1 and the two gafes which compofe it. The effects produced by a variation in the proportions of the conftituent parts of palladium, are not to be compared with the changes produced by varying the proportions of the two gafes which compofe the atmosphere no amalgam or alloy of mercury and platina differs fo effentially from palladium as atmospherical air differs from nitrous gas and nitric acid. The conftitution of the vegetable oils and alcohol, and of the different vegetable acids, affords various other inftances of a much greater diffimilarity between compound bodies and their component parts, and of a much greater diverfity produced by changing the relative proportions of the ingredients, than any which the experiments of Mr Chenevix have exhibited in the cafe of the metals. We must therefore confine our acknowledgement of the importance of these experiments to the circumftance of a metallic fubftance being prefented by them, entirely different from every other; and though evidently a compound, yet incapable of direct analysis by any known procefs. The indifputable certainty of this fact may teach us to regard with lefs contempt the great object of the earlier chemical experimentalifts; and, without diminishing our juft reprobation of the unphilofophical spirit in which their inquiries were conducted, may incline us to believe in the poffibility of those transmutations, the purfuit of which has covered with ridicule eyery thing that bears the name of alchemy. ART. XII. Difcourfes IN an advertisement prefixed to this work, we are informed by the learned editor, that the following Difcourfes were not intended by their author to be published as they now appear. With the exception of three or four, none of them ever feem to have been written over by him twice. The liberty taken in offering them to the public, was from the with entertained by his near relations, of preferving and doing honour to his memory; which they thought could be done, even though the works to be published were as imperfect as has now been mentioned. Such an intimation as this would neceffarily preclude much of the feverity of criticifm, even if the Difcourfes to which it relates were really lefs valuable than we have found them; but as many of them poffefs confiderable merit, we are fenfible of the benefit which his relations and the editor have conferred on the public by printing them, fuch as they are. Before proceeding to the work itself, we shall notice a few particulars in the account of the author's life and character, which the editor has fubjoined in the form of an Appendix. His father (we are informed) was a contiderable farmer in Renfrewfhire; and his parents, being perfons of great worth, and having fuch a confiderable degree of knowledge as is not unufual among refpectable farmers in Scotland, were capable, while teaching their fon to read English, of imparting to him other useful information; and of awakening in the tender mind of the child, thofe affections, and that sense of duty, which might afterwards be required of him in discharging the important functions of manhood. P. 493.494. After pailing fome years at a grammar fchool in Paisley, he was removed, in his fourteenth year, to the University of Glafgow; the fcene of his future labours. Here his abilities foon attracted the notice of Mr Moorhead and Dr Moor, the teachers of the Latin and Greek languages at that time; men (fays Mr Richardfon) not more eminent for their tafte and erudition, than for their goodness of heart and attachment to early merit.' As he made choice of the clerical profeffion, (we are told) that he applied with great diligence to that courfe of philofophical ftudy which is held neceffary to the knowledge of theology, and the duties of a clergyman.' This we certainly find no difficulty in believing; but we muft fufpect the partiality of friendship, when Mr Richardfon proceeds to transform Mr Arthur into a kind of Sir Ifaac Newton, telling us that the capacity of his mind enlarging itself in the course of intellectual exertion, became fo great, that in his riper years no difcovery in fcience was too extenfive, or too vaft for his comprehenfion. Along with this, his habits of profound and accurate thinking discovered themselves by the furprising facility with which he was able to apprehend the most abftrufe and difficult fubjects of philofophical and abítract inquiry. Nor was there any difquifition fo intricate, as that his acutenefs and perfpicuity could not unravel and unfold its perplexities. Nor were his talents for extenfive comprehenfion, and the ready conception of scientific know❤ ledge, confined to any one department. P. 497. 498. The fact which follows this fplendid encomium is, however, a proof that he was a man of uncommon and various acquire ments: Both before and after his appointment to a profefforfhip, he lectured, when occafion required, in logic, botany, and humanity; and, during the neceffary abfence of the Profeffor of Church Hiftory, he lectured for a whole feffion of College, in that department,' with very great reputation, Soon -Soon after obtaining his licenfe from the Prefbytery, he was appointed chaplain to the University of Glasgow, and was much esteemed as a preacher. He became likewife librarian to the University, and gave general fatisfaction to that learned body, by making a moft diftinct catalogue of the books contained in the college library. His merit as a preacher had already obtained for him an additional appointment, in being made affiftant to Dr Craig, a clergyman of great eminence in Glafgow; and he was foon about to receive a ftill more confpicuous mark of the value in which his attainments were held by men of difcernment, in being recommended by Dr Reid to the University as a fit perfonaflift and fucceed him in the honourable capacity of Profeffor of Moral Philofophy. While he was yet but little known to that judicious philofopher, he preached a fermon in his hearing, of fo much merit, that, at the conclufion, Dr Reid whispered to one of his brethren, This is a very fenfible fellow, and, in my opinion, would make a good profeffor of morals.' Dr Reid Jived fifteen years after Mr Arthur was nominated to this appointment; and the latter enjoyed it only one year after the death of the former. Some fpecimens of his ability as a profeffor are now given to the public in the first part of the following Difcourfes. In his moral character, Mr Arthur appears to have been amiable and benevolent, fteady in his purposes, and friendly to the good order and peace of fociety. His greateft peculiarity was an invincible bashfulness, of which the habit continued to clog his manner, or impede his exertions, during the whole courfe of his life; and which contributed, perhaps, to promote, or to confirm a flight, but ungainly hefitation in his fpeech; from which he was never, but very feldom, or occafionally releafed. On fome occafions, however, when he arrived at manhood, and in the after courfe of his life, he experienced fuch releafe. There were luminous moments, which his friends can never forget, when the ease of intimacy, and the hilarity of focial enjoyment, unbarred his utterance, and gave vent to a torrent of moft impreffive elocution, rich in fcience, abounding with information, and flowing in a fream of correct, yet fpirited diction; of which the effect feemed to be fo much the more powerful, that its commencements were fo reluctant. p. 494. 495. He died in 1797. And here moft biographers would have topped; but the learned Profeffor has made an effort to aftowith us, by concluding his narrative with a laboured and puerile imitation of that fplendid paffage in Tacitus's Life of Agricola, in which the Roman hiftorian expreffes his affurance that Agricola, though dead, ftill enjoys a perpetuity of existence and of happinefs! We certainly are not at all inclined to doubt doubt that Mr Arthur has received the reward of his virtues; but we cannot help thinking that the learned biographer has thrown a degree of ridicule both upon his friend, and on a very important doctrine, by his affected and ftrained manner of expreffing himself on the fubject. For inftance, he must quote. Milton, and tell us, that funk though he be-fo finks the day-ftar in the ocean-bed,' &c. If Mr Richardfon think it abfolutely neceffary to quote poetry, and to turn his friend into a ftar, we would recommend a line of Virgil as confiderably more appropriate ARCTURUM, pluviafque Hyadas, geminofque Triones." It will be a relief to our readers to turn from this inftance of falfetto, to the found and plain fenfe difplayed in Mr Arthur's own compofitions. He is very far from ever being perverfely or abfurdly eloquent, and, indeed, if there be any defect in his ftyle, it is, that his fimplicity approaches to tameness. The Difcpurfes are divided into two parts; the first of which comprehends Theological, and the fecond Literary Difcourfes, The firft are à fpecimen of Mr Arthur's Lectures; the fecond were chiefly read in a literary fociety of which, he was a mem ber. The fubjects of the Theological Difcourfes are as follows 1. On the argument for the existence of God, from the aps pearances of defign in the univerfe: 2. Observations by Mr Hume, on the existence of God, confidered: 3. The goodness of God defended from the objections of Mr Humne: 4 On the justice and moral government of God: 5. Of evils and their caufes, and of the fyftems refpecting them. It cannot be fuppofed that we should enter into a minuté analyfis of the different reafonings contained in thefe Difcourfes. The fubject precludes any thing like novelty, and very probably all the reafonings which Mr Arthur has advanced on thefe firft principles of religion may be found in the writings of thofe diftinguifhed men who preceded him in the fame walk. We may however affirm, that he has always treated his fubject with preci fion and clearness; and is both very candid to the acute adverfary whom he oppofes, and very fuccefsful in wielding thofe weapons which Dr Reid had put into his hands. In the first Discourse, for instance, after flating, as is commonly done, the evident marks of defign in the univerfe, he places upon its true foundation the inference which we draw, that these muft neceffarily have been produced by intelligence or a defigning caufe. Thefe judgements which we form concerning Caufes, from obferving their Effects, must be founded upon an original principle in our confti. tution. They are universal, and yet nobody affigns a reafon for them. They are evidently not conclusions from reafoning. It is impoffible to point out any intermediate fteps by which they are proved; and nobody has attempted it. No man can give any argument by which it can be fhewn, that a mathematical figure must be the work of an intelligent being, and could not be the work of a fowl or of a quadruped. We judge indeed in this manner, but we can affign no reason for our judgement, any more than we can affign any reason why we judge that two and two make four. Neither did we learn to judge in this manner by experience. From experience we can acquire knowledge only concerning contingent truth or matters of fact, which may be, or may not be, without any abfurdity. We can never learn from experience any know, ledge concerning neceffary truths which muft be, and which it involves an abfurdity to fuppofe not to be. We may learn from experience, that bodies gravitate. This is not a neceffary truth; it is only contingent, and depends on the will of the Creator; and if He had pleafed, body might have had oppofite properties, or might not have exifted. But we cannot learn from experience, that the whole is equal to all its parts, This is a neceflary truth, and neceffarily flows from the notions we have of a whole and of its parts. It must be true; and it is impoffible, and involves abfurdity, to think otherwife. Now, our judgements concerning the connexion of effects and causes, are judgements concerning neceffary truths. We do not judge that the connexion may take place, but that it must take place. Thefe judgements, therefore, are of fuch a nature, as experience cannot fuggeft.' p. 15-17. The principles ftated in this quotation are afterwards applied very fuccefsfully to the confutation of Mr Hume; and although we refrain from entering more minutely into this fpeculation, we will not hesitate to recommend to the attention of our readers, particularly those who may have been perplexed by Mr Hume's ingenuity, thefe Difcourfes of Mr Arthur, who has collected into one point of view all the scattered reafonings of Dr Reid on the fubject, and illuftrated every pofition with familiar and striking inftances. In the third Difcourfe, he defends the goodness of the Deity from the objections of the fame able and fagacious difputant. He begins with ftating, that the chief objections to the goodness of God arife from exaggerated and gloomy pictures of human mifery. That fuch views are far from being correct, he proves from feveral confiderations. The following obfervations, we think well worthy attention, If we were to refer the matter to every man's determination, and if every man were to declare honeftly what he had felt, the determination of the queftion, with respect to human happiness, might be reduced to a very narrow compass. There is no man who has not spent many more days of happiness than of mifery. Confider the fituation of the generality of mankind, and think what can be added to their felicity. Almoft the whole of them with for fomething more than they have. This is a fpur to |