compose a stone; from whence this vegetative power ascending through an infinite variety of herbs, flowers, plants, and trees, to its greatest perfection in the sensitive plant, joins there the lowest degree of animal life in the shell-fish, which adheres to the rock; and it is difficult to distinguish which possesses the greatest share, as the one shows it only by shrinking from the finger, and the other by opening to receive the water which surrounds it. In the same manner this animal life rises from this low beginning in the shell-fish, through innumerable species of insects, fishes, birds, and beasts, to the confines of reason, where, in the dog, the monkey, and chimpanzè, it unites so closely with the lowest degree of that quality in man, that they cannot easily be distinguished from each other. From this lowest degree in the brutal Hottentot, reason, with the assistance of learning and science, advances through the various stages of human understanding, which rise above each other, till in a Bacon or a Newton it attains the summit."

The next, on cruelty to animals, is a most able enforcement of the feelings of humanity, produced by merely counteracting the effects of custom, which familiarizes us to behold scenes of barbarity without the slightest regard. By stating the treatment of the inferior race of beings as it really exists, and by placing us in a new relative situation towards them by an analogical supposition, he completely effects his purpose of striking us with horror at the actions which we are every day witnesses of.

"No small part of mankind derive their chief amusements from the deaths and sufferings of inferior animals; a much greater, consider them only as engines of wood or iron, useful in their several occupations. The carman drives his horse, and the carpenter his nail, by repeated blows; and so long as these produce the desired effect, and they both go, they neither reflect or care whether either of them have any sense of feeling. The butcher knocks down the stately ox with no more compassion than the blacksmith hammers a horse-shoe; and plunges his knife into the throat of the innocent lamb, with as little reluctance as the taylor sticks his needle into the collar of a coat.".

Again:

"If there are some few, who, formed in a softer mould, view with pity the sufferings of these defenceless creatures, there is scarce one who entertains the least idea, that justice or gratitude can be due to their merits or their services. The social and friendly dog is hanged without remorse, if, by barking in defence of his master's person and property, he happens unknowingly to disturb his rest: the generous horse, who has carried his ungrateful master for many years with ease and safety, worn out with age and infirmities contracted in his service, is by him condemned to end his miserable days in a dust-cart, where the more he exerts his little remains of spirit the more he is whipped, to save his stupid driver the trouble of whipping some other, less obedient

to the lash. Sometimes, having been taught the practice of many un natural and useless feats in a riding-house, he is at last turned out and consigned to the dominion of a hackney-coachman, by whom he is every day corrected for performing those tricks which he has learned under so long and severe a discipline. The sluggish bear, in contradiction to his nature, is taught to dance, for the diversion of a malignant mob, by placing red-hot irons under his feet: and the majestic bull is tortured by every mode which malice can invent, for no offence, but that he is gentle, and unwilling to assail his diabolical tormentors.' He thus concludes:

"Though civilization may in some degree abate this native ferocity, it can never quite extirpate it; the most polished are not ashamed to be pleased with scenes of little less barbarity, and, to the disgrace of human nature, to dignify them with the name of sports. They arm cocks with artificial weapons, which nature had kindly denied to their malevolence, and, with shouts of applause and triumph, see them plunge them into each other's hearts: they view with delight the trembling deer and defenceless hare flying for hours in the utmost agonies of terror and despair, and at last, sinking under fatigue, devoured by their merciless pursuers: they see with joy the beautiful pheasant and harmless partridge drop from their flight, weltering in their blood, or, perhaps, perishing with wounds and hunger, under the cover of some friendly thicket to which they have in vain retreated for safety they triumph over the unsuspecting fish, whom they have decoyed by an insidious pretence of feeding, and drag him from his native element by a hook fixed to and tearing out his entrails: and, to add to all this, they spare neither labour nor expense to preserve and propagate these innocent animals, for no other end but to multiply the objects of their persecution.

What name should we bestow on a superior Being, whose whole endeavours were employed, and whose whole pleasure consisted in terrifying, ensnaring, tormenting, and destroying, mankind? Whose superior faculties were exerted in fomenting animosities amongst them, in contriving engines of destruction, and inciting them to use them in maiming and murdering each other? Whose power over them was employed in assisting the rapacious, deceiving the simple, and oppressing the innocent? Who, without provocation or advantage, should continue from day to day, void of all pity and remorse, thus to torment mankind for diversion, and at the same time endeavour with their utmost care to preserve their lives, and to propagate their species, in order to increase the number of victims devoted to his malevolence, and be delighted in proportion to the miseries which he occasioned ? say, what name detestable enough could we find for such a being? Yet, if we impartially consider the case, and our intermediate situation, we must acknowledge, that, with regard to inferior animals, just such a being is a sportsman."

I

The Essay on the pre-existent state, though, doubtless, inconclusive, is equally beautiful and ingenious with the rest.-If

it have no other effect, it will set the reader's thoughts to work on a curious and interesting subject.

The most striking of all these Disquisitions is the fourth, on the nature of time. In which the author proves time to be nothing, and draws from this seeming paradox various new and amusing corollaries. He thus commences:

"We are so accustomed to connect our ideas of time with the history of what passes in it, that is, to mistake a succession of thoughts and actions for time, that we find it extremely difficult, perhaps impossible, totally to separate or distinguish them from each other: and, indeed, had we power to effect this in our minds, all human language is so formed, that it would fail us in our expression: yet certain it is, that time abstracted from the thoughts, actions, and motions, which pass in it, is actually nothing: it is only the mode in which some created beings are ordained to exist, but in itself has really no existence at all.

Though this opinion may seem chimerical to many, who have not much considered the subject, yet it is by no means new, for it was long since adopted by some of the most celebrated philosophers of antiquity, particularly by the Epicureans; and is thus well expressed by Lucretius:

Tempus item per se non est ; sed rebus ab ipsis
Consequitur sensus, transactum quod sit in ævo,
Tum quæ res instat, quid porro deinde sequatur;
Nec per se, quemquam tempus sentire, fatendum est,
Semotum ab usum, motu, plácidaque quiete."

"Time of itself is nothing; but from thought
Receives its rise, by lab'ring fancy wrought,
From things consider'd: while we think on some
As present, some as past, and some to come:
No thought can think on time, that's still confess'd,

But thinks on things in motion, or at rest." CREECH.

He thus states the nature of time in contradistinction to eternity.

"With the other mode of existence we are sufficiently acquainted, being that in which Providence has placed us, and all things around us, during our residence on this terrestrial globe; in which all ideas follow each other in our minds in a regular and uniform succession, not unlike the tickings of a clock; and by that means all objects are presented to our imaginations in the same progressive manner: and if any vary much from that destined pace, by too rapid or too slow a motion, they immediately become to us totally imperceptible. We now perceive every one, as it passes, through a small aperture separately, as in the camera obscura, and this we call time; but at the

conclusion of this state we may probably exist in a manner quite different; the window may be thrown open, the whole prospect appear at one view, and all this apparatus, which we call time, be totally done away: for time is certainly nothing more, than the shifting of scenes necessary for the performance of this tragi-comical farce, which we are here exhibiting, and must undoubtedly end with the conclusion of the drama. It has no more a real essence, independent of thought and action, than sight, hearing, and smell have, independent of their proper organs, and the animals to whom they belong, and when they cease to exist, time can be no more. There are, also, several passages in the scriptures, declaring this annihilation of time, at the consummation of all things: And the angel, which I saw stand upon the sea and the earth, lifted up his hand towards heaven, and swore by him that liveth for ever and ever, &c. that there should be time no longer.*

To this opinion of the non-entity of time it has by some been objected, that time has many attributes and powers inherent in its nature; and that whatever has attributes and powers must itself exist: it is infinite, say they, and eternal; it contains all things; and forces itself on our imaginations in the absence of all other existence: but to this it may be answered, that the human mind is able in the very same manner to realize nothing; and then all the same attributes and powers are applicable with equal propriety to that nothing, thus supposed to be something:

+ Nothing, thou elder brother ev'n to shade!
Thou had'st a being, ere the world was made,
And well fix'd art alone of ending not afraid.

"Nothing is infinite and eternal; that is, hath neither beginning nor end: it contains all things; that is, it begins where all existence ends; and therefore surrounds and contains all things: it forces itself on the mind in the absence of all existence; that is, where we suppose there is no existence we must suppose there is nothing: this exact resemblance of their attributes and powers, more plainly demonstrates that time is nothing."

From the principles he lays down, some "useful and entertaining conclusions are drawn." The first is as follows:

"If time be no more than the succession of ideas and actions, however these may be accelerated or retarded, time will be just the same: that is, neither longer or shorter, provided the same ideas and actions succeed one another, as far, I mean, as it relates to beings so thinking and acting. For instance, were the earth and all the celestial bodies to perform the same revolutions in one day which they now perform in a whole year, and were all the ideas, actions, and lives, of mankind hastened on in the same proportion, the period of our lives would not be in the least shortened; but that day would be exactly

equal to the present year: if in the space of seventy or eighty of these days a man was born, educated, and grown up, had exercised a profession, had seen his children come to maturity, his grand-children succeed them, and during this period had had all his ideas and actions, all his enjoyments and sufferings, accelerated in the same proportion, he would not only seem to himself and to all who lived in the same state with him, and measured time by the same standard, to have lived so long, but actually and in fact would have lived as long as one who resides on this globe as great a number of our present years."

And the third :

"From hence it is evident, that we can form no judgment of the duration of the lives, enjoyments, and sufferings, of other animals, with the progression of whose ideas we are totally unacquainted, and who may be framed in that respect, as well as in many others, so widely different from ourselves. The gaudy butterfly, that flutters in the sunshine but for a few months, may live as long as the stupid tortoise, that breathes for a century; the insect, that survives not one diurnal revolution of the sun, may, for any thing we know, enjoy an age of happiness; and the miserable horse, that appears to us to suffer the drudgery of ten or twenty years, may finish his laborious task in as many months, days, or hours."

The sixth corollary is, also, well worth quoting.

"From what has been said, we may perceive into what amazing absurdities many of our ablest divines and metaphysicians have plunged, in their investigations of eternity, for making which their receipt is usually this: they take of time a sufficient quantity, and chopping it in small pieces, they dispose them in imaginary lengths, which they distinguish by the names of minutes, hours, days, years, and ages then, feeling in their own minds a power of multiplying these as often as they think fit, they heap millions upon millions; and finding this power to be a machine that may be worked backwards and forwards with equal facility, they extend their line both ways, and so their eternity is compleated, and fit for use: they then divide it in the middle, and out of a single eternity they make two, as they term them, a parte ante and a purte post; each of which having one end, may be drawn out, like a juggler's ribband, as long as they please. The contradictions so manifest in this system, sufficiently declare its falsehood: for in adopting it we must acknowledge, that each half of this eternity is equal to the whole; that in each the number of days cannot exceed that of the months, nor the months be more numerous than the years, they being all alike infinite; that whether it commenced yesterday or ten thousand years since, the length of its duration must be the same; for the length depends not on the beginning but on the end, but that cannot be different where there is no end at all the absurdity of all these propositions is too glaring to stand in need of any refutation; for it is evident, that whatever contains parts,