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ten by Dissenters!' And to prove this they instance the Paradise Lost, the Pilgrim's Progress, Robinson Crusoe, and the works of Dr. Watts! Blind reasoners, who do not see that it is to their intellect, not to their principles of dissent, that Milton, and Bunyan, and De Foe, owe their immortality; strange company, we confess, but each incomparable in his way. With some of their other worthies the world is not so well acquainted, and many of our readers will confess their ignorance of such luminaries as the famous Mr. Wm. Benn of Dorchester; that celebrated Professor Dr. Ebenezer Latham, who presided over a respectable seminary at Findern int Derbyshire: the equally celebrated Mr. Timothy Jollie, who had an academy at Attercliffe in Yorkshire, and the no less celebrated Mr. John Woodhouse, under whose care were educated, among other eminent persons, Mr. Benjamin Bennet, of Newcastle upon Tyne, author of the Christian Oratory; Mr. John Ratcliffe of Rotherhithe; Mr. Matthew Clarke of Miles's Lane; Mr. Benjamin Robinson of Little St. Helen's; and Mr. John Newman of Salters Hall; each of them celebrated,'' So are they all,-all celebrated men!'

Their silly animadversions upon the Liturgy may be past over in silence. We only admire the modesty of the assertion that 'there is no place of worship in England in which extemporary prayer is used, though the minister should have the poorest abilities, where there are so many repetitions as in the morning service of the Church of England, and we know who has said, when ye pray, use not vain repetitions.'

Their chapter upon the state of religious liberty is of greater importance. The American war may now be spoken of without asperity on either side; the generation which entered into its feelings is almost gone by; the actors have almost all disappeared from the stage; and the tragedy may be dispassionately considered in the closet. These writers observe well, as one of the unhappy effects of that war, that it completely destroyed the national harmony which had till then for many years subsisted between all denominations in England. The Jacobites had died a natural death, the church was perfectly tolerant, the Dissenters were contented with complete toleration, and the Roman Catholics were then not heard of. But the American war introduced a dangerous change of feeling in this country. It placed a portion of the English people in mental alliance with the enemies of Eugland. The Dissenters in general adopted the cause of the Americans, and reprobated the measures of the ministry as impolitic and unjust.' They were attached to the Americans,' say these writers, by the peculiar ties of religious union. Many of the colonists in almost every state maintained the same doctrines of faith, and the same system

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of government as themselves; and in the northern states they formed almost the mass of the people. A constant and extensive intercourse was kept up between them; mutual assistance was given in whatever related to the advancement of the cause of religion; and they considered themselves as members of the same body.' How greatly this and the temper with which the opposition to the measures of government was carried on, tended first to occasion an appeal to arms, and finally to produce that result which America has as much reason as England to regret, is indicated in the American Life of Washington, and will one day, perhaps, be known more fully. In that Life we are told that very many persons would have reluctantly engaged in the measures which were adopted if they had really believed that those measures would have terminated in war; that a great portion of the popular leaders expected, by persisting in their resistance, to make the mother country recede from her pretensions, and thus to restore that harmony and free intercourse between the two countries, which they sincerely believed to be advantageous to both; that this opinion derived strength from the communications made to them by many of their zealous friends in England. The divisions and discontents of that country had been represented as much greater than the fact would justify, and the exhortations transmitted to them to persevere in the honourable course which had been commenced with so much glory, had generally been accompanied with assurances that success must yet crown their patriotic labours.' These are the words of Chief Justice Marshall, and he, it must be remembered, was writing from Washington's papers. In the same work it appears that during the war there was a secret committee in America, who had agents abroad to procure military stores, and who were empowered to correspond with their friends in Great Britain, Ireland, and other parts of the world.' And among the grounds of hope by which Washington was encouraged to bear up against difficulties and discouragements which else, perhaps, might have dismayed him, he enumerates' Irish claims and English disturbances.'

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Upon later times the historians of the Dissenters are more explicit. The only mode, they say, of accounting for Mr. Burke's latter writings, without blasting his character for ever as a man of integrity, is by supposing that he was insane quoad the French revolution. Their audacious falsehood in asserting that Burke stood forward as the panegyrist of arbitrary rule,' may be forgiven them for the sincerity with which they speak of that revolution in its effect upon themselves.

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'It was no ordinary season of the exertion of the human faculties. The vigour, with which they fixed on objects, was uncommon, and there

had

had been nothing like it since the era of the reformation. There was an enthusiasm of ardour for the cause of liberty which exalted the mind far above its ordinary level, and gave that sublimity of feeling which those only who entered into it can conceive. In such a temper they spurned at the idea of being dragooned into the renunciation of principles which they believed to be good, and pregnant with happiness to the human race. Hearing the cause of liberty spoken of as evil, and seeing Britain leagued with foreign powers to re-establish despotism in France, they felt themselves impelled to conclude that there was a conspiracy against the liberties of mankind; and that the ministry, by the harsh measures which they pursued, were seeking the destruction of that which was England's glory and its strength.

'As the spirit of philanthropy had been imbibed in conjunction with a zeal for liberty, the horrors of the general war in Europe, the rivers of blood which were shed, and the miseries which were extended far and wide through the world, excited unutterable anguish in their breasts, and increased their aversion to the measures which were pursued. Those among the friends of liberty who were Christians, were more deeply affected than the rest with the state of things both at home and abroad, and with the gloomy prospect before them. Their minds took a wider range, and they viewed liberty in its connection with religion, and its influence on the propagation of the Gospel. When, therefore, they looked around, and saw a combination against the cause of liberty, they viewed it with unutterable horror, as a conspiracy against the Lord and his anointed, to spread the triumphs of superstition and priestcraft, to bind the consciences of mankind in adamantine fetters, to prevent the propagation of divine truth, and, in short, to put the great clock of Europe back five hundred years.'p. 200.

They proceed to trace the effects of the French revolution in Great Britain as connected with religious liberty and the cause of dissent.

"In this point of view there are two which merit particular notice ; they have continued to the present time, they promise to be durable, and they have been attended with benefit.

'One of these effects is the decay, and in many instances the entire removal of the undue influence of titles and office on the mind. Before the French revolution, if a person was decorated with the names and ensigns of nobility, whatever his character and conduct might be, he was looked up to as a being of a superior order. An office of dignity had a similar charm; and however destitute of talents and virtue the man might be who filled it, the splendid robes concealed every defect, and he was supposed to be both wise and upright. Ecclesiastical vestments had a talisman of equal potency wrought into their woof. Though gifts and graces might be sought for under them in vain, the highest honours were given to the wearer because he was a priest.

'But the French revolution taught tens of thousands to reason who never reasoned before; and though, in many things, like young begin

ners,

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ners, they argued falsely, in others they judged rightly and one instance of this was in their concluding that unless a man was wise and good, though the order of society required that he should be treated with external respect, he was not entitled to the esteem and veneration of the heart. In consequence of this, stars, garters, and coronets lost considerably of their value. Ermine could no longer conceal from view a defect of talents and virtue, or procure the homage of the soul without them. The clergyman's gown and cassock, the presbyterian minister's Geneva cloak, and the methodist preacher's unpowdered head and lank hair lost more than nine-tenths of their former worth: the episcopal mitre, apron, and lawn sleeves suffered an equal depreciation. But this furnishes no cause for regret; for to seek to procure respect to a defect of excellence, by external ornaments, is an imposition on mankind.'-p. 202.

'The other effect of the French revolution on the minds of vast multitudes of the people of England, is the diminution or extinction of bigotry to a sect. In the mass of the population of Europe, the strength of attachment to the established religion of the country was only equalled by the violence of their prejudices against every party which was separated from its communion. Of this spirit, the people of this land could boast almost an equal share with any of their neighbours. The effects of this bigotry were felt by the dissenters and methodists, when they opened a house for worship in a town or village where there had been none before. In many places few comparatively would attend; and of those who did, a part was disposed to excite disturbance and insult the preacher. But the French revolution has performed wonders in this respect. The partialities and prejudices especially of the inferior classes in society have dwindled almost to nothing. It is now a more common idea among them, that it is reasonable every one should judge for himself in matters of religion. Where no prohibition is issued by the nobleman or the squire, they now more readily go to hear a minister of a different denomination from their own; they are sensible of the impropriety of behaving amiss; they hear with greater candour; and if they approve of the preacher and his doctrine, they feel less reluctance to become dissenters or methodists. p. 204.

Of all the effects of non-conformity the most baneful is that sort of moral expatriation which it produces. Messrs. Bogue and Bennett deliver it as their opinion that the French revolution has produced good in England, because they think it has lessened the attachment of the people to the civil and religious institutions of their fathers! Their book represents but too well the general temper of those to whom it is addressed; but this is more peculiarly the feeling of the dissenting clergy, and it results from the unfavourable and cheerless circumstances in which they are placed. Had the Dissenters been as liberal as they are opulent, their colleges would have vied with ours; their endowments would have been (comparatively to their numbers) as rich; their education as complete;

their degrees as honourable; the rivalship arising out of such a state of things would have been beneficial to all parties; they would have excited us while they softened themselves. But the spirit of sectarianism is narrow and sullen; it starves its own cause; and the dissenting clergy are now, as they ever have been, soured by their situation, like plants which grow in the shade.

While we make these allowances, and feel this compassion for men thus situated, and thus suffering from the very nature of their situation, it is not in the spirit of ungenerous triumph over them, but in that of humble thankfulness and acknowledgment for the blessings which we ourselves enjoy, that we exclaim-Happy are they who grow up in the institutions of their country, and share like brethren in the feelings of the great body of their countrymen! The village spire is that point amid the landscape to which their eye reverts oftenest and upon which it reposes longest and with most delight. They love the music of the Sabbath bells, and walk in cheerfulness along the church path which their fathers trod before them. They are not soured by the sight of flourishing institutions which they think evil, and therefore wish to overthrow; neither are they tempted to seek in the sullen consolations of spiritual pride a recompense, for the advantages from which their own error excludes them. Their ways are in light and in sunshine, their paths are pleasantness and peace!

ART. VI. Collections from the Greek Anthology, and from the Pastoral, Elegiac, and Dramatic Poets of Greece. By the Rev. R. Bland, and others. 8vo. pp. 525. London, Murray. 1813.

THE greater part of those small poems, which, though often arbitrarily abridged and mutilated by the taste or whim of their editors, have on the whole been transmitted from the hands of Polemio and Meleager to those of Brunck and Jacobs, with tolerable fidelity, seem hitherto to have met with no counterpart in the literature of any country. The word epigram (properly an inscription) has been almost exclusively applied in the Latin, as well as in the living languages, to that species of trifle, generally compressed within the space of a few distichs, the beauty of which consisted in some happy play of words, or conceit of thought. Very different was the epigram of the Greeks without any of the aids by which the greater poets of antiquity embellished their works, with no development of character, no condensation of descriptive images, no agreeable fictions recommended to the imagination by what is at least the most poetical of all the systems of theology, they

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