While mountain waves in long array are driven, Father Almighty, whose supreme control In light, the dawning of eternal day; away, When the high trump of heaven, with mellow breath, On me may that last morn serenely shine, And give me back my loved, lamented VALENTINE." The Latin translations have the merit of being very literal without being stiff and harsh. Of Mr. B.'s ludicrous verses, we cannot much commend either the humour or the wit, the latter is not remarkable for brilliancy, delicacy, or point; and the former is neither of the broad and palpable kind which, by its caricatured features, forces sudden and instantaneous laughter, nor of that refined and corrected species which, under the disguise of simplicity, and by means of a chaste sobriety of manner, insinuates itself into the mind, and steals the smile of approbation. The concluding pages of the volume are occupied with three dialogues of the dead, in prose; the first between Johnson and Addison, in which Johnson's style is not unsuccessfully imitated, and its merits are convassed and appreciated: the second, an unfinished dialogue between Johnson, Socrates, and a fine gentleman, relative to the biographical accounts of Johnson: the third, between Mercury, Swift, and a bookseller, in which the introduction of a set of vulgar, barbarous, and pedantic words and phrases into our language, is ridiculed with much propriety and some humour. In closing our account of this affecting parental testimony to filial merit, we cannot but join with Dr. Beattie in lamenting that the world was so early deprived of one who promised to be a pattern of moral worth, and to have reflected lustre on literary eminence. ART. ART. XII. Sermons on Practical Subjects, by the late Williams Enfield, LL. D. Prepared for the Press by Himself. To which are prefixed Memoirs of the Author, by J. Aikin, M. D. 3 Vols. 8vo. 11. Is. Boards. Johnson. 1798. IT T often happens to us, as to other men in other pursuits, that our wishes are opposed by untoward circumstances, and our labours' retarded by the very means which we project to accelerate them. This has been the case with respect to the volumes now before us; which ought long ago to have received their merited notice in our work, but which have been delayed by a variety of obstacles. It is unnecessary to detail these causes to the public: but we may mention that among them one of the common sufferings of humanity, the want of health, has had a predominant influence. No literary man can be a stranger to the character and abilities of Dr. Enfield; and with his personal worth, now that he is, alas! no more, we may be permitted to declare ourselves well-acquainted. It is with sincere regret, therefore, that we find ourselves thus tardy in performing our duty to the public as critics, and in gratifying the feelings of our hearts as men. Late as we are, however, we must now endeavour to execute this double task; and it shall be our care that the opinion of the reviewer shall receive no improper bias from the sentiments of the friend. The first volume is introduced by a well-written account of Dr. Enfield, from the pen of Dr. Aikin. We believe the representation to be correct; and with gratitude and pleasure we survey the portrait of a man of whom it may be said, that mild manners, moral worth, real piety, correct taste, and varied attainments, rendered him an example to all who knew him. We will not, however, invade Dr. Aikin's province, but, since he has executed his task with so much propriety, shall avail ourselves of his labours by extracting various passages from these memoirs. The Rev. William Enfield, LL. D. was born at Sudbury in Suffolk, on March 29, 1741, O. S.-In his 17th year he was sent to the academy at Daventry, then conducted by the Rev. Dr. Ashworth. At this seminary he passed through the usual course of preparatory study for the pulpit. Of his academical character I know no more than that he was always conspicuous for the elegance of his compositions; and that he was among the number of those students whose inquiries led them to adopt a less rigid system of christianity than was the established doctrine of the place. It was a striking proof of the attractions he possessed as a preacher, and as an amiable man in society, that almost immediately on leaving the academy he was invited to undertake the office of sole minister to the congregation of Benn's Garden in Liverpool, one of the most respectable among the dissenters. To that situation he was ordained F 2 ordained in November 1763; and in a town abounding with agreeable society, and distinguished by liberal sentiments and hospitable manners, he passed seven of the happiest years of his life.'' Though greatly engaged both in the pleasant intercourses of society, and in the serious duties of his office, he commenced in this place his literary career with two volumes of sermons, printed in 1768 and 1770, which were very favourably received by the public. Their pleasing moral strain, marked by no systematic peculiarities, so well adapted them for general use, that many congregations, besides that in which they were originally preached, had the benefit of the instruction they conveyed. On the death of the Rev. Mr. Seddon of Warrington, Mr. Enfield was one of the first persons thought of by the trustees of the academical institution founded in that place, to succeed him in the offices of tutor in the belles-lettres, and of resident conductor of the discipline, under the title of Rector Academia.—[The academy, however, was dissolved in 1783.] However toilsome and anxious this period of Dr. Enfield's life might have been, it was that of rapid mental improvement. By the company he kept, and the business he had to go through, his faculties were strained to full exertion: nor was it only as a tutor that he employed his talents; he greatly extended his reputation as a writer.' The degree of doctor of laws, which added a new title to his name during his residence at Warrington, was conferred upon him by the university of Edinburgh.. After the dissolution of the academy, Dr. Enfield remained two years at Warrington, occupied in the education of private pupils, a small number of whom he took as boarders, and in the care of his congregation. For the instruction of the latter he drew up a series of discourses or the principal incidents and moral precepts of the gospel, in which he displayed both his talents as a commentator, and his skill in expanding into general lessons of conduct, those hints and particular observations which occur in the sacred narratives. This will not be an improper place to give some account of Dr. Enfield's character as a preacher and a divine. His manner of delivery was grave and impressive, affecting rather a tenor of uniform dignity than a variety of expression, for which his voice was not well calculated. It was entirely free from what is called tone, and though not highly animated, was by no means dull, and never careless or indifferent. As to his matter, it was almost exclusively that of a moral preacher. Religion was to him rather a principle than a sentiment; and he was more solicitous to deduce from it a rule of life, enforced by its peculiar sanctions, than to elevate it into a source of sublime feeling. Despising superstition, and fearing enthusiasm, he held as of inferior value every thing in religion which could not ally itself with morality, and condescend to human uses. His theological system was purged of every mysterious or unintelligible proposition; it included nothing which appeared to him irreconcileable with sound philosophy, and the most rational opinions concerning the divine nature and perfections." In 1785, receiving an invitation from the octagon-dissenting congregation at Norwich, a society with whom any man might esteeta esteem it an honour and happiness to be connected, he accepted it, under the condition of residing at a small distance from the city, and continuing his plan of domestic education. He first settled at the pleasant village of Thorpe; but at length he found it more convenient to remove to Norwich itself. Though he was eminently happy in his mode of educating a small number, of which several striking examples might be adduced, yet, like most who have adopted that plan, he found that the difficulty of keeping up a regular supply of pupils, and the unpleasant restraint arising from a party of young men, so far domiciliated, that they left neither time nor place for family privacy, more than compensated the advantages to be derived from such an employment of his talents. He finally removed, therefore, to a smaller habitation, entirely declined receiving boarders, and only gave private instructions to two or three select pupils a few hours in the forenoon. At length he determined to be perfectly master of his own time, and to give to his family, friends, and spontaneous literary pursuits, all the leisure he possessed from his professional duties. The circumstances of his family confirmed him in this resolution. He was the father of two sons and three daughters, all educated under his own eye; and had he had no other examples to produce of his power of making himself at the same time a friend and a tutor of conciliating the most tender affection with ready and undeviating obedience-his children would, by all who know them, be admitted as sufficient proofs of this happy art.' He had not yet completely detached himself from the business of tuition, when he undertook the most laborious of his literary tasks, an abridgment of "Brucker's History of Philosophy." This work appeared in two volumes 4to. in the year 1791, and would alone have been sufficient to establish the writer's character as a master of the middle style of composition, and as a judicious selector of what was most valuable in the representation of manners and opinions. The original work has obtained a high reputation among the learned, for the depth of its researches, and the liberality of its spirit; but its Latin style is involved and prolix, and the heaviness that pervades the whole has rendered it rather a book for occasional consultation than for direct perusal. Dr. Enfield's abridgment is a work equally instructive and agreeable; and it may be pronounced that the tenets of all the leading sects of philosophers were never before, in the English language, displayed with such elegance and perspicuity.' Thus did his latter years glide on, tranquil and serene, in the bosom of domestic comfort, surrounded by friends to whom he became continually more dear, and in the midst of agreeable occupations. So well confirmed did his health appear, and so much did he feel himself in the full vigour and maturity of his powers, that he did not hesitate, in the year 1796, to associate himself with the writer of this account, one of his oldest and most intimate companions, in a literary undertaking of great magnitude, which looked to a distant period for its completion. Were it not the duty of mortals to employ their talents in the way they can approve, without regarding contingencies which they can neither foresee nor overrule, such an engagement, in persons descending into the vale of years, might be accused of presumption; but it implied in them no more than a resolution to act with diligence as long as they should be permitted to act--to work while it is called to-day, mindful of that approaching night when no man can work. The composition, that of a General Biographical Dictionary, proved so agreeable to Dr. Enfield, that he was often heard to say his hours of study had never passed so pleasantly with him; and the progress he made was proportioned to his industry and good-will. Every circumstance seemed to promise him years of comfort in store. He was happy himself, and imparted that happiness to all who came within the sphere of his influence. But an incurable disease was in the mean time making unsuspected advances. f scirrhous contraction of the rectum, denoting itself only by symptoms which he did not understand, and which, therefore, he imperfectly described to his medical friends, was preparing, without pain or general disease, to effect a sudden and irresistible change. The very day before this disorder manifested itself he was complimented on his cheerful spirits, and healthy looks, and himself confessed that he had nothing, bodily or mental, of which he ought to complain. But the obstruction was now formed. A sickness came on, the proper functions of the intestines were suspended, nothing was able to give relief; and after a week, passed rather in constant uneasiness than in acute pain, with his faculties entire nearly to the last, foreseeing the fatal event, and meeting it with manly fortitude, he sunk in the arms of his children and friends, and expired without a struggle. This catastrophe took place on Nov. 3, 1797, in the fifty-seventh year of his life. The deep regrets of all who knew him-of those the most ta whom he was best known-render it unnecessary to enter into any further description of a character, the essence of which was to be amiable.' Such was Dr. Enfield; and we have the more readily inserted the praises bestowed by Dr. Aikin on his character, because we believe that here Friendship has not done violence ta Truth, It is now our business to attend to the Sermons here presented to the world. Admitting that the chief end of preaching is the improvement of the mind by exciting religious sentiments, and the amelioration of the heart by imbuing it with pure and amiable sensations, Dr. E. must be said to have discharged the preacher's office with considerable success; and to have exhibited chaste models of pulpit eloquence, as far as the inculcation of practical religion and morality is concerned. His discourses manifest no verbosity, nor any attempt to give common thoughts an air of consequence by pompous and inflated diction. Though they are in the form of essays, without the old fashioned divisions, there is no want of arrangement; nor do they give the least idea, which many modern essays excite, that the writer, when he had finished one period, was uncertain what would be the next. In Dr. Enfield's compositions, we see great correctness of sentiment, and a happy mode of expression, 19 |