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judice. He will not be tinctured with any propositions which de serve to be called opinions; but he will be the slave of appetite, and the sport of passion. Again, if moral practice be the object, strip your child of what you may chuse to call the fetters of prejudice, concerning decent manners, modesty, and fit behaviour, and how surely will it follow, that the decent and the modest will have reason to reprove your wild experiment, and to resent the injury which will happen to society through your perverseness. And yet

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remains for them not only to be told that the education of the fair sex should be entirely relative to ours,' with no flattering exceptions, and no reserve of any common privilege; they must be content to hear also, that woman is by nature a coquette, but her coquetry changes its forms and its objects, according to her different views; let us regulate these by nature, and then she will have the education suitable to her sex. Accordingly love, and influence in the hearts of men, form almost exclusive ends and objects of the rules which follow. But, as many fall short of those ends of female education, on this plan, without any fault of theirs, their case, with none but such rules, would be sad indeed. There are, however, good and pertinent remarks relating to domestic life.

"The maxims produced in this note are not detailed in the work alluded to, as descriptive only of the notions of one celebrated writer on such subjects, but as solid parts, and commanding propositions, in a manual of education framed for general use. The Editors, whilst they avow a decided preference for the system of Rousseau, profess that they avail themselves of the remarks of others, wherever they seem more to the purpose. There are two passages toward the close which speak indeed in plain and earnest terms of instilling into the minds of children an apprehension of the Deity, a belief of future rewards and punishments, with a sense of the vanity of present things: but such directions, whether from the pen of Rousseau, or any other, stand in such flat contradiction to the rest, that it is impossible to reconcile them; nor is it attempted.

"Thus we are bid at length to accustom children 'to feel themselves always in the presence of the Deity; to have him for a witness to their actions, to their thoughts, to their virtues, to their pleasures; to do good without ostentation, because he loves it; to suffer evil without repining, because he will make them amends; in short, to be every day of their lives the same as they would desire to have been when they appear in his presence. This is a system at least unsusceptible of abuse, impiety, or fanaticism. Let others preach sublimer doctrines as long as they please, for our parts we acknowledge none but this.' But who can reconcile this, or any other inculcation of religious principles on the minds of children, with a scheme approved and followed through so many pages, which casts out the knowledge of God, of the soul and its concerns, together with the exercise of prayer of all kinds, from periods of life far beyond the age of childhood, even to the years of twelve, fifteen, and eighteen ?*

this is the plan which professes to subdue appetite and passion: not by lessons of duty; none such are to be given: much less by habits of obedience; the whole notion of obedience must be banished with a strict exclusion from the scheme: not by inspiring any sense of social obligations; they are equally proscribed; it is total independence which is sought; not by pointing out and cherishing the main ties of relation among men; all such are to be kept out of view; but by leaving the child to find out at length, if he can, to what necessities his nature must submit.

"Yet this is called the system of nature, though its admirers and abettors boast, that in no age, time, or country, was it ever thought of before the day of its eccentric author. To him, indeed, it was natural enough to endeavour to multiply the image of himself, for the scheme is expressly calculated to raise such men as he was: men intolerant of the sense and practice of all others, though demanding every species of latitude for themselves."

We must refer our readers to the Charge itself for a further exposure of these principles, not-only flagrantly abominable, but perfectly ridiculous; betraying not only depravity of heart, but imbecility of mind. Having traced the natural consequences of such a vile system, the Archdeacon next exhibits the beneficial effects of a religious education.

"Far different was the course in every age and generation of those who have had the light and blessing of revealed truth. Under such dispensations the Almighty having provided for the admission of the child to the privileges of his Covenant, was careful to provide also for his early education in the knowledge of the truth. The plain and certain evidence that such privileges were opened to the young, implies all that I contend for; and demonstrates that the first and greatest charge which belongs to those about them must be to endeavour constantly to make them sensible of the benefits enlarged to them, and to impress them with an early apprehension of their calling. The reasons and advantages of this mode of nurture are apparent. They who are made acquainted from the first dawn of reason with their obligations, will find the strongest motives operating on their minds to withhold them from such courses as may produce the forfeiture of the grants of favour, and to guard them from such kinds of conduct, speech, or manners, as might disgrace that honourable badge which forms their chief distinction, and constitutes the pledge of good hope to them from their earliest years. If this be derided, as it has been, as making knowledge and salvation a geographical concern, because the advantage is confined to this or that division of the earth, all that we need to answer is, that the same Lord who made the earth, and moves it, and upholds it, has set forth those privileges with a gradual progress, and most desperate and ungrateful, most rash and senseless are those who shall refuse advantages

NO. CXX111. VOL. XXXI.

C

because they are local, and at hand. Alas! it is too probable that the wider prevalence and encrease of the blessing over all the earth is [are] much hindered and obstructed by the want of value for the be nefits which we enjoy."

Incredible as it may appear, we have really heard of two families, one in the vicinity of the metropolis, another in Huntingdonshire, who actually brought up their children in conformity with the principles of Rousseau, and the English Encyclopaedists; and the conduct, speech, and manners of these unhappy children were precisely such as every man of common sense would expect them to be. They were a disgrace to their parents, a torment to themselves, and likely to become pests to society. This Charge contains many other sensible reflections and judicious remarks; and is, in every respect, highly creditable to the author's zeal, knowledge, and piety, and entitled to the most serious attention of the public.

A General System of Nature, through the three grand Kingdoms of Animals, Vegetables, and Minerals, systematically divided into their several Classes, Orders, Genera, Species and Varieties, with their Habitations, Manners, Economy, Structure, and Peculiarities. By Sir Charles Linnè: translated from Gmelin, Fabricius, Willdenow, &c. Together with various modern Arrangements and Corrections, derived from the Transactions of the Linnean and other Societies, as well as from the Classical Works of Shaw, Thornton, Abbot, Donovan, Sowerby, Latham, Dillwyn, Lewin, Martyn, Andrews, Lambert, &c. &c. with a Life of Linne, appropriate Copperplates, and a Dictionary exploratory of the Terms which occur in the several Departments of Natural History. By WILLIAM TURTON, M.D. F. L. S. &c. &c. In seven volumes large 8vo, about 800 pages in each, 41 4s. Lackington, Allen, and Co.

IT would now be superfluous to speak of the merits of the Systema Natura of Linnè; its general and decided superiority is, we may venture to say, so universally acknowledged, that there are few or no civilized countries in the world, not even excepting the bigotted Mohammedan, where the works of this great Swedish naturalist are wholly unknown. Such general and early fame cannot be solely the effect of fortuitous circumstances, or of fashionable caprice, but must also be dependent on the intrinsic merit of the work as well as the importance of the subject. Natural history, indeed, is, of all human studies,

the most congenial and the most easy to man: it requires no complex or expensive apparatus; neither the furnace of the chemist nor the telescope of the aftronomer; simple inspec tion alone being sufficient for the naturalist. The student, however, who would aspire to this enviable title, must not only possess a capacious and methodical mind, but must leave off all the low vices and passions which predominate in common characters, ere he can expect to make any distinguished progress in this amiable and interesting science. Such studies, indeed, while they directly administer to the means and comforts of social life, seem much better calculated than monkish institutions to raise up a class of men destined to preserve society from degenerating into mere commercial decorum and worldly-mindedness, and to set the noble example of natural science supporting Christian piety, and thereby displaying the true dignity and character of human nature. The progress, there fore, of the natural sciences affords at least another ground for hoping that a gradual and permanent reform may take place among men without the horrors of political frenzy and the effusion of human blood. It will superinduce habits of regularity and of more just reasoning, and teach men insensibly to reform themselves before they think of reforming the State. A knowledge of the order and sympathy which prevails throughout the whole economy of nature, must demonstrate equally the exist tence and necessity of that integrity or intireness which constitutes all true greatness in man; it likewise proves, à priori, that he whose private vices destroy this intireness, whatever may be his talents and political tenets, is totally incapable of being a legislator, and unworthy of enjoying power in any nation. But without dwelling at greater length on the moral and political advantages to be derived from the study of natural history, a subject too copious to be discussed in this place, we shall extract a part of Dr. Turton's elegant and comprehensive preface to this work, on presenting it to the English reader in his vernacular tongue.

"Man," observes this able naturalist, "always curious and inquisitive, and ever desirous of adding to his useful knowledge, among other sources of amusement and instruction, is naturally led to contemplate and to enquire into the works of natute. He Ïool. with grateful reverence upon those vast families of created being, which it has pleased the Author of all things to place subordinate to his wisdom and power; he examines, with wonder, their formation, habits, and economy; and hears with delight the narrations of those who have sought after the natural curiosities of distant countries. That this beautiful and inviting study may be facilitated, and that the

whole of the productions and inhabitants of this our globe may be arranged and conveniently exhibited; systems have been invented re ducing them to their several kingdoms, classes, tribes, families, and individuals; with their names, habitations, manners, economy, and appearance. These have enjoyed their various degrees of repute and excellence, but the amazing comprehension, learning, and labour of the celebrated Sir Charles Linnè, has [have] produced a system so clear and simple, so compendious and accurate, that the lover of natural history may directly discover the name and the properties of whatever subject may fall in his way, or he may choose to investigate.

"In systematic arrangement, the student has this peculiar advantage, that by immediately arriving at the name, the whole of its known qualities are immediately displayed to him; but without a systematic classification, he wanders in obscurity and uncertainty, and must collect the whole of its habits and peculiarities, before he can ascertain the individual he is examining. The traveller, for example, who wishes to collect the more curious subjects of natural history, finds a bird, whose name, habits, and economy, he is desirous of investigating; from its conic, sharp-pointed bill, slender legs, and divided toes, he finds that it belongs to the order Passeres; and from its thick, strong convex bill, with the lower mandible bent in at the edges, and the tongue abruptly cut off at the end, he refers it to the genus Loxia or Grosbeak; and running his eye over the specific differences, he immediately determines it, from its exactly answering the specific character, body above brown, beneath yellowishwhite, crown and breast pale yellow, chin brown,' to be the Philippine Grosbeak (Loxia Philippina); a little bird which he finds is a native of the Philippine islands, and endowed by nature with instinctive notions of preservation and comfort, nearly approaching to human intelligence; that it constructs a curious nest with the long fibres of plants or dry grass, and suspends it by a kind of cord, nearly half an ell long, from the end of a slender branch of a tree, that it may be inaccessible to snakes, and safe from the prying intrusion of the numerous monkies which inhabit those regions; at the end of this cord is a gourd-shaped nest, divided into three apartments, the first of which is occupied by the male, the second by the female, and the third containing the young; and in the first apartment, where the male keeps watch while the female is hatching, is placed, on one side, a little tough clay, and on the top of this clay is fixed a glowworm to afford its inhabitants light in the night time.

"That the English student may be put in possession of this vast treasure, comprehending and illustrating all nature through the three kingdoms of animals, vegetables, and minerals, I have undertaken a translation from the last edition of the SYSTEMA NATURE of LINNE, by GMELIN, amended and enlarged by the improvements and additions of later naturalists. The expediency of this translation has long been acknowledged, and the want of it often lamented; and it has been a principal view of the editor to deliver it in as intelEgible and as useful a form as the nature of such a work would ad

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