The Life of the Countess of G. By Gellert. Tranflated from the German. By a Lady. 12mo. 2 vol. 5s. Law. If we are not mistaken this novel has been tranflated, though but indifferently, into English, before. The prefent is an elegant and faithful verfion; doing honour to the abilities of the ingenious Translator; of some of whose original pieces, the Editor gives us reason to expect the publication. The Polite Preceptor: or a Collection of Entertaining and inftructive Effays felected from the best English Writers, and arranged in the most natural Order; with a view to infpire into the Minds of Youth the love of Virtue, and the Principles of true Tafte and juft Reasoning. 12mo. 3s. Crowder. This mifcellany contains upwards of one hundred effays; by the. judicious choice of which, the compiler has effected his profeffed defign; that of rendering it the most regular and compleat collection of the kind that has hitherto appeared in the English language. The Origin of Printing: In two Effays. 8vo. 3s. fewed. Bowyer and Nichols. A coneile and accurate Hiftory of Printing.-Effay the first contains a kind of abstract of Dr. Middleton's treatise on that fubject, as far as it relates to England. -The Second comeprehends a fketch of the fubject-matter of the Origines Typographice of Meerman. To thefe effays is added an appendix, containing an account of the Greek and Hebrew books first printed; and a history of the Polyglotts. Bedlam, a Ball, and Dr. Price's Obfervations on the Nature of Civil Liberly. A poetical Medley. 4to. 1 s. Dodfley. If this medley-monger be not as yet a Bedlamite, we would advise his friends to confult Dr. Monro, or fome other medical practitioner, who may be beft able to inform them, whether it be not proper to abridge a little of his particular civil liberty, left he should by and by make an uncivil ufe of it, to the prejudice of the public in general. An Addrefs to the Genius of America. By the Rev. Chriftopher Wells, Lecturer of Penryn, Cornwall. 18. Dodfley. If Mr. Wells be no better a reader than he is a writer, we fear his auditors of Penryn will not edify much by his preaching. But, tho' no great poet, he may be a good divine; and indeed, an enthufiaftic devotion to the mufes is but a kind of heathenish idolatry at beft; notwithftanding they must be invoked, and be propitious too, or the poet will make bat a poor hand of it. Invila Minerva. Addrefs what ge mius he will, his verfes will not be worth a farthing. CORRES CORRESPONDENCE. TO THE LONDON REVIEWERS. GENTLEMEN, Without intending to call in queftion the judgment of those correfpon dents, whofe hints you have adopted, in regard to giving a critical account of every production that comes from the prefs; I beg leave to remonstrate against the motive, you alledge, for fuch adoption. You intimate that the worst authors would rather be formally damned to fame, than faved by being configned to oblivion. I am by no means fatisfied that this is a general cafe; and am not a little apprehenfive, from the feverity of your damnatory stile, that, if you speak of every bad writer as he deserves, you will raise such a nest of hornets about your ears that you may repent of your refolution. You have not, at prefent, the best character for good-nature; what then will be faid of you, if you put this defign into execution? And, indeed, to what purpose Thould you exprefsly ftigmatize the demerit of fuch works as you have hitherto thought barely worth mentioning? Is not your neglect of them a fufficient condemnation? Why then pafs a formal fentence, which can only ferve to irritate the writers, whofe vanity might otherwife more favourably construe that contemptuous filence; which would yet be obvious to the publick. An inftance or two of what the other reviewers have faid of productions, on which you have been filent, will fhew that they might as well have been filent too. Thus of one they fay, "Pert, filly, vain and dull. Of another, "Feeble, incoherent, and injudicious. Of a third, "Low and fcurrilous. Of a fourth, in a line from the author, "The top's mere froth, the bottom filth and mud. Of a fifth, "A frivolous altercation unworthy the attention of the publick. Of a fixth, "Nothing either good or bad can be faid of this work. Of a feventh, "As the author configns his production to oblivion, we shall make no other animadverfion on it, that as it treats of nothing, fo there is nothing in it." Now would not thefe critics, I fay, have acted juft as wifely, their readers been as much edified, and their authors as well fatisfied, if, having nothing to fay, or nothing deferving to be faid of such productions, they had practifed your referve in faying nothing? I have another reafon for withing you to proceed, as you have hitherto done, in giving abftracts or inftructive and entertaining extracts from valuable publications, with only the mere titles of others; as thofe abftracts may be fuller and the extracts larger than, in the prefent teeming state of the prefs, the limits of a twelve-penny pamphlet will otherwise admit. Inftances of the inconvenience of dwelling indiscriminately on all books are obvious in the contracted accounts thence neceffary to be given of fome that would bear quotation; I will mention only two. Of Mr. Anfty's Election Ball the Monthly Reviewers fay, it is "Replete with genuine humour, wit and ridicule," and this is all they fay. I remember that, within a few days of its first publication you gave us an extract of every thing in it worth reading. Of another little poem the fame reviewers very lately told us, "It is the production of an eafy, elegant bard." Some months ago you gave us the whole of that eafy, elegant production. I could point out a number of fimilar instances of the advantage your readers would reap by your continuing to give an account only of the best publications and paffing over the reft. I hope therefore, you will take the matter into reconfideration, for the fake of those who, not having an opportunity of feeing the books themselves, may have their curiofity gratified by copious abftracts and well felected extracts; which, to your credit, have hitherto distinguished the London Review, and indeed contitute the principal merit of every LITERARY JOURNAL. Chelfca, April 10, 1776. I am Gentlemen, We are obliged to Mr. Sowden for the interest he seems to take in the proper conduct of our Review, but we hope he will approve our paying equal regard to the good will and good advice of others. We flatter ourselves, indeed, that, by due attention to the labours of the prefs and the literary merit of its productions, we may, on our prefent plan, take fome notice of them all, without contracting our extracts from the most deserving. TO THE LONDON REVIEWER S. As I understand, Gentlemen, by your left, that you mean, in fome future Review to animadvert on the purposes deugned to be answered, by the famous experiments in a heated room, by the Drs. Fordyce and Blagdon, recorded in the last volume of the Philofophical Tranfactions; I take the liberty to inform you, by way of preventing mistakes, that I have been let into a fecret; which, with all your critical fagacity, you may poffibly not be able to penetrate. Thefe experiments are but a link in the chain of that evidence, which the Scotch philofophers have been for fome time paft endeavouring to compleat, in order to captivate fcepticism and bind infidelity in bondage. The celebrated Drs. Reid, Beattie and Ofwald have forged the metaphysical, moral and récoisgical parts; to which the Drs. Fordyce and Blagdon, Mr. Hunter and others, are about to add the phyfical: the defign of thefe experiments being neither more nor less than to propagate fcriptural credulity, by proving the natural poflibility, and therefore the moral probability, of the human body's bearing the heat of a fiery furnace, as exemplified in the adventure of Shadrach, Mefvec and Abednego. Your's, 4 LAODICEAN, or Lukewarm, Philofopher, P. S. As a proof of the truth of the above information, there will fhortly appear in the faid Philofophical Tranfactions, fome experiments, equally curious, to prove the fimilar probability of the ftory of Daniel in the Lion's · Den, and Jonas in the Whale's Belly to that of the latter, thofe of the ingenious Mr. John Hunter, respecting the life of the blood, being designed as an introduction; the main experiments to be furnished by Dr. Cogan and Mr. Hawes, the medical inftitutors of the laudable fociety for reftofing drowned perfons; whofe practice, that learned Antiquarian, the late Ebe nezer Mufele, maintained was prevalent at Nineveh, and is even coeval with the general deluge, notwithstanding the different fuccefs of the experi ments on the children of Noah, and the fons of Anak. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. The Editor of the London Review is obliged to Mr. Norman for his friendly reprehenfion; but again begs leave to repeat, that he does not hold himself accountable for the religious or political opinions of any of his affociates. If the clerical petitioners and their partizans have not been fo much coun tenanced in the Review as their Opponents, it has probably been on account of the greater merit or confiftency obferved in the writings of the late ter: it being the fixed determination of the Editor to give the disputants on both fides, as well in that as in every other controverẩy, equal advantage. · We have received a letter of complaint, in behalf of a Bookfeller; whose property we are said to have injured, in condemning the Tranflation of Searron's famous Romance imputed to the late Dr. Goldfmith. See Vol. I. page 475. We are forry if, at any time, the difcharge of our duty to the public fhould prove injurious to individuals; but we conceive the blame to lie at their door and not ours. In this cafe, in particular, we conceived ourfelves bound to do juftice to the memory and fame of Dr. Goldfmith, by declaring our opinion that the tranfation in queftion was wat bis; an opinion in which it appears the public have acquicteed. Had the Bookseller applice to us, before he purchased the copy, we might have prevented his disappointment; but we are determined neither to encourage the ignorance of publishers, nor the impofitions of publication, by contributing to their fuccess. LONDON REVIEW, FOR JUNE, 1776. ADDITIONS to the Works of Alexander Pope, Esq. Together with many original Poems and Letters of cotemporary Writers, never before published. 2 vols. crown 8vo. 6s. Baldwin, It is justly obferved by the editor of thefe Additions to the works of Pope, that "the public rage for the remains of celebrated men, has occafioned many fpurious productions being fathered on them, under the well-known titles of Second Parts and Pofthumous Works. "Our beft authors, continues he, and principally our beft, have been subject to fuch impofitions, which, though they have been in time detected, have yet anfwered the illiberal purposes of fuch a temporary publication. The editor of the prefent work, to get clear of the fhadow of an imputation in this line, is the first to remind the public, that feveral of the pieces here exhibited originally appeared in The St. James's Chronicle. "The favourable reception they met with in that fugitive mode of publication, first suggested to him a wish to give them a more durable form; he accordingly communicated this wish to his friends, who affifted him in his defign, fo much beyond his expectation, that inftead of one volume (his original intention) he has, by their favour, been able to make out two; compofed of fuch materials, as he flatters himfelf will acquit him of the charge of an hafly, or felf-interefted compiler. "Many of the Letters and Poems, of which this publication confifts, were transcribed with accuracy from the originals, in the collections of the late Lords Oxford and Bolingbroke, who are well known to have lived in ftricteft intimacy with Mr. Pope, as well as his literary friends and affociates. Some of the latter will be found no way inferior to other productions of the fame authors. All of the fragments, more or lefs, carry the marks of a mafter. Others of the letters are taken from pamphlets printed fome years ago, which, in the detached manner they then appeared, will, it is to be hoped, fully juflify their prefent mode of publication. They, for the moft part, treat of critical, friendly, hunnorous, and literary fubjects, and abftracted from these, throw new lights upon the character of Mr. Pope, as a man." That these addenda bear internal and indifputable marks of authenticity, we readily admit. So far, therefore, as they afVOL. III. U u ford ford entertainment to the reader, or gratify the rage of popular curiofity respecting the remains of eminent writers, the public are certainly indebted to the editor. We apprehend, however, that the blemishes in Mr. Pope's character, both as a man, and as a writer, will be rather aggravated than diminished by this publication. As a man, they afford inftances of the highest vanity in himself, and of the strangest inconfiftency of opinion, if not duplicity of conduct, with regard to others. Every one knows with what feverity this poignant fatirist treated Mr. Dennis; who, being an author by profeffion, suffered extremely by the wanton cruelty of his repeated attacks.-How do these agree with the following friendly epistle? SIR, Mr. Pope to Mr. Dennis. May 3, 1741. "I called to receive the two books of your letters from Mr. Congreve, and have left with him the little money I am in your debt. I look upon myself to be much more fo, for the omiffions you have pleafed to make in thofe letters in my favour, and fincerely join with you in the defire, that not the leaft traces may remain of that ⚫ difference between us, which indeed I am forry for." You may therefore believe me, without either ceremony or falseness, SIR, Your most obedient, humble servant, A. POPE. Of Mr. Hughes, author of the Siege of Damafcus, Mr. Pope fays, in one of his letters to Swift, he thought him of the clafs of the Mediocribus both in profe and verfe. In the following to Mr. Jabez Hughes, his brother, he declares himself to be of a very different opinion. Το * This letter to Mr. Dennis§ has been fuppreffed, because Mr. Pope has not only ridiculed him in the fictitious account of his frenzy, but afterwards in the Dunciad. + These books were intituled, Original Letters, familiar, moral, and critical. In two volumes 8vo. § On the fubject of Mr. Dennis's ill-treatment by Pope, we have the following letter from Sir Richard Steele. Mr. Steele to Mr. Lintott. "Mr. Lintott, August 4, 1712. "Mr. Addifon defired me to tell you, that he wholly disapproves the manner of treating Mr. Dennis in a little pamphlet by way of Dr. Norris's account.* When he thinks fit to take notice of Mr. Dennis's objections to his writings, he will do it in a way Mr. Dennis fhall have no just reafon to complain of. But when the papers above-mentioned were offered to be communicated to him, he faid he could not, either in honour or confcience, be privy to fuch a treatment, and was forry to hear of it. I am, SIR, Your very humble fervant, RICHARD STEELE." Of the frenzy of Mr. John Den-. A narrative written by Mr. Pope. See his letter to Mr. Addison of July 30, 1714. ↑ Remarks upon Cato. |