fome noble and beautiful fentiments from Milton, Dryden, Mafon, Barruel, Robifon, &c. and even from Peter Pindar, as from Robespierre: wishing to extract antidotes from poifons; and to dispatch Vice with her own weapons. At first I intended to have analyzed the Dialogues and Translations together; and to have given a joint Index for both. But upon fecond thoughts, I adopted the mode of giving them separately; in order that the inquifitive reader might have a bill of fare for the second course, by its felf, as well as for the first. The trouble, however, of combining them, will not be great to any future Commentator -nor even Index-maker. R Amidst all the playfulness of wit, and the pungency of local fatire, on Shakespeare's black-letter dogs,-Gray's old ar Eton School-boys,-Gillaroo Trouts, Headless Snails and Virgin Rabbits, hot-preffed Editions, &c. it is eafy to defcry the benevolent and patriotic intention of THE SATIRIST. Which is, in a literary age and country luxuriously indolent, to turn Learning and Genius back again, from the fantaftical and frivolous pursuits of modifh Literature, to thofe folid, and manly, and rational, and fublime studies of Sacred and Scientific Literature, for which England was fo renowned, in the golden days' of Barrow, Newton, Halley, Clarke, Butler, Derham, Hales, &c. all (Halley excepted, whom Newton defcribed as the moft" credulous Infidel," he ever met) great Divines, C 2 Divines, as well as eminent Mathematicians and Philofophers. And to the decline of Sacred Philofophy on the Newtonian principles, may we attribute much of the prevailing Hypothefes and Reveries, or fanciful fyftems in Metaphyfics, Politics, Ethics and Theology-fapping the folid foundations of Reafon and Revelation. And it is only by the ftudy, co-operation, and united efforts, of "Scholars ripe and good,"-that the Hydra of Irreligion, Immorality and Anarchy, can be repulfed and crushed, -vindicating the Conftitution of Human Nature, and of Civil and Ecclefiaftical Polity. In this arduous, perilous and thankless warfare O Quifquis volet impias Cades aut Rabiem tollere civicam ; Si quærit PATER URBIUM Subfcribi ftatuis; indomitam audeat Refrænare LICENTIAM CLARUS POST GENITIS: "O, if any wish to banish Impious Maffacres or Civic Rage; If any aspire, to have FATHER OF URBANITY, Infcribed on his ftatues ; Let him dare to curb the unbridled LICENSE OF THE TIMES RENOWNED TO AFTER AGES. HOR May May GOD vouchsafe a bleffing to all fuch pious and patriotic champions, and veterans in Literature, who fhall rally round the Sacred Standards of the GOD OF ORDER, and of the venerable Conftitution of their Country-as HE formerly did to the magnanimous Nehemiah,* and his pious and learned coadjutor Ezra ;t in repairing the *When the noble and difinterefted "Tirshatha," (or Chief Governor of Judea, under the Perfian Crown) who contributed his whole allowance for "twelve years" after his appointment (B. C. 445) to the exigencies of the State-during which, "He and his household ate, not the bread of the Governor-because the bondage was heavy upon his people" was advised by a daftardly Counsellor and hired Traitor, to fhut himself up in the Fortress of the Temple, for fear of affaffination; He fcorned it:-" Should fuch a man as I flee? And who, in my station, would go into the temple to fave his life?—I will not go in." Nehem. V. 14,—18, and, vi. 11. Ezra likewife, that "Ready Scribe in the Law of Moses" and Reformer of the Religious Establishment, to whofe learned labours we are chiefly indebted for the prefent Canon of the Hebrew Scriptures; when B. C. 458, returning to Judea from Babylon, with the Gleanings of the Captivity, about 1754 men78 years after the firft and principal return, under Zerobabel, in the first year of the fole reign of Cyrus, B. C. 536-boldly braved the dangers of the way, with his small and defenceless caravan; relying on the Divine protection against the Arabs or robbers of the defart." For I was afhamed, (fays he) to require of the King a band of foldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the away; because we had spoken unto the King (Artaxerxes Longimanus) faying, THE HAND OF OUR GOD IS UPON ALL THEM FOR GOOD, THAT SEEK HIM; BUT HIS POWER AND HIS WRATH IS AGAINST ALL THEM THAT FORSAKE HIM. "And the hand of OUR GOD was upon us, and He delivered us from the hand of the enemy, and of such as lay in wait by the way and we came to Jerufalen." Ezra, viii. 22,-32. -But the walls and rebuilding the city; in re-establishing religious and civil polity-and in manfully and vigorously reforming public abuses, and chastising private offences in Jerufalem. "Paul planteth, Apollos watereth, But God only, giveth the encrease." -But "Critic Moles" forfooth, and "unready Scribes"Meffeurs Jenyns, Paley and Co. would fain perfuade us, that "FRIENDSHIP, PATRIOTISM and VALOUR" are not EVANGELICAL VIRTUES!!!-and that CHRISTIAN HUMILITY, or "loavness of Spirit," is no other than "meanness of Spirit"CREDAT JUDÆUS. "Believe it Infidelity.”—And rue it FRANCE. |