he was not greatly given to reading; but from his youth up he obferved much, and reflected much; his apprehenfion was quick, and his judgment clear and difcriminating. Unbiaffed from education by any early adopted fyftems, he had immediate recourfe to nature herfelf; he attentively ftudied her, and by a patience and affiduity indefatigable, attained to a confequence in fcience not rafhly to be hoped for, without regular initiation by minds of lefs native energy than his own. He had many friends, and from the great purity and fimplicity of his manners, few or no enemies; unless it were allowable to call thofe enemies who, without detracting from his merit openly, might yet, from a jealoufy of his fuperior knowledge, be difpofed to leffen it in private.'

Of our author's Treatife on the original State and Formation of the Earth, we have already fpoken at fome length. The corrections are, feemingly, only the minuter ones of the editor: we do not perceive any additions from the author.

The papers communicated to the Royal Society are three only. The firft is printed in the fifty-feventh volume of the Tranfactions, and contains an account of a remarkable degree of cold, January 18th, 1767, obferved at Derby. The thermometer, at half an hour after nine in the evening, was 1 degree below 0. The fecond paper is an Account of a Mode of raifing Water by its Momentum. The machine was executed at Oulton in Cheshire, the feat of Mr. Egerton, for the service of a private brewhoufe; and is a very fimple and commodious one. The third contains Experiments on ignited Bodies, to fhow that their weight is not increased by heating.

The attempt to attain invariable Meafures of Length, &c. from the Menfuration of Time, we have only fhortly noticed in our account of Mr. Keith's tract. His object was to obtain a measure of the greatest length that conveniency would allow, from the vibration of two pendulums, whofe vibrations are in the ratio of 2 to 1; and the difference of whofe lengths coincide with the English standard in whole numbers nearly. The firft idea of the machine he afcribes with great candour to Mr. Hatton, who communicated it to the Society for the Improvement of Arts, &c. in confequence of their having offered a premium for this purpose. If the length of a feconds pendu lum in the latitude of London is 39.2 inches, the length of one vibrating 42 times in a minute is found to be 80 inches, and another vibrating 84 times must be 20 inches, each vibrating in equal arcs. The difference, 60 inches, or 5 English yards, is the ftandard of length thus difcovered. This, on trying the experiment, was found not to be quite accurate, for it amounted to 59.892 inches, only from affuming the first to be 39.2 inftead of 39 1196, its true measure.

CRIT. REV. N. AR. (III.) Feb. 1792.

M.

Of the machine itself we can convey no idea without the plate, but the rod is a flat tempered fteel wire, of which 80 inches weigh only 3 grains. The editor, Dr. Hutton, calcu lates that, if this rod was fquare, it would be only the 228th part of an inch: the length and breadth are not given. The other measures, as we have formerly had occafion to fhow, are eafily derived from this invariable length; but our author's method is fingularly neat, clear, and ingenious. An Appendix, containing fome elucidations, and a short defence of the author, is added by Dr. Hutton.

On the whole, the merit of Mr. Whitehurst's works leads us to regret that they were not more numerous. His clear, accurate, comprehenfive ideas, were ufually explained in a style equally forcible and perfpicuous. Neither biaffed by party or by prejudice, he examined nature with attention, and underftood her works ably and accurately. If we except the Appendix, we are only indebted to the prefent editor for his care in conveying these tracts to the world in their prefent form: the Life was probably written by a different hand, and has been already inserted in the Universal Magazine. The materials are, however, said to have been furnished by Mr. Whitehurft's relations.

The Pope's Journey to the other Worlds, to feek Advice and Af fiftance against the National Affembly of France. 8vo. 25. fewed. Ridgway. 1791.

WE

7E remember a ludicrous poem, in which the pope is fuppofed to repair to the Pandaemonium of Satan triumphantly, to announce the gun-powder plot. But the French, for the two firft parts are a tranflation, knowing probably more of papal tricks, have fent him to the regions above as well as thofe below, and conducted their tale with much humour; treading fometimes, with too little reverence, near facred ground. The first part resembles, in the conduct, the old ballad of the Wife of Bath.

'Then his crown, 'broider'd caffock, and gold flippers on, He journey'd to Paradife in this grand state,

And taking his keys, when arriv'd at the gate,

He found them too large, and with ruft overspread,

From the blood which his vile predeceffors had fhed;

The blood of the martyrs encrusted all o'er,

In vain he apply'd them, to open the door.

So he thump'd with his crozier.-Said Peter, Who's there?--
'Tis I, holy Peter, who fit in your chair :-

Peter peep'd through the key-hole, and cry'd, 'Tis a lie!
You're a fine dizen'd beau, a poor fifher was

I.

Holy

Holy faint! I put on what they give me; no more-
So Peter was foften'd, and open'd the door.
But now a new trouble arose, as the gate,
For one fat with plunder, was found far too strait.
Into heaven to get, were not hard Peter, faid;
If you, like myself, had on gudgeons been fed.-
The gudgeons, St. Peter, I gave to my flock,
In return, they to me were profufe of their stock.'

Now a fight fo nouvelle as a pope in high heaven,
Some liftening faints to expedients had driven.
Oho, fays St. Jofeph, I have it all fnug,
With my axe I can make him as flat as a bug-
He feized him, and off his fine caffock he tore,
Then chipp'd him, and shot him bolt in at the door.
When again in his purple, what crowds of the bleft
Gaz'd in wonder to fee fuch an out-o'th'-way gueft!
They afk'd what it was, and St. Peter reply'd,
"Tis a Pope,-Ho a Pope!-here's a Pope they all cry'd !
See Peter's fucceffor, how ftrangely array'd!-

But Peter, the Pope to his mafter convey'd.'

In Heaven there was but one Pope: it was Gregory the Great but in Hell, fit venia verbo, there was a numerous 'conclave. The converfation is humorous, and we shall tranfcribe a specimen :

First spoke seventh Gregory-My blood, firs, runs cold,
On hearing the mifchiefs Pope Pius has told;

But furely thefe Franks may be yet made to fhew
That refpect which to Peter's fucceffor they owe:
I oft ftretch'd my power to bind and unloose,
And was fain Paul's and Peter's names fometimes to use ;
Interdicting whole kingdoms, I damn'd whom I woul'd;
'Tis a right very useful, when well understood.—

Ah! faid Pius, I threaten'd, but that play is o'er,
There are thousands who go to confeffion no more:
And for those who yet go, there is nothing to hope,
They find priests to abfolve them in spite of the Pope.
Interdictions avail not, faid Innocent Third,
My means are infallible, truft to my word.
Go preach a crufade, 'twill your wisdom evince,
Set nation 'gainst nation, and prince against prince;
I rais'd martial ardor, fet Europe on fire,
And millions were feen by my arts to expire !
"Twill not do, faid Pope Pius, the means have been try'd,
To ftir up fanatics to fight on our fide:

M 2

For

For a Perigord Abbé, and Abbé Sieyes,

Have learnt their new engine with fuch force to play,
That they'd foon quench the flames which fanatics wou'd raife,
Ah! the bifhops of bishops have feen their beft days!
Men will fight now no more for the glory of heaven;
Oh what tranfports to Popes, have thofe bloody wars given !-
Cry'd Boniface Eighth, fill'd with fpiritual pride,
Are my fublime reas'nings then quite laid aude?
I pray you in Luke, read th' Apostle's own words,
Lo, two fwords are here-or-lo here are two fwords,
My interpretation is certainly true,

'Tis the fpiritual weapon, and temporal too.
Now the former muft furely the latter control;
Befides this, two lights in the firmament roll:
The great one's the power of the church, and the less,
Which borrows its light, civil rule muft exprefs.-

Ah! fays Pius, none now a days fuch reas'ning brings, The fchool boys of Paris would laugh at these things; Swords, are fteel finely temper'd, thefe arch rogues would cry, And the fun and the moon are the lights of the sky.'— The third part is more wholesome in its tendency, but lefs entertaining. It is adapted profeffedly to the prefent difpofition and fituation of the English nation.

The Chart and Scale of Truth, by which to find the Caufe of Error. Lectures read before the University of Oxford, at the Lecture founded by the Rev. John Bampton, M. A. By Edward Tatham, D. D. (Concluded from Page 33.)

THE

"HE second volume is prefaced with divers preliminary observations on The Logic of Theology; in which, the author labours to define its difference from the logic of human fciences. To comprehend this fubject, Dr. Tatham remarks, that it is not enough for the student to read over, on the one hand, the bulky volumes of school-divinity with a dronish. and befotted induftry, embracing whatever is advanced with an implicit affent; nor, on the other, to run through the gilded volumes of our modern fermonizers, which are calculated to relieve him from the trouble of thinking, and the labour of attention, and to kill an idle hour in all the eafe of an indolent fraight-forward reading Theology is flated by this zealous divine to be the queen of fciences.' To this all the other parts of learning fhould minifter and fubferve: the virgins that be her fellows fhould bear her company,' to cultivate the understanding, and to prepare the heart, for this fublimer application..

His firft chapter is dedicated to the explanation of the

theolo

theological principle, and its effect upon the mind.' This appears to be a mere expanfion of the maxim profeffedly borrowed from his good and conftant friend Bacon; viz. All knowledge is allotted a twofold information; the one originating from fenfe, the other from infpiration. But we think that the doctor exceeds his inftructions, and will not meet the affent of a great proportion of readers, when in afferting the fupremacy of faith over reason, he maintains that the former immediately, and at one grafp, embraces' (i. e. comprehends) ' all the mysteries of religion, however dark and incomprehenfible? If this be the cafe, vain is the Organon of Ariftotle, vain are all Charts and Scales of Truth, and just are the cenfures fulminated against the Stagyrite. Dr. Tatham fhould have recollected, that in order to establish the theologic fyftem on his own favourite bafis, it was by no means neceffary to deftroy the Ariftotelian fabric. As a juft inftrument of reasoning, we believe it to be univerfal and immutable. That it may be perverted in the hands of the injudicious, or perplex the understanding of the weak, cannot be denied.

Our lecturer is not fufficiently aware of the ill confequences of too much depreffing human reason, and human`attainments, in order to exalt the power of divine agency on the mind. If right reafon and true religion be fet at variance by the profeffors of either, it will fare ill with the interests of both. Dr. Tatham thinks proper to affert that if Ariftotle had been born under the gofpel-difpenfation, he would have destroyed all his logical works (which are stated to have been very difadvantageous to the Chriftian cause), and embraced Christianity. From the former part of this fuppofition we diffent wholly : and the latter is doubtful. As well might Euclid, or any other mathematician, who took nothing for granted without demonftration, have fuppreffed his labours, because a religious syftem was propofed, requiring faith without proof. Divine fubjects would not have been esteemed cognifable by human inftruments; as appears from the fact, that none of the ancient philofophers ever applied the rules of logic or mathematics to decide on the affertions of their religion: and we hope it is not impoflible that Ariftotle and Euclid might, in a Christian æra, have been as found believers as Locke or Newton. Inftead of the evafive verfatility of the Dialectic,' being calculated to thicken and confirm the cloud of ignorance and fu perftition which continues to invelope the greater part of the Chriftian church,' we believe that certain principles, which Dr. Tatham labours to establish, may rather be confidered as the fruitful parents of fuperftition; and that those systems are moft likely to enflave the minds of men, which wholly reject demonftration, and depreciate reafon. M 3

The