and afterwards, in the fecond part of the work, advances to his remarks on the Grecian hiftory. He judiciously obferves of the Grecian games, that, though like all other establishments the utility of which depends upon certain circumftances, they degenerated into abufe, yet, in their origin, they were wife and falutary inftitutions. By encouraging bodily exercifes, they formed men for war, and infpired them with a noble emulation; at the fame time that by the occafional ceffation of all hoftilities, they tended to reconcile the different nations of the Greeks, that were formerly often at variance.

Having finished the Grecian hiftory, the author treats in a concife, but perfpicuous manner, of the poetry, eloquence, mufic, and other arts, which were fo fuccefsfully cultivated by this ingenious and polished people. He remarks that mufic was in fome degree interwoven in the conftitution, and even had an influence upon the laws. The Spartans, though fo rigid in their discipline, and averfe to every kind of luxury, were so attentive to mufic, that they prohibited under the fevereft penalty all innovations in the art. The fingular importance in which mufic was held by the ancient Greeks proceeded from their having experienced the advantages of harmony in civilizing the people, roufing their courage in battle, and animating them to the performance of noble actions, by celebrating the praifes of great men.

As a fpecimen of the obfervations on the Belles Letters, we shall present our readers with the short account of the Grecian poetry.

A delicate tafte, a lively imagination, a fertility of genius, a rich harmonious language, eminent abilities excited by the moft ardent emulation, all together contributed to make the Greeks in point of learning, the mafters and models of the whole world. Their incomparable language, univerfally flexible, and fit to embellish every fubject; had under the pen of Homer, united grace, ftrength, and majefty, and was worthy either to celebrate the praifes of Jupiter, or of Venus; which, if I am not mistaken, evidently proves, that there were good writers before the time of Homer, for languages are formed but very flowly, and can be improved only by the labours of the learned.

• Poetry has almost always been prior to every other kind of learning, which is undoubtedly owing to its being the produce of fentiment and fancy, two faculties of the mind always employed before reafon. Senfible minds are led by a kind of inftinct to fing their pleafures, their happiness, the gods whom they adore, the heroes they admire, and the events they wish to have engraven upon their memories: accordingly poetry has been cultivated in all favage nations. The warmth of the paf

tions has been of great ufe in promoting this delightful art, but the cause of humanity has often given a fubject for the fong of the poet. The intention of the Iliad of Homer, was to stiffé that difcord which prevailed in the minds of the Greeks, and by exhibiting a view of the noble deeds of their ancestors, to infpire them with a paffion for performing heroic actions. If the milder virtues had been known at that time; it is probable they had likewife been celebrated by Homer.

The drama, which was invented in the time of Solon, had its fource from the poems of Homer: actions which gave plea fure to the reader, received additional charms, by being introduced upon the stage, and were accompanied with eminent advantages. Efchylus who was the real father of tragedy, for the farces of Thefpis do not deferve that name, employed terror and pity to affect the human heart. He lived at the time of the invafion by Xerxes, and his pieces were filled with expreffions of hatred against tyranny. Sophocles made his appearance before the death of Æfchylus, and not only difputed with him, but carried from him the prize of merit, by rendering tragedy more interefting, by the regularity of his plots, and the elevation of his ftyle. Euripides, who was his rival, introduced that philofophy, which brings morals into action, and inspires the mind with a love of virtue.

We can scarcely believe, that the principal view of these poets, was to correct the paffions, by affecting the heart with pathetic fubjects; but it is certain, that while they fought the approbation of the fpectators, they conveyed moft admirable inftructions to the audience, without making ufe of expreffions which could corrupt the hearts, or injure the morals of the peo ple. How greatly useful would theatrical reprefentations prove, if fuch alluring pleasures were only employed as a vehicle for conveying noble and virtuous fentiments!

Comedy in particular, may be made one of the best schools for fociety, by expofing vice to ridicule. It is inconceivable, how the Athenians could bestow fuch applaufe, as they did, upon the indecent buffoonries of Ariftophanes, after having acquired a relifh for the moral leffons of their tragic poets. They almost imputed to Euripides as a crime, the having put the following expreffion into the mouth of Hippolytus: My tongue has pronounced the oath, but my heart does not approve; though the oath to which he alludes, feems to be oppofite to his duty; yet at the fame time, they permitted the characters of their gods, as well as the government, their magiftrates and Socrates to be ridiculed upon the stage, in pieces which were equally an infult to religion and common decency. The old comedy were of the most unbridled licentioufnefs, facrificing every thing to fatire; and what we have ftill remaining of Ariftophanes, is, in that refpect, a difgrace to Athens. Middle comedy, which fprung up in the time of the thirty tyrants, only difguifed the names, and infulted the perfons, which rather whetted than extinguifhed the malig

hity of the people. But at laft Alexander checked this infolent licentioufnefs. The new comedy defcribed the manners with out offending particular perfons, by presenting a mirror, as Boileau expreffes it, in which every one might fee a picture of himself, laugh at his own irregularities, and in an agreeable manner learn to correct his errors. We cannot too much regret the lofs of the works of Menander, who fhone eminently in this boundless field, fince we know that the taste of Terence was formed from his writings.

We must be as zealous idolizers of antiquity as Madam Dacier, not to allow that the moderns are greatly fuperior to the Greeks in the dramatic art. While we acknowledge them to have been our mafters, let us not hoodwink our reafon fo far, as to offer incense to their faults, at the expence of the juftice we owe to their rivals. The amazing number of dramatic productions of the ancients, ferves only to prove that they were not very delicate, either in the conduct or compofition of their pieces. It is faid, that Sophocles wrote about a hundred and thirty.

The violent rage which the Athenians had for public fpectacles; the rewards which they adjudged to their poets; the honour of being declared in public to be fuperior to their rivals; contributed to accelerate the progress of that engaging art. It requires ages before good tafte can be brought to take place of the clownish farces of our progenitors. Athens very foon had her Sophocles, and her Euripides; and in fome degree, the care of the theatre, among that frivolous people, was made a bufinefs of the state: we might approve of this, if their fole object had been to improve their manners; but Aristophanes and others of his ftamp, were authorised to poifon the minds of the people. What idea can we form of that ftate where buffoons have a privilege to infult virtue, and a power to make the people rise up in rebellion against her?

All the other kinds of poetry, the lyric, elegiac, epigrammatic, and pastoral, have likewife come to us from the Greeks, and have all been improved by the Romans.'

The history most copiously treated in this work is the Roman, which occupies a confiderable part of the firft, and the whole of the second volume, concluding with the conqueft of that empire by the Saracens in the fixth century; the period which our author confiders as the divifion between the ancient and modern departments of historical detail. The work is obviously calculated to exhibit a faithful account of the character and actions of the various nations of antiquity, divefted of improbable circumstances; and as it is methodically digefted, and contains many judicious obfervations, it must prove particularly ufeful to those readers who are actuated by a spirit of inquiry, and would form a juft eftimate of the genius and polity of early times.

VOL. XLVI. Nov. 1778.

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The Light of Nature purfued. By Edward Search, Efq. The posthumous Work of Abraham Tucker, Esq. published from bis Manufcript as intended for the Prefs by the Author. 3 vols. 8vo. 11. 15. Payne.

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"HIS work is nominally divided into three volumes; but actually fubdivided into feven. Two, or according to the real fubdivifion, three volumes, were published in 1768, by Mr. Tucker himself *. The third, bound up in four parts, is now presented to the public, as it was prepared for the prefs, in order to complete the author's defign.

There is a connection running through the whole, though interrupted by many digreffions, which either the fubject, or an active imagination, has occafionally fuggefted..

In the first volume the author endeavours to bring man to the knowlege of himself, his compofition, the rife of his ideas, the causes of action, the variety and generation of motives, the paffions and affections, which are feated in the ima. gination, the faculty of reafon, and the nature and foundation of the virtues.

In the fecond he extends his enquiries into futurity; and fhews, that as we are not material beings, we are capable of endless duration. And this being the cafe, he is naturally led to confider the being, the attributes, and the providence of God, on whom we are to depend, in every scene of our exiftencé.

In the third volume, Mr. Tucker treats of the duty of man to himself, to his neighbour, and to God; and, under the last head, the purity, the majefty, and the holiness of the Divine Nature.

Having hitherto proceeded by the light of nature only, he now pursues his enquiries by the united lights of nature and revelation, and endeavours to point out their connection and agreement.

The fubjects, which he particularly examines, are the province of reafon, miracles, grace, the trinity, redemption, faith, hope, charity, the divine oeconomy, the imitation of God, the Chriftian fcheme, divine fervices, difcipline, and articles of faith..

In the last part he explains, in oppofition to the misreprefentations of fanaticifm, what is meant by doing all to the

See Crit. Rev. vol. xxx. p. 293, 452.

glory

glory of God; and then defcends to fome practical subjects, relative to common life: as indolence, love of pleasure, felf denial, habits, credulity and incredulity, employment of time, content, cuftom, fashion, education, and death.

One of the diftinguishing characteristics of this writer is the lively and agreeable manner, in which he illuftrates his reafoning on metaphyfical fubjects. Thus, having obferved, that it is of the utmost confequence to remove every trifling event, and every mean object from our imagination, when we have the Deity in our thoughts, he enforces the propriety of the remark by familiar, and yet striking examples.

A grain of duft falling in a man's eye while fighting, may prove his deftruction: a few particles of ruft upon a firelock, or of damp in the pan, may fave a life: a wafp miffing his hold in crawling up the fides of a pot, may fall in to be drunk by one, whom he fall fting to death: a young lady by a lucky affortment of her ribbons, may procure entrance into a family where fhe shall become the mother of heroes; yet we cannot without impiety imagine God following the fingle atoms of terrene, or aqueous matter as they float about in the air, watching his op portunity to trip up the feet of a crawling infect, or attending a giddy girl when the adjufts her drefs at the toilet. We know both from reafon and authority, that of two fparrows that are fold for a farthing, not one falleth to the ground without our heavenly Father, and the hairs of our head are all numbered: yet what pious man, if upon combing his head he meets with a tangle that tears off two or three hairs, or if the cat fhould happen to catch his favourite fparrow, would afcribe these catastrophes to the hand of Providence? Who would not be fhocked at the profaneness of one, who, upon finding only the tail of a mouse in his trap, or upon lofing a flea that he had hunted after, fhould fay, it was the will of God they should escape?

In order to fhew the extravagance of thofe enthufiafts, who exhort us literally to have God always in our thoughts, and to do every action of our lives with an intention to please him, he proceeds in this manner :

Such indifcretion abounds to profufion among enthufiafts," who would have us keep up a glowing admiration of the divine excellencies at our work, in our play, during our meals, and for many hours of tedious devotion. But they do not confider that admiration is an extraordinary ftretch of the mind, which it cannot exert at all times, nor keep up beyond a certain period, when the fpirits will be exhaufted, the mental eye grow languid, and if ftill perfifting to hold an object however luminous in contemplation, will fee it obfcure, unftriking, and no better than common objects. Accordingly we hear them

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com.