congregations. In some it would be impossi. ble, by any power of compression, to enclose a tenth part of the inhabitants. We are willing to admit the great "learning and steadiness of the old Puritans," (p. 9.) but we peremptorily deny, so far as our knowledge of the regular dissenters extends, that the followers of Baxter, Calamy, and Manton, have ranged themselves under the standard of Socinus." That there are Socinians among those who dissent from the Church, is true: but, we speak it to the honour of the legalized Dissenters, that they cut off from their body, members who err in this particular; and their ministers stand aloof from those who appear too frequently in pulpits whence such principles are disseminated. Statements of this unqualified and undistinguishing nature, have the effect of describing the partizans of that persuasion as much more numeroas than they really are. Why attribute popularity to an error without necessity? The following suggestions deserve consideration: By the judicious and timely appropriation of a very moderate sum of money to the erecting and endowing Chapels of ease within this district, much assistance might probably be obtained from private persons, who would either be unable or unwilling to originate any such measure themselves. For the application of this fund commissioners of integrity and character might be appointed, with instructions to act on the following leading principles : First, That wherever a population of 1000 souls or more had been collected at the distance of more than two miles from any established place of worship, there a Chapel of ease should be marked out, and compulsory powers granted to appropriate a site. Secondly, That wherever a similar encrease had taken place in any town, so, that the same number appeared to be unaccommodated with the means of attending the parish church, or any existing chapel, however near at hand, the saine powers should be given. Thirdly, Wherever in any of the Country Chapelries an encrease of numbers within the distance of two miles had rendered the present structure inadequate to the congregation, a proportionate enlargement should be marked out, and carried into execution. The last provision would be attended with no difficulty whatsoever; the two former, which are merely to be considered as outlines, might be filled, diversified, or expanded in various ways by the deliberate wisdom of the legisla ture. Introduction to an Analytical Dictionary of the English Language, by David Booth. 8vo. pp. 170. price 5s. Edinburgh, for the Author. Johnson, London, 1806. An analytical dictionary of the English language, is a work of such considerable extent and labour, that it demands every encouragement previous to its appearance, in order to support the mind of the author under his engagement. It is, besides, an undertaking so full of difficulties, it requires so many qualifications, such perseverance, and such literary good fortune, too, that we think an author who intends such a publication, acts wisely when he issues a small tract, as a precursor to his The public is, hereby, larger volume. enabled, in some degree, to form a determination on the abilities of the writer; and the writer will receive a diversity of opinions, by which he may profit, and judge of the wishes, and wants, as well as of the disposition of the public. We have looked over this volume, with some attention, and do not perceive any reason which should induce the author to relinquish his plan. Mr. B. is aware of the importance of Saxon literature, as well as of latin and greek. He adverts also, to the German, and French, languages; he might add the Italian, for a few expressions. But, we should be glad to see attention paid to so much of the history of the people, as is necessary to illustrate that of the language. The Saxon tongue appears to have spread far and wide in our island, and to have become general: but the Norman French, though equally the language of conquerors, was greatly re stricted to the descendants and attendants of those who had established themselves by force. These, under the character of the superior class, retained their native language, and obliged others to converse with them in it; but the population, at large, learned no more of this than what they found absolutely necessary. In whatever language they might address their lords, they addressed each other in much the same terms as they had been used to do. Hence also, many things in their natural (or domestic) state retain to this day their Saxon appellations, while in their prepar ed or artificial state, they are known by This is remarkable, in French names. the market terms of food: Sow, Sowine, Swine, &c. are the Saxon names of the living animals; pork is the market name of the dead animal; calf is Saxon; but veal is French; and so of other articles. On the same principle it is necessary to ascertain how far the ancient British maintained itself against the Roman, against the Saxon, - against the Danish, and whatever language was used by the prevailing power. Proper names of places and things, may possibly be thought the most likely tests of truth on this subject: -but, in addition, to that acquaintance with the languages usually termed learned, which the critic requires,-who will pore over our Saxon writers, and converse with our Saxon rustics, in order to determine, not the powers of speech in polite conversation, or among the nobles of our land, but the import of words and phrases which have been preserved in secluded spots of our country, merely because the vitiating principles of genteel expressions, and of the fashionable dialect had not penetrated into them? person might conjecture that it referred to gloves worn by foxes. Fracture, fråkchur. We doubt the propriety of giving the power of ch to tu, in words derived from the Latin: it is a vulgarism; what would a Latin orator have thought of "frak-chŭra?" Words derived from the Greek, should, where it can be done without affectedly running counter to general custom, retain in pronunciation the difference between the short o and the long o: also between the i and the y. Mr N. has made some of his ys long, others short, in the same column, though all are of Greek original: neither has he given any power to final vowels in Greek words: yet most certainly the Greeks pronounced did not “ hī-drō-sel ”—but hi-drō-sele. Our language has borrowed from so many foreign languages, and we have so greatly vitiated the accents and pronunciation of words adopted by us, that no blame is imputable to Mr. N. for these slips. Imperfect acquaintance with the original dialects, fashion, of lisping The Juvenile Preceptor; or a Course of memory, and other causes, have occaRudimental Learning. Vol. iv. contain- sioned this confusion. It is not in a spirit ing a Spelling and Pronouncing Dictionary; of pedantry we wish for its reformation : arranged in four Parts, according to the but that we might preserve some resemblance to the original from which we have Number of Syllables. 12mo. pp. 340. copied. Who speaks Latin so utterly Price 4s. G. Nicholson, Ponghnill: unintelligible abroad, as an Englishman Symonds, London, 1807. does one half of what he says becomes Mr. Nicholson is well known as an in-nonsense, not from his meaning, or his geniousand worthy printer, who has chosen syntax, but from his false accents, and a secluded situation, whence he issues the mistaken power which he gives to his a number of pretty articles for the in- vowels. struction of youth, chiefly He is a goodselector, attentive to morals, and a neat printer. This is his occupation; widely, different from that of the bustling world. The volume in our hands is a continuation of his labours for the benefit of the rising generation and a meritorious effort to facilitate the acquisition of learning. We must own, nevertheless, that in some instances our ears dissent from the pronunciation adopted by Mr. N.: in fact, a spelling and pronouncing dictionary requires such a universality of knowledge, that we hardly dare flatter ourselves with the expectation of seeing it completely executed. We shall explain our meaning by selecting a few words. Fox-glovesthis should be in the singular-the plant called Fox-glove, (Digitalis) being intended: from its plural form, an uninstructed We do not mean these remarks as any censure of Mr. N's volume, which after having inspected with some attention, we think may be as useful as any that we have seen. Synonymia Insectorum, &c. The Synonymous Appellations given to Insects, by different Authors, collected and arranged, according to the System of Fabricus, by C. J. Schönher, Vol. I. containing Letbrus-Scolytes. 8vo. pp. 293, with three coloured Plates of Beetles. Stockholm. 1806. To this volume is prefixed a list of authors which have been consulted for this compilation. It occupies fourteen pages; from this circumstance some estimate may be formed of the labour sustained in com posing the work. It is true, that labour, j public, and should accommodate his treaunited to correctness, is all the merit tise to the capacities and supposable in which such a work can boast, since its main formation of youth, would deserve a staobject is to save others that trouble which tue. It would, indeed, be a laborious perthe author has taken on himself. Who- formance; but the way is so far opened ever wishes to know in what part and page by Bryant and others, that some assistance of a writer on entomology, any particular might be obtained. insect is described, has only to find the Fabrician name of it, and he is immediately informed of the passage where it occurs, in that writer which he is desirous of consulting. The text is in Latin; the notes, also, are most of them, in the same language; but there are a few in Swedish, the work being intended for the use of the author's countrymen, principally, though amateurs of all nations may take advantage of it. The plates are correctly executed and exhibit 19 species, either new, or not so well delineated hitherto. We take this opportunity of informing the public, that a selection of Swedish works has lately been imported by the Rev. Gustavus Brunmark, Chaplain to the Swedish Embassy; and that commissions for literary articles cannot be executed more readily than by that gentleman's intervention. : L'Olympe; ou, Traité raisonné de la Fable, &c. Olympus; or, Instructive Treatise on Fable, with a Description of the Pagan Divinities; for the Use of Youth. By F. D. K. With 24 Cuts. 2 Vols. 18mo. Price 5s. Didier and Tebbett. London, 1807. BEING ourselves of opinion, that the true character of the deities of paganism is little understood, and that, as it is commonly described, it produces no advantage on the youthful mind, we hardly know how to recommend a treatise of which those divinities are the subject. But Mr. F. D. K. was under no obligation to enter into our views, or to adopt the pe. culiarities of our opinion. His business was to narrate, in the best manner he could, the origin and bistory of these powers, according to such authorities as are generally received. This he has executed with considerable attention and dexterity, and in a pleasing and even elegant style. The work has merit, and is apparently the production of a cultivated mind. The engravings are no honour to it. That scholar, who should set the heathen deities in their true light before the We shall observe further, that a performance of the description we allude to and wish for, would be found strongly corroborative of the facts and statements of the Old Testament; the deities of classic paganism would prove to be the same as those worshipped in Canaan and in Syria; and the interminable struggle between the admission of images as a medium of worship, and the entire exclusion of them, under the penalty of reprobation, would be explained much more satisfactorily than it is at present. After all the labours of the learned, the subject of the Syrian gods is obscure; because they have not been sufficiently identified with those of writers whose works we are accustomed to esteem as historiaus, or poets. Thoughts on the Expediency of disclosing the Processes of Manufactories: Being the Substance of Two Papers lately read before the Literary and Philosophical Soci ety of Newcastle upon Tyne. By John Clennell, F. S. A. Edinburgh and Perth. 8vo. pp. 32. For the Author, 1807. MR. Clennell has issued proposals for publishing a work, containing the processes employed in the manufactories of this kingdom. The idea has excited some alarm; because, though every mas. ter is desirous of knowing his neighbour's secrets, yet he is not willing to disclose his own. The proposal, also, has political importance connected with it in this land of manufactures and industry. Mr. C. meets these, and other objections, by reasonings, shewing the incalculable benefits that operative skill would derive upon the whole, from such communications, and by stating the numerous instances in which we have derived, sometimes an entire art, sometimes great improvements, from foreign parts. doubt not the ability of those whom it immediately concerns to direct their conduct, in reference to the object intended, and when the work itself apyears, we shall endeavour to judge impartially on its merit. We LITERARY PROSPECTIVE. Mr. Middleton's "Doctrine of the GREEK ARTICLE applied to the Criticism and the Illustration of the New Testament," will be published in about a month: it makes one large volume in 8vo. A splendid and interesting Edition of the Comus of MILTON translated literally, and line by line, into French and Italian prose, was printed, not long ago, in quarto, at the press of Crapelet, Rue de la Harpe, Paris, by the hon. Francis H. Egerton, with Preface, an ad lectorem, and Criticisms upon the Mask. Mr. Lenoir publishes the 1st of December his Fastes Britanniques, Poëme Historique, ou Précis de l'Histoire de la Grande-Bretagne, depuis l'Invasion de Jule César, jusqu'à la Rupture des dernières Négociations, entre la France et l'Angleterre. Mr Cromek the celebrated engraver, who lately purchased, and exhibited the interesting picture of the procession of Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims painted by Mr. Stothard, has been some time in Scotland, with that performance, where it has attracted great attention. He has taken advantage of this opportunity to make all possible enquiries wherever Robert Burns had resided, and among his acquaintances and connections, for any MS. remain of that poet. We understand that he has been so fortunate as to recover as many papers, and letters, as may make an octavo volume. Proposals are lately distributed for publishing by subscription, an appropriate medal, in commemoration of the abolition of the slavetrade, from a design by Robert Smirke, R. A. On one side will be a Portrait of William Wilberforce, Esq.; which, being executed from a model taken by his express perInission, by Mr. Rouw, will be a correct likeness: Price of the medal to subscribers, in Bronze, 7s. 6d. In Silver, £1. 6s. To be paid at the time of Subscribing. Sub. scriptions received by Mr. Young, medallist, No. 46, High Holborn; Persons in various other parts of the United Kingdom will speedily be appointed. Mr. Elmsly is engaged in a critical edition of Sophocles, which is to contain collations of the best manuscripts and editions, with a text carefully collated from both. The Strabo of the late Mr. Falconer, so long expected, is now nearly ready for publication, in two folio volumes. gical, Vegetable, and Animal Descriptions or Representations: shewing the means of (from light, through all possible variations producing the primitive and prismatic tints and mixtures, to brown, black and darkness), with a chromatometer for the primitive tints, and a chromatic scale or list of colours, and also a list of coloured substances necessary for painting in water, or in oil. The work is to be printed on wove royal, in 4to. with a handsome type, and hotpressed, with eight or ten plates at a guinea. He is also preparing, a concise pecromus of the British Minerals in his Cabinet, as a sort of essay towards a new, natural, and easy arrangement, with references to the author's British Mineralogy, made for the use of those who will find British mineralogy more useful for a library than a travelling book. In the press, Thoughts on a General and explicit Union of the Congregational Churches, occasioned by an Address from the London Committee to Ministers and Churches of the Congregational order, in a Letter to the Gentlemen of the Committee. By a Friend to the Union, The works of the late Dr. Kirwan, Dean of Killala, are preparing for the press, and expected to be published in London in the course of the winter. A translation of Berthaud's Art of Managing and Regulating Watches will shortly appear. Dr. Carey has in the press, a new edition of his Latin Prosody Made Easy, with considerable additions and improvements, particu larly in the part which treats of the diferent species of verse. An abridgement, for the use of schools, will be published at the same time with the larger work. The Doctor has also in the press, Scanning Exercises for Young Prosodians. A new work will shortly be published, entitled, The Policy of Great Britain in respect to the Foreign Corn Trade. A volume of Sermons is in the press, by the Rev. William Agutter, A. M. Chaplain and Secretary of the Asylum for Female Or phans. Several of them were preached before the university of Oxford. The second edition of the Rev. J. Clayton's Sermon at the Independent Monthly Meeting, will be speedily published. A splendid edition of Dr. Doddridge's Family Expositor, to be comprised in four volumes, 4to. is in the press, and the first part will appear on the 1st of January, 1808. Mr. Aston, author of the Manchester Mr. Sowerby, author of "British Mi-Guide, has in the press a Lancashire Gazet neralogy," English Botany," and other teer, describing every parish, town, village, esteemed works, will shortly publish a new river, &c. in the county of Lancaster. Arrangement of Colours, to shew the most Oxonia Depicta, or History of the Colleges proper inode of mixing them, by a new, most and Halls of the University of Oxford, will Natural, and simple method, for Mineralo-soon make its appearance; illustrated by a 66 series of picturesque and architectural views, by Storer and Greig. The sixth portion of Mr. Nichol's History of Leicestershire is expected to appear about Christinas. Mr. Beatson is preparing the seventh and eighth volumes of his Naval and Military Memoirs, and they may shortly be expected. The Rev. C. Wordsworth is preparing for publication, an Ecclesiastical History, containing the lives of eminent persons connected with the history of religion, from the revolution to the reformation. Mr. Jesse Foot, executor of Arthur Murphy, Esq. has just finished a Life of that Writer, compiled from his original papers, which will be published in the course of the winter. and in the instance of losing any volume of an edition of the poets, whether in octavo or eighteens, he may, by means of these editions, complete his set at a trifling expence.-To accommodate every class of readers, it will be published in several forms, sizes, and prices, and will blend accuracy and elegance with an economy hitherto unexampled. The first edition will be on an exquisitely beautiful superfine yellow wove vellum royal paper, hotpressed, printed in an unrivalled style of typographic excellence, and published in monthly volumes, at five shillings cach.→ The second edition will be the same in every respect, except that it will be printed on a beautiful demy. This will be published in monthly parts, at three shillings each.-The third edition will be printed in a superior manner on a good paper, and be published in weekly numbers, price sixpence each.-These editions will be printed in double columns, like Dr. Anderson's complete edition of the British Poets.-The fourth edition will be printed in eighteens, in a superior style, on superfine vellum paper, in parts, at one shil When the late Mr. Gilbert Wak field published his Proposals for a Greek and English Lexicon, a gentleman who had for a considerable time been employed in a similar work, desisted from his labour, on the supposition that Mr. Wakefield's work was ready for the press. But as it appears from Mr. Wakefield's Memoirs, that he had not pro-ling each, hotpressed, forming a series of poc ceeded much further in the collection of materials than his interleaved Hedericus, which has been destroyed by fire, that gentleman has now resumed his own work, and will in a short time present the public with a copious and accurate Greek and English Lexicon. It is proposed to publish by subscription, early in January, 1808, (to be paid for on delivery) four plates, representing the most celebrated Race-horses of the day, with portraits of Chiffney and Buckle, after Chalon, horse-painter to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and the Duke of York, viz. Sir David, with Groom; the property of the Prince. Brainworm, with Groom; the perty of Arthur Shakespeare, Esq. Violante, with Buckle; the property of Lord Grosvenor. Pavilion, with Chiffney; the property of Lord Darlington. pro The plates are to be engraved in mezzotinto, by Ward and Einsley, 22 inches by 18. Prints, 10s. 6d. cach, in colours, 1. 1s. The names of Subscribers are taken by Messrs. Boydell and Co. and by Mr. Ackerman. ket volumes; and the fifth edition will be printed on a fine royal paper, in thirty-twos, presenting the only complete miniature edition that has ever been submitted to public patronage, at the very moderate charge of sixpence each number. The expence of these editions will be, at least, fifty per cent. under that of any other; and the type, cast on purpose, will be of so bold and distinct a form, as to obviate the inconveniences experienced in reading works printed on so small a type as to be scarcely legible, except to the very strongest sight.-As a specimen, Pope's translation of Homer's Iliad, complete, will be published on January 1, 1808, at the following prices: royal edition, one vol. 8vo. 5s. fine demy edition, one part, 8vo. 3s. demy edition four numbers, at Od. each, 25. eighteens, five num bers, at Is. each, 5s. Thirty-twos, six numbers, at 6d. each, 3s.-This will be followed immediately by the Odyssey, Pope's original works, Milton, Dryden, Gay, Thomson, Collins, Shenstone, Gray, Young, &c. in a style of equal elegance and economy. Dec. 1, Mess. Mathison and Mason, of the On January 1, 1808, will be commenced a Secretary's Office, East-India House, will pubnew work, entitled The Poets; designed to lish a new and enlarged edition of their East-Incomprize the writings of every author, whe-dia Register and Directory for 1808; corrected ther original or translated, whose productions to the 24th November, 1807. Containing Comhave received the stamp of public approbation. plete Lists of the Company's Servants, Civil, -The works of each author will be separate Military, and Marine, with their respective ly paged, so that the purchaser may arrange Appointments at the different Presidencies in them in volumes to suit his own judgment, the East Indies; with Indexes to the same, or may form a selection of the works of those and Lists of Casualties during the last Year, authors whose style and subjects may be most&c.-Compiled, by permission of the Hon. congenial to his own aste, without being East India Company, from the Official Re incumbered by an expensive range of volumes: turns received at the East-India House.. |