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tributed fomewhat to leffon. At the fame time by discountenancing fome very fanciful inveftigations of their causes, and advancing others that feem more fimple and intelligible, he has evinced that strong affinity, which Hippocrates affirms between very good common and medical understanding.

K.

Sermons on the relative Duties. Preached at Queen-freet Chappel, and St. Paul's Covent-Garden. By the Rev. Thomas Francklin, M. A. Vicar of Ware in Hertfordshire. 8vo. 4S. bound. Dodfley, &c.

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HAT we ufually term the Relative Duties are generally ranked under the fix following heads,---the duty of children to parents, and of parents to children, of fervants to mafters, and of mafters to fervants; of wives to hufbands, and of husbands to wives. On each of these we have here a feparate difcourfe, together with an introductory fermon, on domestic happiness. The ingenious Author avoids entering into thofe minuter parts of each duty which depend on the various ranks, circumftances, and conditions of human life; he only sketches the outlines, he fays, which must be filled up and finished by the Reader's own fenfe and obfervation.

As the feveral fubjects of Mr. Francklin's difcourfes have been frequently treated by fome of the ableft of our moral Writers, the difcerning Reader will not expect any thing new upon them, nor to fee them treated in a more ftriking and interefting manner than they have already been; especially as the Author confines himself to general views, which, however ufeful or agreeable they may be to a certain clafs of Readers, are, perhaps, not the beft adapted to imprefs the minds of the generality.

Thefe fermons, however, are much fuperior to the common productions of this kind, and are diftinguished by a liberal turn of thought, an eafy and elegant flow of language, which muft be acceptable to every Reader of tafte. We fhall give a specimen of his manner, from his fermon on the Duty of husbands to wives.-The words he difcourfes from are, Let every one of you live his wife even as himself. Ephef. v. 33.-The general term love, he tells us, comprehends regard and affection, conftancy and fidelity, tenderness and delicacy, prudence and difcretion, good-nature and indulgence, care and protection, industry and fobriety, piety and virtue.

Infidelity, fays he, on the part of the hufband is indeed grown fo univerfal, that its oppofite virtue is almoft out of countenance; it is treated as venial by one fex, and fubmitted to as

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tinavoidable by the other; the world is fo complaifant as to ftile it gallantry, and because it is known to be fashionable, it is not condemned as unlawful: thus vice is palliated with the name of error, and that which is in reality the highest difgrace to our nature, is confidered as an ornament of it. Cuftom hath, I know not how, given a kind of fanction to it on one fide, and at the fame time condemned it on the other; as if God had, like man, made his laws with partiality and injuftice, and that the feventh commandment were enjoined only against the weaker veffel; but let thofe who thus miferably deceive themselves remember, that the fame folemn contract hath engaged both: that if they neglect the obligation, and fpurn at the command, it is not the injured wife alone who will refent the infringement of it good men will confider it as an outrage against virtue, here; and God will affuredly punish it as fuch hereafter.

But to affection and fidelity, the good hufband must also add tenderness and delicacy. It is the good-nature and complacency of the hoft, which makes the pleasure of the conqueft; and in the manner of conferring a favour, there is almost as much merit as in the beftowing it. The hufband, therefore, is to confider not how much, but to whom he gives; not what he fpeaks only, but to whom it is fpoken: in his behaviour to his wife, the heart muft feem to follow the hand, and the mind to direct the tongue; he fhould fuit that delicacy which he would oblige, and imitate that elegance which he would please. To a wife, mere civility is coldness, and, mere complaifance is indifference; to her a more expreffive kindness should add a grace to every word, and a peculiar tenderness diffuse itself over every action. It is, indeed, this behaviour alone, which can foften and temper the rudeness of mafculine feverity, and give a polish to the rougher manners of one half of mankind; it is this tender commerce, and this delicate connection, which throws a luftre over the converfation of the civilized world, and conftitutes in a great measure, the most elegant and refined pleasures of human life.

But further:

To love, fidelity and tendernefs, the husband must likewise add, prudence and difcretion.

Half the miferies and difquietudes, half the interruptions of conjugal peace and domeftic felicity arife from defires too ardent, and hopes too fanguine; both parties, at their first entrance into the nuptial ftate, especially in youth, are apt to form to themselves ideas, very inadequate and difproportioned to the condition of human life; to entertain delufive notions of a romantic and vifionary paradife, where the earth is cloathed with perpetual verdure, the flowers never fade, and the fruits are immortal; but when, inftead of this, they begin, perhaps in a short

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short time, to feel the thorns fpringing up under their feet, when they perceive the fruits to wither, and the verdure to decay, they are filled with unreafonable wonder and astonishment; they had accuftomed themselves to look for nothing lefs than uninterrupted health, conftant fuccefs, invariable harmony and affection: they fuffer, therefore, not fo much from the evil which they have as from the want of that which they have not. At the beginning of the voyage, the fky is generally clear, the waters calm and unruffled; but, to conclude from thence, that we are to fail through life, without form or tempeft, is, to the Jaft degree, abfurd and unreafonable. It is the duty and the intereft of both therefore, and especially of him who fits at the helm, to prepare against the worft, to fteer the veffe! with all poffible care and diligence, and conduct it fafely into the harbour of peace and felicity.

Proceed we then to another neceffary branch of the hufband's duty, good-nature and indulgence. In a world fo full of miferies and misfortunes, errors and inadvertencies, paffions and follies, differences both in opinion and practice must arise, where the connection is close and intimate; mutual complacency and forbearance, therefore, are abfolutely and indispenfably neceffary in the married ftate; power is never so amiable, as when cloathed with meeknefs and humility; and the fuperiority of our own understanding will be always moft evident, when it condescends to forgive or to relieve the weakness of another. When women offend, therefore, they are to be confidered as women; as beings whofe power and faculties are not fo extenfive, whofe judgment and reafon are not fo ftrong and folid, as our own; whole experience is confined within a much narrower circle; whofe underflandings are limited and enfeebled by education; who are liable therefore, with the greater ease. to be feduced or impofed on; not fufficiently aware of arts which they are themfelves ignorant of; nor upon their guard against. that guilt, which they never practice.

Vanity and extravagance are the ftale and trite excufes for, cruelty, inconftancy, and inhumanity in the worst of husbands; and yet, certain it is, that he who is the caufe ought not to murmur at the effect; and he who makes his own mifery, hath no right to complain of it: what fhail we fay, if the weeds, which thus overrun the garden, are planted there and cultivated, too by our own hands? Flattery, too lavishly beftowed, will naturally produce that pride which is thus condemned; and that, pride enflamed and encouraged will as naturally beget luxury and extravagance; is it not moft abfurd then to be furprised, that the idol expects worship, when men have taken fo much, pains to raise it; or that when they have been at fuch expence

to feed a vice, they should be aftonished at the fize and the increase of it?

If the husband is already poffeffed of love, fidelity, tenderness, prudence, and good-nature, he will always remember that most effential part of his duty to his wife, which confifts in the care and protection of her, in providing for and maintaining her, as well as his fituation, rank, and circumstances in life will permit.

The fuperior ftrength, power, and capacities of one fex, as I have before obferved to you, were originally defigned to protect and preferve the other: woman is left by nature, weak and defenceless, unable to ftruggle with the troubles and difficulties, or contend with the fraud and malice of an ill-natured and defigning world: on man, who is more able, the muft rely for aid and fupport; this aid and fupport, this neceffary care and affiftance, the husband is bound conftantly to afford her: he receives her, for the most part, from the hands of thofe, under whofe wing fhe had till that time been safe and happy; from those whofe goodness he promiseth to fupply, and whofe indulgence he hath sworn to imitate: he fnatches her from the bosom of parental tenderness to feed and cherish her in his own: as he hath taken her therefore from one protection, it is incumbent on him to provide her with another: to give her, without selfishness or reluctance, as her indifputable right, a fhare of all that he hath, of all the good things which God hath pleafed to bestow upon him; he hath an undoubted claim to all his joys and pleasures, and he hath no right to withhold any thing from her, but his forrows and misfortunes.'

The foregoing extract may fuffice for a fpecimen of Mr. Francklin's manner, in regard to pulpit compofitions; thofe who are defirous of becoming acquainted with his performances in different branches of literature, are referred to our accounts of his Poem on Tranflation; of his Sophocles; and of his Differtation on ancient Tragedy: for all which, See the GENERAL INDEX to our first twenty-four volumes.

To be had of T. Becket; in two parts.

R.

G.

Specimens of abbreviated Numbers, or, an Introduction to an Entire New Species of Arithmetic: Calculated in a more especial Manner for the Counting-house and Public Offices, particularly the Cuftoms, Exchequer, and Excife: The Principle being founded on a new Method of finding the Decimal for any Coin, Weight, or Time, &c. &c. By one fingle Multiplication only, without the Ufe of a Vulgar Fraction. And alfo (on a Method hitherto undifcovered)

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of finding the Intereft of any Sum, at any Rate, and for any Time! By one fingle Multiplication, not exceeding three Figures, without the Afiflance of Statings, or Reference to Tables: reducing the whole Body of Arithmetic, (fo far as it relates to General Calcu lations) to a Synopfis confined to the four firft Rules of Arithmetic. The whole founded on a principle hitherto unattempted, and now first offered to the Public. By William Wefton. 8vo. 4s. bound. Marfh, &c.

IN

N the preface to this little treatife, the Author has given us to understand, that the piece before us is nothing more than a fpecimen of what he intends hereafter (on proper encouragement) to produce on the fame fubject; that the work is replete with novelty; and that this difcovery will tend to render the doctrine of vulgar and decimal fractions rather curious than ufeful. He adds that he does not at prefent think proper to inform the world, by what method this fpecies of figures was first discovered; that being referved for his future work.

This new method, as our Author calls it, is performed by the multiplication of certain factors, or numbers, a fpecimen of which he has given us in the following table.

A TABLE

• Of FACTORS, to be ufed as Multipliers, for the reducing any Coin, Weight, Measure, Time, &c. &c. &c. into a Decimal Fraction, by one fingle Operation only, viz.

AVOIRDUPOISE WEIGHT, the Integer an Hundred Weight. Multiply by 893 to find the Decimal of any Number of Pounds.

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any Number of Ounces. any Number of Drams,

TROY WEIGHT, the Integer a Pound.

Multiply by 834 to find the Decimal of any Number of Ounces:

417
174

any Number of Pennywts, any Number of Grains.

COIN, the Integer a Pound Sterling.

Multiply by 5 to find the Decimal of any Number of Shillings.

417 1042

any Number of Pence. any Number of Farthings

TIME, confidered as a Calendar Year of 12 Months.

Multiply by 275 to find the Decimal of any Number of Days.

834
193

any Number of Months. any Number of Weeks.

N. B. As this is intended but as a fpecimen, I have only introduced examples of the three most useful cafes, viz. Weight,

Coin,

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