doubt that, if language was invented, it was the greatest of all inventions, and fuch as could not have been accomplifhed in many generations; but he is of a very different opinion. He thinks that it was an invention extremely obvious, and ealy; though the formation of grammar rules may have been the progreffive work of millions of generations! Some writers indeed of no mean name have gone fo far, he fays," as to allege the invention of language to be beyond the powers of men, and have given it, of courfe, a Divine origin; but from a fimilar way of reafoning, the aftonishing inventions of men in mechanics, navigation, &c. might be afcribed to the fame fource." P. 12.

But with Dr. Gardiner's permiffion we must take the liberty to fay that these cafes have no refemblance. Man might learn from the little Nautilus to fail;" and he could not tear down the branch of a tree without exemplifying the power of the lever, into which all other mechanical powers may be refolved. From no animal, however, could he learn the ufe of language; nor is there any thing in nature to fuggeft even the poffibility of denoting thoughts and ideas, with all their relations, by articulate founds. Between fuch founds and the objects which they exprefs there is no natural relation, as there is between the power of the lever and the unequal length of its two arms. This is a truth fo obvious and undeniable, that this author is the only man of letters, we fufpect, by whom it has ever been called in question. He indeed affirms (p. 19.) that “ among the firit exertions of the mind, is an inftinctive defire of expreffing our thoughts by articulate founds, which is natural to man;" and he proves this fingular pofition, by appealing to the ease with which children acquire their vernacular tongue! But is there no difference between acquiring a tongue which is daily and hourly heard, and inventing a tongue, to which nothing fimilar was ever heard or thought of? A mufical ear, on which Dr. Gardiner builds fo much in this argument, is indeed of great importance in the former cafe; but would be of none in the latter. Instincts too are uniform in their operations. All men employ the very fame means, and in the very same way to fatisfy their appetites of hunger and thirft, &c.; and they do fo without thinking of the ends for which these inftincts and appetites were implanted in them; but do all un. taught barbarians employ the very fame articulate founds, and in the very fame way, to exprefs fuch ideas, and combinations of ideas as they have in common?

O! no, fays Dr. Gardiner, this is utterly impoffible, because there were different races of men formed at firft, who inftinctively

B 3

inftinctively spoke different languages! Yet all thefe different races have inflinctively used the fame means to fatisfy the crav ings of hunger and thirft; and all infants have inftinctively fucked the breasts of their mothers. How then came these different races inftinctively to employ very different articulate founds to exprefs fuch ideas, and combinations of ideas as they have in common? This is not the cafe with refpect to such inarticulate founds as are known to be inftinctive. The involuntary exclamations, which indicate great pain or great pleafure, are the fame, or nearly the fame, in every nation under heaven; they are known by the name of interjections, and are juftly confidered by the profoundeft grammarians, as no proper part of human speech. But, fays Dr. Gardiner,

"On the fuppofition of an universal language, it is natural to fuppofe, that every fucceeding tongue would have fome refemblance, however faint, to its ancient parent; it would contain fome of its radical words, or fhew its relationship in fome other refpect. But this is not the cafe; for, befides the languages juft mentioned, thofe of fome of the tribes of Negroes in Africa, of the inhabitants of New Holland, Otaheite, and other islands in the fouth fea, fhew not, from the most accurate obfervations of voyagers and travellers, the smallest affinity to the Hebrew, or the other antient languages of Europe and Afia." P. 17.

We have tranfcribed this paffage, because it is the only thing in the first effay which has the fmalleft refemblance to an argument. If all mankind have defcended from one primeval pair, it is natural to fuppofe that all the language fpoken by mankind might be traced back etymologically to the language of that pair; but does Dr. Gardiner really think that voyagers and travellers are generally qualified for this etymological investigation? The most learned man that ever lived could not trace back an unwritten language to its parent stock; nor even a written language, unless he had books compofed in all the confpicuous dialects through which it had paffed, in its progress from its original to its prefent state. Could a man ignorant of French, Latin, and Italian, trace the word ftranger back to the prepofition ex, or the word journal to diu or dies? and yet nothing is more certain or better known, than that the Latin ex and diu, are the ancient (probably not the most ancient) parents of the English ftranger and journal, The English language is unqueftionably derived in a great mcafure from the Saxon; but we fufpect that Dr. G., learned as he is, would have found fome difficulty in tracing back

The Gothic, Celtic, Greek, Latin, Chinefe, Malay, Carib bee languages, &c. &c,

the

the language of the Spectator, to the Saxon that was spoken by HENGIST and his followers, could he not have found a fingle book compofed, either in Saxon or English, during the long period that elapfed from the arrival of Hengift to the reign of Queen Anne.

That there were originally formed different races of men, with conftitutions adapted to the various climates of the earth, this author proves by repeating the arguments urged by late Lord Kaimes in fupport of that hypothefis; but he does not reft on thofe arguments alone. He concludes, from the various languages radically different, that there must have been various original races of men, by whom thofe languages were inftinctively formed; juft with as much force of reafon, as in the former effay he had inferred the converse of this pofition; that becaufe there were different races of men originally formed with conftitutions adapted to the different climates of the earth, there must have been various original languages inftinctively spoken! Even on this argument, though undoubtedly his own, he does not choose to reft his caufe. The defcendants of Europeans, tranflated to tropi cal climates, degenerate, he fays, both in body and mind; and hence he infers, that to inhabit those climates an original race muft have been formed, on whose conftitution the heat could have no fuch effects. He very obligingly however confutes this argument by affuring us that the powers, intellectual as well as corporeal, of the ancient inhabitants of Mexico and Peru were all of an inferior kind to thofe of the best civilized nation of the ancient continent; from which it follows, that the Mexicans and Peruvians may have been the defcendants of Afiatics or Europeans, tranflated from a temperate to a tropical climate! Surely the reader will not expect that we fhould stop to point out the futility of fuch contradictory arguments as these. The author refers us to a work of his own on the animal economy, for further proofs of the neceffity of different conftitutions, for obviating the effects of heat and cold in different climates. We are forry to say that we have never seen that work; but we beg leave, in our turn, to refer to the 64th and 65th volumes of the Philofophical Tranfactions, for proofs that the human conftitution is capable of gradually adapting itself to the temperature of any inhabited climate on this globe; and, if we might prefume to offer advice to Dr. Gardiner, it would be, not to confider himself as a reafoner fo very con. clufive as he had certainly done when he wrote the following paragraph.

"Upon the whole, we may conclude, that though man is en dowed with a conftitution better calculated than that of any other animal, for migrating to diftant climes; yet, with all his fagacity to provide against the extremes of heat and cold, he cannot remove from his native foil to any distant climate, without danger. These facts are the strongest evidence that can be given, or that the nature of the fubject will admit, in proof of the ori ginal defign of Providence, that every INDIVIDUAL of the vegetable and animal kingdoms, man not excepted, should be endowed with a conftitution fuited to the climate they were [he was] deftined to inhabit: Whoever therefore feriously believes all mankind to be derived from a fingle man and woman, (let him be a Bacon, a Newton, or a Locke*,) may well fay with the religious enthufiaft, Credo quia impoffibile eft." (Such is the modefty of modern philofophers.)

The third effay is of more value than the two firft, though it likewife abounds with trifling remarks and inconclufive reafonings. The author's obfervations on the health of infants; on the methods ufually adopted to render them hardy; on the propriety or impropriety of mothers nurfing their children; and on the diet and management proper for the two first years of human life, are judicious, and, on the whole, well expreffed; but what he fays of the formation of the minds of children contains very little information. It brings indeed to our recollection Mifs Hamilton's admirable Letters on the fame fubject, which, if Dr. Gardiner had read them, would furely have fuppreffed the publication of this effay, where the reader will look in vain for the accurate obfervations, the philofophical arrangement, and the logical reasoning by which the letters are diftinguifhed. To the effay the author has fubjoined one appendix on the importance of variolous and vaccine inoculation, and another on the effects of tragical reprefentation on the mind, compared with those that take place in viewing real fcenes of diftrefs." In the former of these papers we are told (p. 291) that Dumfries, Glafgow, and Perth, are other places than Scotland! in the letter, (p. 300.) that, at the reprefentation of a well acted tragedy, fome have their minds fo deeply affected, as to be brought into a conviction of the reality of the Scenes" and (p. 303) that "how great foever the deception, there always lurks at the bottom, a certain idea of fiction,

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*The author does mention these philofophers by name; but as they all believed the Mofaic account of the origin of the human race, they are of courfe included under his general expreffion.

Rev.

in all we fee!" Cannot Dr. Gardiner write on any thing without contradicting himself?

In the fourth effay, which is "on the principal causes that promote or retard population," the author appears as a political economift; and from Sir James Stewart, Dr. Smith, Lord Kaimes, Mr. Anderson, and the French writers on the fame fubjects, he has certainly collected a number of useful hints; but in the effay we have obferved nothing that is original or ftriking, and very little if any thing, that is placed in a new light. It is divided into eleven fections bearing the following titles:

"1. The quantity of provifions, of labour, and the degree of freedom enjoyed by the inhabitants, regulate the population of every country. 2. The national debt, its effects on commerce. 3. On the progreffive improvement of agriculture, and means of its increase, to answer the rifing demand of the public. 4. On the bad effects of entails in a mercantile country. 5. Thirlage, as a perpetual fervitude, ought to be abolished. 6. On the advantages of a free and unlimited commerce in grain, and bad effects of a bounty on exportation. 7. On the British distillery. 8. On the expediency of a modus, as compenfation for the tithe. 9. On a provifion for the poor. 10. On foundling hospitals. 11. Conjectures on the population of Britain at different periods, from the first invafion of Julius Cæfar to the present time."

We are furprised that Dr. Gardiner did not perceive that one of the moft plaufible arguments which he has urged in fupport of his favourite hypothefis, refpecting the original parents of mankind, is completely overturned by the following paffage :

"How diminutive are the native horses and black cattle of the Highlands of Scotland, compared to those that are bred on more luxuriant paftures in the low countries. The gentlemen, farmers and their fervants, traffickers, fishermen, and all others in the Highlands, who have had a good and wholesome diet from their infancy, are of a full fize; but the loweft clafs of the meaner.inhabitants, who have lived in poverty, is remarkable." P. 360.

If this be true, as we believe it to be, may not the fill greater poverty, worfe diet, and feverer climate in which the Greenlanders and Efkimaux live, account for their ftill lower ftature, without laying us under the neceffity of fuppofing them to have fprung from a different flock ?

The author having obferved that our foreign commerce depends" on the comparative goodnefs and cheapnefs of our manufactures, and this (thefe) again on the low price of provilions in this country," obferves that

"To