The National Register.
London, England, 1814-02-20 00:00:00

SUBSTITUTES FOR SERMONS !

R,
STRICIURES OCCASIONED BY HENRY AND
NATI—DA HAWKINS'S SERMONETS.
The shelve. are full; all other themes are aprd,
Thekney'd and worn to the lh•t flimsy thread !
Satire has long since done his best ; need curst
And loathsome ribaldry, has done his wars.;
Fancy has sported all he, powers away
In tales, in tr!tle., and :rive ch"•srett's platy ;
And 'tis the sad complaint, a ti a cost glue.
Whate'er we write, we btinv fart ui.thiug new.--Covrritt.

LLTITIA-

These are, notwithstanding, new times. Every day, nay
luoir, is productive of something out of the accustomed
track ; and, whether the milleeium of the ancient order of
things be or be not approaching, some time seems lilely to
elapse, at any rate, before we shall feel ourselves quite re-
conciled to that sobriety of thinking and sedateness of con-
dui t which formerly characterised us as a people, and dis
tiuguished us, in fact, above all the nations. Times have
changed ; and, according to the aphorism of antiquity, we
have chaoged with them.
Amo. gst the novelties of late years, considered as improve-
ments or rcfmcm-nts, it not possible to ove,look those
which are immediately connected with the condition of re-
ligion. Of these, indeed, the pious author of ' The Task'
arpear, to hase been no indifferent spectator, as numerous,
passages in his writings convince us, and more especially as
they affected the ecclesiastical establishment of his native
land. Cowper was thus foremost to stigmatise the pitiful
practice of taking up with purchased sermons, to which
clergymeu had resorted ; by pointing out, most intelligibly
too, the quarter whence they derived their products. while
his verse described, in terms of merited reprobation, the in-
dividual who was at once recognized as
• grunt currier 111141 dry ottr‘r of the church I'
Let it not hastily be inferred, however,•from the preced-
leg train of thought, that the fraternal and sisterly compo-
sitions of Ilenry and I mtitia-Matilda Hawkins, modestly en-
titled Sernomets,' fall sunder the -p eculiari censure which
was so prooerly applied to him who. formerly vaunted him-
self on beirig the dry-noise of our church, but whose glory,
as to this office, was his shame. Very different is the de-
sign of the present volume. It is n'ot for preachers, but for
beareis, and bearers of a certain cast, that this lady and gen
tleman have excited their combined powers, and now adven-
ture to commit the results of their co-operation to the in-
spection of the world. These Se.menir Scraps are, then,
conformably with their title-page, • addressed to Those who
Nave Not yet acquired, or Who may Have Lost, the Inchna•
tion to Apply the Power of Attention to Compositions of a
nigher Kind' Something might, prisiblv, be done for the
- iist class ; but, what can be expected of the latter? What
desperate readers must such hopeless hewers prove !
Sermooet," observe the brother and sister, " is a word
not only not naturalised, but never yet iutrw!nced into our
language." Words, though new, are not on this ace aunt
to be invariably deemed inadmissible ; so that its title does
not form the principal objection to this wot k. The authors
themselves have, indeed, not unskilfully vindicated their
choice, on the considerations of " fitness to their per-
formances—novelty, which may attract attention—and an
agreeable association of ideas with diminutives, recognised
by such as are conversaut with the languages of foreign na-
tions." This agreable association of ideas with expressive
diminutives is as naturally recognised by our mother tongue,
although we are not so accustomed to carry them, whether
• in speaking or writing, iato Qur awe goneral intercoutle.