and rewards. Mr. Mofer thinks, that however properly this plan may be calculated for a few Emilii, yet it is much too confined for an univerfal doctrine, which (fays he) ought to contain chains for rogues and villains, various motives and encouragements for the timorous and faint-hearted, as well as principles of confolation under the moft cruel tortures, and force to restrain tyrannical power.

The author then proceeds to prove, that natural religion is ill fuited to actuate and guide a people in a fociated life, and that a legislator of fuch people must make use of artificial affiftance; by which he means revealed religion. He next (from principles and facts which have been often laid down in the course of our Review) fhews, that without this revealed religion fociety could not subsist. This revelation (fays our author) indeed may, for what I know, be difcoverable by the light of nature, although it is very ftrange, that all the wife men and legislators that ever exifted, could never find it out. Perhaps therefore it lay concealed fo deep that it escaped common obfervation; and, if this is the cafe, it might be as well out of nature as in it.

"Religion then is confequently but a political engine, and not defigned for the great and noble end of worshipping God." 'Yes, Sir, religion is a political engine, but it is fuch an one as is framed and employed by God, in his terreftrial dominions; and when we worship, extol, or praife him, then we promote his honour, and the honour of God is the happiness of his creatures. If you can attribute to God a still greater aim, with all my heart; but I fhall always deem the honour and glory of God to be infeparably connected with the happiness and perfection of his creatures.'

Mr. Mofer then maintains, that however well the practice of natural religion may be founded upon theory, yet all legislators have difcovered its infufficiency in practice; and he thinks that Mofes never could have perfuaded a hundred thousand brickmakers to have obeyed him, by pointing out to them the regularity of the stars, and the beauty of the heavens. This we apprehend is the fubftance of Mr. Mofer's letter before us; which is written with very good fenfe, but contains nothing new, unless the following propofition be such, viz. That the œconomy of every religion abfolutely requires this public affer tion, That there is no falvation out of the church. He thinks that a catechism admitting that one might be saved in all religions, would very much leffen the enthusiasm that is necessary to be kept up in fociety. If Mr. Mofer by this affertion means that every mode of religion, or every church, ought to adopt his propofition, we incline to think the fact against him.

Neither

1

Neither can we conceive that enthusiasm is neceffary to religion, because it is always ungovernable by the civil magiftrate; and the world was never happy till its force was diminished. In short, we are of opinion, that Mr. Mofer's engraftment of enthufiafm upon religion, for the benefit of civil fociety, is injudicious, if not abfurd.

This author feems, in fome places, to have been infected with the fpirit of the very perfon he attacks. The eternity (fays he) of hell-torments has already met with many ob-. jections. The uncertainty of this doctrine is of no bad confequence, nay perhaps it has been left doubtful on purpose, in order to leave us between fear and hope, and to prevent defpair; but the public certainty of the contrary, that is to fay, a divine declaration of the fhort duration of thefe punishments, might for many reafons be dangerous.'

In the remaining part of this pamphlet, the author is an advocate for an established religion; and hints that the chriftian religion ought to have 'the preference. He thinks the oracles of God are very good inftances to prove the neceffity of revelation. Towards the clofe of this performance, he inclines to. Montefquieu's opinion, that the reverence which the people retain for their priests, is a good barrier against civil tyranny and oppreffion. What would become (fays he) of Spain and Portugal, fince they loft their laws, if the ecclefiaftics did not prevent the exorbitant ufe of the fovereign power.

This is an opinion which is very difputable in point of fact; and England is, perhaps, the only country in which the priesthood was the champion of public liberty againft tyranny. But the fuccefs of the noble ftands which, in times of popery, were made by English prelates and priefts, did not arise from the opinion the people had of their fanctify, but from their great importance in the ftate by their temporal authority and poffeffions, which they enjoyed, not by the credulity of the people, but the policy of the crown. The parliaments of France, the king of Portugal, and even his catholic majefty, have given us many recent inftances that prove how unavailing the prepoffeffions of the people in favour of the priesthood are, when oppofed by the civil power. These prepoffeffions muft become every day weaker and weaker, as learning and true philofophy gain ground; and perhaps, in popish countries, as in England, the love of liberty may prove a ftronger barrier to tyranny than Montefquieu and Mofer fuppofe the popular reverence for priesthood to have been.

Now you are (fays our author) perhaps in expectation of my taking in hand the defence of the truth of our chriftian religion; but here I muft own to you fincerely, that I am not

a divine, but a lawyer. I only drew up my thoughts in fuch a manner as I am apt to believe every impartial man, who knows but fomething of our religion, might have done. I beheld the defects of fome forts of human focieties, and the accidents they were liable to; I confidered the distempers of thefe great political affociations, whether they are called, monarchies, ariftocracies, democracies or tyrannies; and I have concluded that a revealed religion has always been neceffary and useful to them. I next found, that the chriftian religion anfwered, in the highest degree of perfection, every purpose a Supreme Being could ever intend for the good of mankind, and from this I drew the conclufion, that it would be foolish to weaken, and fill more fo to tear to pieces fo perfect a band.'

To conclude, we must repeat, that there is little or nothing new in Mr. Mofer's performance; and his affertions are full as paradoxical as thofe of Rouffeau. He leaves the divine origin of the chriftian religion problematical at beft; and the fum of his letter is, that deception is neceffary for the government of a people; but that of all deceptions, the chriftian religion is beft calculated for that purpofe, and, the leaft chargeable with being a DECEPTION.

X. Letters, on the Force of Imagination in pregnant Women. Wherein it is proved, by inconteftible Arguments, drawn from both Reafon and Experience, That it is a ridiculous Prejudice to suppose it possible for a pregnant Woman to mark her Child with the figure of any Object he has longed for. 8vo. Pr. 2s. 6d. Griffin.

HIS ingenious performance fuffers, at first fight, from its contemptible volume, and the incorrectness of the printing and punctuation; but, the difguft occafioned by thefe defects foon vanishes on perufing the work, which, in our opinion, has a very confiderable fhare of merit. The defign itself, which is extremely laudable, the author has explained in the following fhort preface.

• Many perfons of learning have endeavoured to overturn the common prejudice of the force of imagination in pregnant women. Among others, doctor Blondel has wrote on this fubject, but not in a manner likely to inftruct or convince the fair sex. His treatife wants the method and fimplicity neceffary to conduct step by step, to a knowledge of phyfics, perfons whom we must suppose but very little initiated in the principles of this fcience: befides, he denies or conceals, almoft all the facts which feem to authorize this opinion. Thefe fa&ts do not depend on the force of imagination; but they, for the

moft

most part, are indifputable, and they always ftrengthen this prejudice, till their true caufe is afcertained. The memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences, contain many differtations on this fubject, worthy of their learned authors; but as they always fuppofe certain principles, with which phyficians only are. acquainted, they seem to be very ill calculated to inform thofe who are entirely ignorant of these principles. The ladies will, I hope, forgive me, if I rank them in this clafs. Philosophical works, defigned for their inftru&tion, fuch as the question I propofe to examine here, fhould be treated differently from a differtation.

'A work of this kind (prøper for their inspection) is the more difficult to execute, as it is neceffary to reunite phyfical and anatomical knowledge; to eftablish principles with fimplicity, to connect together their confequences with a fcrupulous exactness, and attach the mind to abstract objects, by rendering them intelligible and pleafing by the manner of treating them. I flatter myself that these letters, in which all these advantages are united, will produce an happy effect, as they have already rooted out this prejudice in the minds of several ladies to whom they have been already communicated by the author.'

The concatenation of the fubje&t, or chain of argument, will appear from the general contents or titles of the different chapters, which we fhall therefore insert.

Letter 1. A general explanation of the reafons why the force of imagination in pregnant women, is an opinion prejudicial to both the mother and infant.-Lett. 2. The neceffity of being acquainted with the mechanism by which external objects affect our fenfes, to form a right judgment on the force of imagination in pregnant women. This mechanifm explained. -Lett. 3. The cause of thofe rapid impreflions which external objects fometimes occafion in the foul. The reason why our ideas and tastes vary concerning the fame object.-Lett. 4. The animal fpirits lofe the determination they received in the organs. of fenfe, when they are fent from the brain towards different parts of the body. The manner in which memory is excited.— Lett. 5. Mallebranche's fyftem of the communication of ideas between the mother and the infant in her womb examined.Lett. 6. Further proofs of the impoffibility of a communication of ideas, betwixt the mother, and the child in her womb.Lett. 7. Suppofing a communication of ideas between the mother and child, yet the child cannot poffibly be marked with the figure of those objects which struck the mother's imagination. Lett. 8. The force of imagination in the mother can neither add new parts to the infant in the womb, destroy those already formed, nor change them into those of any other ani

mal,

Acci

mal-Lett. 9. Whether the imagination in pregnant women acts on the infant by a kind of sympathy. Lett. 10. The caufe of those ftrange accidents which are attributed to the force of imagination, the analogy between the animal and vegetable creation, both spring from a feed which contains all their parts in miniature.-Lett. 11. Whether infects and moffes are bred from feed. The mechanifm of their fecundation.-Lett. 12. The foul does not free the human body from the mechanical laws of impregnation, analogous in both the vegetable and animal creation. Lett. 13. The irregularity in the fhapes of infants, depends on their fituation in the mother's womb. The effects of compreffion.-Lett. 14. A proper difpofition of the fluids and folids, requifite for a perfect impregnation. dents depending on a too great refiftance of the feed. Monfters formed by the want of, or addition of fome parts. Of fome kinds of falfe conceptions.-Lett. 15. The impregnation of feeds, defective through the too great refiftance of the parts of the feeds. The confequence of this defect in trees. Its application to the infant. Deformities of the face. growth in fome parts. Of fome kinds of marks and blemishes. -Lett. 16. The effects of too weak a refiftance in the parts of the feed. A refemblance with draperies and the red fruits.Lett. 17. Marks of red wine. The reason why all marks are red or brown. Lett. 18. The caufe of hereditary disorders.Lett. 19. The nourishment the child receives in its mother's womb, can occafion the fame accidents and deformities which have been hitherto afcribed to an irregular impregnation.Lett. 20. The mechanism though which the force of imagination in pregnant women, can occafion deformities, and diforders, in the body of the child. The likeness of fome marks with a particular object, can be the effect of chance only.Lett. 21. Of what is understood by the effect of chance. Dendrites, and other figured ftones.-Lett. 22. Of the child born with its limbs fractured.'

Defect of

To be more particular in our analy fis, would only injure the author, unless we could transcribe the whole work; as every argument and deduction has an infeparable dependance one upon another. We will, however, declare upon the whole, that he has fulfilled his fcope, and executed his undertaking with great precision: that his ftile is correct and perfpicuous, his manner agreeable, and his reafoning conclufive; and that he has clearly demonftrated the impoffibility of a pregnant woman's marking her child with the figure of any object for which he has longed, or which may have made a deep impreffion upon the imagination. VOL. XX. July, 1765. MONTHLY

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