Book-Worm. of the parties, whether they retain or are excluded from immediate influence in their general concerns, I would ask, what can be more hostile to the principles of dissent? What is it but another version of the mode in which clerical appointments in the Established Church are filled? In the latter, indeed, the power is often lodged in the hands of individuals, or of bodies, who have no other connexion with the people immediately interested; and perhaps some cases as extravagant may be found amongst ourselves; but as far as relates to those members of the congregation, be their numbers greater or less, who have no voice in the election of their minister, the principle is one and the same. To them it can make no difference by whom the appointment was made they had no share in it; and if they deem it a duty to attend public worship, they are subject to precisely the same inconvenience as the unpretending followers of the hierarchy. But it is contended that this system is necessary to secure the property in the chapel for the use of Unitarian worshipers and from the invasion of interlopers of every description. If no other means can be pointed out by which this object may be fully accomplished, and which are at the same time altogether free from the objections which so decidedly apply to these, it may be admitted that there is something in the argument. But if it can be shewn that other means are within our reach, and only require to be called into operation, it must, on the other hand, be acknowledged, that among Dissenters, rational Dissenters, who, claiming for themselves the utmost freedom and independence of judgment, owe it to their own consistency neither to withhold nor to interfere with the right of others to exercise the like freedom and independence, it must, I say, be acknowledged, that every restraint on the individual rights of the members of a congregation, and more especially on that most important right, a voice in the election of the pastor, ought instantly to be removed. Let us then proceed in our inquiry. I have already said that the constitution of the Society and the tenure in the chapel ought not to be confounded. In fact, the occupation of the chapel should be a matter of separate agreement between the heads or delegates of the congregation on the one hand, and the trustees or proprietors of the building on the other. Where the building is private property, the terms will require an annual rent for the chapel entire, or for pews separately; where it is held in trust for a particular class of worshipers, it may be lent to people of that class in con sideration of their keeping the premises in repair, or of their paying a sum equivalent to the repairs; and in either case, other conditions may be prescribed as to the duration of the occupancy;-it may be for a year, for two years, or while certain doctrines are taught therein. In short, this species of arrangement is susceptible of every security that can be obtained by any other; and I am not aware of any disadvantage which can possibly result from it. It is true, difficulties may in some cases present themselves in the terms in which certain clauses of old Trust Deeds are expressed; but I suspect that, the spirit being willing, other difficulties of the same nature, and quite equal in magnitude, have in many instances been surmounted; and I am confident that a willing spirit would not fail to remove such as we now contemplate the possible or probable existence of. But be this as it may; the argument has no force in relation to those chapels which are now building, or which may hereafter be built. I am fully aware, Sir, that the principle which I contend for will meet with objectors; for old habits and old prejudices do not like to be disturbed; but I do not think it necessary to anticipate what may hereafter be advanced; I am satisfied with this endeavour to place the subject in a clear point of view, in the hope of leading to a further discussion. ly, as inclination might lead, or the severe." ingenious men," at length procured "a present of twenty guineas," in acknowledgment of the poet's compliment. finished than policy was engaged to In those days a poem was no sooner select a patron. Johnson relates that In this Number I shall invite your readers, not unseasonably, to the Summer of Thomson; offering to their acceptance the result of a comparison which I made, when I had some leisure for such amusements, between Summer, in the edition of the Seasons which is in every one's hands, and the first edition of the Poem, pub-ness which had first disposed Lord lished separately under the following Binning to encourage him, determined Title: "London: Printed for J. Millan, at Locke's-Head in New Street, near the upper End of the Haymarket. MDCCXXVII." A Dedication follows, "to the Right Hon. Mr. Dodington, one of the Lords of his Majesty's Treasury, &c." The poet, lately arrived from his native Scotland, at the great British mart of talents, had dedicated Winter, in 1726, to Sir Spencer Compton, from whom, according to Johnson, some verses which censured the great for their neglect of Carm. L. iii. Od. xxix. thus translated by Francis : "Andromeda's conspicuous sire Now darts his hidden beams from far; The Lion shews his madn'ing fire, And barks fierce Procyon's raging "Fainting beneath the swelt'ring heat, Thomson, having been some time entertained in the family of Lord Binning, was desirous of testifying his gratitude by making him the patron of his Summer; but the same kind him to refuse the Dedication, which was by his advice addressed to Mr. Dodington, a man who had more power to advance the reputation and fortune of a poet." Thomson, though he declines "to run into the common track of dedicators, and attempt a panegyric," and though he is aware of "a certain generous delicacy in men of the most distinguished merit, disposing them to avoid those praises they so powerfully attract," yet ventures to publish the discovery he has made, that his patron possesses "a character, in which the VIRTUES, the GRACES and the MUSES join their influence ;" and that his "example has recommended Poetry, with the greatest grace-an art," he adds, "in which you are a master,-one of the finest, and consequently one of the most indulgent, judges of the age;" worthy to be transmitted to future times as the BRITISH MECENAS." In 1730, on the publication of the Seasons, in a connected form, this prose adulation was commuted, as it has been in all succeeding editions, for eleven lines of flattery in verse, imputing to the patron, among other high qualities, "Unblemish'd honour; and an active zeal For Britain's glory, liberty and man." Such was the Dodington of a grateful, or rather an expectant Bard, who predicts in his Dedication, as to the " many virtues" of his patron, that "posterity alone will do them justice." Instructed by that invaluable dissection of a court, "The Diary of the late George Bubb Dodington, Baron of Melcombe Regis," posterity has done, and will continue to do him Book-Worm. justice, not imputing to him, with his poet, "unblemished honour," &c., but rather allowing his claim to that "bad eminence" on which he has placed himself, among the corrupt courtiers and place-hunters of his day. "The people," says Dr. Knox, (Spirit of Despotism, 1795, Sect. xx. p. 170,) have been called, not only venal wretches," (as "the electors of Bridgewater" were described by Lord Melcombe,) "but the swinish multitude. Long and tiresome books have been written to run down the people, as destitute of virtue, principle, of every thing honest and honourable, and that can give them any right to interfere with the grand mysteries of a cabinet. But he who reads and considers duly the very striking anecdotes and conversations in Lord Melcombe's Diary, will see, that, in order to find venality in its full growth, and survey sordidness in its complete state of abomination, it will be necessary to turn from low to high life. This Bubb Dodington, after selling himself, betraying the prince, and offering his six members to the best bidder, was made a Lord. He was created Baron of Melcombe Regis, as a reward for such prostitution of principles as ought to have caused him to be branded in the forehead with a mark of indelible infa my. "Such men," concludes Dr. Knox, "hate the people. They love nothing but themselves, the emoluments of places, the distinction of titles, and the pomp and vanity of the courts in which they flatter and are flattered. They will ever wish for a military government to awe the saucy crowd, and keep them from intruding on their own sacred privileges and persons. The Herculean hand of a vir "Unresting, changeless, matchless, in their Course; To Day, and Night, and the delightful Of Seasons, faithful; not excentric once; So pois'd and perfect is the vast Machine!" For lines 112-140 were the following, in 1727, all, except the two first, quite different from what now appear: Parent of Seasons! from whose rich"The vegetable World is also thine, stain'd Rays, Reflected various, various Colours rise: The freshening Mantle of the youthful Year; The wild Embroidery of the watʼry Vale; With all that chears the Eye, and charms the Heart. And makes us languish for thy vernal Gleams. "Shot to the Bowels of the teeming Earth, Flame." tuous people can alone cleanse the The ripening Ore confesses all thy Augean stable of a corrupted court formed of miscreant toad-eaters like Lord Melcombe." In this first publication of Summer, it extended only to 1148 lines. In 1730 it was increased to 1205; and in the later editions it has reached to 1804 lines. I shall proceed to notice the principal variations and additions. Instead of the lines now read, 38 -42, the Planets were described in 1727 and 1730 as Instead of the paragraph, lines 185 191, the following appears in 1727, and in the edition of the Seasons, 1730: In putrid steams," &c. Instead of the lines 324-328, the following appeared in 1727 and 1730: "So on the concave of a sounding Dome, On swelling Columns heav'd, the Pride of Art! Wauders a critic Fly; his feeble Ray Extends an Inch around; yet, blindly bold, He dares dislike the Structure of the Whole." In 1727 and 1730, for line 337 were the following: "Recoiling giddy Thought: or with sharp Glance, Such as remotely-wafting Spirits use, Survey'd the Glories of the little World?" The 80 lines which follow line 351, on Haymaking and Sheepshearing, did not appear in 1727. The lines on Haymaking are in the edition 1730. For lines 437-444 were originally, and in 1730, the following: "Down to the dusty Earth the Sight, o'er-power'd, Stoops for Relief; but thence ascending Steams, The the Nerves: supple Sinews sink; and on the Heart, Misgiving, Horror lays his heavy hand.” These were afterwards omitted, "perhaps," as a critic on the Seasons conjectures, because "they represented the distress felt under the sultry heat of summer in colours ridiculously aggravated.” Instead of lines 556-560, were these in 1727, and, with a slight variation, in 1730: "And, frequent, at the middle Waste of Night, Or, all Day long, in Desarts still, are heard, Now here, now there, now wheeling in mid-sky, Around, or underneath, aerial sounds, Sent from angelic Harps, and Voices join'd." The address to Miss Stanley, lines 564-584, was not added till after 1738. On the same subject, Thomson has an epitaph, which appears among his miscellaneous poetry. In the place of lines 590-606, the following appear in 1727, and, except the two first lines, in 1730: "Like one who flows in Joy, when, all at once, Misfortune hurls Him down the Hill of Life, Smooth, to the giddy Brink a lucid Stream Rolls, unsuspecting, till, surpris'd, 'tis thrown, A Letter to a Deputy of the Portuguese Cortes. In loose Meanders, thro' the trackless Now a blue wat❜ry Sheet, anon, dispers'd, thick, From Steep to Steep, with wild, infract. ed Course, And restless, roaring to the humble vale. Press under a Censor, and the beneficial effects of a Free Press, I am anxious to call the attention of your enlightened mind to the great benefit which the latter policy, exercised at Goa, would confer on Asia-Asia, hitherto debased and demoralized by ages of impious priestcraft and dark despotism. It may naturally be expected that the patriot Senators of the Portuguese Cortes, who have emancipated their native country, will next take into consideration the reformation of their colonies; and I have ventured to address myself to you, of whom fame speaks as eminently entitled to a leading influence in that august Assembly. 415 England justly claims the honour of having first established a Free Press. In the reign of Charles I., the liberty of the press, as well as religious toleration, was generally deemed of dangerous tendency, and therefore incompatible with good government. Experience, however, has taught us that they are the harbingers of peace and happiness. To freedom of writing may be traced the improved condition of society. The establishment of toleration, the abolition of the Slave Trade, the diffusion of education, and the extension of representative government, all emanated from an advanced and cultivated state of the human mind, which was chiefly promoted by a Free Press. The advantages derived from liberty of conscience are conspicuous in every country where it prevails-in England, in America, even in Indostan. Compare, for example, the conduct of the famous Mogul Emperors Akbar and Aurungzebe. Akbar, influenced by a philosophic spirit, encouraged the most perfect religious freedom. He called into the presence a Portuguese priest, and thefor the purpose of freely discussing ologians of various other persuasions, the great question of religion. The consequence was, that, during his long reign, religious rancour having never been excited, there was no holy war. Far different was the conduct of Aurungzebe. For nearly half a century he kept the sword of Mahomed reeking in the blood of the unfortunate Hindoos. But on his death-bed his conscience smote him, and he ex his remorse in the following |