ART. VIII. The Chriftian History; being a new Arrangement and Verfion of all the Gofpel Facts. With Ten Differtations. By William Williams, Efq; late of St. John's College, Cambridge. 8vo. 3 s. fewed. Cadell. 1776. HE ftudy of the Scriptures is an employment not confined to any particular ftation. All perfons who receive them as containing a divine revelation, are obliged, for that reafon, to confult them frequently; but it is not neceffary that all fhould ftudy them in a critical manner. If perfons indeed have the opportunity, this will be a very ufeful and proper employment of fome leisure hours, though it is by no means requifite that the refult of their deliberations fhould be publifhed to the world. The Author of the volume before us hath very laudably applied himfelf to inquiries of this kind, and thought it proper to offer the fruit of his labour to the public eye. He apprehends that he prefents us with an improved arrangement of the facts, and that the confufion and errors of former attempts are here avoided. More facts, he fays, nay all, are introduced in the fulleft terms and in a modern tranflation, which I hope is both more correct and more elegant than any preceding it.' If his Readers fhould find reafon to think that in fome inftances he has an advantage over other harmonizers, though from a general view we fee little room to fuppofe it; few, if any, will allow that his modern verfion is on the whole fuperior to other tranflations, or to that which is in common use among us. Mere alterations of words and phrafes are not criticism, nor always improvements, and what can we think of Mr. Williams's idea of elegance when we meet with fuch expreffions as the following?-A divine glory fhone around them and they were in a terrible fright.-A woman of Samaria comes to draw water; Jefus tells her, give me a draught. It fell out, as the concourfe peftered him to hear the divine word.-Why do fohn's difciples faft frequently and fay prayers, but your's are feafting and caroufing-Who honours not the Son, honours not the Father the Sender.-Who hears my word and confides in my Sender, &c.-Then fhall I profefs to them, I never knew you; begone from me ye hacknied villains !-Let him hear, that has a capacity:I am come for an incendiary on earth, and what care I if the fame was already!-But during every one's furprise at all the feats of Jefus. He fet off likewife for the festival, not apparently, but as it were incognito.-My Father loves me because I ftake my life. Yet he efcaped from their clutches and returned across Jordan, &c. Such expreffions as thefe do not appear to us very elegant, nor are they at all neceffary. Befide thefe, we cannot think that the text is rendered more confpicuous or otherwife improved by fuch tranflations as follow: Then the angel told them, be not afraid; afraid; Lo I am an evangelift to you of great joy which all people will receive.-Except one be regenerate, he can have no profpect of God's government.-He has commiffioned me to be an evangelift to the poor.-The lufty need not a physician, but the indifpofed.-God's government is like a man cafting feed into the land.-The heavenly ftate refembles a grain of mustard feed. How must we act to execute God's employments ?-Yet know this, God's government is near you.-There is joy in the countenance of the divine angels for one penitent offender.-It is lighter for a camel to pass through a needle's eye than for a man of fortune to attain a divine ftate.-Now is the prince of this world fent to exile. And I, whenever I am elevated from the earth, will attract every one to me.-The ftone which the architects rejected, is preferred to the head of the angle.-The fervant is not fuperior to his Lord, nor the apoftle paramount to his Sender.My meffmate has kicked at me.' < That we may not be thought to bear too hard on this performance, by transcribing from it only fome of its more faulty parts, let us infert the following paffage as lefs exceptionable: Bleft are perfons of an humble spirit, for their's is the heavenly fate. Bleft are mourners, they shall have confolation. Bleft are the meek, they fhall inherit the land. Bleft are those who hunger and thirst after rectitude, they shall be fatiated. Bleft are the compaffionate, they hall obtain compaffion. Bleft are spotless minds, they fhall fee God. Bleft are the pacific, they fhall be termed fons of God. Bleft are those who are perfecuted in the caufe of justice, their's is the celestial ftate. Bleft are ye when calumniators upbraid and profecute you, and allege every vile charge against you on my account. Rejoice and exult, for mighty is your recompence in heaven; fo they perfecuted the prophets your predeceffors. The remarks in fome of the differtations are pertinent and fenfible, and fhew the Author's acquaintance with learned fubjects. They are, on Chrift's hiftory, the Trinity, Chrift's nativity and lineage, the Lord's Prayer, original fin, human volition, the eucharift, Chrift's defcent to hell, the refurrection, faith, and to thefe are added a prayer, a Scriptural creed, and an hymn for Chriftmas. The Writer appears to be a pious, good man, of Calviniftical fentiments, but not quite according with the Methodists. H. ART. IX. The Gentleman Farmer, being an Attempt to improve Agriculture, by fubjecting it to the Teft of rational Principles. By Lord Kaims. 8vo. 5 s. Boards. Cadell. 1777. WHEN men of fcience and intelligent refearches employ their labours on the ufeful arts, they certainly rank with the first and moft refpectable members of fociety, Ambi tion may affect the reins of government without knowledge, and to be an -Yet b This pe and eloquence exert her powers to the perverfion of justice; learning may employ itself in empty fpeculation, and genius wafte its force in embracing the shadows of fancy,-but when true philofophy, the refult of the most rational pursuits of science, directs the mind to apply its knowledge to the interests of human life, then it is that our studies become truly useful and refpectable. Of this character is the work before us.-The ingenious Author has reduced the theory of agriculture to a kind of system, more concife and more uniform than has been done by other writers. He has ftudied brevity fo far as is confiftent with perfpicuity; he has all along confined himself to matters that are of real ufe in practice; and the plan he has laid down is recommended by his own fuccefsful experience. The work is divided into two parts, and those parts into The fecond part confifts only of three chapters, on the following fubjects. I. Preliminary Obfervations (chiefly philofophical). II. Food of Plants and Fertility of Soil. III. Means of fertilifing Soils. To this is added an Appendix, containing mifcellaneous matter, in some instances not incurious. From this variety we fhall make fome extracts, as well to give a proper idea of the genius and execution of the work, as to indulge thofe of our Readers who may amuse themselves with rural cultivation; and of this clafs we doubt not but we have many; letters being altogether compatible with retirement, and philofophy with agriculture. In the first two chapters we meet with little or nothing new (the chain-plough, and the ufe of oxen instead of horses, having been, recommended by many writers in husbandry) unless it be the method of cultivating kitchen-gardens with a fmall iron-plough drawn by one horfe, and that of planting foreft-trees with the plough. In the article of farm-cattle the Author feems to be a little inconfiftent; p. 36, he fixes the price of an ox four years old at 51. 10s. and, p. 40, he says, a young bullock entering his fourth year will fell for feven pounds. We know not how to account for this, otherwife than that in the firft inftance, he wanted to recommend the ufe ufe of oxen, by representing their cheapness, and, in the fecond, to encourage the breed of them, by fhewing the profit. So it is, that we accommodate ourfelves to our fyftems! The inconfiftency, however, fhould not be fuffered to stand; for, the more it is attended to, the more grofs it will appear. A bullock entering into his fourth year is worth seven pounds; at the end of that year he muft, in all reafon, be worth eight pounds ten fhillings; and yet he is, immediately before, eftimated to the farmer at five pounds ten fhillings; a difference of three pounds! Such glaring inaccuracies cannot, indeed, mislead the intelligent and practiced cultivator; but the unwary and the inexperienced may be fatally mifled by them. Could it be fuggefted that the one was meant as a lean, the other as a fat bullock, there might be fome reason for the different estimate of their value, but here is no fuch thing; neither does the mode, nor do the charges of breeding, indicate any thing like it. One is forry that a book of this kind should be so exclufively calculated for a particular province ;-here are many terms to which the English husbandman is an entire ftranger, and fome, perhaps, at which he would fmile. He would be inclined to doubt, however, whether the following paffage came from Scotland, or from a neighbouring ifland. Till lately no farm-carriages were known in Scotland, but upon horfeback.' Coups, the Author fays, are drawn with oxen and horfes; and fo, for aught we know, they may, but then he should have told us in a note what a Scotch coup is. P. 47, our Author, fpeaking of dunghills, condemns the admiffion of water, and fays, Water in any quantity is far from contributing to putrefaction; but, p. 57, he says, In the putrefaction of a dunghill, the parts from which water is excluded never rot.' Now, what will you infer, gentle Reader? Will not you be inclined to fay with the honeft butler of Mæcenas, Nil fuit unquam tam difpar fibi. In the following paffage, the Author appears to have finned against the fimplicity of paftoral morals. Broom, fays he, has a fingular effect upon fheep: it makes them drunk fo effectually, that, when heated a little with driving, they tumble over, and lie without motion. This fuggefts a method of rooting out the young broom that grows with the pasturegraffes, which is to pafture the field with fheep.' What! at the expence of their morals! of their lives! Is the fhepherd, then, to introduce ebriety into his flock at large, to make them fo effectually drunk that they fhall tumble over, and lie motionlefs, merely to get quit of his bonny broom. No longer.bonny, if this be the cafe! It is, however, no more than an idea Sheep, Sheep, heated with driving, will frequently fall and lie motionlefs, though they have not tafted a fpray of broom. And we have known large flocks of fheep paftured whole fummers in fields of broom, that behaved themfelves with the utmoft fobriety and decorum, even when driven To fresh fields and pastures new.' 'A whin is a fine ever-green Ihrub, carrying a fweet fmelling flower all the year except in froft. The whin or furze may, in point of beauty, be confidered among fhrubs what the hedge-hog is among animals. But is it not a mistake, to fay that it flowers all the year except in froft? We have never obferved it to flower more than three months. But let us feck for fomething new and ufeful. Under the article, Clearing the ground of weeds, we have the following observations: The farmer views plants in a very different light from the botanist. All are weeds with the farmer that give obftruction to the plants he propagates in his farm. Thefe I diftinguish into two kinds, that require different management, viz.-annuals, and all that have a longer existence, which I fhall comprehend under the general name of perennials. It is vain to expect a crop of corn from land over-run with couch-grafs, knot-grafs, or other perennial weeds; and yet the time may be remembered, when, among Scotch farmers, it was a difputed point, whether fuch weeds were not more profitable than hurtful. Some found them profitable in binding their light land: the getting a plentiful crop of itraw and hay for their cattle, weighed with others. I fhould be ashamed of expofing ignorance fo grofs in my countrymen, could I not fay, that they now understand the matter better, though few of them hitherto have arrived at the perfection of cleaning. Summer-fallow is the general method; and excellent it is, though it does not always prove effectual. The roots of couch-grafs in particular are long, and full of juice: if a fingle joint be left in the ground, it never fails to fpring. Here the common harrow is of very little ufe, its teeth being too wide. The time relied on by our farmers for delroying couch-grafs, is in preparing for barley. After the harrow has raifed part of a root above ground, men, women, and children, are employed to pull it up. There are only two objections to this method: the expence is one; and another is, that after all this expence, many roots are left in the ground. In order to pave the way for rooting out perennials effectually, and with little expence, I take liberty to introduce a new inftrument, which I term a cleaning barrow. It is of one entire piece, like the firft of thofe mentioned above, confifting of feven bulls, four feet long each, two and one fourth inches broad, two and three-fourths deep. The bulls are united together by fheths, fimilar to what are mentioned above. The intervals between the bulls being three and threefourths inches, the breadth of the whole harrow is three feet five inches. In each bull are inferted eight teeth, cach nine inches free below the wood, and distant from each other fix inches. The weight of each tooth is a pound, or near it. The whole is firmly bound by an |