the land of the Thutski, in the bay of St. Laurence, where, as it afterwards appears by a letter from one of the party to Mr. Sauer, he narrowly escaped being murdered. The next Chapter contains a geographical description of the peninfula of Kamtshatka, with a sketch of its civil and natural history, and an engraved View of the Ozernoé Hot Springs. In the month of August 1793, Mr. Sauer and his party failed in a galliot to Ochotik, and from thence he fet off, accompanied by Enfign Alexuf and two failors, on the rit of September, for Yakutik, where they were to wait the arrival of Captain Billings. After in. expressible hardships, fome of their horfes dying in the woods, our Author arrived alone at Yakutik on the ad of October, having been obliged to leave his baggage and his companions in the woods. Being joined by Captain Billings, he remained with him in Yakutik till the ad of January 1794, when they set out in fledges for the city of Irkutsk, where they arrived about the middle of the fame month, and met with all the other Officers of the expe. dition. A thort account is then given of Captain Billings's expedition across the land of the Ishutski, with a further defcription of the natives, from a journal of one of the party, and two plates; one of a Tihutski woman; the other of a man in armour, with a woman and child; and the body of the work concludes with the following paragraph: "I arrived at St. Petersburgh on the roth of March 1794, so very much afflicted with the rheumatism, from a cold caught at Irkutik, that in regard to action I was reduced to the heipless situation of an infant. The kind attendance, however, of Dr. Rogers, and the friendly assistance of the British merchants in that city, who are so eminently distinguished for their unbounded hospitality, alleviated every pain, lessened every difficulty, and prevented the miferies of penury from being added to my misfortunes." And we fincerely hope the encouragement given to his publication will afford additional confolation. There are seven Appendixes to this work. No. 1, is a Vocabulary of the Yukagir, Yakut, and Tungoose Languages. No. 2, a Vocabulary of the Languages of Kamthatka, the Alcutan Islands, and of Kadiak. No. 3, a Lift of the different Stages from St. Peters. burgh to Yakutsk, specifying the Places, Number of Verits, Houses, and Churches, in the Cities and Towns, Dates of Arrival and Departure, &c. No. 4, an Account of the full Pay of the different Ranks of the Officers, Sailors, &c. in the Russian Naval Service, according to the Regulations of 1782. No. 5, Instructions of her Imperial Majesty, from the Admiralty College to Captain Billings, for the Expedition. No. 6, Instructions for Mr. Patrin, the Naturalist. No. 7, Extracts and Supplementary Obfervations. M. Letters addressed to a Young Man on his first Entrance into Life; and adapted to the peculiar Circumstances of the present Times. By Mrs. Welt, Author of "A Tale of the Times," "A Gotlip's Story," &c. (Concluded from Page 277.) TOWARDS OWARDS the close of our last review of this extraordinary work, we promised to entertain our readers with fome extracts from, and observations on, fome of the most edifying letters in Vol. III. The performance of that promise enjoins us to pay particular attention to Letter XIII. the second of that volume, in which will be found fome excellent maxims on the fubject of true Politeness. "It is inconfiftent with irritability, negligence, and rude ness - therefore, if you find your fufceptibility of indignities fuch as Hamlet complains of in his celebrated foli 12mo. loquy-" the proud man's contumely -the infolence of office," &c.-grow querulous, restrain it, as you value your future peace. If the perfon who has wounded your feelings be either a friend, or one whose esteem you are anxious to procure or preferve, and the circumstances of the offence will admit of it, I should recommend an early, cool, and respectful explanation. Many a fincere attachinent hath pined away under the withering influence of fufpicion, when mutual explicitness might have saved the most severe mutual heart-ache, and have preserved to each 2 each party the essential advantage of reciprocal good offices. "If you feel any of the indignities (above-mentioned), treasure them in your memory, not to excite your sple netic resentment against those from whom they proceeded, for they may as often have been caused by inadvertency as by a design to infult you; but by the Imart of your own acute sensibilities on fuch occasions, and by the obfervance which you would think it just to requite from others, regulate your own behaviour, in every instance in which you are lord of the afcendant. "Hate what is arrogant and overbearing, fo far as to avoid those faults yourself; but let Christian charity teach you caution in affixing fuch op probrious terms to the behaviour of others." "We have agreed that general civility is effential to politeness, and have determined fretfulness to be as inimical to its nature as it is to the repose of the bosom in which it is harboured. Now let us look a little at the prevailing fashion of ease, or rather inattention. The politeness of the laft age had a good deal of officiousiness in it. I am told, that people often knocked one another down in running to shut the door, and that, in handing plates charged with the principal delicacy round the table, the most lamentable misadventures frequently happened to Nanking china and brocade petticoats. While we smile at the perplexed ideas which could confound being very troublesome with being very agreeable, and congratulate the polithed freedomwhich a juster caft of thinking has introduced into our present manners, let us take care that our freedom continues to be polished. For, of the two extremes, it is better to be laughed at for a little overdoing in the way of civility, than to incur cenfure for infolent negli gence." Our Author then inftances the fami liar ned, which young gentlemen and ladies have adopted, as being both awkward and ungraceful, and highly unbecoming, except to their very intimate juvenile acquaintance; and another still more reprehenfible custom, of calling their elders and superiors by their bare names, without any appellation of refpecя. "These habits are so far from being tokens of fashionable breeding, that they are proofs of no breeding at all. A well-bred person treats you with attention, if not from tenderness to your feelings, from respect to his own character. I have so often heard what was meant for ease and freedom, decided by excellent judges of men and manners to be sheer impudence, that I should tremble at the apprehenfion of your incurring this cenfure." The contrast between ill-nature and good-humour is delineated with precifion and elegance, and comprises salutary advice for avoiding the former and cultivating the latter. "Good-humour is the current coin of life; an easy comfortable quality, which we may familiarize by hourly practice, a feed of spontaneous growth, which quickly produces its hundred fold return." On that interesting subject to youth, public diverfions, the following just ob. servations will apply to thousands as well as to her fon. "They must be very sparingly resorted to (our Author writes frequented, but it renders the meaning equivocal), for their expence is ill-fuited to your fortune; and an excess in those pleasures would certainly seduce your mind from attention to your business, and might even. tually injure your moral and religious feelings. The amusements of life muft never become its employments. Extreme rigidness in abstaining from them may form an illiberal, morose, unpleasant, character; unbounded gratification must conftitute a diffolute, felfish, unstable one. In this, as in every other point, moderation is the end that we should aim at; and to determine that moderation with respect to the danger of excess, I know of no better rule than to preferve perfect self poffeffion. When the love of pleasure has the power to unhinge our minds, and to draw us into what we feel to be blameable, it is plainly become our matter, and felf-denial must subdue the tyrant." Letter XIV. commences with difplaying the advantages of a taite for literature, and in ftating the different kinds of literature fshe enters upon an ample field of criticism, and condemus or approves well-known works with a high hand-as who should fay, "it is our fovereign will and pleasure to condemn fentimental reading as danger. ous, and often ridiculous; and there • To frequent, is to vifit often, to be much in any place. -Johnson's Dict. fore fore I will anatomize the Sorrows of Werter, and by throwing afide the noble and vital parts, and expofing only the weak vessels and the offals, turn the whole into ridicule and a laughable scene of folly." See p. 137 to 148, in which Roufleau and Sterne thare the fame fate as the Author of the Sorrows of Werter and in this place it may be proper to remind our readers, that the Letters to her Son were re. vised, enlarged, and improved, for the benefit of the public; otherwise the question might be asked, if it was likely that the young man (apprentice to a manufacturer of packs of cards) should think of reading Voltaire, Rousseau, Sterne, and other authors whose writ. ings the condemns, if the had not put him in mind of them by her criticisms, forgetful how prone we all are to follow the example of our common mother. vering the audacious authors. But she Eve, by an inclination to taste for bidden fruit. But the Lady is deter mined, at all events, to shew her great reading, and for this purpose, in the course of her letters in the third vo. Jume, the subject of our present review, the officiously introduces a few words, or a few lines, relative to almost every author of ancient or modern times, from Ariftotle to Mrs. Wol. stonecraft and Dr. Godwin. And strange indeed it would have been if the had left out the Reviewers of Literature. warning her Son against "the dangers of periodical criticisms," we come in for a large share of her acrimonious witticisms. The following description of our fraternity must not be passed over without being honoured with our particular notice. On another occafion the admonishes her fon carefully to avoid illiberal general reproach:" in the present instance, however, the mother indulges herself in the wanton exereise of it without mercy. In "Many of our miscellanies are avowedly hoftile to our civil and religious establishments." If fo, why not specify them, that all loyal fubjects may hold in detestation the principles, the authors, and the publishers. "I could exemplify their moderation and impar. tiality by obferving, that the most plaufible works on the fide of fchifm and republicanifin, I will not quite say infidelity and anarchy, are felected, and fuffered to amplify their doctrines through fucceffive numbers; and if some fiery champion of the establish ment should rush forth with more zeal than prudence, and lift up his leaden mace against the demon of mifrule, he also is unfortunately dragged to the fore ground, and baftinaded with the most rigid impartiality : while to shew their moderation, any excellent work of the same tendency is confined to the humble limit of half a page, and what cannot be ridiculed is ' damned with faint applause." Their regard to truth rests upon their own assertions"-and in the name of candour, on what else but affertion does this charitable Lady's censures reft; where are her proofs, as an admirer of Lord Grenville's meafures, the should have followed the enacting clauses of his famous Bill; she should have affixed the names of the printers as the means of discoproceeds-" Most of the publications of which I have been treating (Magazines and Reviews), are undertaken to serve the purposes of a party; and you will own, that an impartial partisan is as rare as the phenix; that fole bird. I often think, that these tribunals owe much of the deference with which the public receives their fiat to the very politic use of the plural pronouns. We are firmly of opinion-It is our decided judgment'-are phrases that carry with them an impressive authority which poor fingular I and me can never attain to. For many years, I never met with the above fentences without finding my fancy transport me into an extensive library, crowded with black coats, large wigs, and green spectacles. Each individual, while tipping his cup of tea (the modern Helicon), appeared in the act of pronouncing his oracular opinion on the impeached author; while the moderator of the learn*ed corps, collecting the fuffrages as the majority decided, either crowned the work with immortal bays, or configned it to oblivion; well might I, and every unfortunate wight in my fitua tion, tremble at an alsemblage as formidable and invulnerable as that of the secret tribunal" (of the holy-Inquifition); "but fince I have been enabled to take a peep behind the scenes, my terrors and my deference are confiderably diminished. For, alas! my dear boy, these black coats, wigs, spec. tacles, and commentators, are but the p. 176 to 179. baseless bafeless fabricks of a vision. Number one always conftitutes counsel, jury, moderator, and judge; and we is only composed of I and myself. It is even whispered, that truth and verity would oftener conduct us into the circumscribed attic than the spacious library, where you would meet with one folitary writer glowing with rage and envy at a fuccefsful competitor, and earning his Sunday dinner by a virulent abuse of the pamphlet which has been extolled by a brother Reviewer, and impeded the circulation of his own." The writer of this review acknow. ledges the charge of making use occafionally of the plural we, and he owns he expected to have found in Mrs. Weft's letters, that we included her husband, as furnishing the example of fome virtue to be copied by the fon, in the conduct, especially as it has been more than whispered to him, that Mr. West is a very respectable man in the same class (the middle) as that fon; but instead of this we find no mention made of him throughout the whole work-but we refolves itself into IMrs. West (we do not know the Lady's christian name), the Lady, is all in all! fufficient in herself to oppofe a host of Critical, Analytical, Monthly, and London Reviewers. After all, curiosity has been busy to enquire who is Mrs. Welt, the dictatress, and how came the acquainted, as the is the wife of a capital grazing farmer at a great diftance from London, with the manners of the beaux and belles of the nineteenth century, the Narciffusses of the day-the answer is, that the is the daughter of a citizen of London, and in her juvenile days might have sparingly reforted to Bond street, Hyde Park, and Kensington Gardens. We will now recommend her to a task for which she is excellently qualified, to compose ERRATICS. By a Sailor. Vol. II. and 111. 12mo. letters for young women, and to take Fordyce's Sermons (though a diffenter) for a model, making it an object to diminish the number of earned wives, and to increase that of good domestic ones. Having bestowed more than " half a page" on her present performance, we take our leave with a brief account of the principal contents of the remaining letters. In Letter XV. the latitudinarianism of the new philofophy is confidered-Vindication of Alexander the Great, with anecdetes of his life and character. The general tendency of periodical publications is to excite discontent at the inequality of mankind-Reflections on the origin of human improvement, as described by Roufleau, and as detailed in Scripture; this subject is continued in Letter XVI. The neceffity of industry confidered as a general blessing; this is one of the most useful lessons in this book of instructions. Dreadful immorality of the Democrats; a time ferv. ing gross misrepresentation of facts. Chriftianity favourable to all lawful au thorities; this is a truth deduced from Scripture, and properly maintained by historical evidence. The laft impressive caution to her *son on the score of infidelity we select for a conclufion. "Whatever views of earthly temporal happiness you may blast by youthful indifcretion, do not deprive yourfelf of your heavenly immortal inheritance, nor ever cast away the wretch's last hope, repentance! As sure as you now exift, that impious fuggeftion of the most terrible defpair, "the eternal fleep of death," cannot but be a failacy. Consciousness will for ever purfne you; and whatever guilt you incur here, you must suffer for hereafter." M. writing, which appears not ill calculated for fuch intelligence. In going through the volumes, we have feen much to approve and nothing to con. demn. We therefore recommend them to the reader's candour and attention. THIS Sailor describes a trip up the Thames, and another into the Mediterranean Sea, with rambles in Italy, and fome original information respecting the furrender and fubfequent evacuation of Toulon. Of this last event he professes, and we believe him to have been, an eve-witness. In communicating this information to the public, be has adopted the inode of letter- of a Magiftrate whose name will be reyered A Sketch of the Life and Character of Lord Kenyon, late Lord Chief Justice of she Court of King's Bench. Svo. This Sketch delineates the character 1 blera L 2 The Author of this pamphlet is an able defender of Country Banks, which he asserts may be confidered as mines to the Kingdom, and bankers as the workers of them. The fubject he confiders under the following heads: I. Of Mo. ney. II. Of Interest. III. Of Banks, and the Operations of the Banking System. "While our provincial Banks, fays he, "maintain the confidence of the public, and by an unfullied integrity, and by a liberal accommodation to the mercantile part of the community promote the industrious endea vours of an enterprifing people, it will be impoffible for the empire of Great Britain to be outrivalled in her commerce. By extending the trading capi. tals of the merchants, the wealth of the country is put into a progressive state of improvement, and from the largeness of the capitals employed in trade we must command a great fuperiority over other nations." The writer has thewn very confiderable abilities in this performance, but by many will be thought to have conducted himself too much in the style of an advocate, as he has certainly kept out of tight many formidable objections to his system. : Methodism Unmasked; or, The Progress of Puritanism from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century: intended as a Supplement to "Hints to Heads of Families." By T. E. Owen, A. B. 8vo. This pamphlet, which is composed chiefly of extracts from ancient and modern publications, is intended to prove that sectaries of all kinds are (and ever have been fince the time of the Reformation), either blind instruments, or wilful tools, in the hands of Anarchists and Deifts; that their aim is not a reform in religion, but á total overthrow of our religious and political conftitutions, and a révolu tion in these dominions fimilar to that which has deluged France with blood, and brought upon millions irreparable ruin. The Author or Compiler hopes the public will give him credit for his good intentions; a: the fame time relying on the confcioufness of having endeavoured to do what he believed to be his duty. Chronological Tablets: exhibiting every remarkable Occurrence from the Creation of the World, &c. Chiefly abridged from the French of the Abbot [Abbé] Lenglet du Fresnoy: Arranged Alphabetically, and augmented from authentic Sources to the present Time; particularly as regarding British History. Comprehending brief Accounts of Inventions and Discoveries in every Department of Science; and Biographical Sketches of Three Thousand Illustrious or Notable Persons. With a Frontispiece. One Volume, 12mo. This compilation exhibits proofs of industry, and may be confidered as a very useful addition to the chronological compendiums of our country. Pleasures of Solitude. With other Poems. By P. L. Courtier. One Volume, Small Octavo. These are, for the most part, pleafing and elegant, though penfive, compofitions, and breathe much of the true spirit of poetry. The volume is handsomely printed, and embellished with engravings. Melancholy; as it proceeds from the Dispo fition and Habit, the Passion of Love, and the Influence of Religion. Drawn chiefly from the celebrated Work intitled Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy;" and in which the Kinds, Causes, Confequences, and Cures, of this Englijb Malady - are traced from within The celebrity and excellence of "Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy" is well known. The prefent volume is a very judicious abridgment of it; but the Editor seems by no means to have confined himself wholly to his original; for he has in very many places illuftrated Burton's positions by references to, and quotations from, modern history, &c. and has thus greatly enlivened his work. To those who either have not time or not patience to wade through the variety of quotation, or are not difpofed to endure the quaintness, of Robert Burton, the present cannot fail to be a pleafing and interesting substitute. 0002 A Tour |
