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possess strong powers of body and mind, too strong to be retained in the course opposite to their nature by existing human contrivances, and they therefore break through them. The time cannot be far distant, when the terms bad and good, relative to man, will have very different signification. The term bad will convey the idea, only that the individuals to whom it is applied, have been most unjustly and ignorantly treated by the society in which they have been trained.'

14. In the mystical language of Scripture, "the spirit appears to war against the flesh;" whereas the simple fact is, that the institutions of society have been formed through ignorance, to oppose one part of human nature to another, when no such opposition ought to have been thought of. The time is approaching, wherein the existing errors will be made evident to the public, and when, in consequence, all past and present characters will be considered a variety of inferior character only. That which is now called a medium, will be known to be a character very inferior to all, and will be made in future from the same average organization.

15. A superior human being, or any one approaching a character deserving the name of rational, has not yet been known among mankind. A man intelligent and consistent in his feelings, thoughts, and actions, does not now exist in even the most civilized parts of the world.

16. Men will know assuredly, and without a shadow of doubt, that truth is nature, and nature God, and God is truth, and truth is God, as so generally expressed by the Mahomedans.

17. When men shall be made wise by acquiring an accurate knowledge of the facts and laws of their nature, and can pursue a lengthened rational train of reasoning founded on them, no one will shrink from, nor be ashamed of the discoveries which nature will then unfold. It will be known to all, that our individual physical feelings, and mental convictions or sensations, are instincts of our nature; all will therefore express them as such. Nature will be justified; men's false shame of disclosing the truth will be removed, as each human being will have the knowledge which will enable

him accurately to express and explain the real power, state, and condition of his own mind, and will always speak the truth; his character will be fully known to every one.

18. When truth shall supersede error and falsehood, when by common consent, from correction of the injury produced, men shall abandon falsehood, and speak the language of truth only, then will some conception be acquired of what human nature is, and what are its powers and capacities for improvement and enjoyment.

19. The present irrational arrangements of society will give place to those which are rational. Some will not be trained to force falsehood into the human mind, and be paid extravagantly for so doing, while other parties are prevented from teaching the truth, or severely punished if they make the attempt. (i. e. there will be no Clergy to preach falsehood, but Carlile and Taylor may instruct society in truth. Scholiast.)

20. Thus the five fundamental facts, and the twenty facts and laws of human nature, on which the moral science of man is founded, are in perfect unison with each other.

21. The religions founded under the name of Jewish, Budh, Jehovah, God, or Christ, or Mahomet, or any other, are all composed of human laws, in opposition to nature's eternal laws; and when these laws are analysed, they amount only to three absurdities, three gross impositions on the ignorance and inexperience of mankind, three errors now easily to be detected by the most simple experiment of each individual upon himself. The fundamental doctrines of all these religions are, 1. "Believe in my doctrine, as expounded by my priests from my sacred books. 2. Feel, as these doctrines, thus expounded, direct you to feel.

3. Support my ministers, for their instructing you. If you faithfully perform these three things in my name, say the priests of all these religions, you will have the greatest merit in this world, and an everlasting reward in the next.

"All religions, and all codes of law, are built on the preceding dogmas, and all presuppose the original power in man to believe and to feel as he likes.

"Now the facts and laws of nature

demonstrate that all belief, or mental convictions, and all physical feelings, are instincts of human nature, and form the will. It follows that the three fundamental dogmas of all religions have emanated from ignorance of the organization of man, and of the general laws of nature. Hence the confusion in all human affairs; the inutility of all human laws, and the irrational and miserable condition of all human society."

22. As there will be no religion ("for whence the power which designs, or what its attributes, no man has yet ascertained, and upon this mysterious subject the human mind must of necessity wait until new facts explanatory of the mystery, shall be developed"), so there will be no necessity for different orders of society, divided, as they now are, into fools and knaves. Instead of servants, as kitchen-maids, grooms, helpers, dairymaids, &c., the powers or agencies of nature will be directed to perform all the affairs of life which are unhealthy or disagreeable, which have hitherto been the work of servants or slaves. When the present ascertained powers of science shall be wisely directed, there will be no necessity for any human being to become the servant of another, and to perform that which to them would be disagreeable.

Lastly; the author advances a proposition which has occasioned us some queer and nervous apprehension as to what may be our own fate, when this new system comes into action. It is well known that Sylvanus Urban is no boy; it does not become us to say much of our personal appearance, but we reluctantly own, that we are not quite so tall as might be wished: of a very slight obliquity in the visual organs we say nothing, seeing that Sir W. Scott says such a defect gave an aspect of wisdom to the Duke of Argyle. Owing to a fall from our nurse's arms in infancy, we confess we limp a little with the left leg; and with the exception of a slight stammer when we are talking quickly, we believe that the portrait is exact. Now in the present state of society, we do not call these defects or blemishes; seeing that, though we are not quite so perfect a specimen of an organized being, as Comte d'Orsay or the Life

Guards, yet we manage to pass through the offices of life, and mount our horse without frightening it. But there is a most dark and mysteriously dreadful passage at the close of Mr. Owen's book, which we cannot help fearing may involve ourselves within the scope of its meaning, and which bids us to fear that we shall not be permitted to behold the new Saturnian Age upon earth, or to share in its days of glory. What less, than that we are to be removed by some secret process, which the second great Mr. Burke so successfully practised, in order not to hurt the rising generation by the sight of our fair defects; what less than this is meant, we cannot imagine! Our readers shall have the whole passage, and we venture to hope that, through their interests, we may be permitted to finish our venerable existence according to the common course of nature. As we seldom move out of our garret in Aldermanbury, except to the printer's, and then are seen only by his little devils, we hope and trust we shall not by our imperfect organization, offer any obstruction to the future perfection of the rising world, or shock by our antiquated appearance the Apollos and Dianas of the next generation. Who could have looked for such a termination to the Gentleman's Magazine? That Sylvanus Urban should be surreptitiously taken off by pitch or poison, because he was not a perfect model of terrestrial beauty (yet being as we have proved, above the average mark, though he cannot vie with the fair editors of Annuals, as could not be expected), and least the little boys and girls of 1850 and 60, as they met him should cry out-That poor man, mamma, is not perfectly organized!' We say, this is a fearful contemplation. What would poor old Mr. Cave have said to this? Why he would have said-Cave Canem. Now comes the blow-now descends the axe, which, cutting down the old trees, is to give vigour to the new. How many of the Fraserians will escape? Mrs. Norton indeed is safe; but we tremble for the Editor of Blackwood!!

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of their own power to reform the matured character of each individual, will be enabled almost to recreate the character of succeeding generations. It is obvious through a knowledge of the constitution

of human nature, or of the moral frame of man, that to form the highest character in man or woman, no inferior example [there we feel the blow] must be seen in any one of the adult population! therefore, the formation of an inferior character will be prevented. The superior external circumstances, which alone will be permitted to act upon and to influence each individual, will of necessity form all to be superior, according to the organization which they receive from nature. By this simple, easy, and straightforward mode of proceeding [oh, Lord! to call such butchering work easy and straightforward!] measures the most effectual [again!] will be adopted, to prevent one human being from acquiring a single inferior quality either of body or mind; and it is believed that the concentrated wisdom of society will be competent to effect this all-important object. As in this state all must perceive it to be for their interest and happiness that the most superior character which circumstances under the control of man will permit, should be formed for every one without a single exception—it would be most unwise to suffer one human being, in any part of the world, to be so placed as to acquire any inferior qualities; because it will be obvious, that if any inferior qualities should be permitted to be fixed in any one, all will be injured by the contaminating effects that such an example will have, not only upon adults, but more especially upon the children of the rising generation.""

So ends the first part of this treatise: the second is to contain the conditions of human happiness, to which we look forward with considerable anxiety, not only as wishing well to the community, but for our own sakes desirous to ascertain how soon the " ordo rerum" is to take place.

novus

Dated Tuesday, Nov. 8. Midnight, over Coblentz. Wind N. EE. Barom. 21 Far. Green's Balloon.

N. B. Cold so intense, that the ink froze in our bottle. Mr. Owen's book was unfortunately blown out of the car.

Reminiscences, by the Rev. R. Polwhele. 3 vols. 12mo.

WE must do Mr. Polwhele the justice to say that he has introduced his GENT. MAG. VOL. VII.

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ADDRESSED TO THE POET LAUREATE. Whilst others wander down their dusky dells, Pleas'd with the melodies of tinkling rills, Or scoop dim grots or saunter round green hills, Or climb the hedges sprent with sweet harebells, Or mark, where hamlets crown the misty vale, The plodding peasant and the milkmaid's pail!

I greet Thee midst thy mountains and thy fells, Thy sea-like lakes, thy rocks by thunders riven, [Heaven! Thy cataracts flashing to the effulgent Such is thy scene of grandeur!-We, frail men, Trill to the lowly grove the inglorious lay, In concert with the redbreast and the wren: "Tis thine, with the majestic eagle's sway Soaring on rapid wing, to drink the golden day!

If Mr. Polwhele can always write in this vein, we shall be happy to receive a volume up by the mail. Such a sonnet Mr. Wordsworth would endure,' and Mr. Bowles would commend.'

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The Reminiscences contain some light agreeable chit-chat about people every one likes to know. Hannah More's Poem of the Slave Trade appeared 1788. shop Horne, "having consulted Mr. My wife," said BiOnslow, who was a native of one of our West India islands, came home quite comforted with a hope that matters might not be so bad; and in the afternoon put into her tea the usual quan. tity of sugar!" H. More wrote to Wilberforce against too much learning in the poorer classes. They were instructed, she said, in the whole circle of sciences. Ex. gr. Who was Absolom?' she asked a short little girl ;— 'I think,' was the reply, he was an Exeter man!' Another girl said, 'I larns gogr. and the harts and the senses.'

P. 31. Under the head of Wolcot, Mr. Polwhele informs us that Wolcot, in his scuffle with Gifford, had mistaken the Juvenal W. Gifford, for the Antijacobin John Gifford, who had much abused him in the Antijacobin Review. Was this so?

P. 35. "Tom Warton's talent for ridicule was constantly exercised in the Common room at Trinity against Flamank, Wisdom, Parker, &c. Wisdom (a Greek Lecturer who could barely read the Greek letters), Warton nicknamed Folly personified.' Dr. Parker was one of the Doctores sine doctrinâ, &c. To his sa

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tire he sacrificed the headship of Trinity. -Yes! It cost him the Presidentship,' cried Bishop Buller, but all the same a hundred years hence!' Perhaps not,'

said Dr. Downman. I was then sitting at table at the palace, Exeter, between Buller and Downman. Had the interlocutors changed speeches it would have been more (thought I) in character."

P. 40. "In a late work (1783) Dr. Priestley, with great insolence (vol. I.) observed of Bagot,' change one letter of his name (the a for an i) and you have his true character.' Dr. Bagot (Bishop of Bristol) sent bis Letter on the Sacrament to Dr. Bell, in MS. Bell begged him to publish it. It is said that Bagot betrays a partiality for men of rank. But Lowth, the Bishop of London's son, and Judge Willes's two sons, were rusticated last term in consequence of their irregularity."

P. 42. "Lord Loughborough-Wedderburne- the pert prim prater of the Northern race;' but at Powderham, his dignity of deportment would not have reminded us of Churchill'spertness or primness'."

P. 76. Letter from Professor White to Badcock::

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My dear Friend, May 18, 1787. "However unpleasant it may be (and I think nothing in the world can be more unpleasant than to be obliged upon some delicate occasion, to write about pecu. niary matters), yet it is a hard necessity which we must sometimes submit to. This situation I feel most sensibly at present; and my distress is, that I have promised more than I find myself able to perform.

for

"I have now waited upwards of a fortnight, with the most anxious suspense, letters from two friends, Mr. Smith of Prior Park, and Mr. Aldridge, banker, at Bristol. I pressed them to send me immediately (as they used always to supply me with small drafts whenever I wished them) the sums of twenty pounds each, and my intention was to have sent these drafts to you into the West; but to my utter astonishment, I have not received a line in answer from either of these gentlemen. As they never disappointed me before, and as they both had proffered me services of this kind whenever an emergency should arise, I expressed myself with very great confidence when I had last the pleasure of writing to you; and I am sorry to be under the necessity of now making an apology for it. I will, however, immediately write to other friends, and hope I shall meet with better success.

"Though I have an income of 3001. per annum, I could not at this time raise

five guineas, if I had ever so pressing an occasion for so trifling a sum. I beg to be remembered kindly to your afflicted mother, and am, dear Sir, yours ever, and most sincerely. J. WHITE."

P. 99. "I am glad to find from you, that Cadell was afraid to publish a volume of Dissertations on authors, passages, and places mentioned in his History, which Mr. Gibbon had written for publication. This shows the strong impression, which the attacks upon his History have made upon the mind of the public. Cadell is a true Swiss in publications, and fights only for pay; he would therefore not have feared to publish, if he had thought he should find a sale; and Mr. Gibbon's reputation, which had given a circulation to six ponderous quartos, must be great surely in Mr. Cadell's estimation, not to give one to a single volume."-Letter from S. Whitaker.

This is not agreeable to the mention of the same circumstance in Gibbon's Memoirs, p. 110.

"It was magnificent in Grenville and Wellesley to give out, that for the two following years they meant to carry off the undergraduates' prizes. Grenville's "Vis Electrica" [1779] was a fine poem, in the style of Lucretius, and was admirably well delivered in the Theatre. In 1780, (the Marquis) Wellesley's" in Mortem I. Cook," &c. &c. was preferred in general to the other, but I think it far inferior in merit."

P. 112. "I had forgotten the saffron cakes of Toup, in Theocritum. It was the Cornish "BUNN" rich with currants and SAFFRON. See Warton's [and Toup's] Theocritus; and remember, Toup was a Cornish boy by birth, and a Greek from education. In Toup, there is certainly as much learned trifling, as in any of his brother commentators. In this instance of the saffron cake, particularly, Idyll. III. ν. 5. τον λιβυκον κνάκωνα or Caeci, tum flore tum semine, usi sunt veteres ad rem culinariam, KηкоπUρоνs-Athenæus, lib. 14, p. 649, Quem locum intellexerunt interpretes, κνηκοπυρους ήδονας sunt bellaria, Cneci, colorem referentia [Cornish] saffron cakes." See Toup's Curæ poster. in Theocritum, p. 10.

P. 130." About Malone, as a critic, I totally differ from you. He was very industrious and laborious, and ferreted out a good deal by these qualities; but had not, in my opinion, a spark of genius, nor even taste, where poetry was concerned. It is capable of proof that he did not rightly understand even the measure of English verse. Steevens was full of genius, but not always to be depended upon.

Sometimes he even made a sport of misleading his readers; but his powers were infinitely above any that Malone possessed. Northcote is a man of true genius, though occasionally defective as a writer. As to Mason, he was certainly a poet; but a malignant man, and particularly malignant against the good King George III., all which malignity was occasioned by some real or imagined slight shown by the King towards his imaginary merit. With all his powers, Mason was a despicable man morally; and that is the worst that need be said of a man."*-R. NARES to R. P. P. 151. "Mention is made, by the Rev. James Plumptre, that he was writing a new Life of Gay the Poet. Did it ever appear? His biographers assert, that his ancestors held the manor of Goldsworthy. But Johnson says he does not find Goldsworthy in the Villare, nor do I find it in Capper's Topog. Dictionary." But it may be found in Lysons's Devonshire,† in the parish of Parkham, near Bideford. "The manor of Goldsworthy, which had been for many descents the property and residence of the family of Gay, was conveyed by them to the Coffins, before Risdon wrote his Survey [temp. James I]."

Vol. ii. p. 13. “I have been particularly pleased with your truly characteristic account of Randolph; who, though a good, a learned, and a well-natured man in essentials, had the rudest and most repulsive manners that I ever witnessed in any one. These qualities detracted much from his popularity as a Bishop, though he was a valuable one.-R. NARES to R. P.

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P. 183. In my notices of Toup, several little traits in his character, that have since come to my knowledge, might have been introduced with effect. That he was fond of field-sports I could not have conceived possible. But I have heard, I think from good authority, that he joined some of his neighbours in the diversion of hunting, con amore.

"In the pulpit he was (as we say) no great things. In his discourses there was no indication of a man of talent or learning. They were, in short, heavy, spiritless; except now and then they were

lightened up or enlivened by a satiric

stroke, or a personal allusion. In his

"Jackson, (who died Bishop of Oxford) had not less an antipathy against Mason. At one of his supper parties, Mason happened to be mentioned, when Jackson spoke of him scornfully. I could scarcely suppress my indignation. Greville's report of Mason (in accordance with Kempthorne's) I am sure comes nearer to the truth"-R. P.

+Magna Britannia, vol. vi. p. 384.

day, funeral sermons were much in vogue, at half a guinea. If enriched by a stripe of Latin or Greek, the purpureus pannus was sure to bring a guinea. I have myself been so paid; and so wasToup. But for a certain sermon, preached at the funeral of a maiden lady, he got not, I will venture to say, even a mark, except of displeasure. The text was from Matt. xxv. So the door was shut."""

And thus we conclude our extracts from these entertaining and clever volumes. There is one passage in them, which more particularly does credit to Mr. Polwhele's taste and judgment, though it only announces a fact which is now universally acknowledged, viz. "I entertain a high respect for the Gentleman's Magazine; because it supports the old character of what a periodical ought to be. There is no malignity in it, but an evident wish to do justice to works of merit." This approbation will indeed reward us for our diurnal labours and our nightly watchings in the service of the public. But what will the other magazines say?

Oh! Blackwood, Fraser, Monthly, Old and New,
What will become of you, if this is true?
Oh! Metropolitan-go out of town,-
Oh! beautiful Court Journal, do not frown!
British, this Critic's arrow is a fixture.
So hide your cover made of-Parson's Mixture.
Cease, petty rivals, all your jealous bickering,
And vail your caps-to Nichols and to Pickering.
And should your dutiful respect not vary,
You'll find a place in our- Obituary.

Watson's Statistics of Phrenology. AN interesting little work to the Phrenologist. It is divided into five departments: 1. The History of Phrenology. 2. Philosophy of Phrenology. 3. Local Diffusion of Phrenology. 4. Literature of Phrenology. 5. General Summaries.

The history begins about 1796, when Gall first taught his discoveries, to the latest work of Mr. Combe, the great

phrenologist of the present day, and

who has had harder conflicts in defence of his favourite science, than any of his brethren.

In the philosophy of Zoology, we will mention, for the uninitiated, that the leading principles of Phrenology are these three:-1. All manifestations of the mind depend directly on the brain; and this whether the brain be regarded as the organ or instrument of the mind. 2. The faculties of the mind are manifested by different parts

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