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walk the earth with the other children of humanity, we are ready to attend in her train; but if she prefers travelling in an air balloon, our gravity will not permit us to mount the car beside her; but we will hail her return to terra firma with satisfaction.

Human Magnetism, its Claims to Dispassionate Inquiry, &c. By W. Newnham, Esq.

THIS is at once a candid and judicious treatise. The author says, that he was asked to write a paper against Mesmerism, and was furnished with materials which proved incontestably that under some circumstances the operator might be duped and hundreds of enlightened persons deceived, and the pretended science might be a delusion and system of fraud and juggling. But, as he came to examine the facts, he found that the only proof they afforded was that certain phenomena might be counterfeited; he therefore set about investigating the subject for himself, and, after having collected and read the chief works relating to animal magnetism, the result has been, the grow ing, the complete impossibility of writing against it. The author then specifies what he believes to be the reasons of the dislike existing in numerous bodies of people to believe in the truth of Mesmerism, and which has prevented even a candid examination of the subject. One of these, the most general and most important, is the following:

"The progress of magnetism has been retarded by its frequently having found its supporters among men of a certain order of theological views-that is, among those who saw in man's present condition his beginning and end: those who looked on his actions as the automatic result of his organization; those who denied the existence of a controlling will, and spiritual principle; who disbelieved the existence of a future state of rewards and punishments; who were thorough materialists, and sceptical on the subject of a moral Governor of the universe. Their magnetism has been combined with sophism and infidelity, and indeed has often been thus associated. But it has no necessary connection with such errors; and the conversion of Georget late in life from materialism to spiritualism, is entirely to be attributed to his conviction of the truth of magnetic phenomena; and the belief of their reality, which marked the

conduct and writings of the philosophic Colquhoun, of the enlightened and the religious Deleuze, and of the truly excellent and pious Townshend, are a sufficient guarantee that the doctrines and practices

of Mesmerism are not inimical to the moralities of scriptural truth, while the weight of mind, of judgment, of morals, and of piety, is not to be paralleled among its opponents."

Then, as to the evidence of its truth and reality, we borrow another judicious observation from our author, which should be ever borne in mind by those examining into the evidence of the subject.

"It has been well remarked by that eminent philosopher Laplace, that we are so imperfectly acquainted with all the agents of nature, and their different modes of sophical to deny the existence of phenooperation, that it is thoroughly unphilomena which we cannot explain in the present state of our knowledge, and that precisely and only because we have not seen them with our own eyes, or may not be able to explain them. We ought, on the contrary, to examine the assumed matters of fact with an attention more scrupulous in proportion as they appear more difficult of adoption; and here it is that the estimate of probabilities becomes indispensable, to determine how far observations and experiments must be multiplied in order to procure in favour of their apparent agents a greater amount of probability than is afforded by the à priori grounds, which seem to weigh against their existence and their power."

Undoubtedly on this, as on other subjects of philosophical investigation, the defence has often been badly conducted, and its supporters have reasoned weakly and wide of the mark.

But, on the other hand, let not examination he refused because of the wild extravagance of some enthusiasts; let it be remembered that a fact, though badly sup ported, may yet be a fact; and let it ever be borne in mind, that among those who deny magnetism not one is to be found who has himself investigated its truth; while, whatever difference of opinion is to be found among magnetisers, none whatever exists as to the reality and efficacy of the agent. Once again compare the works for and against magnetism; the former abounding in well-attested facts; the latter (of which a good example exists in the Rev. Mr. H. Mac Neile's Sermon at Liverpool, in which Satan was declared to be the agent, we presume

under the shape of Dr. Elliotson,) in groundless assertion, vague objection, or pointless ridicule. Even the early Commissioners of the Academy and Royal Society of Medicine do not deny the effects, which they admit to be extraordinary, but which they refer to the influence of the imagination; and, having done so fairly, it is impossible not to come to the conclusion, that there is a reality in magnetism, and that no other cause could produce the same effects."

recalling some such noble genius to his proper vocation, he shall better assure to your Majesty's memory all that we most heartily fain," &c. The Advertisement tells us that the time treated of in the poem is a thousand years to the day, and that the word "Earth" does not mean our globe, but the solar system. We have not room to give even an outline of the whole poem. The chief adventure in the First book is the battle between Lucifer and Chaos. In the Second,

Night has a child by Chaos and Lucifer, called "the Undying Worm;" afterwards Chaos becomes a battle field! In the Third book Lucifer endeavours to sap and mine the wall of Heaven, but is repulsed, and Chaos is shivered to pieces. In the Fifth Lucifer goes to Sirius, collects a rebel host, but on arriving at the sun he finds it built and fortified in his absence. In the Sixth he fights with Uriel and Sacrael, is beaten, retires, rends the sun asunder, and dies. This

As to ourselves, who have seen much of Mesmerism among a great diversity of patients, as well as agents, and have watched its power in health and its effects in disease, we have long passed beyond this stage of the inquiry; and we are now chiefly interested in whatever should make us informed of the increasing extent of its influence over disease. We have witnessed its decided effect in the cure of epilepsy; its sanative influence in the most determined nervous diseases; its power of delivering the patient from all painful sensation in the most alarming is a long book, as there is much to do operations; its tendency to produce soothing and refreshing sleep to the agitated and irritated frame; and we shall always look forward with interest to any communication from authentic sources, containing fresh accounts of the practice of it extending over a still wider field of disease. The author's work is a valuable communication on the subject, though we think it might with advantage be somewhat abridged. Let it be a standing rule among all authors, "Make your book as short as you can."

The Wars of Jehovah in Heaven, Earth, and Hell. In Nine Books. By Thomas Hawkins, Esq. 4to.

THIS poem is dedicated to the Queen, "with the hope that it may serve as a mark of her Majesty's reign till the latest posterity." The dedicator says, "Your Majesty's predecessors had Spenser or Shakspere, nor are we amongst those who, imagining the time for celebrations of princes past, waste their talents over a novel or romaunt in Hercules' manner when he sat to spin; but for this, some better gifted bard, some Amphion striking numbers beyond all reach, had deterred our loyal if not presumptuous strain, and we hope that this example,

in it. Towards the end the author
invokes the Muse-

Muse, let me now relate, nor Midas smile,
But when the Teucrian tutelars above
Ride high with the full moon to Westminster;
There in the coronation chair is found
The stone Aurora unto Tith onus,
One morning at the feet of Ida, showed, &c.

We thought that Lucifer had been dead long ago, but in the Ninth book he is alive and well again, and at his old tricks; we are glad however to find that in the Ninth and last book he is permanently conquered; and, after passing an eulogium on Queen Victoria, the poem ends. The author has given variety to his poem by adopting new quantities in his words, as Sejănus, Mimosa, Philoctetes, Ilyssus, Anăbis, Thalia, Cytheron, Phidias, and innumerable others, to all which when the ear is once accustomed, much satisfaction will be felt, and we are only astonished that he did not give a greater emphasis to his own and the Queen's name by accenting them, Victoría and T. Hawkins. To give long specimens from a work of such amplitude would overpass the margin of our little book, and we trust that the author will render it needless by printing another and cheap edition for the working

classes, so that every man, woman, and child in the kingdom may have a copy of the Wars of Jehovah; and it may thus be introduced with advantage into village schools, institutes, &c. It is our decided opinion that Wordsworth never wrote anything like it. In extent of learning Thomson's Seasons is nothing to it, and we have no hesitation in saying that it exceeds Paradise Lost in originality of conception and magnificence of language. Yet we must pick a few brilliant flowers from the garland. In book 1. p. 145, an angel is compared

to the Mogul

In Agra, or Delhi, with ornament
Beyond the Persian the Sirdars bemean'd:
-Constellars vast

He swept wordlike together in huge forms,
Incomprehensible to man; the Gods

Read.

Another comparison,

He started-so a baleful baron bold
Belied, or brindled lion at a pard
Roaring."

In the battle fought by Lucifer he is assisted by some extraordinary allies.

Creatures with scraggy skulls, and jaunty jambs,

Speechless to see, envenomed giant jinns,
Scabb'd scolopendrians.

The semivital big

Alligatorians that the unknown

Soil of our bottom'd seas prodigious pierce. Ten-tusk'd and hydra-headed winged vults,

tiquity, and the change of scene and time is agreeable to the reader. Moloch and Lucifer are thus compared to some modern heroes of similar character:

He ceas'd, consenting murmurings upon
His closing sentence falling; to him joined
Another called Darpathrus, bolder still;
So Mirabeau, Danton surrounded by
The canaille, &c.

Milton has derived some similes from ships, nor with less force says our author,

-So a great ship of war, The merchantman, with opium from Patna Freighted, the voyage bad, safe anchorage casta In the Ta-ho. Like some stern tribune as Torquatus was, or like Caligula, Scylla when he returned dictator, &c.

The death of Chaos is accompanied with a wide and fearful destruction. Then out he tore his hollow heart, wherein Sate sceptred Undelight, with features grim Grimm'd arose, reel'd dizzily, and with All his abysmal subjects-wraiths conceived In darkness, mottled spectres, some like bones Sapless and marrowless, with rampt resolves And unresolves as rampant, rout, and rage, Resentment, ruin, rumour, gloominess, And wrath, winter, wind, and clamour, chance And conflict, care, confusion, fury, fight, Lightning, discord, destruction, darkness, doom, [sunk, sunk, Dread, dross, drought, dusk, and thunder The light gone thro' them. Then methought I saw

Chaos's final spasm, &c.

Lucifer, however, still maintains his

Blue, black, or red-winged vult-like gryphons ground, though deprived of his old and

waked

The air with mania gladness, starting eyes
And lolling tongues had some-the incubi
Like mounts of flesh.

In the Fourth Book the author seems to complain of the Muse, we fear ungratefully, who has helped him to so

many thousand verses. Yet he says

Calliope struck Thamyras blind.

-Others as well,

In Scio or in Albion born, whilst I,
Learning these bases supernatural loud,
Thou Muse, thyself my tympanum hast broke.

It is difficult to be very sublime without being also a little obscure, as for instance :

-Horrible they fought,

Frisk'd, frown'd, or fled affright; so out to sea An eagle-king, pells, pettrels, pindadoes Ominous flit, and dart, and dive, and skim, Continually around a hateful kind.

A modern illustration often throws light on a subject obscure from its an

faithful ally.

Famous his feats,

Headlong, headstrong, hard-handed, high the

ground

He spurn'd, as if he eke were brazen-hoof'd. As well his maddest momics neighing loud, Larynxed, alarm'd, startling.

When Lucifer had split the sun in pieces, it was found composed of a vast mass of curious geological specimens, which are scientifically grouped, yet not without some poetical struggles, and an invocation to the Muse. O fold mine eyes, Calliope, 1 scarce Endure thy catalogue,-Acanticene, Alalite, analcine, augite, bildstein, Botrydite, cornelian, celestine, Datolite, dipyre, moonstone, pyrochlore, Plasma, pran, pyrope, gneiss, scherbenkobalt, Siderochizolte, sun-opallite,

Talc, telluret, tincal, endellion,

Feldspar, fluor, fulgunte, garnet, blende, With all their sapphirine and satin shades, &c.

After the destruction of these in

fernal agents, new worlds are created, adorned with choicest delicacies and fruits.

Great pommeloes, pomegranates, tufted pines,
Like Ceres, diamonded and rubied; more
Luscious than e'en the Lotophygians 'joyed,
-Then for a dessert were placed
Ready, with unimagined luxuries,
Beside, things lavendered, candied quince,
Gourds, semilucent jellies, cinnamon
Creams, tinctured syrups, spiced dainties, and
Elixirs from strange kernels, possets sweet
To plenitude, and others wanting name.

Such was the luxurious diet of our first parents, while in their state of duty and innocence; but Eve one hot day, sitting by the side of a river, looked into it and said to Adam,

-O, cried she, if thus

In this true glass so beautiful we look,
What are we in reality?

She then held out the forbidden apple to Adam :

So Hamlet, royal Dane, once look'd, as then, Heart-struck, lost Adam-back he started. Oh! Eve, Eve, what hast thou done?

But while he is speaking, and Eve is looking like Serena when Sir Calapine was away, Lucifer comes forward, and then the poet, stimulated to wrath, bursts into an indignant denunciation.

-Oh! thou Judas! thou Falsest dissembler, Simon. O thou wolf, Fleshing a virgin deer! Gamilian! thou Burglar, thou robber, thou enticer, thou Despoiler, thou defiler, &c.

When the judgment of the deluge came, with the Gog and Magog who have long been inmates of Guildhall, there were many other families of giants on the earth, the race of whom are not so familiar.

nine thousand they Hideous their names as persons-Shaphryth, Oom, Frank Hellos, Scrematry, Adsch, Na, Troundell,

And Nashmardradid over all.

Around them played the megatherium, and other gigantic animals. They brayed, squeaked, yelled, and mow'd, and moped, and munned,

And other ictions odd to see and hear,
Never conceived.

The author excels in the very difficult art of introducing proper names into poetry with effect, an art in which his great predecessor Milton is supposed also to have been successful, but

not to the same extent; let us take the following example.

what's Demosthenes when stripped Of his high-sounding words? or he who wrote That orator and augur? who Calcas And Mopsus in his equal folly scorned? Nor Livy mourning o'er Lucretia, nor Sanconiatho, Lysias, Sallust, Quintius Curtius, Tacitus, Plutarch, Gellius, Juvenal, Nicander, or Lactantius, Xenophon, Thucydides, Apollodorus, Statius, nor yet Seneca, &c.

Again, in the examination of the fallen angels

-Affrac, Harec, Esoctrac, Shry, Fok,
Sub-powers confined like him, ten thousands-

varied

Like thought, with faces green and livid, eyes
No longer fading, and such horrid looks
As threatened a dethronement,-Ugoline
De Gherardeschi, Ruggieri starved,
With all his hapless sons, never such looks
Looked, nor the sacrilegious Fucci, when
Pursued by Cacus, &c.

But we most reluctantly quit our pleasing task-time wears away-we have given enough to excite the reader's appetite for more-we shall then only add, that the poem ends as it commenccd, with an address to Queen Victoria, for which the least the Queen could do in return would be to confer on the author the honour of knighthood. We hope to see the title of "Sir Thomas Hawkins" prefixed to the next edition; an honour well and nobly earned! witness the following address-" Crowned Queen!" most queens we presume not being crowned, as Queen Caroline, &c. Well! Crowned Queen! O let the living Muses tell, Victoria! thy great name, Urania! stars Worn in thy diadem as bright adorn Augusta's! thou Calliope, who, when The lightning singed my auburn locks, to me Long life and honour pronounced, if I placed Her name above the sacrilegious reach Of time.-Tis done? now, goddess, at her feet Write thou in joy and gladness, all her plebs Killing fat beeves, and sheep, and eating flesh And drinking wine, and of her revenues Gold, silver reckoned, stones, jewels, and horse,

And chariots numberless ;-of finest flour,
Harts, fowls, her servants eating, every liege
Under his vine and fig tree.-
Victoria reigns! Victoria reigns! so write
Thereafter, that her hill is as the hill
Of Bashan, that her enemies on the head
Were wounded, and the tongues of dogs licke

up

Their blood-and grace upon thy pages pour,

Her garments smell of myrrh and cassia,

Her clothes of wrought gold and needlework,
Most excellent, and many her desired
For her rare beauty; and oh! thou before
Invoked, Religion, thus our Diva bless
Perpetual at her side, short time devout
Thy neophyte yet claims, &c.

There are to be sure many passages in this poem we do not, after all our endeavours, understand, as

so in a dream

Feasted the Barmecide, these presently Reaching sardonyxes like him awake; and others but we are very willing to say of ourselves, in confession of our ignorance, as Socrates did of He.

raclitus, "What I do understand of him is so good, that what I do not I attribute to my own incapacity, and not to any defect in him;" perhaps, however, a running commentary, like that in the Delphin classics, and some Scholia, would be advisable in the edition meant for common use, while the aristocratic copies would remain as they are. There are eleven engravings by Mr. Martin accompany. ing the book, as regards which all we can say is, that he is all but equal to the poet.

1. Geology: introductory, descriptive, and practical. Part I. By David Thomas Ansted, M.A., F.R.S., F.G.S., Professor of Geology in King's College, London.2. The Geologist's Text Book. By the same.-3. Geology as a Branch of Education. By the same.-To all who are turning their attention to the most important science of geology, whether with the earnestness bestowed in earlier life on a chosen pursuit, or with the later desire of knowing all they can of the history of this earthly home of their mortality, while they yet remain in it, the specimens before us of Professor Ansted's works justify us in saying, that if you want a teacher who will make you love his science, and feel happy in your advancement in it, you should avail yourselves of the services of Professor Ansted. His Text Book, (No. 2,) with its analytical index of contents, gives a clear synopsis of his science, and makes an excellent finder to his great geological telescope, (No. 1), which, as he says, "is intended to teach the science thoroughly." No. 3 is a pamphlet insisting on what one would hardly expect to hear gainsaid in these days of activity in mining, engineering, and agriculture,-the advantages of geology as a branch of education; but it is hard to make John Bull understand any advantage of science but that of making money by it, though his own moral ele vation would he well earned by the culti vation of it. We like geology not the least because it leads to the natural history of recent life, and gives us light to follow it.

A History of British Fossil Mammalia and Birds. By Richard Owen, F.R.S., F.G.S. &c. Part I.-This is a work which we think from the specimen before us must be gladly welcomed by collectors

of fossils, as well as those who cultivate the natural history of recent animal life; and should be read by all those that question the soundness of the deductions of comparative anatomists, that they may see with what extreme caution they thread the clues of induction, and how trustworthy they must be in their main conclusions.

The Syntax of the Relative Pronoun and ils Cognates. By Alfred Day, LL.D.— The result of very much patient reading, and a work which must be acceptable to classical teachers.

The Theogony of the Hindoos; with their Philosophy and Cosmogony. By Count M. Björnstjerna.-A welcome contribution to the history of man, giving an account of the castes, holy books, and sciences, of that most early civilized nation, the Hindoos; with the rise of Brahmaism, and the wide-spread Buddhism, (holding 380 millions of souls,) which our author has followed into China, Japan, Ceylon, Thibet, and Tartary; and identified with the doctrines of the British Druids, and even, though less convincingly to us, with those of the Northern mythology. Our author calculates that the Vedas were written about 2500 years before Christ, and the Vedanta, an abstract of them, about 500 years later; and the early civilization of the Hindoos is shown by the code of laws called the Institutions of Menu, which, as our author observes, (p. 30,) prescribed orders respecting commerce, trade, and industry, which are still convenient, fixed a rate of interest for money lent, prescribed a law respecting bills of Exchange, and made mention of a representative paper coin, a thousand years before our æra. These were afterwards followed bythe Puranas, which inculcated

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