virtue, by making vice appear amiable, by adorning guilt with attractive qualities, and rendering it an object of pity and of love, and by adorning even thofe crimes which ftrike at the very existence of fociety, fo as to make them not only lofe all their deformity, but to call forth the tenderelt fympathy of mankind; a philofophy, which inculcates to every individual, that his own cafual and capricious notions of right and wrong are to fuperfede thofe ancient rules, which are taught by divine wisdom, or cftablished on the basis of human experience; and which have hitherto been regarded with reverence, and confidered as the tests and the bulwarks of morality; a philofophy, which maintains the most criminal and deftructive actions to be julinable provided their perpetrator has fo depraved a judgment and fo vitiated a heart, as fincerely to think them meritorious. Can Hell's vaft magazine of mi chief contain a more potent engine of deftruction, than this horrid fyftem; which tends to effect a complete fubverfion of every exifting establishment, a total revolution in the political and moral world ?” P. 127.

Mr. Bowles then goes on to fhow how favourable the state of fociety was for receiving that poifon of modern infidelity, and that venom of modern philofophy. The wealth, which commerce had been long diffufing through the civilized world, had generated a luxurious mode of living; and this mode was now inflamed by thefe new allies which it fo readily adopted.

"Thus," as Mr. Bowles fubjoins, "three great and powerful caufes of corruption, either of which would fingly be more than fufficient to make the moral and focial world one fcene of ruin, have been long operating with combined force, and with reciprocal re-action. Their effect has been various in different countries. Germany has been the principal fchool of the new philofophy, and its literati have laboured indefatigably to deluge Europe with works of all deferiptions, and chiefly with plays and novels, which mott artfully inculcate their pernicious fytem. In France, luxury and infidelity have eftablished a joint dominion, and have not only reduced the people of that country to a state of degradation, depravity, and nifery, of which no example is to be found in history, but [which] have rendered them the fcourge of the whole earth. The British nation, favoured by their " quiet good fenfe," by their admirable fobriety of character, by their detached fituation, and by their religious and moral habits, have been lefs injured by the impious and diforganizing fehemes of modern infidels, than their continental neighbours. But their unrivalled profperity has exposed them in a moit dreadful degree, to the moral ravages of luxury; while the new philofophy has not only made a confiderable progrefs among them, but even infected the fources, from which the principles of the rifing generation are derived. They have feen among them ffociations, formed for the promotion of feepticifm and atheism; public harangues, under the pretence of difcuffion, have been delivered for the fame purpofe in the heart of their metropolis; and the prefs has been employed to circulate the poifon throughout the humbleft walks of life, and to corrupt the mind of the peasant and

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BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XVII, MARCH, 1801.

the

the artifan. Still, however, this favoured country, happily for itfelf and the world, poffeffes more religion and virtue than can be found throughout the reft of Christendom. It is in this refpect the very reverfe of France, the most corrupt of all modern nations; and the Supreme Being feems to have preserved with the most striking juftice, a difference between the fate of the two countries, which remarkably correfponds with their refpective merits. The one feems, according to the ufual courfe of Providence, to be felected as the fcourge of those which are lefs wicked than itself; while the other is made the bulwark of the focial world, to preferve it from total destruction.” P. 132.

Yet even in this ifland the author points out many evils, political or moral, which are co-operating with infidelity and philofophy, to throw the world at laft into all the horrors of anarchy.

Happily for mankind," he fays, " they are not yet arrived at this state of extreme depravity. If that explosion," which has fhaken. the focial edifice to its foundations," had been delayed until the human race had approached the laft ftage of moral corruption; until the volcanic elements of infidelity, luxury, and vice, had acquired fufficient force to produce it; without the concurrence of extraordinary political caufes, it would have been fatal in the first instance, and the barriers of fociety would have fallen at the first blaft of the trum. pet of anarchy. But the deleterious influence of human depravity was a neceffary, though it has not been the fole, cause of the evils which we have now to deplore, and of the ftill greater dangers which we have to apprehend. Without that influence, the French Revolu tion could not have proved fo general and fo grievous a fcourge to mankind." This dreadful Revolution has derived, if not its exiflence, at leaft its main force, from the vitiated state of society. To this it is indebted, for the most atrocious-and deftructive character which it has affumed; for the production of fuch monsters, as Robespierre, Marat, Le Bon, and Buonaparte; and for the dreadful ravages, by which it has defolated a great part of the earth. The great progrefs which it has made in fo fhort a space of time, is evidently owing to the decay of religious and moral principles. If thofe principles had been in a flourishing fate, the attack (if it could have taken place) could not have been fo violent, and the defence would have been unfpeakably more vigorous. But unhappily the influence of those principles was greatly enfeebled, and the oppofite ones had attained a very high degree of force, when mankind were furprised by this terrible conflict. Hence it is, that the Revolution has made fuch aftonishing advances towards the overthrow of all social establishments; and, to judge from prefent appearances, it will accomplish that overthrow, unless it be refifted by means very different from those which have been hitherto employed." P, 149.

A prediction very alarming to the fpirits of all, who have any reverence for religion, any refpect for their country, any regard for their own true interests!

The means to prevent this prediction from being realized, are pointed out by Mr. Bowles, and we fhould be happy to follow him through them all. But we must remember the limits of a Review. We have, indeed, indulged ourselves more than we can generally allow, in making extracts from a pamphlet; for the fake of our readers in particular, and for the fake of the public in general. Yet we cannot refrain from making one extract more. The paffage is near the clofe of this fecond part, and the extract shall be a fhort one.

"If" fays this dignified monitor concerning GoD, "as there feems abundant reafon to conclude, HE be now difplaying in a fignal manner his vengeance against a guilty world; if he be vindicating his laws, which have been broken, and his religion, which has been contemned; if he be inflicting his fatherly chastisement, for the correction and improvement of his difobedient children; we may be fure that his prefent awful difpenfations will, like all his means, be adequate to the accomplishment of the end which they are intended to produce. But how far, both in severity and duration, they are to be carried before they answer their intended purpose, is a confideration, which at all events must infpire us with dread; but which is peculiarly calculated to excite alarm, if we reflect on their, failure hitherto to produce any material effect. This is perhaps the most awful fymptom attending our fituation. Already has the vifitation lafted ten years; already has it laid in ruins half the establishments of the civilized world, and convulfed all fociety to its foundations. Already has it produced carnage, and defolation, and anarchy, not to be equalled in the hiftory of the world; and yet mankind do not seem to be roused, luxury and diffipation have experienced no abatement,'and vice has not flackened her career. Even in the most virtuous country of Europe, in the very midft of fo dreadful a fcene, incredible to relate! an attempt to pass a law to refrain the crying fin of adultery, has failed of fuccefs. In short, in the midst of all its fufferings, the world feems to exhibit the fhocking spectacle of a hardened and impenitent race, determined to brave the vengeance of the Almighty, to defpife his threats, and to defy his wrath." P. 172.

Too dreadfully juft, we feel, is this picture of the civilized world! May it become lefs and lefs juft, under the correcting hand of GoD! May we of this kingdom particularly, fet the example to people of other nations! And, as we have once faved them from deftruction by our military prowels, may we finally fave them by what is infinitely better for ourselves or for them, by our religious example!

Mr. Bowles goes on to a third divifion, the origin of the war; but we are compelled to leave him here. Yet we cannot part with him, without giving him very high commendations for his work. We have previously recognized much of Mr. Burke in this author. He has not indeed thofe brilliant flashes, and that deep tone, which fo often mark the productions of Mr.

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Burke,

Burke. But he ftill has much of his vivacity, much of his vigour; and he has what is infinitely more to his honour, the fublimity of foul which delights itfelf with religion, which loves to bend in the delicious fervour of devotion to GOD, and which is happy to feel the beams of his favouring eye, pouring their radiance upon it.

ART. XVI. An Analyfts of a Course of Lectures on the Principles of Natural Philofophy. By C. H. Wilkinfon, Surgem, of the Society of Arts, Member of the Philofophical Society of Manchefter, and Lecturer on Experimental Philofophy at St. Bartholomew's Hofpital. To which is prefixed, an Effay on Electricity, with a View of explaining the Phenomena of the Leyden Phial, c. on mechanical Principles. 8vo. 5s. Allen, Patternolter-Row. 1799.

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220 pp.

Y intention," this author fays, " in the following pages, is to endeavour to explain the phenomena of electricity on mechanical principles, to regard electricity as a fluid fubject to laws common to all other elastic fluids, and to render unneceffary the ufe of the terms attraction and repulfion, to which no clear or distinct ideas can be annexed."

We cannot understand how Mr. Wilkinfon can explain the phænomena of electricity without using, or without annexing, any diftinct ideas to the words attraction and repulfion, at the fame time that he regards electricity as an elastic fluid; for what elfe is an elastic fluid, or how can it otherwife be defined, than a fluid whose particles are repulfive of each other?

The Effay on Electricity is divided into various fhort fections, and in thofe fections the hiftorical, the defcriptive, and the theoretical parts of electricity, are intermixed without much regularity, and frequently with fome obfcurity. Speaking of conductors and non-conductors, he fays,

"Some experiments which I have made induce me to believe that bodies poffefs different degrees of electricity that the most perfect conductor poffeffes the largeft quantity of electricity, and the moft perfect non-conductor the least quantity.

"It is a circumftance well known to electricians, that in a tube exhausted about 100 times, very fmall portions of electricity are visible, [which] from the refiftance of the air being confiderably diminished, become more diffused, and pass through a larger space.

"In a glass receiver, about fix inches in diameter, and fourteen long, I made a quick revolution of a cushion, which communicated by a brass rod to the top of the receiver, and made it rub on a piece of plate glass fixed on a stand, elevated to about the centre of the receiver;

the

the corrufcations were very vivid. When the brafs rod was removed, and the cushion was left infulated, the light produced was very faint. When a ball of fealing wax was rubbed on the glafs, there was no light evident. When glafs plates infulated were rubbed on each other, there was no luminous appearance.

"When quickfilver was foiced through wood by the preffure of the atmofphere, and the fmall mercurial particles dafhed on the fides of an included glafs receiver, by fuch an action ele&ricity was produced. "From thefe circumftances, I am induced to fuppofe, that the facility with which elecìricity paffes through fome bodies is in the ratio of the quantity they contain, and the refiftance to its progress in the inverfe proportion." P. 4.

And, foon after, he fubjoins the following paragraphs:

"We may compare conductors to water diffused through the vascular ramificationst of a sponge, which, when preffed on any part, an adequate portion of fluid will be exuded from all around, while nonconductors are more analogous to a wet lock of cotton, there being not that continuity in the refpective portions, fo that any force partially induced would not influence the whole.

"When we receive a fpark from a conductor, this fpark is not identically the fame fluid produced from the rubber by its attrition on the cylinder, but the quantum of electricity previously inherent in the conductor, and drove [driven] forwards by the juft produced quantity." P. 6.

As the fection concerning the effects of electricity on fufpended pith-balls, feems more effectually to point out this author's peculiar mode of accounting for the phænomena of electricity, we shall tranfcribe the whole of it. The figure which is referred to in this fection, and which is delineated on the only plate which the work contains, may be easily comprehended. It consists of an horizontal rod AB, to one end A, of which two threads are fufpended, each having a pith-ball at its lower extremity. Thefe balls, which are marked a and b, are reprefented in a ftate of diverging; and a plate of air, cf," is reprefented by two parallel lines, between thofe balls, at an equal distance from each ball.

"It is well known to electricians, that an excited glass tube, or a ftick of fealing wax, applied near suspended pith balls, will make them

"This experiment was first made by Hawkfbee; he called it a mercurial phofphoreal light, and has fince been commonly repeated. The experiment will not fucceed, unless in a small receiver, that the exhauftion may be rapid.

"Vascular ramifications of a sponge.-When a fine fection of a piece of fponge is powerfully magnified, it appears like a congeries of exquifitely fine veffels; and it is owing to fuch tubular conttruction [that it has] the power of abforbing and retaining fo much water.” This author feems very apt to leave cut words, which we infert in brackets. Rev.

diverge,