tended that the world was formed from atoms, afcribed their combinations to certain immutable properties received from the hand of the Creator, fuch as general gravitation, chemical affinity, or animal appetency, instead of afcribing them to a blind chance, the doctrine of atoms, as conftituting or compofing the material world by the variety of their combinations, fo far from leading the mind to atheifm, would ftrengthen the demonftration of the existence of a Deity, as the first caufe of all things; because the analogy refulting from our perpetual experience of caufe and effect would have thus been exemplified through univerfal nature."

We believe it woud require all the Doctor's ingenuity, and no fmall portion of his fophiftry, to demonftrate that the caufe of theifm is ftrengthened by fuch a view of the Creative Power. The Deity having once impreffed thefe immortal laws on nature, foregoes all farther interference, and nature is left to herself! The immortal appetencies of matter transforma globe of rock and water into a fertile and animated world; the vallies put forth plants, and animals fpring up to people the elements, by chemical combinations of this rock and water, whilft the Great First Cause-" peradventure he fleepeth!" We can fearcely conceive that this inconfiftent jargon, inconfiftent with itfelf, and with all our knowledge of nature, was the serious creed of our author. This fpecious introduction of the "Parent of Parents" bears a greater refemblance to one of thofe cloaks in which infidelity is apt to throud itself, in order to gain admiflion among thofe whom, were its form expofed, its deformity would at once alarm and terrify; for fuch a notion is neither more rational, nor more fatisfactory, than the Epicurian doctrine of atoms, and, in truth, it differs from it rather nominally than effentially; for it is of little importance if the phenomena of the world

arife, independently of the Deity, from the appetencies of matter alone; whether thefe appetencies are neceffarily inherent in matter, or have been communicated to it. Accident in both fyftems produces all the variety which occurs in their operation. By the fame facts and reafonings both fyftems are equally fupported, or equally fall to the ground.

The Hierophant thus commences her defcription of the process by which matter, excited by its allpotent appetencies, formed itself into afolar fyftem, and then, in this individual globe, organized itfelf into vegetable and animal forms, and thus obtained life.

"Ere Time began, from flaming Chaos hurl'd,

"Rofe the bright fpheres which form the circling world; "Earths from each fun with quick explosion burst,

"And fecond planets iffucd from the first: "Then, whilft the fea at their coeval birth,

"Surge over furge involv'd the shoreless earth;

"Nurs'd by warm fun-beams in primeval caves,

"Organic Life began beneath the waves." C. I, 1. 227.

66

She then defcribes minutely the organizing process whence Life refults: atoms join to atoms, and form a living line," which, touched "by fome goad," bends itself into a ring; this, joined to other living rings, forms a tube; these tubes become arteries and veins, and tranfform or combine themfelves into lungs, heart, membranes, &c. &c., and animals of various kinds thus very naturally originate. (Ibid. 1. 253-264.) To prove the truth of this doctrine, a long note is added at the end of the volume, illuftrating the theory of fpontaneous vitality, or equivocal generation, by the experiments of Buffon, Ellis, Reaumur, Ingenhouz, &c. on the microfcopic animals produced in various vegetable infufions in vinegar and in pafte. But, to complete the scheme, two circumftances more remain to be proved: for, in the first place, it

appears that all animals at prefent do not and cannot live "beneath the waves ;" and a procefs must be made out by which the waters were diminished, or the land increafed and elevated and, in the fecond place, as men and cows, and other large and complicated animals, have never been difcovered by philofophers arifing in an infufion of marth-mallows, or in a stationer's pafte holder, it is neceffary likewife to demonftrate that all beings are in a state of gradual improvement, acquiring new powers and parts, and advancing by fucceffive fteps towards perfection. "First forms minute, unfecn by fpheric glafs,

"Move on the mud, or pierce the wat'ry mais;

"Thefe, as fucceffive generations bloom, "New pow'rs acquire, and larger limbs

affume;

eus!"

ments of nato difts rather tend to corroborate that doctrine than to in validate it, we muft affirm, that, in the prefent fiate of our knowledge of nature, it does not in any degree fupport a theory of the felf-peopling energies of the globe, nor any general fyftem of materialifm. Whatever credit we may conceive to be due to that hypothefis, we must to•. tally deny our affent to thefe deductions of Dr. D. rwin. The most philofophical effay on the subject of mis crofcopic animalcule was published by Mr Needham, in Philof. Tranf. vol. 45. Dr. Darwin appears not to have been acquainted with it; but to it we refer those who wish to examine the fubject more minutely. It is obvious that the phenomena of fimple vitality are referable folely to the organization of matter. It has never been fuppofed that an immaterial fomething is fuperadded to vegetables, because they refit the caufes of decay while growing, which decompofe and diffolve them when dead; because they circulate their fluids with confiderable force; be caufe they elaborate the fimple fluids in their veliels into fugars, and gums, and honey; into poifons and perfumes; and because they propagate their kind.

It has never been fuppofed that the offter, which opens its thell, and the worm which crawls on the ground, poßefs any additional effence to their material fubfiance, becaufe, in addition to the juft mentioned qualities, they poffefs this more obvious power of icli-motion. The animus and the anima have always been rightly diuinguished. We may therefore easily conceive, that, in the termenting movements of matter in particular fituations, fuch fmall combinations may take place as may produce a flight degree of imperfect vitality; i. e. with icarce any other phenomenon of vitality, but motion. The facts related by Needham, Eliis, and others, we agree with Dr. Darwin, tend in fome degree to countenance fuch an idea. But we can follow him no farther,

becaufe in every step which he has advanced beyond this line he is oppofed, as we conceive, by innumerable facts, founded upon the moft unquestionable basis.

In the whole circle of human knowledge there is no circumftance perhaps more decidedly and univerfally believed, upon the teftimony of unvarying experience, than this truth,---that the fpecies of animals undergo no great and conftitutional changes; that fishes, for example, never become birds, and birds are never metamorphofed into quadrupeds. To believe the contrary, were to withhold affent from all human evidence, to depend no longer on our fenfes, and to deny the reality of our knowledge and of our reafon. Yet in order to coincide with the conclufions of Doctor Darwin, this muft neceffarily be admitted; and upon what grounds? Not upon a fingle obfervation of the progreffive change, nor of any animal in any stage of that fancied progrefs: but because it accords with Dr. Darwin's notion of the all-potent energies of "immortal matter," to adopt this ridiculous whim, and call it "Philofophy." The only femblance of fupport which he adduces, is, that tadpoles become frogs, and fome of the larvæ of winged infects are aquatic, and change to aerial beings! If the Doctor could prove that frogs were once merely aquatic, and not amphibious, or that the larvæ alluded to formerly did not change to flies, there might be fome foundation for his hypothefis; but as we are at prefent in a ftate of ignorance on that fubject, he has only raifed a phantom, which it is beneath the gravity of philofophy to combat.

But he has three more arguments, in profe, to demonftrate that the great globe and its inhabitants are only in their youth; and as thefe three are his whole ftock, he brings them before us again and again, like the aforefaid tadpoles and gnats, in VOL. I.

our

order to obtain our full credence to his doctrine. First, "The perpetual production and increase of the ftrata of lime-ftone from the fhells of aquatic animals, and of all those incumbent on them from the recrements of vegetables, and of terreftrial animals, are now well underftood from our improved knowledge of geology; and fhew that the folid parts of the globe are gradually enlarging, and confequently that it is young; as the fluid parts are not yet all converted into folid ones." (p. 19.) Now, improved as chemical knowledge of the globe is, no geologift or chemist will affert that out of water and air aquatic animals produce lime-stone. It is not eafy perhaps to account for the origin of their fhells, which are fimply lime-ftone or carbonate of lime; but certainly chemistry has not yet difcovered to us that lime is a compound fubftance; it ftill ranks among the fimples, undecompofed, and, for any thing that experiment has taught, not decompofable into more fimple parts. This firft argument is therefore a pure affumption. But, fecondly, "Add to this, that fome parts of the earth and its inhabitants appear younger than others; thus the greater height of the mountains in America feems to fhew that continent to be lefs ancient than Europe, Afia, and Africa, as their fummits have been lets wathed away: and the wild animals of America, as the tigers and crocodiles, are faid to be lefs perfect in their fize and ftrength, which would fhew them to be still in a state of infancy, or of progreffive improvement." (Ibid.) By the fame accuracy of deduction, Cumberland muft be confidered as younger than her neighbour Northumberland, and the pedigree of the cattle of Scotland many ages fhort of that of the venerable and long-horned race in the plains of Staffordshire! It is unfortunate for this luminous fyftem, that the Ggg

titude of the equator there being only thirty-feven degrees, and the fun being even below that, from the autumnal to the vernal equi

nox.

Page 36, verfe 398, defcribing a new-born infant, he fays, in a note, "though the membrana pupillaris, defcribed by modern anatomifts, guards the tender retina from too much light, the young infant nevertheless feems to feel the prefence of it by its frequently moving its eyes before it can distinguish common objects." Now as modern anatomifts alfo defcribe this membrane as difappearing fome weeks previous to the birth of the child, it can neither guard the eye of an infant from the light, nor

can the infant poffibly feel its prefence fo long after it has ceafed to be prefent.

Although overfight or careleffnefs in fuch common fubjects is unpardonable in an author who erects his roftrum to preach reformation in philofophy, yet it must in candour be added, that the notes contain much information in natural history and phyfiology, which will be useful to the general reader, if it do not add greatly to the stock of those who are already well verfed in thofe interesting studies. In refpect to the "production of life," the profeffed fubject of the firft part of the work, we apprehend the Doctor has taught us nothing. [To be concluded in our next.]

COVENT GARDEN.

MONDAY, April 2d. After the fecond reprefentation of the "Will for the Deed" (for an account of which, fee our laft Number, page 283), a new Romantic Melo Drame, got up under the direction of Mr. Farley, entitled "Valentine and Orfon," was brought forward. The constituents of thefe fplendid pageantries are found and fhow the eye and ear muft be pleased, and, if that end be attained, there is nothing more either to hope or expect. The holiday-making gentry do not wifh to pay their one fhilling, their two fhillings, and their three fhillings and fixpence, for dull declamation or florid imagery; for polished diction, exquifite raillery, or all the excellencies of the Tragic Mufe. They come to grin, and they pay to grin; therefore to make them grin must be the aim of the managers. In this point of view, both the play and the after

piece were well calculated to fucceed. The fcenery of the latter was peculiarly grand and ftriking; the intermixture of pantomime and fpeaking produces a pleafing effect, and the fubject, being founded on the darling tale of our infancy, awakens, perhaps in the harfheft mind, remembrances of a pleafing caft. We were forry to fee Blanchard affigned a part fo very unworthy of his talents. Bologna looked and performed the monster-man as well as could be expected; and his cordial forrows for the death of his brother Bruin, drew forth many a forrowful ejaculation from melting cook-maids and fympathic grooms. The mufic, which was by Jouve, has much merit: feme of the lighter airs were extremely pretty.

"The

Monday, April 16th. Haunted Tower," and "No Song No Supper," with a variety of other entertainments, were played this evening, for the benefit of Mr. Bra