derive no ufe from fwine; yet, they are pretty strong, and good fwimmers; they might at least be employed, like little dogs, to turn our fpits; and one or more of them, put in a large wheel, their weight doubtlefs might move very large machines. On recol lecting the story of the Phrygian, who, fufpending a fmall litter ta eagles, in which a young man was carried through the air, we might devise a thoufand amazing conceits; which, romantic as they may appear, might, perhaps be realized. It would be a pretty fight to fee a boat moved by fwans or geefe; our little country pedlars fhare with their dogs the weight of their wheel-barrows. But, of all the known animals, there is none, from which we could derive greater fervice, than from monkeys; it would be only taking them when young, and giving them the neceffary training: they would do the part of little flaves. I imagine that the manner of training and forming them for any employment, would require a good deal of care and attention, under proper directions. This art, as all others, would have its principles and rules; and the great advantages, which might be daily reaped from it, would claim the firft place after the flave-trade If this project, of converting the monkey tribe into little flaves, fhould take place in a land of popery and flavery, like France, it would be no wonder: nay it would be no great wonder if a zeal, for mother church and the glory of the grand monarch, did in time fuggeft the project of converting the little flaves of monkies into monks, mofquetaires and marrechaux of France. In this free country, we flatter ourselves no fuch unjustifiable methods will be taken, to extend the infolence of arbitrary power or promote that moft unwarrantable part of our commerce the flave-trade !* ART. V. Reflections critical and moral on the Letters of the late •Earl of Chesterfield. By Thomas Hunter, Vicar of Weaverham, in Cheshire. Svo. 4s. Cadell-Continued from page 90. Having exhibited, in our laft Review, the faireft fide of the picture, which this masterly writer hath drawn, of the general character of Lord Chefterfield, we proceed to the difagreeable, though neceffary, talk of difplaying the reverse.† R 2 He And yet a certain Middlefex magiftrate declares, that he thinks it 10 greater Aretch of power to comped fuch animals to work than it is to make them play; nay that had he been in the commilien at the time when the animal comedians exhibited in the Hay-market, he would have committed them, ba the vagrant act. At the fame time, it may not be improper to apologize for the critical feverity, we difplayed in our former article, on feveral lips of file and ver bal errors; of which we should have taken no notice, had they occurred in the work of a writer of leis eminence. Not having the pleafura of a perfonal acquaintance He begins the third fection with the following general reflections on the noble writer and his writings. "In the two lait fections, we gave, what we call, the bright fide of Lord Chesterfield's character: but we must not rest here, if we would fee his lordship's real portrait, and drawn at full length. Nor can the peerage plead privilege at the bar of criticifm. Not only truth, but the whole truth is exacted from us, wher we would inform and inftruct mankind. This is the more neceffary on the prefent occafion; as the character and example of Lord Chesterfield, celebrated as he was for wit and virtue, might, otherwise, do mifchief, by propagating vice and vanity, folly and falfehood, among mankind. Befides, there is an eafe, an elegance, and charm in his lordship's ftyle and manner, which may eafily infinuate itself, and impofe upon the common reader; as his plaufibility imposed even upon the wife and good, in his life-time. Court-logic is, perhaps, as fallacious as the fchool-logic; and we are in much less danger of being mifled in our conduct and manners, by the subtilty of a rusty doctor, than by the refinement of a polite and well bred man of distinction and family. "What most offends us in thefe letters is, the immorality with which they are replete. As a moralift, indeed, he affects to recom-mend virtue and good faith; but he is quite out of his element on this fubject, and feems to have known no more of the effence, the power, the peaceful, and happy effects of virtue, than of what is doing in the moon, or any of the remoter planets: and the whole perfection he requires of his fon, is the very reverfe, not only of chriftian duty, but of true philofophy." How pernicious a publication to the morals of a people, fo aptly prepared by practical depravity, to adopt the most destructive acquaintance with Mr. Hunter, we were ftrangers to the circumftance, which might excufe much more confiderable defects. This is the lofs of fight, of which he has informed us, in the following friendly, not to fay flattering, letten To the Authors of the London Review. Gentlemen, Weaverbam,, March 11, 1776. I return you my refpects and grateful acknowledgements for the candid report you have made to the pubic of the Rfections on Lord C's Letters; and I affure my felf you would have extended your candour farther, fo as not to dwell on Iteral mistakes, had you known that the author is and has been, for fifteen or fixteen years past, deprived of the benefit of fight; and obliged to trust to others for the accuracy of his MSS. and the correction of the prefs. Gentlemen, take this opportunity of congratulating you and the public on the generous plan of your literary journal. You may depend on the approbation and favour of all good men to encourage your ingenious labours, while you continue fteady adherents to gofpel truth and the established religion, without in-dulging the malignity and infidelity of the times by fatyr and farcafm, poured upon the firmest friends to both. I fhall think myself happy, if it is in my Rewer, to promote the reputation and fuccefs of your work. Iam,, gentlemen, your obliged and moft obedient humble fervant, - ructive theory of debauchery! For as fuch do we look upor all our late little fyftems of refinement and falle delicacy; in which the native folly and brutality of vice is concealed under the matk of policy and perfonal convenience. It has been frequently difputed, whether profligacy or hypocrify be moft pernicious to a people's morals: we fhall not undertake to decide this point in general; but of this we are pretty certain, the morals of fuch individuals, as are capable of being corrupted, will be much fooner and more easily depraved by the captivating allurements of vice, under the maik of virtue, than by the most amiable appearance, fhe can put on her nakedcountenance. They, who find charms in open profligacy, may defy the powers of feduction: they are fufficiently corrupted already and their morals are not worth preferving. It is, in refpect to young minds, unhackneyed in the ways of men, and untainted by the practice of deceit, that these letters of his lordship's are particularly pernicious; as they not only flatter the vanity and foothe the paffions of the fimple, but engage even the understanding of the fenfible, unwarily in the cause of vice, as the only one confiftent with felf-intereft: And it is well known, by the beft and wifeft men in the world, how difficult is the conteft between reafon and felf-love. "Lord Chesterfield's fyftem of ethics," fays our author, "is void of all fincere love to Gon or man, and may be properly styled a fyftem of felf-love. His lordship is a remarkable proof of the truth of an obfervation, which he has more than once repeated, That the understanding is the dupe of the paffions. With an uncommon fhare of understanding, enlarged and improved by reading and reflection, with all his wit, his ftudies, and fuperior fagacity, he has facrificed the most uncontroverted principles and noblest efforts of virtue, love of your country, fincerity to your friends, (which he fcarce allows to have any exiftence) a contempt of pleasure and vain glory, to a gratification of the felfifh paflions, to what ambition afpires after, and to what the lower and animal appetites prompt. And the vices from which he would avert his pupil, are not reprefented in their native deformity, as violations of the laws of GOD, and of the fanétions of men; as contrary to the opinions and practice of the best and wifeft, and as destructive of the principles of truth, and of the interests of fociety; but, they are to be avoided from the confideration of their indelicacy, and the inconvenience and damage they bring to health, to fortune, and to your reputation in the world; fo far as your interest may depend on that reputation, whether the world thinks right or wrong. Thus a common prostitute is forbidden, as what is dan-gerous and difgraceful; and keeping is condemned as what both the Indies could not fupport: but an intrigue with a l'hore of Quality, married or unmarried,, is a gallantry not forbidden; but propofed and and inculcated by the father to his fon, as what, befides other ad vantages, is not difcreditable in the opinion of the world. "Some men's notions of virtue, and of the perfections of hu man nature, have been fo fublime and refined, that their schemes being found impracticable, they have abandoned fociety and the world, to enjoy their ideal virtue in the fhade. But lord Chesterfield's notions of poor human nature are fuch, and his virtue of so eafy and pliant a temper, that its very effence may feem to confift in its verfatility, and conformity to the manners of those with whom you converfe. Alcibiades's character, abandoned as it was, is, I think, propofed in this refpect, as an example for his fon's imitation; and a court, according to his lordship, the grand scene of fimulation and diffimulation, is the proper foil for the growth, the difplay and expanfion of virtue. "The noble lord's courtefy and humanity, overflowing and be nevolent as they feem, are all a profufion of verbiage, or the art of faying the best things, and offering your beft fervices, meaning and intending nothing, but to deceive thofe who are fimple enough to believe you fincere. For, to thofe who are in the fecret, and mutually practife this mechanical trade of compliment, without any meaning, it is the moft ludicrous farce in nature. Fie on it, my lord! A fhame upon that policy, which makes no diftinction be tween prudence and artifice; between benevolence and flattery; between complacency and compliment; between wildom and craft; between the modeft referve of the man, and the profeffed diffimu lation of the courtier; which excludes fincerity and friendship, true philofophy, true virtue and true religion! : "Vanity, or an appetite for fame, which lord Chesterfield has made the motive and foundation of morality, and acknowledges to have been the principal incentive to his good actions, is itself a vice; or a virtue, if a virtue, which muft difpofe the practiser of it to adopt every vice or folly in fashion. A fteady perfeverance in the practice of what is righteous, juft and good, in oppofition to the fashion and corruption of the world has, and we hope, will ever be confidered in the estimation both of reason, and revelation, as one of the moft fignal inftances, and highest exertions of true virtue but lord Chesterfield, we prefume, was the first philofopher, who coolly and foberly recommended the fathion and corrupt opinions of the world, as the standard by which, and in conformity to which, you are to form your moral conduct. We cannot easily account for a nobleman of fuch admirable parts, advancing fuch outragious paradoxes; only this may be alledged in his favour, that he never publifhed, nor furely ever intended that they fhould be published to the world: they are no more than his private fentiments, extracted from his commerce with the world, and communicated in confidence to a particular friend, on whofe pations they might eafily operate without oppofition from reafon or fcruple of confcience. You have in lord Chesterfield a perfect picture of a man of the world. will will affect your friendship; he will narrowly watch, and infidiously pry into your infirmities; he will fifh out your fecrets, he will flatter your foibles; he will connive at, rather than reprove your faults: by a new invented diftinction between morals and manners he will recommend and reconcile every plaufible and ennaring artifice in converfation and conduct, to the art of pleating, to politenefs, and political expediency. "We fhould not eafily reconcile fuch a practice to the clear and found understanding, and the candid and benevolent heart, which the lord Chesterfield feems to be poffefied of, had we not been told, and did we not obferve it proved to us by daily examples, that the love of the world blinds the eyes of men, obfcures their moral difcerament; and that avarice and ambition, licentioufnefs and lewdnefs generally difpofe those who are devoted to them, to evade or explain away the clearest laws, and to refift the plaineft dictates of confcience, which contradict the indulgence of their favourite pallions.' We heartily join our worthy author, in expreffing the utmoft deteftation and contempt at fo worthlefs a character, as he here defcribes; but we cannot fo eafily reconcile it to the poffeffion of that clear head and found underflanding with which he repeatedly compliments his Lordfhip. We look upon the Peer's head to have been no founder than his heart; and if we admit it to have been clear, it inuft be for the reafon given by Dr. J, when, upon calling Sheridan a fuperficial fhailow "Sir; Sir; fellow, it was objected that he was very clear. Shallows are always clear." In favour of our author's obfervation, it muft, indeed, be admitted that the love of the world does frequently obfcure the moral difcernment of men, that avarice, ambition, licentioufnefs and lewdnefs do difpofe thofe who are under their influence, to ftifle the dictates of their confcience when oppofing the gratification of their paffions. Hence their mifconduct is accountable while under their immediate influence. But what lewdness could incite the father to initiate his fon in the practice of the moft villainous debauchery? Is not the father here inexcufable, in acting as bad a part by the fon, as an old bawd does in refpect to a young whore? Where paffion may well be fuppofed to be ftronger than reafon, we may well account for the effects of its fuperior influence? But what paffion could actuate Lord Chesterfield in giving fuch advice to Mr. Stanhope? Avarice was never his foible, and if ainbition was his motive, what a pitiful ambition that of feeing his baftard a fie gentleman and a minifter of ftate! This appears to have been the height of his ambition, the fummit to which all his views were directed, and to the attainment of this, he would have the unfortunate youth to facrifice every principle of honour and honefty. Pro vidence, |