properly qualified for the task he has undertaken. Of all the branches of the literary art, there is not perhaps any one more difficult, nor, at the fame time, one that appears fo ealy, as that of penning aphorifms and detach'd precepts, for the general conduct of life. It should be confidered, the writer takes upon him, in fact, the character of an oracle, who, without giving any formal reason for what he afferts, ought, nevertheless, fo to expreís himself, as to ftrike the reader with immediate conviction of the truth of the maxims laid down. To be able to do this, an author should take care to add to a natural fund of ftrong fenfe, a competent knowledge of mankind, and the several fubjects treated of, as well as to acquire a nice difcernment in the force of words, and a facility of expreflion, equal to the most delicate and difficult occafions.

In our opinion, the author of this work is frequently wanting, as well in his acquaintance with the fubject, as in his manner of expreffion; infomuch that his maxims are fometimes repugnant to truth and common fenfe, as they are, at others, equivocal, or unintelligible.

63

Pleasure, fays our preceptor, will not counterbalance an equal quantity of pain, mankind being much more fentible of the lat; therefore, where the chance is equal, both must be avoided.'

But how came this writer to know, that pleasure will not counterbalance an equal quantity of pain? Are not pain and pleafure, in the abstract, terms whofe meaning is diametrically oppofite and do not the degrees of both depend on the fenfibility of mankind, and confequently reciprocally counterbalance each other?

Again he fays, God may have created man with an entire freewill, unlimited even by his prefcience: fuch creation adds to his power, rather than diminishes it, by making his omnipotence greater than his prefcience.' But fhould we not, in fuppofing God's omnipotence greater than his prefcience, fuppofe God capable of conftituting caufes of whole effects he must be ignorant? Or, in other words, fhould we not fuppofe him capable of acting without knowing what he is about? At best, is it doing any honour to God, to fuppofe his knowledge lefs than his power?

It is as ridiculous, favs our author, a little equivocally, to marry a woman, because the pleates at firit view, as it is to buy a houfe in the country merely for the fine profpect: lie in the house three days firft, and then fee what effect the profpect hath. Women may be guess'd at fome fuch way.' Quere, how? Doth our author mean, by lying with them three nights, or by looking at them three days before marriage?

We do not mean, however, to condemn this work on the whole; as there may be found in it (and in a collection of this nature it would be strange if there fhould not) a number of very judicious, fenfible, and pertinent reflections.

The

Art. 13. The polite Road to an Estate: or, fornication one great fource of wealth and pleasure. 8vo. 1s. Coote.

A very dull, infipid difcourfe, compofed of a parcel of commonplace obfervations, put together without fpirit, humour, or ingenuity.

Art. 14. Two Orations, in Praife of Athenians flain in Battle. From the Greek. With reflections. 8vo. 1s. Dodfley.

The first of thefe Orations is that of Pericles, taken from the tranflation of Thucydides, by Dr. Smith, Dean of Chefter; the fecond, that of Plato, tranflated by the late Gilbert Weft, LL. D. Prefixed to them are fome general reflections sketched out, we are told, for the inftruction and confolation of a noble youth of great hopes, who, in the courfe of the laft year, became nearly interefted in the fubject, by the united calls of dutiful and friendly affection.

Art. 15. The genuine History of Ambrofe Guys, and the remarkable trial carried on for a long feries of years, by his heirs against the Jefuits, for his effects, amounting to eight millions of French livres: for the payment whereof, purfuant to a late fentence, all the convents of that order in France are now fequestered. Tran flated from an authentick Copy, fent from Paris to one of the foreign minifters refiding in London. 8vo. 1 s. 6d. Coote.

It had been ftrange, if our pamphlet-manufacturers had not exerted themselves on fo fingular an occafion as this affair of Ambrofe Guys. The reader will find, however, very little farther information, in this history, than he may have lately met with in the public news-papers. With refpect to the authenticity of the copy, it may, indeed, be greatly doubted, whether it was ever at Faris. At least, the latest advices received from thence concerning this affair, affure us the fentence of confifcation, fo much talk'd of, was fictitious; and that the Jefuits are as yet entirely free from any fequeftration on this account.

By his vulgarifms, the hiftorian himself appears to be a bungler: he tells us of the Jefuits being cock-a-hop, on obtaining an arret in their favour; and of their finging mall, fince their late disgrace at Lifbon. Need the reader any farther indication, in what clais to rank fuch a writer?

Art. 16. The History of the Marquis of Creffy. Tranflated from the French. 12mo. 3s. Pottinger.

This little novel ends too tragically to pleafe fuch who read only for entertainment; and as for thofe who perufe books of this kind for the fake of improvement only, if they fhould happen to be difappointed, it is no more than what they mult often expect, who flatter themselves with the hopes of reaping inftruction in the barren fields of modern romance.

Art. 17. Venus unmask'd: or, an inquiry into the nature and origin of the paffion of Love. Interfperfed with curious and enter◄ taining accounts of feveral modern amours. 12mo. 2 Vols.

3s. 6d. fewed. Thrush.

Mr. Voltaire, who knows juft fo much of the fciences as to be able to turn them into ridicule, having taken upon him to enliven his little romances, by laughing at the hypothefes of philofophers; it is no wonder inferior witlings fhould attempt to follow fuch an example: nor, indeed, is it more to be wondered at, that they should fall into the contempt due to wretched imitators.

We have, with much patience, perused our author's fyftem of fympathy, by which he fays, Love, or that unfurmountable inclination the fexes have for each other,' may be phyfically accounted for. All that ingenuity and fpirit, however, is wanting, which fhould recommend a jeu d'efprit of this nature: and as to the modern amours, which we are told are fo curious and entertaining; to fay the truth, we found nothing entertaining or curious throughout the whole work. There are a few fmutty tales, indeed, brought in, as inftances of the force of our author's fympathetic matter, a difcovery for which he certainly deferves to hold a very diftinguished rank among the many literary pimps of the prefent age.

Art. 18. The Facts and Accufations fet forth in a late pamphlet *, intitled, The Conduct and Treatment of John Crookbanks, Efq; proved to be falfe and groundless. By Captain Robert Erfkine. 8vo. 6d. Bladon.

The propriety of adhering to the old maxim, Audi alteram partem, is here fully verified. When Captain Crookfhanks told his ftory, reafon and truth feemed to fupport the reprefentation: now his opponent replies, the vane of evidence has veer'd about; and both fact and justice feem to have declared for Captain Erfkine.-But we must wait for a rejoinder.

See Review for January last, p. 87.

Art. 19. An impartial Account of Lieut. Col. Bradstreet's Expedition to Fort Frontenac. By a Volunteer on the Expedition. 8vo. Is. Wilcox.

A fet of gentlemen, as the author expreffes it, envious of the rifing fame of Col. Bradstreet, having been at a great deal of pains to detract from the merits of Mr. Bradstreet's conqueft, our volunteer has been thence induced to fet forth the prefent narrative; to which he has fubjoined fome reflexions on the prudent conduct of that enterprize, and a difplay of the advantages refulting from its fuccefs. He is of opinion, that if the Colonel had been properly feconded, the taking of Fort Frontenac might have been attended with the most important confequences; and that the reduction of Niagara would have

naturally

A

naturally followed: but somebody *, it feems, was too inattentive to this great object; and fo the opportunity was loft.

*We fuppofe he means G-1 A-e; who, according to our author, reluctantly aflented to Colonel Bradstreet's scheme.

Art. 20. An Enquiry into the State of Operas in England. 8vo.` 6d. Cooper.

Briefly fhews, that the prefent decline of the Opera, is owing to the mifmanagement of the houfe, and want of economy. The author thinks it might be restored, if again put under the direction of the nobility; and if fome particular regulations, which he points out, were made, with regard to unneceflary expences.

Art. 21. Obfervations on the Importance and Ufe of the Theatres ; their prefent regulation, and poffible improvement. 8vo. 1 s. Cooper.

Though we cannot compliment the author on what appears to have been his principal motive for this publication, (it being evident, from feveral paffages in his pamphlet, that he wrote it under the influence of fome perfonal pique against one of the managers) yet impartiality will oblige us to obferve, that he has made fome just remarks on certain defects and indecorums in the prefent management of the British theatre; to remove which, he propofes that the government fhould take the management into its own hands: by this means too he thinks, that above 20,000l. per ann. might be applied, out of the ftage-profits, to ferve the exigencies of the ftate.

Art. 22. An Abridgement of Ainsworth's Dictionary of the Latin Tongue. [From the Folio Edition.] In which certain articles, in the courfe of that excellent book, of lefs importance to youth, are retrenched, without injuring the body of the work, or omiting any thing contained in the larger editions material to thofe, for whofe fervice this is principally intended. In this epitome, the various fenfes, and idiomatical acceptations of each word, together with the antient and modern names of the feveral towns, rivers, &c. mentioned in the claffical authours, are carefully preferved, and the Latin authorities for each sense of a word, diligently retained: and, in order to render it ftill more useful, care has been taken to compare the English part with Mr. Johnson's celebrated Dictionary of the English Language, and to make fuch other amendments in it as feemed neceffary. By Mr. Thomas. In two volumes. 8vo. 15s. Hitch, &c.

Having, on occafion of fo general and neceffary a work, given Mr. Thomas's eftimate of his own abridgment, in the words of his titlepage, [which, in other inftances, we have taken the liberty of abridging, when too prolix] we find, on no very fuperficial confideration of the matter, that his allegations concerning it are generally true;

Hh3

and

and that his abridgment is certainly much more compleat (as indeed it ought to be, both from its fize and price) than a former abridg. ment under the name of the late Mr. William Yonge, which we have mentioned, Review, vol. XVI. p. 282.

One means, whence Mr. Thomas has, in fome degree, effected this abridgment, is by omitting the references to the different books and pages of the authors, cited by him, after Mr. Ainfworth, in authority of the words, and of the different fenfes in which many of them are used and accepted: and here and there, though rarely, the number of examples is leffened. But the paffages themselves, or the moft material part of them, together with the author's names, are retained pretty generally, though not without a few exceptions of lefs importance; one inftance of which occurs under the participle paslandus, afcribed to Columella, to whom Mr. Thomas indeed refers it, but omitting the little fentence which Ainfworth gives of it-fm pabuland funt olee-Both pabulandus and pabulans are omitted in Yonge's, which feem left to be inferred from the verb: and indeed that editor had need of much more confiderable omiffions, to be able to Contract Ainsworth's learned and excellent work into the small compafs he has, and within which it was impoffible not to be often and materially defective, notwithstanding the extreme fma!lnefs of the type from which it is printed, and which is fitted only to young and very good eyes.

The prefent work is printed from a larger and very fair type, and is certainly, upon the whole, well done, if it fhall prove fuficiently abridged, to come at the requifite price of a dictionary for schoolboys; fince we apprehend it cannot be fold for twice the ufual purchase of Cole's dictionary. Neither can the price of it be leffened, by the fize of the page rendering it too uncouth to be bound in a single

volume.

As our prefent author folely profeffes an abridgment of Ainsworth's Folio, we have no right to expect he thould add any word, or any accep ation, circumstance, or accident of a word, which may have escaped that very learned and indefatigable lexicographer. But that there are a few fuch excapes, which feems inevitable to the accuracy of any one man (and may be fo to that of many) is certain; an odd initance of which is faid to have occurred in the dictionary publifhed by the French academy, in which the very word de demy was omitted. In the prefent work, as in the folio of Ainsworth, Angululus, a diminutive of An ulus, formed very analogically, and ufed very properly by Lucretius, is wholly omitted Obferv. tio is alfo omitted in Ainfworth, through all his editions and abridgments, though the learned Dr. Littleton cites it at leaft twice from Tully, befides Pliny, Quintilian, and Valerius Maximus. Bito, a noun-fubftantive, ufed by Martial to fig nify a tipler, or Good fellow, is omitted by them all; but should certainly have been infested, whatever mark a lexicographer might chufe to fet upon it. Quinam, omitted by all, occurs in no bad edition of Tully, Tuf. Dif. 1. 1. § 47. * which we have feen; but per

Sed quinam eft ifte epilogus?

haps