air, pass away with the phenomena of heat and flame; the power of cohesion is overcome, and the visible remains now subject to the power of gravitation, are only a few white ashes, which a breath of wind will scatter away.

The slow and silent operations of this agent are, perhaps, less striking, but equally effective. Thus, no sooner does the sun dart his ray upon the earth in the morning, than the repose which all substances might seem to be enjoying is directly, though, perhaps, unobservedly, terminated. Particles of water, whether in form of dew, or spreading upon the surface of the ocean, a river, or a lake, expand, and, no longer subject to the earth's attraction, spring off into the higher regions of the atmosphere. The air upon which the sun's heat is acting also expands, ascends, and gives rise to currents of wind. The different tribes of living beings are variously stimulated to activity; feeble currents of electricity are, at the same time, excited, and all nature put in motion. As the sun reaches its zenith, larger or more considerable floods of caloric are poured upon the earth, evaporation goes on with the utmost rapidity, the winds blow stronger, and the functions of life are more vigorously performed. The vast streams of vapour reaching the higher regions, are there robbed of the caloric which carried them upward, and are condensed into an arched and snowy mass of cloud. The electricity caused by evaporation accumulates; and, at length, the vivid flash, the succeeding thunder, and torrents of rain, restore again the aqueous atoms to their source. This is only a very imperfect account of the disturbances and consequent phenomena produced by the agency of light and heat, flowing in upon the earth from the sun, but it is sufficient to assure us that every particle of matter is obedient to peculiar physical powers. If further testimony is needed to convince any one of this fact, it is afforded by circumstances of a still more striking character, daily falling under our observation. The explosion of gunpowder-the bursting of strong leaden pipes by the freezing of water-the extraordinary power of steam-electricity and magnetism-the curious effects of chemical affinity-the symmetrical forms of crystals-and, lastly, the increasing revolutions of the earth itself-are all so many proofs of the existence and activity of physical power, and afford to the contemplative mind a very exalted idea of the omnipotence of that Supreme Intelligence which governs and directs the whole.

The lecturer then entered upon the consideration of the laws by which the phenomena of physical power are regulated, and pointed out the importance of a knowledge of the laws of nature" so that in all we attempt we may not vainly struggle against some insuperable difficulty opposed to us by natural causes, and on the other hand that we may be enabled to avail ourselves of those important auxiliaries which a knowledge of them does not fail to bestow upon mankind.”

This interesting lecture was illustrated by various experiments in chemistry, electricity, and electro-magnetism, calculated to develope and enforce the lecturer's views of physical power.

At the conclusion of the lecture, Mr. Addison pointed out the clear and intelligible distinction which, in physical investigations, is always made and understood between the material substance, the invisible energy or power, and the effects, or the results, derived by the action of the one upon the other, and alluded to the necessity for the same distinction in metaphysical inquiries: thus, the living body would represent the material substance; the intellectual principle, or soul, the invisible power; and the mind, the phenomena or effects derived from the action of the one upon the other.

CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

Natural Evidence of a Future Life, by F. C. Bakewell. London: Longman and Co. 1835.

It may appear paradoxical, but we cannot help feeling that divines are not always the best writers on divinity. It may be urged, indeed, that having dedicated more time to the subject, they are, therefore, more competent to undertake the task-that, as physical sciences are best explained by those who have devoted their minds to such investigations, so, also, in spiritual matters, clerical professors should be the best expounders. As far as critical inquiries extend, this may be, indeed, admitted; but we must recollect that, with theological analysis, early habits, education, and various prejudices are so closely intermixed, that it is next to impossible to expect absolute impartiality and the absence of all partial associations. On points of faith, therefore, we can rarely expect to meet with more than the best arguments in favour of some favourite and adopted theory; general views of the question in its various bearings and ramifications being in a manner precluded by the peculiar circumstances in which the writer is placed. Not so with the laity: they can step forward, free and unshackled, with a freshness and originality excluding those warpings and biassed feelings to which their ecclesiastical brethren are of necessity more or less exposed. With these impressions, we hailed a work from the pen of a layman, written with a view to establish the important doctrine of a future state, and the immortality of the soul; and the more so, as it professed to be founded on scientific principles. And conscientiously and strongly do we recommend it, not only as an admirable specimen of able and conclusive reasoning, but as a valuable tribute to the utility and importance of science, which has been so frequently and unfairly assailed as hostile to religion, and therefore to be shunned by those who would preserve their minds in a state of orthodox purity; a charge made, we think, with as much justice (because

some philosophers happen to have been free-thinkers) as if we were to denounce the Bible as the parent of fanaticism, because some who have been its most diligent readers have turned out fanciful enthusiasts, advocates for an immediate millenium, or eloquent in the language of unknown tongues. The fact is, that the religion of revelation and that of nature closely rememble each other in their tendency and limits. In both, though there is much light and abundant truth, we see nevertheless through the glass darkly; and though inquiry is not only permitted, but encouraged, we must not, in this our imperfect state, expect perfection of knowledge in either the one or the other. Hence, albeit nothing doubting, and firm in faith, we should nevertheless add to our perseverance in research, humility, and argue from the general impression of those glimpses we are enabled to obtain of what will be, from the consideration of what is and has been, that the rules by which the Deity regulates the moral as well as the physical world, are as simple and universal as they are all-perfect and comprehensive in operation. And that this impression will result from a perusal of Mr. Bakewell's work, we confidently anticipate. The reader will find nothing to jar against his feelings in the way of dogmatism or controversy. He will, if he has a soul capable of being led on to higher thoughts, and the loftier pursuits connected with an eternal world, thank us for introducing him to a companion for his meditative hours, from which we shall think it strange indeed if he does not derive as much benefit as information. The metaphysician, it is true, discovers in the powerful reasoning of Butler's Analogy, arguments in confirmation of the immortality of the soul; but metaphysical food is neither agreeable to the taste, nor suited to the digestive intellectual organs of a large portion of society; and after all, connected more or less as it is with abstract reasoning and imagination, its deductions may or may not be always accurate. In physics, however, the case is different; as many who are either unwilling or incompetent to dive into the abstruse lore of a Bacon, a Locke, or a Butler, will be glad to be directed to similar conclusions, by the more agreeable and equally convincing path of the work to which we allude.

We will now, therefore, proceed to give as comprehensive an analysis of our author's plan, as our brief space will admit of. He begins by reminding us that, although many works on natural theology exist, few have ventured on the interesting field in which the spiritual and material portions combined to form man appear so intimately connected. The exclusion of natural phenomena from these considerations," he justly observes, "must therefore be ascribed to the impression too hastily received, that the evidence to be derived from the actions of matter, is either not favourable to, or at least that it affords no satisfactory proof of, the immortality of the soul." That such conclusions are unfounded, it is his object to shew, laying it down as a fundamental position capable of proof, that every phenomenon in physical science directs us to look beyond material existences for its ultimate cause. "The manifestations of

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design, of power, and of wisdom, in all the inanimate works of creation, teaching us that there exists some power beyond the cognizance of our senses; and the uses to which those properties are applied inform us that that power must be supremely intelligent and efficient." If," he adds, we are to confine our views to the phenomena immediately presented to our senses, and were to reason exclusively from a superficial observation of the changes in the constitution of the body consequent on death, we should be led to the conclusion that the destruction of the body involves also the eternal destruction of the mysterious principle by which it was animated."+ Hence he contends that "it is upon this contracted view alone of the processes accompanying the dissolution of the body, that the hypothesis of the materialists can be supported; but such a consideration of the subject is only suited to the rudest ages of ignorance, and will be found to be directly opposed to the plainest deductions from all scientific investigations."+

The causes, no doubt, which have indisposed religious persons to follow up this pursuit may be traced to that laudably sensitive apprehension of guarding against any approach whatever to materialism; namely, that atoms, whether of matter or, if we may so speak, of spirit, have an innate self-exerting power of generating what is termed life. But we do not see why the subject may not be grappled with, even in its most menacing form. The materialist argues thus: Matter, in its atomic subdivisions, is the cause of vitality, under certain arrangements of its monads or monocules. The advocate for the separate existence of life says, No; I admit, indeed, that under certain polarities, or proportions, or call them by whatever other term you please, life becomes apparent; but I deny, in toto, that the cause of such connection is inherent in either the one or the other: my belief is that a higher power, the great master-mind of the universe, has so constituted his instruments that, by his fiat and permission, life, instinctive or intellectual, shall ensue. We have scriptural authority for this, even to the "God letter. formed man of the dust of the ground;" that is to say, the forming and fashioning of the particles of matter under certain arrangements, rendered it a fit recipient for the creative and spiritual afflatus which ensued. That the mode, and manner, and cause, is beyond our ken, is of little consequence; it stands upon the same basis, and is, at all events, as intelligible, or rather say unintelligible, a fact, that the particles of iron in a magnet, for instance, are under the control and power of an etherial or spiritual agency acting independently, and which may be separated without the slightest interference with its existence and acknowledged presence. All this is in strict conformity with the assumption of Mr. Bakewell, "that the vital and thinking principles are as indestructible as matter, and that their combination with, and separation from, material organization, are merely preparatory to entering another state of

very

+ p. 17.

being. In short, if it should be found," he adds, "that the corporeal organs are merely instruments that assist in the developement of some higher inscrutable power, we may surely infer, with a degree of certainty equal to that which attends any conclusions in physical science, that this superior power-which we designate the soul-is distinct from material organization, and that its existence does not depend on those subservient agents which manifest its presence." His arguments are drawn from a well-arranged division of the subject into three parts, derived, first, from the indestructibility of matter; second, the properties of matter; and lastly, the phenomena of life. We have merely space to give an example from each of these divisions, which are again sub-divided into a variety of sections, each connected with the most interesting phenomena in distinct branches of science. The solution of a lump of sugar might be adduced as a familiar illustration of the first section; we, however, prefer another, less familiar, but on that account, perhaps, more striking, of the total disappearance and apparent annihilation of a solid body by solution. If a piece of silver be immersed in diluted nitric acid, the affinity of the acid to the metal will occasion them to unite; a brisk action will ensue, and in a short time the silver will be entirely dissolved, and absolutely invisible. The liquid will remain limpid as before, and will present no difference in its appearance to indicate a change. What, then, has become of the solid piece of silver that was placed in the liquid? Its hardness, its lustre, its tenacity, its great specific gravity, all the characteristics that distinguish it as a metal, are gone; its very form has vanished, and the hard, splendid, ponderous, and opaque metal that, but a few minutes since, was immersed in the mixture, is, to all visible evidence, gone for ever. But this is a fallacy, which chemistry enables us to detect; for if we drop some pieces of copper into the limpid fluid, to which metal the acid has a stronger affinity than to the silver, the latter will be immediately disengaged, or fall to the bottom in small brilliant metallic crystals. And the quantity thus deposited will be found to correspond exactly with the weight of the metal dissolved; and if the minute particles be melted, and cast into the same shape that the piece of silver presented before solution, it will be reproduced not only the same in substance, but in its pristine form, and actual identity. Similar instances are given under the effects of evaporation, rarefaction, decomposition, and even combustion; all tending to shew that the elements of matter are neither changed nor diminished, that no particle of mat ter acted on suffers annihilation, and that by no known process whatever can it be destroyed: which accumulated evidence corro borates the analogy, and the proof of the indestructibility of matter becomes almost as well established as any truth can be of which we have not absolute demonstration.

Our next illustration will be from the second division of the work, where proofs are collected from the properties of matter. The instance selected shall be that from light. If a ray of sun-light be