expression of unauthoritative tradition, and by a plain exposition of the erroneous and of the true doctrines. We perceive that traditions may be contradictory to the Scriptures, and thus we absolutely reject them; or they may be unsupported by the Scriptures, and then we allow them no further, than as they coincide with the dictates of reason; or they may be supported by the sacred, writings, and then we respect them as the original sentiments of the first believers-as derived indeed from the true and only authority.'-p. 20. Nevertheless, we have no doubt that some will be inclined to feel a prejudice against tradition, from the unwarrantable application of it by the Romish Church: never, while the world lasts, will the inconsiderate and the violent be prevented from confounding together things which differ only in the point which is of most essential importance, or from indiscriminately censuring whatever has been much abused. Nor is this objection confined to the mere name of tradition; (in which case the author would have been to blame for giving needless offence by adopting it;) but to the very plan itself of elementary religious instruction. We have already adverted to the vehement reaction produced by the tyranny of the Church of Rome, through the well-known propensity of mankind to rush from one extreme into the other. The natural transition of error was from a blind obedience to the authority of tradition, and acquiescence in all that load of additions to Christianity which were thus introduced, to a total rejection of the legitimate use of tradition, and an indiscriminate contempt and aversion towards all formularies, catechisms, creeds, articles, and religious establish ments, We need hardly remind our readers of the declamations which are current in the present day against the iniquity of giving a bias to the minds of young persons, by teaching them our own interpretation of the sacred volume, instead of leaving them to investigate for themselves; that is, against endeavouring to place them in the same situation with those to whom those very Scriptures were written, instead of leaving them to struggle with difficulties which the Scriptures no where contemplate nor provide against. The maintainers of such a principle would do well to consider whether it would not, if consistently pursued, prove too much. Do you not, it might be asked, bias the minds of children by putting into their hands the Scriptures themselves, as the infallible word of God? If you are convinced that they are so, you must be sure that they will stand the test of unprejudiced inquiry: are you not at least bound in fairness to teach them at the same time the systems of ancient mythology, the doctrines of the Koran, and those of modern philosophers, that they may freely chuse amongst all? Let any one who is disposed to deride the absurdity of such a proposal, consider 24 consider whether there is any objection to it which would not equally lie against the exclusion of systematic religious instruction. We have been induced to notice these opinions the more fully, because those who do not keep in mind the general prevalence of them, will be apt to underrate very much the importance of the argument before us. The author seems indeed himself to be aware that while his doctrine is strongly controverted by some, it is likely to be regarded by others as self-evident, and scarcely needing even to be stated. The extreme simplicity, indeed, and perspicuity of his arguments, may contribute not a little to produce this impression. What is very clearly demonstrated will often appear to a superficial reader so evident as to need no demonstration; and the ability which has been employed to make it thus plain and evident, is disparaged in consequence of its own success. There is in fact a very original train of thought in the little work before us. If it contain nothing that can strictly be called new, (as indeed the subject is not one in which new truths, properly speaking, are to be expected,) at least it sets many points in a new and interesting light: many of its readers, we are persuaded, will find on examination that some of the author's remarks and reasonings which appear to them the most familiar had, in fact, never occurred to them before. Indeed the number and prevalence of opinions and practices which are inconsistent with the principles maintained by Mr. Hawkins plainly shew that though they may be sufficiently obvious, they are not sufficiently attended to. He makes some valuable practical applications (or rather hints for the application) of his doctrine; it is capable of many, and those most important which an attentive reader may easily develope for himself. In the first place, some who perceive the indirectness and want of system in Scripture may object (however unreasonably) to the divine authority of a book, which in their judgment is so ill adapted to its purpose; and though this has been shewn to be no valid or sufficient objection, yet as it may nevertheless have weight with many minds, it is at least desirable that it should be answered. But secondly, it is probable that the objection of many persons to some of the great and characteristic doctrines of Christianity, may have been, if not produced, at least strengthened and supported, by the oblique and irregular mode in which those doctrines are delivered; though they may perceive (as every candid reader must) the obvious force of the expressions, they may still be unable to satisfy themselves that what is so taught, could be intended to be generally believed, as an essential part of the Christian revelation. To such persons, if they are but candidly disposed to receive the truth, this dissertation cannot but prove highly serviceable. Thirdly, it may prove a safeguard against the errors errors of those, who, while they distribute the Scriptures, neglect or reprobate the use of all other helps for those whom they would instruct. The author has very properly put in a caveat against the opposite error of undervaluing the Scriptures, and of 'deriving our notions of religion from human comments, to the neglect of the only authority on which they rest.' p. 68. And he has wisely abstained from entering into the controversies which have been so long and so unhappily agitated, between the different societies engaged in spreading religious knowledge; confining himself to the combating of the one error, (surely a great and dangerous one,) of those who fancy they are sufficiently propagating Christianity, when they are merely distributing the Bible. Lastly, the application is most obvious and most important, to the duty of catechising, and to the responsibility of all who are made the depositaries of Christian tradition, (that is, of all who have themselves received it,) in communicating instruction as far as their abilities and opportunities extend, and in recommending their lessons by their lives. Upon the whole, we strongly recommend this Dissertation to the perusal of our readers, as a specimen of clear, candid, and acute reasoning, upon a subject of great interest and importance. The arrangement is luminous, and the language in most parts neat and perspicuous, in some, not destitute of eloquence. But it possesses one merit not less valuable, and, it is to be feared, less common than any we have mentioned; the mildness and truly Christian temper which pervades the whole. Since to maintain our own opinion, is virtually to impugn that of our opponents, it is a matter of some difficulty, in treating of any disputable point, to avoid a controversial air: but this difficulty is much greater when the subject is one which has been made the field of so much bitter controversy as the present. And as it is no where more difficult, so it is no where more important, to unite firmness with conciliation, ' in meekness instructing them that oppose themselves;' conceding no truth, yet giving no unnecessary offence, and arguing forcibly, without destroying the practical effect by a harsh and hostile demeanour, which irritates those whom it is our business to persuade. ART. IV. 1. Promenade aux Cimetières de Paris, aux Sépultures Royales de Saint Denis, et aux Catacombes, &c. Par M. P. St. A. Paris. 2. Description des Catacombes de Paris, precédée d'un Précis Historique sur les Catacombes de tous les Peuples de l'ancien et du nouveau Continent. Par L. Hericart de Thury, Maître des Requêtes, Requêtes, Ingénieur en chef au Corps Royal des Mines, Inspecteur-Général des Travaux souterrains du Département de la Seine. Paris. THE Hydriotaphia of Sir Thomas Brown is one of the most beautiful works of that admirable author. There is perhaps no other writer either of our own or of any other country, whose intellect had so perfectly assimilated all its stores of learning. His feelings seem always to have ended in meditation; and his meditations, on the other hand, always bring with them a subdued but vivid feeling. The number of the dead,' he says, 'long exceedeth all that shall live. The night of time far surpasseth the day; and who knows when was the æquinox? Every hour adds unto that current arithmetic which scarce stands one moment. And since death must be the Lucina of life, and even pagans could doubt whether thus to live were to die, since our longest sun sets at right descensions, and makes but winter arches, and therefore it cannot be long before we lie down in darkness, and have our light in ashes, since the brother of death daily haunts us with dying mementos, and time that grows old itself bids us hope no long duration, diuturnity is a dream and folly of expectation.To subsist in lasting monuments, to live in their productions, to exist in their names, was large satisfaction unto old expectations, and made one part of their elysiums. But all this is nothing in the metaphysics of true belief. To live, indeed, is to be again ourselves; which being not only an hope but an evidence in noble believers, tis all one to lie in St. Innocent's church-yard, as in the sands of Egypt, ready to be any thing in the ecstacy of being ever, and as content with six foot as the moles of Adrianus.' 'Man,' says the same writer, 'is a noble animal, splendid in ashes, and pompous in the grave; solemnizing nativities and deaths with equal lustre, nor omitting ceremonies of bravery in the infancy of his nature.' It is indeed worthy of notice, that the Caffres are the only savages who have ever been found in so brutal a state as to forsake their dead; for even among the most degraded tribes, some funeral custom is observed, which is always decent, and generally respectful: and though among the Caffres burial is the exclusive privilege of the king, and all other bodies are thrown to the hyenas, this arises not from a disrespect to the dead. It is never their intention that any person shall die naturally, and they who breathe their last in any sudden access of disease, escape the miserable fate of being cast to the wild beasts while they are yet breathing. These people are led to the commission of such inhumanity by a superstition connected with death, believing that if it occurs in their habitations, it will draw on them a continuance of calamities: the reason therefore that they have no funeral ceremo nies is, that by the general practice none are suffered to die among them. The Caffres, therefore, can hardly be considered as an exception to the fact that an awful or tender feeling of respect for the remains of the dead belongs to human nature, and is retained even when many of its other instincts have been perverted or extinguished. No ruder savages have ever been discovered than those of New Holland: but even in that country Captain Flinders found skeletons placed upright in the hollow stumps of trees, and the skulls and bones painted or smeared partly red and partly white. So universal is this care, that although for the inhabitants of a maritime city, the most obvious and the easiest mode of disposing of the dead would be by committing them to the deep, no such method seems in any instance to have prevailed, because it would have the appearance of casting them away, rather than of depositing them in peace. The Mahomedans pretend to shew the grave of Eve near Jidda; and a wild story has found its way into the Romish legends, that the bones of Adam were taken into the ark by Noah, and buried by him, after the waters had abated, on Mount Calvary, upon the very spot where the cross was placed. Leaving to such traditions as little credit as they deserve, it appears certain, that the earliest mode of disposing of the dead was by interment, and probably the earliest refinement that of having sepulchres in the rock. When nations have been desirous of doing honour to their dead, some have resorted to means for accelerating decomposition, others for preventing it. Cremation, by which the former object is best attained, fell into disuse in those countries where it once prevailed, partly because of the expense, fuel diminishing as population and agriculture increased, and partly, perhaps, because the early Christians may have thought it less congruous than interment, with the doctrine of the resurrection. According to Mr. Ward the missionary, who had opportunities of ascertaining the fact in India, the smallest quantity of wood which is sufficient to consume a hu * Civilians,' says Sir Thomas Brown, 'make sepulture but of the law of nations, others do naturally found it, and discover it also in animals. They that are so thickskinned as still to credit the story of the phenix, may say something for animal burning. More serious conjecturers find some examples of sepulture in elephants, cranes, the sepulchral cells of pismires, and practice of bees, which civil society carrieth out their dead, and hath exequies if not interments.' A remarkable incident in the story of Sindbad the sailor seems founded upon this notion as it relates to elephants. This is mentioned because of a curious passage in the Transactions of the Missionary Society; speaking of these animals, Dr. Vanderkemp says, 'I was surprized that we never found skeletons or teeth of those that die spontaneously: but that they bury or hide their dead, I am now led to suspect by the following observation. One of our company killed an elephant, and went the next day unarmed with some of our women to take out its teeth. They found between fifteen and twenty elephants at work to take up the dead corpse with their tusks, but drove them away by their cries,' man |