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who was thereby reftored to life, and lived fifteen years afterwards. In the prefent loofe and degenerate age, many mayreckon this relation fabulous; but, if it be confidered, that the Old and New Teftaments furnifh us with many furprizing and miraculous things, done by the power of God and Chrift, there can be no difpute at leaft as to the poffibility of it.'

Whether we are obliged to Mr. Elftob for this reflection on the poffibility of St. Winifred's recovering her loft head, or to the perfon who drew up the paper from which he has abftracted these particulars, is to us a matter of fome uncertainty; and therefore we shall only remark upon it, that to good Catholics, the miracle of St. Winefrede, and every other pious miracle in the martyrology, is, to be fure, very poffible; and that if they reap any benefit from their belief in fuch miracles, no liberal minded Proteftant, we fuppofe, would wish to difpute them out of it. But to return to the well..

These waters it is added, feem to be of a fingular nature, and not to be excelled; for, from the original rife of this fpring to this day, the water, by bathing therein, performs wonderful cures :-It heals thofe troubled with the leprofy, and many. other diseases; reftores the lame to the ufe of their limbs, as well as the blind to their fight, and ftrengthens fuch as are recovered of the small-pox. The phyficians are of opinion the water is of that excellent nature as not to be equalled in the univerfe; which has caufed fo great a refort, that, from a few houses, Holywell is encreased to a large market-town of fine buildings, fufficient to entertain the greatest number of people, and the bathing is every way rendered as agrecable as at any other wells or baths.

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Here it may not be improper to take notice of what to fome people may feem incredible, but the truth of what is offered will at any time be demonftrated to the curious; that is, that by the gauge, the bafon and well hold about two hundred and forty tons of water, which, when let out, fill again in less than two minutes. The experiment was tried for a wager, on Tuesday the twelfth of July, 1731; Mr. Price, the Rector of Holywell, Mr. Williams, Mr. Wynne, Dr. Taylor, and many other gentlemen of Holywell, as well as ftrangers, and the Writer of this relation, being prefent; when, to the furprife of the company, the well and bason filled in less than two minutes; which plainly fhews that this fpring raifes more than one hundred tons of water every minute. And although the water in the bafon is more than four feet deep, it is fo tranfparent that a small piece of money, or a pin, may be feen at the bottom. The water rifes up in the well as if it were in Brewer's boiler and violently agitated by heat.'

The

The account of this miraculous well, of which a few more particulars are given in the book, clofes Mr. Elftob's performance, and fhall likewife put a period to the prefent fhort Article:-an Article, which we have limited in proportion to the fize, merit, and importance of the publication to which it re

låtes.

ART. IV. Six Effays or Difcourfes on the following Subjects: The Balance of Aitrea, or upright Administration of Juftice; Ambition in Sovereigns; the Love of our Country, and National Prejudice or Prepoffeffion; the Semblance of Virtue, or Virtue in Appearance the Virtue or Superior Excellence of Nobility, with” fome Remarks on the Power or Influence of high Blood; the Mà-chiavelianiim of the Antients: Tranflated from the Spanish of Feyjoo. By a Gentleman. 8vo. 48. fewed. Becket. 1779.

THE

HE original caft of thinking which this Spaniard difcovers, and especially the liberal spirit and manly fuperiority to vulgar prepoffeffions, which appear in his writings, entitle him to the attention of the public. His Tranflator has already introduced feveral of his Effays to the notice of the English reader, of which we have expreffed our approbation in general terms. He has now added a third volume, which treats of feveral interefting topics, the particulars of which are enumerated in the Title. From them we fhall felect as a fpecimen, the following" remarks on the character of Sir Thomas More, from the Eflay the Semblance of Virtue.

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‚' ] have taken notice of a thing which is very remarkable, and-that is, that great virtues are lefs perceptible than small ones. is derived from the exercise of them not being fo frequent, and the value of them not being generally understood. The going regularly.~ to church, exterior model deportment, taciturnity and falling, are virtues, which strike the eyes of every one, because they are daily practifed, and every body knows them. There are other virtues, that are more fubflantial, and which fpring from more noble roots, that the vulgar are unacquainted with, because they are carried about by those who are masters of them, like ladies who go abroad incog. without the oftentatious parade and fhow of equipage. There are men (would to God there were more of them!), who with an opencarriage, and the free correfpondence and intercourfe of an ordinary life, and who do not feem the leaft fenfible or affected with myfte rious niceties, that nourish within their breafts, a robust virtue and folid piety, impenetrable to the moft furious batteries of the three enemies of the foul. Let Sir Thomas More, that juft, wise, and prudent Englishman, whom I have always regarded with profound refpect, and a tenderness approaching to devotion; I fay let this man ferve as an example to all men, and ftand as a pattern to future ages, of all the virtues and excellencies I have been defcribing.

If we view the exterior part of the life of Sir Thomas More, we only fee an able politician, fimple in his manners, engaged in a department of the ftate, and attentive to the affairs of the king and

kingdom,

kingdom, always fuffering himself to be wafted by the gale of fortune, without foliciting honours, and without refufing to accept of them; in private life, open, courteous, gentle, cheerful, and even fond of a convivial fong, frequently partaking, in the halls of mirth, of the jovial relaxations of the mind, and in the circulation of wit and pleasantry, always innocent, but never fhewing the least fymptom of aufterity. His application in literature was directed, indifferently and alternately, to the ftudy of facred and profane learning, and he made great advances in both the one and the other. His great ap plication to, and proficiency in the living languages of Europe, reprefent him as genius defirous of accommodating himself to the world at large. His works, except fuch as he composed in prifon during the last year of his life, feemed more to favour of politics than religion. I speak of the fubject of them, not of the motive with which he wrote them. In his defcription of Utopia, which was truly ingenious, delicate, and entertaining, he lets his pen run fo much on the interefts of the ftate, as makes it feem as if he was indifferent about the concerns of religion.

Who in this image or defeription of Sir Thomas More, would recognize that glorious martyr of Chrift, and that generous hero, whofe conftancy to the obligations of his religion could not be bent or warped, neither by the threats or promifes of Henry VIII. nor a hard imprisonment of fourteen months, nor the perfuafions and entreaties of his wife, nor by the fad profpect of feeing his family and children reduced to mifery and beggary, nor by the privation of all human comfort, in taking from him all his books, nor finally by the terrors of a scaffold placed before his eyes? So certain is it, that the qualities of great fouls are not to be discovered, but by the touchftone of great occafions and hard trials, and may be compared to large flints, which only manifeft their smooth or fhining furfaces by the execution of hard blows.

• Sir Thomas More was the fame while he was a prifoner of state, as when he was High Chancellor of England; the fame in adverse, as in profperous fortune; the fame ill treated, as in high favour; the fame in the prifon, as feated at the head of the Court of Chancery; but adverfity manifested and made vifible his whole heart, of which the greatest and best part had before laid hid. This great man used to give to his own virtues an air of humanity and condefcenfion, which in the eyes of the vulgar abated their splendour; but in proportion as it obfcured the luftre of them to their view, it augmented it in the fight of all men of difcernment and penetration. It once happened when he was High Chancellor, that a gentleman, who had a fuit depending before him, made him a prefent of two filver bottles: It was inconfiftent with his dignity or integrity to accept the prefent; and how did Sir Thomas conduct himself? Did he fall into a passion against the fuitor for having offered an affront to his reputation? Did he punish the criminal audacity of the man, for attempting to corrupt and make venal the functions of his duty? Did he manifeft before his domeftics any difinterested delicacy, or appear fcandalized at the temptation? No; he did none of all this, becaufe nothing of this fort was correfpondent to the nobleness or generous turn of his mind. He received the bottles with a good grace, and immediately

immediately gave orders to one of his fervants to fill them with the beft wine he had in his cellar, and carry them back to the gentleman, together with this courteous meffage, That it gave him great pleasure to have an opportunity of obliging him, and that any fort of wine he bad in his houfe was much at his fervice. Exprefling, by this prudent feeming infenfibility or want of apprehenfion, that he supposed that was the purpofe for which the gentleman fent the bottles. In this manner he joined integrity to gentleness of reproof, and correction with courteous behaviour; and by fo much the lefs parade he made of his own purity, by fo much the more was the confusion of the gentleman diminished.

It is clear, that the heroic conftancy with which he fupported his adherence to his religion, was not the effect of a trained violence on his nature, but proceeded from innate virtue, which acts in all things and on all occafions according to the habitual difpofitions of the mind; for always, to the very crisis of his fuffering, he preserved the native cheerfulness of his difpofition. He did not appear lefs feftive, nor lefs tranquil in chains, than he had before appeared in the banquet room. During the time of his trial he was all compofure, and when it was drawing near a conclufion, and thofe iniquitous judges, who had already facrificed their confciences to the will of their fovereign, were on the point, to please and flatter him, of delivering that innocent man, as a victim to his refentment, the barber came to fhave him, and just as he was going to begin his work, Sir Thomas recollected himself, and faid Hold, as the King and I at prefent are contending to whom this head belongs, in case it should be adjudged to bim, it would be wrong for me to rob him of the beard, so you must defift. Being about to afcend the fcaffold, and finding himself feeble, he begged one who was near to aid him in getting up the ladder, faying to him at the fame time, Affift me to get up, for be affured I shall not trouble you to help me down again. O eminent virtue! O fpirit truly fublime, who mounted the scaffold with the fame feftive cheerfulness, that he would fit down to a banquet! Let men of little minds and narrow fouls contemplate this example, and learn to know, that true virtue does not confift in the obfervance of forms and scrupulous niceties.

'Ọ how many antipodes in morality to Sir Thomas More are to be found in every ftate! for both in the east and the weft you will meet with many of thofe ridiculous fcare-crows, who lead a kind of her. metic life, and are called fanctified or holy men; but thofe of this day do not mortify themfelves fo much, and offend other people more, than those of former times were used to do. With a difpleasing gravity, and forbidding look, that amounts to four fternness; a converfation fo oppofite to the cheerful, that it borders on the extreme of clownish furlinefs; a zeal fo harsh and fevere, that it degenerates into cruelty; a fcrupulous obfervance of rites and ceremonies, that approaches to fuperftition; and by the mere want or abfence of a few vices; I fay, that with the help of these appearances, they, without more coft or trouble, fet themfelves up as patterns or images of ultimate perfection; and they are truly images in the ftrict fenfe of the word, for their whole value confits in their external fhape and figure; and I befides call them images, because they are

not

not endued or informed with a true, but with the fham, femblance of a fpirit. 1 repeat again that they are images, because they are as hard as marble, and infenfible and unfeeling as the trunks of trees. In the morality that directs them, gentleness of manners, affability, and pity, are blotted out of the catalogue of virtues. I have not even yet faid enough. Those two fenfible characteristics of charity, pointed out by St. Paul, that is to fay, patience and benevolence, are fo foreign to their difpofitions, that they are inclined to confider them as figns of relaxation of difcipline, or at least of lukewarmness. They affume the figure of faints, without poffeffing more fanctity than the ftock or ftone images of fuch, and would number themselves among the blessed, wanting the requifites which the gospel expreffes to constitute them (deferving of being inferted in that catalogue), which are meeknefs, compaffion, and a conciliatory fpirit. Beati mites, beati mifericordes, beati pacifici.'

The last Effay, on the Machiavelianifm of the Ancients, is a curious attempt to prove that the principles of arbitrary power were adopted, and the arts of defpotifm practifed in the Greek and Roman ftates, during the periods most celebrated for freedom. But for the illuftration of this point, we must refer our Readers to the work, which is lively and ingenious, and abounds with manly reflections.

ART. V. Remarks in that kind of Pally of the lover Limbs which is frequently found to accompany a Curvature of the Spine, and is fuppofed to be caused by it; together with its Method of Cure. To which are added, Obfervations on the Neceffity and Propriety of Amputation in certain Cafes, and under certain Circumstances. By Percival Pott, F. R. S. and Surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hofpital. 8vo. 1 s. 6d. Johnfon. 1779.

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THE first of the two tracts which this very valuable Author has here presented to the public, relates to a difease little known to many of the faculty, which he describes in the following manner: it confifts in the total or partial abolition of motion in the lower limbs, in confequence, as is fuppofed, of a curvature of fome part of the fpine. Both fexes, and all ages, are equally liable to it. It is gradual, though not very flow, in its progrefs. When a child is the subject, he begins with complaining of being foon tired; is languid, liftlefs, and unwilling to move much, or at all brifkly. Not long after, he may be obferved frequently to trip and ftumble, though there be no impediment in his way; and whenever he attempts to move brifkly, he finds that his legs involuntarily crófs each other, by which he is frequently thrown down; and on endeavouring to ftand ftill, without fupport, for a few minutes, his knees give way, and bend forwards. When the diftemper is farther advanced, he cannot, without much difficulty and deliberation, direct either of his feet precifely to any

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