themes of boundless invective; and many are fo ftrangely infatuated, as to make them arguments for ditbelief in revelation. The facts cannot be doubted nor denied, that the Ifraelites attacked Paleftine, fubdued it, made flaves of many, drove away fome, and deftroyed myriads of the other inhabitants of the country. That this has been frequently done in the history of mankind it is well known, but in the cafe of the If raelites a divine authority is urged, and this is fuppofed to be incompatible with the attributes of Deity. The cruelty exercifed upon this occafion, and the injuftice of driving people from their homes, are much dwelt upon; but it is not confidered that God is the mafter of the earth, and he has a right to do what he choofes with his own. Some hun dred years before, he had allotted this land to the defcendants of an individual, when the land was thinly inhabited, and the divine command was not a fecret. For forty years, that the children of Ifrael were in the wilderness, their intentions were declared of taking poffeffion of what they confidered as their own; and during this time the inhabitants of the country had. full opportunity of examining their pretenfions. On the one hand were miraculous powers, and a moft wonderful prefervation of a numerous body of people in a defert, which ought to have convinced the poffeffors of their power, and that they were preferved for fome great and mighty end: and in no country whatfoever will poffeffion be deemed fufficient, if the poffeffors cannot juf tify their claim. The right lay with the children of Ifrael, and, inftead of invectives on the cruelty with which it was at laft enforced, we should rather dwell on the long forbearance of God, which afforded an opportunity of forty years for thofe families on whom the miracles of his power had produced a fuitable effect, and induced them to remove, with their property, to other regions of the earth. That a few may have done this, we can fcarcely hefitate to believe: the reft its form of government will not be tion. violations of the compact: they fre- and electing of that of David, are 4 12 the fovereignty in one family, yet nothing can preferve it there but a line of conduct which is founded upon wifdom: and hence perpetual change accompanies the hiftory of the fovereignty in every nation. Saul was raised from an humble ftation to be king over Ifrael; but he was not a fit inftrument for the purposes of Providence: he was therefore removed, and another placed in his room. Thus it is with all fovereigns; and however they may think their exaltation due to fome perfonal prowess or virtue, they are placed there, and can retain their Itation only as long as their conduct answers the purposes of fuperior wisdom. But in the raifing of David to the throne we are all more interested, for he was a particular object of God's pro vidence, and through him is raifed a throne fuperior to all the thrones of the carth. An heir was promised to him, to whom all nations fhould pay willing obedience. We have feen the prophecy in part fulfilled; we have feen the end of this dynasty in him who was barbaroufly perfecuted, and put to death; and yet, through the power of God, enabled to rife from the dead, and to fend to all quarters of the earth meffengers to proclaim his power. The time is not yet come for the manifeftation of his perfon, and univerfal obedience to his kingdom; yet every one who has been attentive to the courfe of the di vine government cannot doubt, that, as furely as David fucceeded to the throne of Ifrael, in confequence of the divine appointment made known by the prophet Samuel, fo furely fhall the univerfal dominion of our Saviour be a confequence of his refurrection from the dead. Quest III. Which are the moft important epochs between the invafion of this kingdom by William the Norman, and the figning of Magna Charta by John? Thefe epochs are, the death of William the Second; the foundation of the order of Knights Templars; the murder of Becket, and the death of Richard the First. The first epoch mentioned in this period, or the death of William the Second, happened at a time which makes it eafy to be retained in the memory, and thus to connect the events in the history of England with thofe of other nations. He was killed in one of the monuments of Norman rapine and cruelty, Hamp fhire foreft, on the fecond of Auguft eleven hundred, and left behind him no regret for his memory. His father's reign had been distinguished by the introduction of the feudal fyltem, the erecting of caftles, and the bringing into fubjection the whole body of the English nation: the fon poffeffed no qualities to render him eftimable, and he found no difficulty in retaining his father's conquetts Happily for him who had no right to the crown, the religious madnefs had broken out, which carried numbers from Europe on an idle enterprise into the Holy Land; and thus, by eafing one part of the world of a band of profligate robbers, made way for a degree of civilization among thofe who were left behind. The elder brother was thus carried away, and William the Second feized his throne; but every one who wishes to have an idea of this ifland or of Europe at this period fhould be particularly attentive to the hiftory of the Crufades. The fecond epoch is the foundation of the order of Knights Templars, which took place in the year eleven hundred and twenty-two, and had for its object the prefervation of the fepulchre and temple arched over it at Jerufalem. From the foundation of fuch an order, and the idle object it had in view, we may judge of the folly and fuperftition of mankind. The order, however, af forded means of getting rid of many wild and furious fpirits, who by travelling from home had an opportu nity of fecing their own defects, and bringing back fome improvements into their country. The ftories told of the depravity of this order on its diffolution are scarcely credible: it grew rich, and, from the nature of its inftitution, was diffolute; more openly fo than the orders of monks, which were confined entirely to religious duties. The order of Maita arofe into fplendour out of its fuppreffion; and that inland is now entirely our own, and not likely to be again ceded into the hands of military ecclefiaftics. Curiofity will lead us to become acquainted with the hiftory of thefe orders. The third epoch is the death of Archbishop Becket, which took place in the year 1172. His whole life, from the time of his promotion to the archiepifcopal throne, had been marked by a fixed determination to raise the spiritual above the civil power; and it is not therefore furprising that he became a faint at his death, that miracles were faid to have been worked at his tomb, and that the church at Canterbury was enriched by the offerings made at his fhrine. The last epoch mentioned is the death of Richard the First, and accellion of John to the crown, which took place in the year 1199, or one year lefs than twelve hundred; thus making an eafy date for the memory. This prince was frongly infected with the religious madness of the times, and, according to the then prevailing notions, was efteemed a great and glorious prince, for wafting his ftrength in idle enterprises in the eaft, and forfaking the talk which it became him to perform the good government of his kingdom. Quest. IV. To what reflections do thefe epochs give rife? The death of William the Second in Hampthe foreft, leadsus to reflect on the abject flavery of thofe times, and the nature of the Foreft Laws. The haughty barons of Normandy held the life of a man in lefs eitimation than the beafts which were to be kept on vaft tracts of The land for their amusement. fpirit is not, even in these days, entirely extinct, though a greater deprovements of agriculture and comgree of civilization, and the imexertion. The Game Laws remain, merce, have left lefs fcope for its however, a difgrace to the country, and ferve more to perpetuate difputes among country 'fquires, and to increafe the price of game, than to benefit the lords of the manors, to whom this nearly laft remain of few years this vettige of antient the feudal fyftem is attached. In a bondage will probably be abolished; and when partridges are fold in the market, the fquire will find that his amufement is not diminifhed, nor the peace of his mind haraffed by his puny warfare against poachers. Knights Templars will lead to many Celibacy was an artful Bar were, they could not travel into various countries without fome new ideas ftarting in their minds; and they would probably be among the firft to laugh at the fuperftition which they had fworn to defend. The murder of Archbishop Becket leads us to many reflections on the life of this extraordinary man, and the abominable pretentions of the - priefts of thofe days. We have obferved, that the life of Dunftan ought to be well ftudied, to give an idea of the power of the monks at a former period. The life of Becket contains the great points in the hiftory of prieftcraft. It is the more important, becaufe the conteft was not carried on between the church and a weak prince: the fovereign was a high-fpirited prince, pofleting the fagacity of the ftatefman, and the courage of the warrior. The people, however, were too degraded to aflift his efforts: the power of the church was too great to be refifted: men did not dare to think, nor had they courage to afk, what pretenfions a fet of vagabonds, owning the pre-eminence of a prieft at Rome, had to lord it over their fovereign and themfelves. In thofe times, the little learning there was, was engroffed almost entirely by the clergy: religious fervices were offered in an unknown tongue; the Bible was not tranflated into the language of the country. Little do numbers reflect on the ineftimable advantages derived merely from the latter circumftance. A king of England found it neceflary to make a pilgrimage to the tomb of a man, who had repeatedly covered him with infults; and to fhew ftill more ftrongly the arrogance and height of the spiritual power, he was compelled to fubmit to a difgraceful punishment, and to expiate his fuppofed crime by abject fubjection to the moft contemptible of human beings. The death of Richard the First we mentioned only as an æra for the fake of the memory; but the life of this character affords much food for reflection. He was one of the heroes of antient chivalry; that is, a being little better than a favage, or a modern boxer, who placed his glory in running after adventures, and fighting, without any rational pretext for a practice, which, unless it is inevitable, is a difgrace to a rational being. From this idle tancy he left his kingdom, and was abfeat from his proper poft far by much the greater part of his reign: yet his life cannot be confidered as uliefs, He carried out of the kingdom rumbers as mad-brained as himfelt, and opportunities were offered for cultivating a degree of fpirit, which was manifefted in the fucceeding reign. About this time the people began to rife from their deprefiion; and, contemptible as was the object of the crufades, in their end they were of great ufe to the nations of Europe. Quest. V. It is faid that Dr. Ölbers has difcovered a planet at the diftance of three thousand and fortyfeven millions of miles from the fun, about which it moves round in 211 years; that the fun would appear to us fituated in the painet of the fize only of a fixed far, and that the planet is three times the fize of Jupiter. Now, fuppoting that the planet is at the diftance from the fun laid down, it is required to determine its periodical time; alfo, of what fize the fun would appear to us, if we were in the planet; and what is the proportion of heat in the planet to ours on this earth, when the fun is at the fame altitude in both planets? If the planet's mean distance were as it is laid down in the queftion, it would move round the fun in one hundred and eighty-one years, two hundred and thirty-fx days nearly, from the well-known law of the heavenly bodies. By this law, if the proportion of the diftances of any two bodies from the fun is known, the proportion of their years is known. Thus the distance of the new planet being faid to be three thoufand and forty-feven millions of miles, and that of the earth being ninetyfive millions of miles, the proportion of their diftances is that of one thousand and forty-feven to ninety-five. But the law of the heavenly bodies is, that the fquare of the time of revolution of one planet is to the fquare of the time of revolution of the other planet, as the cube of the diftance of the firft planet to the cube of the diftance of the fecond planet. Hence, by the rule of three, the fquare of the periodic time of the new planet is equal to one year multiplied into the cube of 1972; or the log. of this periodic time is equal to three-halfs of the logarithm of 1047 diminished by the logarithm of 95. Whence the year of the new planet is found to be as above stated, one hundred and eighty-one of our years, and two hundred and thirty-fix days. The apparent magnitude of the fun at the new planet is difcovered by another and eafy proportion. The diameter of the fun is about 883217 miles; and the planet's diftance being fuppofed to be known, the angle fubtended by the fun's diameter will be equal to the angle of an arc in a circle, whofe radius is a thoufand and forty-feven millions of miles, and tangent 883217. Or, by logarithins, the log. tangent of the angle is equal to the logarithmic radius, added to the logarithm of 883217, diminished by the logarithm of 1047000000, or to 10+ 5,9160674 — 9,0199467; that is, to 6,9261207, which is the logarithmnic tangent of an angle of two minutes fifty-four feconds. Confequently the affertion relative to the fize of the fun, as it appears at this fuppofed planet, is totally unfounded; and we may therefore be affured that the account circulated in the Englith papers never came from Dr. Olbers. Though the apparent diameter of the fun at the fuppofed planet is little more than a tenth of the apparent diameter of the moon to us, it by no means follows that the ratio of the heat in the planet to our heat can be afcertained. We are not fufficiently acquainted with the nature of heat to determine this point. As far as it depends merely on the fun's beams, the heat at the planet must be very inconfiderable when compared with that on the earth; but, if heat is neceffary, there may be caufes within the planet itfelf that may compenfate for the deficiency of power in the folar beams, and make the planet as habitable as our own. Queft. VI. Is there any wellgrounded probability that many more planets may be difcovered moving round the fun, and whence did it arife that this planet has not been feen at any other time? Every thing that we fee around us gives us reafon to believe that the vaft space between the fun and the orbit of Herschell contains many planets hitherto undiscovered. The telescope is only a modern difcovery, and the higher powers of it have been used with advantage only within a very few years. The new planet is pretended to deviate far from the zodiac, and of courfe has been in regions that have lefs occupied the attention of aftronomers. But, from what has been already obferved on this subject, the probability is that the whole is a fiction, We have feen that the account is by no means confiftent, and it does not appear that any of the aftronomers in England have received from authority any account of this phænomenon. If it is merely, as we fuppofe, a fiction, we hope that fome one will give himself the trouble of tracing the origin of it. It appeared in feveral newfpapers, and there will be therefore no difficulty in afcertaining in which it was firft inferted. The newspaper editor |