of Filicaja, in the collection before us, and which indeed appears to exhibit manifest imitations of it in several instances, is the first introduced under the name of Bartolommeo Casaregi. We shall select a few lines from its commencement, since they seem almost as applicable to the present moment, as to the time in which they were composed. The reader will trace one of the resemblances, or imitations, to which we refer, in the lines marked in Italics, compared with the two last of the above short extract: we could instance a much greater number, if it were necessary. E quando sia, che bella Pace amica Con aureo piede a noi s'en torni, e il freno Di tua pietade usanza? Ove il sereno Tant'ira ancor s'accoglie, e di saette, Vota non è la gran faretra eterna? Ma pur bontade il tuo voler governa: Non mai s'adopra umil preghiera in vano, 'Odi le miserande ultime voci Dell' infelice Italia a te rivolta, Spade di gente imperversata e stolta Le stan già sopra, e quanti ferri al piede.' Vol. ii. P. 3. The English reader, for want of a better, must accept of the following version. When wilt thou, fair propitious Peace! And check his charger's rout insane? Where now, great God! that love to man That look, which pierced th'ethereal span, Can then such fatal ire A mind celestial fire? I know thy truth is sworn to shower O'er impious men disease and death: And ne'er to heaven the good man speeds his breath, Hear, then, this sad, this utmost strain : The poems selected from Alessandro Guidi, who appears to be a great favourite with Mr. Mathias, and has been alJowed to have encroached very considerably upon his collegues in office, are introduced by a short biography. Why has not the same plan been pursued with respect to the rest? Should this collection obtain a second edition, we would strenuously recommend such an augmentation. A brief chronicle is all that is necessary; and it would not be difficult to be procured. The productions of a writer, of whom we have some knowledge, be it never so slight, are always perused with a greater degree of interest, than those of a total stranger. We then enter more fully into his views, and doubly participate in his joys and his sorrows. Of many of the lyrics before us, and especially of the sonnets, half the beauty is lost, through an ignorance of the cause which produced them. In the event of a second edition, we would also recommend a more careful attention to punctuation and orthography. It is wonderful to see the multitude of typographic errors, which are too generally allowed to exist in foreign works, when edited in this country. We had occasion to offer this remark a short time since, when reviewing a small collection of Spanish poems by M. Ravizzoti*. In the volumes before us, the blemishes of this kind are not quite so flagrant or so frequent: but they are still so numerous, as to be scarcely pardonable; and, although each volume is graced with a fong catalogue of such defects, with their appropriate rectifications, we have still met with many which have escaped the eve of the corrector. We have received a copy of our compiler's edition of the Commentaries of Crescimbeni, which we mean to notice in our next number. ART. XII.-Sermons, composed for Country Congregations. By the Res. Edward Nares, A.M. &c. 8vo. 7s. Boards, Rivingtons. 1803. THERE is an ambiguity in the title-page of this work. Were the sermons said to be composed for country congregations, merely because they were preached in country pa *Vol.-xxxiii. p. 233. rishes, or because the writer had in view the comparative want of information and refinement of a village audience? He has explained his intentions in a dedication to the queen, in which he speaks of the plainness and simplicity of the discourses, written to instruct the ignorant, not to dazzle or inform the wise'-of his duty to study perspicuity more than ornament, and to endeavour to be intelligible rather than profound.' Her majesty's permission was also solicited for laying his ministerial labours for the cottage at the foot of the throne.' From these expressions, we had reason to conclude that the sermons would be plain and simple, free from the artificial structure of sentences and words, to which The cottage sermon the peasant's ear is little accustomed. might, we doubted not, be nevertheless so arranged, as to give satisfaction and instruction to the inhabitants of a palace at the same time: for the high and the low are equally interested in the topics discussed in the pulpit; and, in the most unadorned language, the truths of the Gospel must everywhere make an impression. But, in these discourses, we look in vain for that artless composition which is calculated for the village pulpit; and we see no difference between those which are said to have been preached at Oxford and in the author's parish church. Indeed, we are inclined to suspect, that, if the preacher were called upon to unfold the mysteries of religion before his royal patroness in the chapel of the palace, he would choose these village sermons, with scarcely any variation in their language or sentiments, and that, with a new dedication and title-page, they might become sermons for the royal chapel and polite congregations at the west end of the town. Our readers may form their judgement from the following extracts. In a sermon on example,' we meet with the ensuing period. It is not a hardship that you were dedicated to Christ in your childhood, and before you were capable of giving your consent to the ceremony, though indeed it lays you under a stronger obligation to do good, and eschew evil; but by this dedication of your souls and bodies to Christ, you were put under the immediate protection of his holy spirit, and if your obligation to do good became greater, yet your hopes of assistance and prospects of reward became greater too; for though Christ died for the sins of the whole world, and all that are finally saved, will be saved through the merits of his cross and pas. sion, yet, among these, those that died before his appearance in the flesh, as well as others to whom the light of Christ's Gospel has never reached, will, in all probability, be somewhat distinguished from those who have had a clear sense and knowledge of his most merciful interposition in behalf of mankind.' P. 133. In this sententious phraseology, which is incomprehensible to the cottage ear, the author seems to delight. Thus, 'on contentment,' he tells his hearers That desire of bettering our worldly condition, which gives birth to labour and industry, may be very well accompanied both with godliness and contentment. It is not only allowable, but exceedingly praise-worthy, to wish to advance both ourselves and families, by care and diligence, provided we are not, as many are, impatient of success; we may be as anxious as we please, to prosper and grow rich, provided we seek to do so only by the means of honest industry, and are content till we do prosper; not hurried into discontent by casual disappointments, nor ready to murmur so soon as the slightest obstacle is thrown in our way; and even if finally we fail of all success, if all our projects are defeated, and all our hopes thwarted, still it is likely to be our greatest gain if we learn to bear this disappointment properly; surely it requires no great understanding to discover, that the Providence which manifestly ordained and overlooks all things, may have hindered our success for wise and gracious purposes.' P. 149. Would the author have written differently for a town au dience, if he were to harangue them on old-age, than in the following passage? For < Vice is as destructive of the body as it is of the soul; the numerous diseases that intemperance leads to, I need not lay before you; they are among the very worst foes the body has to struggle with; some are slow and insidious, undermining the constitution by degrees, sapping the foundation imperceptibly, till, perhaps in the high day of youth, or of riper manhood, when our faculties have just attained to their natural perfection, the stamina of life fail, and as the prophet beautifully expresses it, "our sun goes down while it is yet day;" others assault the body more violently, with feverish pangs, and racking pains; these soon bring the unhappy sufferer to the grave. the body is a delicate machine, capable of doing well for many years if prudently and discreetly managed, but easily broken to pieces if roughly handled, or hurried on too fast. These things being considered, we must needs suppose a inan, full of years, is one who has avoided these imprudencies; who has, in a great measure, lived soberly, temperately, and chastely; who has preserved his body vigorous and healthy, by labour and industry, his mind unruffled, by a steady purpose of acting uprightly, and bearing patiently. Besides, we may have some ground to believe, that if a man, whom we now see aged and decrepid, has had his failings in his time, that in his youth he has been somewhat wild, and in his manhood now and then intemperate, yet that as there is probably a measure even in these things, that he has not been incorrigibly bad at any time, so as to deserve to be cut off in his sins; for, no doubt, though we cannot appreciate matters so thoroughly as to see to the very end of things, yet those who die in their youth, through wicked courses, of drunkenness, debauchery, and intemperance of all sorts, are known to the great searcher of hearts to be, if not entirely, yet as near as can be, incorrigibly bad, so that they are cut off suddenly, either because it is known they never will repent, and so had better not live to seduce others, or else they are taken away for fear that if they lived longer, they would so fill up the full measure of their sins, as to be wholly unpardonable.' P. 163. The cottager must be not a little puzzled to unravel the author's meaning in the ensuing passage on good works.' It will not be enquired whether God's grace has supernaturally purified our hearts, or the application of Christ's merit operated unconditionally to our entire justification, but whether, considering the gracious promises made to us of the help and co-operation of God's holy spirit, and the glorious hopes afforded us of reconciliation through the blood of Christ, we have so far done our part, as that these transcendent benefits may be applied to us. In all cases it would seem to have pleased God so to order matters, that man should do something to help himself; and those who are willing to set mankind free from the obligation of the works of righteousness, would act consistently if they were to endeavour to set them free also from manual labour. To pretend that to attach any merit at all to works of holiness is to derogate from the stupendous efficacy of Christ's atonement, is just as reasonable as to say, that to pretend to cultivate the field is to derogate from the power of God, who in so marvellous and inexplicable a manner has prepared the soil for the growth of plants, and appointed the kindly influences of the sun and air, to bring them to maturity: in either case it would be folly to confound the two questions, for only one is necessary. We need not enquire whether God could accomplish the same ends without our co-operation. No one but an atheist would think of denying such a truism; but the question that alone concerns us is, whether it appears from Scripture that God meant to deal with us so unconditionally? Now I think it has been shewn, that in the visible order of things, it has pleased God to leave something for man to do, even to supply his bodily wants, and therefore surely we have good ground to conclude from analogy, that all his higher wants would not be supplied without some co-operation on the part of man. But the word of God is beyond all reasoning from analogy; and if that does dot inculcate the constant practice of every virtue, and discountenance and condemn every vicious indulgence, there is no meaning in words. It is of no avail to lay such a stress, as some do, upon Christ's having shed his blood to save sinners; for he that is most righteous in obedience to God's laws, is perhaps most of any sensible of his imperfect endeavours, and therefore most ready to confess himself a sinner, so that he is in the way of salvation at all events. R. 231. The peasant's idea of the Bible will not be much enlarged by this negative description. It will not lead us into a labyrinth of laboured deductions, and refined speculations, but by an easy reference of every action of our lives, to those two great leading principles, the love of God and of our neighbour; put us in complete possession of such a rule of moral |