-flat and languid. This was a great fault; and it is singular enough that neither his own reflections, nor hints from friends, ever suggested to him the expediency of a contrary course. When circumstances happened to make him sparing of his ene gies at his outset, and he increased in force as he advanced, the effect was indeed grand. Nothing could be more imposing than his short speeches; and in these he had no

rival.

Between the two great men who so fairly balanced each other, while they so far excelled the rest of mankind, and who were so long the ornaments of the senate and the country, we shall not inftitute a laboured comparison: but we cannot avoid referring to a few points of contrast. The superiority of Mr. Pitt in the arts of oratory admits of no question: but, as to the substance, we think that the advantage was as clearly with his opponent. Mr. Pitt's pre-eminence was chiefly founded on rhetorical accomplishments, while that of Mr. Fox arose out of the excellence of his matter. By the young and the less cultivated, Mr. Pitt was held to be the superior: but the more matured and the more refined gave the preference to Mr. Fox. When we heard Mr. Pitt, we acknowleged the superlative orator: when we listened to Mr. Fox, the soul was more engaged, and we felt persuaded that, if Wisdom herself had undertaken to speak to men, she would have borrowed the words and the ideas of the British senator.

All the qualities of Mr. Pitt's nature were grand, and to these he added many of the amiable. He stood certainly in the first class of human beings. Ambition, a high sense of honour, and personal purity, were the predominant prin ciples of his conduct: but, like men of similar extraordinary powers, he fell into the error of regarding the state as more made for him than he for the state. His political virtue was not of the rigid sort; for expediency was his rule of action; and if we try him by the maxims of strict patriotism, his pretensions appear to be by no means high, since, in order to acquire and to retain power scarcely any sacrifices were by him. deemed too costly. To speak of the shelter which he afforded to Indian corruption, of his chicane in regard to parliamentary reform and the slave trade, of his protection of delinquency at home, and of the formation of his last cabinet, would be to advert to lesser blemishes, of which the catalogue will be found very large. The extravagant praises of the moment weigh but lightly in our balance. They are calculated to serve a purpose

On his point, however, we must refer to the remarks in p. 87. of this article.

Let us grant that he was a splendid object: but let us not be dazzled by the glare which surrounds him; and while we bear willing testimony to his excellencies, let us not shut our eyes upon his faults. When we hear him represented as the most consummate and most upright of statesmen, we cannot unite in this testimony until we sever from the character of the statesman the controul of foreign affairs; until we efface from memory his lavish distribution of the honours of the state, and his profuse expenditure of the public treasures; until we forget his aggrandizement of our enemy; and until we are become insensible to the rude shocks which, during his government, were given to some of the vital principles of the British constitution.

MONTHLY CATALOGUE,

For MAY, 1807.

NATURAL HISTORY.

Art. 4. Werneria, (Part the Second) or, Short Characters of Earths and Minerals: according to Klaproth, Kirwan, Vauquelin, and Hauy. With Tables of their Genera, Species, Primitive Crystals, Specific Gravity, and component Parts. By Terræ Filius Philagricola, (Rev. Stephen Weston.) 12mo. pp. 1c6. 4s. 6d. Boards. C. and R. Baldwin. 18c6.

WE

E announced the first part of this singular performance, in the 49th volume of our New Series, p. 99. and the remarks which we then hazarded seem to be equally applicable to the present continuation, which celebrates the metals. A few of the more recently discovered of the latter are dismissed in humble prose: but the information thus conveyed will not be less acceptable to the scientific reader. From the annotations on silver, we are tempted to extract the ensuing passage:

• Silver is furnished from the mines of Peru and Mexico. It is found too at Konsberg in Norway, at Furstemberg, and Johngeor genstadt, and Freyberg in Germany, at which last place the amalga mation is performed in infinitely less time, and with less loss of mercury than in America, where it takes a month, with a loss in each operation of 25lbs of mercury in the hundred weight, and yet a part of the silver is left in the ore. At Freyberg the operation is finished in 24 hours, with the loss only of half an ounce of mercury, and a small quantity of silver is obtained, not indicated in the cupellation of the assayer. The greatest mass of this metal is said by Albinus, in his Chronicle of the Mines of Misnia, to have been found at Schneeberg in 1478; it weighed by computation about four hundred quintals-Albert de Saxe, who went down into the mine to see this monster, dined upon the enormous block, and observed to the company, that the emperor Frederic is a powerful monarch, but he does

not

not keep so rich a table as 1 do. Agricola, who wrote after the death of Albert upon the spot, says, that he never found any one who knew the exact weight of this rock of silver. This metal, when fused and suffered to cool slowly, produces arborisations like gold, composed of octohedrons heaped on one another, and piled pyramidally. Silver gets completely tarnished when exposed to sulphureous and inflammable vapours. The French crowns hid in the latrines during the revolution came out quite black. The sound of silver is clearer and more open than that of other metals, and more pleasing to the ear, and noticed as more agreeable by the poets.

And the press'd watch return'd a silver sound.' POPE.' Though the author has undoubtedly the merit of reducing many important mineralogical facts into a narrow compass, we cannot highly compliment him on the improved harmony of his numbers. What ear, that is at all familiar with English versification, can tole. rate such harsh and prosaic lines as the following?

Unchang'd in colour, but add to iron." 'Tis from this dense opacity metals,' Draw out, but separate, not adhering.' • Without metalic brilliance, as certain Bits of silver red, and the brown oxyd Of crystal - Tin.'’

Or air expos'd, but by agitation.'

With different acids when to an oxyd

Brought, it readily combines, if set free

From these, whate'er's thrown down with sulphur mix'd.'
Than gold less ductile, and than iron less hard.'

And as iron too almost as hard to fuse.'

• Cobalt less than bismuth weighs, ready is.'

The earths, which are shortly explained in the supplement to the first part, are, Moroxit, Allochroit, Anthophyllit, Fuscit, Hepatit, Actinose Hepatit, Cryolite, Coccolite, Sahlit, Spodumene, Nepheline, Aphrizit, Bergmannit, Conit, Datholite, Zirconit, and Muriacite —The tables are constructed with neatness and precision, according to the methods of the German, French, and English mineralogists.

RELIGIOUS.

Art. 15. The beneficial Effects of the Christian Temper on Domestic Happiness. 8vo. pp. 91. 25. Hatchard. 1807.

This tract is intended as a kind of Supplement to the Bishop of London's work on "the beneficial Effects of Christianity on the temporal concerns of Mankind," (see the last Number of our Review, p. 366.) the author being desirous not only of asserting the divine spirit of the Gospel for the conviction of infidels, but of bringing home to christians themselves some practical considerations which arise out of the subject. He first displays the duties of a Christian in the domestic relations of Parents and Children, Brothers and Sisters, Husbandsjand Wives. In justice to the Ladies, he allows that the scale of virtue generally preponderates on the female side: but, as this is

not

not always the case, he deems it not amiss to offer this general summary of the duties of a Christian Wife:

Constant subjection to her Husband, in every thing which is not inconsistent with her duty to her MAKER; the highest respect for his character and conduct, to the utmost extent she can preserve it; forbearance with his faults, follies, and failings; mildness and cheerfulness in her manners and conversation; and a minute attention to every article connected with his happiness, comfort, and interests; regular precepts and example, to train his children and servants in the paths of holiness, and daily prayers to Heaven for his welfare, and grace to perform the duties of a good and Christian Wife.'

Addressing himself to Husbands, the author tells them that men are in the habit of expecting too great perfection in their wives: but they must be very unreasonable indeed if they expect more than he instructs them it is their duty to display -That Husbands, however, may not be deficient on their part, the following exhortation is subjoined:

'Let a Husband therefore who would possess himself, and com. municate to his Wife, that happiness with which PROVIDENCE has blessed the married state, attend to all those rules of Christian equity, which subdue selfishness in the human breast; let him consider his Wife as a part of himself; and make her comfort, interest, and character, equally dear to him with his own; let him treat her with tenderness, gentleness, and attention, administering his reproofs with candour and indulgence, and with the sole view of her happiness and improvement; always feeling and expressing the highest value for her virtues, and approbation of her good conduct. Let him comfort her in sickness and distress, protect her from injury and calumny, and conscientiously discharge the duties he promised at the altar in the presence of THE ALMIGHTY, to love, comfort, and cherish her.'

Having dismissed these domestic duties, the author proceeds to consider the Christian character in its relation to society at large; represents humility as an essential ingredient; and exhibits its magnanimity of conduct under injuries and oppressions, and its superior consolations in the view of death. Thus it is shewn, in accordance with the assertion of the Apostle, that "Godliness, on the Christian plan, has the promise of the life that now is as well as of that which is to come."

Art. 16. The Lord Jesus Christ's Sermon on the Mount. With a Course of Questions and Answers, explaining that valuable passage of Scripture, and intended chiefly for the Instruction of young Persons. By the Rev. John Eyton. 12mo. IS. Hatchard.

&c.

Publications for the use of young persons are now become so exceedingly numerous, that a very good reason ought to be assigned for adding to their number. Mr. Eyton appears to have been actuated by a laudable desire of benefiting the rising generation: but we do not think that his pamphlet was necessary; nor that his explanations of our Saviour's Sermon on the Mount are either adapted to the pure undoctrinal morality of the discourse, or suited to form the

Arst elements of religious instruction. Young persons need not to be initiated into the language of controversial divinity.

Art. 17. ́ A faithful Account of an important Trial in the Court of Conscience. By J. Jamieson, D.D. F.R. and A.SS. Edin. 12mo. 2s. 6d. sewed Williams and Smith.

"I have used similitudes," says John Bunyan in his Pilgrim's Progress, and Dr. Jamieson may apply the same motto to this faithful account,' &c. in which, according to old-fashioned Allegory, we are told of Mr. Peccator, who, being brought on a charge of High Treason, in the Court of Conscience, has the following persons nomi mated as the Jury to try the indictment: Mr. Self-commune of Heart-street, Mr. Try-all of Leaven-lane, Mr. Weigh well of Balance-place, Mr. Long silent of Peace-row, Mr. New-awake of Storm-hill, Mr. Sense of guilt of Menace-court, Mr. Recollection of Old-street, Mr. Micaiah of Ahab square, Mr. Sharp-arrow of Lawplace, Mr. Fear-death of Golgotha, Mr. Flee-from-wrath of Jordanvale, and Mr. Judgment-to-come of Allsouls-town.' The witnesses produced on the trial are personages of the same allegorical cast; and they who have a taste for such kind of reading may be amused by Dr. J.'s dexterity in thus depicting the guilt, conviction, and conversion of a sinner, or of a Saul transformed to a Paul: but, having out-grown our partiality for the Pilgrim's Progress, we now put away writings of this description as childish things.

Art. 18. The Christian Mirror, exhibiting some of the Excellencies and Defects of the Religious World. Large 12mo. pp. 285. 5s. Boards. Williams and Smith.

Twenty-seven essays, in prose and verse, here invite the attention of the reader. The author aims at an imitation of the Spectators, so justly celebrated in English literature; and though he proceeds not aquis passibus, he displays sense and just observation, united with lively and entertaining remarks. We cannot but approvet he design, to divert us from the mere forms, pretences, and appearances of religion, and lead us to regard its real, genuine, and prevailing influence on the heart and behaviour: yet the whole has more of the methodistical cast than is acceptable to us.-To give some idea, however, of the author's manner, let us extract the following lines from the first or introductory paper:

A friend of mine, remarkable for the wholesome, not disgusting, plainness of his manners, and respected for the solidity of his judg ment, was one day in company with persons of a more fashionable turn, who entertained themselves by discussing the question-" whe ther it is most difficult to enter into company, or to leave it, with a becoming grace?"-The opposite sides of this question were supported by their respective advocates, until at length, unable to settle the point, they agreed to refer it to my friend; who observed, that he had never cons dered the subject; adding with a shrewd look, peculiar to himself, "I have been always persuaded tha the manner of entering into companies, or taking leave of them, would not be of so much importance as to render myself agreeable and useful to them while we were together,' We