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A Manual Hebrew and English Lexicon, including the Biblical Chaldee abridged, with the latest improvements from the Works of Professor Gesenius, and designed particularly for the Use of Students. By Josiah Gibbs, A.M., Professor of Sacred Literature in Yale College. London: Priestley. 1833. 8vo. pp. 277.

A Practical Introduction to Hebrew, with an Appendix, containing Observations on the Spanish and Portuguese Pronunciation of the Language. By S. G. Walker. London: Longman. 1833. 8vo.

As Mr. Gibbs's character is sufficiently known by his former Lexicon, it will only be necessary to say, that the present work is intended to embrace all the results of that Lexicon in a condensed form, and that it contains every article in the larger Lexicon, with the more important proper names. So cheap and manageable a Lexicon will be reckoned a great acquisition by all students, and especially by those who have used Gesenius or Stuart's Grammar, as it contains references to them in the declension of nouns. A month's use of this Lexicon, enables the writer to speak very highly of its great convenience.

Mr. Walker's pamphlet is rather a strange one. The preface contains a quantity of very ill-judged matter about Free Masonry. The account of the pronunciation and the nouns is very good, but what relates to the verbs is so meagre, that it does not afford, by any means, sufficient direction to a learner. There is a very fair praxis on the 1st Psalm.

Life of Sir Walter Raleigh, By P. F. Tytler, Esq. (EDINBURGH CABINET LIBRARY. Vol. XI.) Edinburgh: 1833. Oliver and Boyd, pp. 448. THIS Edinburgh Cabinet Library is almost the best of the whole of the tribe. Former volumes of it have been noticed already with great praise, and this deserves at least as much. Mr. Tytler, with great learning, industry, research, and good-feeling, has here done justice to one of the most interesting of our English heroes, whose character has often suffered severely from the misapprehension of it as well as from slander. Its peculiarities make the work as interesting as a romance, and it will not be read without leaving a very deep impression of the extraordinary gifts and powers of this unfortunate and most ill-used man. It is noticed in this place for the purpose of saying that Mr. Tytler has fully shewn that the claim which Hume and other deists have made to Sir Walter Raleigh as one of their fraternity, is a slander as baseless as many others against him, and that, though as a young man, he spoke recklessly of all subjects, and religion among the rest, yet it is quite incontrovertible, from many passages in his works, that "his profound and contemplative mind, instructed by the heavenly lesson (of affliction), was brought to rest on that only stay for the broken and wounded spirit, the blessed hopes and promises of Revelation."-(p. 429.) Raleigh's letters to his wife-the one on the night before he was to be executed; the other, his heart-broken letter on the death of his "most brave son," are as touching specimens of the feelings of a religious and manly mind, as can be found in all history.

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Astronomy and General Physics considered with reference to Natural Theology. By the Rev. William Whewell, M. A., Fellow and Tutor of Trinity College, Cambridge.

THIS work is the first of a series of eight, which have for some time been announced to the public. The late Lord Bridgewater left, it seems, a sum of eight thousand pounds, to be held at the disposal of the President for the time being of the Royal Society of London, to be paid to the person or persons nominated by him, to write, print, and publish, one thousand copies of a work, "On the power, wisdom, and goodness of God, as manifested in the creation; illustrating such a work by all reasonable arguments,-as, for in

stance, the variety and formation of God's creatures, in the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms; the effect of digestion, and thereby of conversion; the construction of the hand of man, and an infinite variety of other arguments; as also by discoveries, ancient and modern, in arts, sciences, and the whole extent of literature."

Dr. Chalmers, Dr. Kidd, Mr. Whewell, Mr. Chas. Bell, Dr. Roget, Mr. Buckland, Mr. Kirby, and Dr. Prout, have each a task assigned them, which will come before the public in their turn. Mr. Whewell is first in the field, and the work he has produced is worthy of his subject and of his reputation; and forms an important addition to the literature of the country.

After the works of Butler and Paley, it was difficult to hit upon a line of inquiry, which should be at once striking and new. Yet Mr. Whewell has done this; by the adoption of a plan, however, which demanded all his acquirements to conceive and execute it.

Instances of design in the creation of the universe, specially exhibited in individual cases, as in the eye, the foot, &c., have already been seized on, and explained with a force and felicity which can hardly be surpassed. It remained to see if, when philosophy had pushed her researches to the general physical laws which prevail in the creation, those laws could be made to yield to the popular literature of the country materials for similar proof of the designing mind, and of the attributes of the Ruler of the universe.

It is obvious that the undertaking was one of considerable difficulty, and required in the person who entered on it a felicitous combination of great and very different endowments.

It was necessary that he should be a physical philosopher of the very first class, and a teacher able and willing to bring his most difficult acquisitions in science to bear upon the subject before him, in a manner perspicuous and easy, that he might inform: grave, forcible, and earnest, that he might convince. Whewell's work fulfils these conditions, in the most satisfactory

manner.

After a short and manly dedication to the Bishop of London, through whom it seems the author was selected for the task before him, Mr. Whewell gives the following sketch of the kind of inquiry he means to institute :

"Nature acts by general laws; that is, the occurrences of the world in which we find ourselves, result from causes which operate according to fixed and constant rules. The succession of days, and seasons, and years, is produced by the motions of the earth; and these again are governed by the attraction of the sun, a force which acts with undeviating steadiness and regularity. The changes of winds and skies, seemingly so capricious and casual, are produced by the operation of the sun's heat upon air and moisture, land and sea; and though in this case we cannot trace the particular events to their general causes, as we can trace the motions of the sun and moon, no philosophical mind will doubt the generality and fixity of the rules by which these causes act. The variety of the effects takes place, because the circumstances in different cases vary; and not because the action of material causes leaves any thing to chance in the result. And again, though the vital movements which go on in the frame of animals and vegetables depend on agencies still less known, and probably still more complex than those which rule the weather, each of the powers on which such movements depend has its peculiar laws of action, and these are as universal, and as invariable, as the law by which a stone falls to the earth when not supported.

"The world, then, is governed by general laws; and in order to collect from the world itself a judgment concerning the nature and character of its government, we must consider the import and tendency of such laws, so far as they come under our knowledge. If there be in the administration of the universe, intelligence and benevolence, superintendence and foresight, grounds for hope and love, such qualities may be expected to appear in the constitution and combination of those fundamental regulations, by which the course of nature is brought about, and made to be what it is.'"

The work is separated into three main divisions. Under the head of Cosmical Arrangements, Mr. Whewell treats of the considerations which relate

principally to the stability, and other apparent perfections, of the solar system under the head of Terrestrial Adaptations, of the physical agencies (affected always by cosmical arrangements) which are at work at the surface of the earth and affect the well being of the system of organic life by which the surface of the earth is occupied. The third division, which is headed Religious Views, traces the effects of the views opened in the two first divisions on man's conceptions of the Deity, and of our relations to him.

Terrestrial Adaptations are taken first. Under this head the author points out the marks of design and of deliberate adaptation of the material world, to the purposes of organized life, which may be traced in the laws, or combination of laws, which have regulated the length of the year-the length of the day-the mass of the earth-the magnitude of the ocean-the magnitude of the atmosphere-the constancy and variety of climates-the variety of organization, to corresponding the variety of climate-the laws of heat, with respect to the earth-the laws of heat, with respect to water-the laws of heat, with respect to air-the laws of electricity-the laws of magnetism— the properties of light, with regard to vegetation-sound-the atmosphere— light-and the ether now supposed to fill space.

Of the striking and ingenious remarks, of which this part of the book is full, space forbids any thing like a sufficient sample. One specimen from the third chapter on " The Mass of the Earth," sect. 2, follows:

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"As another instance of adaptation between the force of gravity and forces which exist in the vegetable world, we may take the positions of flowers. Some flowers grow with the hollow of their cup upwards, others hang the pensive head,' and turn the opening downwards. Now, of these nodding flowers,' as Linnæus calls them, he observes that they are such as have their pistil longer than the stamens; and in consequence of this position, the dust from the anthers, which are the ends of the stamens, can fall upon the stigma or extremity of the pistil; which process is requisite for making the flower fertile. He gives, as instances, the flowers, leucoriun, galanthus, fritillaria. Other botanists have remarked, that the position changes at different periods of the flower's progress. The pistil of the euphorbia (which is a little globe or germen on a slender stalk) grows upright at first, and is taller than the stamens. At the period suited to its fecundation, the stalk bends under the weight of the ball at its extremity, so as to depress the germen below the stamens; after this it again becomes erect, the globe being now a fruit filled with fertile seeds. The positions, in all these cases, depend upon the length and flexibility of the stalk which supports the flower, or, in the case of the euphorbia, the germen. It is clear that a very slight alteration in the force of gravity, or in the stiffness of the stalk, would entirely alter the position of the flower cup, and thus make the continuation of the species impossible. We have, therefore, here a little mechanical contrivance, which would have been frustrated if the proper intensity of gravity had not been assumed in the reckoning. An earth greater or smaller, denser or rarer than the one on which we live, would require a change in the structure and strength of the footstalks of all the little flowers that hang their heads under our hedges. There is something curious in thus considering the whole mass of the earth, from pole to pole, and from circumference to centre, as employed in keeping a snow drop in the position most suited to the promotion of its vegetable health."

The second book, devoted to Cosmical arrangements, contains 12 chapters: of these, the seventh, which contains a refutation of what is sometimes called La Place's nebular hypothesis; and the eighth, which treats of " the existence of a resisting medium in the solar system," and the twelfth," on Friction," will probably be thought the most novel and striking. In the chapter on the existence of a resisting medium which must gradually affect the motions of the planets, and, after a long succession of ages (which must be counted by millions), destroy the solar system, the author is on new ground, on which science has scarcely yet got a firm footing. He appears to believe in the existence of such a medium; and in his reflections on the results of its resistance, the reader may detect the flashes of an ardent and active imagination, which he reins in elsewhere with great self-denial. The chapter on Friction is novel and curious, and shews that considerations which are usually thought to belong to the mechanic and the engineer alone, must constantly be taken into account,

before we can at all understand how the earth is fitted to be the habitation of living beings.

The third book is devoted to religious views, and is incomparably the most original, interesting, and powerful part of the whole work.

The prominent and interesting effect of the speculations contained in this part of the work, is produced by the insight it gives into the views and feelings generated in a mind of the highest order, by the most comprehensive views which science can unveil of the exterior world. It has been too much an evil fashion in our days, to consider phenomena only as they group themselves under general laws, and to pass over all the instruction to be got, by observing the mental processes and operations of the gifted creature employed in observing and classing them. Mr. Whewell gets a glimpse of no law, without a reverent perception of the powers, functions, and endowments of the intellect which traces it; and in observing these, he is led constantly upwards to the mightier intellect, which framed man and the universe. Of all the philosophy he teaches, that which seems most emphatically his own, is the philosophy of mind. It would be doing gross injustice to the work, to attempt to convey a notion of this part of it by limited extracts; but it is right to indicate the chapters "on inductive and deductive habits," on the distinct mental characteristics, that is, of those who investigate general truths, and of those who reason from them, as at once original, vigorous, and instructive. The quiet demonstration of the imperfection of all the views of the Deity which the most exalted human wisdom can form, is deeply impressive. But the praise due to this part of the book, is not that of being striking and imposing: it is that of being efficient. No fairly constituted mind can peruse it without feeling overcome by the consciousness that he has before him the production of an elevated and piercing intellect, stored, in a most unusual degree, with knowledge, literature, and science, and by and through these, deeply penetrated, thoroughly imbued, with a sincere and earnest conviction of the being and superintendence of God.

The arguments are stated forcibly, gravely, earnestly, simply; and their appropriate praise (and surely it is the highest) is this-that they are effective: neither aiming at idle brilliancy nor ostentatiously displaying power; but appealing to the reason and to the heart, with a sincerity, plainness, and force, which carry with them and establish there conviction and reverence.

Theological Library. Vol. IV. Life of Cranmer, by the Rev. C. W. Le Bas, Vol. I. London: Rivingtons. 1833.

Ir is matter of sincere congratulation to those who believe that Cranmer was a very great as well as a very good man, to find how much has been written about him, and how much interest has been taken in his character, within the last few years. For it is their decided conviction that the more his character is investigated, the higher it will stand, the more fully will the enormous difficulties under which he struggled on, be recognized, and the more lively will be the gratitude felt to him for all which he effected under such difficulties. To those who entertain such a conviction, it has been a great source of rejoicing that so eminent a person as Mr. Le Bas had undertaken a life of this admirable person; and the manner in which he has executed his task, will fully justify their warmest anticipations. They will find a powerful, courageous, high-toned narrative of the progress of things, and Cranmer's share in them, in the text; and in the notes, very sufficient and very convincing refutations of the charges commonly brought against Cranmer. His admirers will feel especial gratitude to Mr. Le Bas for the strength with which he has stated the case as to the Protestation made by Cranmer before his consecration as Archbishop. Such a notice gives no opportunity of doing any justice to Mr. Le Bas; but, fortunately, his great powers are too well known to require VOL. III.-May, 1833. 4 E

any commendation here. They have found a theme worthy of them in the "Lives of the great men of the Church of England;" and Mr. Le Bas, in devoting his powers to such a work, not only renders an invaluable service to the Church, but will achieve a memorial to himself which will endure.

Encyclopædia Ecclesiastica, or a complete History of the Church, Rites, Ceremomonies, Denominations of Christians, &c. By T. A. Trollope, LL.B., late Fellow of New Coll., Oxford, Barrister at Law. London: Murray. 1833. Part I.

THIS is a very splendid work, and promises to be a very useful one, especially to the general reader. Mr. Trollope shews a very respectable acquaintance with the points of divinity which he is called on to touch, and very great industry and research in pointing out the meaning of ecclesiastical terms. He will find Van Espen of great use as he goes on, and Du Cange will likewise give great assistance. In reading writers about the time of the Reformation, one is constantly at a loss for a book like Mr. Trollope's, and the fuller he makes it the better of information which can illustrate the state of convents, &c. at that time. For example, what was the office of the Pater Terminarius so often mentioned in Luther's early letters ?

MISCELLANEA.

THE WELSH CLERGY.

NAPOLEON was very angry that the English did not know when they were beaten. Had he been in the House of Lords, his anger would have known no bounds against the Marquis of Westminster and Lord King. No persons were ever more entirely beaten, and no persons ever seemed to know it less. Let us see how the case stands.

Lord Westminster and Lord R. Grosvenor present petitions, complaining that clergy who do not know Welsh are presented to Welsh livings-that there is a great deal of non-residence-that in some districts there are no incumbents at all, &c., insinuating that the Bishops give these livings to their own English friends, who do not reside, and pay their poor Welsh curates very ill.

Now, as to ignorance of Welsh, and English holding livings, the Bishop of Bangor states, that only three Englishmen hold livings in all his diocese, and each of these was strictly examined as to his knowledge of Welsh before he took possession.

The Bishop of St. Asaph says, that he has never given anything to any relation of his own, or to any Englishman; and that in nearly every instance, he had given his benefices to Welsh curates,-in one case to his Welsh chaplain, and in another, to a most exemplary Welshman, long the respected Chaplain of St. George's Hospital.

Yet none of the charges have been answered, say Lords Westminster and King. Napoleon would, indeed, have been very angry with their Lordships. Then as to non-residence, there are 125 persons, holding various kinds of preferment in the diocese of Bangor, of whom the Bishop says, that all but five are actually resident in the diocese; four of these five holding benefices worth next to nothing.

Yet none of the charges, say Lords Westminster and King, have been answered! What can be the Noble Lords' notion of an answer?

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