A Letter to a Baptift-Minifter, containing some ftri&tures on his late Conduct in the Baptization of certain adults at Sy; with a particular Vindication of the right of Infant-Baptifm. 8vo. Printed for the Author, at Shrewsbury.

64

What difference this writer would infinuate there is between baptization, as he terms it, and baptifm, we shall not enquire; but that difference enough has arifen between the advocates for infant-bap tifm and the baptifm of adults, the confequences have fufficiently thewn. That Servetus was a fiery zealot, on the subject of adultbaptifm, is not to be denied: but was Calvin, his antagonist and perfecutor, a lefs fiery zealot on the fubject of podobaptifm? The truth is, and a fhameful truth it is, that the profeffors of Chriftianity have ever fhewn more zeal for perfecuting each other for maintaining doctrines unellential to the great object of our faith, than in contending, with an holy ftrife, who fhould beft fupport thofe, which are effential to falvation. We are forry that fo much of the old feaven of German Anabaptifm should still remain in England, as to give occafion for this fpirited and fenfible remonftrance with any minister of that perfuafion (Not that we prefume to determine, ex parte, on the caufe of provocation) and yet we do hot think our Shrewsbury Poedobaptift fo moderate in his perfonal reflections, as it behoves every difputant to be who has fo much the beft of the argument.

Amwell: a Defcriptive Poem. By John Scott, Efg. 4to. 25. Dilly. Although Mr. Scott hath modeftly ftiled his Amwell a defcriptive Poem, it is not one of those productions in which

-Mere defcription holds the place of fenfe:

the writer having with propriety introduced a number of moral and interefting reflections; naturally fuggefted by the feveral fcenes he defcribes. Of the verification and poetical merit of the piece, we cannot give a more impartial fpecimen, than by quoting part of the writer's farewell to his fubject...

"As fome fond lover leaves his favourite nymph,

Oft looking back, and lingering in her view,

So now reluctant this retreat I leave,

Look after look indulging; on the right,

Up to yon airy battlements broad top

Half veil d with trees, that, from th' acclivious fleep,'

Jut like the pendant gardens, fam'd of ald,

Betide EUPHRATES' bank; then, on the left,
Down to thofe fhaded cots, and bright expanfe
Of water foftly fliding by: once, where
That bright expanfe of water foftly flides,
O'erhung with fhrubs that fring'd the chalky rock,'
A little fount forth pour d its gurgling rill,
In flinty channel trickling o'er the green,
From EMMA nam'd; perhaps fome fainted maid,
For holy life rever'd; to fuch, e'erwhile,

Fond

Fond fuperftition many a pleasant grove,
And limpid fpring, was wont to confecrate.
Of EMMA's story nought tradition speaks;
Conjecture, who, behind oblivion's veil,
Along the doubtful paft delights to stray,
Boafts now, indeed, that froin her well the place
Receiv'd its appellation. - Thou sweet vill,*
Farewell and ye, fweet fields, where plenty's horg
Pours liberal boons, and health propitious deigns
Her chearing fmile! you not the parching air
Of arid fands, you not the vapours chill
Of humid fens annoy; FAVONIUS' wing,
From off your thyme-banks and your trefoil meads,
Wafts balmy redolence; robuft and gay,
Your fwains induftrious iffue to their toil,
Till your rich glebe, or in your granaries store
Its generous produce: annual ye refound
The ploughman's fong, as he thro' recking foil
Guides flow his fhining fhare; ye annual hear
The fhouts of harvest, and the prattling train
Of chearful gleaners and th' alternate strokes
Of loud flails echoing from your loaded barns,
The pallid morn in dark NOVEMBER wake."

This pamphlet is decorated with two well-engraved defigns, exhibiting views of the scene described.

The Patent, a Poem. Adorned with many delightful and useful veririties, fitting all capacities in the lands of Great-Britain's Monarchy. - By the Author of the Graces. 4to. Is. Ridley.

We do not think our author made the most of his fubject, when he ridiculed the Graces t: and yet they were the most graceless GRACES, we remember ever to have met with.-In his prefent attack on Patents, he betrays himself, alfo, to be as moderate an affailant. He feems, indeed, to have adopted rather the Horatian principle, of tickling, as follies, rather than that of Juvenal, fcourging, as vices, the extravagancies of mankind. He appears, alfo, not to be quite au jait, as the French fay, in regard to his fubject. Happy the man, who duly pays his debts,

He ftill more happy, who a patent gets.

That an honest debtor is as happy in paying his debts as his creditors in receiving the money, is not to be doubted, where the honefty and pleasure are reciprocal But if by "who a patent gets,"

he

Receiv'd its appellation.-] In Doomfday-book, this village of Amwell is written Emmevelle, perhaps originally Emma's well. When the New River was opened, there was a fpring here which was taken into that aqueduct. Chadwell, the other fource of that river, evidently received its denomination from a tutelar faint, Sr. Chad, who feems to have given name to fprings and wells in different parts of England.

†The Graces, which Lord Chesterfield recommended to his fon. See London Review. Vol. I. pag. 64.

he means him "who gets a patent," we must enter our caveat; as we know many an honeft and ingenious patentee, that has been totally ruined by launching forth into expence, in expectation of reaping a due compenfation within the fhort-lived term of a royal patent. That an exclufive privilege for fourteen years, or even fourteen months, to vend warming pans, washes, fugar-cakes, blacking balls and nocturnal-remembrancers,† is a term too long for fuch ridiculous monopolies, is most certain; but for inventions of real ingenuity, labour, expence and public utility, twice that term might be found inadequate

But why on patents of this nature dwell?

Would not a patent-place do full as well?

As well! A good deal better. A patent place is the very thing; and that for the very reafon affigned.

As a

No matter whether I've a head or not;

Where intereft rules, the parts are quite forgot.

a proof of this, he tells us,

A certain lordling, at a certain board,
Muft needs put in a finall advifing word;
The firft in office check'd him in a trice,
And fneering faid, he did not want advice,
For what, faid t'other then, do I fit here?

For what!-to pouch a thousand pounds a year."

What a pity our poet has not a patent place at fuch a board! Would he, in that cafe, continue to rail at patents! Nay, we will not answer for ourselves, that even the impartiality of the Londan Reviewers might not be in danger, if led into such a temptation. Happy is it for the greater part of the world that they are thus kept honeft by being kept poor; thefe patent places being, according to our poet, a very unprincipled kind of things.-

The Captive Freed; or the Rescue of the Mufe. A poetical Essay, 4to. 6d. Cruttwell, Bath.

"The Bouts Rimez," fays Mr. Addifon, 64 were the favourites of the French nation for a whole age together, and that at a time when it abounded in wit and learning. They were a lift of words that rhyme to one another, drawn up by another hand, and given to a poet, who was to make a poem to the rhymes, in the fame order that they were placed upon the lift: The more uncommon the rhymes were, the more extraordinary was the genius of the poet that could accommodate his verses to them. I do not know any greater inftance of the decay of wit and learning among the

French

A contemptible contrivance, laid before the Royal Society, and puffed off by Pinchbeck, the toyman, who, like a booby, got a patent to prevent other people felling what nobody would buy.

We cannot here forbear inftancing the cafe of one Golder, who many years ago difcovered a method to prevent Sail-cloth from being injured by camps, and the mildew: a difcovery of the greatest importance to fhipping, though t Jong dfcouraged, that the term of his patent will expire before the inventor ta reap, in any degree, an adequate advantage.

French (which generally follows the declenfion of empire) than' their endeavouring to restore this foolish kind of wit.”

It is a little to be wondered at that the fenfible patronefs, of the poetical institution at Bath-Easton, fhould countenance the revival of this exploded fpecies of Galic infipidity, To her honour, however, it appears, by the fecond volume of the "Poetical Amufements, that the attempt to naturalize this foreign foppery is given up, and the English Muse restored to her native freedom On this circumstance is founded the prefent Effay, whofe poetical merit may, at least, vie with the importance of the fubject.

Johnsoniana, or a Collection of Bon Mots, &c. by Dr. Johnson and others. Together with the Choice Sentences of Publias Syrus, now firft Aranflated into English. 12mo. 28. Ridley...

The title of this performance appears to be taken from one of the notes in Kenrick's Review of Johnfon's Shakespeare; in which is given a fketch of the defign of a Johnfoniana; that most probably fuggefted the idea of the prefent. publication. This collection contains, however, but a few of the Doctors jokes, being eked out with many other angs belide the Doctor's. Indeed jefting is not Dr. Johnfon's forte. He utters, indeed, now and then, like a Delphic or Sybilline oracle, his dark fayings; in which the learned, after due deliberation, do difcover defign, propriety, and penetration. But he is too fententious, and formal for a wit; even his lightest jeux a'efprit having fomething in them, like the gambols of an elephant, tremendous and terrible to understandings of a middling ftature leaft fuch feems to have been the opinion of his Reviewer, whose original project of the Fabnfoniana was as follows.

At

It may be thought ftrange that I fhould treat Dr. Johnson's pretenfions to wit fo contemptuoufly, when it is notorious that his bons-mots have been conftantly repeated for thefe ten years past in taverns and in coffec-houses, at dinners, and over tea-tables, to the great gratification of his admirers, and the edification of their hearers. Nay, it is well known, that a certain literary projector, excited by the fuccefs of BEN Johnson's jefts, had schemed the publication of the Johnsoniana; intending to infert it on the title page, instead of O rare BEN! O brave SAM!-But I know not how, yet fo it happened, that, upon enquiry, the projector could not mufter up above a dozen genuine jokes worth printing. It was found that the most of the wife fayings, fmart repartees, pregnant puns, and cramp conundrums, imputed to him, had been forged or invented for him by his friends and acquaintance. The few following indeed were, if i remember right, admitted to be genuine :

JOHNSONIANA, or the witty fayings of San. Johnfon, M. A.

Mr. Johnfon, being fent for, by order of the king, to write the History of the Houfe of Brunswick; replied, with great humour and loyalty, to the gentleman who propofed it, by faying, What! Sir, is there no fcoundrel author in England but myself?

Mr. Johnfon, being offered a penfion by his prefent majefty, in return for the above inftance of his loyalty, he, notwithstanding his VOL. III.

form

former railing at placemen and penfioners, very wittily and wifely faid-nothing; but growled and rooK IT.

"At another time, Mr. Johnfon, being in company where fome perfons were difputing about the doctrine of the Trinity, he rote up from his chair, and ingeniously decided the difpute at once, by clenching his first, and threatening to knock the first perfon down, who, in his prefence, should caft infidel reflections on his friend Athanafius.

"In the fame company, he was alfo heard most divertingly to affirm, that That man must be an ATHEIST of the deepest dye, who did not believe in the COCK-LANE GHOST,

"At various times and places, he hath been heard also to drop the following exquifite ftrokes of wit and humour.-Sir, Sir, the fellow is a fool.-Sir, the man is a blockhead.—The rascal is an Atheift.— There are but three good lines in all CHURCHILL's fatires, and two of them be fiole from my LONDON.-Shakespeare a poet! Sir, be never wrote a line of pretry in his life. An ofther! Sir, a VARLET, that used to bold gentleman's borfes at the play-bouse!

"Thefe, and a few other ftrokes, equally pointed and humourous, being all the undertaker of the above project could pick up; and as the humour even of thefe depended greatly on a certain peculiarity of deportment, which cannot be committed to paper, it was judged adviseable to drop the scheme: fo that I hope I stand excufed, if I do not place Dr. Johnfon's witticifms among the anas, or think him upon a footing even with Joe Miller, or his own name-fake Ben."

It is now upwards of ten years ago fince the above fketch was published, and it does not appear from the collection before us, that the genuine jokes fince uttered by this great wit, have fwelled the dozen to twenty four; and even these are not retailed to the best advantage by the prefent Editor.-The choice fentences of Publius Syrus are indeed worth reading, and the caricatura print of the Doctor, as a frontispiece to the work, is frightful enough to be worth looking at.

Inftructions for young People in the public Worship of God.. Being a fert account of the general Service of the Church: and also Directions for a proper Behaviour, during the performance thereof. By A. Croker, Schoolmojler in Ilminfer. 12mo. Robinfo.

The Man of Learning, as Mr. Croker modeitly obferves, will find nothing in this little tract particularly worthy of his notice; but let him confider that there are Others who ftand in need of fuch feeble helps as these are:- for them they were written; and by them, it is hoped, they will be read with that attention which is due to the fubject.

Memoirs of an Unfortunate Queen, interspersed with Letters (written by berfelf) to feveral of her illuftrious Relations and Friends, on various fubjects and occafions. 12mo. 3s. Eew.

By