Hither at times, with chearfulness of foul,

Sweet village-maids from neighbouring hamlets ftroll,
That, like the light-heel'd Does o'er lawns that rove,
Look fhyly curious; ripening into love;

;

For love's their errand: hence the tints that glow
On either check, an heighten'd luftre know
When, confcious of their charms, e'en age looks fly,
And rapture beams from youth's obfervant eye.

"The pride of fuch a party, nature's pride
Was lovely Poll; who innocently tried
With that of airy fhape and ribbands gay,
Love to infpire, and ftand in Hymen's way:
But, ere her twentieth fummer could expand,
Or youth was render'd happy by her hand,
Her mind's ferenity was loft and gone,
Her eye grew languid, and the wept alone;
Yet caufelefs feem'd her grief; for quick restrain'd,
Mirth follow'd loud, or indignation reign'd:
Whims wild and fimple led her from her home,
The heath, the common, or the fields to roam:
Terror and joy alternate rul'd her hours;
Now blithe the fung, and gather'd ufelefs flowers;
Now pluck'd a tender twig from every bough,
To whip the hovering demons from her brow.
Ill-fated maid! thy guiding fpark is fled,
And lafting wretchedness waits round thy bed.
Thy bed of ftraw--for mark, where, even now,
O'er their loft child afflicted parents bow;
Their woe she knows not, but, perversely coy,
Inverted cuftoms yield her fullen joy ;
Her midnight meals in fecrefy the takes,
Low muttering to the moon, that rifing breaks

Thro' night's dark gloom-Oh, how much more forlorn
Her night, that knows of no returning morn!
Slow from the threshold, once her infant feat,
O'er the cold earth fhe crawls to her retreat;
Quitting the cot's warm walls in filth to lie,
Where the fwine grunting yields up half his ftye;
The damp night-air her fhivering limbs affails;
In dreams fhe moans, and fancied wrongs bewails.
When morning wakes, none earlier rous'd than fhe,
When pendent drops fall glittering from the tree:
But nought her rayless melancholy cheers,

Or foothes her breaft, or ftops her ftreaming tears.
Her matted locks unornamented flow,
Clafping her knees, and waving to and fro;
Her head bow'd down, her faded cheek to hide,
A piteous mourner by the pathway fide.

Some

away

Some tufted molehill through the livelong day
She calls her throne, there weeps her life
And oft the gaily-paffing ftranger stays
His well-tim'd ftep, and takes a filent gaze,
Till fympathetic drops unbidden ftart,

:

And pangs quick-fpringing mufter round his heart;
And foft he treads with other gazers round,

And fain would catch her forrow's plaintive found!
One word alone is all that ftrikes the ear,

One fhort, pathetic, fimple word, "O dear!”
A thousand times repeated to the wind,

That wafts the figh, but leaves the pang behind."

The poet is ftill unwilling to quit his poor Poll: and, perhaps, his principal fault, is amplification. Cowper's "Crazy Kate," and Penrofe's Poor distracted Fair," are, certainly, more interefting. In all, however, who fhall read the above lines, a curiofity will, probably, be excited to perufe the whole poem: and we venture to affure them, that they will not be disappointed. Mr. Bloomfield i the untutored bard, who paints, and paints vividly, from nature. And his pictures poffefs originality, without affectation.

DIVINITY.

ART. XVIII. A Sermon occafioned by a late aefperate Attempt on the Life of bis Majesty. Preached at Chrift's Church, in Bath, on Sunday June 8th, 1800. By the Rev. C. Daubeny, L. L. B. Author of the "Guide to the Church," and Fellow of Winchefter College. 8vo. PP. 30. Price 1s. or 6s. per dozen for Diftribution. Hatchard. London. 1800.

THI

"HIS devout minister of Chrift, this vigilant guardian of our established faith, this intrepid champion of the doctrines and difcipline of the Church of England, having fhewn that human reafon conftituted the tottering fabric of heathen morality, and that the origin of government can only be referred to the will of the Creator, proceeds to demonftrate the nature, neceffity, and duty of obedience to lawful authority. This doctrine is enforced in Mr. D.'s ufual impreffive manner, and in the course of his argument he takes occafion to confute a most abfurd and dangerous principle advanced by Dr. Paley. As he has here anticipated one of the objections which it was our intention to urge against an anonymous advocate for the Doctor's writings, and as an important topic of political difcuffion is involved in the paffage, we fhall extract it.

"We

"We have been told, and from what will be thought high authority* in the world, that upon the subject of obedience to government fo far as relates to the extent of it, the Gospel has left man precisely in the fame condition in which it found him: that it has provided for no extreme cafes; but laid down only the general principle of obedience to government; leaving it to the difcretion and disposition of the parties to whom the principle is directed, to determine in what cafes, and under what circumftances, it is to be applied. This, if I mistake, not, is not fo much to interpret Scripture, as to explain it away. And certain it is, that fuch a pofition, which includes in it a right of refiftance in certain cafes, is not more contradictory to the letter and true spirit of the religion we profefs, than it is to the pofitive laws of the country in which we live.

"But the falsehood of this position is not more evident than is its abfurdity. The law of obedience to government was made for the purpose of fecuring fociety against that power of force, which knows no diftinction between right and wrong. But, if the application of this law is to depend on the judgement of the party intended to be bound by it, the defign of its promulgation muft, in a great degree, be fruftrated. For the right of refiftance to authority being, in such case, left to be determined by the refifting party, all causes of that kind are, of course, tried by a rebel jury; and, confequently, every criminal is fure to meet with an honourable acquittal. Upon fuch uncertain ground no fociety could subfift.

Every law, enacted by proper authority, to be effective, must be decifive and binding on the parties for whom it is made. To admit, then, that there is a right of refiftance to authority, when that refiftance is conducive to public happiness; or, in other words, to fay, that obedience to authority is enjoined, fo long as it appears to be neceffary, or conducive to the common welfare,' † is not only to invite turbulent men to hazard a moft dangerous experiment, the effect of which it is not in their power to afcertain; but it is, moreover, to invert the order of fociety, by giving to the governed that power of controul over the governors, which is abfolutely inconfiftent with all regular government. The Constitution of this country knows of no right of controul over the power of authority, but a legal one: confequently, whilft any control is otherwife than legally administered, our boafted Conftitution, fo far as it ap plies to that cafe, ceases to exist. Inftead, therefore, of weighing as it were, extreme cafes in the fcale of public opinion, with a view of determining, when this fuppofed right of refiftance is to be fet up, (a fubject on which there will always be great difference of opinion) the wifeft and moft fcriptural mode of proceeding will be, to reject, at once, a pofition which militates not lefs against the principle on which government is eftablished, than it does against the common sense of mankind."

* Dr. Paley.

+ Dr. Paley.

The

The following admonition to vigilance and caution is not more judicious than neceffary.

"The Chriftian Religion in this country ftands, we truft, on too fettled a foundation to be so readily fhaken. At the same time it behoves us to be on our guard, to join the wifdom of the serpent to the harmleffness of the dove; fince the fame means, which have proved fo fuccefsful against it, are here alfo induftrioufly employed to fap and undermine it. Publications of an infidel and immoral tendency are finding their way into every department of fociety, from the circles of diffipated fashion down to the dwelling of the humble cottager; difguifed under dreffes best calculated to impofe on the party, for whofe ufe they are particularly defigned.

"It is almoft needless to inform you, that the uniform object of all these baneful publications is to fet men free from that religious reftraint, which conftitutes the only fecurity for moral government. By flattering the pride and miniftering to the corruption of the natural man, the authors of these publications have it in view, to prepare him for the part they defign him to act on that licentious theatre; which is to be fupported at the expense of every thing that is good, great and honourable in fociety."

The low price at which this excellent difcourfe may be purchafed, will, we trust, be an inducement to the opulent to render its circulation extenfive.

ART. XIX. A Third Letter, on the Itinerancy and Non-Conformity of the Vicar of Charles, Plymouth; addreffed to Henry Reginald, Lord Bishop of Exeter. To which is added, a Sermon, on the Mode of Preaching that becomes a Clergyman. By the Rev. R. Polwhele. Small 8vo. PP. 72. Cadell and Davies, Strand; and Chapple, Pall Mall. 1800.

MR. Polwhele here brings his controverfy with Dr. Hawker to a clofe, and exhibits his adverfary in a more unfavourable light than any in which he has hitherto appeared. In fhort the equivocation and hypocrify displayed by Dr. Hawker, in his fruitless at tempt to reconcile his duty as a minifter of the Established Church, with his conduct as an itinerant preacher, is truly difguftful. We are forry, heartily forry, to fee a clergyman, who has thought fo juftly, and written fo ably, on fome important points, reduced to a fituation fo difgraceful. It is fcarcely poffible to draw any other conclufion from his conduct, than that he prefers the enthusiastic tenets of Methodism to the fober doctrines of the Church of England; and that his continuance within the pale of the latter is influenced exclufively by an attention to the perfonal intereft. This fentence may feem harsh and illiberal; but whoever prufes with attention the pages before us, will, we apprehend, be compelled to acknowledge its juftice. Numerous as the Methodifis actually are, we ftill with that their numbers were encreased, by a separation of all the falfe members of the Church, who either fecretly favour, or openly promulgate, their principles. We would rather hear those principles enforced from a barn or a horfeblock than from a pulpit;

and

and the fanatical vagabond who scorns the trammels of forms and wanders about from place to place, is probably lefs dangerous and certainly more honeft than the ordained minifter who infinuates himself into the bofom of the Church for the bare purpose of corrupting her doctrines, perverting her precepts, and calumniating her beft and foundest members.

There is fo much good fenfe in a paffage quoted by Mr. P. from a charge of the worthy prelate, to whom this letter is addreffed, and we have lately heard fo many ministers to whom the observations which it contains are ftrictly applicable, that we cannot refrain from extracting a part of it.

"There arifes in the minds of fome men, a notion of, I know not what, evangelical righteousnefs, totally diftin&t from that moral virtue which is properly a part of it, and attainable by some secret, and undefined communication with the Deity. Upon this fyftem, it is not by its fruits that we are to know in whom the spirit refides, but by fome mysterious and internal experience. What an encouragement is here afforded to prefumptuous ignorance-to blind enthusiasm-and even to fubtle hypocrify!". "Among these ignorant and self-sufficient teachers, there are fome, I fear, from whom better things might be expected; who, nurtured in the abode of science, and feafoned with the principles of genuine learning, are yet misled by their vanity, to catch at the applaufes of a gaping multitude, and lofe both themselves and their hearers in the mazes of wild enthusiasm. To fuch as these we must say, with compaffion and regret, 'ye know not what manner of fpirit ye are of. And, furely, it ought to make fome impreffion upon them to confider that they are making ufe of the fame arts as are employed by the adverfary with too much fuccefs. A pretence of extraordinary zeal, for what they call the doctrines of the gofpel, has been made use of, by many, to fupplant the humble and benevolent precepts of it; has been converted into a vehicle of practical immorality and licentious conduct; and thus eafily worked to the purposes of faction and fedition. When matters are got to this length, recourse must be had to the authority of the civil magiftrate; and, I truft, it will be found, that he beareth not the fword in vain".

Mr. P. fully juftifies himself for the part which he has taken in this controverfy, and the anxiety which he has difplayed for the fuppreffion of Methodifm, befpeaks a juft fense of his duty, as a minifter of the establishment. Of the truth of his concluding observations we are fully perfuaded.

"I fhall only add, in reference to my conduct as a clergyman, and as an apology for my prefent effays, in polemical divinity, that from the time in which I firft entered upon the duties of my profeffion to this hour, I have regularly paid attention to every paffing character and tranfaction that appeared any way connected with religion, or likely to be made fubfervient to its ufe. My preaching and publications have uniformly evinced my affiduity in this important point. At this critical conjuncture the Methodist stands foremoft in the groupe of religionists.

-NO. XXVI. VOL. VI.

Hh