SCENE VI. JULIUS. CECILIA. Julius, I attend your commands. (He offers her a chair; they sit down.) Cecilia. (somewhat perplexed.) Pardon my intrusion; I have affairs to communicate to you, which require that you should forget my sex, and which commonly are communicated only by a friend to a friend. Julius. You have excited my attention to the highest degree. Cecilia. You know how tenderly I love Blanca, and how partial she is to myself.-We were born on the same day; and fate seems to have destined us for each other. We were yet children, when we vowed eternal fidelity to each other.You owe me much,—our mutual friendship matured Blanca's heart for the unspeakable love which she entertains for you. I fostered and cherished that love from the moment when Blanca said to me, "the Prince is charming," to the time when she exclaimed, "Ah, Julius is the model of perfection!" Julius. (starting up.) Her love has raised me to the Gods, -By heaven, I should not prize her encomiums half so high, if they were founded on truth. Cecilia. (with emotion.) Let us turn the conversation from Blanca: I do not come hither to weep. I have only to add, that I consider your love as a sacred flame, that would consume any one that dared profane it. Julius. I do not comprehend you. Cecilia. Have patience, and let me intrust you with the first secret which my heart ever contained. I have renounced love for ever. I am free born, and am determined to die free. I cannot bear the idea of becoming the slave of any man. The word marriage, sounds to me like the clashing of chains. Julius. Cecilia, I admire your way of thinking. Cecilia. Would your flattery remind me of my situation? This would really not be an act of complaisance; for I hate my sex, though I do not wish to be a man. Julius. I know not what I am to think;-you have entangled me in a labyrinth. Cecilia. (rising.) Well then, I will conduct you out of it: your father has resolved that I shall be your wife. (Exit abruptly.) SCENE SCENE VII. I might have expected this long ago. Her charms are great, and her accomplishments surprising; but I would, nevertheless, not exchange the sentiments with which she has inspired me, for what I feel for the lowest of my friends; notwithstanding consanguinity, and an uninterrupted intercourse, placed her at all times so near me, that any, one might have expected that my inclination would bend towards her as soon as awakened.-Love, thou art an unfathomable mystery.-Does love scorn every thing that does not owe existence to himself? should it only be the opportunity of conceiving an attachment?-or do the primary causes of love belong to that class of things of which we have no knowledge, and which vexation at our ignorance induces us to call accident?-Fool that I am! Did she not herself point out to me the cause of my indifference? She is no woman; therefore do I not love her; nor is she a man, and consequently not fit to be my friend. But why do I puzzle myself to find the reason why I cannot love Cecilia? Did I ever inquire why I loved Blanca ?—Her name has escaped me! and now would it be in vain för me to divert myself by the help of subtle investigations. Every thing in heaven and on earth leads me to thee! Even when I do not think of thee, yet the manner in which I think of other objects, shews clearly how powerfully thou swayest in my heart. P. W. (To be continued in our next.) 325, CRITICAL CRITICAL RETROSPECT OF NEW PUBLICATIONS IN GERMANY AND THE NORTH. EDUCATION. ART. I. Pädagogische Haustafel, &c. &c.-Necessary Rules of Conduct, for Parents who wish to Educate their Children properly: By 1. H. C. RUNGE. Hamburg, printed for Hoffmann, 1800, pp. 151. 8vo. PARENTS of a refined understanding and liberal senti ments, will peruse this book with great benefit, as it contains the most essential principles of a rational mode of education, and is written in a plain and perspicuous stile, They will clearly perceive that the author has paid due attention to the importance of his subject, and is intimately acquainted with the principles inculcated by the best modern writers on education. ART. II. Grundsätze einer vernünftigen Kinderpflege in den ersten lebens jahren, &c.-Principles of a Rational Education of Children in the first Years of their Life, &c. By Dr. F. L. SEGNITZ, Löbau, for Schlenker, 1800, pp. 47. 8vo. AN abridgment of Prof. Hufeland's excellent work intitled: Guter Rath an Mütter, &c. which was published at Berlin in 1799. The principal merit of this useful little work, consists in its cheapness, whereby parents of all classes are enabled to purchase it. The eleventh section is by Dr. Segnitz, and contains many additional cautions of the first importance, not to be found in Hufeland's work. It reflects great honor on the worthy author, that he compiled the copy gratis, in order to enable the publisher to sell it as cheap as possible. ART. III. Die Hauptqueite der Fehler unserer physischen und moralischen Kindererziehung, &c.-The principal Source of the Errors committed in the Physical and Moral Education of our Children: By F. G. H. FIELITZ, jun. Leipzig, for Graffe, 1803, pp. 173. 8vo. THIS little volume comprehends the most important truths relative to the physical and moral education of chil VOL. II L dren, dren, extracted from the works of Hufeland, Saltzmann, Rousseau and others. We can safely recommend it as an excellent guide to all parents desirous of qualifying their children for genuine and permanent happiness. ART. IV. Gesundheitslehre für alle Stände, &c. &c.-Rules for the Preservation of Health, adopted to the Capacities of People of all Ranks, especially of Youths. Berlin, for Maurer, 1800, pp. 92. 8vo. THE greater part of the rules contained in this little. volume, are taken from Dr. Fault's Catechism of Health. The author has given a more agreeable form to the advice contained in that catechism, rescinded every passage not essentially necessary, filled up many material chasms, and in composing his useful work has consulted the publications of some of the most celebrated popular writers, especially of Tissot, Unzer and Hufeland. The stile is concise, and the rules are founded on experience. J THEOLOGY. ART. V. Geschichte der Protestant, Theologie, &c. &c.— History of the Protestant Theology, &c. By Dr. G. I. PLANCK. Vol. I. and II. (Concluded from p. 57.) "THE impression which Wittemberg, and, perhaps, Luther himself, had left on Schwenkfeld's mind, encreased his apprehension, that the new doctrine would render a servile and dangerous adherence to ceremonies, and the dead letter a characteristic of the reformation, and impelled him to preach more loudly than ever against this tendency of the spirit of his age. He declared on every opportunity, that true holiness, did not depend upon the sacraments, or any external rite; that the preaching of the letter of the Christian doctrine, was of little use, and a mere empty sound, if the soul itself were not converted, &c. &c. He proclaimed these doctrines every where with as much. ardour as eloquence, and thereby clearly shewed that he thought that the merits of Luther, in the reformation of the christian doctrine, were greatly over-rated. The connection which, in the mean time, had been formed between Luther's opponents in Swisserland and Schwenk feld, contributed very much to exasperate the reformer of Wittemberg to a still higher higher degree, and he attacked the tenets of his antagonist with great bitterness. But Schwenkfeld replied to his charges with much more calmness and dignity, and now began openly to declare, that a medium between the papal and Lutheran doctrine ought to be adopted. The duke of Liegnitz, at that time, applied to Schwenkfeld, for his opinion of a reformation that might be made in his own dominions; and it may be safely maintained, that none of Luther's cotemporaries judged with more truth and acuteness of that great man and his labours than Schwenkfeld, in his reply to the duke, which, at the same time, is a valuable monument of the elegance and energy of his style, in which he excelled all German writers of his age. He wrote to the duke, that Luther undoubtedly had deserved to be received as a messenger of God, as he had exonerated the Christian world from the intolerable pressure of the papal yoke; but it was very obvious that he intended to establish a new tyranny, and bind mankind to his own doctrine. The majority of the Lutheran preachers opposed him, lest they might expose themselves to censure, on account of the errors in which they had been formerly involved. Luther, in some cases, had mistaken the letter, for the spirit of religion, which gave rise to numerous sects and schisms. It could not, indeed, be denied, that he had carried the children of Israel out of Egypt through the Red Sea, but some may be inclined to think, that he had left them in the desert, without conducting them to the promised land. He added, that Luther had let loose a furious and savage set of men, and it would have been much better for religion, if they had remained in chains, as they did much more mischief than they had before been capable of doing. "But Schwenkfeld soon experienced, to his cost, how dangerous it is for an impartial man fairly and frankly to declare his mind, at a time when violent tempests agitate social life; for the Roman and Lutheran clergy united in prosecuting him with unrelenting fury, and compelled him to quit his native country. Luther continued to vent his animosity against him in all his writings, and was soon joined by Melanchthon, who descended even to scurrility, in order to render Schwenkfeld ridiculous." The reasons which the author here assigns for the animosity with which the Lutheran clergy prosecuted Schwenkfeld, are highly honourable to his impartiality and profound judgment; but we must pass them over in silence, lest we should be more diffuse than our limits permit. The accounts which Mr. Planck gives of Schwenkfeld's system, is drawn up with great candour, and, at the same time, affords the most striking proofs of his profound penetration; but his instruc |