Art. 29. The Circuit of Human Life; a Vifion. In which are allegorically defcribed the Virtues and Vices. Taken from the Tablature of Cebes, a Difciple of Socrates. For the Inftruction of Youth. 12mo. 1 S. T. Carnan. 1774. The Tablature of Ccbes has been long and justly esteemed as one of the most beautiful and valuable remains of antiquity.-This imitation of it is by no means deftitute of merit, though not free from defects. The form in which this Writer has chofen to recommend 2dom and virtue, is generally acceptable and pleafing, especially to young minds. But human life is fo diverfified; its windings are fo numerous, its opinions, prejudices, propenfities and paffions fo multifarious; that it must be very difficult to prevent confufion, or form an allegory with any confiderable degree of regularity and perfpicuity. The little publication now before us, is, however, certainly adapted to entertain and improve the youthful heart. Happy that youth who is fo influenced and guarded as to direct his early steps in the path that leads to true happiness, and to persevere in it! LA W. Hi. Art. 30. Abstract of an Act for Amendment of the Highways, 12th of George III. chap. lxxviii. With the Schedule of Forms, Table of daily Duty, Compofition, and Penalty from 5col. per Ann. to 501. Form of Surveyor's Account, and a Summary of refpective Dutics and other Matters. By a Surry Juftice. Folio, Is. 6d. Payne. 1773. The utility of this Abstract will sufficiently appear from what we have faid of a fimilar publication. See our account of Mr. Scott's Digeft, Review for December laft, p. 498. Art. 31. The Modern Parish Officer; or the Parish Officer's Complete Duty. Brought down to the prefent Period. Containing all the Statute Laws now in Force, together with the adjudged Cafes relating to every Kind of Parish Bufinefs, placed in alphabetical Order. A Work effentially neceffary for Conftables, Churchwardens, Overfeers of the Poor, Surveyors of the Highways, Juftices of the Peace, Attornies, Headboroughs, Tithingmen, Sidefmen, Veftrymen, Scavengers, &c. who would wish to execute their refpective Offices with Safety and Satisfaction. It is alfo a neceffary Companion for every Inhabitant of a Parish, who may not be a Parish Officer; as it will enable him to judge whether the Parish Duties are properly executed by others, and to defend himfelf against the Ignorance of those who are unacquainted with their Duty, as well as the arbitrary Measures of thofe who too frequently want to exercife an Authority which they are not warranted to do by Law. By a Gentleman of Lincoln's Inn. 3 s. 6d. Kearfley, &c. 1774. I 2m0. Had this Gentleman of Lincoln's inn, or elsewhere, found it prudent to avow this publication by fixing his name to it, he would in all probability, out of refpect to himself, have given it a title lefs ver See a particular analysis of this fine piece of ancient allegory, in the 11th folume of our Review, p. 502, &c. bose, bofe, and more modeftly expreffed: he would in plain terms have declared the purpose of it, and trusted to the merit of the execution, for its recommendation. When our expectations are raifed too high, they are feldom anfwered; and even when a writer honeftly fulfils his ample promises, Fame owes him no reward, he is a forestaller of applaufe, and may be fatisfied if he is allowed to have anticipated no more than was due to him. The Compiler of this book affures the Public, that he has given us" the parish officer's complete duty, brought down to the prefent 'period; and this period is pointed out at the bottom of the title page to be the year 1774: yet if justices of the peace with to know their duty in an important article, that of regulating the affize and making of bread, they must confult a ftatute, 13 Geo. 3. c. 62, which is not mentioned in the work! If juftices of the peace and parish officers examine it for the licenfing lying in hofpitals, and for their duty refpecting baftards born therein, they will be wholly disappointed; not the leaft notice being taken of the act 13 Geo. 3. c. 82, the law now in force as to these cafes! That thefe ftatutes were not too recent for this crude publication, may be inferred from the ample notice taken of the laft highway act, 13 Geo. 3. c. 78, which is fubfequent to the bread act. This highway act is indeed almoft given verbatim, for which perhaps two private reafons might be urged, if they were proper for the Compiler to produce: but instead of the laft turnpike act, we are prefented with a full detail of the 7 Geo. 3. c. 40. which is now repealed, and fuperfeded by the 13 Geo. 3. c. 84. This laft ftatute furnishes, matter for a fhort appendix, but this appendix affords no fufficient reafon or apology for overlooking the act 7 Geo. 3. c. 39. under the title Poor, nor for the premature hafte in hurrying out fo imperfect a publication difguifed under fuch oftentatious profeffions. N. Art. 32. A Difcuffion of Lord Camden's Opinion and Decree in Allen and the Duke of Newcastle. 4to. 2 S. Wilkie. 1774. This Publication relates to a cafe of executorship; and if it is of any ufe beyond a juftification of the parties affected by it, that ufe will be seen in difplaying the tricks of an artful attorney, in tranf actions where he was joint executor, and contrived to be fole manager. It is profeffedly published" to fhew the motives which induced the Duke of Newcastle to appeal from Lord Camden's decree." The review of this decree belongs properly to the fuperior court to which his Grace appeals. N. 33. The Legal Degrees of Marriage stated and confidered, in Series of Letters to a Friend. By john Alleyne, Efq; Barrister at Law. 8vo. 18, Harris, &c. 1774. Mr. Alleyne, the writer of thefe Letters, renews the theme formerly difcuffed by Mr. Fry, who juftified all the marriages of kindred, excepting thofe in the immediately afcending and defcending line, and between full brothers and fifters. He is therefore a very fanguine advocate for fome diftreffed client who pines for the fister of his deceased wife; and in this caufe warmly undertakes to refute thofe religious prejudices, which, as he expreffes it," cannot stand See Review, vol. xv. p. 174. the .ห the fire of argument." This fire is indeed kept up with more impé tuofity than fteady courage; though fome of the fhot are well aimed, and feem to take effect. So far as we are to be guided by the Mofaical law, the diftinction made by Mr. Fry, and infifted on by the prefent Writer, between uncovering the nakedness, and spreading a skirt over a woman, and covering the nakedness, appears quite juft, however indelicate, as Mr. Alleyne well remarks, the expreffions are: indeed, we fhould owe an apology to the fair fex, for referring to them in this grofs manner, did the advocates on both fides confine their reafoning, on this delicate fubject, to the actual and intrinfic merits of the cafe, without calling in the law and practice of a people, few of whofe inftitutions are confiftent with, or worthy of regard, under the present improvements of human knowledge. As an evidence of our own refpect for decency, we shall fupprefs fome additional hints that might be urged to fupport this distinction; and content ourfelves with obferving, after the writers on this fubject, that by the help of it, many of the Levitical prohibitions vanish: and that the regular practice of the Jews contradicts the popular construction of them. This confideration leads Mr. Alleyne to make fome pertinent obfervations on the canon law; and with respect to marrying with a fifter of a former wife (to justify which is the principal object of thefe letters) to lay great ftrefs on the act 1 Mary, feff. 2. c. 1, that pronounced the validity of the marriage between Henry VIII. and Catharine of Arragon, the widow of his brother Arthur. But without impeaching the avowed principles on which that act was framed, the authority of it would certainly have been ftronger, had its declared object been more extenfive, and had it not been calculated folely to fanctify the power under which it paffed; a power which there were manifold reafons to with had never been reftored. It is clear it never would have paffed, had Elizabeth immediately fucceeded Edward VI. Still muft it be allowed, as our Author remarks, that "it is a folemn, public, notorious, legiflative declaration, of the purity of a marriage folemnized between a man and his own brother's widow." It fhould feem therefore, according to plain reafon, that this legislative declaration would extend to, and fupport, all marriages in like circumftances. Mr. Alleyne, however, advifes an application to parliament, to have the degrees of marriage afcertained by an exprefs law; a meafure which would, in every refpect, be more agreeable to British proteftants, than the authority by which fuch cafes are now decided. N. NAVIGATION. Art. 34. The Seaman's ufeful Friend and pleafant Companion. 8vo. The Author has anticipated any recommendation which we might be difpofed to give him, by being very free and full in the praise of his own performance. But this felf-commendation we attribute to other motives than those of vanity and oftentation. We have already had occafion to remark a peculiarity in his manner of writing, and we then fuggefted what appeared to us a juft account of it. See Rev. for Jan. 1773, p. 72. We with, however, for his own fake, that our Author may not be too liberal in communicating" the knowledge knowledge with which the Almighty has bleffed him." In this fmall treatife we have," befides other ferviceable things," tables of the fun's declination for four years, from 1773 to 1776 inclufive; a method of finding the declination till the year 1800; rules for working an observation either of the fun or stars, "more plain and easy than have yet been given;" a lift of fome of the "biggeft" ftars, with their right afenfion and declination; directions to the feaman for finding and knowing any ftar, for correcting the dead reckoning by an obfervation, for discovering the variation by a common wooden dish compafs, for touching the compafs and for making the Land's End or the Lizard with fafety. The whole is written in a very plain manner, and may be of ufe to those navigators that have not accefs to more complete and more cofly publications. B-s. MATHEMATICS. Art. 35. Science Improved; or, the true Theory of the Universe. Comprehending a rational System of the most useful as well as entertaining Parts of natural and experimental Philofophy, embellished with Copper-plates on a new-invented moveable Conftruction, &c. By Thomas Harrington. 4to. 7 s. 6 d. fewed. Printed for the Author, and fold by Crowder, &c. A compilation, in which the leading principles of the celeftial philofophy are familiarly explained and applied to the purposes of religion and virtue. There is a freedom and ease in our Author's manner of writing, which will render this performance agreeable to thofe juvenile readers, for whofe information and ufe it is principally intended: and his intention, in this abftract of philofophical fcience, is truly laudable; but we are forry to obferve, that he has paid little regard to order in the diftribution of his materials, and that fome of his defcriptions are obfcure and imperfect. In a work of this kind, defigned for the inftruction and amusement of youth, it is of great moment to give a clear and accurate account of every fubject that occurs. As an inftance of the Writer's obfcurity, we refer to his examination of the paragraph in which he defcribes the places of the planets, toward the clofe of section 16: what we have now been fpeaking of is called the geocentrick places of the planets, that is feen from, or having the earth for its center. The heliocentrick places of the planets, means, was it poffible for an eye to be placed in the fun, it would fee our earth as a planet, and give the places of all the planets as they would appear from this fituation of the obferver."- -This is a fpecies of definition, confructed by no rules of logic or of grammar. Our Author has stated the number of miles in a degree of latitude, every where, at 60, without taking any notice of the true measurement of meridional degrees. He has likewife fet down the distances of the planets from the fun, together with their diameters and magnitudes, according to former eftimates, without any of the alterations and amendments determined by the late tranfits. His account of eclipfes is very unfatisfactory and imperfect: and, as the annexed figure for explaining them by no means answers the purpose of a real query, and tends to mislead a reader unacquainted with this fubject, he should have been particularly cautious to prevent mistakes, and to remove a difficulty that muft arise in the very Q3 youngest youngest mind, with refpect to the period of their return. Every youth, who attends merely to Mr. Harrington's plate and defcrip. tion, muft conclude, that eclipfes, both of the fun and moon, will neceffarily happen in every month. We fubmit thefe remarks to our Author's confideration; more efpecially as this volume is foon to be fucceeded by another, in purfuance of the fame plan. B-S. Art. 36. A Treatise on the Longitude, &c. By R. Waddington. 4to. 2 s. 6d. Nourfe. 1773. This treatife may be confidered as a kind of second supplement to the Author's Practical Method for finding the Longitude and Latitude of a Ship at Sea, published in 1763. (see Rev, for October in the fame year, p. 308.) The firft fupplement was published in 1764: fee Rev. Jan. 1764, p. 78. This new treatife contains inftructions and tables for the ufe of the fextant and ottant in celeftial obfervations; and particularly in thofe that immediately relate to the longitude. Mr. W. is well acquainted, both from theory and experience, with this fubject; and the prefent pamphlet is a valuable addition to what he has already offered to the public. Toward the conclufion he has given an abtract of the dimenfions of the folar fyftem, deduced from the obfervations of the laft tranfit, together with fome general definitions. R.S. HERALDRY. Art. 37. The complete English Peerage; or, a genealogical and biftorical Account of the Peers and Peereffes of this Realm. By the Rev. Frederic Barlow, M. A. 8vo. 2 Vols. 12s. 6d. Boards.. Eva s. 1773 Though we are already furnished with various hiftories of the Englith peerage, yet the many changes that have lately happened from new creations, and the extinction of old titles, furnish a plaufible excufe for a fresh publication of this nature. Former writers in this walk, inftead of being faithful hiftorians, have too often (as Mr. B. obferves) deviated into mere panegyrifts. The Authors of the work before us boast of their own unbiaffed integrity in the following terms:- We fhall not be afraid to pull afide the ermine, to fhew the corruption [which] lies hidden behind; and qur reverence for truth will embolden us to disclose the weakness of the bead, even when encircled by the diadem. This is, indeed, a bold declaration: but we find it made good, in a variety of inftances, in the course of the work; in which the characters of many of the prefent nobility, whether favourable or otherwife, are drawn with great freedom, and an air of impartiality. The arms are neatly and accurately engraved, and [which is peculiar to the prefent work] the mottos are all tranflated and explained. Good engravings are alfo given of his Majefty, and of all the dif ferent orders of peers, in their parliamentary robes. On the whole, this account of the English peerage seems to deserve the public approbation, equally with other abridgments of the like nature; and the more fo, as the state of the several noble families is brought down to the time of its publication. P. POETICAL |