before our readers an extract or two, which may give them fome notion of this Author's manner. The first fermon, which confiders the benefit arifing naturally from prayer, he thus introduces,- The husbandman, defirous of a crop in the time of harvest, betakes himself to the use of fuch means as have been found to answer. He turns his fields with the ableft hands, he adds the richest manure, though he knows not, and will modeftly own, he knows not, why the acceffion of fuch foreign matter, or the breaking of a clod, is fo indifpenfably neceflary to the propagation of a grain of barley. But we, who fhould teach you to cultivate that more valuable part of your poffeffions, the mind, and gather fruit unto life eternal, are apt to talk in a higher ftrain, and not apprehending any danger of experiments in this cafe to confute us, at leaft for the prefent, we lay down our decifions with the greater confidence. We expatiate on the ideas of rectitude and obligation, free will and fate, and fubftance, corporeal, fpiritual, and everlafting; until the world, and its adorable Author, his attributes and effence, his power, and rights, and duty, (I tremble to pronounce the word,) be all brought together to be judged before us; who stand like infants in admiration of the paper fabric we have raised, and fee the univerfal frame of nature within the little lines we have drawn in the 'duft. Not that fpeculations on fuch fubjects are in themselves wrong: then alone they become dangerous, when carried to excels; when they engage perhaps too much of our attention; when in proportion as our light fails us, our prefumption increases; when we grow fond of erecting fyftems and theories; when we are no longer in ignorance or doubt on any point, nor know things any more in parts, but all things univerfally, with all their relations to every fubject, and as they make a part of the whole; when we leave nothing unexplained; and, in one word, when we lay greater ftrefs on these notions of our own than on the univerfal fenfe, and general sentiments and maxims of mankind. -Indeed the confequences of these conceits in religion, and of this vain philofophy, are not always fo bad in fact as might be apprehended from the abfurdity of them. Common fenfe and nature, though diftorted by this violence, are making continual efforts to recover their bent and figure, and prevail frequently in practice against any theory. Juft as, alas! on the other hand, natural temper and paffion exert themselves with great power against the beft arguments, and gain, daily victories over well-grounded refolutions, and the lawful authority of the Atricteft reason.' After fuch general reflections, it is added, that among other fubjects, that of prayer has fuffered from the indifcreet endeavours that have been used to explain it.' Our Author P4 proceeds A all Europe. Eut true genius is fuch an uncommon production of nature, and is so much fuperior to all quackish arts of recommending itfelf, that when it does appear, it is no wonder that a generation of people without tafte do not know it. Genius may fhoot up in a land quite inhospitable to it; it may perhaps even bloffom in the most ungenial feason. But the rofe-bufh that difplays its blufhing honours in the face of the furly uncomfortable eaft wind, must have sprung from a root of no fmall vigour. In a certain ifland, the foftering indulgences and kind attention which the narciffus, the gilly flower, the tuberofe, the Cape jeffamin, and all the delicate flowers that adorn the garden, deferve and require; are most abfurdly and pernicioufly bestowed upon ragwort, jack of the hedge, prieft's what d'ye call it, bishops weed, bear's foot, nightfhade, and henbane.' The Tafe of the prefent Age. Amongst many other diftinguishing marks of a ftupid age, a bad crop of men, I have been told that the tafte in writing was never fo falfe as at prefent. If it is really fo, it may perhaps be owing to a prodigious fwarm of infipid trafhy writers: amongst whom there are fome who pretend to dictate to the public as critics, though they hardly ever fail to be mistaken. But their dogmatic impudence, and fomething like a fcientific air of talking the moft palpable nonfenfe, impofes upon great numbers of people, who really poffefs a confiderable fhare of natural Tafte; of which at the fame time they are fo little conscious as to fuffer themselves paffively to be mifled by those blundering guides. A Tafte worth cultivating is to be improved and preserved by reading only the beft writers. But whoever, after perufing a fatire of Horace, even in the dulleft English tranflation, can relifh the ftupid abufe of a blackguard rhymfter, may as well indulge the natural depravity of his Tafte, and riot for life upon diftiller's grains. But the Tafte in writing is not, cannot be worfe, than it is in mufic, as well as in all theatrical entertainments. In architecture indeed, there are fome elegant and magnificent works arifing at a very proper time to restore the nation to fome credit with its neighbours in this article; after its having been exposed to fuch repeated difgraces by a triumvirate of awkward clumsey piles, that are not afhamed to fhew their ftupid heads in the neighbourhood of Whitehall: and one more, that ought to be demolished; if it was for no other reafon but to restore the view of an elegant church, which has now for many years been buried alive behind the Manfion-houfe. It is indeed fome comfort, that while Tafte and Genius happen to be very falfe and impotent in moft of the fine arts, they are not fo in all. The arts of Gardening particularly, and the elegant elegant plan of a farm, have, of late years, difplayed themfelves in a few spots to greater advantage in England, than perhaps ever before in any part of Europe. This is indeed very far from being univerfal; and fome gardens admired and celebrated ftill, are fo fmoothly regular, fo over-planted, and fo crowded with affected, impertinent, ridiculous ornaments of temples, ruins, pyramids, obelifks, ftatues, and a thousand other contemptible whims, that a continuation of the fame ground in its rude: natural ftate, is infinitely more delightful. You must often, have feen fine fituations ruined with coftly pretences to, improvement. The moft noble and romantic fituation of any; gardens I have feen, is near Chepstow; and the gentleman who poffeffes that delightful fpot, has fhewn great judgment and a true tafte, in meddling fo little with Nature where the wanted fo little help. 1 This is one happy inftance of an admirable fituation, where, Nature is modeftly and judiciously improved, not hurt, by art, An oppofite inftance of what art, fkill, and tafte may produce, without any particular advantages of ground or fituation, is moft agreeably displayed in the royal gardens at Kew. There you find an extent of flat ground, fo eafily, agreeably, and unaf-, fectedly broken, that you would think it impoffible to alter it, but to the worfe. To pafs without any notice the agreeable, and the elegant pieces of architecture, which without crowd-, ing adorn those delightful gardens; perhaps there is not a phyfick garden in Europe where any botanift can be more agreeably entertained, as to the variety of curious plants. But there is fomething new as far as I know, and particularly ingenious here in the difpofition and management of them. Thofe that naturally delight in the rocks, and the dry hungry foil, are, here planted upon ridges of artificial rock-work; where they, fhew all the luxuriance of vegetation that they could amongit, the Alps, the Pyrenees, or the Andes. While a very different, tribe, the Aquatics, difplay them felves in a large ciftern, where, they are constantly fupplied with their best and most natural, nonrifhment the rain water, conveyed to them from the eves of the richest greenhoufe I have ever seen.' 1 In most of thefe twelve Effays, the Author has difcovered a found understanding and a good tafte; but we are astonished to find him making ufc of fuch pert vulgarities of expreffion, as, confound me, blefs your ears, blefs your body, &c. a kind of phrafeology, that belongs peculiarly to the mobility, another nonfenfical word, which Dr. A feems very fond of. ART. IX. Sermons on the Efficacy of Prayer and Interceffion. By Samuel Ogden, D. D. Woodwardian Profeffor in the Univerfity of Cambridge. 8vo. 3 s. Cambridge printed. Sold by J. Beecroft, &c. in London. 1770. THE HESE Sermons have fomething in them ingenious and peculiar; the fubject on which they treat is interesting and important. The Author combats certain notions that have been advanced concerning the intention and effect of prayer, and labours to explode them. He appears to have the fenfe and spirit of revelation on his fide; though the inquiring mind meets with fome difficulties on the fubject which it knows not how to remove, or perfectly to reconcile with other fuggeftions of reafon and feripture. It is indeed most evident, that this alone can never be fufficient to prove a doctrine abfurd or false; fince it may be owing to the very contracted view which we must have of the nature and operations of the Supreme Being. It is not eafy to lay the line, and pronounce with certainty, at what point human deliberations on these topics ought to be bounded. If they are too greatly checked, there is danger of our finking into ignorance, fuperftition, and all the dreadful evils with which they may be attended. At the fame time, is there not reason to believe, that learned and ingenious men, who have indulged themselves in fpeculation, and been folicious to bring every thing to their standard of truth and reason, may have fometimes ftretched their refinements to too great a length? whilst they have been themselves the ftedfaft advocates for piety and virtue, may they not, in fome inftances, have undefignedly advanced fentiments which, in their confequences, tend to fhake and weaken thofe principles of religion that are the furest basis of morality, and the firmeft band of human fociety? The very fmall compafs of our knowledge, when compared with what is to be known, may render the most confiderable capacity utterly unequal to fome fubjects that are, however, difcuffed with freedom; by which means, perfons who plead for a liberty in thinking, may fink into a very contracted and diforderly plan. We were led into these thoughts, which have, perhaps, detained us too long, by the the book before us; of which it is time we should give some farther account. It is the Profeffor's defign to fhew, that though the exercise of prayer has a natural tendency to amend and improve the heart, and is for this reafon an important part of every perfon's duty, yet this is not its only or principal intention: a fuppofition which, he thinks, philofophical writers would fometimes lead us to make, and which, he apprehends, if it prevails, is likely to render men more indifferent to the practice. We will lay before before our readers an extract or two, which may give them fome notion of this Author's manner. The first fermon, which confiders the benefit arifing naturally from prayer, he thus introduces,- The hufbandman, defirous of a crop in the time of harvest, betakes himself to the use of fuch means as have been found to answer. He turns his fields with the ableft hands, he adds the richest manure, though he knows not, and will modeftly own, he knows not, why the acceffion of fuch foreign matter, or the breaking of a clod, is fo indifpenfably neceflary to the propagation of a grain of barley. But we, who fhould teach you to cultivate that more valuable part of your poffeffions, the mind, and gather fruit anto life eternal, are apt to talk in a higher strain, and not apprehending any danger of experiments in this cafe to confute us, at leaft for the prefent, we lay down our decifions with the greater confidence. We expatiate on the ideas of rectitude and obligation, free will and fate, and fubftance, corporcal, fpiritual, and everlafting; until the world, and its adorable Author, his attributes and effence, his power, and rights, and duty, (I tremble to pronounce the word,) be all brought together to be judged before us; who ftand like infants in admiration of the paper fabric we have raised, and fee the universal frame of nature within the little lines we have drawn in the 'duft. Not that fpeculations on fuch fubjects are in themselves wrong: then alone they become dangerous, when carried to excels; when they engage perhaps too much of our attention; when in proportion as our light fails us, our prefumption increases; when we grow fond of erecting fyftems and theories; when we are no longer in ignorance or doubt on any point, nor know things any more in parts, but all things univerfally, with all their relations to every fubject, and as they make a part of the whole; when we leave nothing unexplained; and, in one word, when we lay greater ftrefs on these notions of our own than on the univerfal fenfe, and general fentiments and maxims of mankind. -Indeed the confequences of these conceits in religion, and of this vain philofophy, are not always fo bad in fact as might be apprehended from the abfurdity of them. Common fenfe and nature, though diftorted by this violence, are making continual efforts to recover their bent and figure, and prevail frequently in practice against any theory. Juft as, alas! on the other hand, natural temper and paffion exert themselves with great power against the beft arguments, and gain, daily victories over well-grounded refolutions, and the lawful authority of the ftricteft reafon.' After fuch general reflections, it is added, that among other fubjects, that of prayer has fuffered from the indiscreet endeavours that have been used to explain it.' Our Author P 4 proceeds |