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niart to apply at once a case in point, and a full illustration of the geological doctrine which it involves. Indeed there is scarcely any subject of more importance than the history of lakes, whether we regard it in connection with hydrography or as it throws light upon the aqueous origin of certain rocks. Von Buch describes a very interesting local formation of this kind, which he discovered at Locle, in the district of Jura. It is contained in an inclosed valley, 1665 French feet above the lake of Neufchatel, and 2959 above the level of the sea, and is, we are further told, about two miles and a quarter long, and about a mile broad. The valley contains many small hills, from 200 to 300 feet in height; the lowest stratum of which, resting immediately on the same limestone of which the neighbouring mountains are composed, is a very coarse conglomerate of that limestone. On the conglomerate rests a pretty thick bed of marly limestone, of a white colour, and which is fine, earthy, and almost friable. Throughout the whole extent it is intermixed with small river shells, which still retain their natural substance and texture. There is also found hornstone with freshwater shells, bituminous shale, and a bed of coals including numerous bivalve shells; and it is worthy of particular notice that all these minerals are the produce of a small inclosed lake, for not one trace of these works is to be seen beyond the mountains that surround Locle * The well-known local formation at Eningen must be explained on the same principle. Both Von Buch and Blumenbach are of opinion that it is a deposition which had taken place in a lake which anciently covered that ground, and accordingly that the fishes, insects, leaves, and other organic bodies, which abound in it, had been carried thither by the rivers from the adjacent country. It seems, in short, a matter of the highest probability, that on the courses of all the great rivers, such valleys or lake formations are very frequent. Mr. Jameson, in the work to which we have already referred, mentions several of both on the Rhine and on the Danube. "As long as the Rhine," says he, "continues in the Alps, these basins are inconsiderable, but they increase in magnitude as soon as it leaves these elevated regions. The basin, in which the lake of Constance is situated, may serve as an example. A second occurs in Baden, which extends from Upper Alsace to Hundsruck and the vicinity of Mayence, where the Rhine forces its way through a narrow rocky passage. The river district of the Danube forms a basin in Swabia, several in Bavaria, and one in Lower Austria; and the current is still

*See Annals of Philosophy, vol. i, p. 191.

VOL IV. AUGUST, 1815.

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nearly shut up at Presburgh, which forms the entrance into the great valley of Hungary. At the lower extremity of Hungary the river is again forced to seek its way through a narrow rocky channel at Orosova, which is the only opening from Hungary into Wallachia. It now continues its course through Wallachia, and at length falls into the Black Sea. We have a continuation, observes the Professor, of these vallies or basins, although still filled with water, in the Black Sea, the Sea of Marmora, and the Mediterranean. The Elbe exhibits many similar appearances; so does the Don in Aberdeenshire, and the Annan, near Dumfries. The travels of Lewis and Clarke to the source of Missouri furnish a variety of instances in which that river has laid immense vallies dry, by cutting a channel for itself through the barrier which formerly shut it up; and one place is mentioned where that magnificent stream, 350 yards in width, has worn out a passage to the depth of 1200 feet, in a rock of hornblende and felspar.

We offer our thanks to Professor Kidd for the little essay which has suggested these remarks, and beg leave to assure him that the industry, candour, and just reasoning, of which it presents so many proofs, have created in our minds no small regret, that he has determined to bid farewell to mineralogical pursuits. Much still remains to be done in the field of rational geognosy; and no man requires to be told that its progress will be most successfully advanced, by collecting facts from every authentic source, by personally examining and comparing nature on the great scale, and by bringing forward such anomalies or exceptions as will prevent a too hasty induction. All this Dr. Kidd has exemplified in the present work, and we conclude our commendation by merely referring to the caution and delicacy which he has shewn on the subject of religious belief. None are charged by him with infidel or atheistical opinions, and every one is exhorted to conduct his enquiries, in the department of science, with a due respect for even the prejudices of the pious. We have only to add in defence of this unpopular and defamed study, that it carries nothing in its mysteries hostile to the faith of a Christian; while, on the contrary, it has furnished several collateral and important proofs that the Mosaical history is a true and faithful record of man, and of the globe as the habitation of man.

ART. IV. A Combined View of the Prophecies of Daniel, Esdras,and St. John, shewing that all the Prophetic Writings are formed upon one plan, accompanied by an explanatory Chart. Also, a minute Explanation of the Prophecies of Daniel, to

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gether with Critical Remarks upon the Interpretations of preceding Commentators, and more particularly upon the Systems of Mr. Faber and Mr. Cuninghame. By James Hatley Frere, Esq. The second edition. 8vo. 12s. Hatchard.

1815.

IT is a pleasing circumstance, honourable to the days and to the land we live in, that many learned laymen, following the example of the illustrious Sir Isaac Newton, have devoted their leisure to the investigation of the prophecies. This increased and increasing attention to the prophetic parts of the sacred volume is itself a verification of prophecy, and will, no doubt, be rewarded with the promised success. By the excursive researches and persevering diligence of both clergy and laity, the knowledge of these awful subjects will be increased, and the faith of the present and of the coming generations more and more established.

In reviewing the work of this learned layman on the prophecies, we shall principally advert to those parts and passages, which, when the volume first appeared, powerfully excited public attention. What relates (as many things in this Combined View necessarily do) to times long past, may be omitted or briefly noticed; but in applying prophetic predictions to events of recent date, or (as supposed) immediately impending, where mistakes may be pregnant with consequences most fatal, we should proceed with the utmost deliberation and trembling caution.

There are many undoubted synchronisms in the Apocalypse of St. John, which the incomparable Mede, we believe, was the first to point out and demonstrate. We have often thought it would be an important step towards the obtaining of a clear view of this awful book, to transcribe, either from the original text or from our English version, the several passages relating to the same period of time, and to arrange them in parallel columns; but we never in earnest attempted to carry the design into execu tion. Mr. Frere has prefixed to his book a scheme, or "General Plan" of the prophecies, supposed by him to be synchronical, which is convenient and useful; but it would be far better, if practicable, to have the passages themselves at one view laid before us.

Mr. Frere makes the first six trumpets coincident in point of time with the six first seals; in which he not only deserts the authority of Mr. Mede, Mr. Faber and others, but apparently offers great violence to the text itself; in which, besides other marks of time, the first trumpet is not represented as sounding till after the seventh seal has been opened.

In his introductory observations, after expressing his regret

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that the systems of commentators on the prophecies are not formed on plans sufficiently simple and comprehensive, he proceeds to lay down certain rules of his own. The first of these rules, on which he appears to lay great stress, and has in fact made it part of the title of his book, is this: "All the prophecies must be arranged on one uniform plan." p. 5. It is very true that all prophecies, which have for their object the same event, or the same series of events, must be arranged," or explained, " on one uniform plan;" for all truth, whether perfectly or imperfectly declared, is in every part consistent with itself. But there are numberless prophecies (those, for instance, concerning Tyre and Nineveh and Babylon, in the Old Testament, and concerning the destruction of Jerusalem in the New) which have little if any relation to one another, and none at all to that class of prophecies, which are the subject of Mr. Frere's Combined View. All these prophecies, which Mr. F. no doubt excluded in his own mind, he should have excluded in framing his fundamental rule; and the rule, so limited, is indubitably a most important one, but at the same time so obvious, that, it is presumed, no commentator ever attempted to explain two or more prophecies, relating to the same subject, otherwise than on one and the same plan, or so as to make them, in his judgment, uniform and consistent.

Mr. F. appears to take to himself some credit, because an apprehension, which he had expressed, that his work would not be out, before Buonaparte would leave France and go to Italy, was, as he says, "realized." But as no reason or ground for this apprehension is suggested, it can only be regarded as a conjecture, which happened to be verified, if indeed it was verified; for Elba, to which we suppose he alludes, though previously subject to an Italian state, is neither " Italy," nor a part of Italy.

The work consists of five chapters of which the first contains introductory observations, rules of interpretation, arrangement of the Prophecies, and a Symbolical Dictionary. The second is on Daniel's Vision of the great Image; the third on the Vision of the Four Beasts, particularly of the Little Papal Horn; the fourth on the Vision of the Ram and the He-goat, and the Mahometan Little Horn.

The work therefore, as far as it is yet completed, is strictly a view only of the prophecies of Daniel, the author hoping at some future time to complete his plan, by adding a similar minute interpretation of the Prophecies (as he calls them) of Esdras and of St. John. But many passages of both, and particularly of the Apocalypse, are brought forward and interpreted in the present volume, in explaining what he deems contemporaneous with them in the prophecies of Daniel.

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One notion, which frequently occurs in the work before us, we fervently wish were as certain, as it is consolatory. Supposing the 1260 years of the dominance of the papal horn to have ended in 1792, and assigning the period of thirty years, from that date, for the final and complete overthrow of that power, and of the horns or kingdoms, into which the Roman empire was divided, he finds one of the ten kingdoms, the Protestant British nation, is at the very commencement of this time of wrath and desolation taken under the immediate protection of Heaven, and remains tranquil and victorious, beholding and rejoicing at the downfall of Babylon and the tremendous but just judgments of God upon his enemies. This opinion may be seen stated in pages 14. 21. 27. 59. 93. n. 105. 114. 137. 403. and the passages of Scripture, from which it is deduced, are Rev. vii. 1—8. xiv. 1—13. xv. 2. Dan. vii, 11. 25. xi. 32.

When it is said, that after the expiration of " a time and times, and the dividing of time" (whenever that period does expire)" judgment was given to the saints of the Most High," "and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given" to them, we may safely conclude, that (whoever they be) they shall, as a body, be victorious; but whether they shall be instruments or merely spectators of the vengeance, whether the victory shall be atchieved with much or with little suffering and slaughter on their part, there is no intimation. Neither, again, is it evident from the Apocalypse, nor proved by the commentator, that the symbolical Israel, the "sealed" and protected" servants of God," are all of one nation; nor that the protection is assigned to its proper time. They may rather be regarded as denoting the faithful servants of God, of every tribe and kindred, who in times of trouble and distress adhere to him, and " follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth." They were redeemed from among men, being the first-fruits unto God, and to the Lamb;" and therefore belong probably to some much earlier period, than that which follows the termination of the 1260 years. Mr. Faber considers the 144,000 of chapter xiv. as the immediate successors of the 144,000 of chapter vii. who bore their testimony to the truths of the Gospel in the days of paganism, before the age of Constantine, as the other he thinks, do afterwards, during the depressed state of the Church in the wilderness, previous to the time of the reformaton. Accordingly we may observe, that immediately after this vision, St. John sees what is justly conceived to denote the dawn of the reformation, an "angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth." This first angel Mr. Faber applies to Lu

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