Five Minutes Reflection concerning Prizes. 8vo. 6d. Fletcher, Oxford. The prizes here meant are not the prizes in the State-Lottery, nor the reflections on them founded on Mr. Molefworth's calculation; which are not worth five-minutes confideration; but the academical prizes for literary compofitions at the Uniyerfity. The mode of diftributing thefe, our reflector thinks might be improved; and that they would have a better effect if they were bonorary rather that pecuniary. And fo far we agree with him, unless fuch premiums were more confiderable; for though money buys honour as well as every thing elfe, it is become at once fo fcarce and fo plenty, that it will go a very little way in buying any thing, even that bubble honour. Interefting Letters of Pope Clement XIV. (Ganganelli) Vol. III. and IV. Tranflated from the French. 12mo. Durham. Whether thefe letters are, or are not, genuine productions, it matters little to an intelligent English reader, farther than as an object of curiofity; the reflections and fentiments they contain, however extraordinary as coming from a Pope, being, for the most part, common, trite, and fuperficial. The Student's Pocket Dictionary: or Compendium of Univerfal Hiftory, Chronology and Biography, from the earliest Accounts to the prefent Time; with Authorities. In two Parts. Part I. containing a Compendium of Biography. By Thomas Mortimer, Efq. 12mo. 3s. 6d. Bound. Johníon. One of those modern compilations that have the advantage of cheapnefs. if cheapnefs confift in the giving a great quantity of print for little money. To fay that fuch a work is defective, would be as idle as to expect it fhould be otherwife. The The Grove of Barzai, and his Elegy: from the Loves of Othniel and Achfah. To which is prefixed an Introductory Account of the Work. By Jofeph Smeeton. 4to. Is. Dixwell. It is of little confequence from what this work, as it is called, was taken, or to what repofitory it is configned to; as the fooner it is forgotten, the better. Thoughts of a Citizen of London, on the Conduct of Dr. Dodd, in his Life and Death. With Remarks on the feveral Petitions prefented in bis Favour; the Arguments of the Court of Common Council of the City of London on the Occafion confidered; and fome Queries addreffed to the Lord Mayor and the Court on the Subject. With Reflections on fome Paffages of the Ordinary's Account of Dr. Dodd's Converfation in Newgate, and going to Execution. Shewing that the dangerous and hurtful Doctrine, of Chriftians who have passed their whole Lives in Wickedness being faved at the laft Hour, by applying to Chrift, has no Foundation either in the Nature of Things or the Scriptures. 8vo. 6d. Owen. If Dr. Dodd be really dead (which fome, perfons, however, are infidels enough to doubt) we hope his death-bed (if we may fo call it) repentance was fincere; and if fo we doubt not of its being acceptable at the throne of Grace. We nevertheless admit the truth and propriety of many of this writer's reflections on the pernicious tendency of inculcating the universal efficacy of Newgate contrition. A The fate of Lewellyn; or the Druid's Sacrifice. 4 Legendary Tale. To which is added, The Genius of Cambre', a Poem. By a young gentleman of Truro School. 4to. 2s. 6d. Bath, Cruttwell. Dilly, London. If this young gentleman, of Truro School, be still at Truro School, he hath either over-ftayed his time, or is a piomifing genius for a fchool-boy-We muft not, however, flatter him too much on thefe fpecimens of his poetry; nor would have him truft altogether either to his friends or the public, as to their opinion of his being affected by the genuine infpiration of the Mufe. Time and reflection may better inform him, and and at the fame time inftruct him whether fuch infpiration is much to be defired. "Who io fond," fays he, "as youthful bards, of fame ?"-Doubtleis nobody: but poetic fame is an alluring and an abandoned ftrumpet, whofe favours are frequently fatal. Harmonious thro' the raptur'd vales, Were our young bard as great as even Lewellyn himself, behold his reward: "to be beloved by every piping fwain."If this be a fufficient incentive, and poetry be, like virtue, its own premium, let him pipe away: youth is his plea, and he will never pipe younger. The Ciceroniad. A Poem, infcribed to William Earl of Manffield: with a Dedication to his Lordship. 4to. 2s. Bew. The author of this Poem appears to have too great an attachment to the Scotch nation, and to know too little of the English language, to be a competent judge who are our best orators; or to praise them with propriety, if he did. ** An Addrefs to the Inhabitants of Pensylvania, by thofe Freemen of the City of Philadelphia, who are new orfined in the Mafon's Lodge, by Virtue of a er al Warrant, jigned in Council by the Vice President of the Council of Penjylvania. Printed at Philadelphias reprinted in London. 8vo. 6d. Philips. It appears by this addrefs, that the republican principles of the Americans are no more adverfe to general warrants and arbitrary practices of government, than is the British adminiftration, of which they fo grievoufly complain. The The Sufpicious Lovers. By the Author of Woodbury. 12mo. 3 vol. 6s. Wilkie. An entertaining feries of letters; well worth the perufal of fuch as read for amufement, without wifhing to injure their morals or mispend their time. *** CORRESPONDENCE. To THE LONDON REVIEWERS. IN your continued review of Helvetius's Treatife on Man, for the laft month, are contained some few afsertions of the critic, which to me appear rather obfcure, if not inconfiftent. I mean not to enter into any altercation, but only wish you to elucidate what now feems obfcure. The fubject is to me of fome moment, and I know your willingness to remove every obftacle to the progress of fcience. In your remarks on the work in queftion, you very jufly obferve that the buman mind cannot with propriety be terined an agent, if Helvetius's definition be admitted, that it is merely an affemblage of ideas. To which you then add ; "therefore we should rather adopt Dr. Priestley's notion with regard to mind, viz. that of its confifting of the affemblage or fyftem of the organs of fenfation."-In this perhaps you may be right. But then my difficulty is to reconcile this your adopted opinion with what you further advance towards the end of the fame article, when you fay; "In fine, our author's doctrine is, that man is a machine, which, being put in motion by corporeal fenfibility, ought to perform all it executes. It is a wheel, thar, moved by a torrent, raifes the pistons, and with them the water defigned to be thrown into the bafon prepared to receive it.-But neither (you continue to obferve) is the affertion true, or the allution apt, if, by man's being a machine, we adopt the ideas of the materialif." But what, pray, is man elfe but a machine, if his mind be the affemblage of material organs, as you with Dr. Priestley conceive it; and, if he be a machine, why are not the ideas of the materialift to be adopted, whofe very eflential principle is the above definition of mind. You add indeed; "if man be confidered as a machine, it should be rather as a spiritual than a material one."-A fpiritual machine! or rather, how fpiritual at all, if the whole man be a fyftem of matter. "His principle of action, you fay, is innate, and does not proceed from the external caufes, that excite his corporeal fenfibility."-But fhould his principle of action be innate or internal, will that make him lefs a machine, or render him at all fpiritual, whilft that principle itfelf is held to be material: or, if it should, why may not Dr. Kenrick's famous felf moving wheel be with equal propriety termed a spiritual machine. You You go on to defcribe man; "Man is a felf-moving wheel, poffeffed of an internal principle of motion, and not a wheel moved by an external torrent."-Query; is not that definition, mutatis mutandis, applicable to the felf-moving wheel of Orffyreus, as now exhibited by Dr. K. Yet I don't hear, the Dr. as yet doubts of the mechanical na ture of his wheel, or has afcribed any fpecies of fpirituality to it, thought its principle of motion be confeffedly internal. I would not then, it feems, on Dr. Priestley's fuppofition, which you admit, in the least deviate from the common language of materialists, when they speak of man. If what you fuppofe an internal principle of action operate as neceffarily and as mechanically as any applied external caufe, is not the effect in either cafe equally mechanical? And with what propriety, on that fuppofition, can you term any human action voluntary, which however you affert ?-These are my chief dif ficulties; by removing which, and inferting this letter in your next, you will much oblige Carlton, Dec. 15, 1777. An old Correfpondent, J. B P. S. As I am fond of confiftent characters, I wish to know whether your colleague Mr. Seton, fince his adoption into your fraternity, has feen reason to reprobate thofe fentiments, he once fo ferioutly urged, against Dr. Priestley's system of material fouls. We are glad to find our old correfpondent J. B-n profef fedly cured of that spirit of altercation, which appeared to dic tate fome of his former favours; flattering ourselves this the wholesome severity, with which we thought it neceffary, now and then, to treat him, contributed, not a little, to that falutary effect. To his prefent more docile and tractable difpofition, a milder and inore lenient treatment is due. With all the complacence in our power, therefore, we fhall endeavour to obviate the difficulties, and elucidate the obfcurities, of which he complains. Introductory to this, we muft beg leave to fet him right, in calling our opinion, refpecting the nature of the human mind, an adopted opinion, becaufe it happens to be coincident with an opinion of Dr. Prieftley's. Should he recur to the philofophical articles in the Monthly Review for the years 1760 to 1766 inclufive, he will find that opinion repeatedly fuggefted by us, long before Dr. Prieftley had pub. lifhed any thing on the fubject. He would there, alfo, find the Doctor's notion of the homogeneoufnefs of corporeal and fpiritual substance, or that of their being phyfical effects of a fimilar caufe, frequently inculcated. Whether fuch notion be true or false, therefore, it is not an adopted one, but one of our own proper conception. As to its confiftency with what he objects to, in our laft Review, we prefume he would fee it clearly, if he made the neceffary diftinction between our idea |