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HE who is fond of the marvellous, cannot do better than study Natural Philosophy. He will there see miracles far beyond conception by the most fertile imagination, and ultimately perhaps agree with our author, that all the phenomena of the Universe are effected by the modifications of one simple substance, so infinitely divisible and imponderable, that, as Sir Isaac Newton thought, even one ounce of it uniformly distributed over the vast space in which our solar system exists, might leave no quarter of an inch without its particle," and yet so susceptible of other forms, as, we think, to be fluid or solid, and constitute matter of every kind, through changes occasioned by the attraction or repulsion, or modification of its particles. If for instance Man was formed out of dust, and returns to it, it is proved by the latter event that he originally was dust; and assuredly it is just as miraculous for a living intelligent animal to undergo such a transformation, as for any

substance to have variations which imply other phenomena. To explain the essence of substance is impossible, because infinitorum nulla sit ars, and that matter is divisible ad infinitum, is shown by Mr. Higgins on Light (pp. 3, 9). The cause of Motion is either not to be known at all, or is incompre hensible by our senses (id. p. 8); but it is evident that Substance is powerfully acted upon by foreign agents; as for instance, particles of substance are repelled by heat, which is a solar emanation, and are aggregated by withdrawing it. To suppose, besides, that there can be abstractedly such a thing as a perfect vacuum, a real nothing, is absurd, and an hypothesis formed only through our imperfect senses. short, we believe that there is only one original substance, however modífied, throughout all nature; and that, if

In

we cannot find out the cause of motion, we cannot find out the modes of action in such a substance, through defect of faculties.

We have gone into these premises because Dr. Arnott supposes (p. 3) an ethereal fluid, distinct from sub

stance, to be causative of phenomena; but we doubt it. We by no means suppose an anima mundi, only that substance has properties variously convertible by laws of providence, which of course imply divine agency, and that alone. We are led to that opinion, by the glimpses which chemistry affords of the self-action of bodies; and the subjection to the same accidents, and identity of properties in all of them, is to us a proof that their essence is one and the same, and not distinct. All have gravity, attraction, repulsion, motion, &c.; and there is nothing of which insusceptibility of decomposition can be predicated, except the Almighty. We beg to be understood, as not going further than opinion; but we think that we are vindicated, more especially by the following fact, dependent upon a common chemical rule. We think, then, that the bare extraneous action of an Ethereal fluid is insufficient to solve the phenomenon of the creation of man from dust, because it implies only a superinduced action, not a change of one and the same substance; but that evidently does ensue both in animals and vegetables; which however would not, as before observed, return to dust, if they had originally been any thing else.

But to the work. We do not know a book upon the subject more satisfactorily and judiciously written; and the very considerable ingenuity of the author is employed by him for the useful purpose, as if he was a magician, of evoking new discoveries, not to gratify barren curiosity, but to realize, in sober sadness, most valuable advantages. The construction of airengines, with an expansive power four times greater than that of steam from an equal quantity of fuel, is the chief object to which we allude. Dr. Arnott has given different specifications of plans for the construction of such an engine, and then says,

"Could an obedient and durable engine

be contrived, at all approaching in simplicity to the plan given above, its advantages over the steam engine would be very considerable. First, its original cost would be much less, by reason of its small comparative size, its

* It seems to be highly probable, that simple elementary matter consists of certain minute atoms, possessing certain polar actions, or repulsions and attractions. Weldon on Chemistry, p. 20.

simplicity, and the little nicety of workmanship required. Secondly, it would occupy much less room, and would be very light; hence its peculiar fitness for purposes of propelling ships and wheel - carriages. Thirdly, the quantity of fuel required being so much less, would not load the ship or carriage, leaving little room, as in steamboats, for any thing else. Fourthly, the expense of fuel and repairing would be but little. Fifthly, the engine could be set to work in a few minutes, where a steamengine might require hours. Sixthly, little or no water would be required for it." Pp.

75, 76.

We regret that the simple explanation of the cause of stuttering (given in p. v.), and its easy cure, cannot from its length admit of extraction. We feel it, however, a duty to praise the liberality of the author in thus making it public; and we heartily wish that it may procure him numerous patients.

Painters may derive great benefit from studying the second section of the "Intensity of Light, Shade, and Colour," in pp. 260 seq.

Sketches of Intellectual and Moral Relations. By Daniel Pring, M. D. Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, London. 8vo. MEDICAL men, say the French, do not believe in the existence of angels, because they never dissected any; that is to say, they become materialists, because there are forms of being of which they neither have, or can have cognizance. But it is very poor philosophy to suppose that there cannot be existence without substance. Who can predicate substantiality of mere Laws of Nature? In reference to our own species, the difficulty has been to discover how mind acts upon matter. Mr. Warren (Disquisition upon Life), in our opinion, comes nearest to the mark, when he attributes, upon wellfounded animal analogies, a power of galvanic action to mere volition; so that every man carries about him a galvanic battery, which the body obeys.

Dr. Pring has evidently a masterly anatomical knowledge of the human frame; but of his conclusions, we are bound to say, that they neither do or can solve phenomena. He holds religion to be mere assumption (because men have erred concerning it), but he does not reflect, that to be must precede every thing else, that the Creator must precede the created, and that religion GENT. MAG. Suppl. XCIX. PART II.

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(as we shall soon show) is deduced from such primary cause, by a natural inference, and therefore is a matter distinct from physics-but Dr. Pring makes it a mere result of fear or diffidence, in the following words:

"The truth or reality of this [the Christian] dispensation rests upon the authority of certain alleged facts or doctrines; if this authority is excepted against, if these facts and doctrines are thought to be incredibleby all persons so regarding them (which, if practice is a test of belief, we may suppose to comprise at least nine-tenths of the Christian world) this system imposes no real obligation to morality. I will by no means deny to this system the efficacy of a partial obligation; but it is in general extremely weak in other instances it is not acknowledged in any degree, and perhaps even this partial efficacy, chiefly arising from fear and diffidence, will decline, as the customs, opinions, or prejudices, drawn from the dark abyss of antiquity, are unsettled by the augmenting impulse of the human

mind." P. 389.

Now we utterly reject the philosophy which assumes what is not from what is, viz. that there are no primary causes, where secondary causes do not indicate them, such philosophizing is like that of the Indian prince who would not believe that there was ice or snow, because he had never seen any. If there be a Creator distinct from a created, there may be a science distinct from physics, which exclusively belong to the latter class; and if so, the principle of religion may be justly considered as the germ of that distinct science. In proof of this distinctive origin, we beg to observe, that limitation, time, and locality apply to physics, whereas the attributes of Deity (and they do not admit of dispute), are infinity, eternity, and omnipresence. These attributes form the foundation of religion; and therefore it is not, as Dr. Pring assumes, a mere ignorant deduction from physics, because the contradictory properties of physics do not admit of such a deduction. According to them, the Deity himself must be finite, temporal, and local. Dr. Pring, however, is not the first and only medical man, who has allegated that the coat made the tailor.

The Annual Peerage for 1830 has made its appearance (being the fourth) with the

other Annuals of the season. We observe the Editors have retained their accounts of the families of those Peers whose titles have

become extinct during the past year, a plan we trust they will continue, so long as any widows or daughters survive, and thus supply what has always been a deficiency in Peerages after the extinction of a title. We wish this careful and copious compilation the success it decidedly merits.

Mr. CROMPTON has published a second edition of his Savings Bank Assistant, to which he has prefixed the Report of a Committee of the House of Commons, recommending the adoption of a plan of Mr. Higham's, for granting Government Annuities through the medium of the Savings Banks. This will probably be carried into effect, should the Committee be re-appointed next Session, and would add greatly to the importance and utility of Savings Banks. "A valuable addition," says Mr. Crompton, "to the proposed plan would be, to grant Reversionary Annuities, commencing at the death of the subscriber, during the life of a nominee, to enable a person to provide for a wife or aged parent, on easy terms."

Another edition (being the fifth) of The Whole Duty of Constables, by a late acting Magistrate of the county of Norfolk, has just been published. A large impression of the fourth was taken off by the public in the course of the last twelve months, which induced the present editor again to revise the Constabulary part of this Manual of judicial reference, and to enlarge the Appendix, which now contains (besides Mr. Peel's Six Acts for Amending the Criminal Laws) those on the same important subject, called "The Lansdowne Acts," relative to offences against the person, summary convictions, and law of evidence; with the Act passed in 1829, for the better regulation of divisions in the several counties of England and Wales, and of the duties of high constables, &c. in consequence thereof.

In the opinion of the author of The British Naturalist," the dictum of authority, and the divisions of system, are the bane of study to the people at large;" and he has accordingly thrown his collections into the form of a miscellany, taking subjects as they occur, in the several localities of the mountain, the lake, the river, the sea, the moor, and the brook. The introduction affects a high strain of metaphysics; and, with a little obscurity of style, contains, among many judicious remarks, some false reasoning. For instance, speaking of the works of art, he asserts, that "although, during the last half century, there have been many more successful inventions than during any other period of the same length, it is certainly not too much to say, that the failures have increased in a much greater proportion;" not considering that, while the successes of former generations are in many instances superseded, their failures are almost

entirely forgotten. "Order," we are told, "is Heaven's first law," and we cannot recommend this volume, to the exclusion of more systematic manuals; but it may serve as an agreeable change to the student; and, in its more lively parts, display to the stranger the attractions of Nature's wonders.

Mr. FRANCIS WHISHAW has published an accurate two-sheet Map of the Manor and Parish of Hendon, Middlesex, which cannot fail to be particularly acceptable to the numerous gentry resident in that very extensive parish. It is accompanied by a Book of Reference, giving the names of owners; names and dimensions of every field in the parish; an Index of the names of the owners, in the Book of Reference; and another Index to the Map. We are glad to see that Mr. Whishaw announces a Second Part, containing an Historical Account of Hendon, with Notices topographical and biographical.

Mr. CRUTWELL, in his annunciation of Lectures on the Currency, states, that Cobbett affirmed, only a few years ago, “that HE alone possessed the secret which should enable the country to extricate itself from ruin; but that nothing of such secret should ever transpire, unless the sum of five thousand pounds were first subscribed for his sole exclusive use, precluding all future inquiry as to the purpose or manner in or for which he should apply it." No country can be ruined while it possesses agriculture and manufactures; and all that a paper currency (Mr. Crutwell's hobby) does effect, is greater facility of accommodation, and a larger extent of fictitious capital.

The Death Warrant of Negro Slavery contains reprint articles on the subject, from the Edinburgh and Westminster Reviews, introduced by (as usual) an acrimonious preface. We have, in our notice of a "Letter from Sydney," shown how slavery has grown out of circumstances.

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object that presented itself, a vase was always discovered. We must notice another passage (among several very interesting) in the letter of Signor Avvolta, dated on the 28th of April last.

"Many of the tombs and grottoes which I excavated at Montarozzi, contained the remains of human bodies which had been burnt, close to others which had not been burnt, as well as burnt and unburnt bones in the same grave: whence it might, perhaps, be justly affirmed, that the Etruscans of this region were accustomed to burn the bodies of their dead, and at the same time to inter their dead without burning them."

Other excavations accidentally made near the wall of Orvieto, are described by Signor Cervelli, an accomplished painter, who mentions, in a communication dated last April, that some months before, several articles of terra cotta, ornaments, bassi-relievi, small statues, half-figures (probably of Jupiter and Priapus), vases, and other pieces, had been found at that place. And Signor Pietro Casuccini discovered, in the ancient sepulchres et Chiusi, many very beautiful remnants of former ages. The Canon Mazetti also mentions, among others, interesting antiques found at Chiusi, some urus of stone, scarabaei of cornelian, and vases of black clay but not baked. At Volterra also, and in its neighbourhood, several curious urns and other monuments of Etruscan antiquity have been lately discovered by Signor Giusto Cinci. For the account (here epitomized) of excavations made in Etruria, we are indebted to the ingenious Professor Gerhard.

Some researches in the kingdom of Naples among the Italo-Grecian tombs, particularly those of Nola, afford M. Panofka a subject for an article in which he very ingeniously describes the burnt vases called salicerni found there a few months ago; a class altogether unknown at Corneto and at Canino, and distinguished for the purity of their design. From various circumstances it appears, that the ancients were in the habit of breaking those vases before they cast them on the funeral pile of their parents or friends. There also were found (what no other classic soil has hitherto produced) two cups, of which the insides display a white and brilliant varnish like the most beautiful porcelain, while the exteriors present figures painted in red on a black ground. One cup exhibits Minerva and Hercules, delineated in a fine style; the other a toilette-scene, the name of one woman being inscribed AINΕΣΙΔΩΡΑ. Fragments of a third cup found at Nola (aud now in the collection of Major Lamberti at Naples), are remarkable for their excellent design, and the gilding which appears on the ear-rings, bracelets, and necklace of the principal woman, to whom another offers a casket. These three cups probably served as presents on occasion of

nuptials. In the same place was discovered a vase of which the extraordinary form represented an Ethiopian in the throat of a

crocodile.

Two years ago the Duc de Blacas found at Nola several magnificent vases, besides the skeletons of two young children with their playthings lying near them. M. Vulpes, a celebrated physician of Naples, making some researches at Ischia in 1826, found at the feet of a skeleton a large vessel full of eggs.

Another article in the "Bullettino" describes many discoveries made in 1828 and 1829, among the remains of Pompeii, particularly in the building called the House of Castor and Pollux, where several fine pictures rewarded the excavator's labour. The latest researches brought to light a door situated at the extremity of the building; hopes were entertained that this might communicate with another house, which, in this case, must have belonged to the sumptuous owner of this vast habitation, and might reasonably be expected to contain a multiplicity of curious and valuable objects. Yet it is not improbable that this doorway opens only into a small street near that called dei Mercurii, in which have already been discovered two secret outlets. In the same street many interesting objects were found near a chamber furnished with licentious paintings, which sufficiently designate the character of the house. Glass vessels, of different sizes and colours, found also in this building, serve to confirm the opinion that it was a public place destined to nearly the same purposes as our modern coffeehouses; and the indecent pictures abovementioned show that the ancients sometimes employed those drinking-glasses on very strange occasions. For the account of these discoveries our obligations are due to M. de Laglandiere.

The excavations made at Rome, especially in the Forum Romanum, are described by the Chevalier Bunsen. It appears that in 1818, the Abbate Uggeri published a project on the subject of such researches: the late Duchess of Devonshire had already, in 1817, commenced the task of excavating under the direction of the celebrated Carlo Fea: in 1827, the Conde di Funchal continued the work, and lately the Duc de Blacas has resolved to prosecute it in a manner that promises the most complete success. This undertaking is encouraged by the pontifical government, desirous of furnishing to the poor workmen of Rome the means of obtaining an honest livelihood by their labour, at the same time promoting the objects of scientific and literary research.

There is an account of excavations made in the Forum Trajanum and its vicinity; in the Via Appia, and the Vigna Giangiorgi, and the Vigna Capranica, where the Duke of Buckingham caused researches to be made, and found a sepulchre with painted