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I am toW » tm , that Jie tftfce /* $ fa | s * ti&i ? to refresh bis n * ep *> ory by ue £# ipg * V his * sermoii , vrhijrfi Jies feeimi # hltfi ia the pulpit . "—It 64 , 65 . In some strictures on a sentiment of the late Dr . Fotdyce ' s , Mrs . Barbauld is led by her correct moral taste to point out €€ a ptece of parade" In that ; popular preacher :
" It is not troe , what ( as ) Dr . Fordyce insinuates , that wopen ' * friendships are not sincere ; 1 am sure it i § no * : I re * member when I read it I had a good mind to have burn * the book for that
unkind passage . I hope the Doctor wul give us our revenge , as he has begun his sermons to young men : th £ y were advertised iu the papers : _ wias it not a piece of parade unbecoming a preacher ? It would be difficult to determine
whether the age is growing better or worse ; for 1 think our plays are growing like sermons and cur sermons , ]| ke plays . "II . 59 . The comparison of the characters of Dr . Priestley and Mirabeau in the following passage is itfi Mrs . B ^ 'bauld ' s happiest manner :
"I last Sunday attended , with melancholy satisfaction , the funeral sernion of good Dr Price , preached by Dr . Priest-Icy , who , as he told us , had been thirty years his acquaintance and twenty years his intimate friend . He well delineated the character he so well knew . I had
just been readiug aji eloge of Mirabeau , and J could not help , in my owix mind , comparing both the men and the tribute paid to their memories . The one died when a reputation , raised suddenly by extraordinary emergencies , was at its height , and very possibly might have ebbed again had hi lived longer :- >—the other enjoyed sui esteem , the fruit of a
course of labours uniformly directed , through a long life , to the advancement of knowledge and virtue , a reputation slowly raised , without and independent <> f popular talents . The panegyrist of the one was obliged to sink his private life , and to cover with the splendid mantle of public merit the crimes and failings <> t the man : —the private character of the other was able to bear the severest
utiny ; ueith-er . vkinder nor envy , nor party prejudice 9 ever pretended to find a f > ot in it . The one was followed even hy those who did not trust him ; the other was confided in and trusted even by those who reprobated his principles
* " pronouncing the tloge on Mirabeau , the author scarcely dares to insinuate a v and uncertain hope that Tiis spirit roay hover somewhere in the void space ° » immensity , be rejoined to tlue first
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principles of ftatiue ; apd atteinpta to soothe his shade with $ cold and Barren immortality Jn the remembrance of posterity . Dr . Priestley parts wiUj his intimate friend with all the cheerfiitoesa which an assured hope of meeting him soon again could give , ajid at once dries the tear he excites . "—II . 84—86 .
Mrs Bartwiki's criticisms on books are , we think , generally just , and they are always candid . She thus writes of Joanua Bailie ' s tragedies : "Ihave received great pleasure lately from the representation of De Montfort , a tragedy which you prohahly read a
year and half ago , in a volume entitled , A Series of Plays on the Passions , jf admired it then , but little dreamed I was indjebted for my entertainment to a young lady of JBanipstead , whom I visited , and who came to Mr . Barbauld ' s meeting all the while with as innocent a face as if she had never written a line .
The play is admirably acted by Mrs Siddons and Keinble , and is finely written , with great purity of sentiment , beauty of diction , strength and originality of character ; but it is open to criticism : I cannot believe such a hatred natural . The affection between the
brother and sister is most beautifully touched , and as far as I know , quite new The play is somevhat too good for our present taste . "—II . 67 , 68 . « - Does , she exercise her usual taste
and judgment when she says ' of 0 t ! -rns * s " Cotter s-Suttrrciay Night , " IK 151 , it " has much of the same kind of merit as the Seboplmistress" ? No two poets are more unlike than Shenstone and the Ayrshire Ploughman , nor is their dissimilarity any where more apparent than in these two
poems . There is a very striking remark , II . 137 , upon the death of Lord Byron" He has filled a leaf in the book of fame , but it is a very blotted leaf . "
The prediction at the conclusion of the following passage remains to be fulfilled , though we confess ne do not see any indication of the fulfilment being near : " Last week we met the American
bishops at Mr . V . ' s—if bishops they may be called , without title , without revenue , without diocese , and without lawn sleeves . 1 wonder our bishops will consecrate them , for they have made very free with
the Common Prayer , and have left out two creeds out of three . Indeed , as to the Athanat * iai ) creed , th « King has forbidden it in his chapel , so that will soon fall /' - — ( 1787 ) II . 151 .
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Hewew . ~ r $ fr * . JtortmhP * Work * . 561
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VOL XX . 4 C
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1825, page 561, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2540/page/45/
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