Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

In a poftfcript to this difcourfe, the learned Author felects feveral ftriking paffages from his various publications, which almost look like predictions; for every event refpecting the war with the colonies, and the confequences which refulted from it, hath fully confirmed them. They were ridiculed when they were first published, as the dreams of a fplenetic vifionary; or execrated as the malignant effufions of a heart that only wifhed what it pretended to forefee. But however divided the world may be about Dr. Price's motives, there is fomething which all must agree in,-what was speculation, is now a fact.

VI. Preached to a Congregation of Proteftant Diffenters in St. Saviour Gate, York. By Newcome Cappe. 8vo. Is. Johnfon..

This excellent fermon contains a very judicious vindication of divine Providence amidst the varieties of human events. The argument is conducted on a liberal and enlarged plan; and the reflections (though in one or two places they be deemed fomewhat romantic, and to favour too much of Utopia, yet on the whole) are striking and ingenious, and do great credit to the Author's understanding and heart. They are fuch as are worthy of the Chriftian, the Philosopher, and the Friend of human kind.

VII. The Guilt and Danger of fuch a Nation as this! A Sermon preached in the Parish Church of St. Mary Woolnoth, on the late Faft. By John Newton, Rector. 8vo. 6 d. Buckland.

A ferious difcourfe, which may prove very edifying to that class of readers whom Mr. Newton feems most ambitious of recommending himself to. Amongst the prevailing fins of this nation, the preacher reckons that proftitution of the Lord's fupper which followed the Test and Corporation Acts, as one of the most atrocious and provok-67 ing. While gain (fays he) is preferred to godliness, and the law of diftinction is stronger than the dictates of confcience, we frequently fee profeffed infidels and notorious libertines approach the Lord's table as a matter of course-proftituting the moft folemn ordinance of Christianity to their ambition or interest. The great number and 1 variety of appointments civil and military, which cannot be legally poffeffed without this qualification, render the enormity almost as common as it is heinous.' We join in lamentation with the preacher; and really think with him, that this perverfion of the holy facrament is indecent in itself, and infulting to "the body and blood of the Lord!" The pretence of a teft is trifling. Would not an oath anfwer every purpose of that teft, which may be thought a neceffary guard on the religious establishment of this kingdom? It may be fo framed as to keep out Diffenters from office (if they must be kept out) more effectually than the injunction of the facrament. Though it is an aftonishing thing to us that Diffenters can favallow that. It cannot fit eafy on the confcience. If it doth, fo much the worfe!

VIII. A Difcourfe on the Fast appointed by Authority to be kept on Feb. 21. 1781. By a Clergyman of the Church of England. 8vo. 6 d. Philips.

The Author, after declaiming on the wickedness of the times in general, and of this country in particular, hopes that there is in this land a holy hill of Zion, a precious remnant, a chofen generation

of

[ocr errors]

of holy perfons, perhaps as highly graduated in the divine life as in any other nation; befides many other beloved fervants of the Lord, men and women, fearing God, and working righteoufnefs, according to their several degrees of holiness, in their feveral claffes, one under another, who pray for those who pray little or never for themfelves, and stand in the gap for our prefervation.' We wish it may anfwer. But the gap is fo wide, fo very wide, that we fear there are not godly people enough to fill it up!

IX For the General Faft Day. By the Rev. James Murray of Newcastle, Author of Sermons to Affes, &c. 8vo. I S. Axtell.

The Preacher takes his text from Ecclefiaftes, x. 16. "Wo to the land! when thy King is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning!" From these words he hath dished up fuch a feast of wit, and let out fuch a flow of humour, that we foon lofe fight of the faft, and in our merriment forget devotion! The Preacher (refolved on as much fun as the occafion would allow him) introduces his difcourfe with a remark that does equal credit to his fagacity and his wit, namely, that 6 as the fovereign of the British empire has a numerous and beautiful family of children, he is in one fenfe cleared from the imputation of being a child.' Mark the emphatical one- -* one fenfe". O! the glorious ufe of Italics! If it were not for their affiftance, in a critical period, how much humour would be loft!-how much impudence too would be obfcured for want of being fingled out from the crowd!

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

But though the King is not a child-O 'Reader! for the preacher's fake, forget not his one fenfe;' for if thou fhouldst deprive him of that, he will be ready to exclaim, "You have taken away my god, and what have I more ?". -Though the King, with fourteen children, and another coming, is allowed to be a man, and his claim to the character is even accepted by the Prefbyterian Preacher of Newcastle, and in a fermon too! yet for all that, the princes may not be lefs guilty of the crying fin of "eating in the morning." "Now this, as the Preacher fays, is a moft woful practice for both foul and body;' for this woful practice diforders the judgment; fecondly, it inflames the imagination, and pushes on the whole man to irrational and forbidden gratifications. Befides, thirdly, there is another woful thing that happens when princes and privy counfellors eat in the morning; and that is, that it gives the world reafon to infer, that the fovereign, though he may be a man in point of age, is but a child in conduct, when he employs fuch irregular and flothful fervants to manage the business of the empire; for it feldom happens, that the first and latter part of this woe is feparated.' But the Author has not informed us why writers frequently vent their malice against their betters, and open their foul mouths fo very wide, as if they meant to devour kings, princes, privy counfellors, bifhops and all!-It is because one fenfe is fo very keen!' They are hungry, and can find no one fo kind and good-natured as to give them any thing to in the morning.' Now this is the woful thing!

[ocr errors]

The remainder of the Faft Sermons in our next.

• eat

SER

SERM O N, &c.

The Duty of a Chriftian Minifter recommended, in a Charge delivered at the Ordination of the Rev. Samuel Evans, Dec. 27, 1780, at Wedmore, Somerfetfhire. By Job David. Together with a Sermon on Chrift's Compaffion on the Multitude. By Joshua Toulmin, M. A. To which is prefixed, an Introductory Difcourfe, by Philip Adams. 8vo. 6d. Johnfon. 1781.

[ocr errors]

Thefe performances have little to recommend them but the good end they were meant to answer. Our edifying preachers will, we hope, find their reward in the piety of their motives, though their difcourfes fhould not be read.

CORRESPONDENCE.

IN our Review for January laft, page 3, we expreffed a wish to receive from the Rev. Mr. Lyon, with a view to communicate them to our philofophical Readers, any explanations he should be pleased to favour us with, relative to the fingular experiment which he had produced, with a view to demonftrate the permeability of glass to the electric fluid. He has been fo obliging as to favour us with a letter on this fubject, of which the following is an extract:

To obviate as far as I am able all obfcurity, I will endeavour, with brevity and clearness, to defcribe the neceffary preparations for performing this experiment with fuccefs.

Take a pane of crown-glafs, of any dimenfions (even as far as four feet fquare, or as many in diameter if round); let it be dry, warm, and clear; place it flat upon the table, with a common fized jar upon the centre of it, and the knob of the jar in contact with the prime conductor. Put one end of the chain under the centre of the glafs next the table (and, to avoid the trouble of fixing the points, as mentioned p. 20 of my work), place one end of a narrow flip of tinfoil upon the upper furface of the pane, oppofite to the chain, and bend the other part of it to the outfide coating of the jar. Take the other end of the chain in your left-hand; then, after a few turns of the cylinder (if the apparatus be in proper order), ftrike the conductor with your right-hand with a very fudden motion; and if you do not hear the explosion, fee the fpark, and feel the fhock in both arms, though the fuppofed impenetrable barrier lie at the bottom of the jar, I fhall only fay, my fenfations of hearing, feeing, and feeling, are very different from yours.

You are apprehenfive, and therefore have taken it for granted, my prejudices have bewildered and deceived me in this cafe: as a proof that your charge, though fevere, is not founded in truth, I fhall readily give you my reafons, why I think I am not bewildered; and I fhall be as willing to retract my opinion, as I was to adopt it, the moment I am convinced it was founded in error.

When the fhock is taken through the glafs, and without perforating it (for I doubt not in the least but it may be perforated with a large jar charged very high), the noife of the explofion is quite different, the velocity of the fpark is checked, neither is the fenfation near fo pungent as in the common discharge.

[ocr errors]

If the atmosphere be favourable for electrical experiments, and every part of the apparatus in proper order, I hardly ever fail of giv ing the fhock, with the pane as before directed at the bottom of the jar.

• I have tried this experiment a great many times, and fince your animadverfions I have repeatedly taken the flock; as have feveral gentlemen, who are as well fatisfied as myfelf, that the spark puffed through them, and through the pane."

• When I first made a trial of this kind, I-did not fucceed, neither in my firft, my fecond, nor my third attempt; yet this was not owing to the fuppofed impenetrability of the glafs, but to my not knowing how to conduct the experiment. I do affure you, I have not trufted to one experiment frequently repeated, I have different methods of conveying the fhock through glafs; if this fhould be objected to by electricians.

I have a method of my own invention to caufe the electric spark to mark its courfe over a body, and it may probably afford me a clear and decifive proof, that electricians have been deceived on the fuppofed directions of the ftar and the brush.

I have also a variety of new experiments both in magnetifm and electricity, to fupport what I have only hinted in my publication; but what I can do, or how I do it, the fcanty limits of your Paper will not permit me to enlarge on.

If I should happen to meet with a very moderate degree of encouragement from the Public, and a little liberal treatment from the real friends of science, I may probably be induced, in due time, to publifh my farther experiments, remarks, and obfervations on thefe fubjects.'

Notwithstanding thefe further explanations, Mr. Lyon has not made us converts to his opinion; though we are far from being dif pofed to question his affertion, that himself and many other gentlemen have received fhocks from a charged jar circumftanced in the manner above related. Though it is not our business to account for the appearances defcribed by the Author, we shall throw out a hint which has occurred to us on reflecting upon this subject; by means of which the phenomena may poffibly be explained.

Suppofing the Author's pane of glafs to have been coated on each fide, even fomewhat imperfectly, there can be no doubt that an explofion must take place as the cafe would then be fimilar to that of a perfon bringing the wire of a charged jar held in one hand, into contact with the wire of an uncharged coated jar held in the other. In this cafe the charge is divided between the two jars; and the perfon receives a shock, from the natural quantity of electricity belonging to the outfide furface of the uncharged jar held in his hand. Now, Mr. Lyon's pane of glafs, by lying on the table, and by having a chain placed under it, is, in fome meafure, coated on its under fide: and, by the jar's being placed upon it, is partially coated on its upper furface. We fhould not wonder therefore that a difcharge fhould take place, when all the circumstances are favourable; particularly when the glafs is very dry, and warm, and the air favourable to electrical experiments. Under thefe circumftances a glafs vial may be completely charged, though its outside surface has not a par

5

ticle

[ocr errors]

ticle of coating upon it; and in the dark the electric fire will be feen paffing from every part of its furface, in numerous branches, towards the table. On the whole, we apprehend that Mr. Lyon would find it difficult to fucceed in his experiment, were he to deprive his pane of glafs, of four feet fquare, of every kind of coating; or, in other words, were he to place it in a vertical fituation, with his two points placed oppofite to each other, in the middle of it, and in contact with the two furfaces.

To the MONTHLY REVIEWERS.

GENTLEMEN,

AS you have been pleased to honour the Author of the Epifle to the Magisterial Reviewers of Modern Literature with your attention, in your Review for March laft, he prefumes that he has a right to afk you why you cenfure him, inftead of confining your animadver fions to his compofition ?—He is, Gentlemen, very much your humble fervant,

April 12th.

ANSWER.

A. B.

Because the Reviewers are unwilling to trouble the Public with altercations respecting their own performances, unless where the interefts of TRUTH, on fcientific, or other important, fubjects are con cerned.

[ocr errors]

Mr. Beuzeville has, in a respectful manner, made fome objections to the account which has been given of his French Catechifm *. Having taken notice of this Author's folicitude that the descendants of French refugees might preferve the language of their ancestors,' we have poffibly been mistaken, though quite undefignedly, in adding, without adopting the English. He affures us that this is no part of his meaning, and that he only intended to exprefs his wish that his countrymen would not affect to lay afide their own native language, In regard to what this gentleman farther obferves, that his ScriptureCatechifm is an original, or intended to be fuch, we cannot abfolutely pronounce. Publications of, at leaft, a fimilar kind, have been numerous. We have taken notice of his work as tending to implant and ftrengthen the love of truth, piety, and goodness; to which we may add, that it is also calculated to furnish the youthful mind with Scripture knowledge, and give a more exact view of Sacred hiftory.

*Vid. Review for Jan. 1781.

An accident has prevented our concluding the account of Dr. Moore's Travels this month.

+++ H. is received; but too late to be noticed in this month's Review, by the Gentleman who reviewed Thelyphthora.

[ocr errors]
« AnteriorContinuar »