of hypocrify or difimulation, as fometimes in the fame letter, he encourages and directs the lewd amours of his fon, nay points out to him a particular lady as the object of criminal paffion, and with the folemnity of an apofle calls upon God to bless him elsewhere he befeeches him for God's fake to make himself master of thofe graces and accomplishments, which are to gain him the men, and gain him the women. And it is fomething remarkable, that an English fox-hunter is treated as a bear, and held out as a monfter, which fhocks his lordship's delicacy, and one would fufpect, threatened the diffolution of his frame but when a French w-re of figure is the game, the chace, it feems, is honourable, and the exercife fuch as tends to the polish and perfection of the man,

:

I would not charge the noble lord's portrait with deeper or darker colours than belong to it: 1 will not therefore accuse him of entertaining the principles of fpeculative infidelity, notwithstanding his acknowledged prejudices in favour of fome eminent infidel writers. He read much; and it is not easy to reconcile a tolerable knowledge of books with a favourable opinion of infidelity and indeed, in point of argument, his lordship has clearly decided in favour of the Believer. Yet, in fact, lord Cheflerfield feems to have been as much a Mahometan, or a Jew, as a Chriflian. If we may judge of men's principles by their practice, it appears by thefe letters that lord Chesterfield had no thought or concern at all about religion. Habit and practice oftener fuperinduce principles, or lead to no principles at all, than thefe operate to influence the practice. Avarice, drunken nefs and other vices may frequently be obferved, not founded, we believe, in the fpeculative principles of infidelity, and yet inconfiftent with every principle of the Chriftian religion. The fatefman and the courtier have very ftrong and peculiar temptations to this practical infidelity. Charmed as his lordship was with the honours and eclat of a court, he could not easily reconcile his paflions and practice to the precepts of humility and poverty of spirit, of felf-denial and felf abafement. Anxious, as he was, to please men, he could not be the fervant of God. Admiring, as he did, the harmony of periods, the elegance of diction and the pomp of elocution, he could not well relish the natural and genuine fimplicity of the gospel ftyle. Relying, as he did, for the fuccefs of all his views and meafures on human prudence and policy, we fhould not wonder, if he excluded the agency of Providence, in the conduct of human affairs. Devoted entirely, as he was, to the world, to its natural and civil advantages, we expected, as we find, that he should not bestow a thought, or extend a wish to the future, fpiritual and eternal ftate. A courtier fo fpruce, fo drefly, fo fafhionable, fo anxious for his perfon and perfonal elegance, that he pretends to piefcribe to the minute circumftances in drefs and deportment, could have little conception of that moral greatnefs, which conAitutes the inner man of the heart; as the Encerity and truth

n word and deed, prefcribed to the fcholars of the gospel, was altogether inconfiftent with the verfatility and duplicity, the artifice and flattery, the fimulation and diffimulation, permitted and recommended as most neceffary in forming the character and addrefs of his favourite pupil. Noble, as he was, and converfant among nobles, ftudious of the refinements of civil policy, and the maxims of ftate, admitted to the perfons and councils of princes, he may be fuppofed to have had little relish for the foolishness of preaching, or deference to the fentiments and authority of the carpenter's Son, and the fishermen of Galilee. His wit and delicacy must be shocked by the fimplicity of their manners and maxims; and the meannefs of their birth and ftyle in life, would procure them little or no regard from the man of fafhion and family.'

After various remarks of a fimilar nature, Mr. Hunter, with the view of impreffing his readers with a detestation of the immoral principles and practices interfperfed in the work on which he comments, contrafts them with a description of the virtue practifed and recommended by the patriots and fages of ancient Greece and Rome; concluding with an addrefs to the public against the feductive tendency of thofe celebrated Letters,

Before we difmifs this work, we cannot refrain from offering a conjecture, fupported by private authority, in extenuation of his lordship's conduct refpecting the moft exceptionable parts of the didactive letters to his fon. Mr. Stanhope, it is well known, was of a difpofition remarkably fober, ferious, and referved, regardless, to excefs, of the ornamental and frivolous, though neceffary, accomplishments of the gentleman, and even inclined to rufticity in his manners. Lord Chesterfield,. who perfectly knew the moft fecret avenues to the human heart, and was thoroughly acquainted with every internal fpring which could influence the affe&ions, endeavoured to correct his fon's difpofition by directing the natural impulfe of the paffions into fuch a channel as was moft likely to operate towards producing the defired effect. Thofe parts of his lordship's Letters, therefore, in which this artifice is practifed, ought to be confidered as addreffed entirely to the peculiar character of his pupil, as they certainly were, and not be regarded as his genuine fentiments of libertinifin.

As it leaves a much more agreeable impreffion upon the mind, to take our leave of an illuftrious chara&er with contemplating its more noble features, than remarking its blemishes, we shall again have recourfe to an extract from the favourable defcription of lord Chesterfield, which is likewife the part of the work where Mr. Hunter's reflections appear to the greatest advantage.

H 4

• Lord

• Lord Chesterfield was free from all incumbrances of this fort, which might damp his fpirit, or confine his genius. Raifed by a patrician and hereditary patrimony above the wants of nature and the drudgery of office, fporting in the lap of pleasure, flattered, carefed, and celebrated as a wit of the first order, hè was easily prompted to exert himself, and to display those admirable talents which God had given him. His title, his fortune, a confcioufnels of his parts and popular character, feem to have been to him in the place of a good confcience; and he might be thought, by his manner, to have enjoyed all the peaceable fruits of righteoufnefs. A confidence in ourselves naturally arifes from the approbation and applause of others; and few men living had more of that applaufe and approbation than lord Chesterfield, In good humour with ourselves, we are naturally impelled and properly qualified to fpread good humour among others: and it would be injuftice to his lordship to deny him the character of a pleafing and agreeable writer. As his fpirit was not cramped by a narrow fortune, fo neither was his temper foured by disappointment and distress. Hence his wit is lively, gay, and frolic, and degenerates not into that fatire, fpleen and invective, which generally mark the writings of difcarded and difcontented courtiers; or, of thofe who think themselves neglected or injured, that is, denied fomewhat, which their vanity fuggefts as due to their fuperior abilities and rank in life. He writes, therefore, not only with more freedom and fecurity, but with ease, pleafure, and perfect epicurean tranquility, to himfelf and to his friends; efpecially as the rule or principle which he prescribed to others, and which he practifed himfelf, was to please.

Befides thefe advantages, he had his more manly faculties, his more valuable endowments, and his more folid virtues; fo far as they were not melted down by that pleasure, that fweetnefs, thofe graces, and that good humour, which we may prefume, affected his ftyle, as well as his conduct; and we cannot help obferving that there is more eafe than elevation, more of fmoothness and foftnefs than of ftrength and vigour in his compofitions.

To the wit and genius which nature had lavished on lord Chefterfied, he fuperadded application, critical knowledge, and a ftudy of the best writers on compofition and eloquence. Propriety and elegance of diction he had peculiarly cultivated, and molt earneftly recommends to his fon, as the drefs of thought, which had more power over the pallions and affections of mankind, than plain truth, reafon, and argument.

A generous ambition had infpired him with an early tafle and love of letters, and with a contempt and neglect of field fports and the diverfions of the turf, the fafhionable amusements of his order. The first or beft writers of Greece and Rome, poets, hiftorians and orators, must be allowed, if not the foundation, yet the best models and matters of good fenfe, juft tafte and elegant compofition; and to his claffical enthufiafm

among

among other caufes, or to that academical pride and pedantry, which the courtier affects to defpife and ridicule, we may juftly afcribe that diftinguished figure which lord Chefterfield made, and still makes as a graceful writer and speaker.

To all this we may add, that he had fupported some of the higheft offices in the ftate, had converfed with courts and kings, and was familiar to circles of grandeur, magnificence, and fplendour. Hence we fhould not wonder that his ftyle even upon ordinary occafions, and throughout the whole of this epiftolary correfpondence, is eafy and unembarraffed, yet correct and elegant, enriched with appofite metaphors, and all the fplendid and even gaudy ornaments of the polite scholar and accomplished courtier.

Thus nature and art, genius, birth and fortune confpired to form him a pleafing and perfuafive orator; and a model of compofition on prudential, on political, on familiar fubjects. Upon the whole, he is a masterly writer and judicious critic; on many fubjects an entertaining, an inftructive and very valuable author; efpecially where morality, the interefts of fincere virtue, and the principles of true religion are not, immediately con

cerned.'

In exhibiting the darker part of lord Chefterfield's character, Mr. Hunter has, in our opinion, too much deviated from the fubject, into religious digreffions; and we even think he has fometimes deepened the fhades beyond the life, by expofing the picture too closely to the light of the gospel. Where he delineates the more beautiful features, however, we are equally entertained with his ingenuity and difcernment; but though his attachment be particularly devoted to the Virtues, he is far from being averfe, in refpect of compofition, to the flowery ornaments of the Graces, which he has fcattered in fome places with a liberal, if not a profufe pencil, expreffed both by amplification of fentiment, and redundancy of style.

IV. Speculations and Conjectures on the Qualities of the Nerves. By Samuel Mufgrave, M. D. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Payne.

IN this treatife Dr. Mufgrave endeavours to derive every ef

fect on the human body, whether morbid or therapeutic, from a primary impreffion upon the nerves; to establish which hypothefis he enters into the confideration of some physiologi cal and pathological subjects.

In the first chapter, he delivers an account of the circulation of the blood, as it is influenced by the nerves. That this vital motion is, in a certain fenfe, quickened or retarded by the nerves, he juftly fuppofes will not be doubted; but obferves, that the fact is not fo clearly determined, whether the

nerves.

nerves have any power of leffening or increafing the velocity of the blood after it is discharged from the heart. To determine this question, he has recourfe to the explanation of fome phenomena, which evidently depend upon the nerves, as being excited by intellectual caufes, or the vivid impreffions which certain ideas make in the mind. The phenomena he men. tions are, the erection of the penis from lafcivious ideas, and the accumulation of the blood in the face from anger or fhame. That both those effects are produced by fome caufe diftinct from the force of the heart, he thinks, appears clearly, not only from their locality, but duration; and respecting this inference we entirely coincide with him in opinion. The foregoing phenomena, he obferves, muft arife from a conftriction of the veins, because the fucceffive dilatation and contraction of the arteries, however rapid, would certainly not cause a permanent congeftion of the blood in the parts here mentioned; and a contraction fo vigorous as to overcome the force of the heart, would prevent the ingrefs and accumulation of it, and confequently the production of the phenomena.

Here a queftion naturally arifes-by what power, and what mechanifm this conftriction is produced? It must be owned, that genuine mufcular fibres furrounding the veins have not yet been demonftrated: notwithstanding which, it seems certain that their coats are continually upon the stretch, and have a perpetual conatus to contract upon the fluid that paffes through them. It is from this latent contraction, that baron Haller explains fome phænomena, observed first by himfelf, to wit, the flowing of the blood, contrary to gravity, and contrary to the laws of the circulation, towards any aperture of a neighbouring vein. This power does not, fristly fpeaking, depend upon life, becaufe it is not terminated with it, and fhould, therefore, fays he, be referred to the native elafticity of the ftretched cellular fibre. Still however it appears to be derived from life, because he exprefly limits it to animals living or newly dead. This being the cafe, would it be unreasonable to fuppofe, that when the nerves, the feat and origin of vitality, are powerfully ftimulated, they may and must increase every power derived from and dependent upon them?

To those who admit, that the erection of the penis is caufed by a conftriction of the veins, the following fact will be a decifive proof that the nerves have a power of caufing fuch a constriction. A labouring man in Devonfhire, who was taking in the corn in harvest-time, happened to flip from the top of the heap, and fell to the barn-floor directly upon his breech. Whether the vertebræ of the loins were diflocated by the fall, could not be determined, though the furgeon who was called, a very skilful and experienced practitioner, plainly perceived fome inequality in them. The fpinal marrow, however, appeared to

be