394 
other claffes of men, and are contented if 
they are tolerated and protected. They 
efteem it no {mall a& of beneficerice in tie 
nation which receives them only on toler- 
able conditions, fince, in many fiates, even 
refidence is refuled them. Is your cir- 
cumcifed friend allowed by the laws to pay 
vyoua vit at Zurich? What obligations 
then do we not owe to the nation which... 
receives us with general philanthropy, 
and allows us unhindered to worfhip the 
Almighty according to the manner of our 
forefathers.” We enjoy, in the ftate in 
which I live, the moft becoming liberty ; 
and ought we not to avoid contefting the 
religion of the governing body, that is, 
attacking our protectors on the fide of 
which men of virtue are the moft fenfible. 
According to thefe principles it was my 
refolution always to #&&, and confequently 
ferupuloufly to fhun ail religious difputes, 
if not compelled by fome extraordinary 
incident to alter my refolution. Private 
challenges from’men of refpe€tability I 
have dared to pafs over in filence. ‘The 
intrufion of little minds, who thought 
themielves authorifed publicly to attack 
me for my religion, I have thought nyfelf 
authorifed to defpife. But the folemn 
appeal of a Lavater compels me at leaft 
to openly declare my mode of thinking,— 
that no one may interpret a too long pre- 
ferved filence into.conjefion or contempt.” 
Mendelfohn then gives his judgment of 
Bonnet’s work, and aflerts, that, ‘* to fay 
nothing of Englifh works, it is lefs pro- 
found and philofophical than feveral Ger- 
man produétions.” Adds, that if prefled 
further, he muft forget his feruples, and 
publith his Stri€tures on Bonnet; but he 
begs Lavater to fpare him the unpleafant 
labour, concluding —“ If you would put 
yourfelf in my place, and not confider the 
circumftances from your own but from my 
point of view, you would do juftice to my 
feelings. I would not willingly enter into 
the inquiry, nor ftep out of the limits 
which, with fo much prudence, I had fet 
to my/elf.” 
The reader may perhaps be interefted to 
know the iffue of this amicable conteft. La- 
vater infantly publifhed a Letter to Men- 
de!fohn, vindicating the purity of his own 
jatentions ; but confeffing that his conduct 
had been cenfured by his friends, particu- 
larly by Bonnet. ‘* I therefore,”” fays he, 
‘¢ retract my unconditicnal challenge, as a 
thing 1 was not entitled to make; and 
before the public honeftly beg pardon for 
what was faulty and intrufive in my De- 
dication.”” He alfe ftatcs the qualification 
- 
Mar jhall’s Glouceflerfbire Dialect correcicd, 
(June x, 
with which Mendelfohn -had praifed the 
character of Jefus Chrift. ‘* The expref- 
fion of your efteemn for the Founder of my 
religionwas aflertedwith the following great 
qualification :——‘If he had not arrogated 
to himfelf the worfhip which is due to Jeho- 
vah alone.*’ His Letter is full of ftrong ex- 
preffion of veneration for Mendelfohn, of 
aftonifhment that he fhould be a Jew, of 
his zeal for Chriftianity, and of his wifh . 
that his friend would exainine the hiftori- 
cal facts only on which Chriftianity is | 
grounded. Mendelfohn anfwered this Let- 
ter, afferting the fame fentiments, and 
breathing the fame mild {pirit: he corre&ts 
the contemptuous opinion he had expreffed - 
of Bonnet ; and, without entering into the 
argument at large, contents himfelf with 
urging one point :—On the fubjeét of mi- 
racles, he fays, that thofe of Jefus Chrift 
may be allowed, and yet he may in the 
eyes of Jews be a falle Chrift. Accord- 
ing to the Jewifh faith, no partial evidence 
or miracle, nothing fhort of a ‘ public 
legiflation,’’a manifefiation of the Deity be- 
fore the whole affembled nation, is adequate 
evidence of the true Chrift. 
ne ee — 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
“SIR, 
\ONCEIVING that I have it in my 
power to correct fome miftakes in a 
detervedly popular work, I have tranfmit- 
ted you the following obfervations for that 
purpole. Mr. Marthail, in the 1ft volume ~ 
of his ** Rural Economy of Gloucefter- 
fhire,”’ has introduced fome remarks, on 
the dialect of the inhabitants of that 
county; and alfo a lift of provincialifms, 
containing fuch words only as have a re- 
ference to hufbandry. Mr. Marthall in- 
troduces his remarks by obferving, that he 
shad lefs converfation with mere proyinci- 
alifts in Gioucefterfhire, than in any other 
diftriét he had refided in. This may be 
confidered as an apology for the miftakes 
which he has committed, and which f 
fnall now proceed to notice, and to correét. 
In p. 324 of the 1ff volume of the work 
above-mentioned, we are told, that *‘ an 
extra pronoun is here (72 Glouceflershire) 
in ufe:—ov, a pronoun of the fingular 
number ;—analogous with the plural they; 
—being applied either in a masculine, a 
feminine, or a neuter fenfe. Thus, oz 
wull, exprefles either Ze will, /he will, or 
it will.” The force of the Gloucefterfhire- 
pronoun is accurately ftated by Mr. Mar- 
fhall; but, in bis attempt to defignate the 
pronunciation of it, he has been totally 
unluc. 
