532 : 
of L. Asinius Pollio, and C. Antistius 
“Verus, and bad not completed his 57th 
year at his death. aa 
His life, as we have seen, was divided 
‘between action and contemplation. His 
thirst after knowledge was insatiable, 
and his industry in gratifying it indefati- 
gabie. He had a speculative turn of 
mind ; and he appears to have been an 
open, candid, honest man, devoid of 
suspicion as to the purity of the motives 
by which others were actuated; unex- 
ceptionable in his moral character; and 
regulating his life and conversation ac- 
cording to the precepts of phiosophy. 
He indeed seems froin his writings to 
have eitertained too good an opinion of 
the integrity of mankind, and to have 
been rather too credulods in believing 
all men as sincere and ingenuous as hime 
self. He has indeed been charged with 
scepticism respecting the existence of the 
Supreme Being, and the agency of his 
superintending providence; and 1t must 
be confessed that his conceptions on 
these most ‘interesting of ali subjects, 
and the language in which he expresses 
them, are frequently obscure, and suffi- 
ciently betray the uncertainty and igno- 
rance under which the most enlightened 
philosophers of antiquity laboured, with 
Scarce Tracis, Kes 
[Jans 4, 
regard to the existence, the nature, and 
the attributes, of the Divinity—mnay, that 
his expressions would almost seem to - 
“authorize the conclusion, that he did not 
acknowledge God as the author of all 
the various wonders tu which he ‘so 
powerfully and so elequently solicits the 
reader’s attention in his Natural History, 
In my more extended biographical me- 
moir of this author, to be prefixed to tire 
first volume of the Translation of his 
History, I shail examine this imost ses 
rious charge; and I think I shall be able 
to vindicate this profound observer of 
Nature from the odious imputation of 
atheism; but having already extended 
these strictures beyond their legitimate 
bounds, I must here content myself with 
remarking, what indeed will be disputed 
by no candid, impartial, and: attentive 
reader of the Natural History, that how- 
ever exceptionable some of firs Opmiohs 
respecting the original furmation and the 
government of the oniverse may be, be 
recognizes and acknowledges, in the most 
emphatic language, that the ‘most prég. 
nantand incontrovertible proofs of Be- 
nevolent design abound throughout the 
whole systein. 
Edinburgh, Sept. 1810. 
SCARCE TRACTS, WITH EXTRACTS AND: ANALYSES. OF. 
| SCARCE BOOKS. sa 
Ft is proposed in future te devote a few Pages of the Monthly Magazine to the 
Insertzon of such Scarce Lracts as are of an interesting Nature, with the Use 
of which we may be favoured by eur Correspondents; und under the same Head’ te 
introduce also the Analyses of Scarce und Curious Bovis. or 
SS ‘ 
4 breefe Discourse concerning ~the 
Force und Eyfect of dfi-Manuall Wea- 
pors of Fire; and the disability of the 
Long Bowe or Archery, im respect of 
others of greater Foree now in use: 
with sundry probuble Reasons jor the 
verritying thereof, the which f hace 
dovne of duty towards my Soueraigne 
end Country, avd for the better sutis- 
faction of all such as are doubifull of 
ihe same. Written by Hunfrey Bar- 
wick, Gentleman, Souldier, Captaine 
ef encer plus oultre. At Loudon. 
Printed for Richard Olliffe.” | 4to. 
HIS curious treatise 1s dedicated to 
Henry Carey, Baron Hunsdon, and 
- appears to have had its rise in the pub- 
lication of two other tracts on Military 
Discipline, by Sir John Smith, and Sir 
Roger Williams, the former more paru- 
eulaily encourating the practice of ar- 
chery. The author says*he became a 
soldier at-the age of-eighteen, in the 
second year of King Edward the Sixth. 
The treatise conssts of eighteen’ short 
discourses. The following isthe eighth: 
“HE &. DISCOURSE. me 
“Let us consider iustiie of SirJobn 
Smithes words: although he dooth give — 
the long-bowe manie great and excellent 
commendations, yet when hee commeth _ 
to account of the full force thereof, ‘he — 
saieth, that it dooth* most wonderfully 
with the noyse thereof terrefie the enemy, 
and so foorth: and also dooth confesse 
that it dooth but sometime kill. "I refer. 
that point to all good souldiers iudge- 
ment: there is none worthy to be a sol- 
dier, that dooth not thinke to be a cap- 
taine in time, by- his valour, knowledge, 
and good behaviour: and what is he that 
is of that minde, or that-doth feare any 
woundes, 
