moral condition, and final deftination of Man. Upon thefe refpective particulars, a large variety of found and inftructive reafonings is delivered; and the mind is prefented with a regular chain of useful diftinctions, in terms at once concife and perfpicuous, upon the very copious and abftracted fpeculations of metaphyfical and ethical fcience. We cannot refufe our readers an extract from this part of the work, on a subject with which Infidels have fported, and philofophers have been embarraffed.

"Of the Question refpecting the best World poffible; and of the Origin of

E-vil.

"You know well, that it has been made a queftion, Whether this world be the beft poffible? It cannot be doubted, that the world perfectly correfponds to the plan which God propofed to himself, when he created it.

As to bodies, and material productions, their arrangement and ftructure are fuch, that certainly they could not have been better. Please to recollect the wonderful ftructure of the eye, and you will fee the neceffity of admitting, that the conformation of all its parts is perfectly adapted to fulfil the end in view, that of reprefenting dif tinctly exterior objects. How much addrefs is neceflary to keep up the eye in that ftate, during the courfe of a whole life? The juices which compose it must be preferved from corruption; it was neceffary 10 make provifion, that they fhould be conftantly renewed, and main

tained in a fuitable state.

"A ftructure equally marvellous is obfervable in all the other parts of our bodies, in thofe of all animals, and even of the vileft infects. And the ftructure of thefe laft, is fo much the more admirable, on account of their fmallnefs, that it fhould perfectly fatisfy all the wants which are peculiar to each fpecies. Let us examine only the sense of feeing in thefe infects, by which they diftinguish objects fo minute, and fo near, as to escape our eyes, and this examination alone will fill us with aftonishment.

"We discover the fame perfection in plants: every thing in them concurs to their formation, to their growth, and to the production of their flowers, of their fruits, or of their feeds. What a prodigy to behold a plant, a tree, fpring from a fmall grain, caft into the carth, by the help of the nutritious juices with which the foil fupplies it? The productions found in the bowels of the earth are no lefs wonderful: every part of nature is capable of exhaufting our utmost powers of refearch, without permitting us to penetrate all the wonders of its conftruction. Nay, we are utterly lott, while we reflect, how every fubitance, earth, water, air, and fire, concur in the production of all organized bodies; and, finally, how the arrangement of all the heavenly bodies is fo admirably contrived, as perfectly to fulfil all the fe particular deftinations.

"After having reflected in this manner, it will be difficult for you to believe, that there fhould have been men who maintained, that the univerfe was the effect of mere chance, without any defign. But there

always

always have been, and there ftill are, perfons of this defcription; thofe, however, who have a folid knowledge of nature, and whom fear of the juftice of God does not prevent from acknowledging Him, are convinced, with us, that there is a Supreme Being, who created the whole univerfe, and, from the remarks which I have just been fuggefting to you, refpecting bodies, every thing has been created in the higheft perfection.

As to fpirits, the wickedness of man feems to be an infringement of this perfection, as it is but too capable of introducing the greatest evils into the world, and thefe evils have, at all times, appeared incompatible with the fovereign goodness of God. This is the weapon ufually employed by infidels against religion, and the existence of God. If God, fay they, was the author of the world, He must also be the author of the evil which it contains, and of the crimes committed in it. "This question, refpecting the origin of evil; the difficulty of explaining, how it can confift with the fovereign goodness of God, has always greatly perplexed philofophers and divines. Some have endeavoured to give a folution, but it has fatisfied only themselves. Others have gone fo far as to maintain, that God was, in fact, the author of moral evil, and of crimes; always protesting, at the fame time, that this opinion ought to bring no imputation on the goodness and holinefs of God. Others, finally, confider this queftion as a myf tery which we cannot comprehend; and these last, undoubtedly, have embraced the preferable fentiment.

"God is fupremely good and holy; He is the author of the world, and that world fwarms with crimes and calamities. Thefe are three truths which it is, apparently, difficult to reconcile: but, in my opinion, a great part of the difficulty vanishes, as foon as we have formed a juft idea of fpirit, and of the liberty fo effential to it, that God himfelf cannot diveft it of this quality*.

"God having created fpirits, and the fouls of men, I remark, firft, that fpirits are beings infinitely more excellent than bodies; and, fecondly, that, at the moment of creation, fpirits were all good: for time is requifite to the formation of evil inclinations: there is, therefore, no difficulty in affirming, that God created fpirits. But it being the effence of fpirits to be free, and liberty not being capable of fubfifting without a power to fin, to create a fpirit poffeffed of the power of finning, has nothing inconfiftent with divine perfection, becaufe a fpirit could not be created deftitute of that power.

"God has, befides, done every thing to prevent crimes, by prefcribing to fpirits, precepts, the obfervance of which must always render them good and happy. There is no other method of treating fpirits, which cannot be fubject to any constraint; and if fome of them have abufed their liberty, and tranfgreffed thefe commandments, they are refponfible for it, and worthy of punishment, without any im peachment of the Deity.

* This is furely a very bold affertion. Rev.

"There

"There remains only one objection more to be confidered: namely, that it would have been better not to create such spirits, as God forefaw they muft fink into criminality. But this far furpaffes human underftanding; for we know not, whether the plan of the world could fubfift without them. We know, on the contrary, by experience, that the wickedness of fome men frequently contributes to the correction and amendment of others, and thereby conducts them to happiness. This confideration, alone, is fufficient to justify the existence of evil fpirits. And, as God has all power over the confequences of human wickedness, every one may reft affured, that, in conforming to the commandments of God, all events which come to pass, however calamitous they may appear to him, are always under the direction of Providence, and, finally, terminate in true happiness.

"This providence of God, which extends to every individual, in particular, thus furnishes me the most fatisfactory folution of the queftion refpecting the permiffion, and the origin, of evil." P. 388..

The fecond volume opens with a refutation of fome erroneous fyftems on the fubject of fpiritual exiflences, and particularly thofe of the Pyrrhonifts and Monadifts. Some retrenchment might have been made of thefe particular articles, without difparagement to the credit or utility of the work. Having difpatched thefe reafonings, and offered fome reflections upon the manifeft relation between colours and funds, Euler proceeds to fubjects of electricity, which he inveltigates at large, together with all their analogies in thunder and lightning. The extract from Adams's Lectures, which the English tranflator has annexed in a note, forms a very useful fupplement to the obfervations of the German philofopher. The investigation of the longitude and latitude, the powers of the magnet, the properties of the lenfes, the conftruction of telefcopes, and fome general obfervations upon miscellaneous fubjects of phyfical difficulty, conclude the work. Among thefe concluding reflections, we find abundance of acute and ingenious remarks; and thall think we make the public our debtors, if we annex, to the extracts already given, the very fenfible and elegant obfervations which this author has made in his 115th Letter, upon the illufion refpecting the distance of objects, and the diminution of their luftre.

"The principle of our imagination, by which I have endeavoured to explain the phenomenon of the moon's greater apparent magnitude in the horizon than at a confiderable elevation, is fo deeply rooted in our nature as to become the fource of a thoufand fimilar illufions, fome of which I will take the liberty to fuggeft.

"We have been habituated from infancy, almoft involuntarily, to imagine objects to be diftant in proportion as their luftre is diminifhed: and, on the other hand, very brilliant objects appear to be nearer than they really are. This illufion can proceed only from an ill-regulated imagination, which very frequently misleads us. It is nevertheless

4

nevertheless fo natural, and fo univerfal, that no one is capable of guarding against it, though the error, in many cafes, is extremely palpable, as I have fhewed in the inftance of the moon: but we are equally deceived in a variety of other inftances. As I fhall presently make appear.

1. It is a well-known illufion, that the flame of a conflagration, in the night, appears much nearer than it really is. The reafon is obvious; the fire blazes in all its luftre, and in conformity to a principle pre-established in the imagination, we always conclude it to be nearer than it is in reality.

II. For the fame reafon, a great hall, the walls of which are perfectly white, always appears fmaller. White, you know, is the moft brilliant colour: hence we conclude the walls of fuch an apart ment to be too near, and, confequently, the apparent magnitude is thereby diminished.

"III. But in an apartment hung with black, as is the custom in mournings, we perceive the directly oppofite effect. The apartment now appears confiderably more fpacious than it really is. Black is, undeniably, the moft gloomy of colours, for it reflects fcarcely any light on the eye; hence the walls of an apartment in deep mourning fecm more diftant than they are, and confequently greater; but let the black hangings be removed, and the white colour re-appear, and the apartment will feem contracted.

IV. No clafs of men avail themselves more of this natural and univerfal illufion than painters. The fame picture, you know, reprefents fome objects as at a great diftance, and others as very near; and here the skill of the artist is most confpicuous. It is not a little furprizing, that though we know, to abfolute certainty, all the reprefentations of a picture to be expreffed on the fame furface, and, confequently, at nearly the fame diftance from the eye, we should be, nevertheless, under the power of illufion, and imagine fome to be quite near, and others extremely diftant. This illufion is commonly afcribed to a dextrous management of light and hade; which, undoubtedly, furnish the painter with endless refources. But you have only to look at a picture to be fenfible, that the objects intended to be thrown to a great diftance, are but faintly and even indiftinctly expreffed. Thus, when the eye is directed to very remote objects, we eafily perceive, for example, that they are men, but it is impoffible to diftinguish the parts, fuch as the eyes, the nofe, the mouth; and it is in conformity to this appearance that the painter reprefents objects. But thofe which he intends fhould appear close to us, he difplays in all the brightness of colouring, and is at pains clearly to exprefs each minute particular. If they are perfons, we can distinguish the fmalleft lineaments of the face, the folds of the drapery, &c.: this part of the reprefentation feems, I may fay, to rife out of the canvas, while other parts appear to fink and retire.

"V. On this illufion, therefore, the whole art of painting entirely refts. Were we accustomed to form our judgment in ftrict conformity to truth, this art would make no more impreffion on us than if we were blind. To no purpofe would the painter call forth all his powers of genius, and employ the happiest arrangement of colours,

we

we fhould coldly affirm, on that piece of canvas, there is a red fpot, here a blue one; there a black ftroke, here fome whitish lines: every thing is on the fame plane furface; there is no rifing nor finking; therefore no real object can be represented in this manner : the whole would, in this cafe, be confidered as a fcrawling on paper, and we fhould, perhaps, fatigue ourfelves to no purpofe, in attempting to decypher the meaning of all thefe different coloured fpots. Would not a man, in fuch a state of perfection, be an object of much compaffion, thus deprived of the pleasure refulting from the productions of an art, at once so amufing and inftructive?" P. 500.

There is, upon the whole, a copious fund of useful and entertaining matter, in this work of the illuftrious Euler. His tranflator appears, from the general cast and spirit of this verfion, to have confulted, with becoming delicacy and diligence, the character of his original. In prefixing the Eulogium of Euler, read in the Perfian Academy, in fuperadding to the notes of Meffrs. Condorcet and de la Croix his own occafional obfervations, in reftoring fome pious reflections of Euler, which the faftidious infidelity of the French editor had rejected, and, laftly, in annexing a copious gloffary to the whole, Dr. H. has rendered his edition equally valuable and complete.

To the public we commend it, with our beft wishes that it may supply that defideratum in plans of education, of which the tranflator complains; and contribute as largely to the inftruction of youth, as it has already to the fame of its author.

ART. X. An Attempt to render the daily Reading of the Pfalms more intelligible to the Unlearned; with a Paraphrafe felected from the best Commentators, and illuftrated with occafional Notes. By F. T. Travell, A. M. Rector of Upper Slaughter, Gloucestershire. 8vo, 560 pp. 7s. 6d. Robson, &c. London; Fletcher, Oxford, &c. 1794.

THE

HE defign of this work is worthy of rhe venerable author; whofe fervices, in the way of inftruction to the poorer and more ignorant among his fellow-chriftians, have been numerous and important. "It is the fole intention (he fays) of the following pages, to make the daily reading of the Pfalms more eafy and pleasant to thofe ferious and unlearned Chriftians, who make it a point of confcience to attend the public worship of God, and are defirous of joining in his praifes with understanding." Preface, p. xi. We fhall fuffer him, however, to speak entirely for himfelf.

U u

BRIT. CRIT. VOL. VI. DEC. 1795.

"It