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studiousness of ornament pervading the general scope of these discourses. We are sorry, however, to find that this worthy young Minister died not only suddenly, but in the prime of life, aged only twenty-seven, and that he has left a helpless family." From the busy swarm of single sermons that surround us, most of them of mere ephemeral existence, and which flutter but to die, we can only notice the following: "Serious Attention to Practical Holiness and Soundness of Doctrine considered in a Sermon preached June 1, 1808, at the visitation of the Rev. A. Burnaby, D.D. Archdeacon, &c. by the Rev. Thomas Robinson, A.M. &c. Leicester." A most admirable production; serious, impressive, energetic, and highly appropriate: the text, 1 Tim. iv. 16." On the propriety of preaching the Calvinistic doctrines, and the authorities for that practice." Preached also at Leicester before the same Archdeacon by the Rev. H. Ryder, M.A. Mr. Ryder strenuously opposes the idea that our established church is formed upon a Calvinistic creed, but he is less disposed to inform us what the basis actually is, whether Lutheran, Zuinglian, or original.--The Church of England incompletely reformed:" a fast sermon, Feb. 17, 1808, by George Somers Clarke, D. D. Vicar of Great Waltham." It is of the nature of every human invention to betray imperfection of some kind or other: but though the Church of England makes no pretensions to impeccability, and in some points might admit of improvement, we have no desire to see it reformed by the preacher before us. Our standard Bible, also, in the opinion of Dr. Clarke, requires as much reformation as our standard church; and he has kindly given us a few specimens

and

of the manner in which he would have both accomplished. France has not been more ruined by her reformation, than the Bible and the English Church would be by the speculations here advanced.---"The Character and Commendation of a Faithful Minister:" preached on the death of the Rev. John Newton, at St. Mary Woolnoth, by Richard Cecil, A. M. &c." Few men have passed through a more eventful life than the venerable character here commemorated, fewer still perhaps have left lite more generally and deservedly lamented. The death of Mr. Newton is here made the vehicle of much pious and useful reflection, in plain but impressive language. The very excellent preacher alludes to his having a volume of the Memoirs of his friend in the press, which have since made their appearance, and will be found noticed in the fourth chapter of this Retrospect. We are sorry to add, that he himself has since been severely visited by a paralytic affection, from which there is little prospect of his ever sufficiently recovering to resume his very valuable labours in the pulpit.---" Obstacles to Success in the Religious Education of Children; preached at 3 Monthly Association of Ministers and Churches, Jan. 7, 1808, by the Rev. R. Winter." It should seem froni this discourse that the interest of what are called the regular dissenters is considerably on the decline; its chief drift being to point out the causes which are perpetually producing secessions in diferent direc tions: the methodists, it appears, are leading astray many; the established church receives some; and others seem to separate from a general indifference to every kind of religion.

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"The Nature and Importance of a Good Education; preached Jan,

:

14, 1808, before the Promoters of the Protestant Dissenter's Grammar School, lately opened at Mill-Hill, Hendon by David Bogue, A. M." We wish success to every institution which has for its object an initiation into useful and valuable knowledge, and the plan upon which the dissenting academy at Mill-Hill is founded, bids fair to answer this purpose better than several which have of late years been brought forward from the same quarter, and are al. ready dwindled away, and forgotten. The character of Mr. Bogue as a preacher is well known; his language is vehement rather than correct; and his manner rather argumentative than embellished. The present address is well calculated to produce the object it has in view. "The Iniquity of Witchcraft censured and exposed: being the substance of two Sermons delivered at Wurley, near Halifax, by T. Hawkins." This subject we never expected to have seen emerge from a black letter type: we are astonished that the infatuation here alluded to should prevail at this day in any part of the civilized world, and especially in any part of our own country; yet we doubt whether the pulpit is the most effectual means of dissipating the illusion. There is no harm, however, in trying.

The subject of attempting to in troduce a knowledge of Christianity among the Hindus, to which we adverted at some length in our last literary retrospect, has still been a source of much warmth and bitterness of discussion. We have not per ceived that the argument on the one side or the other has been put in any very new light, or advanced with much more cogency. The advantage of the Christian religion to every people and climate is admitted by both

parties; the point at issue being whether the present be the proper season for attempting its introduction, considering the peculiar policy and classification of the Hindu casts. The chief writers in favour of an immediate attempt are Mr. J. W. Cunningham---" A late Resident in Bengal," and "A Bengal Officer." The chief writers against an immediate attempt are, "A late Resident at Bhagulpore," another " Bengal Officer"---and various anonymous respoudents to Mr. Twining and Mr. Scott Waring. The general result appears to be, that though there are obstacles of a peculiar nature to a ready embrace of christianity by the Hindus, these obstacles are by no means so insurmountable as the adversaries of the proposal appear to insinuate.

From the pen of the very excellent Bishop of London we have received a proposal of a more practical nature, that of propagating a knowledge of christianity among the negroes of the West Indies, by an establishment of parochial schools in every parish of the West India islands, on the plan established by Dr. Bell at Madras. The venerable prelate, with his usual liberality, has offered to open a subscription for this purpose in his own diocese, to contribute 500l. in his own name immediately, and to double the sum when necessary.

The Hints" of a Barrister" on the Nature and Effect of Evangelical Preaching," noticed in our last volume, has met with five or six answers. There are certainly some exceptionable passages in that work,and they have been attacked unsparingly: nevertheless, the replies are for the most part declamatory rather than argumentative, and turn upon points of trifling importance,

CHAP.

universal antidote-largely and by the lancet, as advised by Dr. Clutterbuck-more sparingly and by relays of leeches, as recommended by the present writer. As to the rest, the observations are not essentially different from the routine of common practice. Upon the whole, we are much afraid we are just as deeply in the dark in regard to the actual and proegumenal cause of idiopathic fever, as before either of these theories were tendered to us: there is a vis abdita quædam which still eludes research, and baffles all inquiry; and without being acquainted with which, our practice must necessarily be rather empiric than methodic-must vary with varying, and oftentimes transient symptoms-must be dependent upon climate, upon temperament-upon habit-and a thousand other things which have no necessary connexion with the essential cause of fever, whatever they may have with its progress and result. And hence, finally, we ought not to be surprised at the good effects which we so frequently find produced by practices diametrically opposite to each other, by the stimulating plan of the Brownists, the debilitating plan of the writers before us; by the tonic practice pursued at Gibraltar, or the evacuant system so much vaunted of at Philadelphia.

himself to have been formerly a professed Brownist, but would have us believe that he has for some years. abjured its doctrines, and quitted its school. It may be so-but he has not quitted its language-a language imprecise, even when applied to an elucidation of the ideas for which it was formed, and hence, far more inaccurate and confused when employed to decipher other opinions and practices. Yet we have some doubt, whether Dr. Uwins does not a little deceive himself upon the subject of his real creed in medicine: there is every now and then "a longing, ling'ring look behind," which still betrays a secret bias of which he does not appear to be sensible. His work consists of nine chapters ;-the first is merely introductory: the second, in less than twenty pages, professes to give us an "Historical Sketch of the Progress of Medical Discovery, from the fabulous æra of Egypt to the present day," from which nut-shell epitome it is obvious that no reader, whether professional or unprofessional, can gain any solid or effective information. The next chapter is entitled "Disquisition on the Nature of THEORY;" throughout the whole of which the writer seems to have completely forgotten his subject, for the word theory occurs but once in the whole course of the disquisition, and even then is introduced by merę incident. Instead of " a disquisition on the nature of Theory," this chapter should have been entitled "a disquisition on Systems"-unless, indeed, the author has purposely confounded the terms, and means to regard them as synonymous, which we can scarcely conceive in a writer who is so anxious to avoid" using words to express facts without hav ing previously attached a precise signification to the words themselves." The following short proposition con

tains the subject of this chapter on theories: "the numerous causes of error to which a system is obnoxious, may perhaps be included under four general heads, to which, for want of more appropriate terms, we may apply the denominations of empirical, hypothetical, metaphysical, and physical." The division appears as inappropriate as the terms themselves; but as the author admits, in a note at the foot of the page, that he is as little satisfied with his text as we are, we shall say nothing more upon the subject, than that we are surprised he should not have moulded his position into a shape that would have afforded him more satisfaction before he attempted its discussion. The idea of an hypothetical system he allows to be some what vague, we are afraid that the idea of an empirical system is not much more definite; we are not quite sure that we understand the meaning of the term routiner-it is here brought forward as opposed to the term " a man of system"-but if a man of system may be either an empirical, an hypothetical, a metaphysical, or a physical practitioner, under what distinct order or genus the routiner is to arrange himself, we cannot very readily surmise. We have been much better pleased with the fourth and fifth chapters, in the first of which, the theory of Dr. Brown is neatly convassed and fairly estimated, while the ensuing gives to the general reader a correct statement of the application of mo dern chemistry to medical practice, in many of its most important discoveries; a subject, which is resumed and still further exemplified in the seventh chapter. Chapter the sixth is assigned to the general physiology of the animal functions, and is by no means deficient in merit, though the "perennity of animal tempera

ture" is not so clearly made out to us as it appears to be to the author's own mind. The two last chapters are of a popular rather than of a professional cast,—they are designed to point out the mischief of interfering in the medical art without a medical education,-and offer to the professional student and to the ge neral reader various useful hints.

"Additional cases of gout; in further proof of the salutary efficacy of the cooling treatment of that afflicting disease; with illustrative annotations, written authorities in its support, controversial discussions, and a view of the present-state, and future prospects of the practice: by Robert Kinglake, M. D. 8vo." Whatever novelty may exist in the plan these "additional cases" are published to support, there is at least as much novelty in the title which ushers them into the world; and lest the work should lose some part of its salutary efficacy, and the world some knowledge of its future pro spects, by curtailing it of a single epi thet, we have copied the whole, in order that the reader may judge for himself how largely this afflicting disease is here treated of. We have another reason for copying this title verbatim et literatim; and that is, that it gives the reader a fair sample of the full and redundant style in which the whole of the volume is composed-excepting, indeed, that for a part of it, extending to not less than one hundred and fifty pages, it is indebted to a monthly medical publication, which is open to every one, and in the hands of many. The theory advanced by Dr. Kinglake about four years ago, that gout is a mere local inflammation, no more necessarily connected with the constitution, than a "sprain, contusion, or incision;"—and that it is in like manner to be removed

by