religious animofity, is, that the magiftrate should relinquish the impracticable and unprofitable defign of producing an uniformity of religious opinion and practice:

A Chriftian union may then exift, though mankind should continue to differ about myfteries, ceremonies, and terms of acceptance. Religious hatred is provoked only by declarations of hoftility, and by the interpofition of the magiftrate to obtain an uniformity. Let people alone, and they will turn over the numerous volumes of religious ceremonies with no ill humour to one another.-In these, the most picus Chriftian confiders the rights of the Perfees, the Brachmans, the Talapians, and the Lamas, with a philofophical indifference: and why fhould he not contemplate thofe of men who acknowledge the fame Mater, with equal fang froid, if not with perfect charity? And fo he would, if his angry paffions had never been excited by polemics and pulpit oratory.

"Experience fufficiently teaches us, that the fword, the faggot, exile, and perfecution, are better calculated to irritate than to heal a difeafe, which, having its fource in the mind, cannot be relieved by remedies which act only on the body. The moft efficacious means are found doctrine and repeated instruction, which make a ready impreffion, when inculcated with mild nefs. Every thing else bows to the fovereign authority of the magistrate and the prince; but religion alone is not to be commanded."

The existence of any penalties ferves only to unite the fetaries in fronger bonds; just as actual perfecution hath ever infpirited greater refolution to undergo it: whereas the obftinacy of these men would yield to gentle ufage, and melt away in the funshine of favour and protection.'

The wisdom of the mild policy here recommended, is fa manifeft, that it will furely be adopted without waiting for farther confirmation of a truth eftablished by the experience of all paft ages, That perfecution defeats its own ends.

While we recommend this work to the attention of our readers, as abounding with interefting facts and juft reflections, we with pleasure announce the writer's intention to add a fecond volume, in which-he purpofes to give a view of the prefent ftate of intolerance in the different countries of Europe.

ART. VI. Poems; wherein it is attempted to defcribe certain Views of Nature and of Ruftic Manners; and alfo, to point out, in fome Inftances, the different Influence which the fame Circumflances produce on different Characters. Crown 8vo. pp. 179. 38. 6d. fewed. Johnfon. 1791.

T o thofe readers whofe tafte is not too refined, or too faftidious, to be pleased with true and lively pictures of nature, fketched with a carelefs hand-who are capable of difcerning

De Thou's Addreis to Henry IV. on revoking the edicts publifhed against proteftants.'

and

and admiring the fair form of fimplicity, though negligently clad in a ruftic garb,-thefe poems will be acceptable. They can, indeed, boaft no wild fictions to feize the fancy; and they have little of that richnefs of melody which, in many of our modern poets, fo fweetly captivates the ear: but they contain minute and circumftantial defcriptions of natural objects, fcenes, and characters; and they exprefs, in eafy though peculiar language, the feelings of undifguifed and uncorrupted nature. The fingular purpose of the poems, to reprefent the different effects of the fame circumftances on various characters, is executed, in the different farewells of a melancholy, a chearful-tempered, a proud, and a found-hearted lover, to his mistress; and in addreffes to the night from a fearful, a difcontented, a forrowful, and a joyful mind. Befide thefe, the volume contains descriptions of a Winter-day, and of a Summerday; Night Scenes; the Storm-beat Maid, in the style of the Old English Ballads, and several other defcriptive and pathetic pieces. We select the following ruftic Tale:

A DISAPPOINTMENT.

On village green, whofe fmooth and well worn fod,
Crofs-path'd with every goffip's foot is trod;
By cottage door where playful children run,
And cats and curs fit basking in the fun :
Where o'er the earthen feat the thorn is bent,
Crofs-arm'd, and back to wall, poor William leant.
His bonnet broad drawn o'er his gather'd brow,
His hanging lip and lengthen'd visage shew
A mind but ill at eafe. With motions ftrange,
His liftless limbs their wayward poftures change;
Whilft many a crooked line and curious maze,
With clouted fhcon, he on the fand pourtrays.
The half-chew'd ftraw fell flowly from his mouth,
And to himself low mutt'ring fpoke the youth.

"How fimple is the lad! and reft of skill,
Who thinks with love to fix a woman's will:.
Who every Sunday morn, to please her fight,
Knots up his neck cloth gay, and hofen white:
Who for her pleafure keeps his pockets bare,
And half his wages fpends on pedlar's ware;
When every niggard clown, or dotard old,
Who hides in fecret nooks his cft told gold,
Whofe fold or orchard tempts with all her pride,
At little coft may win her for his bride;
Whilft all the meed her filly lover gains
Is but the neighbours' jeering for his pains.
On Sunday lait when Sufan's bans were read,
And I aftonish'd fat with hanging head,

Cold grew my fhrinking limbs, and loofe my knee,
Whilst every neighbour's eye was fix'd on me,

Ah,

Ah, Sue! when last we work'd at Hodge's hay,
And still at me you jeer'd in wanton play;
When laft at fair, well pleas'd by fhow-man's ftand,
You took the new-bought fairing from my hand;
When at old Hobb's you fung that fong fo gay,
Sweet William ftill the burthen of the lay,
I little thought, alas! the lots were caft,
That thou fhould't be another's bride at laft:
And had, when last we tripp'd it on the green
And laugh'd at fiff-back'd Rob, fmall thought I ween,
Ere yet another scanty month was flown,

To fee thee wedded to the hateful clown.
Ay, lucky fwain, more gold thy pockets line;
But did these shapely limbs refemble thine,
I'd stay at home, and tend the household geer,
Nor on the green with other lads appear.
Ay, lucky fwain, no ftore thy cottage lacks,
And round thy barn thick ftand the shelter'd ftacks;
But did fuch features hard my visage grace,
I'd never budge the bonnet from my face.
Yet let it be it fhall not break my ease:
He best deferves who doth the maiden please.
Such filly caufe no more fhall give me pain,
Nor ever maiden crofs my reft again.

Such grizzly fuitors with their taste agree,
And the black fiend may take them all for me!"
Now thro' the village rise confused founds,

Hoarfe lads, and children thrill, and yelping hounds.
Straight ev'ry matron at the door is feen,
And paufing hedgers on their mattocks lean.
At every narrow lane, and alley mouth,
Loud laughing laffes ftand, and joking youth.
A near approaching band in colours gay,
With minstrels blythe before to cheer the way,
From clouds of curling duft which onward Яy,
In rural splendour break upon the eye.
As in their way they hold fo gayly on,
Caps, beads, and buttons glancing in the fun,
Each village wag, with eye of roguish caft,
Some maiden jogs, and vents the ready jeft;
Whilft village toafts the paffing belles deride,
And fober matrons marvel at their pride.
But William, head erect, with fettled brow,
In fullen filence view'd the paffing fhew;
And oft' he fcratch'd his pate with manful grace,
And fcorn'd to pull the bonnet o'er his face;

But did with steady look unmoved wait,

Till hindmoft man had turn'd the church-yard gate;
Then turn'd him to his cot with vifage flat,
Where honeft Tray upon the threshold fat.
Up jump'd the kindly beaft his hand to lick,
And, for his pains, receiv'd an angry kick.

Loud

Loud fhuts the flapping door with thund'ring din ;
The echoes round their circling course begin,
From cot to cot, in wide progreffive fwell,

Deep groans the church-yard wall and neighb'ring dell, And Tray, refponfive, joins with long and piteous yell.' Among the pathetic pieces, we must particularly mention that entitled, A Child to his Sick Grandfather,' which has an uncommon degree of fimple tenderness.

ART. VII. The American Oracle; comprehending an Account of recent Discoveries in the Arts and Sciences, with a variety of Religious, Political, Phyfical, and Philofophical Subjects, neceffary to be known in all Families, for the Promotion of their prefent Felicity, and future Happiness. By the Honourable Samuel Stearns, LL. D. and Doctor of Phyfic; Aftronomer to his Majesty's Provinces of Quebec, and New Brunswic; alfo to the Commonwealth of Maffachusetts, and the State of Vermont, in America. 8vo. pp. 627. 8s. 6d. Boards. Lackington. 1791.

THAT glorious and happy times are thefe! In days of

WHAT

yore, when wretched mortals were defirous of learning their destiny from the gods, they were obliged to travel, with many a weary ftep, to the temple at Delphi, or to fome other hallowed feat of inspiration :-but now the oracles themselves vifit every man's door, and pour on him floods of eleemofynary wifdom. How much is the European world indebted to this American Oracle, for traverfing the Atlantic to inftruct men on a variety of subjects, religious, political, phyfical, and philofophical, neceffary to be known in all families!"

Art thou defirous, gentle reader, to be inftructed in chronology, geography, aftronomy, botany, chemistry, anatomy, electricity, magnetifm, mechanics, optics, agriculture, architecture, politics, law, phyfic, and divinity? wouldst thou be informed concerning the American revolution and conftitution? wouldst thou learn the hiftory of the Quakers, Moravians, Me. thodifts, Swedenborgians, and Shakers? wouldst thou be taught how to chufe a good wife, to grow hemp, to buy tea, to manage bees, to get rid of fleas, lice, and bugs, and to cure all manner of diseases? in fine, wouldft thou be convinced, by good and true witneffes, of the reality of apparitions, and of the wonderful effects of animal magnetifm?-confult the American Oracle; and when thou art made wife, never fay again, that oracles are grown dumb, and that miracles have ceafed. The oracles of old fpake in verfe: fo alfo the American Oracle-of himfelf and his lucubrations, thus:

Of wond'rous things I aim to find the caufe,
By diving into Nature's fecret laws.
Sometimes I fit, and with myfelf converse,
And contemplate upon the universe;
Sometimes, when on my downy bed I lie,
My wand'ring thoughts to diftant objects fly:
Sometimes they're fixed on the fplendid fun,
To fee the planets round his body run,
In that pofition there to stand and gaze,
Whilft rambling comets in the fyftem blaze.'
Then he comes down to earth :

Here I gaze at the lands, the rocks, the feas,
The num'rous plants, and diff'rent kinds of trees ;
The birds, the beafts, the fishes-all that be
In air, in earth, and the extenfive fea.

I view the people all, both great and fmall,
In kingdoms, towns, and cities large and tall;
See their religion, customs, and their laws,
Their times of peace, and times of bloody wars.'
Then for his calculations!

• When in the morn I'm weary of my bed,
I rife and write what came into my head,
What I upon great Nature's laws had thought,
What in the night had to my mind been brought:
But ftill I find my thoughts, without control,
Upon a number of great objects roll.

I go to work, and, with a fleady mind,
The planets places in their orbits find.
For times not come I find their longitude,
And compute their diurnal latitude;

Their right afcenfions, declinations too;
Their rifings, fettings-all point out I do.'

From the peculiar fimplicity of thefe verfes, we conjecture that the poet must be defcended in a right line either from the celebrated John Hopkins, or from the more celebrated Thomas Sternhold.

Whatever may be thought of Dr. S.'s poetry, which, certainly, does not conftitute the most valuable part of his publication, candour must allow, that the book contains information on a multitude of topics, which may be new, and inAtructive to THOUSANDS of readers; particularly among the planters, &c. in America, whofe libraries cannot be supposed to be over-ftocked with the moft fcientific, or the most generally ufeful, authors.

As a fpecimen of Dr. S.'s profe, and of his peculiar turn of thinking, we fhall extract a paragraph or two from what this Oracle has delivered, on the favoury fubject of eating (wine's flesh.

The