grade his merit as a philofopher, we may venture to prophefy, that he is not the perfon by whom Ifrael fhall be gathered. A Demonftration that True Philofophy has no tendency to undermine Divine Revelation. By C. Morgan, M. A. to whom the Honorary Prize was ad judged by Teyler's Theological Society at Haarlem. 8vo. TWO WO errors have prevailed among mankind with refpect to this very interesting topic. On the one hand, infidels availing themfelves of a few inftances of men of fpecious talents, who have deferted from the faith of the gofpel, have contended that it is a belief inconfiftent with the improvements of a mind enlarged by fcience. On the other hand, fome zealous, but weak advocates for chriftianity, obferving the fame fact, have taken occafion from it to decry human knowledge as hoftile to the influence of the gofpel. Againft this latter miftake the author has levelled his arguments. After defining philofophy to be the difcovery of truth, by a careful attention and investigation of the appea pearances and operations of nature, proceeds to inquire first of all, whether fuch an employment of our faculties be difcountenanced in the infpired writings? Having clearly proved that this is not the cafe, he goes on to confider the question more at large, and to decide upon it, by its own apparent merits, independent of the authority. In doing this, he particularly examines three reafons, which he fuppofes to be the only ones that can be affigned why philofophy fhould have a tendency to undermine revelation. 1, That the principles of revelation and philofophy are inconfiftent with each other; or, 2dly, That the very act of investigation is apt to produce doubt and uncertainty; or, 3dly, That knowledge itself has, in its own nature, a tendency to introduce unbelief. opinion, a thorough refutal of each of thefe fuppofitions. As a fpecimen of the author's manner of writing, we fhall produce a part of his reply to the objections of those who alledge that philofophy, by producing an arrogance of mind, makes men prone to reject the pofitive declarations of the Deity. "While the philofophic mind is humbled by the infcrutable nature of the effence of things; it receives another very fevere check, when it proceeds farther to contemplate the arrange ments of them, and to investigate the ends for the accomplishment of which thofe arrangements were formed. There is nothing to be found in na ture, fingle and connected. Whatever now exifts, owed the beginning of its exiftence to fome precedent caufes, is preferved and modified in its being, by 'the operation of things co-existent with it; and will act, and be acted upon, by a variety of furrounding objects at its diffolution. The man, whofe view of things has not been enlarged by philofophy, is able to trace this connection but a very little way; and when he has got to the limit of his capacity, he perfuades himself that he is advan ced as far as the operation of cause and effect extends. But the true philofo pher, whofe profpect is enlarged by fcience, perceives that this connection branches out in all poffible directions; that a general and mutual dependence appears to be established in nature, and that the production of events is often difcovered, upon minute examination, to depend upon circumftances apparent ly the moft adverfe. The improvement of philofophy by the discovery of new, and hitherto unheard-of branch. es be Barton's Account of fome American Antiquities. es of this connection, teaches us to very modest in our decifions; when every step that we take, not only enlarges, but varies the profpect, and often fhews those things to be fit and proper, harmonious and beautiful, which we once confidered as rude and deformed. Indeed nothing can be conceived better calculated to reprefs arrogance and temerity, than the con -341 viction which philofophy affords, that all the works of nature are parts of an immenfe fyftem; a very inconfiderable portion of which, is expofed to our fcrutiny, and that there is fcarcely any thing in the whole compafs of nature fo fimple, or infignificant, that all its relations and correfpondences can be discovered by the most penetrating genius." Obfervations on fome Parts of Natural Hiftory. Part I. By Benjamin Smith Barton, M. A. 8vo. T HIS Number of a larger work contains one subject entire, and it is an important one. Allufions have often been made to fome remains on the continent of America, ofa more polished and cultivated people, when compared with the tribes which poffeffed it on its first discovery by Europeans. Mr Barton has collected the fcattered hints of Kalm, Carver, Filfon, and fome others, and has added a plan of a regular work, which has been difcovered on the banks of the Muskingum, near its junction with the Ohio. These remains are of different kinds; they are ftone walls; wells lined with brick; tiles and other pottery unglazed; and we think that we have met with some relations in which they were faid to have been glazed; large mounds of earth, and a combination of these mounds with the walls, fufpected to have been fortifications. In fome places the ditches and the fortrefs are faid to have been plainly feen; in others, furrows, as if the land had been ploughed. The fides of the wells, fupported by bricks, were difcovered many years after the first population of America by Europeans; and brick, employed for this purpofe, is fo very obviously artificial, and the production of Europe, that we must attribute it to the early fettlers. The old wells in England are conftructed by means of ftone; and, in a country where ftone is not wanting, it would be the most obvious method of fupporting the fides. Even the existence of wells, except in countries expofed to a tropical fun, feems to fhow an European origin. The tiles and pottery do not prove that there were inhabitants anterior to the tribes which the Europeans difcovered. They had veffels of clay, burned in the fire, and the glazing may have been accidental from the occafional mixture of fand. Stone walls muft have continued many years; and if America had ever been inhabited by a civilized race, their veftiges would have been difcovered in many dif ferent places; at prefent, the account of walls, fuppofed to be anterior to the period of the inhabitants, is flight and fufpicious. In fhort, of this extenfive lift of proofs, we can felect only the account of the mounds and walls beyond the Apallachian chain, on which we can with any fecurity rest. The mounds of earth are of two kinds; they are artificial tumuli, defigned as repofitories for the dead; or they are of a greater fize, for the purpose of defending the adjacent country; and with this view they are artificially conftructed, or advantage is taken of the natural eminences, to raife them into a fortification. The author's fyftem is fhortly this, that America was peopled from the north of Europe, probably by the Danes, who landed on the coaft of Labrador, and gradually advanced to a more genial climate, leaving leaving their temporary fortreffes, and marks of their progrefs, till they reached Mexico, where we find fimilar ftructures *. It is evident that the smaller mounds ·were intended for fepulchres, and the larger ones, which have been hitherto opened, feem to have been defigned for the fame purpose. We know not, therefore, whether they may not be natural eminences; and, fince we have been acquainted with the labours of the Termites, it is not certain that they may not have been the works of infects t. It has been fuppofed by fome of the hiftorians of Mexico, that their elevated buildings were only these natural mounds covered; and the opinion is fupported by the accefs to the top being on the outfide, and no internal part of the ftructure being visible. The fame opinion has prevailed relating to the pyramids of Egypt, though thefe have been partially excavated. At all events, if we allow that fimilar eminences are obferved in Ireland, and that they are wholly artificial, it is not from thence clear that America was peopled by the Danes, or indeed, except in the northern parts, by any European nation. Perhaps the author's facts may be applied to different purposes. We know that the Mexicans had tradition that their ancestors came from the north-weft; and these remarks of civilization, in the direction from Mexico, contribute to fupport it: but they do not fupport any particular origin, either if we fuppofe them to be veftiges of a nation, or of the colony from whom they derived their peculiar manners, or their civilized ftate. These remains are undoubtedly curious and important; they deferve a minute inveftigation, and may per haps contribute to elucidate the origin of the Mexican and Peruvian nations. It is not neceffary, in this inquiry, to fuppofe any remote period for thefe ftructures, fince even the vaft bulk of the trees which grow on them [This article is taken from the Critical Review, and the following Notes are added by a Gentleman who is intimately acquainted with the fubject.] *The fenfe of the Author is here evidently mifreprefented. It does not, by any means, appear to be his opinion, " that America was peopled from the north of Europe:" on the contrary, in the introduction to his work, he has expressly faid, that “it is more "probable it has been peopled from a thoufand fources;" and, towards the conclufion, we find the following paffage :" Even the warmest favourer of the doctrine of feparate "creations cannot but view the pofterity of the Greenlanders in the wretched inhabitants of LABRADOR: he cannot but confefs the amazing fimilitude of the Iroquois to fome "of the nations inhabiting the north-eaft parts of ASIA." From an attentive perufal of Mr Barton's work, this appears to be his real meaning: That the Toiticas, or fome other Mexican nation, were the people to whom the mounts and fortifications, which he has defcribed, owe their existence; and that those people were probably the defcendants of the Danes. The former part of this conjecture seems to carry more than probability with it, from the fimilarity of the Mexican mounts and fortifications defcribed by the Abbe Clavigero, and other authors, to those described by our author; and from the tradition of the Mexicans, that they come from the north-west; for, if we can rely on the testimony of late travellers, fortifications fimilar to those mentioned by Mr Barton have been difcovered as far to the north as Lake Pepin; and we find them, as we approach to the fouth, even as low as the coafts of Florida. The fecond part of our author's conjecture is, indeed, not fo well fupported: it is however highly probable, that feveral centuries before Columbus there subsisted some intercourse between the northern parts of Europe and thofe of America t. From the great regularity of fome of the mounts that are mentioned by our author, there cannot be the leaft fhadow of doubt that they are the workmanship of man: the history of the Termites does not furnish us with any thing, in their curious labours, that can entitle us to deny what our author has advanced on this fubject: befides, it is to be remembered, that thefe infects have never been difcovered, at leaft fo far as we know, in thofe parts of America. See Edin. Mag. Vol. IV, p. 134. from Førster's Northern Discoveries. Remains of Antiquity in America. Them will not carry them beyond two 343 is a large level, encompaffed by walls, nearly in the form of a fquare, the fides of which are from ninety-fix to eighty-fix perches in length. These walls are, in general, about ten feet in height above the level on which they stand, and about twenty feet in diameter at the bafe, but at the top they are much narrower: they are, at prefent, overgrown with vegetables of different kinds, and, among others, with trees of feveral feet diameter. The chafms, or openings in the walls, were probably intended for gate-ways they are three in number at each fide, befides the fmaller openings in the angles. Within the walls there are three elevations, each about fix feet in height, with regular afcents to them : it is unneceffary to defcribe these elevations, as they are reprefented in the plan on a fcale proportionate to the other parts; and as their forms are better expreffed by the drawing than they could be by the most studied defcription: I fhall only obferve, that they confiderably re femble fome of the eminences which have been discovered near the river Miffiffippi, and of which I have al ready given some account.' Singular * It will, perhaps, require fomething more than a bare affertion to prove this: had the trees, of which our author makes mention, been carefully examined, their antiquity might have been known with tolerable accuracy: but as this is not the cafe, we mu be content to observe, that, confidering the situation of these trees, it is not probable that they would have increased more than one foot diameter in a century. Even allowing that the ship, of which Dr Forfter makes mention, was wrecked on the coaft of America, which is, at beft, only a gratuitous fuppofition, yet it is certain, that the origin of the Mexican, or of the Peruvian Empire, can neither of them be da ted from the era of that event; for we have histories (deemed authentic) of those two nations of a much earlier date. But ftill, it seems highly probable, from feveral circum ftances, that both of these empires were constituted by the inhabitants of China, and of Japan: but on this head we shall fay nothing further at prefent, as the public will probably fhortly have it in their power to fee the feveral arguments which can be addu ced in fupport of this opinion, in an intended work on the "Origin of the Mexican and Peruvian Empires." 344 Singular Visifitudes in the Life of Noor-Jehan, Queen of the Emperor Ichan gire. A true Story. TH HE Mohammedan holds virtue in women to depend on the prevention of intercourfe and opportunity: but, above all, feclufion is ordained to true beFievers in the Koran of the most holy prophet. In Mohammedan Afia, however, there have been exceptions, and thofe too of a commanding Bature, which have comBated the eftablifhed fyftem of immuring women in the feraglio. Inftances have been known where the restraints impofed upon them have been burit, and where females of the highest rank and pretenfrons have not only appeared in private to the male friends of their families, but even in public, to the aftonishment in deed at first, but afterwards to the admiration of a people both bigotted and tenacious. One thail ferve our prefent purpofe. It was in the perfon of the Queen of the Emperor Iehangire: a princels, whofe ftory has employed the pens of poets and hiftorians, and the fingular viciffitudes of whofe life are worthy to be recorded. To give a proper idea of this extraordinary woman, it will be neceffary to go a little farther back than the æra when The appeared as Emprefs of the Eaft. Her father was by birth a Tartar, and of a noble family; but, as frequently is the cafe among thofe wandering tribes of Scythia, the patrimony he inherited was inconfiderable. The pride of blood, however, kept him fuperior to his fortune. His genius taught him to feel that there was carcely any thing beyond the reach of man; he therefore refolutely deter mined on cultivating the underftanding he was mafter of, and which he knew to be good, though it was wild. Impref fed thus with a fpirit of enterprize, and a thirst for knowledge, Haja-Ayafs eagerly began on the effential and preparatory fteps for the object he had in view; and, in a fhort time, having fo far fucceeded as to excel in all the manly, martial exercifes of the field, as well as in the cooler and more deliberate bufinefs of the cabinet, he chearfully collected the little fortune he was mafter of, difcharged the debts with which he was encumbered, and, having bade adieu to his companions, he departed, in a truly primitive ftyle, for the deferts which feparate Tartary from Hindoftan; his wife, a horfe, and a few days provifion, being the only treasure he could call his own. Directed by a knowledge of the planets, the commencement of his journey was profperous. The glowing expecta tion of advancement, in a land flowing with milk and honey, made him inatten tive to little difficulties. He already, in imagination, felt himfelf poffeffed of con fequence and riches. The glad tidings, hefuppofed communicated to his friends; and he enjoyed in thought, the fervices he fhould be enabled to render to his fa mily: but the fairy wanderings of delu five fancy are frequently preludes to the keeneft grief. "To heaven they raife us, but to plunge us deeper in despair." Unhappily for him, the feafon of the year was far advanced; the windings of the defert became at every ftep more intri cate; his provifions began to fail: no homely roofs were in fight, which could either yield fuccour or refi efhment: the fun too, in his annual progrefs, had ar rived in that fituation in the heavens, from whence he darted his fierceft rays; and the wife of his bofom was in hourly expectation of presenting him with pledge of their affections. Three days he continued in this fitua tion, when on the fourth, and when his ftore was quite exhaufted, heaven, as in mockery, made him the father of daughter. In this event, indeed, the cup of his afflictions was bitterly overflowed But the rational mind is not to be fright ened from its native dignity. He faw the horrors with which he was furrounded: his heart bled at them, as a man, as a husband, and as a parent; but complaint was unavailing, and no refource was in defpair. With a determined foul, ther? fore, and with a countenance ferene and awfully refigned, he foftly withdrew his daughter from his wife, who, from ex cefs of languor, had fallen into a fleep, and gathering for it the largest portion of the little valuables he had left, he pla ced it, with its humble fortune, under the shelter of a bush. "God fend may "thee aid," cried he, "I cannot. Thou "mayeft be found by travellers able to them affift thee. Charity may prompt "to befriend thee. If thou goeft in these "arms, thou wilt fall by famine. Thy "mother is almoft dead, and my hour "comes with hafte upon me. Fare thee "well! Bleffings unheard of yet be fhow "ered upon thee. Providence is merci "ful; and thy helpless innocence is fure"ly worthy of its protection." More |