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called their pan unbroken, at the depth only of four or five inches.' To plough deep, and deeply to deposit manure, were with him prevailing maxims: but, as the object of the farmer on light soils should be to give them tenacity, he avoided the too frequent use of the plough, and has been known to have put in a crop of wheat on a clover lay without any ploughing. Mortified at finding that a large field, under several preparations, refused to give a wheat-crop, and perceiving that the evil consisted in that species of looseness in the soil which causes the plant to be what the farmers call root-fallen, his sagacity led him merely to scarify the surface, to leave the chief part of the soil undisturbed, and, after having carted to the farmyard the bulbs of the clover, to drill in his wheat. The success was great.-Mr. D. was also an advocate for the use of long fresh dung; and though he practised the drill-husbandry, it was not with the penurious view of saving seed.

The Secretary concludes his lecture on the merits of Bakewell, Arbuthnot, and Ducket, with lamenting the perversity of English farmers, and with urging the necessity of bringing the agricul tural world to the recognition of those great principles which the practice of these individuals have indisputably established. The conciseness of this pamphlet will prevent it from frightening the farmer; who, if he has any good sense, will perceive the importance of the hints which it contains, and, if he has any regard to his own interest, will be guided by them.

Art. 23. An Enquiry into the Nature and Cause of the Resp, or that Disease which is so destructive among Sheep, especially Lambhogs, on being first put to Cole-keeping; with Proposals for publishing by Subscription a Recipe, containing Directions effectually to prevent and cure the Resp, and to promote the increased Safety of Cole and Turnip-feeding Sheep throughout the Year. 8vo. pp. 69. 2s. 6d. Jacob, Peterborough ; Longman and Co. London. 1811.

The writer of this Enquiry wishes to be considered as a philosophical agriculturist, and it is due to him to own that he appears to have bestowed minute attention on the diseases of sheep: but his proposal of a subscription from 500 individuals, of a guinea each, for the disclosure of his secret for the certain cure of the resp, a disorder arising from indigestion, is not altogether in the character of a philosopher. He ought rather to be called a super-quack; for his system rises several notes above common quackery. If a person has discovered any nostrum or specific for the cure of a disease, the usual mode is to advertise the same; and the public, by the purchase of a bottle, box, or packet of it, ean make trial of its effects: but this sheep-doctor only advertises that he has a recipe which he will disclose when he has pocketed five hundred guineas!! We have merely the writer's word for the efficacy of his nostrum; he does not propose to send some bottles or packets round to different graziers, who may put his specific to the test: but he hits on a plan by which he hopes in some trifling degree to advance his fortune by the discovery,' before he gives farmers an opportunity of knowing whether it be a discovery worth learning.-Scarcely had we read four pages of this tract, when we perceived the author's

spleen

spleen against Mr. Lawrence, and the cause of his ill-will to that respectable writer soon developes itself. Mr. L., forsooth, has asserted "that all infallible receipts are infallible nonsense:" an assertion which no proposer of a specific can ever forgive. The resp-recipe monger tells us that in this sense there is no grammar :' but if he can make no other objection to it, Mr.L. needs not be dismayed.

While, however, we object to this writer's proposal, we do not call in question his knowlege. Many useful remarks are thrown out in this treatise, concerning the treatment of sheep, when turned into a field of cole and turnips; and probably his secret may have some thing valuable in it. Considering the Reap, or Rasp, (as it is generally pronounced) as the result of rapid repletion in cole-feeding, the bleeding which he recommends may bejudicious; and as the digestion is affected, something to give tone to the stomach of the animal may be very proper. Let the value of the recipe, however, be tried before the inventor obtains his reward.

NOVELS.

Art. 24. Eugénie et Mathilde; ou Mémoires de la Famille du Comte de Revel: par l'Auteur d'Adèle de Senanges. 12mo. 3 Vols. 15s. Deconchy. 1811.

We opened with pleasure a new work from the same pen which produced " Adèle de Senanges," and we recognized in Eugenie et Mathilde much of the graceful naïveté for which the writings of Madame de Souza are already distinguished. The story is perhaps too melancholy to be popular; and, with the exceptiou of Eugenia, all the personages present a view of human imperfection which is so natural that the contemplation of it becomes painful like those effigies in wax, which startle us by their resemblance to the individuals whom they are intended to represent. We disapprove the character of Ladislaus, because he resolves on every emergency to commit suicide, while the author attaches no blame to this determination; and the apostrophe to mothers is laboured and tedious: but the general style of the work is elegant and unaffected, the first volume is replete with touching and pleasing traits, and the whole tale is extremely interesting.

Art. 25. Raphaël, ou La Vie paisible, c.: Raphael, or a peaceful Life. By Augustus La Fontaine. Translated from the German by M. Breton. 2 Vols. 12mo. 78. sewed. Dulau. Here is another novel translated from the German of the prolific La Fontaine; and this author's facility of composition is such that it may be presumed, if he had two or three amanuenses, he would dictate two novels at the same time, with as little difficulty as Phillidor found in winning two games of chess, while he walked from table to table. — We allow that the works of La Fontaine are never without interest, but the present is less pleasing than those which we lately noticed. Its title also is not appropriate, since the principal characters seem to expect and to seek peace only in their graves; and the adventures which it relates are neither probable nor

* See accounts of five others, in our Appendix, published with this Number, pages 541-543.

very

very impressive. The difference between the customs of one country and those of another may, perhaps, be made to account to us for a poor painter's inviting the Rector Schulten to spend the rest of his life with him, on the first day of their acquaintance; as also for the ready acceptance of this invitation, and the fluency with which the Rector talks Greek to ladies and valets de chambre: but the impulse of parental affection is the same in Germany as in England; and in neither country would a father, on first learning that his son nourishes a hopeless passion, amuse himself with taking his picture in the character of Antiochus, languishing for Stratonice.'

The discoveries which precede the denouement are still more extraordinary than the passages to which we have alluded: - but the story of Grossmann's and Annette's early love is agreeably told, and Raphael himself is naif and engaging, although

"Too soon dejected and too soon elate,"

like most heroes of modern and particularly of German novels.

RELIGIOUS.

Art. 26. Devotional and Doctrinal Extracts, from Epistles of the Yearly Meetings in London, of the People called Quakers, from the Year 1678 to 1810. 8vo. pp. 90. 25. Cradock and Joy. 1811. For many years, the amiable Society of Friends pursued the even tenor of their way, without being disturbed by those internal feuds and agitations which result from theological controversy; and we attributed their harmony, not to an abfolute uniformity of opinion, but to their having no rock of creeds on which they could possibly split. Though, however, they had no avowed formula of faith, their sentiments as a body were supposed to be made clear by their writings, published by authority, or with the sanction of their yearly meetings. The works of Penn, Fox, Pennington, &c. have been quoted by all writers: but the compiler before us thinks that the surest evidence of the doctrinal sentiments of the Friends is that which is found in their yearly epistles, which proceed from the body at large in their annnal convocation (if we may use this word) in London. Accordingly, extracts are here made from them, for the purpose of shewing that the society cannot be regarded as Trinitarians, since the language employed by the compilers of the yearly epistles asserts or implies the Supremacy of the Father, and the consequent subordination of the Son.' The compiler, however, with all his desire to preserve his brethren in the consistent profession of the unity of God, and that he alone is the proper object of prayer and supreme adoration,' has not found the yearly-meeting epistles uniformly constructed on those principles. A few instances occur in which Christ is joined with God, as an object of “worship:" but they are rare. Of the 132 epistles, not more than 20 ascribe "Blessing-Glory-Dominion-Honour-Worship-Praise or Power," to Jesus Christ: but it cannot be denied that, occasionally, in these epistles, Christ is associated with God the Father as an object of devotion. On the other hand, they prove that the general practice of the Friends has been to ascribe adoration and prayer to the Father, as the only proper object of religious worship.

This is the amount of the evidence: but we are at a loss to perceive what authority it can have in settling disputes.

Aware, indeed, of the invalidity of this testimony, the writer subjoins arguments to his extracts. After having noticed the epistles which favour the doctrine of the Deity of Christ, he adds, If Christ be really considered, as these notions represent, the proper object of prayer and supplication, the bestower of our natural talents, as well as the dispenser of all spiritual blessings, and lastly, "omnipotent," I am wholly at a loss to imagine what province in creation, and in the benevolent dispensations of nature and grace, the advocates of such doctrines would assign to God the Father, whom the Scriptures uniformly represent as the original Fountain and Author of all our blessings, temporal and eternal, as our Creator, constant preserver, and final judge, "by that man whom he bath ordained."'

This argument is addressed to the Society called Quakers, and we leave it to them to make a reply. We have done our duty by making a fair report.

Art. 27. Two Sermons, preached at the Visitation of the Rev. the Archdeacon of Leicester, in the Years 1805 and 1811. To which is added, a Sermon on the Salvation which is in Christ only. By the Rev. Edward Thomas Vaughan, M. A. Vicar of St. Martin's and All Saints, Leicester, &c. 8vo. 3s. 6d. Hatchard.

Of these three sermons, the first two are addressed by the preacher to his brethren in the ministry, and the third was delivered to hearers at large. In the discourses to the clergy, Mr. Vaughan urges the importance of preaching, calling it the great master-engine of ministerial usefulness, and explains at large his views of the manner in which Christ should be preached. A proper distinction is also made between loiterers' and labourers' in the spiritual harvest. When he comes to notice the indirect ministration of the clergy by their conduct, he very neatly observes that, though we cannot subscribe to the maxim as generally interpreted,

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"He can't be wrong whose life is in the right,"

we may invert it, and it has a lesson for us.' Having shewn that the ministerial office is an office of labour, he adds, My beloved brethren, let us ask ourselves severally, Do we find it such? do we make it such? do we prove it to be such ?'-Happy would it be for the Archdeaconry of Leicester if all its clergy answered in the affirmative.

In the last sermon, Mr. Vaughan is very orthodox, or what is now called evangelical. It is here asserted that every individual comes into the world guilty;' a proposition which we know not how to reconcile with any correct definition of guilt. The preacher, indeed, seems aware of the difficulty, for he adds in a note, < Perhaps it would be better if we could altogether repress our reasonings respecting the origin of our present condition. We are told that the true faith appears to have an Antinomian tendency. Whether Mr. Vaughan's notion of Christian doctrine be correct, we shall not discuss but we are persuaded that he is a conscientious orthodox believer,

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believer, and is seriously, piously, and zealously disposed to do good to the souls of men.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Art. 28. Description of the Spar Cave, lately discovered in the Isle of Skye, with some Geological Remarks relative to that Island, by K. Macleay, M. D. To which is subjoined, The Mermaid, a Poem. 8vo. pp. 88. 58. Boards. Longman and

Co. 1811.

Descriptions of the more striking scenes of nature seldom convey any distinct or faithful representation of their prototypes, because accuracy of perception, judgment, and taste, are seldom combined in the same individual. Through the dense atmosphere of our metropolis, we have never, even at second sight, contemplated the rocky shores of Skye; and though we have read about it, and about it, we can form no very clear conception of its far-famed sparry cave. In the course of ordinary conversation, indeed, we have heard that it is greatly inferior to the Hole in the Peak: but Dr. M'Leay expressly asserts that no excavation of the same nature and magnitude as this has yet been made known, unless we except the Cavern of Antiparos, one of the Archipelago Islands, and that of Maddison Cave in America. We anticipate thus much to keep our readers in good humour, and prevent their being dragged through commonplace reflections on the highland districts of Scotland, and over dreary masses of granite, sand-stone, basaltic veins, &c. and tumbling, before they were aware, into this miry passage, which is at least as dark as the cave itself. Having given up these immense masses which constitute our primary mountains, and the basis of the world, by some sudden inscrutable process of crystallization, the water is conjectured to have retired into the hollow parts and excavations of the earth thus formed.' The mention of the latitude and longitude of Slocha Altrimen, or the Nursling Cave, in the 19th page, flattered us with the hope of the long-expected peep: but basalt and sand-stone again obstructed our path. Once more we touched the threshold: but, previously to admission, we were condemned to listen to a dull tradition, corroborative of the Gælic appellation of the cave.-The description of its entrance comes, at last, and forms perhaps the least ex ceptionable part of the performance.

A front more beautifully romantic and wild cannot be conceived. A superb rugged arch opens upon the sight, and presents a dark and lonely chasm, which might well have been considered the meet receptacle of deadly fiends. This gloomy portal approaches to the Gothic form, but is somewhat irregular, the point of the arch being a more acute angle, with the top reclining to the left.

On the right side of this opening is an inferior cave, running in a different direction, with many other crevices which give the face of the rock an imbricated look.

The whole of this noble structure, but particularly the great aperture, is embellished with innumerable dark green stalactites of various sizes, some of which descend to the ground and form pillars, grown over with moss, and which, with the softening inter

mixture

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