will be, and no mortal has hitherto drawn afide my veil; my offspring is the fun." The doctrine of an ethereal intelligence pervading and ani mating the material world, appears, among the Egyptians, to have been from the earliest time accompanied with a belief in inferior divinities. Conceiving emanations from the divinity to be refident in various parts of nature, when they faw life, motion, and enjoyment, communicated to the inhabitants of the earth from the fun, and, as they fuppofed, from other heavenly bodies, they afcribed thefe effects to the influence of certain divinities, derived from the first deity, which they fuppofed to inhabit these bodies. Hence arofe their worship of the fun, under the names of Ofiris, Ammon, and Horus; of the moon, under thofe of Ifis, Bubaftis, and Buto; of the Cabiri, or planets; of Sothis, or the dog-star; and of other celeftial divinities. The Cabiri were called by the Egyptian priefts fons of Phthas, or Vulcan, that is, of the Supreme Being. When the Egyptians worshipped the divinity under the notion of an offended fovereign, they called him Tithrambo, that is, according to the Greeks, Hecate and the evil principle, from which they conceived themfelves liable to misfortune, they depre cated as an object of terror, under the name of Typhon.' This laft word Typhon, the Greeks borrowed and employed for hurricanes; and it is remarkable that, in the Indian Ocean, ftorms are at this moment called Tuffoons, preferving, even in found, the . As a part of this fyftem, the immortality of the foul was an Egyptian tenet: fome believed that the foul, when feparated from the body, rejoined the di vine effence; others, that it migrated into the bodies of other animals. Each of thefe tenets was, at different times, enter tained in India. Of the Ethiopian philofophy we know little: their general character in the time of Homer was that of blameless,' auMoras Albiomans. Diogenes Laertius tells us, that their tenets were to worship the gods, do no evil, exercife fortitude, and defpife death, When we move weftward with our historian, and examine the Celtic philofophy, we find little that interefts or inftructs us. The Celts were never an enlightened race; and their philofophy, which we only discover in the unpleafing traces of the fevere fyftem of the Druids, checks the wifh for farther enquiry, while their impenetrable fecrecy renders expectation fruitlefs. What is known of the Druids amounts to no more than what power, refting on fuperftition, will always effect, and is no proof of their religion being derived from the caft or the fouth; nor is the teftimony of Tacitus, that punishments were in Germany inflicted by the priests, a proof that the Druidical Druidical fyftem prevailed in that part of the continent. Brucker has confufed the whole, by confounding the Celtic with the Scythian race, and the Sarmatians with the Medes. Divination was a Gothic, not a Celtic rite, and brought from the west of the Euxine, the fource, as Mr. Pinkerton has very clearly shown, of the Gothic and Scythian race. The elegant fables of the Edda are not probably of Celtic extraction, but the fymbolical philofophy of the fouthern regions. The contempt of death, a doctrine of the eaft, the Celts feem to have adopted from their ferocious character and military manners. The Tufcans, in the hiftorian's opinion, were a Celtic nation; but we think it more probable that they were a Grecian race, and, in this, are fupported by the beft antiquaries. They were, like the other eaftern nations, diviners; and Seneca has done them too much honour by attributing to them the pecu liar doctrines of the Stoics. Of the early Romans, Numa was moft remarkable; but he was a judicious, benevolent legislator, rather than a philofopher. The last country, whofe opinions are examined, is Scythia, comprehending the north and the western part of Afia. Their great philofopher was Zamolxis, who taught them the immortality of the foul; and we are exprefsly told by Herodotus, that he was anterior to the era of Pythagoras. Where he learnt it, is lefs known; but, from the vicinity of India, it is not improbable that he was indebted for it to the Brachmans. The Scythians were acute, fenfible, and judicious, and these talents were neither mifdirected, nor abufed. They were employed in difcerning the true fource of happiness in virtue, and in living with temperance and moderation. The Scythian Abaris was, in our hiftorian's opinion, an itinerant impoftor; Anacharfis refembled his countrymen in acuteness and judg ment, but excelled them in curiofity and the extent of his acquifitions. Such was the Barbaric philofophy, which we can fcarcely commend: it confifts of doctrines and opinions received from other fources, mutilated and contaminated in the progrefs, and changed in the event, according to the difpofition of thofe by whom it was received. The original fountain feems not to have been discovered by Brucker: we fhould naturally look for it in the country moft early civilifed, and this appears to have been India. In India too we find the whole system more connected, more extenfive, and more rational. But this forms no part of the present work: we have purfued the hint, as far as it was allowable, and muft, in our next Article, examine the fame fyftem of philofophy, expanded, polifhed, and augmented by the moft ingenious nation of antiquity:-we mean the Greeks. L A Digeft of the Statute Law, being an Abridgment of all the public Acts of Parliament now in Force and of general Use: from Magna Charta, in the 9th Year of King Henry III. to the 30th of his prefent Majefty George III. inclufive. By Thomas Walter Williams, of the Inner Temple, Barrifter at Law. 2 Vols. 4to. 21. 10s. Boards. Robinfons. 1791. A Correct abridgment of the statutes has long been wanting to facilitate the researches of those who wish to obtain a knowledge of the exifting laws, and this appears to be executed with confiderable accuracy and attention. The different acts are very judiciously arranged under proper titles, by which means this branch of the law is refcued from that irregularity and confufion in which, in its original ftate, it is unavoidably involved. The laws relating to the customs and excife are in particular well arranged, which muft render it highly acceptable to the mercantile part of the public.-Upon the whole, we can venture to recommend it as a book universally useful, and conceive that it will become a neceflary appendage in the library of every magiftrate and lawyer in the kingdom. Charles Viner, efq. founder of the law-profefforfhip at Oxford, and author of the Abridgment of Law and Equity, an improved edition of which is now publishing in volumes with general approbation, was of opinion, that a work fimilar to the prefent would be of fuch utility, that he had actually made fome progrefs in it, but was unhappily prevented by death from carrying his intention into execution. MONTHLY CATALOGUE. RELIGIOUS, &c. An Efay on the Manner in which Chriftianity was intended to improve Morality. By the Rev. John Leadley, M. A. Published in Compliance with the Will of the late Mr. Norris, as having gained the annual Prize which he inftituted in the Univerfity of Cambridge. 8vo. Is. Cadell. 1791. THE HE annual prizes must have few competitors; for we cannot think fo meanly of the flate of learning in the universities, or of the ardour of their members, to suppose that there are many works inferior to those which have usually received the reward. The utmost commendation that we can bestow on this Effay, is that it is neat and elegant. The reasoning and the learning difplayed in it deferve neither cenfure nor praife; that Chriftianity improved morality, by conveying more adequate and fuitable ideas of God, cannot be denied; but the fubordinate caufes of improvement de ferved a more particular notice, and a more important rank than our author has allotted them. The Rights of Government not incompatible with the Rights of Man. A Sermon, preached at the Affize held at Chelmsford, in the Čounty of Effex, before the Hon. Mr. Justice Gould, and Mr. Justice Wilfon, August 1, 1791. 4to. Is. Kearsley. 1791. This Sermon was styled, by an able counsel, who certainly, as our author obferves, flepped out of his way to notice it, a political pamphlet. We fee nothing very objectionable in it; but the preacher has not adopted the mode of arguing which we should have chofen on this fubject. He has left himself very open to a reply. An Attempt to fhew that the Opinion concerning the Devil, or Satan, es a fallen Angel, and that he tempts Men to fin, hath no real Foundation in Scripture. By William Afbdowne. 8vo. is. 6d. Johnfon. 1791. In Mr. Afhdowne's opinion, there is not any real evidence in Scripture to how that any fallen angel has the power of tempting men to fin. To fupport this doctrine he examines all the different texts in the Old and New Teftament, where Satan is mentioned; and endeavours to prove, that the interpofition of any fallen angel is inconfiftent with the tenor of the whole paffage in which the word occurs, and improbable from many other confiderations. His obfervations are, in general, rational and judicious; they will fully convince those, who confider Satan as the remains of the old Manichæan fyftem, derived from the common doctrine of the eaftern nations. The Origin and Stability of the French Revolution. A Sermon preached at St. Paul's Chapel, Norwich, July 14, 1791. By Mark Wilks, a Norfolk Farmer. Second Edition. 8vo. 15. Printed for If this Sermon had been preached at the conclufion of a Bacchamalian meeting, designed to celebrate the Frencb Revolution, the fcene would have fuited the compofition: it is totally unfit for the pulpit. Sermons preached before the University of Glasgow. By James Bell, Thefe Sermons are feventeen in number. They are fenfible and practical; written in a nervous and clear style. A few Scottims may be perceived in the volume; but the merit of the difcourfes is too great to fuffer any diminution from a blemish of fuck a trißing nature. Sermons Sermons on the great Doctrines and Duties of Christianity; proving, from the earliest Ages, the conftant and uniform Interference of Divine Brovidence to bring them to Perfection, the Concurrence of prophane Historians and Poets in Support of their Prediction, their Influence on the human Mind, and beautiful Efficacy in focial and private Life. By George Laughton, D. D. 8vo. 6s. Beards. Law. 1790. The defign of thefe Sermons is to prove, from the earliest ages, the conftant and uniform interference of Divine Providence to bring the great doctrines and duties of Chriftianity to perfection; the concurrence of prophane hiftorians and poets in fupport of their prediction; their influence on the human mind, and beautiful efficacy in focial and private life. The author feems to be a man of learning; but he treats the fubject, not fo much with argument as declamation; and his style is by no means fuch as might be expected from his literary attainments. POETRY. A Poem to the Memory of George Frederick Handel. 4to. Faulder. 1787. Is. 6d. The most remarkable circumftance in this performance is its price: eighteen pence for a poem of eleven pages; containing about 140 lines, is rather more than the generality of readers will allow to be reasonable, though a medallion print of Handel is prefixed: for its beauties, and indeed its faults, are not of a very fuperior kind. The general tenor of fentiment in the following pines will more than excufe any little defects: Ere long, the heart, that heaves this figh to thee, We |