appearance, rude, or coarfe, or forward. Were he to fall among loofe men, who showed a difpofition to laugh at his fenfibility or anxiety where the was concerned, and who fcrupled not to infinuate that he ought to divert those grave humours by affociating sometimes with certain convenient females of eafy virtue, as they love to fpeak, with what abhorrence and contempt would he treat their fyftem! Should any of his connexions or acquaintance follicit him to leave the object of his choice for fome other woman of greater beauty, rank, or fortune, what difdain would fill him at the propofa!, what difpleafure at thofe who made it! When he reads or hears of a profefed lover attempting to feduce fome innocent creature whofe error is believing fuch a wretch, he will burn with indignation at profeffions fo impudently falfe, and a conduct fo flagrantly repugnant to the facredness of genuine affection.'

This is a natural and characteristic defcription of a young man in love. But when the author represents him as incapable of uttering a word,' he rather gives us the picture of a whining fwain, than of a fenfible and manly lover.

It is generally fuppofed, that there is fomething fenfital in the paffion of love; and that as men and women are not angels, it cannot be expected, that it fhould be altogether a fpiritual attachment, Our author feems to forget what human nature is, when he intimates that love fhould not arise from a pleasing form, or an endearing behaviour, but from the love of God.

I fhould believe,' fays he, that he was likely to be the trueft lover, the tenderest friend, and the best husband, who beginning at the Father of Spirits, contemplated fome amiable daughter of his, that refembled him in purity and goodness, and whofe highest ambition upon earth, was-to be loved and cherifhed FOR HIS ŠAKE.

Where is the woman upon the face of the earth, who will ever wish to gain a lover, as a beggar wishes to be relieved, by fome charitable Chriftian, for God's fake.' If he does, our author need not be afraid, that the lover will dishonour himself and his maker by worshiping his mistress.' His love, most probably, will be-cold as charity.

There is fomething fo defpicably fordid in marriages contracted on mere mercenary views, that merits the fevereft cenfure. Our author fpeaks on this occafion with a proper indignation.

And what fhall we fay of those, that can defcend to the bafenefs of taking to their bofom a wretched victim who is dragged by violence, or a mercenary creature who is lured by hire? Where is their delicacy? Despicable men, who can bar gain for the poffeffion of the body without the confenting foul! Wretched fenfualifts, who debafe yourfelves beneath your nobler fellow

fellow animals! They never meet in the mysterious rites which nature has taught them, but from the impulse of mutual affection. The human voluptuary is the fingle being in the univerfe, whofe eccentric and inordinate defires feek their gratification feparately from the all-pervading, all-inspiring, all-exalting charm of reciprocal fondnefs. Why does not every female of fenfibility and understanding treat with indignant fcorn the libertine that dares to affront her, by offering to buy her hand without her heart? -But he profeffes to admire the last, and makes a hundred high-flown fpeeches which he has made to a hundred other women. And can you, my too credulous friend, be at a lofs to diftinguish between the jargon of gallantry, and the native, fimple, unftudied eloquence of a virtuous paffion? Do you not perceive, that the man I fpeak of confiders you as at bottom a courtefan, who is ready to fell him, with more or less form and ceremony, her meretricious favours? But how can fuch a man, if he has a grain of fpirit left, endure the thought of a connexion with that woman, who for more money, or higher rank, would in all probability give the preference to the fillieft, the uglieft, or the most abandoned, fellow breathing?'

In this extract, the author goes too far into the strain of declamation, when he calls the wild, the ferocious, the cafual, the promiscuous connection of brute animals, the impulse of mutual affection."

He likewife feems to forget fome circumftances in the history of Jacob, when, in the fame addrefs, he fays: Would Jacob, think ye, have found his seven years fervice but as that of a few days, had his liking for Rachel been of fuch a nature, as to admit infidelity or deviation? Had he from time to time thrown himself loose amongst other women, is it to be conceived, that his tenderness for her could have continued to infpire an alacrity of toil, fo inceffant and unremitting.' The Mofaic hiftory, it is true, reprefents the good patriarch as bearing a fupreme affection for Rachel. But as he had children by several other women, while Rachel was alive, he should not be exhibited as a pattern of conjugal fidelity.

The following reflections, if we may judge by our own feelings, are perfealy juft.

The charge of flattery is fometimes brought without foundation against thofe, whose frank and liberal nature is fuch, that whenever they feel strong approbation, they cannot easily refrain from fpeaking it: their warmth and cordiality can hardly be reconciled to the drynefs and reserve fo frequent amongst others: they love a paffionate friendship, are tranfported when they mix with fouls of fire, and damped by the contrary appearance of frigidity. What from an habitual flow of benevolence, what from an actual defire of encouraging capacity and virtue, and what from the lively fatisfaction they feel in the discovery or the

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report of merit, they are ready to vent themfelves fo freely in terms of praife, as to pafs fometimes with those of a cooler ftrain for mere men of compliment. But furely you will own, that between the unftudied and unhackneyed commendation incidentally infpired by this goodness of heart, this vivacity of complacence, and the formal or courtly flourish of trite panegyric and fulfome applaufe, there is an effential difference, which perfons of difcretion and modefty cannot be very long at a lofs to diftinguish.'

Speaking of rivalfhips among men of letters, the author takes occafion to give us the following anecdote. I am happy in being able to inform you from the best authority, . that the public will foon be furnished with full evidence, to prove Addison was by no means, the jealous, diffembling, and invidious character a celebrated contemporary wit and poet represented him. It will furely give univerfal pleasure, to fee fo vile a flander against fo amiable and so useful a writer completely refuted.'It would indeed give us great pleasure, if it could be refuted, without throwing a heavy load of infamy on one, whose writings will be an honour to this ageand nation, to the lateft pofterity.

There is a delicacy, highly worthy of obfervation in the following remark.

If your friend is ignorant of any difficulty or diftrefs in your condition, which you know it is not in his power to remove, you will not always be forward, by explaining it, to give him fruitlefs inquietude. A mind truly noble will often devour its anguish in fecret, rather than inflict too much pain on another by unneceffary communication. There is infinite delicacy in that parable of our Saviour, where he reprefents a poor good woman, probably a lonely widow, who had loft a part of her little ftore, feeking it by herself with filent uncomplaining follicitude, and when the had found it, calling her friends and her neighbours together, that they might rejoice with her on the occafion; thus careful to fave them from every degree of uneafinefs, and defirous of fharing with them only her joy. Generous fentiments are always great, but moft fo when feen in low circumstances.'

It must be allowed, that the modes of education, which prevail at prefent, are by no means calculated to produce a manly fpirit. The author perhaps has not exaggerated the defcription, when he fays:

Let us briefly trace them, even as far back as the nursery. There, indeed, the whole character of boys is commonly perverted and ruined. How? By a cruel indulgence of thofe defires, paffions, fancies, and humours, which fhould be early checked and regulated, and which, because on the contrary they are foltered in their wild luxuriance, quickly fhoot into a ftrength that is feldom afterwards fubdued, without great difficulty.

The

The little creatures are flattered, dreffed, decorated, pampered, gratified with money, and entertained with continual encomiums on handsome faces, fine cloaths, good eating, great riches, high rank, and other fuch edifying topics-by whom?by the very perfons whom they are taught to regard as the patterns of wifdom. What is the refult? Their bodies are debilitated, and their minds debased: they are rendered children for life, difqualified to endure fatigue, hunger, and hardship, without unmanly complaints; apt to be deranged by the flightest accident, and difcompofed by the leaft contradiction; to be violent, vain, capricious, headstrong, luxurious, mercenary, selfish; flaves to their appetites, tyrants to thofe about them; and thus, in the very rudiments of their existence, so to speak, unfitted for whatever is ftrenuous in action, firm in fuffering, philofophical in life, and amiable in manners. Such, I am fure, is the natural tendency of the conduct we reprobate; nor can I help thinking, that we often perceive in the nursery the embryos of those distorted beings called fops, fribbles, and coxcombs. So at leaft they were wont to be called: but it is one of our late refinements, to give them an Italian appellation. You may fmile, if you will: I am in earnest when I fay, that the lax nerves, the ludicrous decorations, the affected jargon, the trivial conceits, the courtly fimper, the foft infipidity, and the unfeeling heart of the thing now termed a— but no, I will not name it -may generally, in the first inftance, be attributed to the effects of the nursery, whatever improvements of the fame kind it may afterwards receive in the fchool of fashion.'.

Among other arguments against pride, the author fuggefts thefe pathetical and interefting reflections:

'Look at yonder venerable fabric, which contains the tombs of fo many nobles and princes, of fo many kings and conquerors, of fo many statesmen, philofophers, orators, poets; with numbers from among the young and the gay, who formerly danced the giddy round of pleasure, heedlefs of impending difeafe; and perhaps with a few who fought wifdom early, but, by what was termed an untimely fate, fell with all their virtues blooming about them look, I fay, at that celebrated repofitory of the dead, and contemplate the impotence, the nothingness, of all that Pride is apt to boat. See the univerfal leveller Death, with ftern afpe&t and hideous demeanour, ftalking from monument to monument, confcious of his victories, and exulting in the fplendid spoils of fucceffive generations. Survey at leifure this heart-chilling scene,-and be proud if you can."

There are many excellent obfervations in thefe Addreffes, which we could extract with pleasure, did not the limits, of our Review oblige us to conclude this article.

As the book lies open before us, a feeming impropricty Occurs, which we take the liberty to point out for the author's confideration: Was you to refift all the generous impulfes→

as you to fay, hold my heart-it were unnatural; it were impoffible.' The author should have rather said, were you to refift—it would be unnatural. Whilft he indulges 10 criminal and hurtful propenfities. Indulge is a verb active, and not a -neuter. The author very frequently introduces the word Sirs. This compellation has been fo much hacknied by fanatics, that it is, in fome measure, become difgufting to a reader of tafte; and is scarcely ever feen in the fermons or moral effays 'of polite writers.

This work deferves a place in the library of every young ftudent, and in the splendid book-case of every macaroni.

An Account and Defcription of an improved Steam-Engine, Sc. Illuftrated with a Copper-Plate. By N. D. Falck, M. D. 8vo. 25. Law.

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"HIS two-fhilling pamphlet contains three fheets of paper, fo openly printed, that the matter might have been eafily comprized in one. The first two sheets are only introductory, and contain a fhort and indiftin&t account of the common fire-engine, and fome of its improvements; the author unfolds his own fecret in the next three leaves, and fills up the rest of the fheet with reflections not at all to the purpose. The introductory part can be of little ufe to any kind of readers; for fuch as are not previously acquainted with this engine, can receive no information from fuch loofe and imperfect accounts; and others have no need of it. It could therefore only ferve the author to make up his pamphlet, and afford him an opportunity to decry the ufeful improvements lately made in the fteam-engine by an ingenious and experienced mechanician, which he does pretty freely, and we think with much injustice. After having prepared his readers with many promises of the great advantages to be derived from his plan, as our author calls it, he comes at length to explain the principle of it, which he does in these words;

The principle of this improvement in the general confifts in the engine having two cylinders; into which the fteam is let alternately to afcend, by a common regulator, which always opens the communication of the fteam to the one, whilft it shuts up the opening of the other, by which the engine is in a continual action of power. For the piston rods (by means of a wheel fixed to an arbour) are kept in a continual afcending and defcending motion, whereby they move the cominon arbour, to which is another wheel affixed, moving the pump rods in the fame alternate direction as the piston rods, by which continual motion the pumps are kept in perpetual action,'

He