Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub
[ocr errors]

They appear to me to be the larva of some insect, but of what particular species I am not naturalist minute enough to determine. The large one appears very similar to the larva of the common beetle. We have many instances related by various authors, of different species of worms discharged from the intestinal canal; but of the different descriptions I have read, or specimens I have seen preserved in anatomical collections, none have struck me as in any degree similar to those discharged by the patient whose case has been just related. It is probable, as has before been mentioned, that the worms discharged were the larvæ of some insect which does not usually deposit its eggs in any part of the human frame; but which having been accidentally deposited in, or conveyed into the body, were hatched, and acquired the size and form we have delineated.'

There can however I believe be little doubt that the complaints of the stomach with which she was seized, and the vomiting of blood, were occasioned by their presence; and that they formed for themselves a nidus in the coats of the stomach appears pretty evident from the purulent and bloody matter which accompanied the discharge of the last portion of them."

On the Composition and Proportion of Carbon in Bitumens and Mineral Coal By Richard Kirwan, Esq. LL. D. F. R. S. & M. R. I. A..

Mr. Kirwan's method of analysing coals and bitumens consisted in combustion, and the decomposition of nitre, by their For the results, we must refer to the paper.

means.

Synoptical View of the State of the Weather in Dublin. By

the same.

For this curious attempt to form rules of prognostication for the seasons, it will be necessary to consult the author's tables.

Thoughts on Magnetism. By the same.

Mr. Kirwan thinks that the phænomena of magnetism are explicable on the principle of crystallization. He observes;

The assemblage of these ultimate particles into visible aggre gates, similarly arranged, necessarily requires that one of their sur faces should be attractive of that particular surface of the other, which presents a corresponding angle, and repulsive of that which presents a different angle; otherwise the various regular rhomboidal and other polygon prisms and pyramids, which crystals present us, could never exist; consequently the minutest prism, being once formed, could never be prolonged if one end of such prisms were not attractive, and the other repulsive of the same given surface.'

Having noticed the attractive and repulsive powers of crystals in particular instances, he proceeds to apply this doctrine to magnetism. After having pointed out the great quantity of iron existing in the globe, he deduces the following corol

laries:

* Ist. That

1st. That the ferruginous matter in the globe being by far the most copious, its universal attractive power is principally seated in the ferruginous part.

[ocr errors]

2d. That as all terraqueous matter was originally in a soft state, its parts were at liberty to arrange themselves according to the laws of their mutual attraction, and in fact did coalesce and crystallize in - the direction in which they were least impeded by the rotatory motion of the globe, namely in that which extends from North to South, and principally and most perfectly in the parts least agitated by that motion, namely those next the centre.

3d. That this crystallization like that of salts might have taken. place in one or more separate shoots, or as we may here call them, immense separate masses, each having its poles distinct from those of the other, those in the same direction repulsive of and distant from -each other.'

The magnet, therefore, is a mass of iron, or iron ore; of which the particles are arranged in a direction similar to that of the great internal central magnets of the globe. The superior attraction of the magnet for iron is supposed to depend on the superior attraction of the particles of iron for each other. We cannot help thinking, however, that the limitation of the magnetic power to iron is an insuperable objection to the explanation attempted from a general principle. If crystallization implies attractive and repulsive properties in the crystals, as Mr. Kirwan asserts in his general propositions, all metals ought to shew some degree of magnetism. If there be still some peculiar property in iron, which exempts it from the common laws of crystallization, the magnetic property remains unexplained. On the Primitive State of the Globe, and its subsequent Catastrophe. By the same.

It has been a subject of regret, to many serious and welldisposed persons, that the progress of natural philosophy has been generally supposed to weaken the authority of the Mosaic account of the creation, and of the first ages of the world. Mr. Kirwan has here stepped forwards, to reconcile the facts of the Hebrew legislator with the opinions of modern philosophers; and he has certainly made out a case sufficiently credible to quiet the alarms of tender consciences. The only objection to his conciliatory plan is, that there are different opinions concerning the primary state of the earth; Mr. K. is a philosopher by water: but there are philosophers by fire; and while this original difference subsists, it will be difficult to re-instate the book of Genesis, as the arbiter of philosophical systems. Besides, Mr. Kirwan absolutely gives up the point of physical explanation, (p. 279,) when he has recourse to a supernatural cause for the elevation of the waters over the highest mountains.

-1

• We

We must therefore consider the deluge as a miraculous effusion of water, both from the clouds and from the great abyss; if the wa ters, situated partly within and partly without the caverns of the globe, were once sufficient to cover even the highest mountains, as I have shewn in the former essay, they must have been sufficient to do so a second time when miraculously educed out of those caverns.'

There is much ingenuity, combined with instructive research, in the subsequent part of this paper.

Synoptical View of the State of the Weather in the Years 1796 and 1797. By the same.

We shall extract the only part of the first of these papers that can be separated: the comparison of the table with the rules of probability:

The Spring being wet, the probability of a wet Summer was the greatest, and that of a variable wet Summer the next greatest; the .first 7 the other by the 6th table.

The Spring being wet and the Summer variable, the probability of a dry Autumn was the greatest by the 10th table.

The observation that the more it rains in May the less it rains in September was also remarkably verified this year, it rained still less in October.

But the observation that the absence of storms in March prognosticates a dry Summer was falsified this year.

For some years past I have remarked that a change of weather most commonly happens on the 7th, 14th, and 21st of every month, a day before or a day after, but sometimes though rarely the weather continues for three or four of these periods.'

The observations for 1797 consist merely of a table, and do not admit of any particular view.

Having thus completed our survey of this volume, we make our bow to the Society for the present, and shall be happy to attend them in the future progress of their labours.

ART. VII. The Beautics of Saurin, being select and interesting Passages, extracted from the Sermons of that justly celebrated Divine; with Memoirs of his Life and Writings; and a Sermon on the Difficulties of the Christian Religion, never before translated. By the Rev. D. Rivers. Second Edition. 12mo. PP. 175. 2s. 6d. sewed. Lee and Hurst.

JA

AMES SAURIN was unquestionably the most elegant, though not the most learned, of all the French Calvinists (the emigrants of those days) who were obliged to leave their country by the revocation of the edict of Nantes. The account of his life prefixed to this little volume is jejune, partial, and incomplete; and satisfactory memoirs of him are yet wanting. They

should

should not however be written by the pen of a panegyrist, nor by an enemy to his enemies; among whom we rank in the first place the celebrated P. Bayle. A just portrait of Saurin and his antagonists requires the pencil of a master; and it may possibly have been already drawn by some learned German.

The volume before us contains a small collection of choice passages, or what the editor deemed such, with a complete sermon on the Christian Religion, from the text For we know in part*.-Running over these Beauties, perhaps with too super ficial a glance, we confess that we find not much in them which deserves great admiration. We see an artful cloquence blended with much real devotion: but we find not the reasoning of a Bourdaloue, nor the pathos of a Massillon. We give two specimens; not as either the worst or the best, but fortuitously taken:

OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD.

• Behold an epitome of religion! Behold a morality in three words! -Return to your houses, and every where carry this reflection with you:-" "God seeth me." To all the wiles of the devil, to all the snares of the world, to all the baits of cupidity, oppose this reficction:-" God seeth me." If cloathed with a human form he were always in your path; were he to follow you to every place; were he always before you with his majestic face, with eyes flashing with lightning, with looks inspiring terror-dare ye, before his august presence, give a loose to your passions? But you have been hearing that his majestic face is every where; those sparkling eyes do inspect you in every place; those terrible looks do consider you every where. Let each examine his own heart, and endeavour to search into his conscience, where he may discover so much weakness, so much corrup tion, so much hardness, so many unclean sources overflowing with so many excesses, and let this idea strike each of you :-" God seeth me"-God seeth me as I see myself-unclean, ungrateful, and rebellious. Happy, if after our examination we have a new heart-a heart agreeable to those eyes that search and try it.'

THE JUSTICE OF GOD.

• God is as amiable and adorable when he exerciseth his justice, as when he exerciseth his goodness. That which makes me adore God, believe his word, hope in his promises, and love him above all things, is the eminence of his perfections. Were not God possessed of such an eminence of perfections he would not be a proper object of adoration. I should be in danger of being deceived were I to believe his word, or trust his promises; and I should be guilty of idolatry were I to love him with that supreme affection which is due to none but the Supreme Being. But the goodness and justice of God being equal emanations of the eminence of his perfection, and of his love of order, I ought equally to adore and love him when he rewardeth and when

Rev. Aug. 1799.

1 Cor. xiii. 9.

E e

he

he punisheth; when he exerciseth his justice, and when he exerciseth his goodness: because, in either ease, he displays that general excellence, that love of order, which is the ground of my love and obedience. I ought to adore and love him, as much when he drowns the world, as when he promiseth to drown it no more when he unlocks the gates of hell, as when he openeth the doors of heaven when he saith to the impenitent" Depart, ye cursed, to the devil and his angels:"as when he saith to his elect "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

We wonder that Mr. Rivers did not give Saurin's celebrated character of his adversary Bayle; which is certainly one of his most eloquent and brilliant pieces. We are much tempted to transcribe it from the original-will the English reader excuse

us

C'etoit un de ces hommes contradictoires, que la plus grande pénétration ne sauroit concilier avec lui même; et dont les qualités opposées nous laissent toujours en suspens, si nous le devons placer, ou dans une extremité, ou dans l'extremité opposée. D'un côté, grand philosophe, sachant demêler le vrai d'avec le faux, voir l'enebainure d'un principe, et suivre une conséquences d'un autre côté, grand sophiste, prenant à tache de confondre le faux avec le vrai, de tordre un principe, de renverser une conséquence. D'un côté, plein d'erudition et de lumière, ayant lu tout ce qu'on peut lire, et retenu tout ce qu'on peut retenir; d'un autre côté, ignorant, ou du moins feignant d'ignorer, les choses les plus communes, avançant des difficultés qu'on amille fois refutées, proposant des objections que les plus novices de l'école n'oseroit alléguer sans rougir.-D'un côté, attaquant les plus grands hommès, ouvrant un vaste champ à leur travaux, et les conduisant par des routes difficiles et par des sentiers raboteux ; et, sinon les surmontant, da moins leur donnant toujours de in peine à vaincre ; d'un autre côté, Paidant de plus petits esprits, leur prodiguant son encens, et salissant ses écrits de ces noms que des bouches doctes n'avoient jamais prononcés. D'un côté, exempi, du moins en apparence, de toute passion contraire à l'esprit de l'evangile; chaste dans ses moeurs, grave dans ses discours, sobre dans ses almen, dustere dans son genre de vie; d'un autre côté, employant toute la pointe de son genie & combattre les bonnes moeurs, à attaquer la chasteté, la modestie, toutes les vertus Chrétiennes. D'un côté, appellant au tribunal de l'orthodoxie la plus severe, puisant dans les sources les plus pures, em pruntant les argumens des Docteurs les moins suspects: d'un duire côté, suivant la route des heretiques, ramenant les objections des anciens bérésiarques, leur pritant des armes nouvelles; et réunissant, dans nôtre siècle, toutes les erreurs des siècles passés. Puisse cet homme, qui fût doué de tant de talens, avoir été absous, devant Dieu, du mauvais usage qu'on lui en vit faire. Puisse ce Jesús, qu'il attaqua tant de fois, avoir expiá sous ses crimes!"

If this be not a true portrait, it must be allowed to be a mas terly caricature. The Hague preacher speaks feelingly; and not without reason: for he had received many hard blows from the Professor of Rotterdam,

The

« ПредишнаНапред »