1 auflere part of mankind have always cenfured on account of his immorality, we are wholly at a lofs to conceive. Mr. W. as appears by his prefaces, is diffatisfied with certain of the critical tribe. When, however, at the expiration of fome few years he may look over his feveral productions: and when he recollects that a true critic, as a celebrated writer expreffes it, though pleafed to praife' is NOT AFRAID TO BLAME,' he will, we think, no longer wonder at their decifion, or arraign their judgment in the cenfure of his works. The epigrams, which make a confiderable part of the prefent volume, are the most pointless (two or three excepted) of any we remember to have ever feen. NOVELS, &c. Art. 46. Augufta; or, the Dependant Niece. fewed. Vernor. 1788. 2 Vols. 12mo. 5s. ""Tis these that early taint the female foul, So fays the poet when fpeaking of Sylphs, and fo fay we when fpeaking of Romances-fome few, fome very few, excepted. Thefe productions, while they contribute to the ruin of half our women, are the encouragers of foppery in the men. In the prefent performance, which is nothing but a mafs of impertinence, one of the heroes is known among the ladies by the appellation of the English Adonis,' another by that of the Handfome Conway,' &c. &c. And is it for the fate of characters whofe merit confifts in the whitenefs of their fkin that we are to be interested? A Descriptive 1788. Art. 47. Art. 48. Augufta; or, the Female Travellers. 3 vols. 75. A Novel. 12mo. 6d. fewed. Lane. 1788. The heroine of this novel is reprefented, at the opening of it, as fo thoroughly accomplished both in mind and body, that we were naturally tempted to exclaim with a favorite poet : "Sure the is all that painting can exprefs, Or youthful poets fancy when they love!" But when this lady, in giving an account of her adventures, informs us that her admirer had eyed her; that a gentleman, who was reproving his companion, opened upon him, &c. &c. ; we are compelled to withdraw the opinion we at firft had entertained of her, to acknowlege our difappointment, and to repeat with a ftill more eminent author: "Out on this feeming! we will write against it." But But however faulty this performance may be in point of compofition, it will, no doubt, be approved by many readers, on account of the variety of incidents of which it is compofed, and which are managed with fome degree of fkill. It is much more eafy to twift and entangle a ftory, than to inftruct or improve us by just and noble fentiments, or to prefent us with faithful images of men and things. Art. 49. Features from Life; or, a Summer Vifit. By Mifs Blower. Izmo. 2 Vols. 6s. fewed. Kearfley. 1788. Mr. and Mrs. Conway, happy in the bofom of rural tranquillity, and in a numerous offspring, are fummoned to London on the marriage of Sir Harry Gaythorne, the friend and quondam companion of Mr. C. The lady of the baronet is a woman of Spirit, and being pleased with the manners of Mr. Conway, the contrives to wean his affections from an amiable wife. The latter, on discovery of her hufband's difloyalty, affects to be little moved at it, while the is fecretly tormented with the most pungent and exceffive grief. Mr. Conway, in confequence of his illicit amour, being at length engaged in a duel, is wounded, and expires in the arms of Mrs. C. The moral inculcated in this performance-a fready and undeviating perfeverance in the path of honour-deferves particular praife; and the language, fome few ladyijms excepted, is fufficiently pleafing and correct. Art. 50. Clara and Emmeline; or, the Maternal Benediction. By Mrs. Helme, Authorets of Louifa, or the Cottage on the Moor., 12mo. 2 Vols. 6s. fewed. Kearfley. 1788. Clara and Emmeline, as a moral production, may be placed foremoft in the lift of novels. The incidents, however, are trite and common; a few of the fentiments are ftrained and affected; and the language, to use a lady-like expreffion of the author's, is frequently faulty and inelegant to a degree! For an account of the pretty novel of Louifa, by the fame writer, fee Review for May 1787, P. 449. 6 Art. 51. Fairy Tales, felected from the beft Authors. 5s. fewed. Lane. 1788. 12mo. 2 Vols. While we readily acknowlege, with the editor, that these hiftories are felected from among the moft confiderable of the dealers in diminutives, we have little to fay in their praife. Fairy Tales were formerly thought to be the proper and almoft the only reading for children; it is with much fatisfaction, however, that we find them gradually giving way to publications of a far more interesting kind, in which inftruction and entertainment are judiciously blended, without the intermixture of the marvellous, the abfurd, and things totally out of nature. Art. 52. Favourite Tales, from the French. Izmo. 39. fewed. Robinfons. 1787. These tales, with the exception of that intitled, ‹ Azef, or the Mistakes of Sertiment,' are light and trifling; and one is of the free and eafy kind. Productions like the prefent are extremely numerous on the continent, but we wish not to fee them encouraged here. The verbiage, the frothiness of a Parifian petit-maitre, is no way fuitable to honeft John Bull. 002 Art. Art. 53. Authentic and interefting Memoirs of Mifs Anne Sheldon. 12mo. 4 Vols. 10s. fewed. Sold by all the Bookfellers. 1787. Mifs Anne Sheldon, who was formerly of confiderable note in the pleafurable circles, has here prefented the public with her adventures; and the fcenes fhe brings to view, excite at once our pity and disgust. EDUCATION. Art. 54. A Footstep to the French Language. Containing fuch Obfervations as will facilitate the Acquifition of it, and render its Study lefs difgufting to Beginners: Or, a fhort Introduction to a Work entitled, The complete Syftem of the French Language. By Nicholas Salmon. 4to. Is. 6d. Elmfley. 1787. We know not in whofe footsteps Mr. Salmon may have trodden, but we cannot heartily perfuade our young readers to purfue his path; we mean as a philologer, or grammarian of the higher fort: which diftin&tion, from his talking of a Complete Syftem of the French Language, &c.'* he feems to claim. Of the following fentences, the first is not English and the fecond is not French: He attaches himself to pleafing her. Il s'attache à lui plaire'. 'I want a horse that will go well. Je veux un cheval qui aille bien.' There are many equally faulty expreffions in Mr. S.'s work. Books of this kind are unneceffarily multiplied. Chambaud, Rogiffard, Boyer, and Restaut, have done enough. SUNDAY SCHOOLS. Art. 55. Sunday School Dialogues; being an Abridgment of the firft Principles of Religion, &c. adapted to the Capacity of the infant Mind. 12mo. 3d. Marshall. Mrs. Trimmer has here abridged a work of M. P.'s, which has been held in no fmall degree of eflimation by thofe who are engaged in the important duty of conveying religious and virtuous principles into young minds. The fcarcity of books, adapted to the capacities of children in the lower claffes of life, has, fince the establishment of Sunday Schools, excited Mrs. Trimmer, and several others, to furnish fuch as are neceffary for that purpose; and, perhaps, literature is feldom more ufefully employed. HISTORY. Art. 56. Univerfal Hiftory, Ancient and Modern; in a Series of Letters to a Youth at School. Exhibiting a View of the Origin, Progrefs, Decline and Fall of every confiderable State, from the earlieft Times to the prefent Period. With a copious Chronological Table of remarkable Events and Occurrences, from the Creation to the Year 1787. By the Rev. Richard Turner, Jun. L. L. D. late of Magdalene Hall, Oxford. Izmo. 3s. bound. Robinfons. 1787. This little epitome being written in a plain and easy style, is, on that account, more fit for young readers than most of the books that are defigned for their ufe. *The Complete System in our next. The The chronological table (which is copious and accurate) is a ufeful addition to the work. SCHOOL-Books, &c. Art. 57. The Lady's Encyclopedia; or a concife Analyfis of the Belles Lettres, the fine Arts, and the Sciences. Illuftrated with 50 engraved Heads, and 34 Maps. By the Rev. J. Seally, L.L.D. Member of the Roman Academy. 3 Vols. 12mo. 12s. Boards. Murray. 1788. This publication contains a variety of mifcellaneous matter, which, to juvenile readers, will prove both inftructive and entertaining. The first volume is allotted to Poets, Orators, Legislators, and Philofophers. A fhort life of each is given; with fome remarks on his talents, writings, &c. The fecond contains an Englifh grammar; a treatife on rhetoric and oratory, or elocution; an abstract of the art of poetry; the heathen mythology, with an epitome of Ovid's Metamorphofes; and a brief account of fome of the more celebrated heroes and founders of empires. The third volume is wholly appropriated to Geography, with a few introductory pages on the Copernican fyftem. The compilation of thefe materials must have been attended with much labour; accuracy is not, however, the characteristic of this publication. An inftance or two, in fupport of this remark, may fuffice, viz. at p. 50, vol. iii. where an engraved plate is given explanatory of Eclipfes. The plate, perhaps has formerly belonged to an old work, probably a French one; for in it the moon and the earth are called Lune and Terre. Another example is the fynoptic table of the Copernican fyftem, which is the old one, formed before the year 1761, when the earth was erroneously placed 15 millions of miles nearer the fun than it really is.-In the firft volume, the English poets, orators, &c. are unnoticed, though the writings of fome of them claim, at leaft, equal attention, and are more worthy of imitation, than many of the ancients, who are here mentioned with high approbation. In his account of the state of religion in England, the author manifefts his attachment to the established church, by his contemptuous manner of mentioning the fectaries. He thus introduces his account of the Arians:- Old heretics, the difciples of one Arius, above a thousand years fince; and in our times fome men are apt to believe his errors, which are, &c.'-Of the Quakers he thus begins his account- they did generally fhake and quake at their coming up, which was above a century fince, &c.' So much for liberality of fentiment, and elegance of expreffion! Art. 58. Ruddiman improved: Or the Rudiments of the Latin Tongue, in Question and Anfwer, after the Manner of Ruddiman. Izmo. Is. 6d. bound. Buckland. 1788. The propofed intention of this school-book is, to omit what was redundant, to fupply what was defective, and to correct what appeared faulty in former editions of Ruddiman's grammar. The alterations here made, appear, in general, to be juftifiable and ufeful. But the editor, aware that his little work will admit of farther improvement, has printed but few copies more than were requifite for his own use. He wishes to render it as complete as poffible, and therefore folicits the remarks of those mafters of grammar-fchools into whofe hands the book may fall. MISCELLANEOUS. Art. 59. Hiftorical Sketches of Civil Liberty; from the Reign of Henry VIII. to the Acceffion of the Houfe of Stuart; with an Account of the Antiquity, Ufe, and Duty of Juries: In which are interfperfed feveral interefting Particulars, illuftrative of the Liberties of the Subject. 8vo. 6s. Boards. Robinfons. 1788. What we have moft to commend in this work, is the good intention of the compiler, who feems to have been defirous of bringing within a fmall compafs a number of ftriking facts, which may help to preferve, in the minds of Britons, a juft fenfe of the importance of their liberties. The defign is fo laudable, that we are forry it has not been executed with a more accurate attention to method and ftyle. Remote and recent facts are related in ftrange confufion; and, except where the narrator has adopted the words of the authors, the dignity of the fubject is by no means fupported by the graces of hiftorical writing. The author infiits largely on the state of election in the Scottish boroughs-the exorbitant power of the court of feffion in Scotland- the illegality and danger of military governors--the violations of the rights of juries, and other fimilar topics. Art. 60. An Account of the Culture and Ufe of the Mangel Wurzel, or Root of Scarcity; tranflated from the French of the Abbé de Commerell. The Fourth Edition. 8vo. 2s. Dilly. 1788. We noticed the first edition of this tranflation in our Review for Auguft laft, page 166. The prefent impreffion is increafed with a large preface, in which Dr. Lettfom confeffes that the Mangel Wurzel is a fpecies of beet; as he is doubtful whether it is the Vulgaris or the Cicla, he calls it Beta Hybrida, but he does not give the fpecific character. A neat coloured engraving of the root is prefixed, as well as of the axillary racemus; but as the general habit of the plant is not reprefented, it is didicult, from the plate, to determine the fpecies. If it be a new fpecies, a fcientific botanift would not have given a new name without a character. See Lin. Syfi. Nat. vol. ii. at the end of the preface, Art. 61. An Hiftorical Memoir of the First Year of the Reign of FREDERIC WILLIAM II. King of Pruffia; read at a Public Meeting of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Belles Lettres at Berlin, Aug. 23, 1787. By the Count de Hertzberg, Minifter of State, Curator and Member of the Academy. Tranflated from the French. 8vo. s. Bell. 1788. Having read,' fays the Count de Hertzberg, for eight years, at the public meetings of the Academy, hiftorical differtations on the public adminiftration of the Pruffian monarchy, during the course of every year, I read, at the laft meeting, An hiftorical memoir of the last year of the reign of Frederic 11.-1 fhall purfue this method, and read, this day, a memoir, in which I fhall give a compendious account of the principal tranfactions of the first year of the prefent reign.' Of the memoir of the last year of the great Frederic II. the |