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Art. 49. A fort Plea in Favour of Infant Baptism; and of administering it by Sprinkling. By Samuel Bottomley, of Scarborough. 8vo. 6d. Leeds, printed. 1781.

The fubject of this pamphlet has fo often fallen under our review in different forms, that it is unneceflary for us now to add to our former remarks. We fhall therefore only obferve that this treatise appears to proceed from an honeft mind, and to be written with can

dour and attention.

Art. 50. Sea Sermons: or a Series of Difcourfes for the Ufe of the Royal Navy. By the Rev. James Ramfay. 8vo. 4 s. bound. Rivington.

1781.

It would contribute not a little towards increafing the usefulness of pulpit-difcourfes, if preachers would not content themfelves with general harangues on virtue and vice, and general views of the principles and obligations of religion, but would adapt their difcourfes to the prevailing character of the times, and the particular circumftances of their hearers. Such a plan of preaching would furnish them with an endlefs variety of interefting matter, and give an air of originality to their difcourfes, never to be obtained in the way of common-place declamation. It would at the fame time bring home the precepts of morality to every man's bofom, and render preaching, much more than it is at prefent, the means of promoting public order and happiness.

We obferve with pleafure this plan of preaching attempted, and executed with great fuccefs, in thefe Difcourfes. They were drawn. up for the ufe of His Majefty's fhip Prince of Wales, and are particularly adapted to the circumftances and characters of feamen.

The fubjects treated of are,-Virtue the Foundation of Succefs.The Duty of exerting ourselves in the Caufe of our Country,-The Sinfulness of Mutiny, The Sinfulness of Desertion.-On Drunkennef:,-On common Swearing,- View of Man's Duty, in Six Difcourses.

If fome of thefe Difcourfes were printed in a cheap form, and circulated at the public expence among our feamen, poffibly fome good effect might be produced.

FAST-DAY SERMON S.

1. Preached at the Parish Churches of Belaugh, and Scottow, in Norfolk. By the Rev. Lancaster Adkin, M. A. 8vo. 6 d. Baldwin.

The Author affects the pathetic; but his declamation is too general and too diffufe to excite any emotions of the tender kind and as for inftruction, this difcourfe gives us juft that fpecies of it which any school-boy might have given in a theme upon a falt-day. It is trite, jejune, and fuperficial.

II. What mean you by this Service? A Quellion propofed and dif cuffed in a Sermon preached on the late Faft. By John Martin. 8vo. 6d. Buckland.

Treats of the nature and objects of a faft, with ferioufnefs, candour, and plainneís. The deftruction of our national enemies (fays this good man), is I fear the ardent with of fome. I cannot,

however,

however, indulge a defire like this. I with their converfion, not their deftruction. I defire it both in a civil and in a moral fenfe. I ardently with that rebellion, both to God and man, might cease; and that envy and ambition, pride and oppression might at once expire! Till then may our enemies abroad or at home be unable to injure us, and we unwilling to injure them. Continuing to be what they are, may they be fubdued, but not destroyed.' We love the principle which excites fuch generous wishes. But the politician will ask the preacher,-What must be the alternative, if enemies cannot be subdued without being defroyed? Can conqueft at all times be feparated from flaughter?-The humane heart is staggered by the queftion. Christianity filently withdraws from the groundless contention, and leaves the dispute to be decided by other judges.

CORRESPONDENCE.

A very flight attention to the nature and limits of our plan might have convinced the Author of "Principles of Law and Government," of the impoffibility of our inferting his Obfervations upon our Criticifm of that work. We are more difpofed to fmile at the modefty of His requifition in demanding the infertion of a letter of twenty pages quarto, than to be angry at the peremptory tone in which the demand is made. This gentleman feems to have fo lofty an opinion of his own powers and performances, that we doubt not he will find other channels of communicating his thoughts to the Public. The prefs is open to him, but we must beg leave to decline the honour of being his publishers,

We are obliged to our Correfpondent S S. for his hint; and from it take this opportunity of apprizing our Readers of a circum. ftance proper to be noted, viz. That the old words in Rowley's Poems are to be found (at least for the greater part) in the common octavo edition of Bailey's Dictionary, and not in the folio, published either by him or Scott; for we are informed, that many persons who have the latter (and naturally fuppofing that it contained all that was in the former) have searched for those words in vain in that edition, and have been led to imagine, that the Reviewer was not fo accurate in his authority as he ought to have been.

ERRATA in the Review for APRIL.

P. 286. (In the account of Tatham's Sermons) for "and the Writers of them have been capable," read "to have been capable," &c. 292. 1. 1. (Art. Belle's Stratagem) for "the characters are not all difcriminated," r. not ill difcriminated."

--

300. In the title of Art. 14, for "war of ports," r." posts. 320. In the Note concerning our late Correfpondence relative to the rot in fheep, 1. 7. and 8. r. thus, "From our general rule of admitting nothing that has not relation, either immediately or "remotely, to literature, we deviated in the first instance, &c.'

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ERRATA in laft Month's Review.

P. 33. par. 2. 1. 1. for caft, r. cafts.
355. Note for Perdinand, t, Ferdinand.
361. L 10. take away the comma after fides.

APPENDIX

TO THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

VOLUME the SIXTY-SIXTH.

FOREIGN LITERATURE.

ART. I.

Effai fur la Phyfiognomie destiné à faire connoitre Homme et à le faire aimer, i. e. An Effay on Physiognomy (or the Art of Reading Faces) defined to promote the Knowledge and Love of Man. By JOHN GASPARD LAVATER, Citizen of Zurich, and Paftor of that City. Printed at the Hague. In large 4to. First Part, 290 Pages, illuftrated by a great Number of curious Engravings.

W

"E formerly made mention of the very ingenious, fingular, and entertaining German work, of which this now before us is a tranflation, or rather a new modification. The German effay appeared to us fuch a ftrange mixture of genius and enthusiasm, fense and jargon, tafte and oddity, that we scarcely knew what to make of it. Diffident of our own taste and fagacity, as well as of our knowledge of the language in which it was written, we did not prefume to enter largely into an acWe were alfo afraid to do count of its very fingular contents. or fay any thing incompatible with the high and fincere refpect we have for the piety, virtue, and great talents of the worthy and ingenious author, who is efteemed by the wife, half-deified by the myftical, though beheld with a farcaftical leer by a number of obfervers, who are not initiated into the fecrets of Facereading, and only stand profanely peeping at the outer-gate of the fanctuary, to the great offence of feveral good men, and elect ladies.

M. LAVATER, informed of the expediency of rendering his work legible by thofe who do not understand the German language, and alfo of making fome changes that might render it more intelligible to those who do, undertook to clothe his ideas APP. Vol. LXVI.

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in a French garment, which has been trimmed and embellished by the elegant hand of one or more affociates in this commendable undertaking. This emboldens us to approach once more to the work, and to make it farther known to the English reader than it has hitherto been. The tranflator or tranflators seem to have done their business with spirit, tafte, and intelligence. Their ftile is both elegant and expreffive.

This FIRST PART confifts of two prefaces, an introduction, and twenty fragments. Those who think they have composed a complete and regular fyftem of any science, divide it ufually into books and chapters; but as our author, however adventurous in point of genius, is modeft enough to look upon the science of phyfiognomy as far from being completed, and judges a perfect treatife upon the fubject to be neither the work of one man, nor one academy, nor even of a whole century, he only pretends to give here fome members of a beautiful body, which may be one day affembled, and form a WHOLE; and therefore he calls his chapters Fragments. It is thus that the meteorologifts (if we may be allowed the comparison) give us from time to time scraps and fractions of the features of the atmosphere, in the pleafing expectation that they will one day bring us to a complete acquaintance with the whole face, and enable us to predict and prepare for its changes Who fhall fee the end?

The Introduction exhibits fome poetical effufions concerning the dignity of human nature, which may be read with utility as an antidote against Swift's villanous defcription of the Yaboos. We have here a fublime account of the original state of man, when his mind was a pure image of the Deity; and his body, as yet uncorrupted, was the beautiful mirrour and reprefentative of his mind. This is followed by the firft Fragment, in which M. LAVATER INforms us of the occafion that led him to researches of this nature. He had arrived at the age of five and twenty, before he had either read or thought upon the fubject; he had often, indeed, heen feized with an emotion, and even farted at the firft fight of certain faces; which agitation continued for fome time after the departure of the perfon, without his knowing the cause, or even thinking of the face that had produced it. Thefe fudden impreffions led him fometimes to form judgments; but, fays he, my decifions were laughed at. I blushed at them myself, and became more prudent.' He was, however, very fond of drawing, and he delineated frequently fome of the lines that he found the most ftriking in the countenances of his friends, which he ftudied with attention. This occupation opened to him interefting views of human organization, and its representative powers or characters. But the epocha of his application to phyfiognomical refearches, was a strong impreffion he received from the countenance of a foldier, who was paffing with his

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troop before a window, where M. LAVATER was ftanding with M. Zimmerman, the King's phyfician at Hanover. His re marks upon the military phiz ftruck the ingenious and fentimental phyfician, who encouraged him to carry on his researches, and propofed to him feveral questions about faces and characters. I answered feveral of them, fays M. Lavater, but my answers were for the most part miferable, as they did not proceed from a fudden impulfion, a kind of infpiration.' In fhort, it appears, that even after correfponding on the fubje&t for fome time with M. Zimmerman, and drawing imaginary faces in abundance, to which he annexed his remarks, he laid afide this branch of ftudy for several years: I laughed, fays he, at my firft effays and obfervations, and I neither read nor wrote any more on the ' matter.' Nevertheless M. Zimmerman brought the truant back to his work; and then, on he went at a great rate. He has, however, got no farther than a colleЯtion of obfervations and conjectures, which are often entertaining, frequently inftructive, but fometimes obfcure and unfatisfactory.-Though he is perfuaded that the fcience of phyfiognomy is founded on folid principles, yet he does not pretend to have brought this science to perfection. He acknowledges that there are faces, of which he can form no judgment; and he is willing to let his decifions pafs for reveries and conjectures: this is modeft, but we can scarcely believe he thinks them fuch. When he refumed the study, he did not purfue it in books, but in nature; he could not bear the jargon of the greatest part of writers on that subject, who are little more than the echoes of Ariftotle. • I accustomed myself, fays he, to contemplate the beautiful, the grand, the noble, and the perfect in nature, and in the images that represent her, to render them familiar to my eye, and to give a new degree of energy to the impreffion they made upon me. Obftacles arofe every day, but the means of furmounting them were proportionably multiplied. I con<tinually fell into mistakes; but I acquired daily more light and firmness in the line I was purfuing. I was praifed, blamed, rallied, and extolled, and I could not help laughing, as I knew very well, that all this was undeferved. But I indulged myfelf daily more and more in the pleafing thought that my work would be productive of utility and entertainment, and this refreshes and comforts me under the burthen I have laid on my fhoulders. And now, in the very moment I am writing, I have made fuch progrefs, that if there are feveral faces or phylognomies on which I can pronounce no judgment at all, there are, on the other hand, a great number of lines and features on which I can pats judgment, with a conviction of truth and evidence, equal to that which perLia • fuades

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