Tranflation of Count TESSIN's Letters, Vol. III. 231 tion, and that I was honoured with a compliment on account of my manner of writing. • Heaven knows, I had no defign but to inspire your tender heart with the principles of your duty to God, your country, and yourself. Having toiled through many years fervice, at the expence of my whole fortune, I pleafed myfelf with the hopes of fpending the fhort remainder of my days in peaceful folitude; but alas! how uncertain are all human projects! I have met with unexpected uneafinefs on account of these very letters to your Royal Highnefs. When I found myfelf obliged to deliver them to the prefs, I flattered myself they would remain in the hands of a few friends: but I find they have been conveyed, by what means I am ignorant, into Germany, and are there tranflated and published to all the world.' We are forry to think Count Teffin fhould prove fo uneafy at a confequence fo naturally to be expected, as that of his thirty copies propagating perhaps thirty thoufand. Had it been otherwife, indeed, his friends, and the world in general, had paid him on great compliment. That his perfonal enemies fhould avenge themselves on his writings, is alfo as little ftrange, as fo general a publication of them. Envy, no doubt, pursues merit in Sweden, as well as in other countries; and the man, whose sensibility is liable to be fo deeply wounded by the fhafts of malevolence, fhould, of all things, take care how he appears in print: but to return to the work. The reader will find, in this third volume, a number of excellent remarks, and judicious reflections, as well on political, as œconomical and moral fubjects. Thefe are alfo occafionally enlivened with pertinent anecdotes, or cloathed in the agreeable drefs of allegory, to heighten the entertainment, and sweeten the inftruction of his royal pupil. We fhall, for the greater fatisfaction of our Readers, make an extract of the thirteenth letter; not because it is in any refpect preferable to the reft, but as it is one of the shortest. The more exalted our flation, the more we are expofed to the cenfure of mankind. To flander the fortunate, the wife, and the good, feems to be a privilege which custom has confirmed to the unhappy, the weak, and the wicked. It is in reality a dear-bought confolation, for which they are little to be envied. Whofoever enters the ftage of life, with a defign to act a principal part, muft not be difconcerted at the clamours of an injudicious audience. If he has real merit, he may be certain, it will at last prevail, notwithflanding all their noife, which often has no other foundation than the pleasure of exerting a privilege, to which they imagine they have an indifputable right. Q4 Kings 232 Tranflation of Count TESSIN's Letters, Vol. III. Kings and Princes ftand the higheft, and are therefore most expofed; it is thence no wonder, that their most minute actions are examined and brought to light. Every individual that ftands around them, though with very unequal pretenfions, expects his fortune from the throne: but as it is impoflible that all thould be fatisfied, there will always be a certain number who will endeavour to alleviate the pangs of difappointment by loud complainings: like thofe who are in violent bodily pain, they feek eale in their vociferation. It is faid of Francis, the firft of France, that being told the people made very free with his character in their fongs, he anfwered, it would be very hard if they were not allowed to fing for their money." ઃઃ In my travels in France and England, I often remember to have heard the people speak with great freedom of the government, particularly in England; where, with aftonishment, I have frequently feen both the king and the miniftry feverely abufed in the public news-papers. I once afked an elderly fenfible man, who fat next me in the coffee-houfe, how it came that these writers were not punifhed? Sir," fays he, " a well governed flate pays no regard to thefe trifles. We must have fome privileges in return for our heavy taxes, which, notwithstanding all we fay, are paid with great alacrity. How common a thing is it to hear fervants grumble at the commands of a good mafter; yet his orders are obeyed, and they continue to love him! But if you, Sir, or any other ftranger, were to say but a tenth part of what we think we have a right to fay, you would find that we fhould unite against you, in defence of the honour of our king and country." The injudicious multitude will always give their tongues liberty upon any new regulation, as they do not immediately fee into the intention of the projector, nor the benefit that will arife from it; but a wife Prince will fhut his ears againft fuch inoffenfive clamours. Yet there are certain limits, beyond which it would be imprudent to fuffor even a free people to extend their liberty. It ought by no means to be allowed to grow into licentiousness. Every appearance of fecret leagues, or plots, fhould be ftifted before they have time to flame out: but even in this cafe it would be best to remember the old trite proverb, which fays, “that there are more flies to be caught with one fpoonful of honey, than with a gallon of vinegar." A fevere government may poffibly command obedience, for fear of punishment; but a mild Prince only can obtain the confidence and affection of his people.' If the Reader fhould, from this fpecimen, form an advantageous idea of the entertainment he is like to meet with in the perufal of this volume, we dare venture to affure him he will not be disappointed. K-n-k ΑΠΑΝΤΩΝ ΤΩΝ ΤΟΥ ΟΜΗΡΟΥ, ΣΕΣΩΣΜΕΝΩΝ TOMOI TEEΣAPEZ. Folio. Printed at Glafgow*, and fold by Millar in London. Price 11. 3s. in boards. F these four volumes in folio, containing all the works of. Homer, we have already given an account of the two firft, which comprised the Iliad +. The two remaining, which were lately published, include the Odyffey; the Batrachomyomachia, or the Battle of the Mice and Frogs; a Hymn to Apollo; another to Mercury; a third to Venus; with feveral other short hymns to the Heathen deities. They contain likewife feveral epigrams and verses, taken from Herodotus's life of Homer; with a collection of many fuppofititious verfes; and feveral fragments. But we do not find fuch a number of the Homerokentra, as are to be met with in fome old editions, and which, by many readers, may be deemed curious. We have the pleasure, however, to observe, that these two volumes are equal in merit with the two former, as to the beauty of the paper and type, and the accuracy and correctness of the work; which renders it not only as elegant and splendid, but perhaps as valuable an impreffion, as ever appeared in the Greek, or any other language. The learned and diligent profeffors, Meff. Moor and Muirhead, acquaint us, that in the Odyffey, they have followed the edition of Mr. Samuel Clarke, the fon; and that they have felected from the fame edition, all fuch pieces as are ufually afcribed to Homer. They profefs to have purfued the fame method of correcting the proofs, which they obferved in the Iliad; revifing them no less than fix times, and comparing them with prior editions. They need not doubt gaining credit to their profeffions, for, indeed, the work of itself is a proof of their unwearied labour and patience. There feems to be an inaccuracy in this title page; for these two volumes, which are marked first and fecond, fhould have been marked the third and fourth, to make them correfpond with the titlepage, which speaks of four volumes. † Vide Review, Vol. XVII. p. 339. It It is with the highest fatisfaction that we find thefe two voJumes, as well as the preceding ones, infcribed to the Prince of Wales, by his Royal Highness's own permiffion. We confider it as a happy prefage of future felicity to the nation, when the heir apparent to the crown diftinguishes himself as a friend to learning, and a patron of arts and sciences. We flatter ourselves that the murmurs of neglected merit will be heard no more. The numerous progeny in the royal line, affords a pleafing profpect to the kingdom. Such an appearance of the blood-royal, adds fplendor to a court, infuses spirit among the people, and naturally introduces taste and elegance in the nation. The union having intermixed the interefts of England and Scotland, we may view the improvements made in North Britain without jealoufy; and among the many fuccessful efforts they have made in the cultivation of arts and fciences in that kingdom, their progrefs in the art of typography, at Glasgow, is not the leaft confiderable: of which this new edition of the Odyffey is a recent testimony. We hope that every man of taste and literature will be forward to encourage this work. The admirers of Homer may read him in this edition with an increase of pleasure; and the merit of the impreffion may be faid to enhance the value of the compofition. The Odyffey certainly abounds with matter of entertainment and inftruction; and although the Iliad may be more generally read and admired, yet many perfons, diftinguifhed for their taste and judgment, do not fcruple to give the preference to the former. R-d A Letter writ in the Year 1730, concerning the question, Whether the Logos fupplied the place of a human foul in the perfon of Jefus Chrift? To which are now added two Poftfcripts: the first containing an explication of those words, the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, as ufed in the fcriptures. The fecond, containing remarks upon the third Part of the late bishop of Clogher's Vindication of the Hiftories of the Old and New Tejtament. 8vo. 3s. Noon, &c. TH HIS letter is written in the name of Philalethes to Papinian. In the preface we are affured, that though the names are fictitious, (as they always were, and the fame that appear now) it is part of a real correfpondence. Papinian, who who was a man of mature age, of great eminence, and a diligent reader of the facred fcriptures, had long fince accomplished his course in this world. Philalethes is ftill living. The letter fent to Papinian was never returned. But Philalethes kept a copy of it. Though writ almoft thirty years ago, it has been hitherto concealed in the writer's cabinet. Nor has it, till very lately, been fhewn to more than two perfons, one of whom is deceased. Whether this will be reckoned full proof, that the writer is not forward to engage in religious difputes, I cannot fay. This however is certain: he would have great reason to think himself happy, if, with the affiftance of others, without noife and disturbance, in the way of free, calm, and peaceable debate, he could clear up a controverted point of religion to general fatisfaction.' It is added in the fame preface. For better understanding the argument, it may be needful to obferve. for the fake of fome, that by divers ancient writers we are affured, it was the opinion of Arius and his followers, "That our Saviour took flesh of Mary, not a foul: and that the word in him, was the fame as the foul in us, and that the word, or the Deity in Chrift, was liable to fuffering in the body." This was the opinion of Mr. Whifton, who lays, "That our Saviour had no human foul, but that the divine Logos, or Word, fupplied its place." Against that opinion our Author argues in the letter. Our Saviour, fays he, is called a man in many places of the gofpels. And every body took him for a man during his abode on this earth, when he converfed with all forts of people in the most free and open manner. He frequently ftiles himself the Son of Man. He is alfo faid to be the Son of David, and the Son of Abraham. Now, if Jefus be a man, he confifts of a human foul and body; for what elfe is a man." And two evangelifts have recorded our Lord's nativity. St. Paul fays, God fent forth his Son, made of a woman, Gal. iv. 4. If it was expedient, that our Saviour fhould be born into the world, as we are, and live in infancy, and grow up to manhood, as we do, and be liable to all the bodily wants, weakneffes, and difafters, to which we are expofed, muft it not have been as needful, or more needful, and as conformable to the divine wisdom, that he should be also like unto us, in the other part, of which we are compofed, a human foul or fpirit?' And the making the Logos to be the foul of Chrift, does really annihilate his example, and enervate the force, which it fhould have upon us." He also argues in this manner. I do not apprehend it to be poffible, that fo exalted a spirit as the Logos, in the Arian fcheme, I |