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understanding Locke used sometimes to denote one faculty, but more frequently all the faculties by which we have knoweldge, whether it be of history, of the fine arts, or of philosophy. History and the fine arts were so far from being excluded by him that he would have included the last under the general head of actions, or things done, and the first under the head of signs; for history consists in the signs of things performed. At any rate, we can think of history and the fine arts, and they might, therefore, with every other science and object of contemplation be arranged among his thing's knowable. This, by the way, exhibits something of the imperfection of Locke's 'Division of the Sciences,' while it proves against the critic of Scotland, that Bacon and Locke DID attempt different distributions of the same subject.'

We were gratified with the confession of this same critic, contained in the same review of Stewart's Introduction, p. 196. that 'the very defective nomenclature, and imperfect subdivision of the moral and political sciences is attended with practical inconveniences.' The same inconveniences in a great measure have been experienced, in relation to the sciences in general. We agree, too, 'that the very general divisions'—are much less useful subjects of consideration than the subdivisions. The number and exactness of these last, in the physical sciences, must be regarded both as an indication and as a cause of their great advances in modern times.' Ed. Review, p. 195. But how could there be any subdivisions, without some previous divisions? And why might not universal * science gain as much from an accurate nomenclature and classification of its constituent parts, as any one particular branch of that universal science? Why would you, having written very well on the subject, proceed to contradict yourself, in a subsequent page (229), by assuring us, that Descartes made an attempt to give a new system of all the sciences; an attempt excusable only when lectures were the only means of instruction, and when one professor might have been obliged to conduct his pupil through the whole circle of education?' Why should you affirm it to be impracticable' to frame a sytematic arrangement of the sciences? It is well, then, for one professor to have before him a plan of the whole instruction which he is to communicate, if he must teach all the sciences: but if those sciences are to be partitioned among different professors, the division should not be made, nor the parts allotted, from any comprehensive and systematic view of the whole! How, then, should the distribution be made to the professors? Shall each take what part he pleases; two occupy one department; and all leave some portions wholly neglected? What renders it impracticable to reduce to system and natural order all the parts of human knowledge? By a system of universal science, no one intends all which man may in future ages know, or which the Supreme Being now comprehends; but simply all the knowledge which the children of men now have, which may be written down, and arranged in some order, so as to be presented to our companions and posterity.

To reduce what man now knows to a natural system is not impracticable. This Bacon has proved by his partial success: this Woodward has proved; and if we have not improved upon Woodward's system, which is generally admitted by those who have examined our pages, we nevertheless quote as our maxim,

'Possunt, quia posse videntur.'

Should our plan be acted upon, in the erection of professorships in our colleges, and the different parts of human learning be divided according to the number of teachers employed, the general complaint of interference and disorder in the work of instruction would cease; and each person, as in the suitable distribution of mechanical employments, would improve his own art, and become more thoroughly master of his own department of science.

It would assist even our fraternity, called the reviewers, for when we have a list of new publications to give, we frame a system of science for the occasion; but it is an alphabetical one; and so we have for No. LIII, of the Edinburgh Review, Agriculture, Antiquity, Biography, Botany, Classics, Chymistry, Drama, Fine Arts, Education, History, Geography, Horticulture, Law, Medicine, Surgery, Anatomy,† Miscellaneous, Natural History, Natural Philosophy, Novels, Romances,† Poetry, Politics, Political Economy, Philology, Topography, Theology, Veterinary Art, Voyages, and Travels.'t

To those readers who are governed by authority, rather than by their own judgment, we would adduce the opinion of our author, who, having stated some of the defects of Bacon's system, asks, Are we, therefore, to conclude, that the magnificent design, conceived by Bacon, of enumerating, defining, and classifying the multifarious objects of human knowledge (a design, on the successful accomplishment of which he himself believed that the advancement of the sciences essentially depended)? Are we to conclude, that this design was nothing more than the abortive offspring of a warm imagination, unsusceptible of any useful application to enlighten the mind, or to accelerate its progress? My own idea is widely different. The design was, in every respect, worthy of the sublime genius by which it was formed. Nor does it follow, because the execution was imperfect, that the attempt has been attenden with no advantage.' Dissert. p. 19.

The Edinburgh Reviewer asserts, and in this we agree with him, that Mr. Stewart has in fact attempted a classification, even after modestly saying that he was unequal to the work. He did it, because he could not fix upon the number and the order of his dissertations and chapters, without doing it. The plan of Mr. Stewart (which he does not offer indeed as any general classification), is to class together all the sciences which regard mind, and to form a

* Here the editor committed an alphabetical anachronism, in his very natural and scientific partition!

† Here he wisely prefers the order of natural affinity to that of the alphabet.

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distinct class of those which relate to matter. This, however, evidently blends physical with moral inquiries.' If he did not offer this as a general classification, he nevertheless acted upon it, as if he thought it an arrangement of all the objects of knowledge. There are at least three principles' (says the same review, p. 194), 'on which such an arrangement may be attempted; by attending chiefly either, 1. to the faculty to which each object of the human mind most eminently relates, which is that chosen by Bacon, but not confined by him to science; or, 2. to the manner in which human reason considers each of its objects, which is that chosen by Mr. Locke, but limited to science; or, 3. to the connexion subsisting between the things known themselves, which is that chosen for the purpose of this (Stewart's) discourse, and, like that of Mr. Locke, confined to science.' Ed. Review, p. 194, for Sept. 1816. A better method than either of these, is one, in which respect is had sometimes to the faculties of the mind, sometimes to our manner of understanding them, and sometimes to the objects of knowledge; nor can any good classification be made without a due regard to each method pointed out in the review.

The preface to the Dissertation might have been entitled, ‹ A history of different classifications of science." The subsequent parts of the book are employed in giving the author's philosophi cal strictures upon Luther, Calvin, Bacon, Machiaevel, Malebranche, Descartes, Locke, D'Alembert, and a few other distinguished writers: and is rather a volume of criticism, than a history of the progress of metaphysical, ethical, and political science.

We shall expect the subsequent dissertations, which are promised, with pleasure; we shall expect to find in them the history of the progress of the human mind; and in the mean time we wish our readers to know, that Stewart has very little originality, has made very few new discoveries in the philosophy of the human mind; is indebted to Dr. Reid, his predecessor, for a system which is generally sound; is more splendid, but less argumentative, than his preceptor; and very justly reverences the talents of his metaphysical father so much as to think it a distinguished honour to be able to improve upon him, or to detect him in an error. Reid subdued the rugged country, banished most of the tares, sowed good seed, and Stewart has entered into another man's labours, to enjoy an abundant harvest. It is not the lot, however, of every great man to be a Newton in physics, or a Reid in metaphysics. Stewart ought to be read, and will be read, by every genuine son of science.

ART. III.-Memoirs of the Life of Anthony Benezet: By Roberts Vaux. Philadelphia: published by James P. Parke. 1817 p. 136,

12mo.

FE

EW schoolmasters have ever been honoured by the publication of a biographical volume for the preservation of their memory. Yet schoolmasters are some of the most useful of mankind; and

were they estimated according to their real importance, would certainly occupy a place in society more exalted than they now do.

Anthony Benezet was a schoolmaster, respected, beloved, and useful, for the greater part of half a century. This is more to his reputation than his having descended from a French family of Huguenots, which of itself is a high recommendation to all protestants. But he was more than a teacher of children: he was a respectable author, and a correspondent with crowned heads. Some might call his conduct in writing to distinguished foreigners, to Charlotte, queen of Great Britain,' and Frederic of Prussia, presumption; but he was an independent, and as he himself said, little ugly man, that deemed every human being nothing more, and nothing less, than his brother or sister; therefore, he wrote with freedom, when he thought it might subserve the interests of humanity; compelled attention, and uniformly secured respect. Besides a few school-books, the subjects which employed his pen were, An account of that part of Africa inhabited by the Negroes;' A Caution and Warning to Great Britain and her Colonies, on the Calamitous State of the Enslaved Negroes; An Historical Account of Guinea, &c. with an Inquiry into the Rise and Progress of the Slave Trade;' Thoughts on the Nature of War; Serious Reflections on the Times;'—' A Short Account of the Religious Society of Friends;'-and The Plainness and Innocent Simplicity of the Christian Religion."

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One of his correspondents, Governor Livingston, of New-Jersey, wrote him that 'the piece on slave keeping is excellent, but the arguments against the lawfulness of war have been answered a thousand times.' p. 42. The father of Benezet was something more of a fighting man than his son, for when Anthony was an infant, persecution on account of religious opinions, made the former judge it necessary to withdraw from his native country.

To accomplish this purpose, he secured the services of a young man, upon whose attachment he could rely, to accompany him beyond one of the military outposts, which then skirted the frontier of France. Nothing occurred to interrupt their progress, until they approached the centinel; when their adventurous friend presenting himself before him, displaying in one hand an instrument of death, and tendering with the other a purse of money, said "take your choice, this is a worthy family, flying from persecution, and they shall pass:" the guard accepted the gold, and their escape was safely accomplished.'

Mr. Vaux remarks upon this transaction, that so great an exigency probably reconciled to the mind of this suffering individual, the method he adopted to effect it, though it offered the bold alternative, which was to sacrifice either the life or the fidelity of the servant of the crown.' p. 3. Now our opinion is, that no man is bound to be faithful to a monarch in his work of persecution, but should renounce his allegiance; and the soldier took the money for permitting that which he ought to have permitted without price. Had not the soldier permitted them to pass, even without any pecuniary consideration, he would have joined the king in unlawfully aiming a blow at a guiltless life, and the Huguenot would have been

justifiable in defending his own life at the expense of that of the assailant.

The public however, should not forget that Mr. Vaux is a very respectable and conscientious quaker: and we hope he may never have his life invaded, lest he should put off, to his subsequent regret, his dun coloured coat, in the hour of temptation.

The peculiar characteristic of Anthony Benezet was readiness and perseverance in benevolent exertions. This was displayed in his taking off his coat in the street and giving it to an almost naked mendicant, so that he went home in his shirt sleeves for another garment;' p. 128; but much more unequivocally in his gratuitously teaching people of colour; in his donations to the needy; in the dovotion of much time to benevolent institutions; and particularly, in being a father to the neutrals. Of these people we shall extract a long account, because it is interesting, and will present both Benezet and his biographer in a very just and favourable point of light.

In the midst of these various and important avocations, a call was made upon his active benevolence from a quarter, and of a nature the most novel and unexpected. But ever prepared to dispense good, he obeyed the summons with promptitude and cheerfulness. It was a duty no less formidable than that of extending protection and care to a considerable part of a colony of people, whose condition was deplorably wretched, and wholly friendless. Previously to giving an account of his unremitted attentions to these unhappy exiles, it may be proper to furnish a brief notice of their history and character, and of the most extraordinary and unjustifiable measures which terminated in their banishment. These helpless strangers were a portion of the descendants of those French inhabitants of Nova Scotia, who after the treaty of Utrecht in 1713, by which the province was ceded to England, were permitted to hold their lands, on condition of making a declaration of allegiance to their new sovereign, which acknowledgment of fidelity was given under an express stipulation that they and their posterity should not be required to bear arms, either against their Indian neighbours or transatlantic countrymen. This contract was at several subsequent periods, revived, and renewed to their children; and such was the notoriety of the compact, that for half a century they bore the name, and with some few exceptions maintained the character of neutrals. They were a people remarkable for their piety and mildness of disposition; were frugal and industrious; strongly attached to the French monarch, and unalterably devoted to the Catholic religion.

During the war of 1755, some of the young neutrals were detected in conveying intelligence to the Indian and French forces, then acting against the province. This defection greatly incensed the British com-, mander, and produced a determination to punish the whole fraternity by the confiscation of their property, and the banishment of their persons to different places along the sea coast, from Massachusetts bay to South Carolina. When the period had arrived for carrying this cruel purpose into execution, an order was issued requiring the neutrals to assemble at the different ports, under the specious pretext of then having communicated to them some important, and valuable information. The un

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