes of dissenting teachers, in shunning these rocks, are sometimes apt to fly to an opposite extreme, and dwell upon a system of doctrines, which, without being closely and continually applied, fosters "the knowledge that puffeth up, not the charity which edifieth."

To return to the subject of the book. His acute feelings, from a variety of causes, gradually undermined his constitution and, having tried too late the effects of a voyage to Dublin, he resigned his charge, and a few months afterwards his life, when he had completed only the fortieth year of his age. He was deeply lamented, as he had been justly beloved, by all who were acquainted with his worth, especially his surviving brethren in the ministry. One of them hardly more than half his age, of the most eminent qualifications for usefulness, who spoke over his grave, and was to have edited his literary remains, was cut off by a most afflicting casualty, before he could fulfil that friendly office.-But this subject awakens feelings that peremptorily demand its close. Our hearts have too recently bled, from a similar stroke, to admit of any other addition, than our Lord's apostrophe to his heavenly Father, "not my will, but thine be done !"

Art. X. A Chronological Abridgment of the History of Great Britain, from the first invasion of the Romans to the year 1763. With genealogical and political tables. By Ant. Fr. Bertrand de Moleville. 4 vols. 8vo. pp. 510, 483, 576, 580. Price 21. 10s. Cadell and Davies. 1812.

THERE is no kind of historical composition more useful,

perhaps none, in reality, more interesting, than that of which the president Henault has given the most perfect example. He has described, briefly but distinctly, and, in many instances, with great depth and originality, the principal events, laws, and customs connected with the external and domestic history of France: his work is full of remarks and illustrations, the result of extensive, if not always exact, research and in short there are few books, which, in so small a compass, contain so much and such important

matter.

A history of England executed on the same plan, and with equal ability, would doubtless supply a material deficiency in our literature: but we are by no means of opinion, that the vacant space is fully occupied by the work before us, although in itself considered it has considerable value. It is written, on the whole with spirit and talent, is compiled from good sources, and accompanied by short chronological tables and memoranda, appended to each of the nine periods into which is it divided. For this departure from the plan of Henault, M. de Moleville assigns various reasons, but none of them appear to us quite satisfactory. It will be necessary, indeed, to abandon altogether the reference to the President, and consider these volumes as merely containing a new abridgment of the History of England, upon a larger scale, and with higher pretensions than usual.

Viewing the work in this light, however, we think the author has both extended it to an impolitic length, and has mingled with it too much of what is commonly called the philosophy" of history. The narrative of an abridgment is necessarily naked and imperfect. What it principally requires is dexterity in throwing forward the important points, and in marking inferior circumstances rapidly but distinctly. It is obvious that in order to accomplish this, all comment, all discussion, all inference, must be discarded; the space so occupied being wanted for other and indispensable purposes. Besides, the readers of abridgments are generally of a cast to trouble themselves very little about reasoning and investigation: they have either no time or no relish for mental exercise: they want merely to know what oc

curred at a certain time, to be told a few particulars of the occurrence, and to be carried from one event to another with as little expenditure as possible of time and attention. By this class of readers we fear, the slight and superficial sketch attributed to Goldsmith will be more highly prized than the very superior abstract of M. de Moleville.

This history is divided into nine periods: the first from the first expedition of Cæsar in Britain to its invasion by the Saxons: the second from the termination of the first to the end of the Heptarchy: the third to the reign of William of Normandy the fourth to the reign of Henry 2nd: the fifth to the reign of Henry 4th the sixth to Henry 7th.; the seventh to the accession of the house of Stuart: the eighth comprehends the history and expulsion of that dynasty: the ninth concludes the work.

M. de Moleville appears, on most occasions, to have consulted original authorities. For this he certainly merits praise: but the labours of preceding inquirers have made this task so comparatively easy, as to leave little more to their successors than the care of verifying the accuracy of their references. A more familiar acquaintance with the sources of their information, or a more impartial investigation of their import, would, we are persuaded, have frequently led our author to different results: nor can we receive, without pretty close scrutiny, the statements and comments made by a Frenchman of the ancien regime on the origin, the progress, and the sanction of our English liberties. It is full time, however, to furnish our readers with a specimen or two of the manner in which the work is written.

After describing the escape of Robert Bruce from the English court, our author proceeds as follows.

He arrived in a few days at Dumfries, the chief seat of his family interest, where he found a great number of the Scottish nobility assembled, and among them the traitor Cumming. He discovered to them the object of his journey, and represented to them with the greatest energy, that in the desperate extremity to which they were reduced it were better for them at once to perish like brave men with swords in their hands, than to dread long, and at last undergo the fate of the unfortunate Wallace.

The spirit with which this discourse was delivered, the bold sentiments which it conveyed, assisted by Bruce's manly deportment, and by the graces of his youth, roused all those principles of indignation and revenge with which the Scottish nobles had long been secretly actuated. They accordingly declared their unanimous resolution to second the courage of Bruce, in asserting his and their undoubted rights against their common oppresCumming alone, who had secretly concerted his measures with the king, opposed this general determination by his representations on”

sors.