and learned men have thought to be, at least, doubtful! We confider impofitions in matters of faith, whether the fubject impofed be Calvinistic or otherwife, as a ípecies of oppreflion; and we fincerely declare ourselves to be, as we truft we have always approved ourselves, the friends and advocates of liberty, both civil and religious; but we wish, in regard to disputable points, that writers would not dogmatically prefcribe to, or be harth upon, others, who have an equal claim to form their own opinions. Why then, for inftance, fhould it be peremptorily faid, concerning the Calvinistic doctrine, particularly as to atonement and fatisfaction, Whatever charms it might have for the vifionary and licentious, no fober or fenfible man would ever become its apologift?' The doctrine, confidered in its full extent, appears indeed to us to be fufficiently abfurd and unreafonable, but can it be affirmed with propriety or truth, that we perfons of fobriety or good fenfe have embraced or defended it? Agreeably to our profefled impartiality, we may be allowed to afk, whether the following paragraph is not too cenforious? Speaking of the Calvinists, the Writer fays, if their power were but as little circumfcribed, as their tongues and pens, it is to be feared they would pursue the fan e fanguinary measures with regard to both (that is, rational Churchmen and rational Diffenters, who had been before mentioned) which their founder and apoftle John Calvin 'was not afhamed to glory in.' It happened, indeed, that as to points of faith, many of the reformed churches adhered to the Calviniftic fcheme, and in fome places, as in England, they obrained the fanétion of law: but it can hardly be fuppofed that our governors have a folicitude to maintain them any farther than as they may prove po litically convenient: nor are we willing to imagine, as to private perions who receive thefe opinions, that, they would generally encourage a difpofition dogmatically intolerant,' or exert a power, if they poffeffed it, of perfecuting those who could not agree to their propofitions. The paffions of-men-may indeed (as hath been often verified in fact) be irritated and entamed upon any fubject. The profligate and irreligious, the ignorant and fuperftitious, may be rouzed, upon any tile of a question that is held forth as important, and prompted to oppreifive and cruel me fures, either as a kind of commuting for their of fences, or under the overpowering influence of a blind and bigoited zeal but it is very unlikely, especially in a Proteftant country, that perfons of piety and goodness of honeft and upright hearts (and fuch there are, we doubt not, under every denomination) fhould ever confent to fuch intolerant proceedings. The principles and caufes of perfecution, we apprehend, are commonly to be fought for, not fo much in REV. Aug. 1772. I the the religious fentiments which perfons embrace, as in the interested, the felfish, and corrupt paffions of mankind, which when excited and encouraged, (let the object be what it may) will, as far as there is opportunity to gratify them, be always attended with fuch effects. Although we confider this tract as the work of a fenfible and ingenious Writer, yet, upon the whole, it might perhaps have Joft nothing of its merit, had he made it pafs under a more mature revifal, and foftened or corrected those passages which may afford just caufe of difguft to his moderate and candid readers. He may poffibly have been irritated by fome instances of unfriendly treatment among those theologians whom he oppofes; but is it not, above all things, defirable, that enquiries after truth fhould be coolly conducted, without any bias from prejudice or refentment? Having made thefe free remarks upon his performance, we think it juftice to observe, that after he has been cenfuring thofe perfons, who he imagines avail themselves of popular prejudices, for felfth and finifter ends, he adds, I would not, by what I have faid, be understood to infinuate a contempt for popular prejudices, or that they ought to be treated with contempt. I would have them, on the other hand, treated with all imaginable lenity. I would have allowances made for education, and other circumftances that may demand indulgence; but, nevertheless, think it extremely wrong to rivet unreason. able prejudices, as many do, inftead of attempting their removal; to facrifice truth to filthy lucre, and the low itch of popularity.' In the fequel of this pamphlet, a letter of Dr. Duchal's, to Dr. Taylor of Norwich, is re-published, from the Theological Repofitory. That worthy man freely acknowledges his difficul ties, with respect to the doctrine of atonement, and appears, as in his other writings, to be a modest and fincere enquirer after truth. ART. VII. Wensley Dale; or, Rural Contemplations. A Poem. 4to. 2s. 6d. Davies. 1772. THIS Poem was firft published at York, in 1771, for the benefit of the General Infirmary at Leeds; and it is now re-published in London for the fame benevolent purpose. It is chiefly moral and defcriptive, and exhibits many picturefque views of that great variety of rural fcenery, and of thofe grand and grotefque appearances, which are found in the various and beautiful dale it defcribes. We have seen some of its principal objects, and can bear witnefs that the poet, in defcribing them, gave us back the image of our minds, particularly where he speaks of the cataract of Aysgarth in Yorkshire: • But But now, O AYSGARTH! let my rugged verse, Our Author's prose description will, however, give a more precife idea of that curious place. It is as follows: "The romantic fituation of the handfome church of Aysgarth, on an eminence, folitarily overlooking these cataracts of the Eure, wonderfully heightens the picturefque idea of this unusual fcene; nor is there any place, that I know, more happily adapted to inspire the foothing fentiments of elegy, than this. The decency of the ftructure within and without, its perfect retirement, the rural church-yard, the dying founds of water, amidft wood and rocks, wildly intermixed, at a distance, with the variety and magnitude of the furrounding hills, concur greatly to encrease the awfulness of the whole. But fome late admirable productions, in the elegiac ftrain, impose an utter filence on me, did the propriety of my subject countenance an attempt. In approaching the falls that are above bridge from the road on the north fide, on which it always ought to be visited, you have the fingular advantage of seeing them through a spacious light arch, which, from the obliquity of the highway, prefents the river, at every step you advance, in many pleasing attitudes, till you mount the crown of the bridge, and take the whole in one beautiful grotefque view. We may add to this elegant circumftance another incident in character, that the concave of the bridge is embellifhed by hanging petrefactions, and its airy battlement happily feftooned with ivy; near, on the right hand of the road, attends a floping wood, on the left is Aysgarth fteeple, magically, as it were emerging from a copfe, while the clofing back ground of the view is an affemblage of multifarious fhrubs, evergreens, projecting rocks, and a gloomy cave. The waters falling near half a mile upon a furface of stone, worn into infinite irriguous cavities, and inclofed by bold and fhrubbed cliffs, is every where changing its face, breaking forth into irregular beauties till it forms the grand defcent called the Force. Force. The late learned traveller, Dr. Pococke, whose search after the fublime and marvellous' brought him to' this part, was faid to own, with exultation, that thefe cataracts exceeded thofe in Egypt, to which he was no ftranger. The caftle of Bolton, Middleham, and the fcenes of Aylgarth, with other fubjects of eminence, in this district, have not escaped the pencils of the curious; and particularly that very expert and ingenious artift Mr. Dall of Great NewportStreet; fcene-painter and machinist to Covent-Garden theatre. There is yet an object seldom seen but by those who narrowly feek amufement, and even little known in the neighbourhood, which demands our note, for our defcription it cannot have, upon a rivulet at Heaning, diftant about two miles from thefe falls of the Eure. The curiofity of this fall of water, which runs into a low fteep gill, the point of view at the bottom being indeed but of difficult accefs, is fuch, as to make the ftream appear a filver chain, whofe higheft link feems faftened to the clouds, defcending through 'a difplay of hovering branches and fhading foliage, which, in proportion to the thick or thinner weaving of the boughs, now burfts and then twinkles in a manner most amazingly captivating. In a word, the moft copious' language muft fail or stagger in any attempt to defcribe its unutterable charms. :' Many fcenes of entertainment of the like kind offer themfelves, but of a much inferior clafs, 'on the Eure and its tributary freams, efpecially towards its fource, fuch as thofe of Bowbridge, Hardrow Fofs, Whitfeild, and Mill Gill near Afkrig, and Fofs Gill in Bishopdale, which, however capitally pleafing they might prove in any other part, appear diminished when put in comparifon with thofe already remarked.' The Author of this Poem, Mr. Thomas Maude, of Bolton in Wenfley-Dale," has favoured the public with fome anecdotes of Sir Haac Newton, that have hitherto been little known; and as every thing of that kind must be efteemed curious, we shall lay them before our Readers: As the fmalleft anecdote concerning fo great an ornament to human nature, becomes amufing, efpecially in a character fo uniformly ftudious as his, I fhall briefly relate what may not be fo generally known, and therefore give the curious traveller an opportunity of beftowing one tranfient glance upon the humble tenement where firft this illuftrious man drew breath, or the elegant fituation where he refigned it. The first is a farm-houfe at the little village of Woolfthorpe, confifting of a few meffuages in the fame ftile of humility, about half a mile weft from Colterfworth, on the great north road be 6 tween tween Stamford and Grantham, known to every peasant in the neighbourhood. He died at lodgings in that agreeable part of Kenfington, called Pitt's Buildings. His academic time was fpent in Trinity College, Cambridge, where his apartments continue to be mentioned occafionally, on the fpot, to ftrangers, with a degree of laudable exultation. His principal town-houfe was in St. Martin's Street, the corner of Long's Court, Leicefter-Fields, where is yet ftanding a fmall obfervatory which Sir Ifaac built upon the roof. His temper was fo mild and equal that fearce any accidents difturbed it. One inftance in particular, which is authenticated by a now living witnefs, brings this allertion to a proof: That Sir Ifaac being called out of his ftudy to a contiguous room, a little dog, called Diamond, the conftant but incurious attendant of his mafter's refearches, happened to be left among the papers, and, by a fatality not to be retrieved, as it was in the latter part of Sir Ifaac's days, threw down à lighted candle, which confumed the almoft-finished labours of fone years. Ifaac returning too late, but to behold the dreadful wreck, rebuked the author of it with an exclamation (ad fydera palmas) "Oh Diamond! Diamond! thou little knoweft the mifchief done!" Sir The obfcurity in which Sir Ifaac Newton's pedigree is involved, who only died A. C. 1726, makes it lefs a wonder that we fhould be fo little acquainted with the origin of the great characters of antiquity, or thofe of later ages. The author of Biographia Philofophica, has made Sir Ifaac Newton's father the eldest fon of a baronet, and farther fpeaks of the knight's patrimonial opulence; the contrary of which affertions, the tradition of his parifh will fufficiently confirm, did not the account alone confure itfelf; for by confequence Sir Ifaac would have had an hereditary title, which evidently was not the fact. This renowned philofopher was indebted more to nature for the gifts with which the had endowed him, than to the accidents of any great defcent; a circumdance, which adds, if poffible, greater luftre to the man, who, without the advantages of eminent birth, alliance, or fortune, attained the higheft pinnacle of fcientific fame. The little I have been able to collect of the family of this great man, by a diligent enquiry both in and about his native parish, alfo among the very few of his furviving distant relations of half-blood, for none eife remain, ferves but to c nfate the many palpable errors committed by his biographers on this oca cafion; most of whom, in copying each other, have erroneously made him defcend from a baronet. It may be now time therefore, when the traces of truth on that fubject are nearly loft, 13 briefly |