complain of frequent coolness, aridities, and defertions: wherein they do no great honour to God in afcribing the natural defects of human weakness to a kind of turn of humour in him, who one hour fhews them extraordinary favours above all mankind, and the next deserts them without reason.

Neither would it avail for our purpofe, were it practicable to retain God in our thoughts through all our little occupations, and do every thing for his fervice: were a man to change his coat, tie up his garters, or gather a nofegay in his garden, always to please God, it would diminish more than add to the reverence of his name. For by perpetually mingling terms of religion among our common ideas and difcourfes, we shall empty them of all their folemnity, and reduce them to mere cant, a word derived from the Latin of finging, wherein people ufually attend to the mufic without heeding the fense. And that your over-righteous people have ferved them fo, appears from their introducing them by head and fhoulders upon occafions, whereto they cannot be applicable. This humour prevailing generally among our forefathers in the times of both civil and religious anarchy, begot the contrary extreme, as it is called, of profane fwearing, and burlefquing every thing ferious though it feems to me a fimilar offspring, like the viper's brood, deftroying its parent, only that it might have the doing of the fame mifchief itfelf, being the like expedient for evaporating all idea from the mok fignificant words in our language.

But the divine majefty, when rightly apprehended, undebafed with alloying mixtures, being the idea which contributes most effectually to ennoble our thoughts, to keep our conduct fteady, and ftrengthen our dependance under unfavourable circumstances, deferves our beft care and judgement to improve it. Which is propereft done at those seasons when our thoughts are fresh, our minds moft vigorous, and our understandings clearest, when contemplation is ready to flow fpontaneously: by frequent efforts at fuch times we may fix a deep impreffion, not to ftart up inceffantly, but upon occafion, For as a man who has a steady loyalty to his prince, though he does not think of him every moment yet will inftantly fire upon hearing any thing fpoken difrefpectfully against him: fo he that poffeffes an habitual reverence of the divine majefty, though it may not operate directly upon every minute action of his life, yet whatever injurious thereto offers to his thoughts, will immediately give him an alarm.'

The wisdom of Divine Providence in the conftitution and government of the world is a favourite fubject with our author, on which he largely expatiates. Though innumerable writers have traversed this ground, yet Mr. Search points out certain beauties in the landscape, which have very feldom been fo curiously and accurately displayed by his predeceffors.

• How

How many animals are wonderfully formed and furnished in various ways, for fupplying our wants and gratifying our defires! Cattle, fowl, and fish for our nourishment, the viper, the fnail, the cantharides for our health, the horse and the ox endued with ftrength and docility for our services: their parts and even excrefcencies adapted to our uses, as well as thofe of the creatures that bore them; oil, tallow, glue, cochineal, ivory,, horn, hair, wool, the nice texture of quills and feathers, the curious net-work of hides, capable of being rendered durable to preferve our records against the injuries of time, or foftened into a covering for our tender flesh, or worked almost as clofe and compact as wood: their instincts severally difpofing them to contribute towards our benefit and pleasure. The fearless maftiff guards our houses; the faithful fheep-dog affifts in tending our flocks; the fagacious hound and bufy fpaniel fupply. what we want by the dulnefs of our fenfes; the watchful cat, the digging rook, and the infidious fpider, help to clear us from vermin; the folitary filk-worm imprisons herself in her, cell to lay the ground-work of our manufactures; the little fly its boring the oak-leaf to brew ink for our correfpondence; the indefatigable bee labours with inimitable art to furnish wax and honey for our entertainment; the winged choirifters gladden our hearts with their mufic, delight our eyes with their variegated plumage, please our curiofity with the nice architecture of their nefts, and skilful vigilance in tending their young, and multiply the joys of fpring.'

Nor must we omit the ufes and qualities affigned to animals, wherein we can turn them moft commodiously to our advantage: we have not our wool to feek from the dangerous lion, nor want the untameable tyger to plow our grounds; but the ox, the horfe, and the sheep, have docility and manageableness given them for their characteristic. Creatures faleable in the fair or market are made much more prolific than those of the favage kind. Poultry and rabbits keep within their accustomed purlieus; but nobody knows where to find the coarfe grained heron, or the worthlefs cuckoo. The family of bees abide patiently in the habitation we please to affign them, but the libertine ant will choose her own fettlement from which the is hardly to be expelled; obfequioufnefs and different kinds of fagacity are joined in the feveral tribes of dogs: credulity brings the wild duck into our decoys, and the greedinefs of fwine makes the very offal of our houfes valuable. If we confider laftly the reigning animal man, who fubfifts by fociety, and receives his protection, his neceffaries and accommodations, from the united labours of many perfons diverfly qualified, we shall fee how their conftitutions and talents are prudently diftributed among them; fo that hands are not wanted for every office of life, whether active or fedentary, venture fome or cautious, robuft or delicate; how the fexes are equally proportioned, how the natural temper of fome perfons fets examples of virtue to others, and

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even their vices are fo counterpoized as to check and correct one another.

Having traverfed the confines lying under an intermingled jurifdiction, we may enter the province peculiar to chance or fortune, containing the multitude of events extraordinary, unaccountable, or produced by the concurrence of undiscoverable caufes which we may diftribute into three claffes, as they affect the human race, or particular kingdoms, or fingle perfons. Under the firft we may rank thofe lucky hits which have given rife to arts, manufactures, and fciences; printing and gunpowder were effects of meer curiofity, and accident: the Pergamenians were put upon making parchment by being denied the importation of paper from Egypt: Pythagoras is recorded to have learned the rudiments of mufic from a smith's anvil : and it is faid the firft fugar-baker was a pigeon, who flying from a houfe-top with fome duft of the mortar fticking to his feet, perched upon melted melaffes, the heat drove him off again in an inftant, but the liquor in that part where he had light, was found clarified juft in the fhape of his claw. But without building upon legendary tales, a little obfervation may fhew us how a particular turn of genius and fituation in life leads men into useful inventions, and favourable circumstances concur to give them encouragement.

How many profitable discoveries in chemifry have taken birth from that whimfical notion of finding the philofopher's ftone? For how many ages did men know the magnetic virtues of the loadstone, without obferving it gave a polarity to the needle With what obftinacy did Columbus purfue a project appearing chimerical, till he opened a paffage to the new world from what fmall beginnings have religions, and fects in philofophy been spread wide by perfons of fingular characters appearing in critical feafons? What a series of uncommon cir cumftances, both with refpect of internal polity, and the conditions of foreign nations, contributed to lay the foundation of the Macedonian, and Roman greatness, and extend it over half the globe i'

Some people impiously arraign the wifdom, or the goodnels of Providence, on account of many objects and occur, rences, in which they can perceive no use or defign. But it is certain, that we fee but a very small part of nature, and the confequences refulting from events, paffing within our view; and that many important purposes may be answered in the fcheme of Providence, by what appears to us unprofitable or frivolous. Mr. Search has humorously illuftrated our ignorance, in this refpect, by a curious experiment, made upon a cock, and the various conjectures, which he fuppofes to have been formed upon it, by a tribe of cockerills, the minute philofophers and free thinkers of the hen-rooft,

It is certain that no understanding can proceed further than what it may ftrike out from the materials it has to work upon, all beyond muft appear wilderness and amazement: therefore the animals having little intercourfe among us in our affairs, nor means of information by speech, would have no conception of our politics, commerce, mechanics, mathematics, rhetoric, fa-t fhion, and other methods of employing our time, but our proceedings must appear for the most part ftrange and unaccountable. I have heard a story of fome very valuable jewel or piece of plate in a houfe having been loft in fuch manner as to make it certain fome of the family had taken it, but no fufpicion could be fastened upon any particular perfon, for they all denied having any knowledge of the matter. The vicar was called in to examine them, but being able to get nothing out by his interrogatories, he engaged to discover the thief by art magic: for he had a cock among his poultry of wonderful fagacity, that being rightly prepared and fituated, would know the touch of a light fingered perfon in the dark; fo he fetched the cock tied down upon a neft of hay in a basket, which was placed at the further end of a darkened room: the fervants were ordered to go in one by one and ftroke the back of the cock, who upon feeling the delinquent would inftantly crow. They went in each of them alone and returned, but ftill the cock did not crow. Our conjurer feemed furprized, for he faid he never knew the cock fail before, and furely they had not all touched him. Yes, indeed, and indeed they had. Pray, fáys he, let's fee your hands Upon turning them up, the palms of all except one were found as black as the chimney ftock, for he had befmeared the cock's back with greafe and lamp black, of which those who were confcious of their innocence, had taken a ftrong impreffion by giving a hearty rub, but the guilty perfon, though having no great faith in the cock's virtue, yet not knowing what tricks your learned men may play, thought it fafeft not to venture, especially as his word must be taken, there being no witneffes in the room with him to fee how he behaved.

Now imagine the parfon's poultry poffeffing as large a share of the rational faculty as you pleafe, they will never be able to account for thefe ceremonies undergone by the cock; but when he got home to relate his adventures, if there were any freethinking cockerills in the hen-rooft, they would treat it as an idle incredible tale; for there could be no ufe nor purpofe in daubing his back, tying him in a basket, fhutting him. up in a dark room, and fending fo many different people to rub him over. Certainly, fay they, our daddy begins to doat, and vents his dreams for real facts: or elfe has been perching carelefsly upon the edge of a tub until he fell backwards into fome filthy ftuff within it, and now would impofe this invention upon the credulous vulgar among the chicken kind, to fet us a pecking away the greafe from his feathers, in hopes we fhall foul

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our bills or spoil our ftomachs fo that we cannot eat, and then he will have all onr barley to him felf.'

We give our readers this extract, not for the fake of its novelty or importance, but as one of thofe peculiar ftrokes of pleafantry, which characterize the productions of this writer.

We fhall not pretend to analyse the contents of these extenfive volumes, or to enter into a particular investigation of the author's principles and opinions. It may be fufficient to obferve, that he has very laudably attempted to bring a great variety of metaphyfical and theological fubjects within the limits of reafon, and to make every thing as clear as poffible, by explanations and examples. And though fome of his notions are chimerical, yet he has advanced feveral ingenious and pertinent obfervations on every topic, and has very properly exposed some of the follies and delufions of fuperftition and fanaticifm. The principal fault, which every reader will inevitably observe in the perufal of this work, is its PROLIXITY But if he can patiently attend the author through all his excurfions, he will be frequently amufed and inftructed. Like the navigator, who is rewarded for his peregrinations round the globe, by a variety of curiofities, the foffils of New Zealand, the plants of Otaheite, the fhells of the Pacific Ocean, and the diamonds of Golconda.

Difcourfes on feveral Subjects and Occafions. By George Horne, D.D. 2 vols. 8vo. 125. Robinson.

"HE author of thefe Difcourfes having been prevented, for a time, by the discharge of an important office in the university, from performing the more immediate duties of his profeffion, was defirous, that he might not feem to lose the clergyman in the magiftrate, of continuing to do something towards promoting the great end and purpose of life. this view he employed his intervals of leifure in digefting and publishing thefe Difcourfes, which had been preached before. the univerfity, at different times, between the year 1756 and 1773.

With

The plan, which he has purfued, was fuggefted by an ob fervation in Fenelon's Dialogues on Eloquence, to this effect: That the generality of Chriftians, who have heard the chief points of the Mofaic hiftory and law well explained, would be able to receive more benefit from an explication of the truths of the gospel, than they can now derive from fermons, in which the mysteries of religion are not traced backwards to their fource.'

Our