ever recorded. Monboddo, Hume, and a host of inferior imitators have attempted to speculate upon the philosophy of human history, but they have all proved themselves not more at variance with the decisive and general testimonies of revelation than with the admitted facts of human nature and profane history. They refused to steer their course by these ascertained soundings and bearings, and the result was, they were either lost in an ocean of perplexity, or made a blind voyage round the misty island of their own theory, and then gave themselves out as circumnavigators of the globe. The Germans have subsequently indulged their moody genius in endless speculations upon various departments of this vast subject, and in some general theories, both historical and prophetic; but like most of the speculations of the infidel philosophers of France and England, who had preceded them, their theories have been as full of dreams as void of truth, and as repugnant to an enlarged induction of facts as to the testimonies and prophecies of revelation.

Mr. Douglas is a philosopher of a different school, and under the guidance of a heavenly star he has performed a voyage of greater extent, of more accuracy, and of infinitely greater promise than any or all his prede predecessors. The title of the volume contains no adequate idea of the extent and variety of the matter, nor of the difficulty and complexity of the subjects discussed. It is an outline of the intellectual history of the human race, containing a delineation of all the principal eras of social advancement, and a display of those present circumstances which appear pregnant with promise and hope, in reference to the moral and religious advancement of the whole race.

In describing a treatise of so complicated a character, it is much more easy to present an analysis, than to afford an adequate view of

the research which every page exhibits, and of the ability with which the whole is executed. We cannot express the admiration we feel of the general design and plan of the author. The principles which he has adopted, and the lights which he follows, command our highest veneration; and if, in the subordinate parts, we find the execution not minutely accurate, or the fillingsup not so perfect and well executed as the more general sketch, it is neither to be wondered at nor severely censured. There is room in so vast a subject for considerable diversity of opinion, and it was hardly to be expected that the same hand which drew the masterly outline, should execute all the drapery, colouring, and detail with equal ability; or that the first describer of the theory of the whole orb should succeed equally in the interior delineations of every country and every coast, or in the history and description of every tribe.

The work consists of five parts, or distinct treatises, each adequately subdivided. The First traces the past advancement of society from the earliest condition of mankind down to their modern state. The Second is denominated the Future. The Third treats of the Advancement of Religion at Home, which includes a view of those hopeful agencies which are now at work, and which the author conceives will continue progressively to advance religion at home. The Fourth is devoted to the Advancement of Religion abroad; and the Fifth to the Tendency of Age.

The first of these lectures will, it is obvious, require the largest share of information, discrimination, and acuteness, to execute well. And, at the same time, it would be by far the most interesting and instructive part of the discussion, supposing it adequately treated. That the hand of a master is visible in every part of this section, we are persuaded all our readers will admit, when we

shall have submitted some passages to their attention; at the same time we must premise, that, in such a work, the separation of a passage from its connexion, subjects it to great disadvantages-the previous views and reasonings being often essential to support, or render intelligible, the succeeding. We shall, however, endeavour to guard, as much as possible, against this evil. After some introductory paragraphs, he treats, first, of the early Condition of Mankind; then of the first Monarchies; then of the Grecian Republics. The following

citation contains the author's views of the early condition of mankind.

"The Mosaic records secure us from an error into which philosophers, who trust more to their own conjectures than to the Bible, have generally fallen. It is requisite for clearness and precision to reduce every thing to its simplest elements, and from its least modified state, to enumerate the changes it undergoes, and the additions it receives; but what is allowable in a work of which the sole aim

is simplicity, may be very erroneous when considered as matter of fact; and though,

in a treatise which accommodates itself to

an arbitrary method, and not to the truth of events, mankind may be represented as passing from the occupation of hunters to that of shepherds, and then from pasturage to tillage, and a life in cities, yet, the error is great, if we mistake the process of our own minds for progress of the human race, and imagine that men must first have existed as savages, because the savage state stands at the head of our own artificial system.

"And yet this misapprehension is the sole support of a theory which is alike refuted by the evidence of revelation, and by the situation of the ancient world; from the sea of China to the German Ocean, tribes, too rude to have tamed the wild animals for their own use, were in possession of domestic cattle, and beyond the bounds of civilization the pastoral state alike prevailed in Asia, Africa, and Europe. The only exceptions strengthen the general rule: some hunters, scattered over ranges of mountains; some fishers, amid wide intersecting lakes, or some tribes deprived of their cattle by the severity of the climate towards the Icy Sea. In this respect, the New World is contrasted with the Old, and ir. this very contrast affords an additional proof that the pastoral state has preceded the savage,

since its savage inhabitants, with the strong marks of their Scythian descent, will be generally allowed to have sprung from a race in possession of numerous herds, and the only assignable cause of

the difference between the hunters of

America and their pastoral ancestors of Upper Asia, is the intervening sea, with

the want of barks of sufficient burden to transport their cattle.

"The appearances of society, over both the old and the new continent, exactly tally with the effects which must kind, as described by Moses; a dispersion have resulted from the dispersion of man

which took place after a common sojourn, for a length of years, in a country favourable for the increase of their flocks; and after having had long access to the arts and knowledge of a still earlier race by the long lives of the Patriarchs, who formed a link between the Antediluvians and Postdiluvian World. The light which spread over the earth, may be traced to the plains of Babylon as its centre, and the barbarism and the depression of the different tribes of men is shaded more deeply, according to their distance from the parent seats of mankind, and the difficulties of their journey.

"It is from this one fount of emanation that the first vestiges of thought and improvement are derived, which are common to all nations and languages; and which have been assigned, even by infidel philosophers, to one primitive race, the stock whence the many families of the earth have sprung; who have left behind them resemblances and affinities in the remotest languages, and recollections, however disguised by fable and mythology, which refer to a period when all the earth had one common history and interest.

"Thus the time which elapsed between the deluge and the dispersion of mankind, must be looked upon as the first period of civilization. No doubt owing to the early invention of arts among the descendants of Cain, and the long life of the antediluvians, so favourable to the cultivation of science, great advances would be made, and commanding heights of knowledge, would be reached, by men, who could not complain, like Theophrastus, that nature had denied them that length of days for cultivating their reason, which she bestowed upon many irrational animals; but it is not by the mass of knowledge that existed before the deluge, but by the remnants that were preserved in the ark, that after times have been affected and benefited. To form some conception of the change which ancient science would undergo in the hands of the postdiluvians, we may imagine what

would be the fate of a varied and copious language, which, after abounding in works of every character, came to exist only in the speech of a few individuals; how the additions by which it had been enriched would fall into disuse, and the language itself would return to its first rudiments and primitive simplicity, while the derivatives would occasionally remain, and the roots from which they had sprung be forgotten; the same would it fare with science, reduced to the same circumstances, the higher and more speculative parts would be forgotten, the application might be retained without the principle, and the elements might rest behind as witnesses of the perfection to which knowledge had been brought, and of the advanced state of the sciences from which they had been separated.

"Possessed of the relics of ancient language and of ancient knowledge, a new population rapidly multiplied in the land where nature planted the olive and Noah the vine, and wandered, with their increasing flocks, beneath that serene sky where the stars were first classed into constellations, without fixed habitation in the country of their transient pilgrimage, previous to their spreading anew the tide of life over the dispeopled earth, and rearing in the wilderness once more the dwellings of men.

"It is this period of universal intercommunity which has given an indissoluble bond of connexion to the far scattered family of man, and irresistibly carries back whatever holds of high antiquity to the common origin of the species. Among the remotest races, dissevered by vast ages, and unnavigated oceans, fragments of language, tradition, and opinion are found, which piece in together, and when united with every remnant, from every distant region, almost recompose that body of transmitted recollections, which, surviving an earlier civilization, and an almost universal catastrophe, was separated and dispersed over the earth, by the separation and dispersion of mankind."pp. 10-15.

Of the general accuracy of these observations there can remain little doubt, though some notice might properly have been taken of other opposing accounts of the early condition of mankind, and something more formidable might have been alleged against the speculations of infidels. But we are indisposed to point out defects amidst so much that is excellent. After treating of the first monarchies he approaches the Grecian and Roman VOL. IV. Ch. Adv.

eras, and here, as we expected, the author is both more copious and more eloquent, though, at the same time, from the very nature of his subject, he is more open to objection. It is no easy task to give our readers a fair specimen of the manner in which the author has execu

ted this part of his undertaking, but we shall select a paragraph or two. as a specimen of the whole.

"An influence, highly favourable to the Grecian States, consisted in their internationality. Greece, indented and mountainous, was severed into many states, but all peopled by one primitive race, speaking the same primitive language. In its many states advancing together in the career of civilization, it resembled modern Europe; but the intercommunion between them was far more intimate and effectual, from their lying within a smaller compass; and from their speaking the same language; yet not merely one language, but rather many dialects, which had each its peculiar excellence, and left untouched the originality of the rest. A faint example of the advantage of this may be found in the Scotch verses of Burns, which had all the freshness of youth when the contemporary English writings bore strong marks of the decay of age. This variety of dialects not only gave a freshness and originality to the poetry of the different states of Greece, but allowed the riches of all to be transfused into each without the strangeness of thoughts, which, when translated, are seldom more than half naturalized, and exempt from the loss which a difference of idiom inevitably occasions. From these multiplied sources of abundance arose the copiousness of Grecian genius and literature; and hence proceeded many of the advantages which Homer possessed over other poets. The seeds of poetry are the events of dark ages, increased by tradition, and expanding with the growing imagination of men, who are passing from obscurity into light. These traditions, after receiving the colour of the popular fancy, in their second stage, are moulded by the imagination of the earliest and of ten forgotten bards; and after this comes of a great genius, who has every thing the season favourable for the appearance prepared for his advent in the workings of the popular mind, and in the efforts of his ruder predecessors; and who, by giving to the materials already existing their them for ever, and perpetuates their glory third and finished form, appropriates and his own. Such was Homer, who, like his own Ulysses surveying many men 2 M

and many cities, was enabled to collect the popular poetry of his country-poetry more varied from the moral situation of Greece than ever existed before or after, and filled the inexhausted stream of his inspiration from a hundred springs. It is not wonderful that works which were enriched from such various sources, should in their turn be a fresh source of endless variety, and that the diversified forms of poetry should be traced to Homer, as all the prismatic colours are refracted from the light of the sun."-pp. 32-34.

Beautiful and eloquent as is the principal part of this extract, the illustration of the peculiar excellence of the Grecian dialects from the Scotch verses of Burns, is one of the

least appropriate, and most objectionable parallels the author could have found. For neither is it true that Burns's verse bad, on account of the Scottish dialect, the freshness of youth-nor did the contemporary English writings bear the strong marks of the decay of age. The charm of Burns's muse to Scotchmen was rather the revival of a dying dialect, and to Englishmen his dialect had no charm, either as a youthful or an aged one; since it youthful or an aged one; since it was utterly unintelligible without the aid of a translation, and interested partly on the ground of the novelty of such barbarisms, shaped and pared into harmonious verse, and, partly, because such novelties were connected with a genius altogether enchanting and rare. The dialect in which his muse sang, instead of having the freshness of youth, and charming all readers, when the contempory English writers bore strong marks of the decay of age, was the temporary revival of an uncouth phraseology, and an artificial resurrection of antiquated idioms, which, even to Scotchmen, were not half intelligible; which no genius but that of Burns would have attempted to revive, and which no one, since his day, has dreamt of renovating-though they will live

After a careful perusal of this sermon, we determined not only to give an analysis of it, but to extract from it largely. The want of space in our present number, forbids us to execute our purpose-Our notice of The text of the discourse is Ephes. it must be very short and summaryii. 18. "For through him we both Father." From these words, after have access by one Spirit unto the a pertinent introduction, the preacher proposes to show-"I. What the doctrine of the Trinity is. II. The proof of it. III. The practical importance of it." These particulars are severally treated, in a brief, clear and masterly manner. We cannot say that any new views of the subject are unfolded, or that any new proofs of the all-important doctrine of the Trinity are adduced-This indeed was not to be expected. But we do say, that never before have we seen right views of the subject, and a clear and impressive statement of the old proofs, brought within the same compass. Nor has this been effected by a dry and unconnected statement of facts and positions. The discourse is altogether an interesting one. We earnestly recommend its perusal to our readers; and take the liberty to suggest that a cheap edition, in the form of a tract, should be published and widely distributed.

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Temple of Diana.—The temple of Diana at Ephesus, after having risen with increasing splendour from seven repeated misfortunes, was finally burnt by the Goths in their third naval invasion. The arts of Greece, and the wealth of Asia, had conspired to erect that magnificent structure. It was supported by an hun dred and twenty-seven marble columns of the Ionic order. They were the gifts of devout monarchs, and each was sixty feet high. The altar was adorned with the masterly sculptures of Praxiteles, who had, perhaps, selected from the favour ite legends of the place, the birth of the children of Latona, the concealment of Apollo after the slaughter of the Cyclops, and the clemency of Bacchus to the van. quished Amazons. Yet the length of the temple of Ephesus was only four hundred and twenty-five feet, about two-thirds of

the measure of the church of St. Peter's

at Rome. In the other dimensions, it was still more inferior to that sublime production of modern architecture.

In Westminster, (London) the aggregate number of suicides, from the year 1812 to 1816, inclusive, was one hundred and twenty-nine, being an annual average of 25 4-5ths; and, from the year 1816 to 1824 inclusive, one hundred and twentynine, making an average of 20 1-8th a year. The number of men who commit ted suicide exceeded that of the other sex in the proportion of five to two; and the disposition of juries to assume insanity as the cause of self-destruction, is strikingly illustrated by the circumstance that, out

of the whole number of suicides above

mentioned, there are only five cases in which a verdict of felo de se was returned.

Arctic Expedition.-The New York Albion states, that despatches were on Thursday last received in New York from captain Franklin, by way of Canada, and forwarded to England. It is not known what are the contents of the despatches, or where they were written, but it is supposed that they were forwarded from the shore of the Great Bear Lake, in 65° N. 129° W. where captain Franklin was expected to take up his winter quarters. The last previous accounts from him were dated on the Asthabasco Lake, on the 25th of July last, when it was his intention to leave the Great Bear Lake in the spring of 1826, for Mackenzie's River, and the Polar Sea.

The celebrated Orientalist, Professor Vater, died at Halle, on the 16th of March.

Among his esteemed works are the continuation of Adelung's Mithridates, a He brew Grammar, a Russian Grammar, Ta ble's Ecclesiastical History, &c.

In July last, the Pollux, Dutch sloop of war, captain Eeg, discovered a new and well peopled island in the Pacific, to which the name of Nederlandich Island was given. Its latitude and longitude laid down at 7° 10 S. and 177° 33′ 16′′ E. from Greenwich. The natives were athle tick and fierce, great thieves, and from showing no symptoms of fear when mus kets were discharged, evidently unac quainted with fire-arms.

Preservation of Lemon or Lime Juice.Lemon or lime juice, according to the experiments of Capt Bagnold, may be preserved without the addition of rum, spirit, or any other substance, by the process, well known and practised, for the preserving of green gooseberries and other fruits for domestic purposes. Lime juice was expressed from the fruit in Jainto quart bottles and carefully corked; maica, in September 1823, strained, put these being put into a pan of cold water, were gradually raised to the boiling point; they were retained at that point for half bottle opened in April 1824, was found an hour, and then allowed to cool. A to contain the juice in the state of a whitish turbid liquor, with the acidity and much of the flavour of the lime, nor did it appear to have undergone any altera tion. The same juice again bottled and heated, was set aside till March 1825,

when, upon examination, it was found in good condition, retaining much of the flavour of the recent juice.-Trans. of Soc. Arts.

.

Alabama Salt.-It is stated in a late Mobile paper, that the "Alabama Salt Manufacturing Company" have com menced the manufacture of this important staple commodity. The works of this company were nearly completed, and, it was supposed, would answer the most sanguine expectations of the individuals in terested. The Alabama salt is white and beautiful, and holds a middle quality between the Liverpool blown and ground salt. Sufficient quantities have been al ready manufactured to test fully the experiment, and no doubt is entertained but that the enterprise of the company will be crowned with success, and that they will be able to supply the whole State with this article, at a reasonable price.

Interesting to Farmers.—We have seen