1823.] [ 
163 J 
NEW BOOKS PUBLISHED IN AUGUST: 
WITH AN HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL PROEMIUM. 
— 
Authors or Publishers, desirous of ageing an early notice of their Works, are 
__- requested to transmit copies before the \8th of the Month, 
—= 
OR the Oracles of God, four Orations ; 
for Judgment to come, an Argument, 
in nine parts; by the Rev. Epwarp Ir- 
VING, is the title of a work, written by a 
gentleman who attracts, at present, more 
attention from the inhabitants of this me- 
tropolis than has been given to the head 
of any religious society since the days of 
Johanna Southcott. Man is a religious 
animal ; he apparently dies like the beasts 
of the field; but, nevertheless, the belief 
in a continued existence is so necessarily 
interwoven in the texture of his mind, that 
he cannot possibly conceive a state in which 
he shall be as though he had never been. This 
never-ceasing confidence ina future life is 
the source not only of the hopes and fears 
of religion, but of the cherished fame 
of the philosopher. Accordingly, in all 
agesand nations, even in those that never 
Saw the light of revelation, men have been 
found teaching the doctrine of futurity to 
the multitude, aud explaining the “ varie- 
ties of untried being.” Horne Tooke 
called those teac!:ers fortune-tellers; but 
Horne Tooke was an infidel, and, besides, 
he was not aware that he was actuated by 
the same principle when he personally su- 
perintended the erectionof his own tomb. 
The public mind has been much divided 
respecting the oratorical merits of Mr. 
Irving. Witlings have ridiculed the man- 
ner, and critics have condemned the style, 
of his compositions; but thousands have 
flocked to listen to his discourses, and 
have read them in their closets with in- 
creased devotion. There must be.some 
cause for al} this; and the cause seems to 
he, the apparent sincerity of his faith in the 
doctrines which he inculcates, joined to the 
Searless, fervid, and independent, manner in 
which he usiers his tremendous denunciations. 
To judge fairly of Mr. Irving’s composi- 
tions, the critic must be partially inspired 
by that enthusiasm which appears to have 
guided his pen, To av ear that is unat- 
tuned to the harmony of numbers, Milton 
and Pope have written in vain, and the 
energies of Mr. Irving can have their ef- 
fect only upen cetiain minds ; but on such 
minds they are calculated to exert 
animmense power, After allowing this 
much, it would be fastidious to quarrel 
with the gtyle. Whateyer we might say of 
commas and points, or even of grammatical 
incongruities, that style is never despica- 
ble which answers the purposes intended 
by the writer, Believing the divine origin 
of the scriptures, (and who will dare to 
deny it?) the burning eloquence of Mr/ 
Irving is as requisite to rouse the torpidity 
of modern Christians, as was the voice of 
Knox at the period of the Reformation. 
Whatever may be said to the contrary, the 
great portion of the people of this country, 
especially the rich and powerful, are Chliris- 
tians only in name. We have been called 
a nation of shopkeepeis, but it may be 
truly said that we-are also a nation of 
hypocrites. Asashort specimen of Mr, 
Irving's style, we take the following ex- 
tract from the beginning of’ his first Ora- 
tion. It contains the axiom on which his 
system is built, and to him who has a heart- 
felt conviction of its truth, we repeat our 
assertion, that these Orationsare models of 
eloquence.—‘ There was a time when each 
revelation of the word of God had an intro- 
duction into this earth which neither permit- 
ted men to doubt whenceit came nor where- 
fore it was sent:....+... But now the 
miracles of God have ceased, and Nature, 
secure and unmolested, is no lounger called 
on for testimonies to her Creator’s voice. 
Wo burning bash draws the footsteps to 
his presence-chamber ; no invisible voice 
holds the ear awake; uo hand cometh forth 
from the obscure to write his purposes in 
letters of flame. The vision is shut up, 
and the testimony is sealed, and the word 
of the Lord is ended, and this solitary vo- 
lume, with its chapters and verses, is the 
sum-total of all for which the chariot of 
heaven made so many visits to the earth, 
and the Son of God himself tabernacied 
and dwelt among us.” 
One of the novelties of the month, and 
which asa real curiosity onght to be seen 
by every body, is the Prize Dissertation on 
Homer, published at only half-a-crown, for 
which the Royal Society of Literature have 
adjudged their prize of 100 guineas. Ac- 
customed to look over essays tor this mis- 
cellany, we sincerely declare that, if it had 
been offered to us, we should not have ad- 
mitted it, even ifthe same premium had, 
been offered to us for its insertion, Who. 
is the author does not appear. In style 
and tone of thinking, it is a mere schvol- 
boy’s essay ; but, its hypotheses that Homer 
was Moses; Helen, the Hebrew Dinah; 
Achilles, David; &c. &c. would be wor- 
thy of the Sorbonne, or of a popish coun- 
cil in the worst times. George the LVth. 
who is a man of taste, will blush at such 
an appropriation of his bounty; and, if his 
Majesty is disposed to give other pres 
miums, we pledge ourselves to send him a. 
dozen papers from among our deferred 
communications, each worth a dozen of: 
this wifle about Homer. 
About two years ago (in Monthly Mag. 
Octe 
