REVIEW.- -The History of the Church of Christ, in Continuation of Milner, &c. By John Scott, M.A. Vol. III. 8vo. pp. 637. Seeley, London, 1831.

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not with the sanctity of their parents, but with the faithfulness of an electing God.' And here he refers to Romans xi. For the latter conclusion concerning children generally, he quotes Rom. v. though he admits we have but little light upon the subject. He rejects the idea that baptism washes away original sin and condemnation. The blessing, he says, is not tied to signs and symbols: baptism recognizes and attests the privilege, rather than confers it. What scripture authority, he asks, is there for ascribing such an effect to baptism?

days; and we may learn, from the contrast, to estimate and hold fast the privilege which we enjoy.

In the preface to this volume, Mr. Scott vindicates Calvin from the charge of causing the death of Servetus; but the defence appears less powerful than the accusation. To what extent the great reformer was accessary to the burning of this unhappy victim of relentless and malicious bigotry, we presume not to determine. The accounts transmitted to us are conflicting and contradictory, and no means of ascertaining

the actual truth are now within our reach. The death of Servetus is, however, a blot which has adhered to the character of Calvin through all generations, since the event took place, and no human efforts can now efface the stain.

Entering on the great subjects of his work, Mr. Scott traces the progress of the Reformation on the continent from state to state, adverts to the difficulties it had to encounter, and marks its perseverance and ultimate triumphs. Many of the distinguished individuals who bore their part on the great theatre of action, are brought before us, and, from numerous quotations selected from their works, we may perceive the doctrines which they taught, the disputes in which they engaged, and the manner in which they employed their talents and

their pens.

In quoting the epistles of Zwingle, and analyzing their contents, the following observations occur, respecting infants and

heathens.

"Having discussed the disease, he comes to consider the remedy, which is to be found in Christ alone. And he believes it certainly to extend to all who are born under the Christian covenant, so that none shall perish without their own actual transgression. He trusts also, that this blessing extends to infants universally. For the former conclusion he argues from the covenant originally made with Abraham and his seed, and now extended to Christians. I connect this freedom of infants from the condemnation of original sin,

"In this paper he also introduces his sentiment, elsewhere more fully stated, concerning the vir tuous beathen. He speaks of the faith of Seneca, and quotes, as an instance of it, the well-known sentence- We ought so to live, as if some one could look into our hearts; and indeed there is ONE who can do it.' Who,' he asks, first implanted this faith in Seneca's heart? and he argues in support of his opinion, from such men shewing the work of the law written in their

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maintains, he says, does not supersede Christ, but, on the contrary, extends his glory; as it is through him alone that their (supposed) faith is implanted, and that they themselves are accepted, though they know him not."-p. 143.

That so much liberality should exist in any mind at the period to which we are referred, is rather a matter of surprise than of expectation. Intolerance was the order of the day; and but few were thought sound in the faith, who did not piously anathematize all who happened to differ from them. The liberal sentiments of

Zwingle seems almost too much for the nineteenth century; for, on the quotations we have given, Mr. Scott makes the following observations.

"On this subject I refer the reader to Dr. Milner's remarks only adding an expression of deeply painful regret, that there should appear, in point of fact, so little to support the conclusion, that the moral virtue of the class of persons referred to was such, or sprang from such a principle, as might constitute it, in any sense, the obedience of faith; and arguing, from the case of these heathen philosophers, to whom the gospel was offered, so little to countenance the idea that they had any such faith as was ready to receive the gospel when proposed to it."-p. 145.

played But, notwithstanding the liberality disby Zwingle in the preceding extract, he was not a dissenter from the following short passage will most decidedly good old orthodoxy of the times, as the

evince.

"Predestination must be irrespective of human works, performed or foreseen, otherwise the determinations of the Creator are made dependent on the actions of the creature; and we vainly imagine ourselves to be, or to become, something of ourselves, before God could decide anything concerning us."-p. 223.

Here it is but just to state, that Mr. Scott most decidedly differs from the passage above quoted. He pronounces it to be a conclusion repugnant, not only to all our notions of justice and goodness, but to all those views which the scriptures lead us to take of the divine proceedings, and contradictory to their statements at large.

Why these dogmas of polemic secta rianism should be mixed up with what is professedly a Continuation of Milner's Church History, may well become a subject of inquiry. Even the passive-power hypothesis of the late Dr. Williams has found its way into a note, the introduction of which we cannot but think exceedingly irrelevant. This appears still more remarkable when, on turning to the preface, the author, on referring to the opinions entertained respecting Calvin, observes"It is needless to say, that I take my station with neither party. In such a diversity of opinion, one only course is open, the course of honesty and independence, which I would aim every where to pursue."

To the quantity of valuable matter incorporated in this volume, we can hardly assign any measure or limits. It lays open the arcana of the Reformation; and, touching those springs of action which were so powerful in their effects, brings before us those venerable characters who, in the hand of God, were rendered instrumental in breaking the fetters of papal tyranny.

On looking through the whole, surveying the power and prejudice to be opposed and overcome, and the apparently inefficient means by which the mighty revolution was to be effected, we cannot but behold the finger of God working, through human agency, in delivering a faithful and zealous people from a pretended infallible church, that by its enormities had become the curse of the christian world.

REVIEW.-The Life and Times of " Eng land's Patriot King," William IV. With a Brief Memoir of Her Majesty Queen Adelaide. By John Watkins, LL.D. Fisher, Son, and Jackson, London, 1831.

No monarch, perhaps, ever ascended the throne of his ancestors with more sincere gratulations from his people than William IV.; and since the sceptre has been in his hands, the enthusiasm of the people has been unbounded. The frankness of his manners, and the popularity of his measures, will form a new era in the biography of kings, and hold him out as a bright example for his successors to imitate.

Of this very popular monarch, the work before us delineates the life, and bids fair to share in the triumphs of patriotism which it records. It is being published in numbers and parts, and is rendered doubly interesting, by adverting to the events which were associated with his Majesty's early years. So far as this work has proceeded, we

follow Prince William-Henry through his education, his novitiate while holding a subordinate station in the navy, his progressive gradation, the service he has seen, the conflicts in which he was engaged, his travels and voyages, and final advancement to the command which his naval abilities merited.

Advanced to the honour of Lord High Admiral, events full of interest respecting his Majesty will thicken round the biogra pher's pen, and every step from that station to the elevated pinnacle on which he sits, will render all his actions momentous, both to us and to posterity. Before the able biographer can overtake his Majesty in his career through life, the new Parliament recently formed will have assembled, and, with such a monarch at their head, and ministers of the first abilities, the issues which may be brought about, baffle all calculation.

At all events, the discussions and enactments, that are on the eve of bursting upon us, will give a zest to this memorial, which, from what we have already seen, and what may be expected, promises, independently of the plates with which it will be embellished, to be one of the most popular works of the present day.

REVIEW.-Oxford, a Poem. By Robert Montgomery. 8vo. pp. 258. Whittaker, London, 1831.

THE several masterly poems which this author has sent into the world, have so far extended his fame, and excited public expectation, that Oxford must be an extraordinary production indeed, if, on its appearance, his readers felt no disappointment. The more highly any composition is finished, and the greater the genius which it displays, the more strongly solicitude is awakened, when, from the same pen, any thing new is about to appear; and no one seems satisfied, unless the last shall excel all that have preceded it, how excellent soever they may have been. We seem to think no limits can be set to the human powers, that they always ascend in progression, towards a zenith of ideal perfection, of which no one presumes to give a definition.

Such is precisely the relation in which Mr. Montgomery stands with the public. They had noticed his capabilities, and learning that he was again about to pay them a visit, hastened before him to the most elevated mount that lay within the range of their conception, to wait his arrival, and behold him soaring so far above all his former productions, as those productions had originally exceeded their

former expectations. They saw him approach with Oxford in his hand, the map of which, both in ancient and modern times, he has spread before them; but not finding it to abound with those transcendent sublimities and beauties which corresponded with their romantic imaginations, and which perhaps no human mind can yield, the meed of praise has been but sparingly awarded to the merits of his muse.

In his survey of Oxford, Mr. Montgomery notices its origin, history, appearance, vicissitudes, improvements, and incidents, and calls our attention to the great, the mighty, the learned, and singular individuals whom it has produced. Of their times and characters he has furnished an epitomized outline, and interspersed the whole with reflections suggested by the evanescence of earthly greatness, and the revolutions which the progress of time effects. If these reflections are not profound, they are always judicious; they spring from the occasions to which they refer, and never tire the reader by their tedious prolixity.

In the opening of this poem, Mr. Montgomery proposes this question:

"What makes the glory of a mighty land,
Her people famous, and her hist'ry grand?
Is it, that earth has felt her vast control,
Far as the wind can sweep, or ocean roll:
That ships and merchandise her ports bedeck,
And navies thunder at her awful beck!
That grandeur walks each street, arrays each dome,
And in her temples hails a second Rome?
Though power and greatness, those almighty two,
That move the world, and teach what man can do,
In every age has thus some empire blest,
And Alp-like reared their thrones above the rest;
Yet what remains of all that once hath been?
The billows welter where the ports were seen!
The wild-grass quivers o'er their mangled piles,
And winter moans along the archless aisles;
Where once they flourished, ruins grimly tell,
And shade the air with melancholy spell;
While from their wreck a tide of feeling rolls,
In awful wisdom through reflective souls !"-p. 10.

Having thus assigned to power and greatness the honours which they have a right to claim, and found that "the paths of glory lead but to the grave," the question is again renewed in reference to mind.

"What then alone omnipotently reigns,
When empires grovel on deserted plains,
In sun-like grandeur to outdare the night,
That time engenders o'er their vanished might?
"Tis mind, an immortality below

That gilds the past, and bids the future glow;
"Tis mind, heroic, pure, devoted mind,
To God appealing for corrupt mankind,
Reflecting back the image that he gave,
Ere sin began, or earth became a slave !
"Exalting thought! when ages are no more,
Like sunken billows on a far-off shore,
A second life in lofty prose or song,
Their glories have, to light the world along!
And ever thus may spirit be refined;
For what is godhead but consummate mind?
Or heaven, but one surpassing realm of thought,
With each perfection of his wisdom fraught?
Not what we have, but what our natures feel,
By truth unfolded for sublimest zeal,

2D. SERIES.-No. 7.

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Develops all that makes our being great,
And links a human to immortal state ?"-p. 11.

From thus awarding to intellect the claims of superiority over the splendours of empire, the author conducts us to Oxford, the scene of his poem, where intellect was nobly cultivated in former years, by men who embellish his pages with their names. The same causes, with equal application, still produce the same effects; and if, in the present age, universities are deficient in producing their due proportion of intellectual greatness, it argues a defect in application, or a laxity somewhere, that cannot be surveyed without regret.

We have heard it hinted, that, by the publication of this poem, Mr. Montgomery has given great offence to some Oxonians, and on one occasion a foolish attempt was made to defame it with burlesque. There can be little doubt that in the various colleges of Oxford great diversity of character, appears. Some of these, whose morals will not bear the light, on beholding the following pictures, may suspect that the poet is personal, and feel displeased at the faithfulness of his mirror. He weaves his robes, and leaves those to put them on, who think that they are adapted to their stature, their shape, and their deformity.

"But who can languish through a hideous hour,
When heart is dead, and only wine hath power?
That brainless meeting of congenial fools,
Whose highest wisdom is to hate the schools,
Discuss a tandem, or describe a race,
And d--the proctor with a solemn face,
Swear nonsense wit, and intellect a sin,
Loll o'er the wine, and asininely grin!
Hard is the doom, when awkward chance decoys
A moment's homage to their brutal joys.
What fogs of dulness fill the heated room,
Bedimm'd with smoke, and poisoned with perfume;
Where now and then some rattling soul awakes,
In oaths of thunder, till the chamber shakes!
Then midnight comes, intoxicating maid;
What heroes snore, beneath the table laid;
But still reserved, to upright posture true,
Behold! how stately are the sterling few :-
Soon o'er their sodden nature wine prevails,
Decanters triumph, and the drunkard fails:
As weary tapers at some wondrous rout,
Their strength departed, winkingly go out.
Each spirit flickers till its light is o'er,
And all is darkness that was drunk before."-p. 62.

The shocking scene which follows is enveloped in shades of a still deeper character than the preceding, and, from its being too dark to be applicable to any members of the university in modern days, the Oxonians may resent it as a libel on their reputation. We shall rejoice to find that the imputation is unjust, and gladly learn that history and imagination, without the aid of fact, have dictated the foul aspersion to the poet's pen.

"From careless boyhood to uncultured man,
Indulged to act ere principle began:
With just enough of spirit for excess,
And heart which nothing save a vice can bless.
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151.-VOL. Y

In Oxford see the reprobate appear!
Big with the promise of a mad career.
With cash and consequence to lead the way,
A fool by night, and more than fop by day!
What happy vileness doth his lot reveal,
How folly burns with imitative zeal,
Whene'er the shadows of his greatness falls,
In festive chamber or collegiate hall!
Romantic lot! to vegetate secure

From all that might to mental paths allure:
To wake each morning with no deeper thought,

Than that which yesterday's excess hath brought;
Then, winged by impulse, as the day proceeds,
To follow where coxcomic fashion leads.-
Hark! Woodstock rattles with eternal wheels,
And hounds are ever barking at his heels.
The chapel voted a terrific bore;

The Dons' head-pieces for the college door!
The lecture scouted, the degree reviled,
And Alma Mater, all save alma styled!
Thus on,

till night advance, whose reign divine,
Is chastely dedicate to cards and wine,
Where modest themes amusive tongues excite,
And faces redden with the soul's delight;
A Roman banquet! with Athenian flowers
Of festive wit, to charm the graceful hours.

"Alas! that truth must fling a doleful shade
On the bright portrait which her hand hath made.
Few years have fled, and what doth now remain
Of him the haughty, who but smiled disdain
On all that virtue in her meekness dared,
Ambition hoped, or principle declared?
His friends are dead; his fortune sunk away,
In midnight hells, where midnight demons play;
A withered skeleton of sin and shame,
With nought but infamy to track his name;
The wreck of fortune, with despairing sighs,
Fades from the world, and like a felon dies."

P. 132.

Of Mr. Montgomery's descriptive powers, the passages we have given will enable every reader to judge. Many others that are superior in poetical merit, might be easily selected. His character of Johnson is finely drawn; and the reflections to which his name, and the chambers of his residence, give birth, are placed before us in much plaintive beauty. The walk to Blenheim contains many exquisite touches; and throughout the whole, the poet's retrospective gaze on departed ages, can hardly fail to awaken admiration.

Were we to examine this poem with an eye to its defects, many blemishes might be discovered; but the task would be invidious, when they are so much counterbalanced by more obvious excellences. As a whole, Oxford will not outshine some of Mr. Montgomery's other productions, but, after all fair deductions have been made, its redeeming qualities will leave a surplus to prove that it is not unworthy of his poetical reputation, to which a monument has already been erected on the hills of Parnassus ; and although his name has been legibly inscribed on a tablet in the temple of Fame.

This poem is embellished with twelve superb engravings, taken from the scenes and objects which he describes. Of these the designs are elegant and appropriate, and the execution does honour to the artists, and to the work which they adorn.

REVIEW.-Edinburgh Cabinet Library. Egypt. Vol. III. 12mo. pp. 480. Simpkin and Marshal. London. 1831.

WHATEVER may be the condition of this country at present, all historians agree, that it was the cradle of the arts, and the birthplace of science. These facts are attested by the authority both of sacred and profane writers; and the ruins of departed grandeur, still frowning in solitary desolation, as well as the venerable monuments of human ingenuity, power, and perseverance, which defy the wasting hand of time, and the corrosions of the elements, still survive, to give their attestations.

Into the history of Egypt, both ancient and modern, this third volume of the Edinburgh Cabinet Library fully enters. The whole scene of its infancy, advancement, maturity, zenith, prosperity, decline, and present condition, appears to be spread in ample panorama before the author; and from its rich and inexhaustible mines of historical wealth, he has selected all that is valuable and important, epitomized in a manner that preserves its interest, without encumbering his pages with irrelevant

matter.

It is universally admitted, that the Pyramids of Egypt are either the oldest, or among the oldest, monuments in the world; it is, therefore, natural to conceive that they should have engrossed the attention of every traveller, and have found their way into numerous works which treat of human ingenuity and art. Of these, the accounts before us are full of thrilling interest, and the sources whence the materials have been derived, leave no room for any suspicion to be entertained as to their authenticity.

Respecting these venerable works of distant ages, the labours of Belzoni, and his descriptions of the discoveries which he made, will never be forgotten. In this volume all his achievements are concentrated; but the detail is too voluminous to be transcribed, we therefore beg leave to introduce another subject, which is less generally known.

"The Labyrinth is also mentioned by Herodotus as one of the greatest wonders of Egypt, and the most surprising effort of human ingenuity and perseverance. It exceeds, I can truly assert, all that has been said of it; and whoever takes the trouble to examine them will find all the works of Greece much inferior to this, both in regard to workmanship and expense. The temples of Ephe sus and Samos may justly claim admiration, and the Pyramids may individually be compared to many of the magnificent structures erected by the Greeks; but even these are inferior to the Laby. rinth. It is composed of twelve courts, all of which are covered their entrances are opposite to each other, six to the north, and six to the south; one wall encloses the whole. The apartments are of

:

two kinds; there are fifteen hundred above the surface of the ground, and as many beneath, in all three thousand. Of the former, I can speak from my own knowledge and observation; of the latter, only from the knowledge I received. The persons who had the charge of the subterraneous apartments would not suffer me to see them, alleging that in these were preserved the sacred crocodiles, and the bodies of the kings who constructed the Labyrinth. Of these, therefore, I presume not to speak; but the upper apartments I myself examined, and I pronounce them to be among the greatest triumphs of human industry and art. The almost infinite number of winding passages through the different courts, excited my warmest admiration. From spacious halls I passed through smaller chambers, and from them again to large magnificent courts, almost without end. The ceil ings and walls are all of marble, the latter richly adorned with the finest sculpture; and around each court are pillars of the same material, the whitest and most polished that I ever saw.

At the

point where the Labyrinth terminates, stands a pyramid one hundred and sixty cubits high, having large figures of animals engraved on the outside, and an entrance to the interior by a subterraneous path."-p. 110.

In the principal facts respecting this famous Labyrinth, thus stated by Herodotus, he is corroborated by Strabo, who observes, that it was impossible to enter any one of the palaces, or to leave it, without a guide. Pliny also refers to this famous Labyrinth, in a manner which plainly evinces that, even in his time, its fame, if not its workmanship, still continued to command public attention. It is, however, melancholy to add, that at present no vestige of it is known so exist; and historians and travellers have not agreed as to the spot on which it stood.

Egypt having been from time immemorial the grand depository of all that was rendered venerable by age and genius, a considerable portion of this volume is filled with descriptions, memorials, and elucidations, of its numerous and very wonderful productions. The ruins of ancient grandeur every where appear, and in each page some hoary monument, some hieroglyphic, some ancient sculpture, rescued from gathering desolation, calls the attention, and arrests the eye. Among these the surviving remnants of scientific knowledge in ancient Egypt are not passed over in silence. Many memorials that have triumphed over the corrosions of time, still exist, to prove, that in astronomy the attainments of the Egyptians were very considerable.

Of the present inhabitants, their manners, employment, genius, modes of life, and general character, this volume gives a succinct account. Each particular is replete with life and vigour, and every page presents something that is interesting, if not astonishing.

The second chapter contains some very curious calculations respecting the overflow

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ing of the Nile, the soil which its waters deposit, the elevation which is slowly but regularly taking place in the surface of the ground, and on the probable results which time may be expected to produce. It is stated on the authority of Dr. Shaw, that,

"Since the time of Herodotus, Egypt has gained new soil to the depth of two hundred and thirty inches. And if we look back from the reign of Moeris to the time of the deluge, and reckon that interval by the same proportion, we shall find that the whole perpendicular accession of the soil from the deluge to A. D. 1721, must be 500 inches, that is, the land has gained forty-one feet eight inches of soil in 4072 years. Thus, in process of time, the whole country may be raised to such a height, that the river will not be able to overflow its banks; and Egypt, consequently, from being the most fertile, will, for want of the annual inundation, become one of the most barren parts of the universe."-p. 39.

Proceeding upon the principle advanced in the preceding passage, some of the French philosophers have attempted to ascertain the age of many statues and monuments, from the quantity of soil accumulated round their bases. From data so uncertain, nothing, however, can with any degree of accuracy be inferred. Such calculations, therefore, may be rather placed among the amusements of philosophical speculation, than ranked with the discoveries of science.

The last chapter is devoted to the natural history of the country. This comprises its geology, and the numerous varieties of its vegetable and animal tribes. Many of these are particularly remarkable, especially the monsters which inhabit its rivers, some of its birds, its corals, and its gums.

With this very instructive and entertaining volume we can now proceed no further. What we have said may be sufficient to place it in a favourable light, yet the whole must be examined by every one who wishes to become acquainted with the value of its

contents.

REVIEW.-Family Classical Library. Vol.

XVII. Horace. Vol. I. translated by Philip Francis. D.D. 12mo. pp. 316. Valpy. London. 1831.

THE writings of Horace are familiar to every classical student, and this edition of his works is calculated to create classical minds in many, to whom the term is almost unknown. The versatility of talent, and strong mental powers, displayed by the Roman poet, have gained him the admiration of all the ages which have intervened from his day to the present; and the strength of genius that is diffused throughout his works, cannot fail to keep them alive, amidst all the revolutions to which literature may be liable.

In the masterly translation of Philip