lation of the moft valuable tracts, illuftrating the doctrines of our national church, we cannot too ftrongly recommend the Scholar armed against the Errors of the Times, to which, in confideration of its various and excellent contents, we have allotted an extensive account; not fo much with a view of criticizing works already approved, as with a defire to revive the memory and elucidate the hiftory of productions, many of them controverfial, the origin of which, the indolence of the times has fuffered to become obfcure.

That the inftitution of Bampton's Lectures at Oxford is well fupported, we found a refpectable proof in Mr. Wintle's Sermons †, preached under that appointment, on the expediency, prediction, and accomplifhment of the Chriftian redemption. A Lecture of this kind could not certainly be better placed than in an university, where the rifing abilities of men are first developed and best known. Could our wifhes add to the fuccefs of this, it would be infallibly fecured. Nor can any thing more immediately tend to produce that defired effect, than the Advice of Dr. Napleton, lately publifhed in the fame univerfity, in which he carefully explains the qualifications and duties of a Minifter of the Church of England. With fuch admonition, and fuch opportunities to follow it, a ftudent may be expected to proceed to the moft ufeful exertions. As a work modeftly addreffed to the uninformed, rather than the learned, we may mention with refpect the Sermons of Mr. Hawker on the Holy Ghoft. They evince many good qualities in the writer, and tend to encourage them in the reader. In Mr. Hawtrey's Appeal to the New Teftament || against the Socinians, the doctrinal part is in many places ftrong and original; the conjectural is propofed with diffidence and piety. The volume of Sermons publifhed by Mr. Benfon I is fuch as deferves to be men

No. V. p. 481. VI, 637. † No. II. p. 145. ‡ No. III. p. 255. No. II. p. 116. No. IV. p. 394. No. V. p. 525.

tioned among the ufeful and honourable additions to this class of writings; nor muft Mr. Davy's laborious effort be forgotten, who, though he disclaims originality, in his Syftem of Divinity, has every claim to praife on the fubftantial plea of utility. The commentaries on the Book of Pfalms, (as Dr. Horne's and others) have usually been referred to the more recent tranflation printed in our Bibles; that publifhed by Mr. Travellt, has the peculiar advantage of being accommodated to that which is in daily ufe in the Liturgy, and is adapted by its plainnefs exprefsly to the ufe of the unlearned, who may wish to have this part of their devotions made more clear. It is one of feveral useful works, which the fame author has produced, with fimilar intentions. It was an undertaking of no fmall merit to recall the Homilies of our church to general notice, which has been done effectually by Sir Adam Gordon; he has modernized their language with great fkill, and in that form fubmitted them to the confideration of the prefent readers of divinity. The volume entitled Family Lectures § contains a large collection of good fermons, at a moderate price, which is the only praise to which it could afpire. To the enumeration of fingle fermons we never can allot much space. Thofe moft worthy of attention in the prefent volume will be found to be, The Bishop of Peterborough's on Jan. 301, and thofe of the Bishop of Rochefler **, and Dr. Renneltt, on different public

occafions.

HISTORY.

Within the period to which this Preface refers, we have seen a moft curious piece of original history, brought forward from the duft of libraries, by the judicious care and diligence of Mr. David Macpherson.

This is a Chronicle of Scotland, or, as it is ftyled in the work itself, The orygynal Cronykil of Scotland, written by Andrew of Wyntown, Prior of Loch Levin, at the end of the fourteenth century. It is a metrical hiftory, comprifing, after the manner of those times, a fketch of the hiftory of the world, but of which the editor has judiciously published only the parts that refer to Britain. The whole is highly curious, both as a record of great authenticity, and as a fpecimen of the language and verfification of that period in Scotland. It is publifhed from a MS. in the Royal Library, at the British Museum, collated with feveral others, in a manner highly creditable to the editor, for beauty as well as accuracy. We cannot expect often to record any thing of equal curiofity with this; but we have alfo to mention feveral refpectable publications in the line of hiftory. Among thefe, the first that occurs to our recollection is the continuation of Mr. Andrews's Hiftory of Great Bri tain t, a moft ufeful work in point of arrangement, and highly entertaining in matter, particularly in the notes, which are replete with anecdote: this fecond part of Vol. I. carries down the hiftory to the acceflion of Edward VI. Though we cannot approve of the politics and temper of the Memoirs of the Reign of George III, by Mr. Belham, we should be guilty of injuftice were we not to mention it as a well-written and able work. Nor can we accufe it of being un, faithful, except in the colour given to many tranfactions, which we confider as that of prejudice. The Sketch of the War with Tippoo Sultaun§ is at prefent an unfinished work. To the prefent volume Mr. Mackenzie intends to add a fecond, which will render it a complete and ufeful account of a very memorable wareh

The fecond volume of Mr. Payne's Epitome of Hif tory concludes a work in which much general in

1

No. IV. P. 337. ↑ No. II. p. 122. ‡ No. V. p. 499. No, I. p. 54. No. II, p. 273,

formation

formation is concifely delivered, in very good language. But the author has an able rival in Mr. Adams, who, in his View of univerfal Hiftory, has difplayed fimilar powers, not however without fome taint of democratical opinions. As a document ufefully fubfidiary to the eventful Hiftory of the American War, the collection of General Washington's Letters deferves to be pointed out: nor will the original Annual Regifter ‡, carried on, as it undoubtedly is, by the perfon whofe labours in it have been fo long approved, fail to be treasured up by the collector of materials for future chronicles. The Hiftory of the Miffion of the United Brethren, in North America, from the German of Lofkiel, might perhaps have ftood as properly among the books on divinity; it is, however, a hiftory, though confined in its object to the purpofes and fortunes of the Miffion, and is, in many respects, a curious record. The tranflator, Mr. La Trobe, has performed his talk with ability. With much political difcuffion interfperfed, Mr. Playfair's Hiftory of Jacobinifm contains, in fact, a Híftory of a confiderable part of the French Revolution: and the author fhows himself in this, as in all his late publications, a determined enemy to the crimes and cruelties of the faction whofe machinations he here detects. Such has been the recent produce of the field of hiftory.

In this congenial foil, we have here noticed only one production of confequence, which is Mr. Biffet's Lives of Addifon T, and the other writers of the Spectator, prefixed to an edition of that work. They are written with a good deal of ability and critical dif crimination, and might, as we hinted before, be pub- Istenog nɔama il

*No. IV. p. 346. No. III. p. 232. For 1791. No. III. P02473 § No. III p. 264. || No. IV. p. 409. No. III. ག

P. 289.

lifhed

lished to more advantage in a separate form. A very fmall work, belonging to this clafs, fhould be mentioned on account of its convenient form; this is a New Biographical Dictionary*, abridged from the large dictionary, and fitted for the pocket. When the larger work receives the neceffary additions, as fpeedily it will, this alfo may be augmented from it.

An entertaining variety of biographical matter is comprised in the Anecdotes of diftinguished Perfons, &c. publifhed in three volumes, by Mr. Seward. Such anecdotes, as far as they are original, may serve as ufeful materials for future biographers; where they are only extracted from lives already written, they at least furnish an agreeable amufement for a leifure hour.

ANTIQUITIES.

The continuation of one of the moft fplendid and fcientifical works that our country has produced, the Antiquities of Athens, by Meffrs. Stuart and Revet, very aufpicioufly commenced our prefent volume. Of this book, which fo happily combines the intereft of the feveral topics of claffical antiquity, foreign travel, and architectural elegance, the public is yet to expect another part. The prefent volume is compiled and illuftrated by Mr. Revely, from the drawings of the late Mr. Stuart and Mr. Revet, affifted by the remarks of the latter, and includes several pleasing and important objects. We do not find, within the compafs of our present fix numbers, any thing more belonging to this clafs, except the two letters of Mr. Major, illuftrative of fome curious Norman Tiles § marked with armorial bearings of great antiquity. From thefe, aided by other confiderations, the writer concludes the cuftom of ufing fuch diftinctions to be prior to the crufades.

*No. IH. p. 322.. No. VI. p. 682.

+ No. II. p. 178.

‡ No. I. p. 1.

TOPOGRAPHY.