Whither Pyramus follows her, and they converfe through a chink in the wall: "Oft ftand er hier, und Thibe dort, Und hatten fo ihr Wefen, Sie fagten fich manch fuffes Wort, Wie wirs im Siegwart lefen. Bald wars den Pärchen warm und kalt, O, rief er aller Spälten Spalt, O, wär ich nur ein Wiefel!" Ibid. ART. 76. Joh. Gottlob Leidenfroft Med. D. & P. P. O. Confeffio quid putet per experientiam didiciffe de Mente humana. Duifburg, 1793. 302 pp. in 80. (1 A.) In the preface the author obferves, that a confeffion is no demonstra tion; that he has, from his carlieft youth, accustomed himself to reHect on the nature of God, and of his own foul, and that the main end which he had propofed to himself in all his researches had been to arrive at fome degree of certainty on these important heads. He chose to clothe his ideas in the Latin, rather than in any of the mo dern languages, in which the fignifications of words are fubject to vary every ten years at the pleasure of the writers by whom they are employed.-Libertatem mentis, adds he, quippe quæ eft imago Dei fiduciter afferui, fperans fabulam de mechanifmo corporis, omnium notionum rectore, nunc late damn fe regnantem folidis argumentis refelliffe. 1 Cap. containing fome preliminary remarks. The foul of a new-born infant is, by our author, compared to a fheet of paper on which no characters have yet been traced, or to a mirror to which no object has hitherto been prefented. There are, of courfe, no innate ideas, but all of them are first communicated through the fenfes to the understanding.-Simpli ciffima hæc mentis potentia, quæque fola menti connata, & a Deo creatore tradita eft, facultas aut vis numerandi, id eft vis plura in uno & unum in pluribus comprehendendi ea, quæ non eadem funt tanquam diverfa concipiendi, & plura, quae ejufdem funt generis, in unitatem conciliandi. This is the leading principle, to which all the reft are adapted, as will appear from a few paflages tranfcribed from this fingular work. Agreeably to this notion Mr. L. maintains that the most ancient, and, perhaps, never rightly understood, doctrine of Pythagoras, Mentem humanam numerum effe, is the only one which can lay any just claim to truth; and, by confequence, that-Quo quis melius numerandi ufum exercet eo magis eft rationalis-Quo quis accuratius in omni re calculum ducit, eo tutior eft a fallaciis et erroribus, &c. 2 cap. De fenfu hominis vitali. This, according to our author, is threefold, including 1, the feeling of our own body; 2, that of other bodies placed without us; and 3, Senfus mentis ipfius in feipfam reflexus. It is, he conceives, contrary to all experience, that all our fenfations fhould be reducible to the touch only; for, fays he, Quid eft tangere dolorem? 3 cap. De fenfibus externis dictis: qua ratione exerceantur et fiant. The attention to any object he defines to be fimplex numeratio earum paffivarum mutationum quas tum in organo vis externa producit; concerning which opinion Mr. L., in contradiction to Haller, contends, that in regard to the fenfe of hearing, hearing, no doubt can poffibly be entertained. That of feeing too is nothing more than parvulas mutationes organi a variis radiis productas numerare, numerofque perceptos inter fe conferre ct ad calulun ducere ; whilft the fenfe of feeling is in like manner only numerum parvularum mutationum in cute factarum explorare & cum aliis in eodem organo factis mutationibus comparare. The fenfes of fmell and taste are, he imagines, to be explained rather on chemical, than on mechanical principles; notwithstanding which, they are here defined to be enumerare et ad certum calculum reducere parvulas illas mutationes, in papillis fenforiis linguæ et narium ab obfervatione gustatorum facias.-If then all these fenfes confift in numeration, what is numeration itself, properly and ftrictly fo called? 5 cap. Of the remaining chapters the fubjects are, 4 cap. De formatione Notionum in genere. They are either fenfual or intelle&ual. De Notionibus fenfualibus, five de Imaginationibus, which are denominated likewife Icones, Phantafice, and are formed, according to our author, not in the brain, but in the org in itself. 6 cap. D formatione Notionum intellectualium. Notio eft fumma vel complexus jenfationum habitarum; fenfationes igitur elementa notionum, quemadmodum in Arithmetica numeri fpeciales fimul fumpti, efficiunt fummam. Thefe are divided into pofitive and negative, into Notiones inferioris et fuperioris ordinis, wherein are included abstract ideas, formed e notionibus inter fe calculo collatis, in which, therefore, fays our author, the foul is more particularly liable to error, quemadmodum arithmeticus, &c. p. 83. 7 cap. De Notionum fignis atque de Do&trina. Doctrina eft tranfmiffio fignorum ex uno homine in alterum; which gives occafion to a digreffion on the fubject of magnetifm, concerning which Mr. L. exprefles himfelf in the following terms: Noviffima malefica hæc ars cum geftationibus ridiculis, gravique et probo viro indignis fub Magnetifmi titulo funt reproducte, quales faculis proxime fuperioribus ferro et igne extirpare non plane injufte magiftratus funt conati. Ejufmodi præftigia omnem moralem difciplinam et pacem politicam enervare folent. 8 cap. De Cogitatione Cogitatio eft fpecies quædam calculi fuperioris—omnino impoffibile eft quod ars cogitandi in quodam mechanifmo cerebri hæreat. Ratio humana eft methodus calculum in notionibus per figna recta ducendi-Ujus rationis difcitur ut arithmetica difcitur, &c. Is it poffible that this whimfical notion fhould be carried to a greater length? 9 cap. De Mente humana-Plerique homines, imprimis aliquam in doctrina Chriftiana inftitutionem nacti pie credunt (which, therefore, however true, is, perhaps, what they cannot fo properly be faid-per experientiam didiciffe) præter corpus fuum fibi mentem a Deo datam effe, per quam Deum agnofcere, et ex ea cognitione fibi hujus præfentis commoda et vitæ futuræ majora gaudia cum certitudine fperare poffunt.-Inter philofophos autem qui omnia demonftrata defiderant, multoque magis inter eos qui de vera philofophia nil nifi quifquilias nonnullas velat canis ex Nilo hauftam aquam fuxerunt, reperi plures-qui de exiftentia mentis dubitarent-P. 121. Natio Gallica fuæ regenerationis, ita enim vocant, initium fecit per flatusfam et famofam artem qua docuit per aërem fine alis volare-Mens humana eft vis fubfiftens a viribus motricibus diverfa.-Conftat omnis in facultate numerandi. 10 cap, Quædam de Cerebro, et quod hoc neque fedes mentis, neque fenforium commune fit; where our author afferts-Cerebrum effe radicem corporis corporis animalis, in qua omnes ejus futuræ partes non quidem actualiter, Sed potentialiter latent-Cerebrum non fentit, nec fenfationes organi ad cerebrum propagantur-Longius a vera aberrant qui fapientiam humani generis præ brutis in forma et figura externa capitis et cerebri inclufi, aut in ftatura corporis quærunt, aut anatomiam comparativam inter animantia ad eum fcopum inftituunt. He then takes occafion to inveigh in very ftrong terms against Lavater and his phyfiognomy, which he calls Chaldaicas facetias; as alfo againft his opinion, that in man there is no freedom of will; quod irrationale dičtum, says he, fimul cum reliquis, quarum reus eft, materialificis ineptiis ei condenabit Deus mifericors. 11 cap. De commercio mentis et corporis-Nifi mens velit et agat, mihi vifum eft hominem continuo dormiturum effe, et fomnum effe ftatum ratione corporis maxime naturalem. 12 cap. De mente humana, quatenus a corpore fuo feparata eft. In p. 270 is the following extraordinary paffage: Sandiffima exempla docent cum hominibus locutum et converfatum effe Deum ut plurimum-durante fomno.-Felix experientia!-We conceive that few of our readers will be difpofed to pronounce thus favourably concerning the aggregate of our author's obfervations. Ibid. SIR, CORRESPONDENCE. To the Editor of the BRITISH CRITIC. I have juft feen in your Review for April an attack by one of your correfpondents on the novel of Caleb Williams. An author is perhaps the worst judge in the world what attacks it becomes him to notice, and what to pafs over in filence. Where he obferves fophiftry and mistake, he is apt to fuppofe that every other reader will perceive them without his affiftance. I have been told, however, that the remarks of your correfpondent are fo written as to have a fuperficial plaufibility; and I yield my own judgment to this friendly fuggeftion, when I trouble you with a few lines in reply. He fuppofes that my book was written " to throw an odium upon the laws of my country. But this is a mistake into which no attentive and clear-fighted reader could poffibly fall. The object is of much greater magnitude. It is to expofe the evils which arise, out of the prefent fyftem of civilized fociety; and, having expofed them, to lead the enquiring reader to examine whether they are, or are not, as has commonly been fuppofed, irremediable; in a word, to difengage the minds of men from prepoffeffion, and launch them upon the sea of moral and political enquiry. Having formed this plan, I was obviously led to place my feene, and draw my inftances from the country with which I was beft acquainted-England. Not that I thought the aws of England worse than the laws of molt other countries. Your correfpondent comes nearer the point when he afterwards ftates my object to be," the laws of this country, and the mode of their execution;" or rather, as he ought to have ftated, the administration of uftice and equity, with its confequences, as it exifts in the world at large, and in Great Britain in particular. This clue will immediately enable the reader to folve most of the bjections propofed. It was not the business of such a work to enquire whether the law authorised a rich man to fpoil the crop of a poor one, to poifon his cattle, or to commit him to jail upon an absurd and fophiftical charge of burglary. It was enough that oppreffions of a fimilar nature, and of equal magnitude, are known to be perpetually practifed with impunity; and your correfpondent, if he have a tafte for that amusement, may easily supply himself with volumes of facts in proof of this affertion: facts, the memory of which unfortunately, for want of collection, is fuffered to perish, almoft as rapidly as the facts themselves are produced. Your correfpondent clofes his remarks on the epifode of Hawkins, with fuggefting " a doubt, whether I have even taken a common and fuperficial view of the state of fociety in this country, inftead of having furveyed it with the precifion and fagacity of a philofopher." I am willing to abide by the teft here propofed; and I ask any man, in the leaft degree informed as to the hiftory of fquires and their tenants in Great Britain, whether he can read this epifode; and not recognise its counterpart in what he has himfelf heard and feen? It is curls to obferve, that your correfpondent, who affects to be a great lawyer, does not hesitate to affirm that it is certain, and univerfally known, that a verdict of acquittal upon a criminal charge, is a complete bar to any further trial for the fame offence." Surely. Sir, a man who ventures to affirm in fo peremptory a manner, and that in the very act of attempting to chaftife another for ignorance or mifreprefentation, ought first to have had the modefty to confult the Newgate Calendar, or any of the most common records, which would have given him repeated inftances, not only of trials, but executions, in refutation of his certain affertion *. I acknowledge that I am far from a confummate lawyer. I acknowledge that I do not bear that affection for the laws of my country which fhould lead me to ftudy them farther than the preffure of immediate occafion may feem to demand. I went therefore no farther in pursuit of authorities for the fecond trial of Falkland than I have juft ftated, and confequently was, I believe, guilty of an overfight, which your correfpondent, however, has not had the ingenuity to detect, I have fince been told by profeffional lawyers, that fuch a second trial cannot take place, but upon an appeal from the relations of the deceased, which in my fiction I have neglected to provide. Whether this be fo or not, I have not yet had leisure to examine. With the virulent and fcurrilous epithets of your correfpondent I have no concern. I truft no perfon tolerably impartial can perufe my writings, without perceiving, what I myself intimately feel, that I have no fentiment nearer my heart than a liberal and difinterested concern for the true welfare of my species. But the books must speak for themselves if they will not obtain credit for the benevolence of their purposes, any profeffions of mine would be of little avail. Perhaps they will be thought honourable to the intentions of their author, when party animofities are forgotten; and then, if this attack could be remembered, the perfonalities that characterife it will be thought difcreditable to its writer and not to me. June 7, 1795. * Cafe of Chriftopher Slaughterford, 1708. Vol. I. P. 118.-Cafe of James Cluff, 1729. victs. Vol. II. P. 199. W. GODWIN. Newgate Calendar, We are much obliged by Criti's communication of his fentiments, which we greatly approve, but it is contrary to our plan to print his letter. Clericus appears to us not very reasonable in his ftri&tures; we gave our opinion fairly from a confideration of a publication, without knowledge of the author, direct or indirect, and certainly have not the fmalleft difpofition to retract or to apdlogize. Mr. Clarkfon may depend upon it, that we fhall pay due attention to the poem he recommends to our notice. Another correfpondent informs us, that we were mistaken in giving the Archdeacon of Norfolk the title of Doctor, in our Review for June, p. 648. If we recollect rightly, it was on the authority of the book before us that we fo wrote it. LITERARY INTELLIGENCE, We are particularly requested to fay, in the most decifive manner, that the Annual Regifter (formerly Dodfley's) did not, as has been fuggefted, change its author in 1789. It is fill written by the fame perfon whofe labours in it have been approved for many years, with only fuch affiftance as he has been generally accuftomed to receive, and will be always proud to acknowledge, Dr. Ruifel is employed on a Natural Hiftory of Snakes, which, from his long refidence in the Eaft, cannot fail to be peculiarly interefting to Naturalifts. Mr. Pennant's work on the Antiquities of the places with which he is moft nearly connected, Downing and Holywell, is proceeding in a style worthy of the author, and, in point of elegance, fuperior to any of his former publications. We learn that Mr. Wefton (one of the late tranflators of Gray's Elegy) is about to publish remarks on the New Tefta ment. Mr. Andrews has undertaken to continue Dr. Henry's Hif tory of England, on the original plan of that author. ERRATA. In our laft Number, p. 623, line 4 from the bottom, for hammula read flammula. p. 625, line 18 from the top, for accommodating read recommending. |