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ructive of all fociety, humanity, and liberty, and keeps its votaries to this day in flavery and ignorance.

In the fequel his lordship's tutor lays great stress on the points of antiquity and univerfality; Becaufe (fay's he) they confift fo neceffarily and aptly with the divine providence, which cannot justly be fuppofed to be fo defective, as to leave any age or country wholly deftitute of means to know and ferve him; fo that, if not in their religion (which commonly was the invention of their priests) the gentiles might yet in the laws of their country, (commanding a good life) and the notions in their fouls, find some means to keep a good conscience, and from thence to affure themselves of the obtaining of a better life hereafter."

This (to fpeak candidly) feems to be the ground-work of all our author's arguments; for afterwards his work branches out into particular modes of faith and worship practifed by different nations of antiquity, beginning with thofe of the Egyptians, to whom he pays particular deference. I approve (fays his tutor) much your beginning at Egypt, for if Abraham and Mofes himself, who feemed first to inftitute religious worship according to the rites and ceremonies obfer ved among the Jews, were thought to be learned in all the wifdom of the Egyptians; it cannot be amifs to enquire, what this wisdom was, especially fince it is thought fo ancient in that nation, as whether in the obfervation of the stars, or the principles of their philofophy, or the grounds of their religious worship, according to the feveral degrees thereof, or the magic arts, if lawful, practifed among them, or of alchymy, which one Hermes is faid to have invented, and Sethofis and the Egyptian priests to have practifed till the time of Dioclefian, anno 294, who commanded all the books he could get concerning that art to be burnt, because they made gold, if we may believe Suidas in that particular,'

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We cannot think the turn his lordship gives to the words of Suidas is quite candid. Any reader muft naturally conclude, in perufing the above quotation, that Suidas faid the Egyptian art of alchymy enabled their priests to make gold; but, in fact, he fays no more than that Dioclefian ordered all the writings concerning the fufion, of filver and gold to be burnt, left the Egyptians, being enriched by that art, and relying upon their wealth, fhould rebel. Our readers may perceive that there is nothing affirmative here fpoken by Suidas; and undoubtedly Dioclefian acted the part of a wife and a great prince, in ordering thofe foolish, romantic books, which might induce the Egyptians to rebel, to be burnt. 1:

[To be continued and concluded in our next.]

VIII. The

TIII. An Abridgment of Sacred and Ecclefiaftical Hiftory, from the Creation to the End of the XVIIth Century of Chriflianity. Together with a short Catechetical Explanation of the Principles of Natural and Revealed Religion. To which are added an Appendix to the Second Chapter of Sacred Hiftory; and to the fixth Century of the Ecclefiaftical Hiftory. By the Rev. James Pelletreau, M. A. Pr. 5s. Johnston.

TH

HE ufe of fuch abridgements as this, in which the tranfactions of many centuries are crouded into a small volume, is rather to refresh the memory, than to inftruct the unexperienced and unlearned reader. In this refpect the prefent work may be of fervice; but it is far from being either an elegant, or an accurate compilation. For what can be faid for the accuracy of a writer, who reckons the two days of Purim in the number of Jewish fafts? when, on the contrary, they are feftivals, which have been ufually kept with fuch extravagance, that they have been called the Bacchanalia of the Jews. If the author had only looked into the book of Esther, he might have avoided this mistake.

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But he has even misrepresented the well-known account which Pliny has given of the Chriftians in Bithynia. That writer fays, Affirmabant hanc fuiffe fummam vel culpæ fuæ, vel erroris, quod effent foliti ftato die ante lucem convenire; carmenque Chrifto, quafi deo, dicere fecum invicem; feque facramento non in fcelus aliquod obftringere, fed ne furta, ne latrocinia, ne adulteria committerent, ne fidem fallerent, ne depofitum appellati abnegarent: quibus peractis morem fibi difcedendi fuiffe, rurfufque coëundi ad capiendum cibum, promifcuum tamen, & innoxium.”

Here Pliny fimply relates the confeffions of thofe chriftians who had been brought before him. But the author of this Abridgement makes him fay, "I have inquired carefully into the tenets and life of those who are called Chriftians, and I find that they frequently affemble in feafts of temperance and reciprocalamity; efpecially that they have a folemn affembly on the firft day of the week, in which they mutually bind themselves by oath (probably by receiving the facrament) to be pious, juft, and temperate; and accordingly their life and converfation is more regular, holy and equitable, than that of other men."hear mo

The last sentence in this paragraph is an extraordinary teftimony in favour of the Chriftians; but one of thofe pious frauds in ecclefiaftical history, which never did any real honour to Christianity. It is, in fact, nothing but an impertinent addition to the words of Pliny, who only reports the account which

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the Chriftians had given him of the true defign of their affemblies, and does not fay, that they were more regular, boly, and equitable than other men.

Mr. Pelletreau tells us, that the two firft centuries were the golden age of Chriftianity; but the fuperior luftre of that period, like that of the golden age of the poets, is perhaps altogether imaginary. Cave, fpeaking of thofe times, ays, " Turpiffima Gnofticorum bærefis, Valentiniani, Carpocratiani, Menandriani, Marcionita, &c. Schola Simoniana ex præcedenti fæculo propagines, latius se diffundunt. Succedunt hærefes Tatiani, Montani, Theodoti, ut alias impuriffimas fellas taceam. Under thefe circumftances, can this be confidered as the golden age of the church? We mention this as a matter of doubt, not as an error; for many are of Mr. Pelletreau's opinion.

At the conclufion he has fubjoined fome useful chronological tables, with obfervations, relative to ecclefiaftical history.

The catechifm is a plain fyftem of Chriftian doctrines, upon thofe principles which are ufually ftiled orthodox.

IX. The Doctrine of Infiammations founded upon Reafon and Experience; and intirely cleared from the contradictory Syflems of Boerhaave, Van Swieten, and Others. By Daniel Magenife, M. D. 8vo. Pr. 35. Owen.

HE doctrine here invalidated is contained in the 371ft

TH aphorifm of Boerhaave, which we fhall infert, together

with the remarks of this author upon it..

Eftque fanguinis rubri arteriofi in minimis canalibus ftagnantis preffio & attritus a motu reliqui fanguinis moti, & perfebrem fortius acti."

Several incoherencies occur in this definition of our celebrated author; for he fuppofes a ftagnation, an obstruction, a preffure, and an attrition of the fame red arterial blood violently moved and agitated in an inflamed part; thefe are indeed oppofites which can never fubfift together in the fame place; for the inflamed veffels are obftructed, or they are not; if they are obftructed, the blood muft ftagnate in them, and remain without motion; on the contrary, if they are not obftructed, an obftruction fhould not be accounted of the caufes of an inflammation, as it is afferted in the foregoing aphorifm. Moreover, an obstruction excludes all motion; for it is a stoppage of one or many veffels, which hinders the diftribution of the fluids in the part fo affected; fo that it is a gangrene in miniature, with this difference, that the obftructed matter does not deftroy the veffels, fo foon as the former; but every one believes, that a gangrene excludes the diftribution of the

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Auids in the affected part; therefore it follows very plain, from the true notion we have here given of an obftruction, that the fame muft happen wherever it takes place.'

Our author fuppofes the obftructed or stagnated blood to be violently moved by attrition.

Indeed, he might as well fay, that the blood was at reft, and violently moved at the fame time, which are two contradictories.

Hence it is evident, that the doctrine of inflammations, which may be reckoned the bafis of phyfic and furgery, has been founded hitherto upon a contradiction, and received as a truth by most of the phyficians and furgeons in Europe.'

It must be acknowledged that the definition of an inflammation, in the aphorifm above cited, is apparently inconfiftent: but it ought to be remembered, that in speaking of an inflammation arifing from obftruction, we do not confine our idea to the veffel originally affected, but include the aggregate of all the circumjacent arteries in which the velocity of the fluids ist increased in that definition, therefore, a partial ftagnation is not incompatible with a more general, and increafed attrition.

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Dr. Magenise endeavours farther to invalidate the doctrine of Boerhaave, as being repugnant to the curative indications; alledging that, if an inflammation proceeded from a stagnation, or fiziness of the blood, ferum, or lymph in the capillary veffels, the medicines properly called aperients and attenuants, as faffafras and lignum guaiaci, would be very effectual in the cure of the disease, even in its more advanced state; but on the contrary, they are found to increase it, by their ftimulating quality. In regard to this obfervation, it proves only the impropriety of attempting to cure a phlogiftic and phlegmatic vifcidity of the blood by the fame medicines. But that attenuating medicines, if not too ftimulating, are not injurious, even in acute inflammations, nay, on the contrary, are highly advantageous, both experience and established practice authorife us to maintain: nor can it be admitted as an argument against the fuppofed proximate caufe of a difeafe, that the fymptoms fhould be increafed by the ufe of a remedy adapted to one intention, while at the fame time it is repugnant to a concomitant indication of importance.

The proper definition of an inflammation, from its proximate and immediate caufes, is, according to this writer, an erethism of the vessels, with the velocity of the fluids preternaturallý increased. It is admitted, that in all violent inflammations of membranous and irritable parts, an erethifm, or general stricture of the vascular fyftem takes place: but though in inflammations arifing from external irritation, fuch an erethifin might be the cause of the difeafe, yet the fuppofition of that prin

ciple being the univerfal and only poffible caufe of internal inflammations, is contrary to our conceptions of the laws of the animal œconomy, which evince not only the plaufibility of obftructions happening in the capillary arteries, but likewise an increafed velocity of the fluids in the contiguous veffels, confequent to fuch accidents. Upon the whole, therefore, it feems evident, that the opinion of an inconfiftency in the definition of Boerhaave, proceeds from not diftinguishing properly an obftruction, from the inflammation which is propagated by it. We acknowledge, however, that the treatise is ingenious, and that the author difcovers a capacity for abftrufe investigation.

X. The Summer-Houfe; or, the Hiftory of Mr. Morton and Mifs Bamfted. z Vols. 12mo. Pr. 65. Noble.,

TH

HIS author, though the characters he introduces into his novel are but faintly, and fometimes unnaturally marked, deserves approbation for the fimplicity and uniformity of his ftory.

Mr. Bamfted, a fevere, unfeeling father, is going to turni his daughter out of doors for refufing to marry Mr. Shipton, an old batchelor. The young lady is protected and comforted by her amiable mother; but finding the father relentless, a fcheme of elopement is contrived and executed between them; and Mifs efcapes to the house of Mrs. Haynes, who is a mighty good fort of a woman. While they are deliberating on this fcheme, a poor woman, with extreme marks of mifery in her perfon and attire, but with an appearance which discovered that the had seen better days, applies to Mr. Bamfted for relief, who drives her away in a barbarous, vociferous manner. Mrs. Bamfted, however, contrives matters fo, that, unknown to her husband, the unfortunate ftranger is lodged in a neighbour. ing farm-houfe; and, after paying her fome vifits, Mrs. Bamfted discovers in her a woman of excellent fenfe and polite education, but reduced to the moft wretched circumftances by the cruelty and infidelity of her husband, Mr. Morton, whom The had left in America, together with a young fon whom the had by him, and whom the gave over for loft, as thinking he had been carried away by fome ruffians who had robbed her house.

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In the mean time Mr. Shipton underftanding how cruelly Mr. Bamfted had ufed his daughter, generously gives up all his pretenfions to her hand; and Mifs Bamfted, thinking that her elopement was an undutiful ftep, was preparing to return to her father's houfe, when the received a vifit from one Mr.

Dormer,

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