by scriptural authorities, and usefully applied to the great purposes of personal religion. The whole discourse is particularly marked by the ardour and energy of the preacher; and he is no common-place declaimer He reasons with perspicuity and force; and, to use the appropriate language of Scripture, "speaks out of the abundance of his heart." We have seldom witnessed a more felicitous combination of argument and feeling. If, occasionally, the thoughts are so much expanded, as to lose in solidity what they gain in amplitude, this is evidently the effect of the preacher's solemn conviction of the importance of the subject; it is the expansion of an ardent and ingenuous mind. We extract the following eloquent passage in confirmation of our opinion. Much has been written on the death of Christ, as the seal and confirmation of his doctrines-an explication of that great catastrophe, which is worse than puerile; for, besides that it is insufficient to account for the death of an innocent being, it is clear, that had he never suffered on the cross, the truth of his doctrines would have been sufficiently established, not only by their own internal evidence, but by the predictions of ancient writ, and by the attestations of miraculous power. He did not suffer to prepare the way for his resurrection. This will not explain the infliction of death on a sinless being, much less the acuteness of his agony in his last hours. If this were all, other means might have been employed to secure that "blessed consum"mation," than the conflict in the garden, and the appalling horrors of the cross. No man can be familiar with ecclesiastical history, especially with those parts which detail the persecutions of the church of God, without being astonished at the holy heroism of the martyrs, their patience in suffering, and their fortitude in death. They have endured with equal magnanimity the fierce intolerance of pagan and of Christian Rome. Dragged from dungeons dark as midnight, and pestilential as the grave, or from the caverns of the earth, when, amidst the savages of the desert, they have sought a refuge from the more frightful cruelty of men; while multitudes have gazed and wondered at the sight, they have approached the pile, and the block, with an intrepid step, and evinced, amidst sufferings, at the remembrance of which the boldest spirit is appalled, feelings faithful to themselves and to their God, too lofty to recede, too triumphant to complain, too ethereal to be quenched. Never has human nasure appeared in greater majesty than in the last hours of some of the Christian martyrs: its grandeur has been redeemed amidst the gloom and horrors of death. They have given us lessons of sublime instruction, on the superiority of the spiritual to the corporeal part of our nature; the deathless energy of the higher faculties of man amidst the crash and dislocation of his material frame: but, above all, as most applicable to our present subject, they have taught us effectually the great truth, that notwithstanding our weakness and our frailty, the most timid mortal, fortified by holy principles, and armed with Christian faith, becomes invulnerable to fear. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, "or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or "sword?-Nay, in all these things, we are more than conquerors "through him that loved us." If, however, we compare with some illustrious examples of this kind, the closing scenes of the life of the Son of God, we behold a striking disparity. It is true, he did not recoil from the conflict; he met it with fortitude and with dignity. But it was the dignity of patient suffering. It was the fortitude which is silent when it can be cheerful no longer; which refuses to be subdued by the most fiery trial of its strength; and which, if it be allowed us to compare the feelings of this awful character with those of a mortal breast, prefers to perish rather than to yield. It is evident, that a more than ordinary dejection, a mysterious and terrific melancholy, preyed upon the spirit of the Redeemer, from the hour of the conflict in the garden to that in which he expired on the cross. Why, then, if the death of Christ was only that of a martyr, why had he more than the martyr's suffering, and less than the martyr's support? Why was he left in his last moments to exclaim in anguish, My "God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?" It is evident, from the narrative of the evangelists, that the sufferings of the Saviour were more immediately those of the mind, while those of ordinary martyrs have been chiefly limited to the body: and, when we contrast his desertion with their supports, his agony with their joys, his expiring cry with their tone of triumph; when, amidst flames and tortures, gleams of approaching glory have burst upon their sight, we are compelled to exclaim, with an energy of conviction not to be suppressed, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh 66 away the sins of the world." › pp. 26-28. Art. XIV Sonnets, Odes, and other Poems, by the late Mr Charles Leftley, together with a short Account of his Life and Writings. To which is added a Poetical Collection, consisting of Elegies, Ballads, and Sketches, on various Subjects, chiefly descriptive. Written in India, and during a Voyage to and from Madras By Willian Linley, Esq. late in the Civil Service of the East India Company. 12mo pp. 200. Price 7s Longman and Co. 1815. THE short, but interesting account of Charles Leftley, pre fixed to this collection of his poetical works, forms another page in the melancholy annals of genius. The tale has been often told. Domestic and pecuniary difficulties' attended him from his first entry into life; his health, naturally delicate, could ill sustain the laborious exertions by which he was doomed to toil at once for competence and for fame; sickness, anxiety, and disappointment wrought up his irritable frame to petulance, till t length Cousu uption laid her hand upon her victim, and terminated the short and feverish scene. Mr. Linley informs us, that • He had fallen into the common error of consumptive persons, and resolutely maintained, that there were no symptoms in his complaint but what change of air, a skilful physician, and comfortable accommodation would speedily remove. The few friends who daily visited him, and witnessed the increasing ravages of his disease, had not, on the contrary, the most distant hope of his recovery; yet, that the medical assistance he seemed to place so much confidence in should not be wanting, he was introduced to Dr. Pearson, then living in Leicester-fields, to whom his case and indigent circumstances had been previously explained. This humane man, whose professional ability cannot make him more respected than his benevolence has made him beloved, immediately and gratuitously prescribed for him, and attended him afterwards, while his attendance could prove of the slightest avail, with unremitting zeal and solicitude. The day preceding his dissolution, the sacrament, at his earnest desire, was administered to him by the clergyman of the parish, and he expired at three o'clock on the following afternoon, in the 27th year of his age, and in the year of our Lord 1797.' pp. 4, 5. His principles,' adds his friend, were honourable: he had a steady confidence in the truths of Christianity, nor rejected the mysteries of revelation because they soared beyond the sphere of mere human philosophy His disposition was generally good, and his heart charitable; but he had the failings inseparable from humanity, he was proud, even to weakness, in the midst of his severest deprivations. He was frequently capricious, obstinate, and irritable; he had occasional fits of gloom, and rejected with haughty petulance the advances and assiduities of his oldest and sincerest friends; but surely he had many causes for gloom, and even despondency if he looked back, it was at nothing he could remember with satisfaction; if he looked forward, the prospect was still more cheerless: hope was frequently the companion of his muse, but did little towards smoothing the rugged journey of his life pp. 6, 7. Mr. Leftley is, undoubtedly, entitled to the wreath of Genius, which, we are informed, it was his sole ambition to attain ; and which can now only be hung upon his tomb. There is a boldness of expression, a liveliness of fancy, and occasionally a richness of imagery, which constitute the very elements of poetry, and give indications of no ordinary mind. Our limits will not allow of copious extracts. The first we shall give, is from a series of fantastical little odes, entitled Flights of 'Fancy.' Some teach young plants with grace to move, Some strew the shore with shells and sand, 'Tis moonlight, sweet, còme, follow me, And the chafer's bugle our guide shall be.' p. 64. There is much sportiveness of conception and elegance, in the following Ode, written as an Incantation to the Tooth'ache.' 'Spirit of relentless hate, Hence you restless fury, hence! Whether, born with us, you be By that sweet expressive name When Demophoon no more Visited the Thracian shore; That which lives in Shenstone's strain; That which youthful poets feign, When in tufted mead or grove They first pour the plaints of love; I charge you hence! avaunt to hell! Haply, lest her name should fail, Let her lovely form prevail:" VOL. III. N. S. 2 Y T By those objects of desire, By her lips, which when they move By her virtues, talents, arts, Her cultivation and regard, By her gentleness, and ease, And all her countless powers to please, Now my incantation's done, Blithe I meet the noon-tide sun; Deeds of science, deeds of fancy, Yield to my immortal song!' pp. 45-49. Mr. Leftley's sonnets are peculiarly elegant. They discover a very cultivated taste, and appear to be formed on the model of our elder writers. We can make room only for the following. |