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It was about the same time that the Princess Anne wrote to obtain her father's permission to accept the crown on king William's death, agreeably to the act of settlement, professing" a readiness to make restitution when opportunities should serve," and representing that her refusal of it" would only put his majesty the further from the hopes of recovering his rights." (Vol. II. p. 560.) But James alike refused the request of his daughter and the offer of his son-in-law, as he never would give any sanction, direct or indirect, to the alleged lawfulness of his own dethronement. In the latter instance his positive denial seems not to have met the bation of his son, under whose direction this part of the meappromoirs, at least, was compiled. But a little while before, and from the same motives, he had declined accepting the crown of Poland, to which some of the diets had already named him, and to which many of his friends in the court of France advised him to direct his attention.

We are now arrived nearly at the close of this unfortunate prince's life. It is impossible to read the memorials of his latter years, without feeling some degree of respect for the christian resignation-the sincere repentance-and fervent piety, which he then exhibited; though it must be mingled with regret that these admirable dispositions should only have led him to seek for consolation in monkish austerity, and the vain forms of the Catholic religion. He spent a great part of his time in composing books of devotion, which, from the few specimens that are given, contain precepts worthy of a purer creed;-in subjecting himself to the most rigorous discipline for the sins of his former life; amongst which his early heresy seems to have lain heaviest on his conscience, exceeding herein all the requirements of his priests, by frequently wearing an iron chain with small spikes that penetrated his flesh; and seriously enquiring of his confessor,

"Whether, since his age and character did not permit him to do such penance for his sinns, as was agreeable to the horrour and detestation he had of them, if he ought not to be content to suffer the pains of purgatorie the longer, and for that end not beg the prayers of the church for his speedyer delivery from thence?" Vol. II. p. 589.

It is scarcely possible to conceive a more striking example of the degradation of the human mind, when shackled by the trammels of superstition, than this short passage affords; and yet, as we follow the monarch who uttered it to

the scene of his dissolution, there is a something so dignified in his behaviour-so calm in his prospect of death-and he shews himself so kind to his friends-so forgiving to his enemies and, above all, so humbly penitent to his God, as should induce bigotry herself to suspend the anathema quivering on her lips, and to admit, at least, that he was worthy to have died in a better faith than that which he recommended to all the Protestants around him, as that in which, " on the word of a dying man, they would find comfort in the hour of death."

A question has recently been agitated, whether, with all the attachment he manifested towards the Catholic religion, it ever was his intention to obtain for its possessors more than a full toleration of their forms of worship. This ques tion we have not room sufficiently to discuss; but we cannot dismiss the subject without making this single remark, that, if we believe his declarations, we must answer it in the negative; if we look to his actions, in the affirmative. Whilst on the throne, he promised to support, or at least to protect, the church as by law established; yet he expelled nearly all the fellows of one of the colleges, because they refused to elect a Catholic as their head, contrary to their oaths, and his own promises. So far was be from being taught wisdom by ex perience, that, during his stay in Ireland, he allowed Catho lic priests to be presented to Protestant bishopricks; and applied the revenues of their churches to the maintenance of Popish seminaries. Nay, after the various declarations which he issued from St. Germains, had solemnly promised to redress all grievances, in the church as well as in the state, by the advice of his parliament, and not to infringe the provisions of the Test Act; in the directions which he left behind him for the guidance of his son's conduct, (admirable as in many points they undoubtedly are,) be recommends above all things the maintenance of a body of Catholic troops, and a fair participation of the offices of state by members of that communion. In fact, a more zealous Papist than James I never lived; though, from the treatment he received at the hands of the Pope, from his connection with France, and other circumstances of his life, there is reason to conclude that he would not have been so submissive to his authority in matters of external regulation, as his Holiness would have wished. Yet, on the other hand, we find nothing in these, or any other memoirs of his life, to induce a hope, that, had he been restored to the

throne of his ancestors, experience would have taught him the folly of endeavouring to establish the religion he professed, and of ruling his people according to those arbitrary principles of government which he had early imbibed, and in which the illiberal treatment he had met with from the popular party during his brother's reign, had served but the more strongly to confirm him. Indeed, the blind infatuation with which he pursued both these measures, seems to us to admit of no other elucidation, than that which one of the ancient fathers, we believe St. Augustine, applied to all such head-strong perseverance in the path to ruin-" Quem Deus vult perdere prius dementat."

After the length at which we have commented on their contents, it would be superfluous to add, that we rank these volumes among the most interesting of the present day. The public thanks are due to the illustrious possessor of the original manuscript, for the valuable addition he has been pleased to make to our stock of historical knowledge, by commanding their publication; whilst to the gentleman to whom the execution of his royal highness's gracious intentions has been entrusted, we cordially tender our acknowledgments for the care he has displayed in superintending the press, and for the valuable notes with which he has enriched the publication.

ART. XII.-Harmonies of Nature, by J. B. H. de Saint Pierre. Being a Sequel to his "Studies of Nature." With a Portrait, and a Prefatory Account of the Author and the Work, by Louis Aimé Martin. Translated by W. MEESTON, A. M., 3 vols. 8vo. London. Baldwin and Co.

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Of all human studies, that of nature is the most various and pleasing. In the young, it has the effect of awakening and gratifying that curiosity which is the parent of knowledge. On those of riper years, to investigation; it leads them to inquire into the causes of things, and enables them to soar above the prejudices of the crowd. Experience shews that we are apt to regard with indifference, objects to which we have long been familiarised; and, by the powerful effect of habit, the eye is brought to gaze without emotion on appearances, which, in other times, had been regarded as

miraculous. We often behold the wonders of nature without reflecting on their causes,-nay, without reflecting at all. And idleness occasionally comes in to the aid of passion with so many plausible excuses, that it would be little less than martyrdom to be obliged to consecrate to the study of the face, either of the heaven or of the earth, those hours which it has claimed.

Men exhaust their ingenuity in the invention of novelties and amusements, which are always transient and unsatisfactory; while nature, with maternal kindness, spreads before her children a profusion of the least expensive, and, at the same time, the most innocent and durable enjoyments. Invented for the purpose of withdrawing us from ourselves, our usual pleasures often leave a void in the breast, and are always accompanied with more or less of languor or disgust. Even the pleasures of the imagination are short-lived and uncertain; they are, at best, but the day-dreams of the mind, which vanish the moment that reason awakes. On the contrary, the pleasures derived from the contemplation of nature are solid and durable. The spangled canopy of the heavens, the lap of the earth enamelled with flowers, the melodies of the grove, the sportive mazes of the rill, the majestic course of the river, the diversified rural landscapeall these furnish continually fresh subjects of delight. The happiness of life consists, in a great measure, in the innocent enjoyment of the objects that surround us; and nature teaches us this desirable art, without any expense either of fortune or virtue.

But if the study of nature is so well calculated to gratify the mind and interest the feeling, how comes it that so few devote themselves to it? It is partly owing to the very prevalent, yet mistaken notion, that the study of nature is very abstruse and repulsive. And this erroneous idea has, in a great measure, arisen from a view of the formularies, the hard names, and the wordiness of the school of this branch of philosophy. It gives us some pain to see the harsh spirit of classification domineering in those amiable sciences, in which we look for nothing but grace and beauty.

It has been the object of M. St. Pierre, as well in his former works as in the present, to correct this fault. He has not however neglected order and connexion; on the contrary, he has been very studious to observe them. But then his method is simple and natural. He passes, by an easy progression, from objects of smaller to those of greater interest;

from effects that are evident, to such as are less known. Thus, without any perplexing divisions and subdivisions of his subject, he points out various relations that exist between different parts of the creation, and places his objects so as to make them reflect light on each other. He is, therefore, methodical without appearing anxious to be so; he conceals his learning under the agreeableness of his manner, and, reserving to himself the thorus of science, presents his readers with nothing but the fruit and flowers.

The following is a slight sketch of the plan of the harmonies, or general system of nature. Book I.-General view of the harmonies of nature. Vegetable harmonies of the sun and moon-of the air-of water-of the earth. Harmonies of vegetables with each other. Vegetable harmonies of animals of man. Vegetable harmonies, in a botanical lesson to Paul and Virginia. Book II.-Aerial harmonies of the sun and moon-of water-of the earth of vegetables. Aerial harmonies of men and children. Book III.-Aquatic harmonies of air-of water of the earth-of vegetables, &c. &c. Book IV.-Terrestrial harmonies considered in the same order and under the same relations. Book V.-On the harmonies of animals. Book VI-Human harmonies of children-knowledge of children; the ideas of rude nations. Book VIL-Fraternal harmonies. Book VIII-Conjugal harmonies. Book IX.-Harmonies of heaven, or the worlds, Solar harmonies of the planets of the fixed stars-of the moon-solar and lunar harmonies of the powers of nature upon the earth. The work concludes with Empsael, an episode or dialogue, founded on the human harmonies.

Of the manner in which M. St. Pierre has treated these extensive and diversified subjects, the reader will be enabled to judge from the extracts with which we intend to present bim.

Of the precise idea which our author attaches to the term harmonies, we confess ourselves unable to give any satis factory account. In the passage where he applies it to the plant that produces corn, we have perhaps one of his best illustrations of its meaning; still it is very obscure, and means connexion, relation, attraction, repulsion, agreement, disagreement, any thing in short, but what we commonly understand by it. A term so vague and undefined, may do well enough in a work like the Harmonies of Nature, which is adapted rather to employ the imagination of the reader, than to afford him much intellectual instruction. But we cannot

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