the state of his heart, and his alienated condition from GOD.

To this indifference or hostility of scientific men to religion, there have been, however, many honourable exceptions; and knowing to how much good or evil, especially among young persons,philosophical knowledge may be turned, we saw with pleasure a new publication with the title "The Christian Philosopher," professing to connect the works of GOD with their Author, and to unfold the moral instruction which they were intended, in his mercy, to convey. In this work we have been both gratified and disappointed; and that in no ordinary degree. MR. DICK is well acquainted with subjects of Natural Philosophy; and he has great talent in conveying general and connected views of the magnificent scenes and relations of nature, and of those delicate and beautiful exhibitions of the skill of the heavenly Architect with which the world abounds. But he has mixed up his subjects with much irrelevant inatter, and has assumed some false principles.

MR. DICK'S Book does not supply a desideratum, which has long been felt, an elementary treatise on Natural Science, which should lead the student in his progress to mark the connexion of the works of God's hand with those of his heart, that is, with the revelation which he has made of himself in the Scriptures, and the redemption of the human part of his creation by the blood of his SoN. "The Christian Philosopher" is a work on that mixed subject, which has been usually called "Natural Theology;" and in such an undertaking its Author had to come into comparison with DERHAM, and RAY, and STURM, and above all with PALEY. So far as the philosophy of his book is concerned, he maintains very respectable ground; but we have in it no train of argument connected with great consequences, as in PALEY, to give it the strength and the interest of unity. The theology is rather a congeries of reflections, and what in a sermon would be called moral improvements, uses, and applications; which, though often striking, and not seldom important, yet, by their reiteration in this unconnected form,

are at length felt to be rather forced aud cumbrous.

The great reason of the structure and the faults of this volume is, however, to be found in the views with which MR. DICK set out on his enterprise. We have just lamented the too general indifference of men of science to religion, which we take to be one of the greatest and most obvious evils of the age. MR. DICK overlooks this, and is filled with resentment at the indifference of the Professors and Teachers of religion to philosophy. The former are, in his view, in consequence deplorably ignorant, and narrow-minded; and the latter, he thinks, neglect one of the most powerful means of enlightening and raising the religious tone of their congregations, and confine themselves rather to abstract topics, which are quite powerless in comparison of "Descants on the Creation." We, however, do MR. DICK the justice to say, that he not only appears to be a believer in Revelation, but a devout and religious man.

But

As to the first topic of his constant complaint, we are persuaded that he is much mistaken. What his acquaintance with "Professors of religion" may be, we know not. He may have unhappily moved in a peculiar circle of religionists, of oddly constructed minds; or, what is more likely, he has inferred very unfavourably concerning them, in conse quence of their not meeting his enthusiastic passion for Natural Philosophy with equal warmth. the fact is, that no books, not directly theological, are more popular among religious people in the three kingdoms, none are more steadily kept in print, none pass more rapidly froin edition to edition, than those which treat of the Works of God, in connexion with Religion. We might instance the Astro and Physico Theology" of DERHAM; the " Meditations" of HERVEY; the "Reflections" of STURM; the " Natural Theology" of PALEY; CHALMERS's Astronomical Discourses; and several others. The reading of these is chiefly confined to professors of religion;" and the demand for them shows the extent to which they are studied, and the interest they excite.

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MR. DICK's rebukes on this subject are, therefore, wholly misplaced.

That Ministers might render their sermons more impressive and edifying, by making them philosophical in the manner which MR. Dick proposes, we more than doubt. The Ministers whom our Author has heard, seem to have been much of the same class with his religious associates; but he has unfortunately concluded, that the fault of making no allusion to the works of GOD in sermons is general. We believe not. They furnish, in a thousand instances, every Sabbath, interesting allusions, impressive figures, and means of illustration, to the Ministers of our country, by which, in their proper connexion with other truths, knowledge is enlarged, and religious feelings are deepened.

But even though MR. DICK's mistakes, arising from his want of acquaintance with the religious world, may be thus corrected, we fear that his censures are grounded less on his want of information as to facts, than upon erroneous opinions respecting the efficacy of natural science as a medium of religious impression. This is obvious from his book. He constantly assumes that were nature only displayed, and, by ingenious illustrations, such as he has undoubtedly the talent in uo ordinary degree of supplying, presented under impressive views, men must be made humble, and devout, and pure. On this point we are sceptical, or rather quite incredulous. For if this were true, we should find the greatest philosophers to be the best Christians; and so powerful an instrument of conversion and edification would scarcely have remained unrecommended in the New Testament. We rather take it, that the impression of awe from what is great in nature, or the pleasures of taste, which its beauty, and harmony, and delicacy, will generally produce, are no more in themselves moral or religious impressions, than those produced by mere musical sounds; though, when united with those truths along with which the HOLY SPIRIT gives his testimony, and with which he connects his influences as the SPIRIT of CHRIST, they

may be, and often are, turned to good account in the christian life. It may also be much doubted whether philosophic disquisitions in the pulpit, or any where else, are not much less powerful, than that general observation of nature, to which the unlearned are quite adequate, but which can scarcely be called philosophical. Even the Book of GoD usually edifies by general views of its plain and obvious truths; and what more is brought out, by criticism, produces effect rather in the closet than in the pulpit. When we begin to calculate and arrange as to the material universe, the impression is weakened rather than rendered more intense. To call the mind of an audience, by a single sentence, to the ample sweep of the cope of heaven, and its furniture of stars, as popularly conceived, conveys an impression more sublime than would be produced by an enumeration of the distances of the stars in millions of miles, and an account of the laws of the astral revolutions, which should occupy an hour. To direct the thoughts to the sea rolling in grandeur, would seize the imagination; to calculate the momentum of its billows, and the leagues of its surface, would dissipate the charm, by calling another faculty into exercise. Preachers of the Gospel must be Preachers of CHRIST, or they forfeit their character. They must, like ST. PAUL, "know nothing" else, as the great subject of their preaching. So far as a display of the power and wisdom of GoD in the Creation can subserve that,-well; but it must never dispiace it, nor drive it into a corner; no, not in a single sermon, addressed to dying men, whose breath is in their nostrils.

We have another fault with MR. DICK. He blames PALEY for being a plagiarist; but is himself more eminently and obviously so. We do not make this remark in order to blame either. They have each borrowed well; PALEY eminently so. The fact is, that none but very weak men would attempt to write a book on any important branch of general knowledge, without carefully consulting preceding writers. There is nothing new under the sun, but method and illustration. This is as true of non

sense as of sense; its circle is more irregular, but it moves round it. There are only two methods open to a writer,-either to put his extracts from his masters between honest quotation-marks, or to melt down their sayings into the mass of his own paragraphs. Whenever the book of another writer is really before an author, we should prefer to see the foriner mode adopted. But authors are generally deterred from this, because the folly of many readers would consider it as a proof of their want of originality, if many professed quotations, however appropriate, were found in their productions; and thus the latter mode is generally preferred, though it can take in none but the half-thinking reader, who looks grave, and surrenders himself to the deception with an air of wisdom. Authors who thus practise upon their readers ought not however to quarrel with each other; but rather, if we may use so homely a phrase, "eat their pudding, and hold their tongues."

We have now done with censure, though many things are open to animadversion; and the selections we shall make from MR. DICK's labours, shall all be from the best parts of the volume. Our readers will join us in pronouncing them so very good, as to make it desirable that the volume in which they occur should have been quite without exception.

Freed from the complaints, which Mr.D.is constantly reiterating against the narrow views of those who are not quite so sanguine as himself, as to the direct moral effects of philosophic knowledge, "The Christian Philosopher" would be a very interesting addition to our standard works on Natural Theology. And we trust that the Author will construct his second edition entirely on his own system, and leave it to find its way naturally, without attempting to drive a road for it through a portion of religious science which is perfectly distinct, and without obtruding it as affording materials indispensable for the adequate discharge of the office

of a Christian Preacher.

In illustrating the DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE, the Author adduces the Quantity of Matter in the Universe; and with respect to our own globe,

places the subject in a very striking view :

"In the first place, the immense quanpresents a most striking display of altity of matter contained in the universe, mighty power. In endeavouring to form a definite notion on this subject, the mind is bewildered in its conceptions, and is at a loss where to begin or to end its excursions. In order to form something approximating to a well-defined idea, we must pursue a train of thought commencing with those magnitudes which the mind can easily grasp, progradations of magnitude, and fixing the ceeding through all the intermediate attention on every portion of the chain, till we arrive at the object or magnitude of which we wish to form a conception. We must endeavour, in the first place, to form a conception of the bulk of the world in which we dwell, which, though only a point in comparison of the whole material universe, is, in reality, a most astonishing magnitude, which the mind cannot grasp without a laborious effort. We can form some definite idea of those protuberant masses we denominate hills,

which rise above the surface of our plains; but were we transported to the mountainous scenery of Switzerland, to the stupendous range of the Andes in South America, or to the Himalayan mountains in India, where masses of earth and rocks, in every variety of shape, extend several hundreds of miles, in different directions, and rear their of the clouds,-we would find some projecting summits beyond the region difficulty in forming an adequate conception of the objects of our contemplation. For, (to use the words of one who had been a spectator of such scenes,) 'Amidst those trackless regions of intense silence and solitude, we cannot contemplate, but with feelings of awe and admiration, the enormous masses of variegated matter which lie around, beneath, and above us. The mind labours, as it were, to form a definite idea of those objects of oppressive grandeur, and feels unable to grasp the august objects which compose the surrounding scene.' But what are all these mountainous masses, however variegated and sublime, when compared with the bulk of the whole earth? Were

they hurled from their bases, and precipitated into the vast Pacific Ocean, they would all disappear in a moment, except, perhaps, a few projecting tops, which, like a number of small islands, might be seen rising a few fathoms above the surface of the waters.-The earth is a globe, whose diameter is nearly