reader, bluth not, exclaim not. Mark how a fimple tale fhall put down this fophiftry, The origin and progrefs of the ayana, or Chriftian love-feafts is known. At their origin, they were meetings altogether religious, and of perfect purity. As foon as it was found that they gave opportunities and temptations for improper licence, they were fuppreffed by Christians at an early period; fo far was the incidental corsuption from belonging to their inftitution: and if the laft remains of them (as they are deemed by the author) in a Gingle town (Ifernia), alfo were fuppreffed by Chriftians, by Italian Chriftians, the fuperiority of Chriflian purity is ftill vindicated; for the rites of Priapus were never fuppreffed by a Heathen priesthood, or Heathen magistrateș, till they were removed by the prevalence of a better religion; and the idolatry of the Lingam has not been fuppreffed by Bramins, but is attended by the Arch Bramin himself at Jaggernaut, who is the Pope of that Indian Rome, and the patron of four thousand prostitutes.

Much more could we fay on this clandeftine work, printed without publication, and concealed without fuppreffion; but we confign it, with its impure decorations, to that myftery it courts, and which, we heartily wifh may never be revealed.

Another author, quoted by Lieut. Moor, deferves our notice, and that is the celebrated Abbé Raynall. The Abbé, with a levity in regard to the sex, characteristic of his country, and a luxuriance of fancy appropriate to his philofophy, commends the fect of Xinto, in Japan, because it has not had the madnefs, which, of all others, is most dangerous to morality, to fix a criminal ftigma upon actions in themselves innocent. By thefe innocent actions he means neither more nor less, than the felf-fame prostitution of women in the Temple as an act of religion, a pious exercise for the people in his opinion, and a falutary indulgence to the priesthood, in order to reftrain them from difturbing the peace of families.

Let us, philofophically speaking, allow that prostitution must exift in all countries, let us connive at it, nay let us tolerate it if neceffary but do not let us fay it is pure, holy, and an act of religion. Do not let us fay there is no remedy against the luft of priests, but a commerce with proftitutes-a commerce which corrupts while it fatiates; a commerce which has not preferved the priesthood of Japan from the scandal, or the people from the contagion of Grecian turpitude: while in India the remedy is equally inefficacious; a Fakeer is a privileged man to enter any houfe; he fixes his capt

* Kempfer.

"

+ Maurice.

at

at the door, and the hufband has no right to interrupt the devotions of his wife, whatever they may be, with this naked vagrant. Such are the abominations which the Abbé Raynal defcribes in language hardly decent to quote. "Let us figure to ourselves beings who, joining by turns, in the effervefcence of manhood, love to love, the ideas of religion to those of the most lively paflion nature has infpired in mortals, fee, feel, breathe God in all their communications, adore him together, invoke him, and affociate him to their pleasures; make him palpable and fenfible to themselves, by that effusion of fouls and fenfes, where all is mystery, joy, and heavenly fervour."

Such was the language of Philofophy in France! Such were the Philofophers who prepared the people for the deftruction of Chriftianity, and the renunciation of God's fupremacy! Let us fay with Fabricius, Such be the opinions of the enemies of our country.

ART. V. The Rhine: or a Journey from Utrecht to Francfort, chiefly by the Borders of the Rhine, and the Paffage down the River from Mentz to Bonn. Defcribed in a Series of Letters, written from Holland to a Friend in England, in the Years 1791 and 1792; in Two Vols. By T. Cogan, M. D. Embellished with twenty-four Views in Aqua Tinta, and a Map of the Rhine from Mentz to Bonn *. 8vo. 11. Is. Johnson.

1794.

BOOKS of Travels, as conftituting an agreeable medium

betwixt works of mere amufement, and thofe of abstract literature, have always been fecure of a favourable reception from the public. They afford to the ftudious a pleafing relax ation from severer purfuits. They entice the philofopher and moralift, from folitary and penfive reflection, to the obfervation of manners and cuftoms, diverfified with every changing climate; they amufe the mind without any degradation from its dignity, and, finally they exhibit a picture, in the contemplation of which, the moft faftidious may be ufefully exercifed, and the most accomplished improved. The Rhine is in particular a kind of facred fubject. It has ever been a theme to employ the hiftorian's defcription, the poet's fong, and the painter's fkill. We, confequently, undertook the perufal of the prefent volumes with ardour, nor did we leave them with

*The title does not do the map juftice-it is in fact, from Mentz to Cologne.

E e 2

fatiety

fatiety or difguft. It is of little importance whether we first fpeak of what feems to us defective in the performance, and afterwards proceed to inform our readers in what refpect thefe volumes will fatisfy their curiofity, and contribute to their entertainment; or take the contrary method. In the prefent inftance we shall do the first, as we are defirous of taking our leave of Dr. Cogan with the greateft complacency and good. will.

The title of this work is emphatically the Rhine, of which river, however, very little is faid, or even local defcription given, till towards the conclufion of the first volume. In proportion to the importance of the place, the reader is detained too long, much too long, at Cleves, for which he does not receive fufficient compenfation in the ridiculous Popifh legends, which are introduced. The fame, perhaps, may be faid of Cologne ; and, indeed, the far greater part of the first volume is occupied with the defcription of Cleves, Duffeldorf, and Cologne. From the map, which is prefixed to this work, the purchafer will derive no advantage till he comes to the conclufion of the first volume. Of the fecond volume a large portion is confumed by a kind of differtation on the claims of different places to the invention of Printing, in which no new matter of importance is introduced, and which, though by no means without its fhare of intereft, seems to have very little to do with the profeffed object and title of the book. Animated defcriptions of the Rhine, of its windings, the variety of its banks, the fcenes which it prefents for a Poet's and a Painter's eye, are to be found, if not only, at leaft principally, from p. 285 to the conclufion of the fecond volume. The errors of the prefs are very numerous; and, confidering the little importance of the engravings, we think the work altogether too dear. Having faid thus much, we are impelled by juftice to add, that Dr. Cogan's Rhine contains much agreeable anecdote, and is written with great vivacity. If his obfervations are not profound, they are certainly ingenious; and he exhibits no mean or inconfiderable portion of knowledge and fagacity. We fufpect that his political fentiments and prejudices are different from our own, but we should indeed be ashamed, if we permitted this circumstance, as it does not obtrude itfelf in the work, to make us at all cold and languid in bestow ing on him the praife which, as an author, we think his due. The following extract may ferve as a fpecimen of the ftyle of the work, and of Dr. Cogan's merit as a writer. Speaking of the tall, and robuft females that prefent themselves to view in every part of Germany, the author thus exprelles himself at page 147, Vol. I.

" The

* The number of tall, athletic females that present themselves to view in every part of Germany I have vifited, appears to me to exceed that of our own fex. The relative proportion is certainly greater than in any other country I have feen. This may, in part, be afcribed to the laborious employments, to which, from their infancy, they are accustomed, and partly to their being the defcendants from a race which, according to the teftimonies of Julius Cæfar, Pliny, and Tacitus, were the most gigantic of any in Europe. I remember that Profeffor Zimmerman, in his Geographifche Gefchichte des Menschen, attempts to prove, that this fuperiority of ftature and of ftrength, is to be afcribed to their vagrant manner of living, inceffant exercise, and habitual exposure to a falutary degree of cold; equally diftant from the enervating heat of more fouthern climates, and the feverity of the more northern, which flints the growth both of the animal and vegetable creation. To fimilar causes he attributes the fize of the Patagonians, of the reality of whofe existence he does not entertain a doubt, though their gigantic ftature may have been confiderably exaggerated, by the meafure of the mind's eye. The ftrength and fize of these ruftic females favour his hypothefis.

"Could we fufpect, from the great difproportion obfervable in thefe degenerate days, as the admirers of mufcular force, and Patagonian stature, must term them, that the accounts of ancient authors are exaggerated, an attention to the following obvious circumstance, will have a tendency to restore their credit. In times of fimple and ruftic manners, before artificial measure was invented, the standards of fize muft neceffarily have been taken from various parts of the hu man body; and it is natural to fuppofe, that thefe would have been taken from general proportions, and not from extraordinary exceptions. We are warranted to fuppofe alfo, that artificial standards were afterwards formed moft correfpondent with the common fize.-May we not, therefore, fafely conclude, from the names of various measures now in ufe, that fuch measures were originally corref pondent to fizes much larger than our own.

"For example, an inch is expreffed, in moft European languages, by a word fignifying the thumb, and, confequently, informs us of the common breadth of an ancient thumb. As de pede Herculem, thus we may fay, de pollice Germanicum. A palm expreffes the ftandard measure of fix inches. Hence we may fuppofe, that a palm of the ancient Germans was, generally speaking, about an inch and balf broader than most of the modern. The smaller ell, which feems to be a contraction of the German word ellenbogen i. e. an elbow, is equal to a cubit, and describes an extent from the joint of the elbow, to the extremity of the middle finger, equal to 27 inches, and, confequently exceeding by feveral inches the prefent fize of arms and hands. We fhall not find one foot in twenty among our modern feet, that will measure twelve inches in length. Three of thefe make a yard: but a yard is equivalent to aboat four of our dimi

Geographical Hiftory of Man,

nished feet. So that we have lost about tavo inches in the article of foot, by our degeneracy.

A pace is the measure of five feet! If we may fuppofe, with out, ftepping over the bounds of probability, this diftance was but a ftep for our ancestors, we must allow that they greatly outs ftept us: for there are not many perfons that can step with eafe beyond three feet.

"Perhaps this difproportion may appear incredible; but we are to remember, that the length of a step is in general correfpondent with the fize of the perfon; and alfo, that in the days to which we refer, the action of the femoral muscles was not impeded by thofe vile ligatures called garters; that the feet were not crampt with fhoes; and that the toes were fpread like the claws of fome quadrupeds, or, to be more elegant, like the fan of a lady at her devotions. We may also fuppofe, that the Germans walked like the Indians, with a spring, and not as we, indolent and contracted moderns, who move our legs like the two limbs of a compass, the left not venturing to leave one fpot until the right has taken firm poffeflion of another. At every pace they fell upon the heel, prefsed forwards upon the extreme condyles of the phalanx pedis, and fprung away by the aid of ftrong and elaftic toes. If, therefore, we take into confideration the almoft gigantic fize, the habitual frength of bip, thigh, leg, and foot, their uninjured conftruction, unfettered ufes, and the peculiarity of gait, the diftance of five feet will not appear beyond their ufual exertions.

Race hories have been known to clear ten or twelve yards at a bound. It would fcarcely be more extravagant for a Welsh poney, or a gentleman-like nag, to doubt the truth of this fact, by meafuring the diftance by their own paces, than for us to fufpect our ancestors incapable of the exploit, becaufe it exceeds our utmost attempts."

>If we do not entirely accede to the author's reafoning in the above, nor admit, without referve, the inferences he would "dedtice, it is impoflible not to be pleafed with his ingenuity..

Francfort, in the title, is written differently from what we find it in the body of the work. One of the defiderata in modern literature is the want of precifion in the orthography of proper names. In Oriental words,, this circumftance, however it may be regretted, is the lefs wonderful, as our knowledge of the languages of the Eaft, though progreffively advancing, is yet very imperfect. There is much lefs excufe for this indecifion in European names; concerning which but little addition remains to be had to the flock of knowledge which we already poffefs.

Francfort, or Frankfort, is, it feems, one of the two great marts for learning, not that of Germany alone, but of all Europe. It divides this honourable diftinction with Leipfic. On