methodical, with great perspicuity and very fine colouring. He was replied to by PITT, who in the most masterly manner laying hold of the weakest parts of his speech, with the greatest strength of expression, and, in the most manly style I ever witnessed, turned almost all his colours against him. Murray had laid a good deal of stress on exposing the inconsistency of advising one thing the one year, and the next abusing it merely through a spirit of opposition. Pitt shewed how the object was varied, but varied by the minis ters, and then turned every argument employed by Murray against himself. The one spoke like a pleader, who could not divest himself of a certain appearance of having been employed by others; the other spoke like a gentleman, like a statesman, who felt what he said, and possessed the strongest desire of conveying that feeling to others, for their own interest and that of the country. Murray gains your attention by the perspicuity of his arguments and the elegance of his diction; Pitt commands your attention and respect, by the nobleness, the greatness of his sentiments, the strength and energy of his expressions, and the certanty you are in of his always rising to a greater elevation both of thought and style: for this talent he possesses beyond any speaker I ever knew of, never falling from the beginning to the end of his speech either in thought or in expression." David Hume was also a friend and correspondent of Mr. Home: from his letters on literary subjects it is not necessary to quote, one general observation will serve to discriminate those inserted in this chapter, that the author of them seems to write with a much greater desire to obtain notoriety by the works to which he alludes, than from them to enforce conviction. We agree with Lord W. that the avowal to be found at the conclusion of the first, book of the Treatise of Human Nature, and which is quoted in the note, is striking and memorable, is, indeed as extraordinary an instance of the extremes of mental strength and; moral imbecility, as we have met with in, our critical progress, except in contemplating the character of liousseau. In 1741, "Mr. Home was married to Miss Agatha Drummond, a younger daughter of James Drummond, Esq. ot Blair, in the county of Perth. Their union was the result of mutual esteem, and a perfect knowledge of each other's character, founded on a long and amtumate acquaintance." Of this lady a most excellent and truly amiable character is given, which we have no doubt is correctly drawn, because it has fallen within the scope of our observation that many of her coun trywomen whom we have known seemed copies of the same portrait. "In the early part of Mr. Home's married life," says Lord W. " attention to economy was a necessary duty; and he found in his partner that excellent good sense and discretion, which felt it no sacrifice to conform their mode of living to the just bounds of their income. I have from Mr. Drummond Home the following anecdote, which, as he observes, is illustrative of the characters both of his father and mother. " Mrs. Home, who had a taste for every thing that is elegant, was passionately fond of old china, and soon after her marriage had made such frequent purchases in that way, as to impress her huse band with some little apprehensions of her extravagance. But how to cure her of this propensity was the question. After some consideration he devised an ingenious expedient. He framed a will, bequeathing to his spouse the whole china that should be found in his possession at his death. The success of the plot was complete; the lady was cured from that moment of her passion for old china. This little pious fraud Mr. Home was wout frequently to mention with some exultation; but it was not so much the effect as the ingenuity of the stratagem that touched hum. For, as it commonly happens, we value ourselves most on those talents we least pose sess, it was amusing to see a person of his artless character pique himself on his finesse, though, in fact, nothing was more foreign to his nature." Glancing at the modes in which Mr. Home passed his life in town and coun try, Lord W. says, that, in the first, "The day was devoted chiefly to professional duties. He had always been in the habit of rising early; m summer between five and six o'clock, in winter generally two hours before day-break. This time was spent in preparation for the ordinary business of the court, in rading his briefs, or in dictating to an amanensis. The forenoon was passed in the court of session, which at that time com inonly rose soon after mid-day; thus allowing an-hour or two before dinner for a walk with a friend. In town he rarely either gave or accepted invitations to dinner, as the afternoon was required 'for busmess and study. If the labours of the day were early accom plished, and time was left for a party at cards before supper, he joined the ladies in the drawing-room, and partook with great satisfaction in a game of whist, which he played well, though not always with perfect forbearance if matched with an unskilful partner; yet even these little sallies of tem. per were amusing, and seasoned with so much good humour, that they rather pleased than offended, the person who was their object. At other times he was not unfrequently seen of an evening at the theatre, the concert, or the assembly-room; and possessing in a wonderful degree the power of discharging his mind of every thing that was not in consonance with his present occupa tions, he partook with the relish the amusements of the gay circle that surrounded him. It was delightful to see the man of business and the philosopher mingling, not only with complacence but with ease, in the light and trivial conversation of the beau monde, and rivalling in vivacity and animation the sprightliest of the votaries of fashion, whose professed object is pleasure and the enjoy ment of the passing hour. The evening was generally closed by a small domestic party, where a few of his most intimate friends, assembled for the most part without invita tion, found a plain but elegant little supper, and where, enlivened often by some of Mrs. Home's female acquaintance, the hours were passed in the most rational enjoyment of sensible and spirited conversation, and easy social mirth, till after midnight." "The seasons of vacation were usually spent in the country, and with no other interruption to his hours of study than his favourite agricultural pursuits and rural im and a work of the highest utility to the pro fession of the law in Scotland." At the awful period of the rebellion in the years 1745 and 1746, we find that, in consequence of the disorders of the time, which particularly pervaded the north, judicial proceedings were suspended in Scotland, the court of session not meeting for eleven months. During this interval, in which the gown gave place to the sword, Mr. Home dedicated his hours to researches connected with the history, laws, and ancient usages of his country; the fruit of these he published in the year 1747, under the title of Essays upon several Subjects concerning British Antiquities; of which work, uuder its several heads, Lord W. gives an accurate account. In the fifth chapter it is stated, that in 1751, Mr. Home published his work, entitled, Essays on the Principles of Morality and Natural Religion, to counteract a train of conclusions drawn by David Hume, which he discovered deeply affected the great interests of society, and seemed to shake the foun provements demanded. **** In these pur- dation of the moral agency of man, suits he found a pleasing variety of employment, and an useful recreation from his sedentary occupations; and prosecuting with ardour, as was the turn of his mind, every thing in which he engaged, it was his custoin to oversee in person the operations of his farm-servants, and to spend every day some hours with them in the fields, directing, and even aiding, their labours. One day, a country gentleman of his neighbourhood coming to dine with him at Kames, found him in the fields hard at work in assisting lus men to clear the stones from a new enclosure. * It was after his promotion to the rank of judge. His neighbour attended him for some time, with labouring steps and inuch inward impatience, till summoned by the bell for dinner. • Well, my lord,' said he, 'you have truly wrought for your meal:-and pray let me ask you, how much you think you will gain by that hard labour at the end of the year? Why really, my good Sir!' replied the other, I never did calculate the value of my labour; but one thing I will venture to assert, that no man who is capable of asking that question will ever deserve the name of a farmer.' " In 1741, he published, in two volumes folio, The Decisions of the Court of Session, from its Institution to the present Time, abridged and digested under proper Heads, in the Form of a Dictionary: a composition of great labour, the fruit of many years, • Rident vicini glebas et Sara moventem. Hor. epist. xiv. and consequently, in some degree, divested him both of his right conduct in the present life, and his best grounded hopes of futurity. Of the metaphysical writings of David Hume we have before given our opinions; we take his mind, as it appears in these, to resemble an ignis fatuus, which, containing no interior light, only serves to bewilder others: therefore, however we may bestow reluctant praise on those who have endeavoured to counteract their effects, we should have much more cordially joined in our commendations, if, instead of endeavouring to fix the meteors of science, they had suffered them to expire in consequence of their own evanescence. of all the species of controversy which have for ages disordered the human mind, that which regards metaphysics stantial; and of all that have endeais the most fleeting, the most unsubvoured to grasp the clouds of speculation, which perhaps to their mental faculties appeared in the form of the goddess of Wisdom, the author alluded to has been the most unsuccessful. That he should have been censured, or that the system of Mr. Home should have been keenly attacked, we do not wonder, because censure and attack are so intimately connected with the subject, so naturally spring from it, that it Lectures on Scripture Facts. By the Rev. William Bengo Collyer. I vol. 8vo. pp. 593. We had occasion some time since to perfectly rational, and that all evidences weighed, and all circumstances considered, it is clear that events could not have taken place otherwise than as they are recorded. Is it objected that it claims support from miracles? It will follow from our representations, if they are made with the strength and clearness which we desire, that such a book, so written and so supported, could it be proved to be false, would of itself be a greater miracle than any that appears upon its pages. The facts which it records are the immediate subjects of examination in the present course of lectures; and these will be considered in the course of their history, and confirmed by foreign and ancient testimony, under the following arrangement : LECTURE II. COUNT OF IT IS THE ONLY RATIONAL Gen. i. 1. LECTURE IIL. Gen. vii. 11-24. 2 Pet. iii. 5-7. mention with considerable commenda- THE CREATION THAT THE MOSAIC ACtion a sermon by this learned and ingenious author: therefore it is with pleasure that we can, in this short notice, intimate to the public the appearance of this volume, which is a more finished piece from the hand of the same master. But as we conceive that it would in us be a waste of words if we were to attempt a laboured introduction, we shall let him introduce himself by a quotation of a passage from the first lecture, ON THE NECESSITY OF A DIVINE REVELATION, as this will, inuch better than any thing we can say, elucidate the nature and scope of these effusions, at the same time that it affords an example of the style and manner of THE DESTRUCTION OF SODOM AND GOMOR the preacher. Јов хі. 7-9. Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is high as Heaven, what canst thou do? deeper than Hell, what canst thou know? the measure thereof is longer than the carth, and broader than the sea! After apologizing for the undertaking, the lecturer observes, that "It will be proper in a few words to state the immediate purpose of these lectures, and the object of the plan which I am about to suggest: it is simply to meet scepticism on its own ground, in relation to first principles, It is asserted, that the facts recorded in this volume have no evidence. We shall endeavour to prove that they are furnished with all the evidence which events so remote can have, and which reason ought to require of time. It is said, that Christianity is a modern invention. On the contrary, if our purpose be established, it will appear as old as the creation. Is the authority of the scriptures questioned? We will produce other testimonies. Is its history condemned as absurd? We shall attempt to shew that it is LECTURE IV. THE DESTRUCTION OF BABEL THE CON- Gen. xi. 1-9. Obadiah 3 and 4. RAH. Gen. xix. 15-26. 2 Pet. ii. 6. LECTURE VI. THE HISTORY OF JOSEPA. Gen. xlix. 22-26. Acts vii. 9-16. LECTURE VII. A SCRIPTURAL REPRESENTATION OF THE Gen. i. 7. Job xxxii. 8. LECTURE VIII. THE SLAVERY AND DELIVERANCE OF Gen. xv. 13, 14. Acts vii. 35, 36. LECTURE IX. THE JOURNEY OF ISRAEL IN THE WILDER- Joshua xxiv. 2-13. LECTURE X. THE GOVERNMENT OF THE JEWS-INCLUD- THE BUILDING OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE: WITH A CONFIRMATION OF SOME SUBORDINATE FACTS. 1. Sam. viii. 6-10, and 19, 20. Acts vii. 44-48. LECTURE XI. THE CAPTIVITIES OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH. 2 Kings xvii. 1-6. 2 Chron.xxxvi. 14-21. LECTURE XII. THE LIFE, DEATH, RESURRECTION, AND ASCENSION OF JESUS CHRIST PROVEDAS MATTERS OF FACT. Luke ii. 1-7. Cor. xv. 3-8. 2. Pet. i. 16. incumbent spirit, the primeval element, upon us, than he might have done, as we conceive, with effect. We allude to the system of HINDOO cosmogony, as displayed. in the Ayeen Akbery, and various other works, translated by Sir William Jones and other scientific Orientalists. We mean not that he should have entangled his mind with the various accounts in the different Sastras, giving to that event a rise and duration infinitely more remote and extended than those of the CHINESE; neither would it have been necessary for him to have dwelt long upon the LECTURE XIII. THE CHARACTER OF THE WRITERS OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT. or the mundane egg; but from some striking circumstances of similarity between the HINDOO, the HEBRAIC, the PHOENICIAN, the EGYPTIAN, and GRECIAN systems of cosmogony, we think that the MOSAIC might be, though not 1 more clearly elucidated. However, this we mention with great diffidence, while we give to the other 1 John i. 1-3. Heb. xi. S6-38. LECTURE XIV. THE UNSEARCHABLE GOD; OR, AN AT- perhaps more firmly established, still TEMPT TO PROVE AN ANALOGY BETWEEN THE RELIGION OF NATURE AND THAT OF THE BIBLE, BY SHEWING THAT THE SAME OBSCURITY THAT OVERSHADOWS REVE- lectures, which we wish we had, in our LATION EQUALLY OVERSPREADS NATURE AND PROVIDENCE. Job xxxvi. 14. By this enumeration of the titles of these lectures, it will be seen upon what adamantine columns the temple which Mr. Collyer has erected to the truth of Christianity rests; but this is not the whole scope of his design; both his piety and his genius have taken much more extensive excursions. He has pierced the original ground upon which the fabric stands to its centre; convinced us of its stability, and shewn us how futile the attempts that have, from time to time, been made, have proved in their events. To do this with effect, he has brought the opinions and doctrines of a great number of ancient, and a due proportion of modern philosophers, divines, and other writers, to bear upon it; he has called to his assist ance physical, astronomical, ethical, and geographical arguments; and in refutation of certain positions respecting the DELUGE, he has pervaded a quarter of the globe which has seldom been mentioned in disquisitions on this important subject, and from the savage wilds of America adduced suggestions to confate those of the polished sceptics of Europe. With respect to the second lecture, ON THE CREATION, if we might venture to hint an omission, we should say, that the learned author has made less use of a new light which has lately burst Magazine, space to detail to the public, our most unqualified approbation: their subjects, as has been seen, are calculated to excite the most serious attention; their style is at once correct, elegant, and impressive; their arguments pious, learned, and, we think, conclusive. We are not much in the habit of commending notes where they appear more the emanations of ostentation than of utility; but this is not the case with those appended by Mr. C. to cach lecture, from the subjects of which they naturally emanate. These, as they appear to us to be in every instance elucidatory, are certainly necessary, though we commend him for throwing them into what may be termed the back ground, because notes at the bottom of the page are too apt, on a first reading, to attract our eyes from the text, and to break, in some measure, the connected chain of ideas which contemplations so important in their consequences as those which must arise from the contents of this volume are certain to engender. J. M. The Inferno of Dante Alighiri, translated into English Blank Verse, with Notes historical, critical, and explanatory, and a Life of the Author, by Nathaniel Howard. 1 vol. 12mo. pp. 293. Dante was one of those early professors of literature, and consequently promoters of morality, that had the sagacity to discern, and the courage to drag into light, the criminal misconduct of the Romish Clergy. After having met Pope ANASTASIUS in the depths of hell, and NICHOLAS III. planted in those infernal regions with his heels upward, it was not much to be wondered that he should represent their holy mother, the Church, as sinking under the weight of her offspring's crimes, and polluted with mire and filth. The metaphors which he bold, and their author one of those geniuses whose ideas, equally extensive used were and excursive, cannot by any means be chained down to strict poetic rules, because his images, whether grand, elevated, or terrific, are calculated to inspire us at once with awe, astonishment, and horror. DANTE has been compared to Homer and iirgil, and much more frequently to Shakspeare and Milton: but although we could enlarge the comparison with the names of other authors whose effusions seem, with respect to their extravagance, more similar, it is here unnecessary. Those vivifying and electric flashes of genius with which his works abound, are in a certain degree peculiar to himself; in ludicrous images he might, perhaps, find many equals, in terrific very few. The translator, therefore, of such an author must have found the task an arduous one, especially as he has chosen to reduce the Italian rhyme to English blank verse; a kind of measure in which, although he has acquitted himself with considerable ability, we cannot help thinking less consonant to the genius of the original than rhyme would have been, though it is certainly less troublesome to the translator. However he is of a different opinion; for he says, "A servile Anglo-Italian version has been avoided equally as much as too great a latitude from the original. A medium has been attenipted; but with what success, those who are competent to judge of the gemus of both Languages, and of the characteristic style of Dante, wul decide." Of this translation we shall give what may be esteemed a fair specimen: it would, perhaps, be deemed invidious to call to our assistance comparison; but in support of our opinions must observe, that the versification seems, which was never the intention of the Still wreaks on others.'' Spirit!' I began, • Oh! as thou dreadst the other's rankling fangs Deign, deign to name the phantom in our will, The Life of Thomas Chatterton. By The unhappy youth who is the subject of this short biographical work, has been, since his death, so much the object of general attention, that we should have imagined another life of him, especially after that written by Dr. Gregory, and appended to the works of the BOY BARD, as in this he is quaintly termed, was wholly unnecessary. The question respecting respectin the genuineness of "Rowley's Poems," which was sharply controverted betwixt Mr. Warton, Mr. Bryant, Mr. Matthias, and others, has long since subsided; and although a new edition of his works has recently been published, collateral events and observations had, before, even the appearance of this, rendered his life so well known, that it is impossible for the most ardent spirit of inquiry, guided by the most enthusiastic genius, to produce any thing new upon the subject. The position with which our author begins, that "It has been found that the powers of gemus, however they may levy a tribute on fiture times, promote but little the fortune of the possessor," has been exemplified in a hundred instances besides this of Chatterton, and |