717 Observations on Authors and Books. Read also Melmoth's Translations of the Letters of Cicero, and of his Treatises on Friendship and Old Age, and of Pliny's Letters. Vertot's Revolutions Romaines is a book in some degree of estimation. Bossuet's Essai sur l'Histoire Universelle. The moral works of Plutarch must not be forgotten, nor the Memorable Sayings of Socrates by Xenophon, translated| by Mr. Lennox. Among the ancient poets, must be read Pope's Homer, and Dryden's Virgil. If you wish to trouble yourself about the ancient drama, you may look into Theatre des Grees, par le Pere Brumoi, and Potter's Translation of Æschylus and Euripides; and read Colman's Translation of Terence. 718 claim a place in your library. Of English, and, indeed, of all other poets, Shakspeare is the first. Milton need not be praised. Spenser's Fairy Queen. Gray, before he composed poetry, always read some stanzas of Spenser. You should have Warton's Annotations on Spenser,2vols.12mo.;-Derrick's Edition of Dryden, 4 vols. 8vo.;-Gray's Poems, with Mason's Memoirs;-Swift, but rather for his prose than his poetry;-Thomson ;Goldsmith; the Histories which go by his name are said not to have proceeded from his pen ;-Churchill ;Mason's Caractacus and Elfrida;Beattie's Minstrel ;-(It must have been through oversight that Pope's works are omitted. Prior deserves to be read, if a new Edition were printed, with omissions. Cowper claims a place in every house.) French History:-Histoire de France, nuateurs ;-Abrege de l'Histoire de France, par Henault, 2 vols. 8vo. This masterly outline comprehends more than many voluminous histories. Mémoires de Philip de Comines. Mémoires de Sully: an exact account of a great, though absolute monarch, given faithfully by his favourite minister, who was greater than himself, and proof against all the temptations of power and fortune, has been presented to the world but once. Mémoires de Cardinal de Rets. Mé moires de Madame de Motteville, relate many curious particulars, of which the dignity of graver historians would have left no memorial. Siècle de Louis XIV. par Voltaire. Mémoires de Gourville. Lettres de Madame de Sévigné, though not historical, are full of anecdotes of the times. Lettres du Comte Bussy Rabutin. Lettres et Memoires de Madame de Maintenon. Souvenirs de Madame de Caylus. Mémoires de Noailles. Memoires de Madame de Stael; not historical, but very entertaining. (To these must be added the same Lady's work on the French Revolution, 3 vols. 8vo.) For English History, read Rapin, with Tindal's Continuation, in 5 vols. folio; and Hume, who, however, is not to be believed, when he would persuade you that the people of Eng-par l'Abbe de Velley et Les Contiland were wolves, and the princes of the house of Stuart, lambs: for just information there is no comparison between him and Rapin. Lord Clarendon is the first of English historians, and paints characters in colours that make them live and breathe. If he is partial to the cause of which he was the chief ornament, the support, and victim, who can blame him? he was a man liable to error, open to affection, but above corruption or wilful misrepresentation. Burnet's History of his Own Times is an authentic source of information for the period it embraces. Robertson's Histories, Melville's and Cary's Memoirs, possess much interest. Walpole's History of Noble Authors, and Anecdotes of Painting in England, are full of entertainment and information. The Biographia Britannica is worth having, to consult as a dictionary, if not to read through. Mémoires de Grammont may certainly be called English history: in them the gay court of Charles the Second will live for ever. Bacon's Essays in English, Algernon Sidney's Letters, and the Spectator, must not be neglected. For the sake of the style, Bolingbroke's Letters on the Study of History, and on the Spirit of Patriotism, and Idea of a Patriot King, are worth reading. Burke on the Sublime and Beautiful, and Junius's Letters, are valuable on the same account. Clarissa, as the first ef novels, and Grandison (the inferior,) Natural History, Moral Works, &c. in French:-Histoire Naturelle, par Buffon: Without this work, no library can be complete. (This is a mistake: the whole theory of the Earth, and his speculations on Man, occupying a large portion of the work, are erroneous; many parts are highly indecent; 719 Reflections on the Catholic Claims. 720 Reflections on the Catholic Claims. TO THE EDITOR OF THE IMPERIAL MAGAZINE. and on Birds and Fishes he is ex- | Reformation, Hooker's Ecclesiastical tremely deficient. Goldsmith's Natu- Polity, and Neal's History of the ral History will supply his place to Puritans, will afford valuable inforthe general reader; to which Pennant mation. On the subject of metaphymay be added. To the naturalist, sics, Bishop Brown's Nature and Turton's edition of the System of Na- Extent of Human Understanding deture, by Limé, must be recommended.) serves deep attention. Locke's Works.) Caractères par la Bruyère. Of all books of morality, this appears to be the best adapted to the uses of common life. Ouvres de J. J. Rousseau ;-Ouvres de Voltaire, principally his dramatic works, and histories. Lettres Persannes, par Montesquieu. Melanges et Eloges, par d'Alembert. All these works are to be read with judgment. (Contes Moraux, par Marmontel, are to be viewed as a picture of French manners before the Revolution.) Sermons par Bourdalone:-Sermons par Massillon:-Orasons Funèbres par Bossuet:-Histoire Philosophique et Politique des établissemens des Europeens dans les deaux Indes, par l'Abbe Raynal:--Memoires de Petrarch, par l'Abbe de Sade. French Poetry:-Ouvres de Gresset;-Fables par la Fontaine-The Works of Boileau, Racine, Moliere, and Destouches. (The most modern Collections of Voyages and Travels are worthy of being studied. The author has said so little of the important subject of religion, that it is better to omit it altogether, and to substitute the following recommendation in its place: The Bible should be read in as many languages as the student is master of; by a comparison of the rendering of different translators, much light is obtained. The principal versions are, the Septuagint vulgate; that of Castalio, which is rather an elegant paraphrase than a translation; and that of Junius and Tremellius: the folio edition of the latter contains a Latin translation of the Syriac Version of the New Testament, parallel with that of Beza from the Greek. Next is Paley's Natural Theology, and Evidences of Christianity; also Grotius on the Evidences of Christianity, and Doddridge's three Sermons on the same subject. Wesley's appeals-and, as practical works that supersede every other, the same author's Christian Library, now publishing in 30 volumes. There is no good history of the English Church; but Burnet's Abridgment of his own work on the Laudatur ab his, culpatur ab illis. As your correspondents generally seem to have taken up the Catholic question rather warmly against those to whom some great men wish to extend relief, I think it necessary to premise, that if I should happen to say something in favour of men who still adhere to the old national religion, it will be by accident only; as I do not profess to treat of any question of political and occasional import, but of human nature itself. Machiavel has formed the ablest theory of policy that ever was drawn up by any political writer, on the mixed character of every human being, as there never did exist a man who was completely bad or perfectly good. It is upon this principle, that all discord, and all parties, rest; national, local, and domestic. As we are well or ill inclined, we may with truth praise or censure every man living. Historical events are produced by human beings; and therefore, if the Tuscan be right, there must be something to praise and something to censure, in the conduct of every change that takes place in the course of our national revolutions. Society itself does invent, without any impulse of the legislature, some habitual way of discharging the bile that arises from this continual disputation, and the ferment of contending affections. Among country neighbours, it may be done by the abilities of two greyhounds or two horses. In a town, by the patronage of two pugilists; and in a district, by a brace of bull-dogs. We are not much governed by judgment in adopting the heat of party. We wait only to hear the opinion of somebody that we dislike, to be outrageously violent on the opposite side; and the idol of one party is often mistaken in supposing himself beloved, when in fact his flatterers 721 Reflections on the Catholic Claims. 722 are only the enemies of his opponents. the Church and the State, is not always When the legislature does interfere, an advantage to both of them; for the method acquires rather an_imagi- the State is governed by convenience nary importance from that reflection, and propriety, and the principles of than any refinement in the mode of religion seem to be less flexible than proceeding. The Italian republics, in the occasional compliances and bendthe middle ages, had an annual day ings of the civil. Those, who before fixed for the discharge of their sedi- our own revolution had taken the tious bile, by allowing every citizen oath of abjuration, imagined that it to beat his adversary with fists, from applied as much to a renunciation of sun-rise to sun-set, without being the authority of the Prince of Orange subject to any legal penalty. A simi- in their kingdoms, as to the sovereignty lar effect is produced by our method of the Pope. They were, therefore, of electing members of parliament. divided into Jurors and Nonjurors, If this succeeded more frequently, and many were deposed from their I think it would serve to allay the bishoprics and cures. It was then habitual bitterness and ill-temper that that the lofty names of Tillotson and infests society, and converts convivial Sherlock were stained with the foul meetings into clubs of hostility. When spots of duplicity and falsehood; and a member is returned for so long a they seized, under the protection of time, he has gained too great an ad- their new principles, the high prefervantage over his adversary, who has ments which Dutch Protestants beno hope of being soon able to annoy him stowed upon them. The Archbishop again, and he torments himself with Sancroft died in retirement, objecting gloominess as well as envy. The dig- to the qualified doctrines of his suc nity of proceeding, however, is not cessor Tillotson; while Johnson, who greater upon these occasions than in had been the confessor and approver the bull-baitings and matches of foot- of Lord Russell, upbraided the new ball. Upon this principle, of praise metropolitans with having changed always generating abuse, though both the very essence of his religious piin may be well founded, it is not only ciple, to comply with the prejudice; extremely difficult to form a due es- of a parricide from Amsterdam. timate of the leading characters who Bishop of Salisbury, a creature of the live in our time, but it is perhaps im-revolution, of which he became the possible to appreciate justly the merits of any eminent figure in our history. We are in the habit now, of speaking with respect of all those men, who brought about the British revolution; yet if we look a little more narrowly into the history of those times, we shall find imputations to which a felon would not willingly be truly liable. It was boldly stated at that time by one party, that the crown is the gift of the people, and that the legal conveyance is by a bill of the two houses of parliament. By the other, that William and Mary had conspired, for the paltry interest of advancing one step in dignity, against the life and peace of their father. Foreign authors do generally agree in adopting the latter opinion, and think this king and queen not much more honest than Reoan and the Bastard of Gloucester. But distinctions of this sort are only brought forward, when revolutions are in their beginning, for they very soon "trust to power," and violence dictates to reason. The alliance, as it is called, between The historian, wrote an "Essay on the Memory of the late Queen," in which he does not venture to discuss the point of filial obedience. He cannot possibly find out that her persecution of her father might be the cause that her days were not long in the land. Perhaps it was not. Religion must be under the control of the State, but I think it both dangerous and immoral to mingle them without necessity. It is the duty of every man to obey the laws of the country in which he was born, and of the society to which he belongs, and this principle is inculcated in all the detached precepts of the Bible; yet the Bible has some examples that cannot escape the most superficial reader, which might authorize injustice. The army of Moses under Joshua treated the nations of Palestine as the Spaniards treated the Americans; yet the Spaniards were cruel and unjust. And the clergy at present are wrong in declaiming so violently against the principle of reform on sacred authority, if one missionary from Heaven 723 Reflections on the Catholic Claims. drowned his king with his whole army in the Red sea; and the very Being who sent him came afterwards in human form, to subvert all the religions in the world. I know that this was right; but exhortations from the pulpit should be given with more caution, and managed with more address. Mr. Burke passes over all the crimes of our own revolution, by considering the value of the thing we gained in exchange. But perhaps he thoughtlessly condemned the French revolution, when he could not possibly tell what they were to have in exchange. I mean only on his own principle, for it is my maxim that sins should never be voluntarily committed because good may possibly follow. There are some dark traits in the revolution of England. For the list of the voters in the house of Lords, on the question of giving to William the crown of England, was published under the title of the Black List, with a view of exciting the populace to murder all the dissentients; and it was proposed to clothe in bear-skins many of the nonjuring clergy, and amongst them the great Mr. Kettlewell, to amuse the people with putting them to death. But enough of this: "Spartam nactus es hanc orna." I take the government as I find it ; and as I am without influence even over the opinion of a single infant, I can only wish those who administer this government to make the people as happy and as virtuous as they can. The history of the Stuart dynasty in this kingdom might form a most interesting and instructive volume; but it will never be written with impartiality and truth, as long as our present religious bickerings shall endure. The accession of James I. took place under circumstances the most unfavourable to the tranquillity of the country that could well be imagined. He was received by that Cabinet and Parliament who had applauded the assassination of his mother, and who could never pardon him for the insults which they themselves had offered to his family. Cecil had two main objects to accomplish; to reduce the power of the crown for his own safety, and at the same time to persuade the king that he took the greatest personal interest in his happiness and security. For the first object, he 724 did (as I find in an interesting book not just now upon my table) employ his spies and agents to promote a conspiracy among the villains of the country, always known to the secretary of the home-department, who were to blow his majesty and his parliament into the air. The letter to Lord Mounteagle was written by Cecil himself, in skilful imitation of political oracular wisdom, which was to amuse the king with a display of his own sagacity. The rest of the history of the gunpowder plot is sufficiently known, except that all the ammunition was prepared by Cecil himself. This project was, too, intended to convince the king that the Roman Catholics ought not to be cherished by him. To lessen the power of the king, he contrived to dilapidate and alienate the crown lands; in which monstrous exhibition of prodigality, he usurped to his own share, as a reward for his zeal in the gunpowder plot, the magnificent seat of Hatfield, now in the possession of Lord Salisbury. The king, however, was not totally deceived, for he always spoke of the fifth of November by the name of Cecil's holiday; and some spirited remonstrances of Sir Walter Raleigh on the subject of the crown lands, and Hatfield in particular, ended fatally for this gallant and honourable adventurer. The time and manner of his execution, 15 years after sentence was pronounced, with the general tenor of Sir Walter's memoirs, makes this conclusion probable. The excessive animosity of the nation against the Catholics, from whose conspiracy the Lords still pray to be delivered, (though the Chancellor thinks that they are praying to be saved from the hostility of one Titus Oates) being thus imbittered by a new and dreadful plot, became a standard drain of seditious humours for the people. Whenever the nation was discontented, a crusade against the Catholics was set on foot, which resembled the hunting parties that, Mr. Bruce tells us, are annually conducted by the Ethiopian princes, into the country of the Lhang-allahs. The London fire was, perhaps, kindled for the same purpose; and ever since, Englishmen have been obliged to swear a sort of hatred to the Catholics, about as humane as that which Jean de Brie swore to tyrants. I wish it were likewise as rational. I should hardly have mentioned the pardonable mistake of the Chancellor in what the Lords pray for, if it had not been a proof of the prejudice with which the question is considered, and that the dislike of these our fellow-citizens is founded upon any or no reason. The best speech that has been made in the present year on the subject, was, in my opinion, that of the Duke of Sussex; and the worst, that of the Chancellor. The most important consideration has, however, been omitted by all parties; and that is, the effect that our disputes with the Catholics has had, and still continue to have, on religion itself. It is not necessary for a stranger to be previously indisposed towards Christianity, to feel disgust against a religion productive of so much uncharitable acrimony. If the Catholics are right, we are guilty of gross blasphemy, and most unneighbourly malicious conduct towards them. If they are wrong to the degree that we represent them, our instructors in Christianity taught us nothing but paganism and idolatry. Such a crime in the parent, may render the offspring suspicious, and give a final victory to infidelity. In suppressing their writings, we do not hinder the progress of their opinions. At all events, the subject of the sacrament was the most unfortunate that could be selected for the aliment of contention. In receiving this at the altar, we pray so to eat the flesh of Jesus Christ, and drink his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body. It is a subject that surpasses human reason, and ought to be left open; but if we will rush in where angels fear to tread, by our example infidels may justly reject what they do not understand, and throw the highest mysteries of our faith wholly out of the creed. If the scripture asserts the real presence after consecration of the elements of the sacrament, it is certainly true, that if we reject any part of a divine revelation, we falsify the whole. The union of God and Man, the Trinity, the Birth, the Resurrection, are all beyond the powers and conceptions of our philosophy. There is one part of the question with which the Government may and ought to interfere, and that is, the ac knowledgment of jurisdiction in a foreign potentate. But this has been too satisfactorily explained by the Catholics, to excite any but a fictitious jealousy. We can have now no more apprehension of the papal power, than of the cruelties of Tiberius. His very existence depends on his personal merit; and the present Pope enjoys all his influence, because he has displayed more than human virtue, in stripes, in imprisonment, in revilings, &c. It is easy enough to perceive, that I am an enemy to continuing longer the persecution against our fellowcreatures; and I think, that if all the ministers had zealously and sincerely ratified the full rights of our Roman Catholic brethren, they would have made a worthy epilogue to their termination of the continental war. What indeed is the benefit of our victories, if we still tremble at the fluttering of a leaf? if the recovery of Job from his sickness may frighten us in our strong holds, and freeze up the blood of exultation in the heart in the most overbearing moments of triumphant pride! ESSAY III.-ON CALORIC. (Continued from col. 535.) ANOTHER effect of Caloric is vaporization. When bodies are reduced to a state of vapour, their particles are separated to a greater distance from each other, than when in a state of fluidity. Some substances require great degrees of heat before they assume this form, whilst others become vaporized at very low temperatures. Thus, for example, Ether is converted into vapour at 104o of Fahrenheit; Alcohol at 182°; Water at 212°; whilst Mercury requires at least a temperature of 650°. It must be observed, however, that at the medium temperature of the atmosphere, an evaporation to a greater or less extent occurs in all fluid bodies. This is called spontaneous evaporation, and may be regarded as an aërial solution of different fluids. Vaporization is to be understood as referring to that process, by means of which a body is converted into an elastic vapour by caloric alone. Vapours may be again condensed by the abstraction of caloric. |