alliance between the hereticks and catholicks, to a gross and stupid absurdity. Between the catechetical and philosophical schools of Alexandria, there seem not to have existed any stronger inducements to form an alliance. From an early period, they engaged in controversies, which had rendered their mutual animosity as implacable as it was rooted. It had been long a favourite object with the Pagans to magnify the lives and actions of their founders,, to the disparagement of the Divine Author of the Christian religion. With this view, Porphyry and Iamblichus had written lives of Pythagoras; and Hierocles had opposed to the evangelical history of Christ the fabulous tale of Apollonius Tyaneus, which had been written by Philostratus, for the amusement of a Roman Empress. Isidore was made the bero of one of those legends which was composed by Damascius, with a similar object. We here clearly discover the source of that, intermixture of the Christian and philosophical schemes, which has given a colour to the unfounded calumny, that this confusion of truth and error originated with the former. In fact, it must be apparent to the most purblind observer, that the inducement which led the heatliens to oppose the character of Pythagoras and Christ, led them also to oppose the systems of Platonism and Christianity. But as the philosophical scheme was little accommodated to the purposes of a comparison, they were necessitated to purify and refine it§; and thus rejecting the third principle of pure Platonism, which was material, supplied its place, after the model of Christianity, with one which was spiritual or ideal. Who the author of this inno vation was, it is not of much consequence to enquire; that it was an innovation in the philosophic scheme, must be apparent to the most superficial inquirer, who compares the systems of Plato with those of Plotinus, Iamblichus, and Proclus. And that it was an accommodation of Platonism to Christianity, must be equally apparent, on confronting the theology of St. John and the philosophy of Plotinus. But whether we are to ascribe the alteration to this writer, or his predecessor Ammonius, is not so immediately obvious. In behalf of the claims of the latter, it may be however observed, that such an alliance as was thus formed, accords with the first principle of his philosophy, which § Porphyr. Vit. Pythag. p. 193. ed. 1655. cap. xxviii. p. 136. ed. 1598, + Euseb. contr. Hierocl. p. 512. b. Iambl. Vit. Pythag t Damasc. ub. supr. This is evident from the confession of Hierocles, de Prov. et Fat. p. 46. Στον πάνες [ Αμμωνία, Πλωτίνο, Πορφύριος, Ιάμβλιχο, καὶ οἱ ἐφεξῆς, ὅσοι τῆς ἱερᾶς γενιᾶς ἔτυχον φύντες έως Πλυτάρχη το Αθηναίε τη Πλάτωνα διακεκαθαρμένη συνάδεσι φιλοσοφία. was was founded on a comprehension. We accordingly find that he reduced the narratives of the four Evangelists into a Harmony, and published a work "On the Correspondence of Moses and Jesus *;" which sufficiently evinces that he drank deep at the source and fountain of Christianity. We however remain in igno rance respecting the precise nature of his philosophical scheme, as he committed it to his disciples, under a solemn injunction not to divulge it; and thus has that uncertainty originated with respect to his religious opinions, in consequence of which he has been respectively claimed by the Heathens and Christians +. The notion of a corruption of the doctrines of Christianity from the dogmas of philosophy, is therefore a supposition not merely unsupported by truth, but irreconcileable with possibility. Before the era of Ammonius and Origen, who were contemporary, as preceptor and disciple, Platonism contained nothing to which Christianity could be indebted. Nothing existed in the schemes of the Ionic School, who laid the foundation of the Ideal Philosophy; nothing appears in the system of Plato, who improved that philosophy; nothing was discoverable in his scheme by his genuine disciples §, which at all approximates to the Mystic Doctrines of Revelation. But these doctrines are inculcated with the utmost force and clearness by Justin Martyr, who long preceded Ammonius and Origen. We find them in the Jewish Paraphrasts and Cabalists ¶, long previously to his times; and a comparison of their descriptions of the doctrine with those of the Christian Apologist, enables us directly to decide, that the source from which they drew was not only identical, but that it reaches far above the times of Plato, not to speak of the age of Ammonius. In fine, with what feelings of abhorrence, such a pollution of the fountain of truth, from those impure sources of error, would have been regarded, by the primitive Christians, is directly apparent in the history of Origen, who first sought to ally them. Were we concerned in making his apology, we conceive it might be easily effected, as those works in which this unnatural alliance Euseb. ub. supr. + Euseb. ibid. p. 282. 1. 16. Porphyr. ap. eund. p. 281. 1. 5.. Morg. on Plat. Trin. p. 65. Apuleius de Dogm. Plat. Lib. I. p. 367. ed. Lugd. Bat. 1628 Alcin. de Doctr. Plat. cap. ix. p. 351. ed. 1607. Just. Mart. Dial. cum Typh. p. 284. c. sqq. Vid. Rittang. in Lib. Jezir. p. 81. sqq. ed. 1642. Allix, Judg. of Jew. Chx. p. 147, sqq. appears were written for the use of Ambrose, who in embrac ing the Valentinian heresy, had imbibed a strong tincture of the Platonic philosophy *; and as they were given to the world, against the consent of their author, who deeply lamented their publication +. In what light, they were regarded by the Orthodox Christians, must be apparent from the enmity to which they exposed the author at Alexandria; the place which gave him birth, and on which his reputation conferred an honour. In that city his opinions were twice formally condemned; once, in his life time by Heraclas, and again by Theophilus in a council convened also at Alexandria. The leaven of his opinions, it is true, infected the Catholic Church; but it was in generating the corruptions of the Originists and Arians, which gave birth to many minor sects, and finally broke out in the Heresies of Nestorius and Eutyches. Of the author of these corruptions, however, the Catholic Church sufficiently proclaimed its opinion in the fifth General Council summoned at Constanti nople, expressly against the Originists; not to mention the other numerous councils in which their tenets were condemned as erroneous and blasphemous. We shall for the present take leave of the detestable volume be fore us, of which we have undertaken not merely a Review, but a refutation; with a view to counteract the venom of that Heresy, which it is intended to support, and which has lately raised its head and distended its jaws with unparalelled boldness and fury. The remainder of its execrable contents are devoted to the dreadful object of blaspheming and perverting the Scriptures. But on this subject we must defer speaking until we have more time, and our readers more patience. (To be concluded in our next.) ART. II. A Treatise on the Wealth, Power, and Resources of the British Empire. By P. Colquhoun. Mawman, 1814. THIS work is a proud monument of our national glory. Many states have by conquest acquired wide dominion, or have grown *Euseb. ibid. cap. xxiii. p. 287, 1. 4. cap. xviii. p. 278. 1. 19. + S. Hier. ad Pam. Ep. lxv. Tom. II. p. 231. ed. Vict. Vid, Epist. Synod. Alex. ap. Baluz. Nov. Collect. Concill. col. 100. Evagr. Hist. Eccl. Lib. IV. cap. xxxvii, 2 opulent opulent by successful traffic: many other nations have enjoyed liberty and laws, have adorned their cities by works of elaborate grandeur, and have boasted of their schools of science, their learning and their wisdom. In all these respects England also stands superior. Little favoured by the natural fertility of her Boil, and situated in an inconstant climate, separated by the seas from the rest of the habitable world, and surrounded by jealous and powerful competitors in commerce, in arms, and in policy, she had every thing to create for herself, and when created to defend. But she has overcome all natural obstacles and all political competition. She has gone forward majestically in her course of prosperity beyond the examples and the imagination of former times. For wealth, power and resources, she stands proudly pre-eininent, and appears in every quarter of the globe the boast of Europe and the hope of mankind. If to fortune alone this grandeur were to be referred, who could contemplate the unprecedented greatness of this empire without the fearful anticipations of future change, for the same hand which seems to have thus lavished her bounties upon us, may capriciously withdraw them. Transmutat incertos honores Nunc mihi nunc alii benigna. But, in fact, we owe nothing to fortune. We rather attribute all that we enjoy to the eternal law of Providence, which ordains in favour of nations and of individuals, that in the ordinary current of human affairs, industry, prudence, morality and religion should be rewarded with temporal prosperity. As lovers of our country, we recollect no work so interesting and consolatory as that now before us. The well known' author presents us with an unvarnished recital of the effects which proceed from our steady perseverance in the complicated labour of maturing this great empire under the action of a most wise and just government. He discloses the sources of our present power and our future expectations. He teaches us confidently to hope that, avoiding speculative innovation, and following the lessons of our forefathers, who reared the mighty edifice, which is here exemplified, we may long preserve it; we may even yet enlarge its structure and beautify its proportions. The first consideration which is here presented to us is the state of the population of the empire; and it is therein most judiciously remarked, that the degree of increase or diminution of population in any country depends not only on the quantity of food raised in a country, but on the existing resources for the employment of the people, through which medium only can food be accessible. During a period of 63 years, England uni formly formly exported a considerable quantity of corn and grain aris ing from the surplus produce of the soil, and although during that period (from 1701 to 1764) the average price of wheat. did not exceed 33s. 3d. a quarter, while there was no depreciation of money, yet these low prices, and an apparent abundance, had little effect on the population of the country, which ad→ vanced slowly; from which it may be inferred, that the means of obtaining subsistence by productive labour were scanty, and that it operated powerfully even in the midst of apparent plenty, in restraining marriages, and a consequent rapid multiplication of the people. On the contrary, from 1796 to 1811, during which years the prices of corn rose to an enormous height, and every other article of the first necessity in the same proportion, the population, notwithstanding the drains for the public service in the naval and military departments, has advanced in a ratio exceeding those years when no corn was imported, and when the agriculture of the country was more than sufficient for the whole population. This can only be accounted for by the vast increase of manufactures and consequent opulence which burst upon the country, affording profitable employment for the mass of the people. Our author computes the total population of the empire in 1811, to have amounted to no less a number of souls than 61,157,433, of which those attached to the soil of Great Britain and Ireland (exclusive of the public force of all descrip tions, which was 640,500) amounted to 16,456,308. The po pulation of the united kingdom was therefore at that time 17,096,803. The dependencies of the East India Company and the national dependencies in Asia comprised 42,067,413 souls. The remainder he distributes among our colonies and dependencies in Europe, in North America, the West Indies, and Africa. We are told that at the accession of his present Majesty, the whole population of his dominions, including the colonies of North America, since severed from the crown, did not exceed twelve and a half millions. The progress of popu lation in Great Britain' during the last century appears at the end of every ten years to be in 8,099,000 |