capable of diffusing itself through the whole universe, and of there displaying more or less fully its energies and its motions, according to the primordial disposition of matter. Life is in all probability not confined to our planet, nor to our solar system: it must extend its effects to all the possible circumstances of organic combinations, within the infinite spheres which fill the heavens. In my opinion, it is to the particular physics of animated bodies what universal gravitation is to general physics. These sublime forces are, if I do not deceive myself, attributes of the Deity, the Eternal Source of movement and of life.' (P. 204.)

Are we to consider it as indicative of the state of opinions among the savans of Paris, that this simple avowal of a belief in the existence of a Deity, wrapped up as it is in a kind of Platonic mysticism, is thus followed by so labored a defence?

M. VIREY has treated the subject of life on a more extended plan, and in a more popular and amusing manner, than any writer with whom we are acquainted. Much of the present volume has been already submitted to the public in different productions of the author, but in a more disjointed and imperfect form. He now arranges his subject under four principal heads, to each of which he dedicates a division of his work. In the first, he considers living and organized nature: in the second, he endeavors to explain the causes of the vital power, and details the history of its manifestations in animals and plants: in the third, he discusses the curative powers of nature, the vis medicatrix of the Stahlians; and in the fourth, he considers the prolongation of life, its causes, its ratio in the different orders of living beings, and the means of attaining longevity.

The author has given rather a vivid description of the perpetual circulation of organizable matter, turning, as he expresses it, round the two poles of generation and destruction: but we have not space to present our readers with this lively passage; in which, indeed, we find nothing essentially true that has not been often said before. In his argument against the absolute death of organized matter, by which we suppose its annihilation is meant, he has allowed himself to be rather carried away by his subject. 'It would appear,' says he, that there is no real death in the system of organized bodies; and that what in our view seems to be such is a sort of latent or quiescent life.' (P. 195.) This is truly to pervert language, and to introduce confusion where none previously existed, at least to the common sense of mankind.

Among other opinions which Dr. V. has adopted on mere hypothetical grounds, is his assertion that a gradation of more highly organized food produces a greater degree of in

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telligence.

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telligence. We observe,' he remarks, that animals which subsist on flesh, or on other animals, are raised to a greater degree of perfection than the herbivorous races of which they make their prey.' (P. 44.) The elephant and the horse, however, are not inferior in intelligence to the tiger and the hyæna; the monkey lives on fruits and seeds; and even man himself is not wholly carnivorous.

These remarks on the nutrition of the animal body lead us to mention a singular opinion held by the author on the subject of the support of vitality. He observes: It is known that the warm steams which arise from the carcase of a slaughtered animal are vivifying; hence butchers are in general corpulent and plethoric.' (Note, p. 285.) It is scarcely necessary for us to say that it is not this vapor or exhaling life, as the author would perhaps term it, which fattens the butcher, but the abundance of animal food which is always within his reach. The peculiarity of M. VIREY'S opinions is still farther developed when he speaks of the communication of vitality from one individual to another, in the intercourses of society. With him, pity for a weak or unfortunate being is only a portion of the soul, which is diffused to fortify that of the object of this sentiment, and to re-establish the equilibrium of life: - love is an exchange of the soul between the sexes; and friendship is a sort of mutual transfusion of life. Anger, ambition, bravery, &c., are merely sensibility overflowing beyond our frame: while fear, sadness, envy, and hatred, are retractions of the soul to the inmost recesses of the body. Old age draws near to the young, who possess a large share of life, in order to repair the ruins of its own, but at the expence of its youthful companions: thus, intercourse with the infirm is unwholesome, and we grow old by living with the old.' (P. 285.) We know not to what we can ascribe such opinions, unless to a belief in something akin to animal magnetism. Although we had once the satisfaction of being magnetized, and can therefore speak from experience, we do not believe in the power of communicating, by any manipulations, the vital energy from one living body to another: yet we must say that we felt strongly the influence of the magnetizer, in producing an universal excitement over the whole cutaneous surface, and an increased flow of energy to the nervous papillæ of the skin.

The fanciful character of Dr. VIREY'S mind has induced him to consider the subject of life not only in reference to the objects which surround us on this globe, but to connect it with the revolutions of the earth, with the surrounding heavenly bodies, and even with the comets which at intervals visit our

sphere.

sphere. There is something sublime and elevating in these vague speculations, which, although they lead but to barren conjecture, serve to regale and gratify the mind. The phænomena of life, as they are now presented to us, are admirably adapted to the existing order of things; and if we go back to the successive catastrophes which this globe has suffered, we may naturally suppose that these awful convulsions, and the subsequent revivals of animation, were accompanied by corresponding alterations in the manifestations of life. In like manner, if we suppose other planets to be filled with living creatures, life most probably there presents features altogether different from those with which we are familiar, and such as are peculiarly suited to the circumstances under which it has been created.

Dr. V. appears to be strongly impressed with the idea that the period, in which the earth traverses her orbit, serves as the means of limiting the duration of existence in the beings who people its surface; and he extends the same notion to the duration of life in other planets, supposing that they too are the abodes of living creatures. The belief that our earthly destiny is thus chained to the revolutions of the globe has something in it of grandeur; and yet it is altogether fanciful, as we must at once admit when we reflect on the vast diversity in the natural duration of life among the multitude of beings which this earth presents, in all the gradations from the insect up to man.

The vis medicatrix, or curative power of nature, has found a keen advocate in the person of M. VIREY: though it must be admitted that he has presented a sufficiently fair summary of the arguments, which have been advanced by those who hold a contrary opinion. In the present day, we think a tolerably just estimate is formed, at least in this country, of the efforts which the natural powers of the animal frame are capable of making to subdue disease. We shall not therefore enter on this wide field of discussion; nor attack Dr. V. in what we decidedly conceive to be by far the weakest part of his volume, both with regard to the credibility of the facts adduced, and to the inferences which he draws from them. We are required, however, to state that we observed with pain the sneers with which he salutes those who have, in his opinion, abandoned the path of nature; and the sarcastic bitterness with which he exclaims; Let us make trial of pills of lapis infernalis; let us administer internally the preparations of arsenic, and the most powerful poisons; let us terrify nature, and overthrow her perverted powers. How dear may such unreasonable science cost humanity!' (P. 338.) The

history of the first introduction of mercury into medicine, of antimony, and even of Peruvian bark, will furnish abundant instances of parallel prejudice, unscientific bigotry, and unfounded alarm.

On the subject of longevity, Dr. V. has brought forwards a rich collection of interesting facts, the general tendency of which is to make us contented with our lot in the temperate regions of Europe; and the power which we ourselves possess of prolonging life, by pursuing a virtuous course of conduct, is illustrated in strong and often eloquent language. Perhaps the author appears nowhere to greater advantage than in his remarks on the state of moral feeling most favorable to longevity; (p. 475.) which are highly creditable to his principles as a man, and afford a pleasing specimen of the flowery rhetoric with which he is accustomed to treat his subject.

M. VIREY is already known to the public as a successful and somewhat voluminous author. The tone of his writings, indeed, is popular and amusing, rather than argumentative and philosophical: but in his present work he has exhibited an interesting and extensive sketch of a highly important subject, which has by most writers been too much enveloped in the subtleties of metaphysical disquisition. If we have found it our duty to censure his fanciful speculations and hypothetical views, and his unsuccessful attempts to revive some doctrines which have become obsolete from their want of value, we must on the other hand declare that these defects are accompanied by much redeeming merit, which has rendered the perusal of the book a pleasing task to us; and which cannot fail, we are convinced, to cause it to be read with similar feelings of gratification by others.

ART. VII. Vie de Jules Cesar, &c.; i. e. The Life of Julius Cæsar, followed by a View of his Campaigns, and Critical Observations. By M. ALPH. DE BEAUCHAMP, Knight of the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour. 8vo. Paris. 1823. Imported by Treuttel and Co. Price 7s. 6d.

THIS

"HIS contribution to our stock of biography was originally intended for insertion in the Biographie Universelle, a work which we have frequently noticed: but, having been drawn up too much at length for the limits of a dictionary, the author withdrew his manuscript; which he farther amplified by a studious critical survey of Cæsar's different battles. M. DE BEAUCHAMP is a military man, and is certainly well qualified as a tactician to appreciate the strategic skill of his hero. The peculiar value of this biography accordingly con

sists in the exact justice which has been done to the errors and resources of Cæsar as a General: while others have described more particularly his moral habits, have brought into fuller display his admirable accomplishments and talents, and have painted with more liberality the philanthropic character of his ambition. The writings of Julius Cæsar himself, of Suetonius, and of Plutarch, are the authorities principally followed, and most frequently cited: but much tributary information has been derived from Cicero, Velleius Paterculus, Dion, and Appian. The style is clear, natural, and appropriately modelled not on that of the more eloquent historians, but on that of the author of the Commentaries.

Julius Cæsar was descended from a patrician family, which enjoyed an hereditary priesthood of Venus: the name is supposed to be etymologically connected with casaries, and to signify hairy. In early life, he was much addicted to pleasure. His first campaign was in Bithynia, and procured for him a triumph and the consulship. He was generous and expensive; in his politics, democratic, and attached to the party of Marius. Sylla would have proscribed him, but his familyconnections secured for him a pardon. To the conspiracy of Catiline, he lent a more cautious protection, and jested in the senate at the alarm of Cicero. By a coalition with Pompey and Crassus, he obtained the government of Gaul, where he raised a vast fortune by heavy contributions, and whence he led a veteran and attached army back into Italy. Crassus having perished in Parthia, Pompey and Cæsar were become the leaders of the opposite parties in the senate, and in the nation. Pompey leaned to the aristocracy, and affected to support the constitution as habitually conducted: while Cæsar leaned to the democracy, and probably intended to realize the reform suggested by Drusus, the colleague of Caius Gracchus, of granting a tribunitian representation to the principal Italian cities. For the purpose of legitimating the innovations projected, he seems to have hesitated between assuming the title of Dictator, or that of King; since he could only hope to reverse the patrician majority of his adversaries by a new creation of senators from the equestrian and tribunitian orders. As, under the Roman constitution, it was the appropriate office of an interrex, or occasional king, to fill up vacancies in the magistracy, the preference which Cæsar is supposed to have internally entertained for this title, and which Anthony designed to confer on him by tendering to him the constitutional crown at the Lupercals, is indicative of his aspiring not to despotic but to legitimate authority. At the time of passing the Rubicon, also, Cæsar brought forwards the pretext that

the