it settles into this conclusion- In a word, from the people that inhabit the most civilized cities to the savage that prowls in the bosom of the wilderness; from the throne of the monarch to the hut of the most abject peasant, the world is in labour to bring forth true peace and tranquillity of soul.' p. 1. We then pass on rather abruptly to the wisdom of the Gospel, which is illustrated by the character of a true Christian, whose conduct is regulated by his views of eternity.

'No interest can possess or transport his heart, but those to which he is invited from above. No, not a desire in his breast, not a movement in his life; no evil in his apprehension, or happiness in his conception, that refers not to eternity; he is all immensity of views and projects and hence that true nobility of spirit, that calm majestic indifference which looks down on the visionary enterprises of man, sees them, unstable and fleeting as the waves of a torrent, pressed and precipitated by those that pursue, and scarce tell you where they are, when you behold them no more: hence likewise that equality of soul, which is troubled at no reverse or vicissitude of life, which knows not those tormenting successions, those rapid alternations of pleasure and pain, so frequent in the breast of worldlings: to be elevated by the slightest success, depressed by the slightest reverse, intoxicated at a puff of praise, inconsolable at the least appearance of contempt, reanimated at a gleam of respect, tortured by an air of coldness and indifference.' ~p. 4.

From thence we are conducted by an observation,' that self-love is the most active principle of the human soul, and that neither reason nor religion discourage a reasonable attention to our temporal interests,' to the consideration of self-love degenerating into selfishness and the consequent passion of avarice, exemplified in the miser.

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'The maxim of the Roman satirist will be his rule of life, money at any rate." If the plain and beaten paths of the world, diligence and frugality, will conduct him to that end, it is well: but if not, rather than fail of his object, I will be bold to say, he will plunge without scruple or remorse into the most serpentine labyrinths of fraud and iniquity. Whilst his schemes are unaccomplished,,fretfulness and discontent will lower upon his brow; when favourable, and even most prosperous, his unslaked and unsatisfied soul still thirsts for more.'p. 7.

We give the conclusion of this character, as it altogether affords no unfavourable specimen of our author's most striking manner.

'Who will say that he is at any time vulnerable by reproach, or, I had almost added, even convertible by grace! No, through every stage and revolution of life, he remains invariably the same: or if any difference, it is only this, that as he advances into the shade of a long evening, he clings closer and closer to the object of his idolatry; and while every

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every other passion lies dead and blasted in his heart, his desire for more pelf increases with renewed eagerness, and he holds by a sinking world with an agonising grasp, till he drops into the earth with the increased curses of wretchedness on his head, without the tribute of a tear from child or parent, or any inscription on his memory, but that he lived to counteract the distributive justice of Providence, and died without hope or title to a blessed immortality.'-p. 8.

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Selfishness is then traced to its origin in splendid luxury,' which begets an attachment to money as the means of gratifying that passion: at this point, the eighteenth of thirty pages, we return to the text; and the application to the charity in question makes up the remainder of the sermon, in a desultory, but certainly eloquent peroration. Prejudiced, as perhaps we may be in favour of the philosophical reasoning, and the quiet, though not unornamented language of the divines of the last century, we have occasionally fancied ourselves amidst the sparkling morality of a modern novel, where, at the touch of a magician's wand, the fairy land of fable vanishes, and pages grow upon pages of digressive ethics. The author, we are told, cautiously abstained from polishing too highly to blend with such extemporaneous effusions as occasional circumstances suggested:' this may account for many of the defects which it remains for us to notice. An idea, captivating by its brilliancy, is hastily adopted; and to render it attractive to the audience, meretricious and overloaded ornament usurps the place of that simplicity which is the best recommendation of pure sentiment. From the dread of too feeble an impression, the figures which illustrate are repeated to satiety, or thrown into such inextricable confusion, as to perplex the mind, and interrupt the pursuit of the attention. But if this exuberance is frequently lost in obscurity, it sometimes transgresses the modesty of the pulpit, and, hurried away by invective against manners and fashions, descends into satire and irreverent sarcasm. Allusions to the Augean stable, and to Achilles; to the history of George Barnwell, and the Rambler, we cannot approve the following terms of colloquial vulgarity are surely beneath the dignity of the occasion: Money, any how! money.' The God help you

of a gaping world;'-nor is it exactly the opportunity to introduce expressions patched up from Shakspeare. The comparison of Christianity to a Colossus is derogatory, and not in the least atoned for by the inflated phraseology that follows: Christianity, that mighty Colossus, which still rears its head amidst the ruins of empires, the revolutions of ages, and the torrent of human passions!' We shall conclude this catalogue of minor faults with an instance of turgid and puerile declamation.

Great God! what havoc does ambition make among thy works! I see it sitting at this moment in ghastly triumph, on a throne still wet

with the blood of its rightful possessor! I see it dragging hoary and trembling religion from a distant region, and forcing it to the guilt and baseness of consecrating this foul usurpation! I see, of surrounding nations, some chained to its footstool, and ground to the very dust in its pillage and rapacity; some compelled to wield their energies in support of its crimes; some still permitted to breathe by its insulting forbearance; and in the midst of all this I hear it mocking the understanding and feeling of mankind, by the specious accents of peace and philanthropy.'

It was our intention to point out these errors to our readers, by the contrast of passages in our older and purer writers; but recalled by our author's admonitory horror of all the musty folios the groaning shelves of polemic divinity ever bore,' we are unwilling to pursue him in death, with a discipline at which he so much revolted in life. It is however our opinion, that if he had condescended to the study of such models, his claim to notice as a writer would have rested on a more durable foundation; though, as a preacher, he might possibly have forfeited some of his attractions for an audience, who so much delight in the extravagance of eloquence. We know that by prescribing the mould in which the thought is to be cast, and the rule which is to measure the expression, we shall be accused of endeavouring to reinstate art on the throne of originality. But originality implies, not the passion for irregularity which ransacks creation in search of new modes, and is reduced for the effect it produces to fantastic eccentricity, but that force of genius which bends to its purpose the most stubborn materials, clothes in form and propriety appearances almost beyond the confines of nature, and produces a uniformity and an elegance surpassing even the conception of inferior capacity. We will illustrate our meaning by a reference to Bishop Horsley. In his exposition of the forty-fifth Psalm, he has ranged through every variety of conjectural criticism.-With truth for the basis of his general argument, he has laboured to give to every part a cooperating tendency; from a presumption he infers certainty, from a shadow of allusion he extorts probability, and builds his most refined speculation upon the slender variations of verbal meaning. Yet to the flights of an imagination so excursive, be our conviction what it may, we readily concede the praise of combining for our instruction the most seeming incongruities, without disgust to our taste, without offence to our judgment. We cannot be suspected (for this would be unjust) of wishing to draw an unqualified comparison between writers of such different attainments: our sole object has been to convince the admirers of Dean Kirwan (amongst whom we ourselves are not the least) how differently he would have appeared before the public with the same talents under the regula

tion of sober reason. We particularly hold out this consideration to such as being gifted with a ready flow of language and idea, rely upon these specious endowments. If their ambition, too impatient to wait for the slow maturity of expanding faculties, glows with renovated ardour at contemplating the career of Dr. Kirwan, if with loftier projects and livelier hopes they are eager for the same course, let them pause in this foretaste of their glory, and acknowledge from his example, that the impetuosity which overbears the hearer is not irresistible in the perusal, and that ultimate success must ever depend upon actual desert.

ART. XI.-Histoire de France, pendant le Dix-huitième Siècle, pur Charles Lacretelle. 6 vols. 8vo. Paris. London, De Boffe.

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T is evidently the object of the work before us, to trace the causes which produced the French Revolution, from the latter years of the reign of Lewis XIV. to the dreadful moment of its explosion; and it is curious to observe how the vices and blunders of succeeding governments contributed to raise that tremendous storm, which burst over the head of an unfortunate prince, whose chief defect was weakness of character. Such an investigation must have been at all times an object of interesting research, but it now affords a subject of triumph. The volcano is exhausted; and we may approach the crater in perfect security.

M. Lacretelle commences his history with a lively picture of the court of Versailles, when the vainest and most voluptuous of monarchs had abandoned those pleasures, which he could no longer enjoy, for the gloomy discussions of controversial theology. An antiquated prude, the widow of a buffoon, by consummate art, had supplanted, in the affections of a worn-out debauchee, the most lovely and accomplished of women, and had subjugated her admirer to such a degree, as to obtain a legal title to his bed. Possessing talents, which were calculated only for the superintendance of a convent, she aspired to govern a mighty empire, and exercised, her authority in caballing with the Jesuit Le Tellier for the ruin of the virtuous and enlightened Fenelon, the honour and ornament of religion.

Eager as the people must have been to be delivered from a sovereign odious to them by the weight of taxation, by a series of humiliating defeats,* and by a systematic disregard of the dictates of humanity

The Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene had instructed the world that France was vulnerable in spite of her fortifications; and even in the quarter where

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humanity in all his transactions,-yet they had little to hope from the character of the Dauphin, who had been so long accustomed to implicit obedience, as scarcely to retain any will of his own. The Duke of Burgundy, on the contrary, was deservedly dear to the nation, Bitter therefore was their disappointment, when that amiable youth was suddenly snatched away in the prime of life, by a pulmonary complaint, which popular prejudice attributed to poison, administered by the Duke of Orleans. The atrocity of the deed appeared to augment in a tenfold degree, when directed against a prince who had defended him from the horrible charge of having hastened the death of the Dauphin, when the king was inclined to believe the report, and Madame de Maintenon forebore to contradict it, because she beheld in the Duke of Orleans a dangerous rival to her favourite pupil the Duke of Maine. The affliction of Lewis at the danger which threatened the life of his grandson, and the fortitude displayed by that excellent young man, are well described.

Quel

'Le Dauphin vint ensuite se mêler aux seigneurs qui attendaient le roi. Nul n'osait le consoler, tous gardaient un morne silence, il se tenait debout au milieu d'eux. Son air avait quelque chose d'égaré; son visage était couvert de marques rougeâtres. Il répondait au salut douloureux de ceux dont il connoissait le plus d'attachment, par des regards qui percaient l'ame. Il entra au milieu d'eux au lever du roi. nouveau coup pour l'auguste vieillard, que la vue de son petit-fils qui portait sur tous les traits l'empreinte de la mort! Louis s'avance vers lui, il le serre dans ses bras avec tendresse; il l'observe, il détaille tous les funestes symptômes, qu'avaient déjà remarqués les courtisans.-Retirez vous, mon fils, lui disait-il, pendant qu'un médecin tâtait le pouls au prince, et regardait le roi avec des yeux effraiés, au nom de Dieu, retirez vous;. veillez sur vous-même ; j'attends tout du courage de mon fils. Que le ciel vous donne de la force; il en faut, mon fils, dans ces temps malheureux.'-i. 22.

A more impressive scene of domestic affliction can hardly be conceived than that which clouded the end of a reign so frequently eulogised by the historians of France as the proudest era of national prosperity, though agriculture languished for want of hands, and commerce stagnated for want of capital. It is impossible to deny that, at one period of his government, Lewis appeared surrounded with glory; but for those splendid achievements by which he acquired the appellation of GREAT, he was far more indebted to extraneous causes, over which he had little controul, than to mili

those boasted bulwarks were thickest. And had it not been for the intrigues of Harley and St. John, and the inconstancy of the queen, (we purposely employ the mildest language when speaking of a female and a sovereign,) there can be little doubt that another campaign would have enabled the allies to dictate peace in the splendid apartments of the Louvre.

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