Extraordinary as this personage must appear, his appetite is still more so. "When he slumbers, when he sleeps, Still on head his helm he keeps; Stern of heart and stout of limb. And it is worthy of observation, that Mr. Way has in this justance softened down the original, which is, literally translated, "Nor doth he demand other sugar-plums Than the points of swords broken; And the broken meshes of hauberks with pepper." "The Knight and the Sword," and "The Vale of False Lovers," will probably introduce the reader to old acquaintances, viz. Sir Gawaine and Sir Lancelot. "The Lay of Sir Lanval," and "The Lay of Sir Giuélan," are similar in too many points, and we do not think very highly of either. "The Lay of Narcissus," however, is inimitably beautiful. The opening would not have disgraced a poet of a more refined age. " "Twill move my wonder nought, should harm betide Each Each simple charm with amorous softness bloom'd, There are many other passages we would willingly extract, and many other of the Fabliaux that are deserving notice; but we find it impossible in the short space to which we are necessarily confined, to give other thau a very brief notice of them. "The Lay of the Little Bird" is probably an imitation of one of those ingenious little pieces, with which the poetry of the East abounds. "The Priest who had a Mother in Spite of himself," is sufficiently humourous, although decidedly inferior to "the Norman Bachelor." Hippocrates," or "the Lay of Aristotle," all admirable in their way. "Griselidis," as the reader will readily imagine, is the subject of Chaucer's " Clerkes Tale," and on the whole is not much inferior to it. Of "Huéline and Eglantine," and "the Battle of Carnival and Lent," we do not think very highly. "The Mule without a Bridle," and "the Countess of Vergy," have both considerable merit; but we cannot but believe the subject of the latter beyond the power of a " Rhymer." These are the principal tales in the collection. The Appendix however is enriched by "the Lay of the Gray Palfrey," and "the Paradise of Love." The first is one of the best in the three volumes. It has every appearance of being an exact transcript from life. In the latter, there are many beautiful passages, and we shall extract the opening lines, in the hope that some of the witlings, whom we have so frequently to notice, will attend to the suggestions of a brother poet, however contemptuously they may be inclined to treat the opinion of a critic. "Let never wight, who finds his misty skull Send forth the stream of pleasing verse with pain, The preface and notes to this work are extremely well written; and the numerous head and tail pieces are not only admirably executed, but are happily illustrative of the notes. There is another claim which this work has on our attention, altogether independent of its poetic merit. It is universally known, that the earliest historians of all countries have confined themselves to a brief mention of some prominent facts. Of this description are our own Saxon Chronicles. and such were probably the works of Fabius Pictor. Enlarged as the records records of the twelfth and thirteenth century might naturally be expected, they unfortunately differ from the preceding only in the substitution of religious for poetical circumstances. Whoever then would acquire a satisfactory knowledge of the domestic history, if we may be allowed the term, of those ages, must glean it from the legislative enactments, and from the works of the poets. And it will be found, that while the Monkish Chronicler has passed over as unimportant the rude habits and boisterous amusements of our ancestors, or brought them forward only to proscribe them, the poet, overstepping the boundaries of the cloister, has left us a breathing and living picture of the manners and customs of their age. We should willingly, before we closed our review, have acknowledged our obligations to the two elegant scholars to whom we are indebted for it; but we believe Mr. Way did not live to see the first edition through the press, nor Mr. Ellis to receive the presentation copy of the second. "So fails, so languishes, and dies away ART. VII. A Charge delivered to the Clergy of the peculiar Jurisdiction of the Dean of Chichester at the Visitation holden in the Cathedral, May 24, 1816. By Christopher Bethell, M.A. Dean of Chichester. Published at the Request of the Clergy. 4to. 26 pp. 29. Rivingtons. 1816. IT is well known by most of our Ecclesiastical readers that to some of the Cathedral Deaneries under the old foundations is attached a peculiar and an episcopal jurisdiction. How far this anomaly of antient times is conducive to the general order of Church government, it is not within our present purpose to enquire; let what objections however be entertained against the system, in one respect at least we shall congratulate ourselves on its existence, inasmuch as it has given birth to the Charge before us. This composition was delivered at the primary visitation of the Dean of Chichester to the Clergy of his peculiar jurisdiction, and was published at their request. After the usual introduction, the Dean commences the subject of his charge with lamenting, in common with every sound Christian, the increasing growth of sects and separatists. He laments it not only as a Churchman but as a Christian, from the conviction that such divisions are highly injurious to the best interests of Christianity. It is true, indeed, that in the collision of party, POL. VI. JULY, 1816. F many many an able defence of our holy faith has been elicited; but it is equally true, that amidst the noise of contending factions infidelity makes a rapid and unperceived progress towards the destruction of the very little they maintain in common. In infidelity dissent will ever find a faithful supporter and ally; as amidst all the discordant varieties of faith, it flatters itself that the Truth itself must first be weakened by division, and ultimately fall a felo de se to the ground. The Dean then proceeds to lay open the main springs of the progressive evil, and to trace the causes of dissent to their very source. Before however we accompany him in his researches, we cannot refrain from laying before our readers his ideas upon the nature of Separation in general. "There is, it is true, something in the very nature of Separa tion, calculated to recommend it to unthinking and undisciplined minds, and to proud and aspiring spirits. The human heart, originally wayward and rebellious, is easily induced to look with jealousy on an established form of religious service and government, as if it checked the freedom of enquiry, and imposed so many shackles on the conscience. Those fashionable phrases (of which it is difficult to say whether they betray greater levity or ignorance of the subject) which speak of man's natural right to choose his own religion, and to go to heaven in his own way, will always meet with willing hearers and forward scholars. Hence even the coldest and most forbidding heresies, which strip the religion of the Saviour of its best encouragements and comforts, are not without their followers and proselytes, when they are recommended by a large share of common-place declamations against creeds, and confessions, and human authority. The choice of their own Minister and their own place of worship (a choice, abstractedly considered, directly at variance with the Word of God, and the first principles of Christian unity and order) and even that consequence which men seem to derive from belonging to religious parties, are so many lures to separation, taking advantage of the weakness of the human heart on the side of its vanity and presumption." P. 7. The Dean very justly ascribes the first approaches to Sectarianisin, to certain opinions which have a natural tendency to make a breach in religious unity, to withdraw the allegiance of their professor from any established Church, and especially from the Church of England. The spirit of fanaticism is indeed a spirit of anarchy and disorder. External laws cannot reasonably be supposed to have any hold upon him who has a law within himself, and that law dependent upon his own feelings. We find accordingly in the reign of Charles the First, that in proportion as enthusiasm gained ground, sectarianism and separation followed its steps; and when at its utmost height, that it absolved its victims from the restraint which even a conventicle might prescribe. But most unfortunately for this Church and Kingdom, we need not ascend to the day of Charles for examples. The spirit of fanaticism is daily increasing, and the spirit of dissent increases with it: while those who within the Church are infected with its contagion, but are too wise to resign the preferments which their opinions should render them incapable of retaining, indemnify their consciences by betraying the best interests of the Church upou every opportunity that offers, to the hands of their brethren without. The appellation of "Methodist" was formerly applied in many instances to strict and religious' men who were in no degree tainted with enthusiasm: the courage and the power which the fanatical party within the Church have of late assumed, has done much to rectify the error. To those however of our readers who may be inclined to put the question, “WHAT IS METRODISM?" we will reply in the words of the Dean of Chichester. "Methodism is that misrepresentation of the Christian systems which represents the work of religion as an immediate and perceptible communication between God and the believer, and resolves it into feeling and sensible experience; and consequently speaks with confidence and familiarity of God's special and marvellous dealings with the soul, and of his direct, and palpable, and miraculous operations upon the heart. Independently of the written word of God, and of that secret inspiration of the Holy Ghost, which gives power and effect to his word, it describes the Christian life as consisting, in a great measure, of a succession of private and particular revelations; and considers the capricious but powerful feelings of the human mind, whether engendered by accident, forced upon it by strong and positive assertions, or wrought into it by artifice and selfdelusion, as so many heavenly messages and divine oracles. In short it represents the private feelings and convictions of the individual as the sure and infallible criterions of God's favour, and of his own religious condition: and teaches him to measure the pardon of his sins, his justification in the sight of God, his Christian perfection, and his title to everlasting life by this arbitrary, and mischievous, and unscriptural standard. "This is the distinguishing characteristic and leading principle of Methodism: a principle which pervades every part of its system, and enters into all its operations; forming the central point of its doctrinal discourses and modes of worship, and the foundation of that great fabric of error and insubordination, which is daily rising on the ruins of sound and primitive Christianity. In every form of assertion, vision, and narrative, in sermons and dialogues, and loose sheets and pamphlets of all sizes, in the legendary journals of the first founders of Methodism, and in the monthly fables of the maga zine, this principle is continually put forward and circulated. Under F 2 the |