A man who is guilty of these, or of any sins, is no more a Christian, than he, who was merely circumcised, under the law, was a Jew; as St. Paul said, "He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God." (Romans ii. 28, 29.) So he is not a Christian, which is one outwardly; for though he cannot be a Christian unless he be baptized, yet it does not follow that every one, who is baptized, is therefore a Christian; but he is a Christian who is one inwardly; and baptism is that of the heart, in the Spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

Had the above cruelties been mentioned to be exposed, and to shew how contrary they are to the spirit of Christianity, all had been well; but, as they now stand, they certainly appear to be represented as a part of the Christian character, and tauntingly to censure it.

In the play of Pizarro, likewise, there are some taunting speeches made by the Peruvians to The Christians, as if reflecting upon the whole race: whereas Pizarro was certainly not a Christian in reality, whatever title he might assume to himself, or be called by; and his sins cannot with any justice be imputed to Christianity.

C. p. 27. This use of the term fate occurs frequently in Douglas: Lady Randolph says,

But Randolph comes, whom fate has made my Lord.
Ruling fate decreed,

A. I.

Yet afterwards she attributes her son's preservation to a higher

cause.

O! sovereign mercy! 'Twas my child I saw !

Ditto,

Reaching from heav'n to earth, Jehovah's arm
Snatch'd from the waves and brings me to my son.

Ditto.

And Norval, speaking of the parents of the Hermit, who had

killed his own brother, says,

They were dead: kind heav'n had clos❜d their eyes Before their son had shed his brother's blood.

On which Lord Randolph, I think impiously, observes,

Hard is his fate; for he was not to blame!
There is a destiny in this strange world,
Which oft decrees an undeserved doom:
Let schoolmen tell us why.

The Tragedy of OSWAY opens with these lines,
Oh! how capricious, Fortune, are thy ways:
Now, on the airy wing of smiling Hope,
You waft weak man to scenes of highest joy ;
Then, in an instant, work a wretched change,
And plunge him in the vast abyss of woe.

In JANE SHORE, she says to Dumont,
Fortune, I fear me, Sir, has meant you ill,
Who pays your merit with that scanty pittance,

A. IV.

Which my poor hand and humble roof can give. A. I. S. 2. Alicia, afterwards, speaking to J. S. on the subject of her adulterous love with Edward, says,

Sure something more than Fortune join'd your loves:

Nor could his greatness, and his gracious form,

Be elsewhere match'd so well.

Ditto.

But we find the same ideas in the Night Thoughts. Speaking of Narcissa, the author says,

Fortune fond had built her nest on high.

Like birds quite exquisite of note and plume,
Transfix'd by Fate (who loves a lofty mark)
Each friend by Fate snatch'd from us, is a plume
Pluck'd from the wing of human vanity.

How few beneath auspicious planets born,
(Darlings of Providence! fond Fate's elect!)

With swelling sails make good the promis'd port,
With all their wishes freighted!

N. III. 1. 85.

Ditto, l. 285.

Dr. Dodd, a man certainly of considerable piety, notwithstanding his errors, in his Thoughts in Prison, written under a near prospect of death, says,

The hour is come:

Stern Fate demands compliance.

Week the third.

In the Comedy of THE CONSCIOUS LOVERS, there is an odd mixture of Providence, Fortune, and Fate; and, if the author admitted the first, there seems to be no reason why it should not have been retained throughout. When Young Bevil is giving an account to Humphry of Indiana, Humphry says,

Fortune here seem'd again to smile on her.

Afterwards, where Young Bevil mentions the villain who " was dragging her by violence to prison," he adds, " Providence at the instant interposed, and sent me to relieve her." Humphry. "'Twas Providence indeed!" A. I. S. 2. Young Bevil, indeed, says, "sent me by miracle,” which words I consider as going much too far.

Isabella, in her first interview with her brother, Mr. Sealand, when she finds he does not recollect her, says, "I will observe this interlude, this sport of Nature and of Fortune." A. V. S. 3.

Afterwards, where Mr. Sealand bids Indiana " Take comfort," she replies, "All my comfort must be to expostulate in madness, to relieve with phrensy my despair, and, shrieking, to demand of Fate, why-why was I born to such variety of sorrows?" Ditto.

Mr. Sealand, speaking of his daughter, calls her "the second bounty of Providence to me." A. IV. S. 2. And, again,

"How vain, how weak is human prudence! what care, what foresight, what imagination could contrive such blest events to make our children happy, as Providence, in one short hour, has laid before us." A. V. S. 3. The Play concludes with these lines,

Whate'er the generous mind itself denies,

The secret care of Providence supplies.

"Your parents,

In The Lakers, Sir Charles says to his servant: though they were poor, were honest, and by their birth deserved better than they received from the hands of Fortune." A. I. S. I.

In The Fashionable Lover, A. IV. S. I. Aubrey considers himself as under the guidance of Providence: "All-disposing Providence! who hast ordain'd me to this hour, and through innumerable toils and dangers, led me back to this affecting spot, can it be wondered at, if I approach it with an anxious aching heart, uncertain as I am, if I have still a child or not?"

In The Surrender of Calais, Providence is mentioned in a proper
La Gloire says,
"What shall we do with our children,

manner.

Madelon?" She replies,

66

If your endeavours be honest, La Gloire, Providence will take care of them, I warrant you."

A. II. S. 1.

N

In the first editions of Percy were the following lines,
To doubt her virtue were suspecting heaven,
('Twere little less than infidelity!)

And yet I tremble. Why does terror shake
These firm-strung nerves? But 'twill be ever thus,
When fate prepares us more than mortal bliss,

And gives us only human strength to bear it.

A. III.

Which are thus altered in the edition in Mrs. More's Works, 1801.

Away! nor doubt a virtue so consummate.

And yet I tremble. Why does terror shake
These firm-strung nerves? But 'twill be ever thus
When heav'n prepares us more than human bliss,
And gives us only human strength to bear it.

p. 114.

D. p. 28. I feel no small degree of apprehension at entering upon this part of my subject, as I shall have to censure that, which hath given pleasure to so many persons from their earliest years, and to which habit hath reconciled them, perhaps, without sufficient, or any consideration.

If it be allowable to represent any of the inhabitants of the invisible world, I am clear that it ought to be only according to those ideas which are founded in truth, and not according to those which are fictitious. Scripture hath certainly revealed to us much upon the subject of Angels, but it appears to me still to be wrong to embody them on the Stage. Mrs. More mentions The Masque of Comus as "an exquisite piece" to read; but I do not exactly understand whether she would allow it to be represented even in an Eutopian Theatre. I must confess I would not, even were the subject better treated than I consider it to be. For, though the Attendant Spirit is intended to represent one of the ministering Spirits (Heb. i. 14.) or Guardian Angels of Scripture, for The Lady says,

He, the Supreme Good, t' whom all things ill

Are but as slavish officers of

vengeance,

Would send a glist'ring guardian, if need were,

To keep my life and honour unassail'd.

Yet the Spirit, at his first entrance, says,

Before the starry threshold of Jove's court

My mansion is, &c.

Among'st the enthron'd Gods on sainted seats.

1. 217.

And then he runs into all the heathen mythology of Neptune,

tributary gods, blue-hair'd deities, Bacchus, Circe, and Comus. His

sky robes are of Iris woof.

He says to the Brothers,

'Tis not vain or fabulous,

(Though so esteem'd by shallow ignorance)

What the sage poets, taught by th' heavenly Muse,
Storied of old in high immortal verse,

Of dire chimeras and enchanted isles,

And rifted rocks, whose entrance leads to Hell;

For such there be, but unbelief is blind.

Dr. Johnson says, in praise of Shakspeare, that he
Exhausted worlds, and then imagined new.

1. 520.

Prologue on the opening of Drury-Lane Theatre, 1747.

But Shakspeare, in his imagining, has borrowed from heathenism and the superstitions of later times, and decked them with spoils from the Scriptures of Truth,* with which he certainly was very conversant. The TEMPEST is a very remarkable proof of this. The general idea of the Tempest, the Shipwreck, and the Island, is taken from the account of St. Paul's Shipwreck on the Island of Melita, mentioned in Acts, ch. xxvii. and xxviii. Prospero says to Miranda, respecting the wreck,

* In the Tragedy of Osway, when he is led away to prison, Dorne

says,

All gracious Heaven! upon this land look down,

And, in thy mercy, guard my father's life.
Make him thy care, each minister of good,
Nor suffer sorrow to oppress his mind.
And, if thy providence will do him right,
Let the chains fall from off his guiltless hands.
Earth! shake his prison to the centre down,
Open the doors, in spite of harden'd man,

And give him back to freedom and to life.

A. I.

This is evidently an allusion to the miraculous deliverance of St. Peter from prison, mentioned, Acts xvi. 26. It is presumptuous to expect such an interference now, There is likewise a doubt expressed, whether Providence will do him right, and there is likewise a prayer offered to Angels. The author embraces this opportunity of censuring his own performances, where he sees occasion, equally with those of others.