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efforts were to be stimulated to their utmost possible excitement, we see exposed in an exterior situation, and doomed to encounter all the violence of the Persian invasion, and to maintain the last struggle of Grecian independence against the Macedonians. And while Attica was exposed to the discipline of an unprotected frontier, it was also subjected to another stimulating agency in the comparative sterility of its soil; nor does it appear to have been particularly favoured by the bounty of nature, except in the abundance of marble with which its mountains supplied its artists. In such a district it was that Greece displayed her intellectual triumph. Others of her states cultivated the arts, and even the sciences, with success, but Athens alone had schools of philosophy; and the inhabitants of Attica were enabled to acquire the elements of moral wisdom, by only perusing the inscriptions of the statues, which bordered the public roads, and ornamented the villages.'

We have here a specimen of Dr. M.'s system; and we are in the next place to consider the very interesting question whether he has succeeded in establishing it. We highly applaud his motives, and are not without hopes that our posterity, in an age of farther discovery and more comprehensive views, may be fortunate in reconciling the course of historical events with the beneficence of the all-wise Governor: but we cannot flatter ourselves that either the author before us, or any writer of the present time, is likely to arrive at a satisfactory solution of so difficult an inquiry. As long as Dr. Miller adheres to general allegation, his reasoning is plausible and captivating: but he no sooner descends to particulars than we discover the frail foundation of this visionary edifice. Why should it be necessary that the Spartans should be placed in the vicinity of the Athenians as the means of urging the latter to continued exertion? Had not the Athenians, like other nations, a sufficient stimulus in their personal wants to the exertion of all their faculties? Again, why was it necessary that the Spartans should be inclosed within the Peloponnesus as the appropriate stage of their military achievements, or secured on their frontiers by formidable mountains? Have we not seen military states in every variety of climate and situation? The fact is that the Spartans were by no means confined in their efforts for political ascendancy to the peninsula; nor did the mountainous ridge on their frontier influence their military enterprizes during the greatest part of their career. Similar fallacies occur in treating of the Roman history: the decline of that state ought not to be ascribed (as in p. 162.) to the security inspired by the fall of Carthage, but to defects inherent in her constitution, and the opening consequently given to abuses. How can a people so ignorant

and

and illiterate as the early Romans be with any propriety said (p. 163.) to have fixed their attention from the outset, on the formation of a legislative system?" Is it not much more probable that their government was, like our own, the result of a rude beginning, of a slow progress, and of a gradual application of the rules suggested by experience?

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Modern History. We come now to a different period of history: but the change of æra cannot, we are sorry to say, be accompanied by any diminution of our critical animadversions. The Mohammedan states on the coast of Africa constituted,' says Dr. M., (p. 170.) a chain of communication, by which the great empire of the Arabians acted on the modern system of the West:' but in what way can such coarse barbarians as the Arabians be seriously said to have acted on any system? Did they communicate any useful discovery to Italy or France, the only countries capable in those days of turning it to account? Was not their agency or influence confined to one kingdom, and that a kingdom which ranks at present among the most backward of the whole European commonwealth? - Again, says Dr. M., in a different passage of his book, the bigotry of the Spanish government may be considered in the history of religion as one of the supports of the papacy; while, with a view to trade, the political depression of the nation may be stated to have removed out of the way of Holland and England all commercial competitions, and to have freed France from the necessity of a struggle for continental empire: but the depressed trade of Spain could never be favourable to the progress of that of Holland and England, if any truth belongs to the now generally admitted principle that the "increased wealth of a country tends to augment the wealth of all who have intercourse with it;" nor could the political weakness of that kingdom be said to extricate France from a struggle for continental empire, when it became, in fact, the grand temptation to the endless wars of Louis XIV. These calculations are on a par with the curious notion, that the existence of the Moorish pirates on the coast of the Mediterranean may be explained as 'favourable to the formation of a great commercial system, which should direct its activity to the navigation of the

ocean.'

Effects of Climate.-Another point, on which we differ from Dr. M., regards the effect of climate on national character, and his singular idea that the Deity placed comparatively little land on the south side of the equator, for the sake of preventing the existence of two systems of countries..

• The

The first observation which presents itself, when we inspect a map of the earth, is that almost the whole of the dry land is included in the northern hemisphere, instead of being equally distributed, as might naturally have been expected, between the northern and southern regions. We perceive on the southern side of the equator only the greater part of South America, a comparatively small portion of Africa, New Holland, and some islands: in the northern division of the earth have been placed Europe, Asia, Northern Africa, North America, and the West Indies; all those parts of the earth which have ever acquired importance, and nearly the whole of what has been assigned as the habitation of our species. On the one side of the equator therefore is placed almost the entire scene of human activity; while the other is almost wholly abandoned to a waste of waters.

But if we attribute any influence to climate, this observation will be found consistent with that principle of unity, which it is proposed to illustrate. If climate be one of the causes affecting and modifying human society, an unity of plan would be irreconcilable to the existence of two distinct and correspondent sets of climates, each possessing a similar distribution of land and water. Two systems of countries would thus be formed instead of one ; the temperate region of a southern system would oppose its improvement to that of the temperate region of the north; and the unavoidable collision of two interfering combinations, while it obstructed the progress of each, would confound every conception of a common superintendence, controlling and combining their operations. Such a collision is however effectually precluded by the actual distribution of the surface of the earth, as in the disposition of the land and water provision has been made for but a single system. The habitations of men are comprised under a single set of climates, those belonging to the other hemisphere being too inconsiderable to be more than appendages of the rest; and, while only so much of the water is admitted into the northern region, as might be necessary for the due separation of its countries, the southern has been rendered almost exclusively the repository of this element.”—

• In the older part of the world again we observe a very considerable diversity between the connections, by which the three continents are united; Asia being joined to Europe by an extensive tract of land, while it communicates with Africa only by a narrow isthmus. The northern region of the united continents is indeed far the most considerable tract of unbroken land to be found upon the surface of the earth, it being only in length that we can compare with it the continent of America: and this ample space appears to have been laid out for the purpose of facilitating the migrations of savage tribes, which could not accomplish maritime expeditions."

On the first part of this extract, we decline to make any animadversion, the passage being perfectly on a level with the singular effusions of M. de St. Pierre in his Harmonies de la

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Nature: but, the second paragraph not appearing at first altogether so absurd, it is proper to fix our attention on it for a few moments, and to consider what reason we have for supposing that the wide extent of land along the north of Asia appears to have been laid out for facilitating the migrations of savage tribes, which could not accomplish maritime expeditions.' The question, however, will not detain us long; for we should be dull indeed not to discover that the first inhabitants of the shores of the Mediterranean must have been just as barbarous as those of the north of Asia; and is it not likely that the latter would long ere this time have rivalled the former, had they been placed in the midst of the easy. communication afforded by a tranquil sea and a number of contiguous islands?

To these examples of deficient accuracy, it would be easy to make many additions; in short, we should scarcely find an end, were we to pursue Dr. M. throughout his four introductory lectures into all the visions which his fertile imagination has created when in quest of arguments for his favourite theory. He is right only when he reasons from ascertained facts, and when he confines his conclusions to a statement of that which exists or has existed; instead of wandering into the range of fancy, and rendering his supposed discoveries subservient to the erection of a series of refinements. We recognize a degree of truth, for instance, in the remark that antient Greece was in some respects a miniature of modern Europe; both being maritime regions, both diversified in their political constitutions, and yet both preserving a certain similarity in point of civilization. It was of such statements as this, cautiously expressed and limited to a few conclusions, that Dr. M.'s reasoning ought to have consisted. His lectures

would then have formed an entertaining and instructive commentary on the known events of history; and he should have ventured into the field of narrative only when a new principle was to be illustrated, or a new colour given to facts that had hitherto been misunderstood. Reverting to the example of Athens quoted by Dr. Miller, we shall find that the rapid growth and unparalleled celebrity of that interesting republic were owing partly to physical and partly to moral causes; its proximity to the sea giving it all the advantages of easy navigation, while its political constitution insured it the benefits of free government. Again, the limited and exclusive character of the Spartan institutions is to be traced partly to their inferior means of maritime intercourse, and partly to the personal influence of their well known legislator. These are the first and obvious facts in the case of either people; many

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more may be added, and shewn to be the source of important national characteristics: but we can scarcely be too fastidious in our examination of them before they are admitted to the rank of predisposing causes. An old tactician will be very cautious in sanctioning military theories; and an experienced physician is slow in subscribing to those sweeping systems which dazzle the imagination of his younger brethren.

In point of style, the great defects of Dr. Miller are diffuseness and repetition. Instead of contenting himself with stating an idea in a few brief phrases, he brings it forwards in paragraph after paragraph; a habit sufficiently natural to a lecturer, but which ought to be carefully excluded from written composition. The notes are appended not to the end of the volume but to each separate chapter, and contain a variety of references to the different authorities adopted by the author. Their variety, their comparative brevity, and the absence of theory, will render them, in the opinion of many readers, the best parts of the book.

Dr. Robertson, and the small number of writers who have exhibited skill in arrangement, make it a rule to give us facts first and reasoning afterward; being aware that the mind is best prepared by an address to the memory for the difficult and comparatively uninviting occupation of an appeal to the intellect. Dr. Miller, however, has failed to observe this caution, and sets out by dedicating four long lectures (comprizing above 200 pages) to an exposition of the plan of his work. Next comes the historical part, in the manner recapitulated in the beginning of this article; and the whole is finished without a summing up, or an attempt to establish general conclusions on the body of the preceding narrative. Now this is by no means the plan that we should have been inclined to pursue: we should either have laid down a few general positions, and supported them by appropriate historical illustrations; or have endeavoured to give the reader an interesting relation of a certain period of history, and have followed up this record of facts by the application of general

views.

Dr. M. discovers much historical erudition as to facts and circumstances, but a very limited knowlege of political economy. War,' he observes, p. 103., however it may shock our feelings, is the great principle of social combination.' Would it not have been better to have taken an opposite view of the question, and to have said that nations have been hitherto so little instructed in their own interest as to suppose the necessity of a recurrence to war, but that there seemed reason for believing that the conviction of the mutual advantages

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