the laws of nature, or, in other words, by the will of him, "who upholds all things by the word of his power;" but were that will withdrawn or changed, could the watchmaker continue the movements of the watch, or could the watch itself exist for one instant?

The feventh chapter, which treats of omnifcience, is of fome value. The author, when he contends that the knowledge of God is fomething different in kind, as well as fuperior in degree, to the knowledge of man, treads in the footsteps of the pious, learned, and acute Bishop Brown; though, as he makes no reference to the Procedure, extent, and limits of human understanding,' we have no right to fay that he derived his notions from that valuable work.

On the next chapter we have no remarks to make. The Divine goodness has been fo much more completely proved in Dr. Balguy's Divine Benevolence afferted, and in Law's edition of King's Origin of Evil, that the reader, who has perufed, with attention, either of thefe works, will pafs over very flightly the fpeculations of Tucker on the fubject, The ninth chapter, in which the nature of Providence is difcuffed, is of greater value, as the reader will judge from the following extract.

"To fum up the whole of what has been offered on this fubject, we may gather from the perishable nature of our bodies, and durable nature of our minds, that there are other forms of being befides this, wherewith we fhall be invefted: from the method conftantly taken by nature, in bringing her works to perfection flowly, of generating one thing by the corruption of another, and the mutual dependence of the feveral parts of this vifible world, that there is a like connection of interefts running. through the whole; and from the groffness of our outward frame, receiving fenfations only through a few very complicated channels, that we may be capable of ftronger, clearer, and a much greater variety of perceptions than we now have. Thus far we do not difcover any thing to fatisfy us as to the chief point we have in view; for the greater fenfibility of our unembodied ftate may render us liable to acuter pains as well as more exalted pleafures; and the greater variety of our perceptions may give rife to more of the irkfome as well as (of) the agreeable kind. But when we raife our thoughts to the First Caufe, and contemplate the character of wisdom and goodness manifefted in thofe things of which we have an adequate knowledge, our uncertainty vanishes; for we cannot fuppofe that evil will be inflicted needlefsly, or difpofed in greater quantities than the welfare of the whole creation re quires. Therefore we may look upon the good, (which) we at prefent receive, as given for its own fake; but on the troubles

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and

and uneafineffes we are expofed to as a neceffary introduction to our reaping fome greater advantages hereafter." P. 217.

We have already feen, that Tucker fuppofes the foul to be intimately united with a fine material vehicle, which goes off with her at death. In the tenth chapter he describes what kind of a being this vehicle is; points out what he fuppofes to be the purposes which it ferves; and affures us, that when we país into the vehicular ftate, we thall be all of us children requiring the care of the old inhabitants to overlook and cherith us. On fuch groundless hypothefes we will not detain the reader longer than to inform him, that, they are detailed for the purpofe of introducing to him, in the next chapter, a rhapfody of hypothefes ftill more extravagant.

Tucker's mundane foul is indeed a very extraordinary being, different in many refpects from the anima mundi of the ancient philofophers.

"To their theory, he fays, there is one objection; for we find them fpeaking of the mundane foul as one entire thing, or mind. But this will confound the diftinction of particular fouls, for they were not created upon their difcerption, their fubftance already exifting in the univerfal foul; therefore, before their difcerption, they must have existed there as so many diftin& individuals, or they could not have become fo by being jeparated from it; as we have already feen, that one individual cannot be made into any other individual, much lefs into many others. Now, without troubling ourselves to conjecture how the ancients would have removed this objection, I fhall lay down, that the mundane foul is one no otherwife than as the fea is one, by a fimilitude and contiguity of parts, being compofed of an innumerable hoft of diftinct fpirits as that is of aqueous particles; and as the rivers continually difcharge themselves into the fea, so the vehicular people, on the difruption of their vehicles, discharge and incorporate themfelves into the ocean of spirits, making the mundane foul." P. 234.

All this nonfenfe is the natural refult of attributing extenfion to a being which thinks and acts; but we are aftonifhed that the author did not perceive its utter inconfiftency with the reafoning, by which, in the firft chapter of this book, he proves that the human foul is, in the fricteft fenfe of the words, one and indivifible. If, as he fays, the fpirits of angels, fiatefmen, fboe-blacks, idiots, men, children, beafts, birds, and injects, compofe the great mundane foul, how is it poffible that they can all be, or fuppofe themfelves to be, but one individual foul? Why, fays he, (p. 243," as they act in

concert

concert in carrying on one plan of operation, the aft of all will feem the act of every one, and each feel a perfonal intereft in what is performed by the whole fociety:" but may not the materialift fay the fame thing of the particles which compofe the human brain, and contend that there is no other than this feeming unity of action in the one cafe as well as in the other?

In our former article we mentioned the danger that a metaphyfician runs of being misled by thofe illuftrations, in which Tucker indulges, and for which Dr. Paley and the abridger beflow on him fuch extravagant praife; and never was an obfervation more fully confirmed, than is that obfervation of ours in the chapter under immediate review. The hypothefis (abfurd as it is) of a mighty weight of fome fubtle fluid bearing against the orifices of the nerves, which the mind employs as a miller employs the ftream which turns the wheel of his mill, is here taken for granted, and reafoned from as an undoubted fact! "We can indeed lift heavy weights, but this," fays the author, (p. 237,)" it has been fhewn, we do not do by our own ftrength merely, for we receive confiderable affiftance from our animal circulation; yet we must begin the motion upon fome little nerve or fibre to pull up the valve for letting in the vital ftream upon our mufcles!"

In the twelfth chapter we have a long and particular defcription of the vehicular ftate, to which the author was tranfported in a vifion; but this defcription difplays neither genius, tafte, nor judgment, A fyftem of metaphyfics is not a proper place for the introduction of fuch reveries; there are a thoufand fources from which he might derive the thought of exhibiting his waking dreams in the form of a vifion; the converfations which he held with Locke, Pythagoras, and Plato, &c. might be fuggefted by Gulliver's converfations with ancient heroes and fages in the ifland of forcecers; and all that he can claim as his own, the language and the defcription of minute bags, as the vehicles of humin fouls, is peculiarly mean and vulgar. It is almoft needless to add, that in the railing of this ill-formed, airy fabric, the author finds himfelf under the neceffity of rejecting the Chriftian doctrine of the refurrection, to make way for the abforption of all fouls, after a certain period fpent in the vehicular state, in the great compound foul of the world!

Every advocate for the doctrine of philofophical neceffity maintains, we believe, that a period is coming, though probably far diftant, when all phyfical and moral evil fhall be completely done away. Tucker, though not a confiftent neceffarian,

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adopts

t

adopts this opinion likewife; but he proceeds a step further than any other man, with whofe fpeculations on this fubject

e are acquainted, and contends not only that there will be a final refloration of all things, but that the fouls of all men, angels, and even beafts and birds, (for they are all, he fays, homogeneous,) will fooner or later have an equal fhare in the divine bounty; fo that when the whole period of their existence fhall be taken into view, there will not be one more virtuous, more perfect, or more happy, than another! This is perhaps the natural confequence of his notions of the mundane foul, and the abforption of all particular fouls in it; but to make his doctrine the more intelligible, he forms, as ufual, an hypothefis, and fuppofes a univerfal tranfmigration of fouls, not only on this earth, but in every ftate antecedent to the final abforption. A more perfect equality than this would produce cannot, he fays, be conceived.

It would be extremely unjust, both to him and to his abridger, not to acknowledge, that in the two chapters employed on thefe fubjects, many ingenious and fome good things are thrown out; but the whole is fuch a bafelefs fabric, and this article has already extended to fuch a length, that we cannot enter into them. The author is laudably anxious to prevent his theories from proving injurious to the practice of virtue; and we really fee no danger from them, to any one capable of reading with proper attention either The Light of Nature purfued, or the Abridgment of it now under review but gabled quotations from these two chapters might, on fome minds, be productive of very bad confequences; for it is well obferved in the concluding chapter of this book, that

"Speculative opinions may have an influence upon practical zeal, and one man's fpeculations, though innocent and falutary to himself, may caufe difquietude and do mifchief in the mind of another, who will draw inferences from them quite the reverse of what the author intended. For in every fcience, those who make it their business to dive into the depths of it, find a very different fcene of things from those who take only fo much as is requifite to common ufe; and as fuch as have beftowed much thought on the foundations of right and wrong, discover many contradictions and abfurdities in the popular notions; fo, on the other hand, their refinements appear unintelligible and abfurd to the generali y of men.-The genuine philofopher purfues know. ledge for the ufe, not the credit of it, and defires reputation only as it may afft his ufefulnefs." P. 332.

(To be concluded in our next.)

ART.

ART. VI. Corinna, or Italy. By Mad. de Stael Holftein. 3 vols. 8vo. Price 15s. Tipper. 1807.

IT is very feldom that an opportunity occurs of introducing a work like the pretent among the principal articles of the British Critic; nor are we induced to do fo in the prefent inftance from any very particular approbation of the work, but because the writer has a certain degree of literary reputation, and because the performance has excited confiderable curiofity.

The great object of the author is to delineate the English, French, and Italian characters. Lord Nelvil, the Englishman, in his journey to Rome, picks up the Count d'Erfeuil, a French emig ant, who accompanies him to the metropolis of Italy, where he fees and becomes enamoured with Corinna, in whofe character the virtues and foibles of her country are pourtrayed. The ftory itfelf is prepofterous in the highest degree; but it would be particularly uncandid not to acknowledge, that many of the incidents are contrived with great ingenuity, and the tale, improbable as it is, narrated with confiderable intereft and vivacity. The first introduction of Corinna, about to be crowned in the capitol with myrtle, as a compofer of extemporary rhymes, is in the higheft ftyle of French rodomontade*; and the coquetry between her and Lord Nelvil, whom the had never before feen, may easily be conceived to have been written, and acted too, by a French-woman; but cannot at all bring to our view the character of a British nobleman.

However, we muft purfue the ftory. Lord Nelvil and Corinna become mutually enamoured; they vifit the curi ofities of Rome together, and, ftrange to fay, after a time, they agree to travel tê e-a-tête to Naples. But here it is that the author is entitled to no common praife. The defcriptions of Rome, its antiquities and curiofities, though fo often repeated, and fo familiarly known, are given with a warmth of feeling, with fuch tafte, and fo much judgment, that they excite as lively an intereft, as if for the first time brought before us. The journey to Naples is equally deferving of diftinction, and if we were to fpeak of the author in terms of commendation only, we need only give an extract from this part of the work to juftify our livelieft com

It is founded, however, on the facts related of Corilla, a famous Improvifatrite.

mendation.