the eighteenth century, is the revival of attention to it; the detaching it from the disgraceful connection in which it had previously stood; and the exhibition of its principles in a more popular and splendid manner. But sanguine calculators imagine that a foundation has been recently laid for incomparably greater progress. They look forward to the time, when the students of this science shall carry it to a degree of perfection of which faint ideas only can now be formed; when its principles shall be so clearly defined, our knowledge of its laws so greatly extended, and departments, at present unknown, so fully laid open to the prying eye of philosophy as to render it one of the most safe standards of judgment, and one of the best guides of action. In short, many have spoken of it as a science susceptible of mathematical certainty, and as capable of endowing man with a power little short of complete intuition into the hearts, intentions, and talents of his fellow-men.

It may well be doubted whether these anticipations be not altogether extravagant and vain. To set bounds to the progress of science is impossible. We can only say, that its cultivators and improvers being finite creatures, there must be limits somewhere beyond which they cannot hope to advance. And though some further improvements in physiognomy may be with reason expected, yet several considerations concur to render it probable, that these improvements must ever fall far short of the point to which many extend their views. Mankind have been long employed in investigating the subject, without making any signal or important advances in their knowledge of its nature and principles. There seems to be little room, in this field of investigation, for those experiments and discoveries, which have so

brilliantly and profitably abounded in many others. But, above all, to look forward to a period when physiognomy shall be so generally and perfectly understood, as to furnish mankind with a plain and infallible criterion, by which, in all cases, to ascertain precisely the talents and the disposition of each other, is to think of invading the prerogative of Omniscience, and acquiring an instrument subversive of human society. And even if we could suppose such progress in this science within the bounds of probability, we must believe that the arts of concealment, deception, and every concomitant of artifice and false refinement will, at the same time, make equal progress, and thus leave us in the same relative situation as at present.

The author had no opportunity of putting his manuscript into the hands of even a single friend, before it was committed to the press. Indeed, a great part of it was prepared only in small portions, as called for by the printer, and frequently amidst the hurry and fatigue of other employments. The printed sheets, however, have been submitted to the perusal of some friends, who were good enough to make a number of remarks, which would probably have been more numerous had time been afforded for a more attentive examination. These remarks, together with the result of the author's more attentive reading, and second thoughts, he thinks proper to annex in the following notes,

NOTES ON CHAPTER I.

Hutchinsonian Philosophy. p. 15.

THE following compendious view of the system of J. HUTCHINSON, Esquire, as it respects Natural Philosophy, is extracted from a Letter to a Bishop, concerning some important Discoveries in Philosophy and Theology, by the Right Honourable DUNCAN FORBES, President of the Court of Session in Scotland. As this gentleman appears to have been favourable to the Hutchinsonian Philosophy, and had doubtless devoted much attention to it, he may be supposed by some to give a more satisfactory account of it than that which is exhibited in the page above referred to.

"The first thing that is met with in the books of Moses is an assertion that God created the heavens and the earth, which is followed by a particular account of the order and manner of the formation of all that was created, till the work was perfected. After which, God is said to have rested; and our author asserts, that it is also said, the perfect machine, then left to itself, carried on all the operations in this system, by certain known laws of mechanism, explained by Moses, and throughout the Scriptures by the other inspired penmen.

"The sum of what our author avers to be the doctrine of the Scriptures, on this head, is, that, besides the differently

formed particles, of which this earth, and the several metals, minerals, and other solid substances in it, and in the other solid orbs, are composed, God at first created all that subtile fluid which now is, and from the creation has been, in the condition of fire, light, or air, and goes under the name of the Heavens.

"The particles of this fluid (which our author calls atoms), when they are single and uncompounded, are inconceivably minute, and so subtile as to pervade the pores of all substances whatever, whether solid or fluid, without any great difficulty or resistance: when they are pushed forward in straight lines, by the action of fire, or are reflected or refracted in straight lines, they produce light, and are so called; but when the interposition of any opaque body hinders their progress in straight lines, they pass, but cease to produce light.

"These particles or atoms, which, when moving in straight lines, produce light, and, if collected and put into another sort of motion, would produce heat and fire, are, as our author insists, when the force impelling them ceases to act with vigour, and when their motion is retarded, so made, that they are apt to adhere in small masses or grains, which the author calls spirit or air, and is of the same kind and texture with that air which we daily breathe, and which we feel in wind when it blows.

"The sun, which our author places at the centre of this system, is an orb included in a vast collection of this subtile inatter in the action of fire, which continually melts down all the air that is brought into it by the powerful action of the firmament or expansion, hereafter to be explained, into the subtile matter just mentioned; and with an immense force sends forth, in perpetual streams of light, this same subtile matter, so melted down, to the circumference of this system, which the author says is bounded, as he avers the space comprehended within it is absolutely full.

"The matter thus melted down at the orb of the sun into light must, as every thing is full, either stand still or make its way outwards to the circumference, being forced by the particles which are concreted into air at the utmost extremities; and return towards the sun, where the fluid being most subtile, gives least resistance, and take up the place that the light left.

"And therefore this endless uninterrupted flux of matter from the sun in light, in place of being an expense that should destroy that orb (which our author takes to be an insupport

able objection to Sir Isaac Newton's scheme) is the very means of preserving it, and every thing else in this system, in its ac tion and vigour, by pressing back perpetual supplies of air to be melted down into light, and thereby produces a continual circulation. These perpetual fluxes or tides of matter outwards and inwards, in every point, from the centre to the circumference, mechanically, and necessarily, as our author insists, produce that constant gyration in the earth and the planets round their own centres, and round the sun; and he avers, though he has not yet thought fit to explain it, that the same principle, with some circumstances, arising from the situation and fluxes of light coming from the other orbs, will account also for the motions of the moon.

"Besides the rotation of the orbs, the author affirms that the adverse motions of the light pushing towards the circumference, and the air pushing towards the centre with immense force, form a general expansion (as he translates the word rendered firmament) which brings that stress or compressure on all bodies it meets with, that binds together solids, keeps fluids. as they were, causes the variation of times and seasons, the raising of water, the production of vegetables and animals, and, in short, produces all the effects falsely ascribed to gravity or attraction; continues motion without the assistance of the unmechanical principle of projection; produces, supplies, and supports vegetables, fruits, and animals; in short, produces almost all the effects and phænomena in nature."

PARKHURST, HORNE, and JONES, Hutchinsonians. p. 17.

In this passage I have scarcely done justice to these truly learned, pious, and excellent divines of the Church of England, in representing them, without qualification, as having adopted the philosophy of HUTCHINSON. Though they all went a considerable length in embracing the opinions of that singular man; yet they were none of them thorough Hutchinsonians. Perhaps the most satisfactory information on this subject may be obtained from the perusal of Mr. JONES's Memoirs of the Life, Studies and Writings of Bishop HORNE.

The philosophical works of the Rev. Mr. JONES deserve to be mentioned with great respect, in this class of writings which belong to the eighteenth century. On a variety of subjects I am far from agreeing with him in opinion; but his learning, his ingenuity, his love of truth, and particularly