It is, no doubt, moft devoutly to be wished that this mode of public correction, both of romance and the drama were adopted; but alas, there are little hopes of its ever being fo. If truth and virtue want an advocate till their cause be espoused by that manyheaded monster, the multitude, they may ever be abandoned to infult. It is the many that promote the fale of books; and it is the fale that promotes their vendible reputation. So powerful is the motive of fimple curiofity over even well-difpofed minds, that people will often purchase a popular book, though they deteft the principles it contains and ought therefore to endeavour to check its circulation.-Sixthly, our author confiders the feveral kinds of periodical writings, and their usefulness for promoting religious inftructions. By periodical writings he means the effays published under the title of the Spectator, the Rambler, &c. all which, he conceives defective in a religious point of view; as are alfo our different moral fyftems, as not being calculated for the generality of readers. In the feventh and laft fection of this firft part, our author treats of preaching, and the general topics with which the gofpel furnishes the christian divine, for promoting the improvement and entertainment of his readers: and here, as it was naturally to be expected in a professed divine, he gives the preference to all modes of moral and religious inftruction, to that of commenting on the Bible from the pulpit. "By a proper explication, fays he, of the various topics with which he is furnished, what might not the chriftian divine do, in the way of entertaining, as well as inftructing mankind, thofe of the beft tafte not excepted?"-What, indeed! in comparison at least of what our modern divines actually do! Surely our reverend author did not fee that his argument cuts with two edges! What a horrid reproach on our prefent fet of pulpit orators, for the improper application of scriptural topics, that when they might do fo much they really do fo very little! What a fhame to the regular clergy that full playhoufes and empty churches fhould fo fcandaloufly difgrace the metropolis of the kingdom!-Juftice here, obliges us to exempt from this cenfure fome of the irregulars of the function, who, occafionally induce the liftening crowds to ramble from one church to another, or to flock statedly to the Old Jewry, the tabernacle and the Lock-hofpital. A Moor-fields ranter will attract as great a crowd about his table as the merry-andrew of a mountebank about his frage; and a Weftley, a Romaine, or a Madan, draw a houfe with either a Garrick, a Barry, or a Yates. What a bleffed reformation would it be, if what, our author labours to evince by argument, could be proved by example! As to the few above-mentioned, they are fuch exceptions to the general rule, as cannot be admitted in favour of it; unlefs it be allowed that our prefent popular preachers only make a proper application of the feriptures and the advantageous influence of the facerdotal fitu ation. ation. We are the lefs ready to give into our author's partiality. for his profeffion, from having frequently heard his fellow labourers in the vineyard, and those of the first reputation for abilities, feriously lament the inefficacy of their pulpit orations. There is the defect in this which is in all other modes of public inftruction: company diverts the attention from particular objects, as inattention to particular objects contributes to heighten amufement: hence it is that men meet together with alacrity to be entertained, and are seldom disappointed; while hardly any man learns any thing more from the beft public lecture than the neceflity of having a private tutor. Not to refine too far, there is perhaps another reafon. Men meet merely to be amufed not only with alacrity, but with confidence. Sated with what they poffefs, they profeffedly want only to vary the fpecies of felfcomplacency, and to fee if any body can make them more happy than they are +. It is otherwife when men meet for inftruction: defect and diffidence dictate humility, conscious inferiority piques their pride, and perhaps the most ignorant man breathing, looks upon it as a kind of fhame to be taught anything. At least he would rather learn privately of a tutor, or from books alone, that of which he would not be generally known to be ignorant. Not but that imbecillity leads many to attend public inftitutions by which they never profit, that they may have the credit of being fuppofed to know what they ought to know. Hence numbers vifit univerfities, lectures, &c. as the greater part of the congregation goes to church: the one, that they may be thought learned, the other that they may be thought religious. But, to wave reHections of this kind, we object to the main point, the making a place of inftruction of any kind, a place of entertainment. We have no doubt that a preacher of genius and talents, might make the pulpit a more pleafing vehicle of entertainment to perfons of good taste, than either the bar or the ftage, but we do not think entertainment the business of the pulpit, and have too high a regard for the clerical character than to wish ever to see it on a footing with that of players and buffoons, ftraining their lungs and playing their tricks to fill their respective fhew-booths. * We fay nothing of the matter of devotion, as we conceive the mere preceptive part of divine worship in our churches has nothing to do with it. The going to church, or meeting, to hear a fermon, contains, in our opinion, little, if any thing, of the worship of God; and though places of public worship may be expedient to fupport and diffufe a fpitit of religion, we conceive the best of chriftians is never fo truly devout at church, as in his clofet. At least, woe be to the man in diftrefs, who feeks relief in amufement. It is like the poor devil who flies from poverty to the bottle; he may indeed drown himself in a malmsey butt; but by drinking he will be ftill as miferably stupid, as unamufed and unamufing, as if he were miferably fober. It is furely no fevere expreffion for what our author ftiles and recommends, the "Jetting off all the great truths of religion to the best advantage." Fie upon fuch meretricious expreffions when applied to the doctrines of the gospel! Are rational beings to be coaxed, to be wheedled, into the falvation of their immortal fouls? Is the grace of God become totally useless and inactive? Or is the omnipotent difposer of is" afleep, or gone on a journey ?" 131 Let 1 Let them exert themselves with a spirit becoming the importance of their fubject and the dignity of the calling, to which they are called but never let them prostitute both to precarious and profitlefs popularity.After all, though we fo freely speak our minds of what we think really the cafe, we most heartily with it were as our author reprefents it. We shall accordingly proceed in our next Review, on that prefumption, to confider the two other parts of this inftructive and entertaining COMPARISON. ART. V. The Hiftory of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. By Edward Gibbon, Efq. Vol. I. 4to. Cadell. Among the many valuable publications, that do honour to our country in the prefent age, we may rank the hiftory, before us, in the first class. The fubject, indeed, has been treated in a masterly manner by other writers; but by none who appear to have taken fo comprehensive a view of it, while they attended with equal accuracy and penetration to the minuter causes, cooperating to fo mortifying an inftance of the vanity of human grandeur, as the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. To Britons at the prefent juncture, it affords a peculiarly melancholy profpect; the glory of this nation, having fo lately reached its zenith, and being now apparently on the decline, from caufes not diffimilar to those, which brought on the ruin of Rome; domeftic corruption and diftant revolt! Mr. Gibbon, in a very modeft preface, apologizes for presenting a first volume only of a work; which he scarcely flatters himself with being ever happy enough to compleat. The outlines of it are, indeed, extensive and do great credit to the defigner, whether they are filled up by fo able a colourift or not. The nature and limits of his general plan, he gives in few words, as follows. "The memorable series of revolutions, which, in the course of about thirteen centuries, gradually undermined, and at length deftroyed, the folid fabric of Roman greatnefs, may, with fome propriety, be divided into the three following periods. "I. The first of these periods may be traced from the age of Trajan and the Antonines, when the Roman monarchy having attained its full ftrength and maturity, began to verge towards its decline; and will extend to the fubverfion of the western empire, by the barbarians of Germany and Scythia, the rude ancestors of the moft polished nations of modern Europe. This extraordinary revolution, which fubjected Rome to the power of a Gothic conqueror, was completed about the beginning of the fixth century. "II. The fecond period of the Decline and Fall of Rome, may be fuppofed to commence with the reign of Juftinian, who by his laws, Particularly by the celebrated Baron de Montefquieu, in a work entitled «Confiderations fur la Grandeur et la Decadence des Romains," as well as by his victories, restored a tranfient fplendor to the Eaftern Empire. It will comprehend the invafion of Italy by the Lombards; the conquest of the Afiatic and African provinces by the Arabs, who embraced the religion of Mahomet: the revolt of the Roman people against the feeble princes of Conftantinople, and the elevation of Charlemagne, who, in the year eight hundred, eftablished the fecond, or German Empire of the weft. III. The laft and longeft of thefe periods includes about feven centuries and a half; from the revival of the Western Empire, till the taking of Conftantinople by the Turks, and the extinction of a degenerate race of princes, who continued to affume the titles of Cæfar and Auguftus, after their dominions were contracted to the limits of a fingle city; in which the language, as well as the manners, of the ancient Romans, had been long fince forgotten. The writer who should undertake to relate the events of this period, would find himself obliged to enter into the general hiftory of the Crufades, as far as they contributed to the ruin of the Greek empire; and he would fcarcely be able to restrain his curiofity from making fome enquiry into the state of the city of Rome, during the darkness and confufion of the middle ages." Such is Mr. Gibbon's general plan, of which he has executed in the present volume but a small part; commencing with the age of the Antonines, and ending with that of Conftantine. During this interval, indeed, a number of important and interesting events give him an opportunity of difplaying both his natural and acquired abilities to great advantage: the man of genius appearing not lefs confpicuous in the order and fimplicity of the compofition, than the man of letters, the politician and the philofopher, in the investigation of his facts and the propriety of his reflections. It will not be expected of us to give an abstract of the history of a period fo well known, we fhall, therefore, felect a specimen or two of our author's ftile and manner of narration and obfervation, as the moft confiftent with our plan, in doing justice to the writer, and affording entertainment to our readers. There is not, to be met with, in hiftory, perhaps a more fingular event, than the public fale of the empire of the world, as that of Rome might be called, by public auction to a private citizen. Our author's relation of this event is properly introduced by a very fenfible and judicious obfervation on the civil danger of military power. "The power of the fword is more fenfibly felt in an extenfive monarchy, than in a fmall community It has been calculated by the ableft politicians, that no ftate, without being foon exhaufted, can maintain above the hundredth part of its members in arms and idlenefs. But although this relative proportion may be uniform, its influence over the reft of the fociety will vary according to the degree of its pofitive ftrength. The advantages of military fcience and dif cipline cannot be exerted, unless a proper number of foldiers are united into one body, and actuated by one foul. With a handful of men, fuch an union would be ineffectual; with an unwieldy holt, it 1 4 would would be impracticable; and the powers of the machine would bealike destroyed by the extreme minutenefs, or the exceffive weight of its fprings. To illuftrate this obfervation we need only reflect, that there is no fuperiority of natural strength, artificial weapons, or acquired fkill, which could enable one man to keep in constant subjection a hundred of his fellow-creatures: the tyrant of a fingle town, or a small district, would foou discover that an hundred armed followers were a weak defence against ten thousand peasants or citizens; but a hundred thousand well-difciplined foldiers will command, with defpotic fway, ten millions of fubjects; and a body of ten or fifteen thoufand guards will ftrike terror into the most numerous populace. that ever crowded the streets of an immenfe capital. "The Prætorian bands, whofe licentious fury was the firft fymptom and cause of the decline of the Roman empire, fcarcely amount ed to the laft mentioned number. They derived their inftitution from Auguftus. That crafty tyrant, fenfible that laws might colour, but that arms alone could maintain, his ufurped dominion, had gra-. dually formed this powerful body of guards in conftant readiness to protect his perfon, to awe the fenate, and either to prevent or to crush the first motions of rebellion. He diftinguished these favoured troops by a double pay, and fuperior privileges; but, as their formidable afpect would at once have alarmed and irritated the Roman people, three cohorts only were ftationed in the capital; whilft the remainder was difperfed in the adjacent towns of Italy. But after fifty years of peace and fervitude, Tiberius ventured on a decifive meafure, which for ever rivetted the fetters of his country. Under the fair pretences of relieving Italy from the heavy burthen of military quarters, and of introducing a stricter difcipline among the guards, he affembled them at Rome, in a permanent camp, which was fortified with skilful care, § and placed on a commanding fituation. Such formidable fervan's are always neceffary, but often fatal to the throne of defpotifm. By thus introducing the Prætorian guards, as it were, into the palace and the fenate, the emperors taught them to perceive their own ftrength, and the weakness of the civil government; to view the vices of their mafters with familiar contempt, and to lay afide that reverential awe, which distance only, and mystery, can preferve, towards an imaginary power. In the luxurious idleness of an opulent city, their pride was nourished by the fense of their irrefftible weight; nor was it poffible to conceal from them, that the They were originally nine or ten thousand men (for Tacitus and Dion are not. agreed upon the fubject) divided into as many cohorts. Vitellius increased them to fixteen thoufand, and as far as we can learn from infcriptions, they never afterwards funk much belew that number. See Lipfius de magnitudine Romanâ, i. 4. + Sueton. in Auguft. c. 49. Tacit. Annal. iv. 2. Sueton. in Tiber. c. 37. Dion Caffius, 1. lvii. p. 867. In the civil war between Vitellius and Vefpafian, the Prætorian camp was attacked, and defended with all the machines ufed in the fiege of the beft fortified cities. Tacit. Hift. iii. 84. Clofe to the walls of the city, on the broad fummit of the Quirinal and Viminal hills. See Nardini Roma Antica, p. 174. Donatus de Roma Antiqua, p. 46. perfor |