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traffic. It was with infinite regret, therefore, that we were obliged to restore his papers to the captain, and permit him to proceed, after nine hours' detention, and close investigation. It was dark when we separated, and the last parting sounds we heard from the unhallowed ship were, the cries and shrieks of the slaves, suffering under some bodily infliction. - Walsh's Notices of Brazil, Vol. II. pp. 472-490.

ON READING.

(Continued from Col. 518.) THE prevailing system of the present day is denominated by its advocates liberalityliberality in politics, liberality in navigation and commerce, liberality in jurisprudence, liberality in literature, and liberality in religion,- -a name high sounding as the blast of an angel's trumpet, yet as unmeaning as the jargon of Babel. The nature and fitness of things, the stern rules of reason, as to rectitude of thought and action in man, and even conscience itself must bend to liberality; and as there are as many liberal systems as there are leaders in | the various departments of this theory, each bottomed upon the man, rather than upon reality, reason, or conscience, these must not only bend, but curve round those systems, like so many serpents round the columns of a portico, hissing away truth, lest by any means she should enter and pollute this modern temple of Belus.

Stern as truth appears in the revelations of Him who is the fountain of truth and holiness, and bold as are its dictates therein, truth must also bend, or, if it cannot bend, be broken, so as to assume at least a stooping posture, in order to bow before these gorgeous idols, fraught with legs and arms and heads innumerable. For liberality is not one, but many-a troop of idols, with all the pomp of circumstance, displayed amidst the pantheon of the day. Conceiving of GoD, that He is altogether such a one as themselves, the propagators of these systems, fancy that their ideas will conform even Deity to their theories; and because these ideas engross their minds, that all the immutability of the Self-existent will resolve itself into complacency, and mingle, mingle, mingle with the every form which this everchanging liberality assumes.

A holy man, the apostles of liberality assert, must be a liberal man, for without this he cannot be holy: but liberality, they add, consists in letting every man, without the least molestation, think for himself. Every attempt, therefore, to become the instrument in the hands of God of convert

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ing a sinner from the error of his ways, and teaching him the plan of salvation, in order that he may escape eternal perdition, and rise to that glory which the righteous shall enjoy before the throne of God and of the Lamb for ever and ever, is branded with the opprobrious appellation of proselytism -a system of proselytism. However pure his motives, however scriptural his plan, however meek and holy his deportment, and whatever portions of truth he may deal forth in love, a missionary, yea, even a minister in the faithful discharge of his duty, incessantly encounters the imputation of proselytism: as though his whole efforts were directed to the mere nonentity of bringing over men from one opinion to another, which he holds in opposition to theirs. The idea that the man of God, in reality, attaches no greater importance to one sectarian creed than to another, only as each of these may, as instruments, retard or conduce to the conversion of souls, dead in trespasses and sins, to the living God, never penetrates their minds. Hence proselytism is their watchword, dark as the night in which they utter it, and every missionary, yea, every faithful minister of the truth as it is in Jesus Christ, who is found earnestly labouring in the sacred cause, is branded on the forehead by the liberals with this opprobrious epithet, and held up to the scorn of the gaping multitude. This is the dust, I conceive, which is raised by the ignorant or the designing, in order to choke truth, during its infancy in the individual soul, and arrest its progress among men. It is the real cant-word of that unmeaning jargon which makes up the liberal creed, directed against what the liberals term cant, in the systems of just and holy men, whose religion is the religion of the Bible, and whose wisdom is identified with the revelations of God to lost mankind.

"A liberal creed," we are told, "ought to contain liberal principles, and liberal principles alone:" let us examine the creed of the modern liberals in reference to this axiom, on one particular and important doctrine. It is revealed to us, that, "God is a spirit, and they that worship Him, must worship Him in spirit and in truth. The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him." In the operations of this revealed and important truth, in and upon the souls of men, the opposition made by these liberals is acrimonious, vehement, and unceasing, although it is in the nature and fitness of things that God, who is a spirit, should be worshipped by the spirit

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of man. Spiritual conversation, spiritual communion, spiritual prayer, spiritual preaching, spiritual faith, or faith of the operation of the Spirit, spiritual enjoyment of divine things, in fact, the whole of the spirit of the gospel of Christ Jesus, and the religion contained therein, are heterodox to the liberal creed; and you need only introduce the subject to a professed liberal to be at once convinced, that he accounts all this mere vulgar prejudice, fanaticism, and nonsense. The parties who profess spiritual things are, indeed, held up by liberals in general to the scorn of the multitude, and treated as the lowest of the vulgar herd. The doctrine and practice of salvation by that faith which is of the operation of the Spirit of God, and which alone is saving faith, has no place in the creed of a liberal, and to this important doctrine no quarter is given whatever, on any occasion. So much for the liberal principles of the liberal creed.

But, what is this magnificent and exalted liberalism, which is pompously styled the perfection of wisdom and freedom, in thought and action? What is it? Who can tell you? There is no king in this Israel; woe to the man who attempts any thing similar to the kingly office in this republic, where every man does that which is right in his own eyes, and scorns the control of others. There is even no God over this haughty republic: every man is his own deity, and launches his thunders, like an ancient Roman, upon the heads of all who refuse to bow down before him. For it happens in the republic of liberality, as it too frequently does in the various departments of political and infidel society, that the greatest stickler for liberty is frequently the greatest tyrant. What is it? I yet ask, and answer, as I did before, "There are as many liberal systems as there are leaders in the various departments of this wide-spread theory, each bottomed upon the man, rather than upon the nature and fitness of things, or upon reason or conscience." The system of liberalism is, therefore, not one, but many; it is an hydra, generated and propagated by a vast community of men, who arrogate to themselves the sole privilege of thinking for themselves, and for all other men into the bargain, under the specious pretence of liberty.

What has, or what can this liberal system accomplish? It consists of innumerable theories, which scout all sober reason, defy all revealed power as to the regeneration of man, and promise to mankind benefits and blessings innumerable and invaluable, in the freedom of thought and action

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which they impart to their votaries. The bands of prejudice, the trammels of a vulgar mind, the chains of superstition, the fetters of fanaticism, the yoke of revealed religion, with the intolerable bondage of divine and spiritual authorities, fall before these theories, in the estimation of liberal men, and melt away, like snow before a summer's sun.

But do these theories effect the objects which they presume to regulate? Have they power to coerce truth, and bind the stern laws of rectitude and holiness to their sway? Do infinite wisdom and eternal immutability bow to their domination; and are the straight paths of righteousness and peace bent to their seeming? Alas! No. When this rant has spent its efforts, and exalted its fool's paradise to the very verge of the skies, where is the solid basis upon which it is founded? Upon God? No. Upon truth? No. Upon the nature and fitness of things? Alas! No. But upon the imagination-the very fancy of the contriver. Truth yet remains truth, unbounded and free. Deity, omnipotent in Himself, bows not, and His laws, unchanged, in frightful dominion impend over the men themselves who lawlessly arrogate authority, and dare to "teach for doctrines the commandments of men." They cry aloud, even unto these, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil : that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink; which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him! Therefore, as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust. Because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel."

At the service of these liberal systems stand the utmost efforts of the press: yea, like the veriest slave, having sold itself to the task-masters of this Egyptian bondage, it teems forth, from the farthing tract to the sevenpenny intelligencer, and up to the volume, yes, to the volume of volumes; matter, all but boundless, to serve the cause at whatever peril-braving pains and penalties of every grade, and disdaining all caution, much less control.

Nor does the press stand forward in this cause alone; the learned, and among these

631 Notes on Sir H. Davy's Fifth Lecture on Electro-Chemistry.

the learned in the law, advocate its cause, and plead it with a fervour worthy of a better, both in speech and writing, to the astonishment of those who, having espoused the cause of Christ, mourn over the men who, although learned, not only neglect their own salvation, but become the awful instruments of destruction to their fellows. A learned counsel, during his recent pleadings in a court of law, observed, "This is the golden age of toleration-every sect, every party, with men of every name in religion, may freely propagate their opinions. Blasphemy is as freely sold in our streets as the Bible, and Infidelity has as fair a chance of success as Methodism; any man may propagate the one with the same freedom as the other; this is liberality—it declares, Every creed has the same rights." To tell a learned man like this, that he is not aware of the mischiefs which may arise out of a speech of such import to the generality of his hearers, or pointedly to convey to his mind the pity you feel for him on this expression of his utter ignorance of, and disregard for Divine truth, with the awful responsibility involved in such a declaration, would be to incur, either his wrath or his contempt, or both, with an expression of these not to be heard without an exercise of meekness and patience of no ordinary cast, or a correspondent retaliation. Yet, to say this, would be to say the truth, and nothing but the truth; for no Christian can hear such declamation without a feeling of sincere pity for the man, whoever he is, that gives birth to such impiety.

Reader, books fraught with these doctrines, however specious and seeming fair, however plausible and insinuating, are like a deep morass, over which the towering grass, in the pride of luxuriant vegetation, waves its ample spires, with the promise of substantial soil beneath, beguiling the wanderer's eye towards its verdures, until he treads thereon: then, instantly, yielding to his weight, it ingulfs him amidst its mires; and while even struggling to regain the terra firma he had left, closes over his head, and entombs him yet alive.

"O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." Give not thy strength, O youth, to these pompous plausibilities, nor bow thy manhood to such polluted vanity. Pride was not made for man it originated in Lucifer, wrought his immediate ruin, and, amidst his vauntings, it holds that potent spirit in iron bondage to the present hour. The affected liberty and liberality of the present day, partakes of his pride, for the father of lies has a powerful

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progeny bearing his own image; the motto on their crest is, "Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven," and their towering plumes nod defiance to the Infinite. But listen thou to the voice of truth, which calls upon man out of the throne of the Most High, saying, “Praise our God, all ye His servants, and ye that fear Him, both small and great." Listen to the responsive voice of the "great multitude, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia; for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth!" To Him, and to Him alone, appertaineth praise: He is king over all the children of pride.

The valley of humility is spread beneath the feet of man, wide and long; its fruits are yielded every month; for the sun shines upon its meads, and its trees find shelter in their lowliness, from the mountain storm: luxuriant is its soil, and delightful are the varieties yielded to the husbandman. His invitation is to men, “Come, enter ye the vineyard of our Lord: for you was it planted, and for your delight; solace yourself therein; eat, drink, be abundantly satisfied; let your souls delight themselves in its luxuriance, and let your gratitude arise up to Him whose bounty deals forth the abundance of sweets. Why wander ye amidst the rocks, traversing barren mountains, glorying in exaltation, while the pining desert, and the piercing storm, howl around your brows, and scath your glory? Glory not in man, nor in his potence; but your glorying, let it be in the Lord." Hear him, O ye youth: haste, fly to the river of life; through the garden, it flows along the valley of humility; drink ye all of this, and live for ever.

(To be continued.)

NOTES ON SIR H. DAVY'S FIFTH LECTURE
ON ELECTRO-CHEMISTRY, DUBLIN, 13TH
NOVEMBER, 1810.

Of the identity of the phenomenon of com-
mon electricity with that of the VOLTAIC.
ELECTRICITY, with the cylinder, is alike
independent of chemical changes, as the
electricity with the Voltaic apparatus. This
is proved by the experiment of an electric
machine in a cylinder of glass, with a pith
ball affixed at the end of a pivot wire.
When the handle is turned, the pith ball
diverges from the cylinder, but the cylinder
of glass being placed over the receiver of
an air-pump, and the air being exhausted
thereby, out of the cylinder, the pith ball is
motionless.

This is because the air had been a conductor of electricity. The air being ad

633 Notes on Sir H. Davy's Fifth Lecture on Electro-Chemistry.

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mitted, the pith ball diverges, and, when | shock-if zinc be at one end, it will be pumped out, it falls down motionless. The more powerful. exhausted receiver being filled with carbonic acid gas, although this air puts out a candle, it is a more perfect conductor of electricity than common air, and the shocks given by the machine are greater, the sparks stronger, and the pith ball diverges the pivot wire, more than when the vessels contained common air.

This important experiment shews the analogy to the Voltaic electricity; for it answers the question-why plates of zinc and copper are not electrical in air as in the acid that is generally used to fill the troughs; for, according to the nature of the conductor, so is the intensity of the electric fire; and the conductors can be classed progressively in their degrees of facility, in two distinctions of perfect and imperfect conductors.

The induction of an electric charge, from one Leyden jar to another, is weaker in the second than in the first, and so on by number-for the more an electric charge is diffused over the surface, the weaker it is; although surface is the measure of capacity to receive the electric charge to the highest degree. On the other hand, it is observed, that a Voltaic trough, of an inch square, gives as great a shock as one of four or eight inches square; but this is because the human body, being an imperfect conductor, can only take a certain limited charge, which is found in an inch square trough; and although a six-inch square trough is incomparably stronger, the imperfect conduator will not take a greater shock than its capacity fits it to receive. Metals which are perfect conductors can take the whole electric charge, and, therefore, the comparative powers of a small or a large apparatus, is proved by them, or by charcoal, which draws only a faint spark from the inch square trough, while it burns in the circle of a six-inch square trough. Hence, electric power is as the surface of its agent; the large trough melts iron wire.

Common electricity, if diffused over a large surface, is like Voltaic, and a battery may be charged by the Voltaic instrument, in the same manner as by the electric machine.

|

That benumbing property of the ray fish, called a torpedo, is an electric shock. Vamur went on purpose to the coast of France, where he caught several hundreds; and, on application to his electric machine, proved their identity with electric properties. Cavendish made an artificial torpedo by weak electric jars; this gave a shock, but no sparks, which is the nature of the torpedo.

The gymnotus is found in a lake in Surinam; it is possessed of so strong an electric property, as to kill those who approach, in its strength. It is taken by driving wild horses of the country into the lake, and, when the irritated fish exhausts his electric powers, to which some of the horses fall a sacrifice, the fish are taken without danger. This fish makes a luminous appearance, and its powers are of a similar quality to the improved Voltaic troughs, of plates of zinc and copper, two inches diameter, interlined with cloth moistened with weak muriatic acid. The gymnotus, on dissection, is found to possess layers of two very different substances, aternately placed; and at the pleasure of the fish, this is excited, probably, by making the circular

contact.

Physiology is in its dawn. Physicians have observed an excitability in the glands, &c., which is more electric than any other part of the body; but these observations serve only to form hypotheses; they can never reach to true scientific proof. When Newton published his philosophy, it was a common conceit to explain the motion of the muscles by mechanic causes; and on the improvements in pneumatics, the airs of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon, were supposed to be the agents of motion.

When Volta extended the experiment of galvanic through all the circuit of electric phenomena, physiologists began to talk of a positive and negative spring in the nerves and muscles, similar to the Leyden battery. These dreams have passed away. The lecturer thinks all speculations, that attempt to account for the vital powers, will be found illusory.

It is seeking the living among the dead, The common wheel charges a battery of the master among the servants. That four bottles, which, being discharged which touches inanimate matter, cannot be through a wire, melts it in the same man- felt by it; that which sees, cannot be seen ner as with the Voltaic apparatus, and gold by the objects of its vision. Life is a leaf is burned with a yellow flame. celestial spark; it may behold its collateral Plates of copper, interleaved with moist-creation, but cannot search its original source. ened pasteboard, having received an electric charge from the Voltaic apparatus, will retain it for some time, and give a slight

Yet, this desire which we have to fathom those things of which our capacity falls short, is only an additional proof of the

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General Laws of Physical Philosophy.

unsearchableness of its spring, and that it is immortal.

GENERAL LAWS OF PHYSICAL
PHILOSOPHY.

MR. EDITOR, SIR,-In conclusion of my investigations in physical philosophy, I request that you will favour me by laying the following brief determinations before your readers, the proofs of which are to be found in my Protest and its Supplement.

1. That the equal forces at right angles, which move a planetary body, are always inversely as the cubes of the distances.

2. That the motions produced are inversely as D1.5, or as the square

roots of the cubes of the distances.

3. That the periodical times are directly D1.5. and in different planets, as T:t: D1.5: d1.5.

as

4. That distances in millions are universally 1.83 × 13.

5. That the rectangle formed by the velocity of a falling body, and by the rotation of the whole surperficies of a sphere, are alway equal to the orbit velocity regarded as a square of mechanical force.

6. That the velocity of the rotation of the equator multiplied by 4, is that of the surface of the whole sphere.

7. That the radius universally represents the central force, as the diagonal of the sines and cosines of every latitude.

8. That the two forces which produce the moon's motions, are exact mean proportionals of the earth's orbit velocity, and the relative size of the earth, that is, the square of those forces is equal to the rectangle of the earth's momentum.

9. That the earth's orbit force is a rectangle, formed by the mean tangent of a quadrant, and the chord; of which rectangle, a portion is the earth's orbit motion, or the square of the diagonal of the chord and mean tangent; and the remainder of this rectangle of force is exactly equal to the quantity of the rotation, and the eccentricity divided by the force of the obliquity.

10. That the respective forces which move all the planets, &c. are so many mechanical squares, altogether equal to the rectangle of the solar mass, by the actual velocity of the sun in space.

11. That this necessary mechanical equality, and the aggregation of the sun's mass while in rotation, prove that the sun progresses in space, from 500,000 to 750,000 feet per second.

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12. That planetary tangent forces are created by the action of the central body on the intervening medium, or gas, which fills space, and therefore inversely as D3, and the equal central forces are determined by the simultaneous progression of the agent and patient, or patients, through space.

13. That the central and tangent forces determine each other's equality, and also the orbit, and tend to produce a motion of the planet's centre, through the chord as their diagonal; but the tangent force produces a tangental result, till the other force determines a limit, and carries it back towards the chord. The orbit is thus a diagonal 1.628, of the chord 1.414, and the mean tangent 2, while the arc of a quadrant is but 1.5708. The excess produces the rotation on the axis and the eccentricity, varied by the obliquity of the axis, which depends on the disposition of the masses of the land and water.

14. That as the force, as well as the direction to the centre of a rotating and progressing sphere, is measured by the relations of the sines and cosines, so the variable increase and decrease of these vary the central force. The cosine or centrifugal force diminishes to 45° less than the sine, or right-angled deflection increases, and hence the central force increases, with reference to that at the equator, where the sine is 0; and this increase operates on the fall of bodies and motion of pendulums, not, as is fondly supposed, owing to variable attraction in the centre, but as a necessary mechanical consequence of the form of a rotating sphere.

15. That tides arise from the sensible yielding of the mobile waters, to those re-actions of the moon which carry the earth round the mechanical centre of both, and they are inversely as the angle of the earth's orbit motion to the direction of the said re-actions; while the opposed tides arise from the necessary equality of the two sides of the rotating earth, so that if one side is enlarged by a tide, (the earth's centre being a point determined by greater forces,) then the mobile waters on the opposite side restore the equilibrium of both sides.

The arithmetical proofs of these mechanical and geometrical propositions verify them exactly, by the comparison of real motions with real motions; wholly unlike the pretended proof of universal gravitation by comparing a versed sine, at the apex of the moon's orbit, with a real mean motion at the earth; it being at the same

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