That Abraham begat Ifaac, is plainly revealed in fcripture;: but does the propofition, that Abraham begat Ifaac is plainly revealed in fcripture,' admit or require proof? and if any man fhould attempt to prove it, fhould we not pity him, and fmile?

The Author in this, and the preceding inftance, puts us in mind of another arch character, Harlequin, in the Italian entertainments; whom we remember to have heard argue juft in the fame manner. He afks Pierrot whether he ever read the poems faid to have been written by one Horace? Pierrot replies that he has: Well, fays Harlequin, don't you think them very. ingenious? Certainly, replies Pierrot: I will tell you a fecret then, fays Harlequin, I was the author of them myself. How! cries Pierrot, why, they were written many hundred years ago. Well, fays Harlequin, and are they ever the worfe for that? Our Author's queftions conclude juft as much against our argument as Harlequin's against that of Pierrot. He does indeed refemble Harlequin in more particulars than one; he fhuffles along, flapping his wooden fword, through a thousand zigzags, in which it would ill become us to follow him.

In his differtation on eternal punishment, his argument, in fum, is this:

It was fit to threaten eternal punishment, to prevent temporal crimes.

It is fit to inflict it, because it has been threatened.

The Author finding himself embarraffed by our objection, that in this view, fuppofing the expedient in one inftance only to prove ineffectual, it would produce more evil than it would prevent, the evil that it would produce being infinite, and that which it would prevent being finite, makes a defperate plunge to get free, and afferts that the inftitution of eternal punishment was thus made neceffary to prevent mankind from being eternally punished. What! was eternal mifery made neceffary, to prevent eternal mifery! Did prince Prettyman kill prince Prettyman!-But the Author afks, Was it necessary for him to inform Chriftians? Could he fuppofe that any who bear the name could be fo ignorant, as not to know that the promulgation of eternal punishment turns men to that path which leads to eternal happiness?' But if the promulgation of eternal punishment was neceffary to induce men to fulfil the conditions of eternal happiness, and if no Chriftian can be fuppofed to be ignorant of this, what need of any other proof that the promulgation of eternal punishment is confiftent with the divine attributes; and of what ufe is this Author's defence of it upon principles that are entirely new, the fruits of his own investigation? It must be obferved here, that this Author makes the new covenant a covenant of works, which we mention only to fhew, that either the anathemas which he pronounces against the Reviewers,

Reviewers for appearing to diffent in fome particulars from the doctrine of the church of England as established by law, are either unmerited, or recoil upon himself.

Our Readers will have obferved, that we have treated the Author of the Letter as the Author of the Differtations. knowledge that the Letter is not written in that character, but it is impoffible that it fhould be the work of another writer. The Author of the Letter speaks of the Author of the Differtations, and of his work, as no human Being would speak of them except himself. The Author of the Differtations, fays the Letter-writer, has, in every one of them, either proposed new interpretations of fcripture, or supported old ones with new arguments. He very feldom advances opinions which have been difcovered by others, without either refuting them if false, or deducing fome ufeful confequence from them if true, or impunging fome abfurd conclufion which others had drawn.-His reafoning is fo clofe, that to abridge it would be to maim it.-There can now be no difpute between perfons equally wife and learned concerning the doctrine of eternal punishment, because the Differtator has proved it to be plainly revealed. The Differtator has removed all doubt of eternal punishment being one of the doctrines of revelation.-His arguments compel affent: his fame fhall fpread the farther for oppofition; and his work fhall be read with approbation, when the Review fhall be remembered only for its defects.' Is not this man's ftate defperate?" Seeft thou a man wife in his own conceit, there is more hope of a fool than of him."

The article in the Review in which this Author's work is confidered, has not, as he infinuates, oppofed revelation; but only his account of it. If this Author's arguments are not conclufive, does it follow that Christianity is falfe? if not, our refu tation of his arguments cannot impeach our belief of Chriftianity. Revelation was certainly intended as a rule of faith and practice to all whom it fhould reach. To fuppofe that it is not what it was intended to be, is to charge God foolishly.' If it can make only philofophers and critics wife to falvation, juft the contrary of what Jefus has affirmed is true, it was intended for the wife and prudent, and not for the unlearned and fimple. If it can make the unlearned and fimple wife to falvation, we may well pray that the differtations of philofophers and critics, with those of the nameless fry, that, without abilities to be either, affect to be both, may fleep with their fathers among "all fuch reading as is never read."

If this ingenious gentleman who has difappeared as a Differtator, and re-appeared as a Letter-writer, fhould enable us to amufe the public with an account of any further transformations, we fhall not neglect the opportunity. He threatens us REV. Dec. 1769.

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with another stroke of his wooden weapon, fo that our Readers may probably be entertained with another petit piece, under the title of Harlequin Differtator.

H.

Remarks on the Character and Manners of the French. In a Series of Letters, written during a Refidence of Twelve Months at Paris and its Environs. 12mo. 2 Vols. 4s. 6 d. fewed. Johnson and Payne.

BY

Y whom? No authority is required to fupport an obvious fiction; it is received as fuch: and every one judges for himself whether the tale is well or ill told. But when information concerning matters of fact is offered to the public, which does not carry its evidence with it, we receive it on the perfonal credit of the Relator. This publication, however, hath no fuch claim to attention; defcriptions are given, and characters drawn, without any name to vouch for the veracity of them. Either therefore our own actual knowledge will render the perufal of these letters needlefs, or we fhall read them without truft or confidence in the writer.

As for us poor Reviewers, we have been too often reproached with our indigent circumftances and fituation, to render it probable that we ever were bleffed with a fight of the fuperb metropolis of France: but without afcertaining this point, another difficulty ftands in the way, viz. the contumacy of our namelefs Letter-writer, in the following declaration :

• I am not very folicitous about the favourable report of thofe who never read, yet give a decifive opinion of every work that comes out.'

How this Writer came by his hurt, we know not, but the poor fteed must be fore, indeed, who winces before he is touched. It may be hinted, too, that when decifive opinions' prove agreeable to the party moft concerned, they are fo far from being defpifed, that they are often publicly copied, as unquestionable certificates of an Author's merit. But as this gentleman enters a proteft against them, he does not deferve to be furnifhed with one, unless he will accept the concluding sentence of this article. All, therefore, that we have farther to do, at prefent, will be, to point out, as good-nature fhall direct, one or two of his letters, as fpecimens of the whole collection: and, by the way, we fhall be obliged to open the book, at leaft, to

felect them:

LETTER IV.

Dear Sir, If a traveller was to judge of the French by the ftrictness and multiplicity of their regulations, he would probably fuppofe them the moft ungovernable people in the world.

• From

From the most important to the moft trifling concerns in life they continually go in trammels; and this kind of flavery is become fo habitual to them, that, when they are at a lofs for regulations by fuperior authority, they never fail to lay voluntary reftrictions upon themfelves.

For inftance, let the feafon be ever fo backward, or the perfon of ever fo cold a conftitution, it is abfolutely neceffary to wear filk in the fummer months; and on the contrary, fuppofe a gentleman accustomed to drefs in the cooleft manner, he is reduced to an abfolute neceflity of putting on velvet at a certain time of the year, without paying any regard to the weather, to his age, or particular conftitution.

A certain form is inviolably to be obferved at dinner. There muft neceffarily be a foup, the entrées muft follow next, then the rôt, and lastly the defert. This method is fo religiously to be obferved, that, rather than fail in the most trifling article, they would not fcruple to bring in one apple upon a plate to reprefent the defert.

There are many strict regulations relative to travelling poft, which determine the number of horfes neceflary for every kind. of vehicle, what is to be given to the poftilion, how much is to be paid for the horses, and what distance they are to go.

If it was thought neceflary to make thefe and many other laws for people in the country, we may reasonably fuppofe that the inhabitants of the metropolis, who are more expofed to confufion and diforder, could not fubfift without a great number of regulations; and accordingly they extend to almost every thing, from matters of confequence down to the progrefs of carriages to and from the places of public entertainment.

On this occafion the most exact order is obferved, the coaches following one another in a line, and generally moving very flow; which might lead a ftranger to imagine that this train was intended for a grand proceffion. Now if a person has the misfortune to fet out rather late, and that there happen to be two or three hundred coaches, which is often the cafe, I leave you to judge what chance he has of getting to the theatre before a confiderable part of the performance is over.

This is not the only inconvenience; for the carriages return according to the fame order in which they came; fo that whoever came laft may be certain to wait a confiderable time for his equipage. The carriages are brought up regularly to the door of the theatre, and the fervant belonging to each calls for the owner by name; but, if an answer is not quickly returned, that carriage is turned out of the line, and becomes the laft of the whole train.

It cannot be denied that this regulation effectually prevents any confufion, and is extremely equitable; fince thofe who ar

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rived first ought certainly to have the advantage of going out fooneft. But at the fame time is it not ftrange that rules fhould be prescribed for every man's conduct in fuch matters as his own reafon and difcretion might furely enable him to judge of?'

LETTER XVI.

Dear Sir, In a country where pleafures abound, and where men of all ranks in life are unavoidably led to pursue them, it could hardly be expected that commerce fhould flourish; and, though the French are confeffedly inferior to fome of their neighbours in this refpect, yet they are far from ignorant of bafinefs in any of its branches.

It is needless to remark upon their public tranfactions with other nations; all Europe must have obferved that they feldom enter into any agreement to their disadvantage; and the police and legiflature of the country fhrew that they keep a watchful eye over their interefts at home.

But to return to their trade.-It is well known that in most of their fea-port towns a great deal of wholesale business is carried on, and that many of the merchants are men of confiderable property. The greater number of thefe undergo a metamorphofis almost every day of their lives. The perfons whom you may have found in the morning poring over their accounts in their night-gowns and flippers, you may fee most elegantly dreffed in the evening, gallanting the ladies to an assembly or a play.

Thus do thefe gay people make pleasure and business continually fucceed one another, without allowing either to gain an afcendancy. To fee them in company, or at a publie entertainment, one would fuppofe they had paffed all their lives in diffipation; and, on the contrary, to fee them in the countinghouse, one might imagine they had never been any where else.

You may poffibly be furprized at this account of merchants in the country, where you might reasonably fuppofe that the pleafures of the town were unknown, and the inhabitants would confequently have different notions and very different amuse

ments.

In fome measure to account for this, it is to be confidered that in one refpect a Frenchman differs from almost every other European. A native of this country may be compared to a tree that bears the fame bloffoms in every foil; tranfplant him from the torrid to the frigid zone, he is ftill the fame, as the climate makes but little alteration in his perfon, and his fituation does not make the fmalleft difference in his conduct and his manners. For this reafon, though the poor laborious peasant does not resemble the pert Parifian fervant, yet a few steps higher there is hardly any difference between men of the fame

rank