Or grant Or change or fix your final doom. In that untry'd, unfeen, and dread eternal state.' In this poem the ftanza is well chofen, the thoughts ftriking, and the verfification fpirited and harmonious. Dr. Fordyce's poems have a merit of no common kind; they are entirely his own. We seldom meet with poetical common places; with ideas and expreffions taken from other poets; with fhreds of purple and fcarlet ftolen from the nobles of Parnaffus, and inferted incongruoufly on a plain ground. But although we are of opinion that Dr. Fordyce (to use his own phrafe) holds a "refpectable rank in the numer66 ous army of verfifiers," we would not wish him to perfift in his poetical amours, or to hold any farther dalliance with the mufes. 66 Among the English diffenters Dr. Fordyce fhone without a rival in the eloquence of the pulpit. His "Sermons to young Women," though not free from fhining faults, have much merit, and met with a greater and more rapid run than any fermons in the English language, except thofe of Dr. Blair. A collection of difcourfes of equal merit, on fubjects of general importance, would be a valuable prefent to the public, and à lafting monument to his fame. In the calm evening of life the falfe brilliant that caught the youthful eye lofes its luftre; the fober charm of truth and nature takes poffeffion of the mind; and an author, addreffing the wife and virtuous part of mankind, learns to diftinguish between the beauties and the prettineffes of holinefs; between the folemnity and the foppery of devotion. We have fuggefted theic hints to the author, because we know him to be a benevolent and worthy man. 1 ART. ART. VI. The Hiftory of Henry VII. of England. Written in the Year 1616. By Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Alban, and Lord High Chancellor of England. Now first new written 1786. 8vo. 5s. boards. Printed for the Editor, at the Logographic Prefs. Murray. London, 1786. O period in the hiftory of England is more interefting to following ages than the reign of Henry the VIIth. The tranfition from the anarchy and oppreffion of the feudal fyftem to regular government, which began at that time, forms a kind of epoch in the conftitution. Under the tyrannical ariftocracy of former ages, a warlike and reftleis fpirit prevailed throughout Europe. The great barons, with their numerous retinue of vaffals, were ever ready to attempt any martial enterprize where honour was to be won; and often, on the moft frivolous pretences, to take up arms against the fovereign. Though their martial retainers enjoyed the appearance of freedom, the great body of the people was held in flavery; and there was no intermediate clafs between the nobles and the commonality. From thefe inftitutions, equally unfavourable to the happiness of individuals and the welfare of society, the hiftory of Europe, for many years, appears to be one continued fcene of turbulence and anarchy, of war and bloodthed. Happily for England, in the reign of Henry the Seventh, a train of circumftances had prepared the way to remedy evils of fuch magnitude; to reduce the power of the haughty barons; to fubdivide the property of land; and to raife a middle clafs of men in fociety, who could fecure their property from the grafp of oppreffion, and defend their rights against the encroachments of tyranny. The fagacious and provident Henry, though merely with a view to exalt the royal authority, and fill the empty treasury, enacted laws which were attended with the moft beneficial effects to fociety at large. He prohibited the barons from keeping beyond a limited number of fervants or retainers; he enabled them to break the entails on their eftates, and to alienate their property; and he gave every encouragement to the improvement of arts, of manufactures, and of commerce. The difcovery of America, in the courfe of this reign, was attended with important confequences to all the nations of Europe. The extenfion of commerce and navigation gave a new fpring to industry and the useful arts the nobles diffipated their fortunes in luxury and expenfive pleafures; men of an inferior rank, acquiring the the poffeffion of land, began to hold a name in the community, and to form a new order in fociety. in fome nations of Europe the people enjoyed political and civil rights; in all they obtained many of the privileges and advantages which belong to liberty. Lord Bacon's hiftory of this reign has always been reckoned among the most finished of his productions. The obfolete phrafes which he frequently employs; the harfhnefs of his language, rendered more uncouth by time; have confined this valuable performance, like his other voluminous works, from which it has never been feparated, to the libraries of the learned, and the infpection of the curious. The publisher of this edition of the "Hiftory of Henry the Seventh" performs, therefore, an acceptable fervice to the public by prefenting it in a new drefs, and in a separate volume. As a fpecimen of this tranflation (if we may fo call it) of Lord Bacon's "Hiftory of Henry Seventh," we fhall present our readers with a paffage which conveys a very curious anecdote. When Henry the Eighth's divorce from Queen Catherine was in agitation, it was doubted whether Arthur was ever bedded to his lady, or had that knowledge of his wife which hufbands have *; the lady herself denied it, at least her counfel denied it for her. And this doubt was long kept up, in respect to the two fucceeding queens, Mary and Elizabeth, whofe legitimacies were incompatible with each other, though their fucceffion was fettled by act of Parliament. The times that favoured Queen Mary's legitimacy would have it believed that Arthur had no actual knowledge of his wife. Not that they would seem to derogate from the pope's abfolute power of difpenfing with the marriage, even had it been fo, but only to make the cafe more favourable: and thofe that favoured Queen Elizabeth's legiti macy maintained the contrary. So much is remembered, that it was half a year between prince Arthur's death and the time that Henry was created Prince of Wales, which was conftrued to give full time to know whether the Lady Catherine was with child by Prince Arthur or not. Befides, the princefs herself procured a hull for the better confirmation of her marriage, with a claufe of vel forfan cognitam, which was not in the firft bull. There was alfo given in evidence, when the caufe of divorce was heard, that one morning Prince Ar. thur, on rifing from his bed, called for drink, which he was not accuftomed to do; and, obferving his gentleman of the chamber that brought him the drink to fmile at it, he said merrily to him, that he had been in the midst of Spain, which was a hot country, and his journey had made him dry; and that if the other had been in to hot * For Henry the Eighth married his brother Arthur's widow. a clime, a clime, he would have been more dry than he was. Befides, the prince was on the eve of fixteen when he died, and was a forward youth of a strong conftitution. On the February following, Henry, Duke of York, was created Prince of Wales, and Earl of Chester and Flint, the dukedom of Cornwall devolving to him by ftatute. Henry, unwilling to part with a fecond dowry, and thinking it politic to continue the alliance with Spain, prevailed with the prince, then not twelve years of age, to be contracted in marriage to his brother's widow; the fecret providence of God ordaining that marriage to be the occafion of great eyents and changes.' After the manner of the ancients, Lord Bacon inferts fpeeches in his hiftory, fome of which, particularly that of the prior of the Trinity to the privy-council of England, are very eloquent. The fpeech of Perkin Warbeck, alío, to the king of Scots, when he fought refuge in his dominions, is in the fpirit and ftyle of the Roman historians; though a great part of it is tranflated from Buchanan's Hiftory of Scotland. Notwithstanding the confeffed excellence and univerfal reputation of Hume's hiftory of this monarch, the curious. reader, especially in an age that is in love with antiquities, will be pleafed to fee a more ancient, more circumftantial, and more familiar account of that period, written by an author who held the higheft offices in the ftate, and who was a philofopher and a man of the world. ART. VII, The Holy Bible; containing the Books of the Old and New Teftament, and the Apocrypha: Carefully printed from the first Edition (compared with others) of the prefent Tranflation: With Notes by the Right Reverend Father in God Thomas Wilfon, D.D. Lord Bishop of Sodor and Man; and various Readings, collected from other Translations, by the Rev. Clement Cruttwell, the Editor. 3 vols. royal 4to. 41. 14s. 6d. Bath; printed by R. Cruttwell, 1785. Dilly, London. [ From a Correfpondent. ] IN this age of diffipation in literature, when the prefs is continually teeming with books of a trifling nature, and not infrequently with the efforts of fcepticifm and infidelity, it cannot but afford us peculiar pleasure to announce the appearance of a work of this kind; which, in addition to the facred text, has at once the appendages of learning and elegance, as well as piety, to recommend it. There There are few of our intelligent readers who are not more. or lefs acquainted with the character of the late venerable bishop of Sodor and Man. His writings and his labours for the promotion of the Chriftian religion have been widely extended and moft defervedly efteemed; and fo long as the paftoral function fhall be regarded as important to the happiness of individuals, and the good of society, so long may we hope that the labour of fuch a man will live in the minds of the friends of mankind, and be revered by the wife of fucceffive generations. We fhall not expatiate further on a name which holds the principal place in the title-page of this work, but proceed to give a fhort account of its contents. The title fufficiently explains the general plan. The bishop's notes feem to have been the accumulated daily expofitions and reflections which he fet down in the margin of his family bible during a long feries of years. And, as he was both a daily and devout student of the facred fcriptures, the serious reader may expect to find in thefe notes a great variety of matter and practical aid in his devotional inquiries. They are familiar, explanatory, easy to be understood, pious in a high degree, and have one uniform tendency, viz. to fix in the mind the neceffity of fervent devotion and practical Christianity. From fuch a mafs of commentaries it would be ineffectual, for the purpofe of particular information, to make extracts within the fhort limits of a Review; we therefore pafs to the diftinctive characteristics of this publication. The text is printed all across the page, instead of being divided into two columns; but, as the type is remarkably clear and beautiful, this difpofition feems fufficiently favourable to familiar reading, while much lofs of paper is prevented. The numerical figures, ufually affixed to the verfes of each chapter, are placed in the margin, where, without interrupting the courfe of the period, they are certainly more confpicuous, and equally useful. The heads or contents of the chapters are divided and judiciously placed in the oppofite margin of the page, against thofe portions of fcripture they refpectively refer to; which is without doubt an improvement on the more common difpofition. The divifions are made in paragraphs; and, in the Old Teftament, the Hebrew bible of Athias is followed; and Bengelius principally in the New. The parallel references, which are uncommonly numerous, are printed at the bottom of the text. Next below the parallel references are placed the various renderings, which conftitute a very important part of this ENG. REV. Vol. IX. Jan. 1787. C bible, |