an unfortunate prisoner, whom the benignity of our laws required me to hold guiltless, till the contrary appeared. In language evidently intended for my ear, I heard you then declare, "That the prisoner ought to be hanged without Judge or Jury." I then felt it my duty to suppress my indignation at your foul attempt to influence the administration of justice; but I cannot now sufficiently express my abhorrence of conduct so highly reprehensible, because I consider it as a base effort to poison the very source of justice. And I trust in God, I have the approbation of the jury, of the counsel, and of every one that hears me, for now ordering you off the table."

It is impossible to describe the effect that this address had on all present.

The counsel for the prosecution closed their case. The counsel for the prisoner declined calling any wit

nesses.

The learned Judge then recapitulated the evidence with great precision, and explained the law to the Jury; who, without any hesitation, returned a verdict of Not Guilty.

Essay on Primeval Light.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE IMPERIAL MAGAZINE.

SIR, Liverpool, May 12, 1819. IN perusing the second number of your new and interesting Miscellany, I observed, in page 190, a request to correspondents, soliciting their observations on an important question respecting the primary production of Light. I do not know by whom the difficulty proposed for solution was started; but as it involves in its consequences the truth or falsehood of the philosophy of Moses, it cannot but be deeply interesting to every friend of Revelation.

The paragraph to which I allude, runs as follows:-" It has frequently been asked, 'How could Light be produced on the first day, when the Sun, which is its fountain, was not created until the fourth?' To give a solution to this difficulty, various theories have been invented; but our correspondent is not satisfied with any of the expedients to which ingenuity and learning have hitherto resorted. Under this No. 3.-VOL. I.

Encouraged by your invitation, how incompetent soever I may be to the task, I beg leave to present you with the following observations. These I have thrown into the form of an Essay, which you are at liberty to dispose of as you may think proper. Should the remarks I have made, tend in any degree either to elucidate the important question, or to call into exercise the abilities of one more competent to the undertaking, I shall be amply recompensed for the attempt which I thus presume to make.

It appears from the account given by Moses respecting Creation, that Light existed on the first day; but that the Sun was not called into existence till the fourth. This statement has been represented as including an absurdity; since it is said to make the effect exist several days before the cause was created. I am ready to admit, that, to give a solution to this apparent difficulty, much learning has been displayed, and many theories have been invented. It is not, however, altogether clear, that even the question itself, and also that several of the opinions to which it has given birth, are not wholly founded on an erroneous principle.

According to the manner in which many inquiries have been urged, the actual existence of the Sun seems to be considered, not merely necessary to enlighten our system, agreeably to the present constitution of things, as appointed by God, but as so essentially necessary in itself, that without the Sun, the creation of Light would have been absolutely impossible, even to omnipotent power. Upon what strange principle this singular assumption is founded, it will perhaps be difficult to say, so as to reconcile it with the decisions of philosophical investigation.

There can be little doubt, if the Almighty had been so pleased, that he might have omitted the creation of the Sun altogether, even to the present hour: yet few, we conceive, would have the presumption to assert, that

if this had actually been the case, he must therefore necessarily have been compelled to leave creation involved in total darkness. The Sun is but an instrument in the Divine hands. It has no primitive agency; and, consequently, it can never be considered as so essentially necessary to the operations of God, as to justify us in asserting, that he could not have communicated light without its aid. To suppose the Sun to be thus essentially necessary to the communication of Light, is to make the operations of infinite power dependent upon the existence or nonexistence of a passive instrument, which depends upon Omnipotence for its being.

It will readily be admitted, that we can form no just conception how Light could have been communicated to the planetary system, if the Sun had not been created, and placed in the centre as its common fountain; but our inability to comprehend the manner, can never be urged as an argument against the fact. We know scarcely any more how Light is generated or transmitted to us, now the Sun is in actual existence, than we could have known, upon a supposition, that some other instrument or medium had been appointed by infinite wisdom.

To make the Sun antecedently necessary to the existence of Light, is, in effect, to assert, that even God himself could not render any object visible, in case the Sun were to be annihilated; and, consequently, whenever that awful period shall arrive, that the Sun shall cease to shine, an eternity of darkness must immediately succeed it. And if we look backward, and contemplate that incomprehensible infinity of duration, which preceded the existence of the Sun, we must suppose, that no Light could enliven what may perhaps be called the gloom of eternal glory. But as these are suppositions which cannot be admitted, we must conclude, that Light is not primitively dependent upon the Sun, but upon the eternal God alone; and is only to be viewed as connected or identified with the Sun, because God has appointed this for its embo

died medium.

Under these circumstances, as Light must have been at the disposal of God, wholly independent of the Sun, the supposition that he should have caused it to appear and disappear, at stated

periods, does not seem to involve any kind of absurdity to us; and certainly it could not have involved any kind of difficulty to him.

By what primordial laws, the periodical appearance and disappearance of Light were regulated, none, we may presume, but the inhabitants of eternity can inform us. There can be little doubt, that, when creation took place, those laws by which creation is regulated were called into being, and established by infinite power, wisdom, and goodness. The laws of nature belong to nature, under the appointment of the Almighty; and may be included under the most comprehensive import of the term Creation. The laws, therefore, by which matter is governed, can only be said to have a relative existence; and before matter began to exist, these laws could, as laws, have had no being; and whenever matter shall cease to be, these laws will be reduced to nonentities.

From these considerations it follows, that when God called creation into existence, instead of acting by those laws, to which he then imparted primitive being, his actions must be resolved into some unknown primeval principles, which perhaps will never be fully unfolded to finite beings in eternity. It was by these incomprehensible principles that he gave existence to matter and spirit; that he gave to Light its periodical visibility and concealment; and finally embodied it in the centre of our system, where it must remain, until his infinite wisdom and power shall sweep this universe aside.

Viewed in relation to these principles, the great objection which has been urged against the philosophy of Moses, I conceive, wholly disappears; and the questions which remain, take their stand on a more subordinate ground. Whether we can or cannot comprehend how Light could have been in existence before the formation of the Sun, is a point in which we have little interest. And I am inclined to think, that we can no more account for its visibility, from its being embodied in the Sun, than if it had been wholly destitute of such a central source.

The same power and wisdom which formed the Sun, must have formed all the constituent properties of which it is composed. It is therefore absurd

AN EPITAPH ON MRS. MASON.

tion of properties, which depend upon his power, both for their arrangement and their primary existence.

As the real essence of light is unknown to mortals, we can only reason respecting it from general principles, or prosecute our inquiries on hypothetical grounds. Now, every man, whether he admits or rejects the philosophy of Moses, must allow, since Light is in existence, that it is either the effect of creative energy, or that it has existed from eternity. If it be the former, it can be nothing but a bright emanation from the Father of Lights, and can know no other primary fountain. And if it be the latter, it will be absurd to suppose, that God did not possess the same power throughout his infinite duration, that he possessed when he called creation into being. Admitting, therefore, his power to be essential to his nature, it would be absurd to suppose, that its operations primitively depended upon the existence of mediums, which he has subsequently been pleased to appoint, as instruments in his hands.

I am not disposed to think, that there is any thing extravagant in supposing, that the Almighty might, if he had been so pleased, have dispensed with many of the instruments he uses, without being compelled to withhold those multiplied effects which now result from him, through their subordinate agency. But this I conceive to be widely different from the reveries of Dean Berkeley; for I have not yet learnt, because any thing is simply possible, that therefore it actually is. How, or in what manner, Light is embodied in the Sun,-how it inheres in that luminary, flows from it, or is generated, I take not upon me to determine; nor do I conceive, that the difficulty proposed for solution can be materially affected by any theory which may be adopted to explain these phenomena.

If the observations I have made, are sufficient to prove, that omnipotent energy never has been dependent; and that the inherent resources of an infinite being are inexhaustible; I have advanced enough to rescue the philosophy of Moses from the sneers of Infidelity.-I am, Sir, your's, most respectfully,

DELTA.

Does sympathetic fear their breasts alarm? Speak, dead MARIA! breathe the strain divine,

Ev'n from the grave thou shalt have pow'r to

charm.

Bid them be chaste, be innocent, like thee;
Bid them in duty's sphere as meekly move;
And if so fair, from vanity as free,
Tell them, tho' 'tis an awful thing to die,
As firm in friendship, and as fond in love:
('Twas ev'n to thee,) yet the dread path once

trod,

Heav'n lifts its everlasting portals high,
And bids "the pure in heart behold their God."

THE REV. MR. MASON.

[Bristol Cathedral.]

SINGULAR PREDICTION OF AN ALGE

RINE MAGICIAN,

IT has been observed by Salamé, in his narrative of the English expedition to Algiers in 1816, that when the people beheld the destructive effects of the British cannon, they described their calamity, by saying, that "Hell had opened its mouth upon them through the English ships." The action continued about nine hours; during which time, the squadron under the command of Lord Exmouth expended nearly 118 tons of gunpowder, and upwards of 500 tons of shot. The damage sustained by the Algerines, he estimates at about a million sterling. The British, during this tremendous conflict, had 160 men killed, and 692 wounded. Of the Algerines, the loss could not be ascertained with precision. According to some reports, their total in killed and wounded amounted to 8000; others, however, reduce the number to 6000, to 5000, and the lowest to 4000. With them, the register of death is augmented, by the manner in which their wounded are abandoned, and left to perish. They have no surgeons to dress the wounded men directly. They never use the operations of taking off arms or legs, to save the life of a person; but, on the contrary, they put all their wounded people into a large stable, till the day after the battle, by which, many who might have been saved by the immediate amputation of an arm or a leg, are left to perish,"

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