Ramfay, David, Life of Wafh- Phillips, Sir Richard, Memoirs Philopatris Varvicenfis on Fox Phyfician's Vade-Mecum, Hoo- Renovationof India, a Poem 292 Reports of the Society for the Review of Conduct of the Allies 505 Rice, J. H. Collectanea Ora- Riches, a Comedy, by Sir J. B. Plain Senfe, on Reform 302 Burges Pinkney, Lieut.-Col. Travels - 120 634 Romance Readers and Writers, 299 Refe, Sturt, Charles, Efq. State of 402 306 189 414 Swift, Account of, by Barrett 481 Scotch Farmer on Landed Pro. Simeon, Rev. Charles, Fountain Smith, Rev. Sydney, Vifitation Society for Poor, Reports of 616 Steele, Sir Richard, Correfpon- dence of Atlantic Robert, Tour through THE BRITISH CRITIC, For JANUARY, 1810. Oderunt hilarem triftes, triftemque jocoli. Some hate the light, and fome the ferious ftyle. HOR ART. 1. The Life of St. Neot, the oldeft of all the Brothers to King Alfred. By the Rev. John Whitaker, B.D. Rector of Ruan-Langhorne, Cornwall. 8vo. pp. 387. 10s. Stockdale. 1809. AS our late excellent coadjutor and friend, Mr. Whitaker, had, himself, a great averfion to "prefaces," we fhall, without ceremony, enter upon the merits of his work, now open before us. This we cannot better do than by making extracts, and interpofing obfervations. After having performed this task, we fhall prefent our readers, with what we are fure will be acceptable, fome account of the author's life and writings; beginning with his "MANCHESTER," and ending with his "ST. NEOT." It is thus Mr. W.commences his history of the princely faint. "A Saint, however related, and however renowned, will hardly be expected to furnish materials in his life, either attrac tive of themfelves, or important in their confequences; yet the prefent, I think, with proper management, will. It is my buf B BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XXXV. JAN. 1810. nef nefs, therefore, to ufe this management, to note the connection of his opinions with our national manners, and to mark the bearings of his actions upon our national annals. I hope thus to render even the biography of a Saint, concerning whom little is told, and lefs understood, even concerning one who is now, for the first time, referred to history by the hands of criticism, useful enough to challenge the curiofity of many in the beginning, and interesting enough to engage the attention of more end." to the "But before we enter upon the life of a Saint, fo replete with miracles afcribed to him, we muft ftop a moment to ascertain the origin of the miracles fo afcribed, and to explain the quality of the facts fo magnified into miracles. Such an operation is requifite, antecedently to any profecution of his biography; in order to diveft the hiftory of all that appearance of incredibility which at prefent furrounds it, and to bring it down from the high æther of romance to the fober level, the perspirable * atmofphere of reality. For this purpose we must examine the ori. ginal biographers of St. Neot, find the author by whom the miracles were first attributed to him, and fo mark the matter as well as the manner, in or on which they were attributed. We fhall thus come to fee clearly how common incidents in the Saint's life were worked up into marvellous contingencies, how the very mode of their relation originally fhewed them to have been merely common incidents only, and how the very relater of them at first appears to have been the very reprobater of them afterwards." P. 1, 2, falfely paged in the volume 3, 4. We must here be excufed in drawing off attention from the matter to the manner; whilft we remark, that this fhort extract exhibits the author in all his peculiarities of ftyle; difcriminated as it is always by vigour and perfpicuity; at one time, by elegance and force; at another, by extreme inelegance. To proceed with the hiftory.. "The very memorials that impofed upon Ramfay at firft were not, I am perfuaded, the fabrication of wilful falfehood; rioting in a wantonnefs of fiction, and impofing ftudied forgeries upon the faith of the world. This is too dreadful an extreme of guilt for the generality of mankind; and especially for the fequeftered few who love to dwell upon the actions of a faint, to revere the graces of heaven really refplendent always in his conduct, and to contemplate the powers of heaven fuppofedly difplayed in his words at times. Such men are too good to be deceivers, but are very apt to be deceived; to mistake the meaning of names or the quality of circumftances; to confider every common incident in a For perfpirable read refpirable, without doubt. Rev. 5 faint's |