Why does the title-page of this pretty little volume confine the circulation of it to good children? We should rather suppose it intended for the use and entertainment of any, or all; to make them good, or to assist in confirming them in what is commendable. The tales are short, agreeable, and well adapted to inspire just and right sentiments in young and flexible minds, and to encourage the growth of happy dispositions.

NOVEL S.

Art. 21. Augusta; a Novel, in French. 12mo. 3 Vols. 200 Pages in each. Dulau and Co. London.

Augusta, an English young lady, accompanies her friend to Paris, where she falls in love with a French coxcomb, the Marquis of Valbont; whom she improves. Her father arrives with a Mr. George, to whom her hand is destined, but who very properly promotes her union with the Marquis, on learning the state of her heart. There are some episodes: in which, as in the whole work, we see little either to praise or to blame.

Art. 22. Rosalind de Tracey. By Elizabeth Sophia Tomlins, Author of the Victim of Fancy.

Dilly. 1798.

12mo. 3 Vols. 10s. 6d. sewed.

If the critical reader should not meet, in this work, with language so elegant, sentiments so refined and appropriate, and characters só boldly conceived and delineated, as in a few productions of the highest order in this class, he will yet find in it a tale not uninteresting, and a concatenation of probable incidents, connected with such displays of life and manners as will amuse the fancy without vitiating the heart. We reckon it among the merits of this production, that it exhibits very aggravated pictures of human depravity, characters heroically and perfectly virtuous; for we agree entirely with Mrs. D'Acre, one of the most interesting personages exhibited in this groupe, in entertaining very serious objections to such compositions as display crimes which rather tend to harden than amend the mind; and we cannot perceive that to decorate humanity with superhuman virtues is calculated either to instruct or to amuse.

no

nor creates

Among the characters introduced, are those of a family of Quoters; which, we think, will appear as entertaining in this representation as they are ridiculous and disgusting in reality. The following passage will give the reader a sample of them.

• The ladies had not yet entered the drawing-room, on the evening the party were expected, when they were announced; nine in number. Mrs. D'Acre hastened to receive them, and Rosalind returning her compliments for their inquiries, all observed her altered looks-Mrs. Haye, in the usual strain of quotation, saying:

" Sickness sits on her like an untimely frost
Upon the fairest flower of the field."

• Upon this Miss Catharine, in a low voice, said "The field so ⚫ late the hero's pride." Miss Mary, drawing up her glove, muttered "Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it." And Mrs. Haye saying she hoped all danger of a relapse was over, even the younger sister could not let it pass without sighing out "Hope, thou nurse of young desire."

• Some general conversation was, however, entered on, and they were evidently under more restraint than when at home; and sate still without any violent expressions of anxiety or curiosity on the passers-by in the great road, which, though remote, was within view of Mrs. D'Acre's windows; only now and then an observation would drop, that such a man was like Hudibras; that he rode as if he had but one spur on, and the appropriate lines quoted, which another immediately answered :

"Lady, your bright

And radiant eyes are in the right."

And on Mrs. Haye's mentioning, that her son would have been with them, but was gone to receive an intimate friend of his just expected from India, who had been detained uncommonly long on the sea, Miss Mary emphatically repeated "There let him sink, and be the seas on him:"-adding

" Le sage a souvent fait naufrage
Quand il croyoit toucher au port."

• On Mr. Leslie's entrance, their spirits being enlivened, the budget was opened: anew he complimented each on their looks, and the young ones on their growth, since he last saw them; but mistaking the name of the youngest, who always set him right, he begged her to excuse him, to which one immediately said,

" I am myself, and call me what you please;"

and on Mr. Leslie's saying, such errors would happen where the name was thought less of than the face, her sister answered for her:

"Her face, my thane, is like a book where men
May read strange matters."

• Miss Mary, who was seated on the other side of him, hitching only at the word error, repeated

"Are we in life thro' one great error led,

Is each man perjur'd, and each nymph betray'd?"

And Mrs. Haye, who attended more to the conversation of her children than any thing else, called out in a voice unusually loud, for a drawing-room;

"Of the superior sex art thou the worst,

Or I, of mine, the most completely curst?"

There is perhaps something overcharged in this picture: but praise must still be allowed to Miss Tomlins for holding up the mirror to a set of Beings who impede rational and original conversation, by the extreme abuse of an elegant talent.

Art. 23. Anecdotes of two well-known Families. Written by a Descendant. Prepared for the Press by Mrs. Parsons. 12mo. 3 Vols. 10s. Boards. Longman.

Though this novel does not exhibit those highly-wrought scenes of distress of which writers of fictitious history are generally fond, it is

sufficiently

sufficiently impassioned to affect the heart and to engage the attention. The character of an artless and innocent girl, blest with a good understanding and educated in virtuous principles, is well supported in the delineation of Ellinor, the heroine; and the mystery which hangs over her birth (the old story) fully answers the desired purpose of keeping the reader in suspence: but we think that the manner in which this mystery is at length dissipated is liable to some objections. Lord and Lady P. are well delineated; and to those who are best pleased with the contemplation of virtuous characters, Lord and Lady B. may furnish rational entertainment, and perhaps excite laudable emulation. - It were to be wished, however, that the writer had not been so fond of introducing Bridget and her mother. Mrs. Parsons should have recollected that low characters are to be tolerated in novels only when they display considerable wit or drollery, or some striking peculiarity.

The laudable tendency of this work is to inspire a love of virtue, with a consequent detestation of vice.

RELIGIOUS and CONTROVERSIAL.

Art. 24. An Essay on Universal Redemption; tending to prove that the general Sense of Scripture favours the Opinion of the final Salvation of all Mankind. By the Rev. John Browne, M.A. late of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. 8vo. Is. Cadell jun. and Davies.

This author assumes that the common opinion of the eternity of future torments has made many unbelievers, and that the ἀἰῶνιος of the New Testament implies a limited duration of time, which refers solely to that state of things which is immediately to succeed the second coming of our Lord. Waiving any decisive opinion, we extract the corollary of his argument, as an example of easy diction and ingenious discussion:

But it has been objected to the doctrine of Universal Redemption, that it has a tendency to weaken the ties of morality and religion, to make men careless of their conduct in this world, and to induce them to neglect the concerns of futurity. " If (it has been asked) the terrors of eternal punishments are not sufficient to restrain the evil propensities of men, how can it be imagined that the apprehension of those of a limited period will have that effect?" To this objection, so often and so triumphantly urged, it seems sufficient to reply that, although the punishments of futurity may not be, strictly speaking, eternal; yet, compared to the powers of our imagination, they are so, when we are assured that they will be much longer and much more severe than any we may meet with in the present life. The word αιώνιο, though it evidently relates to a finite duration, yet it as evidently refers to a very long period, which, compared to our limited conceptions of it, may be said to be eternal, and which, when duly considered, must I think have the same practical effect.

• I will even hazard the conjecture, that one great reason why the sanctions of futurity have not had their due effect on the conduct of mankind, is this notion of the eternity of future torments. That it has produced much open infidelity is sufficiently evident; that it has also produced

4

produced much secret infidelity seems, I think, scarcely to admit of a doubt. So enormous indeed is the disproportion between any crimes that the worst of sinners can commit, and an infinite punishment, that no one, whatever his life may have been, imagines he can have incurred so great a penalty. Every natural principle of justice and equity seems to revolt against such a supposition: the voice of Nature becomes too strong for that of imposed Faith; and every man whose conduct has been tolerably free from glaring enormities, is irresistibly led to suppose that a just and merciful Deity cannot inflict on him an infinite and eternal punishment; he therefore concludes (since he perceives no medium) that he shall escape all the evils of a future state, and enter upon a state of bliss, which, if we believe Revelation, is promised on very different conditions. To this cause we may trace that absurd and mischievous notion, that the belief of certain tenets, independant of their practical effects on the moral sentiments of the believer, can be in itself acceptable to the Deity: and that universal inclination to suppose that he will accept the easy terms of faith and adoration, instead of good works and moral obedience. Men who have unfortunately adopted the notion that their Creator has sentenced the greater part of his creatures to eternal perdition, have yet, from the secret illusions of self-love, imagined that their peculiar system of belief contained some magical talisman of sufficient power to protect them from that wrath to which they devoted without hesitation the rest of mankind. Thus the sanctions of a future state were lost or perverted; Religion was separated from morality; and the attainment of future happiness was made to depend on the implicit belief of certain doctrines, in the performance of unimportant ceremonies, or in the reveries of a heated and enthusiatic imagination.'

Art. 25. Remarks on the Signs of the Times. By Edward King, Esq. F. R.S. A. S. 4to. pp. 40. 2s. 6d. Nicol. 1798. Most readers will agree with Mr. King, that the conclusion of the present century is marked by distinguishing and striking characters : but to what result they tend is wrapt in the appointment and direc tion of Divine Providence. With becoming awe and timidity, but with conviction, Mr. K. points out some parts of Scripture-prophecy, of which, he conjectures, recent events are an accomplishment. Some years ago, he expressed a persuasion * that the pouring out of the seventh vial, mentioned in the book of the Revelation, ch. 16. was just at hand;' and he now informs us, that the woe is indeed come to pass, almost in it's full plenitude.' As he had remarked concerning the vials said to be poured on the sea and the sun, some connec tions of an inferior kind between these great bodies, and the discoveries or improvements made by men during the periods here supposed to be represented, he now also observes concerning the air, on, or into which this seventh vial is said to be discharged, surely our attention may well be awakened by the singular circumstance of many new discoveries with regard to Fixed Air, and by the strange and novel in

vention of the Air Balloon, which took place at a time perfectly coinciding with the very first outline of the emblematical description.

Mr. K. proceeds to examine other features of this divine prophetical declaration and warning, which must be done with great caution, and cannot be done without horror.'-The better to effect his purpose, five verses of the chapter, from 17 to 21 each inclusive, are carefully exhibited in the original Greek. He insists that 'voices, thunders, and lightnings seem, in the prophetical language of all the prophets, to denote informations of new things; doctrines and teaching of new opinions good or bad; convictions of truth and bringing divine truth to light; under this persuasion, he says, We cannot but acknowledge with astonishment, that no period like that commencing about 1788, did ever so much abound with all sorts of new informations and discoveries; concerning remote countries, and concerning natural history; concerning new philosophical discoveries; and concerning both antient and modern history :-no period did ever so much abound with new opinions, and new doctrines ;-and at the same time it must be acknowledged, that about this period, and since it's commencement, many elucidations of real truth, both abroad and in this country, have come forth with convincing light.'

Concerning the earthquake in the next verse, it is remarked that the Greek word σεισμος properly signifies a tremendous shaking of all things; and if such a shaking of empires and of the state of civil government is the emblematical import of these words of prophecy, to what period of the world whatever can they be deemed so applicable, as to the present; or to what state of things whatever, as to the present state of Europe?"

The verse which follows attracts peculiar notice; of which we shall give a short abstract.

Ver. 19. "And the great city was divided into three parts, and the eities of the nations fell:" thus translated, Mr. King regards this verse, commonly referred to Rome, as almost unintelligible: he remarks that ' πόλι, in it's truest import, does not merely signify a city with it's walls and buildings, but rather the civil constitution of a country, or indeed a free state as distinguished from a kingdom,' and he accordingly translates in this manner; - A state which was a great one, became divided into three portions, (or lots) and the states of the nations (or the states among the nations, as distinguishing them from the αἱ βασιλείαι, the kingdoms) fell.'

'If this translation be just, with what awful astonishment must we behold the events of the present day! Was not Poland a state, rather than a kingdom? it's king being merely elective.Was it not a great one? being one of the largest, in extent of land, and in it's produce, from the fertility of it's soil, of any of Europe. And is not Poland actually become divided into three portions, or lots ? - One to Russia, one to Germany, one to Prussia. And is not this an unparalleled event! an event unlike any one that ever before happened in the world. And an event, to which alone of all others, these words of prophecy could ever with any propriety be applied? And if the next words, The states among the nations fell; signify states, as distinguished from kingdoms, were