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fame protection, (however invisible the workings of it) is extended in his nonage, and is equally neceffary in his adult state.

the husbandman commits his grain to the ground, the phyfician prescribes his drug, or the artift conftructs his machine, anticipating refpectively, with happy confidence, the ac complishment of his purpose from the fame revolutions of the heavenly bodies, the fame viciffitudes of feafons, the fame action of mechanical and physical powers. But take away from the objects of the universe this unity of character; let them appear or act with fickle or lawless mutability; agriculture, mɛdicine, pilotry, mechanism, all calculation, the whole process of induction, the whole force of analogy, the whole directory of expe

"Man," fays our author, " is, from various caufes, fufceptible, in various degrees, of pleasure and pain: can it be fuppofed that there is no provifion, no regimen, for the adjustment of these? By the incitements of the one, he performs many a necessary function, and engages in many an important purfuit; by the impreffions of the other he prefages and evades many a calamity. Can it be fuppofed that all this is exclufive of regulation ?" In addition to the arguments advanced to obviate the pretences urged against the doc-rience, is precluded and cancelled: the purtrine of a fuperintending Providence, and to ⚫ establish the truth of it, the Doctor has in the fourth Sermon examined the complaint, that "this is an evil among all things that are done under the fun, that there is one event unto all;" from which inferences have been drawn in difparagement of this important tenet.

After obferving that there may be a refemblance of circumftances without a coincidence of confequences; that what is visible of conditions or incidents is but a precarious index of pleasure and pain; and that pleasure or pain are still more indeterminate of benefit or disadvantage; he afks, Is it not then falfely or very questionably fuggested against Providence as an evil, or indeed as a fact, except in a very lax fenfe," that there is one event unto all?" But that he may not be thought, by thus arging, to evade rather than encounter the difficulty, he enters into a more direct difcuf. fion of it; which we shall lay before our readers in his own words, to enable them to form their own opinion of the author's ftyle and mode of reasoning.

“Permit me to suppose (no unreasonable poftulate that humanity is a fyftem, for fome wise reason, of fupreme defign, and neceffary in the conftitution of Nature. What does the objection demand? An abolition of general laws in this fyftem; for there must be in general laws promifcuous events. But from the propofed innovation, what mifchiefs would follow? In the first place, the deftruction of order, with which vanishes at once every idea of œconomy and beauty in creation; its parts no longer fimple and congruous; its movements no longer regular; its beings no longer determinate in agency, or specific in character. In the next place, an utter exclufion of certainty, with which vanish all the acquifitions of science, all the principles of art, all the comforts of life. Of caufes and effects we know little, except their connexion; and while this connexion continues ftable, whilft objects exhibit in general, with obfervable conftancy on fimilar trials, fimilar appearances, the mariner pursues his courfe,

fuit of knowledge becomes vain toil, the application of it desperate diffidence; obferi vation is without use, reflection without decifion, provifion for felf-preservation without fecurity, and folicitude without end or remedy.

"If fuch be the conceivable confequences of the projected alteration in the natural world, its inconveniences would not be lefs in the moral. Substitute in the regimen of the mo~ ral world particular laws for general, that is, fuccefs and disappointment, recompence and punishment, adjusted to actions and agents, with accurate and immediate difcriminations, what would obviously refult? In the first period of life, before the formation of moral character, under the common lot of original equality, either an utter fufpenfion of every influencing principle, or distinctions without diverfity, preferences without recommendations, and fufferings without demerit: in fubfequent periods, a bar to the formation of moral character, that would operate univerfally. For under the dominion of Justice so awfully prefent, with arm perceivably extended for inftant retribution, who would dare to reject her allurement, or brave her infliction? Would not the confequence be one determined courfe of conduct? Would not duty be fo irrefiftibly connected with gain, as to leave no room for the indulgence of inclination, the growth of defert, and the difplay of difpofition; for the proof of fincerity by refolution, of benevolence by difinterestedness, of faith by contentment; in fhort, for many exercifes of virtue particularly exalting and perfecting man, particularly venerating and pleafing God?

"It is now perhaps perceived, that general laws, from which arife indifcriminate events, in the administration of the world, carry with them a large and fatisfactory confideration of benefit; and that therefore the objection which demands the reveríal of them, demands an impropriety. Let us next fee (ftill retaining the fuppofition, for the truth of which we have the pledge of Infinite 6882

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Wisdom, that there ought to be in the plan of nature fuch a being as man) whether it does not demand likewife an impoffibility.

66 I. Man may be viewed individually or aggregately. As an individual, he may be confidered as a creature; confequently subject to the government of his Creator, confequently accountable; endowed with powers and defires which imply a destination for futurity, confequently a probationer for the allotments of it. In this light then, without an occafional feparation, in his preparatory ftate, between virtue and happiness, vice and mifery, how is he to be difciplined and tried? Without imperfection, without difficulties to combat, croffes to bear, and temptations to refit, how are his capacities to be opened, his principles explored, his exertions and improvements afcertained?

"Individually likewife, on trial for a future deftination, he is and must be a free agent; required to act with rectitude and with reason, directed by rules, and folicited by motives, but unconstrained in his choice, and unobstructed in his endeavours. Under this difpenfation of moral freedom, it is not poffible to conceive but that there must be irregular and traverfing efforts, mixt means of purfuit, and mixt refults of attainment, with every confequence of every passion or appetite exceflively or mifappliedly indulged; that licentioufnefs will fometimes rival innocence, diffimulation fupplant merit, and fraud circumvent honefty, in the acquifition of pleasure, honour, or profit; in other words, that the bad will he found intermingled and interfering with the good, in the events of worldly gratification.

"But the furvey of man merely as an individual, is curtailed, is unnatural. Let us ra ther confider him in his focial capacity; and the impoffibility that his fate should be otherwife than indifcriminate, will more evidently appear.

connexion operate with farther extension in equalizing events. In the combination of a family the heart is variously touched, and powerfully moved by attachments. It fhoots out, if I may so speak, numerous filaments, which faften with growing force from famliarity to furrounding objects, and whatever affects thefe, communicates immediately with fenfible vibration to the center. In other words, a great portion of human pleasures or pains is derivative, and acts by participation. What then would be the cafe, were reípestive differences and judicial diftinétions to mark events? The wicked could not conceivably be blended with the good in intimate union, without deriving from their profperity fome joy, fome fervice, or fome relief; the good could not, if poffeffing affection or cont paffion, be perpetual witneffes to the vifitations and exemplary chaftisements of funers, under their own root, or in their own lineage, without grief, perhaps without injury too, by the lofs of their utility. It would be impoffible, in short, to punish all the wicked, with abfolute harmlessness to all the good; or to reward all the good without communicating, in some degree, to fome of the wicked a fhare of their felicity: but if so, the scheme of completely feparating lots, without a complete feparation of perfons, defeats itfelf; and it remains to infer, that from the influence both of propagation in descent, and of conjunction by kindred, one event unto all is often inevitable.

"The social sphere of man next widers from the circumference of a family to that of a neighbourhood. Here he is linked and leagued in feveral dependencies of fituation, employment, and intereft. He breathes a common air with his affociates, he eats of fi milar food, he purfues joint objects with them in callings, travels, enterprizes: fhall, then, that which is noxious to fome, prove at the fame time falutary to others? Shall winds be at once favourable and adverse to the fame voyagers? Shall famine and plenty, defeat and conqueft, danger and fafety, be found attendants on the fame parties at the fame inftaut?-Abfurd !-Without an inceffant accumulation of interfering miracles; without a perpetual and inconceivable inverfion of natural caufes and effects-Impoffible !It follows, therefore, that in the occurrences of our prefent relative and complex ftate, we cannot be divided and forted by any precife canon of worth, but must partake a general fate of advantage or detriment, enjoyment or distress.

"Here he first offers as a member of a family, in a connexion of defcent which fashions and fixes, independent of perfonal character, his conftitution, eftimation, and fortune. His parents are healthy or dif. tempered, virtuous or diffolute, provident or negligent, affluent or neceffitous. Is it poffible, without a conftant and universal prodigy of confufion, to ftop the courfe of thefe influences? to prevent innocence from fuffering, by the comprehenfion of an unfortu. nate relation, transferred malady or inconvenience, the affliction or humiliation of penury, the refumption of unjustly acquired property, the taint of luxury, the act of in- "But let us turn to the laft, the highest difcretion, the languor of infirmity, or the view of man in his civil capacity, as connected blot of infamy? with government. Here, again, difcrimina"The tranfmiffive cafualties of domeftic tion ftill becomes impoffible. For he is, in the

first place, fubject to the common fate of fociety, muft encounter its dangers, and share its calamities; and in the next place, fubject to its laws. These, however administered, intentionally place him on a ground of equality; liable to the fame contingencies of treatment with his fellow-citizens: their office, as their ufe, is to direct univerfally, to redress impartially, and punish irrefpectively. A grand object of their operation is property; of which they fix the title, and controul, as well as guard, the devolution; inducing in each concern an important effect for prefent confideration. The title of property does not, cannot refide, under the adjustment of human laws, in vir tue or merit; but in inheritance, gift, purchase, or other honeft mode of acquiring it : hence a plain confequence; that the indifcreet and the profligate may obtain, without exception, that affluence which they Squander or mifemploy; that the alienation of it may, at the fame time, intercept from the innocent many enjoyments which they lofe with regret; and opprefs them with many conflicts which they do not deferve to fuffer.

"Another fimilar confequence fometimes occurs from legal restraint on the devolution of property; by which a young expectant is fuddenly, perhaps, in his advances to dignity and fortune, which he has birth to claim, and accomplishments to illuftrate, ftopped, and depreffed to beggary; not for his own crime, but for that of his parent: a proceeding which compaffion condemns as vindictive feverity, but which political prudence defends, as expedient for terror, for effectual punishment, and for general fafety. Whe ther expedient, however, or not, it hath in

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Having thus amply examined the affimilation of mankind in the mingled disposal of prefent events, which had furnished the fceptic with a feemingly plaufible objection, the author thinks himself warrantable in concluding, that the fuppofed ill effects of it are exaggerated, and that any alteration on every idea of man, whether separate or collective, is neither feasible nor expedient,

He hence takes occafion to recommend not only ftrict circumspection in our own conduct, but a tender reserve in judging of others, not making either example our rule of action, or good or bad fortune our test of character.

After fo copious an extract, our limits will not permit us to analyfe the remaining difcourfes; we can only in general obferve, that they are written in the fame nervous and forcible ftyle; the principles on which the feveral arguments hinge are clearly laid down, and the inferences from them drawn in a concife and masterly manner. Truth, like beauty, needs not the ornaments of dress to fet it off. The author, convinced of this, has not decorated his fubject with the flowers of oratory, but trusted to its intrinfic worth for its fuccefs. Should the faftidious critic object that thefe Difcourfes contain little novel. ty, let him remember, that on fubjects which have been fo often, fo fully, and fo ably handled, little more remains to be done, than to place old thoughts in a new and Ariking point of view; and as far as fo doing is intitled to praife, our author's claim is in difputable.

The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, with Samuel Johnfon, L. L. D. By James Bofwell, Efq. 8vo. 6s. Dilly.

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(Concluded from Page 344).

WE clofed our laft with hinting at the unamiable light in which Mr. Bofwell has placed Dr. Johnson's behaviour to a learned and venerable clergyman of feventy-seven. "It was curious, fays Mr. B. to fee him and Dr. Johnfon together.-Neither of them heard very diftinctly; fo each of them talked in his own way, and at the fame time." After giving fome inftances of the Doctor's wafpifh contradiction, fuch as the Doctor would have resented in any other man; for, ftrange to tell, the good Doctor's penchant to contradict, even led him to nibble with orthodoxy itself;-Mr. Boswell (and he certainly was merry when he wrote it) gives the following ludicrous picture of the difputants: "During the time that Dr. Johnfon was thus going on, the old Minifter was ftanding with

his back to the fire, crefting up erect pulling down the front of his perriwig, (which Mr. B. had before taken care, fuo more, to inform us was black) and talking what a great man Leibnitz was. To give an idea of the fcene would require a page with two columns, but it ought rather to be reprefented by two good players."--Surely, Mr. Bofwell, your glee has overrun your piety! What, a difpute on Dr. Clarke's leaning to the Arian fyftem, and shutting one's eyes against the tcriptures, to be reprefented by two good players! Do be confiftent, Mr. Botwell; this may do very well in your convivial hours, with your clafficel companion, (as you call him) Jack Wilkes; but it feems rather inconfiftent with your kneeling with Dr. Johnfon at your bedfides, at your evening prayers.

"Here again, continues

continues Mr. B. there was a double talking, each continuing to maintain his own argu. ment, without hearing exactly what the other faid." Mr. B. thus concludes the account of Mr. M'Lear, the venerable clergyman in the black wig, above mentioned: "He (i. e. Dr. J.) told me afterwards, he liked firmnefs in an old man, and was pleased to fee Mr. McLean fo orthodox; at his age it is too late (the Doctor's remark) for a man to be afking himself questions as to his belief.”Too late! We do not fomehow like this expreffion; but juftice to Dr. Johnfon calls us to a view of his own account, in his own Tour, of this vifit. The Doctor there does himself great credit by the warm and friendly manner in which he mentions Mr. M'Lean; he calls him one of the finest and most venerable old men he had ever feen, is highly pleafed with his learning and orthodoxy, and in place of Mr. B's too late fays, " at feventyfeven it is high time to be serious;" concluding with this characteristical sentence, which from the Doctor conveys the highest panegyric: "When I came away, I was forry he was a Prefbyterian."-Thus the Doctor, ⚫ when he speaks for himself.

We have already expreffed our indignation at the Doctor's miserable and contracted ideas of trade and the merchant, and cannot forbear to give the following extract, as it fo fully confirms our former cenfure, “At breakfaft 1 afked," fays Mr. Bofwell, "what is the reason that we are angry at a trader's having opulence?"-Johnson. "Why, Sir, the reafon is, (though I don't undertake to prove that there is a reafon) we fee no qualities in trade that should entitle a man to fuperiority. We are not angry at a foldier's getting riches, because we fee that he poffeffes qualities which we have not. If a man returns from a battle, having loft one hand, and with the other full of gold, we-feel that he deferves the gold: we cannot think that a fellow, by fitting all day at a desk, is entitled to get above us."-Bofweil. "But, Sir, may we not fuppofe a merchant to be a man of an enlarged mind, fuch as Addison in the Spectator describes Sir Andrew Freeport to have been?" -Johnson. Why, Sir, we may fuppofe any fictitious character. We may fuppofe a philofophical day-labourer, who is happy in reflecting that, by his labour, he contributes to the fertility of the earth, and the fupport of his fellow creatures, but we find no fuch philofophical day-labourer. A merchant may, perhaps, be a man of an enlarged mind; but there is nothing in trade connected with an enlarged mind."

In a commercial nation like ours, erroheous and injurious ideas of trade ought carefully to be refuted. Let the Spaniard defpife

trade, and remain in poverty and infignifi cance; but let the Englishman reap wellearned wealth and independence from the beneficial and honourable purfaits of it. In our Review of this work for March laft, page 171, we gave our idea of the character, enlarged mind, and important pursuits of the great merchant; and shall here add, that the Doctor and his friend feem to have formed their ideas of fuch character on no better models than that of Scotch Pedlers and English Huckflers. We find no fuch philofophical day-labourer, fays the Doctor, "who is happy in reflecting that, by his labour, he contributes to the fertility of the earth, and to the Support of bis fellow creatures" We know not what to make of fuch oraculous refponfes, they are fo egregioufly wrong. We every where meet with the day-labourer who is happy in cultivating his master's farm or his own garden; or, in a word, in any labour; for, though he knows not the term, he has, in the ftrongest manner, the philofo phical thought, that he is labouring for the support of his family and himself." There is nothing in trade connected with an enlarged mind." Good Heaven! had the Doctor never heard that Colonization in its embrio formation, in its infancy, growth and maturity, is principally the work of the merchant; a work which requires both zeal and wifdom, and every talent of an enlarged mind; a work in which the merchant is the most proper and beft counfellor of Kings; and which verifies the expreffion of the Hebrew Prophet, when speaking of Tyre, “ Her merchants are the Princes of the earth."

We have already obferved, that Mr. Bofwell and the Doctor, particularly the former, had great veneration for the feudal system. Let the following ferve as a comment on that admired mode of government.

"I procured a horfe," fays Mr. B. " from one M'Ginnis, who ran along as my guide, The M'Ginnifes are faid to be a branch of the clan of M Lean. Sir Allan had been told that this man had refused to fend him fome rum, at which the Knight was in great indignation. "You rafcal! (faid he) don't you know that I can hang you, if I please?” -Not adverting to the Chieftain's power over his clan, I imagined that Sir Allan had known of fome capital crime that the fellow had committed, which he could difcover, and so get him condemned; and faid, “ How fo?"—"Why, (faid Sir Allan) are they not all my people?"-Senfible of my inadvertency, and moft willing to contribute what I could towards the continuation of feudal authority, "Very true," faid I-Sir Allan went on: "Refufe to fend rum to me, you rafcal! Don't you know that, if I order you

to

to go and cut a man's throat, you are to do it:"-" Yes, an't please your bonour! and my own too, and hang myself too."-The poor fellow denied that he had refused to send the rum. His making thefe profeffions was not merely a pretence in prefence of his Chief; for after he and I were out of Sir Allan's hearing, he told me, "Had he fent his dog for the rum, I would have given it: I would cut my bones for him."It was very remarkable to find fuch an attachment to a Chief, though he had then no connection with the island, and had not been there for fourteen years.-Sir Allan, by way of upbraiding the fellow, faid, "I believe you are a Campbell."

It is hard to determine, whether the low brutal tyranny of the Knight's difpofition, or the base abject foul of the wretch M'Ginnis, are most contemptible, and most unmanly. What an odious picture of the feudal times does the above exhibit!!! Yet Mr. Bofwell, in the midst of this shameful tale, calls his furprize at it "inadvertency," and fays he was moft willing to contribute what be could towards the continuation of feudal authority."

The following paffage is highly worthy of remark, as it throws light both on the Doctor's temper and taste.

"As we fat over our tea, Mr. Home's Tragedy of Douglas was mentioned. I put Dr. Johnfon in mind, that once, in a coffeehouse at Oxford, he called to old Mr. Sheridan, "How came you, Sir, to give Home a gold medal for writing that foolish play ?" and defied Mr. Sheridan to fhew ten good lines in it. He did not infift they should be together; but that there were not ten good lines in the whole play. He now perfitted in this. I endeavoured to defend that pathetick and beautiful tragedy, and repeated the following paffage:

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« Summum crede nefas animam præferre pudori, "Et propter vitam vivendi perdere caufas."

"He repeated the lines with great force and dignity; then added, "And after this comes Johnny Home, with his earth gaping, and his deftruction crying:-Pooh!"

But neither Mr. Bofwell's injudicious felection of a turgid rant, nor the Doctor's ready contraft of a much fuperior passage from Juvenal, afford proof that the Douglas is" a foolish play." The Spanish proverb fays, he that has glafs windows of his own, fhould take care how he throws ftones. Dr. Johnfon has written a Tragedy named Irene. The Douglas has its faults. The part of Lord Randolph is poor enough, and Glenalvon is a grofs and clumsy villain, destitute of the fine natural touches which characterife an lago and a Zanga. Glenalvon's real love too, is prepofterous; for if the mother of a youth of eighteen might be supposed an object of love, her unamiable melancholy, thus upbraided by her husband,

-Thefe black weeds Exprefs the wonted colour of thy mind, For ever dark and difmal. Seven long years

Are patt, fince we were join'd by facred

ties:

Clouds all the while have hung upon thy brow,

Nor broke, nor parted by one gleam of

joy

is certainly enough to cure, and not calqulated to kindle an amorous flame. Yet, with all these blemishes, the characters of the mother and fon, and even that of Norval, the old fhepherd, have fuch exquisite strokes, and the two former fuch tender intereft, and fuch fublime fimplicity of pure nature, that the blemishes are not perceived; and the Douglas will be a favourite play, while the truth of nature is relished on the English ftage. But Irene, all on ftilts, is the very reverfe of the natural fimplicity and interefting tenderness of the Douglas. Dr. Johnson's forte was ftudied declamation; Mr. Home's, in the Douglas, (though fparing enough of it in his other works) is the pure voice of feeling nature, and unaffected poetry.

We now come to mention what, in our opinion, is the best and most delicately written part of all Mr. Bofwell's book; we mean the interviews between his father, a venerable Scottish Judge, and Dr. Johnson. He tells us his father was as fanguine a Whig and Prefbyterian as the Doctor was a Tory and Church of England man (High Church, Mr. B. fhould have faid): That he was afraid fome rude contest might arife from fuch different principles.

"I wan

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