converted from atheism by more forcible arguments, without taking the trouble to cross the Atlantic. It is true, he might not have met in England with a North American Indian, or a bahelor of Salamanca; but thefe, as here exhibited, are mighty fimple logicians, and very fhallow controverfialifts. With his bachelor he difputes about the fcriptures, and the propriety of matrimony; concluding his dialogue as follows:

"I could name to you as many, or more, ancient bishops who were married, than you formerly had bishops and popes, who were keepers, adulterers, or f――s, a thing which is to be found in 19 country at this day. It is for this reafon that the Greek church, the mother of the Latin, has married priests. And it is for this reafon that I, who speak to you, am married, and have the fineft child in the world.

And tell me, my dear Bachelor, have you not in your church feven facraments fairly told, which are all the visible signs of au invifible thing? A bachelor of Salamanca then enjoys the pleasure of baptifm as foon as he is born; of confirmation, as foon as he is breeched; of confeffion, as foon as he has been guilty of fome tricks of youth, or has heard thofe of others; of communion, though a little different from ours, at the age of thirteen or fourteen; of orders, when he is fhaved on the top of the head, and when he gets a benefice of 20, 30, or 40,000 piaftres a year; in fine, he enjoys the pleasure of extreme unction when he is fick-Muft he then be deprived of the facrament of marriage when he is in good health? Efpecially when God himself married Adam and Eve; Adam, the firft of male bachelors, fmce, according to your fchool, he poffeffed science by infufion; and Eve, the first of female bachelors, as the tafted of the tree of knowledge before her husband.

"The Bachelor. BUT if thefe things are fo, I will no longer fay BUT. The die is caft; I am of your religion; I am now a member of the church of England; I will marry an honeft woman, who will always pretend to love me while I am young; who will be careful of me in my old age, and whom I fhall bury decently if I furvive ker. This is much better than to 10aft men, and deflower virgins like my coufin Don Caracurador the inquifitor."

: With Mr. Burton and the Indian Paruba our doctor difputes about the moral attributes of the deity, the criminality of atheism, and the utility of faith and good works. Difcourf ing on a future ftate of retribution, he fays

To expect of God neither punishment nor reward is to be really an Atheist. What fignifies the idea of a God who has no power over you, it is the fame as if we acknowledge that a king of China was very powerful; in that cafe, I fhould fay, much good may it do him, let him remain where he is, as I fhall where I am; I care as little for him, as he can care for me; he has no more jurifdiction, over my perfon than a canon of Windfor has over a member of the houfe of commons. I am then a God to myfelf; I facrifice the

whole

whole world to my humour upon every occafion; I am lawless, I ́ coufider myself alone. If the relt of the world are fheep, I become a wolf; I am a fox, if I find them chickens.

"Let me fuppofe (which God forbid) that all the people of England were atheifts from principle. I confefs there might be feveral citizens amongst them, who born with quiet and mild difpofitions, rich enough to have no occafion for injuftice, governed by the principles of honour, and confequently attentive to their conduct, might live together in fociety; they would cultivate the fine arts, the great fofiners of manners; they might live in peace and in the innocent gaiety of men of worth ;-but the poor and violent atheist, fure of ampunity, would be a fool if he did not affaffinate them to get poffeffion, of their wealth. From that inftant all the ties of fociety would be broken; fecret crimes like a torent, would burft upon the caith as grafshoppers; though at firft hardly perceived, they at laft would avage a whole country. The lower fort of people would no longer be any thing more than a band of robbers, like our thieves, the tenth part of whom are never convicted at our feffions: they pass their miferable lives in ale-houses with abandoned women; they beat them, they beat one another, they fall down intoxicated in the midft of their violence and uproar; they profef 1obbery and murder. when they' awake from their drunken dreams; and they recommence every day this abominable round of brutality!

"What bounds would there be fet to the vengeance of great men and kings, what curb to that ambition, to which they are willing to facrifice every thing? A king who is an atheift is more dangerous than a fanatical Ravaillac.

66

Atheifts fwarned in Italy in the fifteenth century: what was the confequence? It was then as common to administer poifon, as to give a fupper; and to plunge the ftilletto into the heart of a friend, as to embrace him. There were then profeffors of vice as there are at prefent profeffors of mufic, or teachers of mathematics. The churches were chofen as fit places for affaffination, and princes were murdered before the altar. Pope Sixtus IV. and an archbishop of Florence, caufed the two moft accomplished princes in Europe to be affaffinated in this way.

"A Duke of Milan was likewife murdered in a church. The aftonishing crimes of Alexander VI. are but to well known. If fuch manners had ftill fubfifted, Italy would be at this day more defert than Peru was soon after the invafion of the Spaniards.

The belief of a God, the rewarder of good actions, the punisher of bad, and the forgiver of fins, is then a belief the most uleful to mankind; it is the only check to power which infolently commits public crimes; it is the only curb upon thofe whofe cunning renders their crimes fecret. I do not defire you, my friends, to mix with this neceffary belief fuperftitions which difhonor it, and which may even render it deftructive. The atheift is a monfter who will devour merely to appeale hunger; the fuperftitious perfon is another moniter who will tear mankind to pieces from-duty. I have always

R: 2

emarked

remarked that an atheift may be cured, but that the radical cure of a fuperftitious man never happens. The atheift is a man of fenfe, who is mistaken, but who thinks for himfelf; the fuperftitious perfon is a brutal fool, who never had a single idea of his own. The atheist will violate Iphigenia, ready to give her hand to Achilles; but the fanatic will pioufly cut her throat upon the altar, and believe that Jupiter is much obliged to him. The atheift will commit facrilege, that he may have where-withal to treat a courtezan; but the fanatic will celebrate an auto-da-fé in the church, and roar out a Jewish song, while he is burning a Jew. Yes, my friends, atheifm and fanatacifm are the two poles of an univerfe of confufion and horror; the little zone of virtue lies between thefe two poles; walk fteadify in that path ;' believe in a good God, and be yourselves good."

We have no objection to the morality of all this; but fuch reasoning is trite and common, and little calculated to convince any but fuch as are particularly well-difpofed to conviction. We have, indeed, fo many much better difcourfes on the fubject by other writers, that if it were not for the fake of M. de Voltaire's peculiar manner of ftile and compofition, a version of this ftory, into the English language, would hardly have been worth the pains of the translator.

M.

The Philofophy of Rhetoric. By George Campbell, D. D. Principal of the Marefchal College, Aberdeen. 8vo. 2 vol. 10s. Cadell, The spirit of philofophifing, which, as De Lolme obferves, has within the prefent century diffused itself fo extenfively throughout Europe, has given birth to many ingenious and beautiful theories, refpecting fubjects, that were generally deemed incapable of scientific investigation. In morals and politicks particu larly there have appeared of late years many excellent theoretical tracts; nor have even tafte and genius themfelves, however profound and intricate their firft principles, efcaped a fevere and fuccefsful fcrutiny. Hence the je-ne-fcai-quoi of our volatile neighbours

In fome parts of the work, however, we think the philofophical, pious and good Dr. Friend, rather too remifs. Thus, fpeaking of his fon James's amour with Donna Boca Vermeja, he fays, " Fornication between two free perfons was perhaps formerly a kind of natural right; that right James may enjoy difcreetly without my interfering. I lay him under no more reftraint in his amours than in his dinner or fupper; were adultery in the cafe, I confefs I fhould be more fevere, becaufe adultery is a theft; but as for you, young lady, who injure no perfon, I have no reproaches to make you."

If this be not encouraging, it is apologizing for fornication; which though not fo great a fin as adultery, is yet a lin. Nor is adultery more criminal merely because it is a theft. The adulterer often leaves behind more than he takes away; and if not, as Shakespeare fays,

He that is robb'd not wanting what is stolen,

Let him not know't and he's not robb'd at all.

+ At least a dialect of it; the tranflator being evidently not a native of South-Britain. If he were he would hardly write the English, when speaking of a fingle perfon, instead of the English-man.

neighbours, that hath been fo long the conftant refource of ignorance and indolence, is at length almost banifhed the fociety of the ingenious. The prefent attempt to carry philofophical enquiry into the principles of rhetoric and oratory is not lefs curious and well conducted than most of thofe tracts, to which we have animadverted.

*

The general defign and purpose of it, the author modeftly tells us, is to exhibit on the one hand, a tolerable sketch of the human mind; and aided by the lights which the poet and the ora tor fo amply furnish, to disclose its fecret movements, tracing its principal channels of perception and action, as near as poflible, to their fource: and, on the other hand, from the fcience of human nature, to afcertain, with greater precision, the radical principles of that art, whofe object it is, by the ufe of language, to operate on the foul of the hearer, in the way of informing, convincing, pleafing, moving, or perfuading.

In his introduction the writer enters more particularly into his fubject.

"All art, fays he, is founded in fcience, and the science is of little value which does not ferve as a foundation to fome beneficial art. On the moft fublime of all sciences, theology and ethics, is built the most important of all arts, the art of living. The abstract mathematical fciences ferve as a ground-work to the arts of the land-measurer and the accountant; and in conjunction with natural philofophy, including geography and aftronomy, to thofe of the arhitect, the navigator, the dialift, and many others. Of what confequence anatomy is to furgery, and that part of phyfiology which teaches the laws of gravitation and of motion, is to the artificer, is a matter too obvious to need illuflration. The general remark might, if neceffary, be exemplified throughout the whole circle of arts, both ufeful and elegant. Valuable knowledge therefore always leads to fome practical skill, and is perfected in it. On the other hand, the practical fkill lofes much of its beauty and extenfive utility, which does not originate in knowlege. There is by confequence a natural relation between the fciences and the arts, like that which fubfifls between the parent and the offspring.

I acknowledge indeed that thefe are fometimes unnaturally feparated; and that by the mere influence of example on the one hand, and imitation on the other, fome progrefs may be made in an art, without the knowledge of the principles from which it sprang. By the help of a Few rules, which men are taught to ufe mechanically, a good practical arithmetician may be formed, who neither knows the reafons on which the rules he works by were firft eftablished, nor ever thinks it of any moment to inquire into them. In like manner, do we not frequently meet with expert artifans, who are ignorant of the fix mechanical powers, which, though in the exercife of their profeffion they daily

For which alfo, it is obfervable the public are indebted chiefly to the writers of North Britain.

daily employ, they do not understand the principles whereby, in any inflance, the refult of their application is alcertained? The propagation, of the arts may therefore be compared more juftly to that variety which takes place in the vegetable kingdom, than to the uniformity which obtains univerfally in the animal world; for, as to the anomalous race of zoophytes, I do not comprehend them in the number. It is not always neceffary that the plant fpring from the feed, a flip from another plant will often anfwer the purpose. There is, however, a very confiderable difference in the expectations that may juflly be raised from the different methods followed in the acquifition of the art. Improve ments, unless in extraordinary infances of genius and fagacity, are not to be expected from thofe who have acquired all their dexterity from imitation and habit. One who has had an education no better than that of an ordinary mechanic, may prove an excellent manual operator; but it is only in the well-inftructed mechanician, that you would expect to find a good machinift. The analogy to vegetation, above fuggefted, holds here alfo. The off-fet is commonly no more than a meie copy of the parent plant. It is from the feed only that you can expect, with the aid of proper culture, to produce new varieties, and even to make new improvements on the fpecies. "Expert men, fays Lord Bacon, can execute and judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counfels, and the plots aud maifhalling of affairs, come beft from thofe that are learned.'

"Indeed, in almost every art, even as used by mere practitioners, there are certain rules, as hath been already hinted, which must carefully be followed, and which ferve the artist iuftead of principles. An acquaintance with thefe is one flep, and but one step towards Icient. Thus in the common books of arithmetic, intended folely for practice, the rules laid down for the ordinary operations, as for numeration, or numerical notation, addition, fubtraction, multiplication, divifion, and a few others, which are fufficient for all the purposes of the accountant, ferve inflead of principles; and, to a fuperficial obferver, may Le thought to fuperfede the ftudy of any thing further. But their utility reaches a very little way, compared with that which refults from the

knowledge of the foundations of the art, and of what has been, not unfitly, flyled arithmetic univerfal. It may be jusly faid, that, without fome portion of this knowledge, the practical rules had never been invented. Befides, if by thefe the particular queftions which come exacly within the defcription of the rule may be folved, by the other fuch general rules themfelves, as ferve for the folution of endless particulars, may be difcovered.

"The cafe I own is fomewhat different with thofe arts which are entirely founded on experiment and obfervation, and are not derived, like pure mathematics, from abftract and univerfal axioms. But even in thefe, when we rife from the individual to the fpecies, from the fpecies to the genus, and thence to the most extenfive orders and claffes, we arrive, though in a different way, at the knowledge of general truths, which, in a certain fenfe, are alfo fcientific, and anfwer a fimilar purpose. Our acquaintance with nature and its laws is fo much ex

tended,