his prefence: fo, even in the early days of Omar, the fecond fuccefler to Mahomet, a Mahometan general alleges for the furrendery of Jerufalem to him, that Mahomet himfelf went from it in one night to heaven; all the Mahometans in general have ever fince confidered a difbelief of this journey, to be a difbelief of the Koran itfelf; and all the Turks in particular obferve a grand feftival to this day, on the twentieth night of their month Rajed, for the very night in which this journey was performed *. To fuch fottishness of credulity are those reduced, who would fly from the myfteries of Christianity to the monsters of Mahometanism !

P. 211. Mahomet, fays Mr. Gibbon, in this nocturnal journey pafled the veil of unity, and approached within two bowfhots of the throne, and felt a cold that pierced him to the heart, when his fhoulder was touched by the hand of God.' What is this veil of unity,' and whence did Mr. Gibbon derive it? There is no fuch veil,' we apprehend, in the Mahometan accounts of this journey. Nor what a veil of unity' means, is it eafy to guefs. And we fufpect Mr. Gibbon to have borrowed it, by fome ftrange mifconception, from the feventy thousand veils, that this madman reprefents to have been before the face of Godt. As to the two bow-fhots,' thefe have been corrected by a late author into two bow-lengths; though this very author has forgot to adopt his own correction, in the progrefs of the hiftory §. And, as to the hand of God applied to the fhoulder of Mahomet, God is faid to have put one of his hands upon the shoulder, and another upon the breast, of Mahomet I.

[To be continued. ]

* Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, p. 53-66, 2d Edit. 1697; and Modern Univ. Hift. 1, 65-81, and 424.

Modern Univ. Hift. 1. 76. § Ibid. 1. 424.

+ Prideaux, p.63. Ibid. 1.76.

ART.

boosters ART III. Peter's Prophecy; or, The Prefident and Poet; or, 249 An important Eple to Sir J. Banks, on the approaching Election Sofa Prefident of the Royal Society. With an Etching by an eminent Artist. Second Edition. By Peter Pindar, Efq. 4to. 38. Keariley. London, 1788.

1

PETER, after his excurfions to Windfor and Kew, returns

deto Somerset-Houfe. Having formerly visited the mansion of the Arts, he now enters, uninvited, the abode of Science. The annual monarch of the place has unhappily fallen under his difpleasure. The fatyrift alleges that true fcience droops under the -government of the prefident; that men of real merit are difregarded, and exclufive encouragement given to the collectors of moths, bats, monkies, weeds, and cockle-fhells. For these alleged enormities Sir Jofeph is brought before the bar of the public, is exhibited in a variety of ridiculous points of view, and is threatened with the lofs of philofophic royalty.

Without entering into the question whether Sir Jofeph Banks has, or has not, given too much encouragement to the triflers in natural history, we fhall only fay that those who, idly busy, fpend their lives in amaffing the productions of nature, and think themselves philofophers because they can give a name to every thing they have collected, are certainly fair objects of

fatire.

As a fpecimen of the Prophecy,' we fhall present our readers with the following alleged demerits of the prefident:

Sir JOSEPH.

Ah! tell me fairly without more delay,
What 'tis the blackguard world hath dar'd to fay;
Perhaps a pretty devil I'm pourtray'd;

The world's free brush deals damnably in fhade.'

PETER.

Thus, then, How dares that man his carcafe fquat
Bold in the facred chair where Newton fat?

· Whofe eye could Nature's darkest veil pervade,
And, fun-like, view the folitary maid;

• Pursue the wand'rer through each fecret maze,
And on her labours dart a noontide blaze?

• When to the chair Banks forc'd his bold afcent,
He crawl'd a bug upon the monument.”

Sir JOSEPH.

Curfe them!!

PETER.

· PETER.

Have patience, dear Sir Jofeph, pray!

I have not mention'd half the people fay :-
Thus then again: He beats the bears, fo rude,
• With bulldog afpect, and with brains of mud:
His words, like tones for pavements, make us start;
• Rude, roughly rumbling, tumbling from the cart;

Who for importance all his lungs employs,

And thinks that words, like drums, were made for noise; A fellow fo unqualified to fhine!

Who never to the Journals gave a line;

But into Sweden caft a fox-like look,

And caught goofe Dryander to write his book. • Such is the mania for the claps of fame,

So fought by many a fquire and gentle dame,
Refembling beggars that on alms grew fat;
Who, if too weak themselves to make a brat,
Buy children up to melt the trav❜ler's eye,
And from his pocket call the charity.

Through him each trifle-hunter that can bring
A grub, a wecd, a moth, a beetle's wing,
Shall to a Fellow's dignity fucceed;
• Witnefs Lord Chatham and his pifs a-bed!
How had he pow'rs to mufter up the face
• To afk a Prefident's important place?

How with a matchless infolence to dare • Abuse and jostle Pringle from the chair? • A moth-hunter, a crab-catcher, a bat, That owes its fole existence to a gnat! • A hunter of the meaneft reptile breed, A f--1 that croffes oceans for a weed!

Once tow'ring Science made Crane-Court her home, And heav'n-born Wifdom patronis'd the dome;

With awful afpect at the portal fhone,

And to her manfion woo'd the wife alone;
Now at the door fee moon-eyed Folly grin,
Inviting birds-neft hunters to come in:
Idiots who fpecks on eggs devoutly ken,
And furbish up a folio on a wren.'

You fee the world, Sir Jofeph, fcorns to flatter.

Sir JOSEPH.

By G-d! I think it hath not minc'd the matter.
Yet, by the Pow'r who made me, Peter, know,
I'm honour'd, ftar'd at, wherefoe'er I go!
Soon as a room I enter, lo, all ranks
Get up to compliment Sir Jofeph Banks!

PETER.

PE TE R.

And then fit down again, I do fuppofe;

And then around the room a whifper goes,

Lord, that's Sir Jofeph Banks -how grand his look! • Who fail'd all round the world with Captain Cook!?

Sir JOSEPH.

Zounds! what the devil's fame if this be not?

PETER.

Sir Jofeph, prithee don't be fuch a fot-
Thofe wonderful admirers, man, were dozens
Of fresh imported, staring country cousins;
To London come, the waxwork to devour,
And fee their brother beafts within the Tow'r:
True fame is praife by men of wisdom giv'n,
Whofe fouls difplay fome workmanship of Heav'n;
Not by the wooden million-Nature's chips,
Whofe twilight fouls are ever in eclipfe;
Puppies! who, though on idiotism's dark brink,
Because they've heads, dare fancy they can think.

Though Sir Jofeph Banks appears most confpicuous in this performance, yet Peter has thought proper to bestow a niche in his temple of fame upon many other members of the Royal Society. Among the most eminent of these are Herschel, John Hunter, Dr. Lettfome, Sir William Hamilton, Daines Barrington, &c. Thus of John Hunter fingeth this laughter-loving bard:

Sir JOSEPH.

Hunter with fish intrigues our house regales.

PETER.

The tender hiftory of cooing whales!

Sir JOSEPH.

Great in the noble art of gelding fows!

PETER..

And giving to the boar a barren spouse!
Who proves, what many unbelievers fhocks,
That age converts hen partridges to cocks!
And why not, fince it is denied by no man

That age hath made John Hunter an OLD WOMAN ?

After

After the mufe of Peter has laughed her fill, the concludes with fome ferious and wholefome advice to the prefident; which we moreover recommend to the attention of every would-be philofopher:

Feaft on the arts and sciences, and learn
Sublimity from trifle to discern:

With fhells, and flies, and daifies, cover'd o'er,
Let pert queen Fiddlefaddle rule no more:
Thus fhall Philofophy her fuffrage yield,
Sir Jofeph wear his hat, and hammer wield;
No more fhall Wifdom on the journals ftare,
Nor Newton's image blush behind the chair.'

We have, on former occafions, mentioned the peculiar characteristics of Peter's poetry; the production now before us does not differ in quality from his former publications; of their merited fuccefs we dare fay both the author and his bookfeller have ample proofs in their hands.

But one word, our facetious friend, before we part for this time-Does Sir Jofeph Banks really fwear fo dreadfully? If he does not, why does your Sir Jofeph fwear? If he does, we can only fay that you are a faithful painter.

ART. IV. The Will of King Alfred. Royal 4to. 3s. fewed. Oxford, 1788.

THE

HE Will of King Alfred the Great, is preferved in a regifter of the abbey of Newminfter at Winchester, founded by him a fhort time before his demife. This register commences with an account of the firft foundation of the abbey in the cemetery on the north-weft fide of the cathedral of Winchefter, which was removed to Hyde about the year 1110. The greater part of the regifter, particularly that in which the will is inferted, appears to have been written between the years 1028 and 1032. It feems to have remained unnoticed, from the time of the diffolution of Hyde-Abbey, till about the year 1710; when it was in the poffeffion of Walter Clavel, Efq, It afterwards became the property of the Rev. Mr. North; at whofe decease it fell into the hands of his executor, the Rev. Dr. Lort, one of the vice-prefidents of the Society of Antiquaries, who in the year 1769 depofited it in the manufcript library of Mr. Aftle. Mr. Aftle having communicated the contents of this valuable record to fome refpectable members of the university of Oxford, it was determined by the delegates of the Oxford press, to lay it before the public, confidering