Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

ALL.

EXTRACT.

BISHOP Lavington, a man who abhorred fanaticism, in a charge to his clergy, has these words: "My brethren, I beg you will rise up with me against MORAL PREACHING. We have long been attempting the reformation of the nation by discourses of this kind. With what success? NONE AT On the contrary we have dexterously preached the people into downright infidelity. We must change our voice. We must preach Christ, and him crucified. Nothing but the GOSPEL is, no. thing will be found to be, the power of God unto salvation, besides. Let me therefore again and again request, may I not add, let me CHARGE you, to preach JESUS, and salvation through his name. Preach the Lord who bought us; preach redemption through his blood; preach the saying of the great High Priest; HE WHO BELIEVETH SHALL BE SAVED; preach repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ."

THE LINGERING SOUL'S REFLEC

TION.

How doth my slothful soul sink down into the flesh, and settle itself in the love of this an

imal life? How doth it hug and wrap up itself in the garment of this mortality, not desiring to be removed hence, to the more perfect and blessed state? The

husbandman is indeed content to stay till the appointed weeks of the harvest; but

would he be content to wait always? O my sensual heart! Is this life of hope as contentful to thee, as the life of vision will be? Why dost thou not groan within thyself, that this mortality might be swallowed up of life? Doth not the Scripture describe the saints by their earnest looking for the mercy of our

Lord Jesus unto eternal life? Jude 21. By their hastening unto the coming of the day of God, 2 Pet. iii. 12. What is the matter that my heart hangs back? Doth guilt lie upon my conscience? Or have I gotten into a pleasant condition in the world, which makes me say as Peter on the mount, It is good to be here? Or want I the assurance of a better state? Must God make all my earthly comforts die, before I shall be willing to die? Awake faith, awake my life; beat up the drowsy desires of my soul, that I may say, make haste, my beloved and FLAVEL.

come away.

REVIEW.

DR. REES' CYCLOPÆDIA, VOL. IX. P. 1.

CONSIDERABLE additions are made to the article CLAYTON, John, by the American Editors. Mr. Clayton came from England to Virginia, in his youth; pursued the study of botany through

VOL. II. New Series.

a long life, with great diligence and success ; was admitted a member of some of the most learned literary societies in Europe; and corresponded with Linnæus, Gronovius, and other

L

celebrated botanists.
He seems
to have been a learned, useful,
and pious man.

The writers of the article CLIMATE Coincide with the great body of the learned, in the opinion, that the temperature of the seasons, in every part of Europe, has undergone a great alteration, since the time of Augustus. The article is enlarged in this edition, with extracts from the very res.. pectable essay on the subject by Dr. Williams, published in the same volume with his History of Vermont. We understand that Mr. Webster, in a paper communicated sometime ago to the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, has taken up the subject; and, by a thorough investigation of many facts, has shewn, that there has been by no means such a change of climate in Europe as is generally supposed, and that, with similar cultivation, the same regions produced the same fruits eighteen hundred years ago, as are produced now. This paper, it is expected, will soon be printed, with other communications, in a volume now preparing for the press, by direction of the Connecticut Academy.

COLDEN, Cadwallader, is a new article of biography. The subject of it came from Scotland soon after his education was completed, and settled first at Philadelphia, and then at New York. He was a physician, a scholar, a botanist, and, during a great part of his life, a colonial magistrate. He corresponded with many learned persons in Europe, and gave them much in. formation with respect to the infant colonies. He sustained the office of lieutenant governor

of the state of New York for several years, and died at a very advanced age in 1776.

VOL. IX. P. II.

UNDER the article COLLEGE, Dr. Rees had collected some açcount of nearly all the semina. ries of liberal education in the The American United States.

editors have added something to the information with respect to most of these Colleges. Their additions, however are not satis. factory.

No mention is made of the studies in any of the New England Colleges; and but two or three of those in the other States are described with sufficient particularity, in this respect. The expense of board, tu ition, wood, &c. &c. is placed, perhaps in every instance, con. siderably lower than facts will warrant. Much more informa. tion on this subject, might have been collected with very little trouble.

The character of COLLINS, the deist, is treated much in the same manner, as that of Mr. Chubb, upon which we have animadvert. ed.

As we shall have occasion to notice the same thing in the life of COOPER, Lord Shaftsbury, we say no more in this place.

Under the articleCOMPLEXION, the English editors adopt the opinion, that all the varieties of color and features observable in the human species, can be accounted for by the influence of climate, and various other causes both natural, and artificial. This opinion is ably supported, and with the exception of one thing stated to be a fact which we apprehend cannot be proved, we find no fault with the origin.

say we do not know this to be the case, because the event has never yet occurred.

ever yet been turned into real blacks."

al article. But some person employed by the American pub. No white men or their descendants have lisher, has undertaken to be very wise and philosophical on the occasion; it is, therefore, proper that we spend a few moments in examining his additions. After stating that climate exercises an extensive influence over the complexion of man, and that this is abundantly proved by fact,' he sagely observes :

"But truth itself may be so far overstretched, as to change its nature, and even assume the character of error, or,

if not of actual error, at least of mere hypothesis."

We should want no other proof than this sentence affords, to convince us, that the author of it, neither knew how to write, nor how to think. Truth be Truth be overstretched so as to change its nature! Every schoolboy ought to know, that the difference be tween truth and error, is immutable and eternal. But we are further taught, that, after truth has changed its nature, it may

assume the character of neither truth nor actual error, but of mere hypothesis. Thus truth among its variety of characters, may assume that of Proteus; for if it may be changed into mere hypothesis, we defy any mortal to tell into what it may not be changed. But to proceed:

"We know that warmth of climate will, in time, convert the fair and ruddy complexion of the Swede, the Dane, and the Scotchman, into the swarthy and olive complexion of the Spaniard and the Italian, and even into the tawny cast of the Moor. We know this to be true, because it is the result of actual observation. Changes of complexion similar to this are daily occurring before our eyes, even in certain parts of the United States But we do not know that any warmth or other circumstances of climate ean ever change the sanguine hue of the nhabitants of the north of Europe, into he ebon-dye of the natives of Congo. I

If we may be permitted to ask. a philosopher a question, we would inquire why he did not state the negative evidence which enabled him to assert, in such "the unqualified terms, that event has never yet occurred," and that " no white men have ever yet been turned into real blacks 2" And if this assertion was made without evidence, does it not look like a petitio principii, of which a philosopher ought to be ashamed?

Our writer then denies that

the Portuguese at Senegal, have become perfect blacks; but admits that their complexion has indeed undergone a very remarkable change, and made considerable

advances towards blackness." He states also that "their complexion has remained stationary for this century past, without acquiring a deeper dye.' This last assertion seems hardly susceptible of accurate proof, it being quite difficult to evince that a man's skin is not a single chade darker than that of his ancestor a hundred years ago.

The ar

gument from these assumptions

is as follows:

"It appears, therefore, that climate has long since produced its maximum of ef fect upon them, and can approximate them no nearer to the hue of the aboriginal African. If during the term of four centuries, climate cannot convert a white man into a negroe, there is the most solid ground to believe that, as a physical cause, it is totally inadequate to the task."

We should draw a different argument from the same facts. It appears to us more correct to say, if in the comparatively short period of four centuries, the

Portuguese at Senegal have undergone a very remarkable change in their complexion, and made considerable advances towards blackness, is there not the most solid ground to believe,' that in thirty or forty centuries their descendants might become "perfect blacks."

"But," continues the writer, "if climate cannot change a fair European into a jetty African, much less can it work in the opposite direction, and change the African to the European complexion."

The force of this a fortiori reasoning we confess ourselves unable to discover. The question of the influence of climate we have always considered to be a question of fact only; and to say that it is harder for climate to change the descendants of a black man into white men, than the contrary, is extremely ridiculous.

"The immutability of the African dye appears to be fairly recognized even in the Scriptures of truth. For it is there intimated in plain terms, and in the most forcible manner, that the Ethiopian can no more change the color of his skin, than the leopard can change the color of his spots."

It is a pity the reader had not been informed where to find this curious passage of Scripture. But suppose the Bible had said any such thing, who in the world ever supposed that the Ethiopian or any body else, could change

the color of his skin? The wri ter proceeds thus:

"But in a case so plain and demonstrable as the present one, we have no need of deriving our authority from holy writ. Observation is alone sufficient for our purpose. There are now, in various parts of the United States, families of negroes, constituting the fifth and even sixth generation, in descent from their native African progenitors. Yet after such an immense lapse of time, no material change has taken place in their complexion. In point of color they are as real negroes now, as their ancestors were when imported from Africa nearly two

hundred years ago. A knowledge of this fact ought to have made Dr. Smith of Princeton, extremely cautious how he hazarded a contrary statement."

We cheerfully refer it to our readers, as a perfectly well known fact, that successive gen. erations of negroes, in the United States, do gradually lose 'the jetty blackness of their ancestors,' and undergo considerable changes in the formation of their features. As to the insinuation to the disadvantage of Dr. Smith, his able essay is in no danger from such puny attacks, as the one we are now considering.

The writer closes apparently with great self-complacency, in the following paragraph:

"The question respecting the mutability of the complexion of man is a philosophical one. And, as philosophers, we have certainly no solid ground to believe, that the extremes of this complexion can ever be changed into each other by the influence of climate. It is remarkable that the doctrine of entire mutability on this subject, is and always has been, advocated by men much more distinguished for their piety and Christian zeal, than for their knowledge of nature.

دو

We are taught in this passage, it seems, that philosophical questions are to be determined without any regard to the decisions of inspiration on the subject. And though as Christians we are to believe the Bible, which is appealed to by this writer "as the Scriptures of truth," and which has most explicitly decid ed this question, yet as philosophers we are to consider that as plainly and demonstrably im. possible, which as Christians we most assuredly believed. Away with such paltry sophistry. We have said that the Bible has decided this question; and surely there is no need of proving to the reader of the Bible that We this assertion is correct. only mention that it is most un

equivocally revealed in the Old and New Testament, that Adam was the father of the whole human race; and the whole scheme of redemption was formed in ac. cordance with that truth.

As for the sneer at the close of the article, we dismiss it without any farther remark.

On the style we would merely observe, that "approximate," as an active verb, is not author. ized by good writers; and that to call five or six generations of men an "immense lapse of time” is extravagant.

(To be continued.)

RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

UNITED STATES.-MASSACHUSETTS.

List of Donations to the Massachusetts Missionary Society. 1808.
From Braintree 75 of Rev. Mr. May's Ordination Sermons & c.
Henry Morse of Leicester, being a fine for horse

Sept. 28.
Oct. 5.

[blocks in formation]

4 10

[blocks in formation]

Sally Foster

The late Richard Devens, Esq. 10 shares in the
Massachusetts Fire and Marine Office

Cash, from the same

May27. From Rev. Mr. Hopkins

29

Rev. Jacob Norton, from Isaac Wilder, Hingham

Rev. Dr. Emmons from his Society

602 50

23 50

3

32.90

Rev. Jonathan Strong, from a friend to be laid out in Bibles 32

Rev. Samuel Worcester, from his Society
By do. from associated ladies of his society
Rev. Dr. Spring, from his Society
Thomas Wales, of Bridge water

Rev. F. Sears, from Abel Perry, of Natick
Rev. Joseph Emerson, from a young man
Rev. Dr. Parish, from his Society
Rev. Nathaniel Howe, from his Society

[ocr errors]

216 70

146 75

94

3

3

1

14 92

[blocks in formation]

Account of Donations to the Cent Society. May 29. Rec'd of Dr. Emmons from ladies in Franklin

[blocks in formation]

24 5

66 50

80 89

18

6

1 153 13

1809.

18 50

52

52

1 50

23 30

62 30

14 8

3 68

Sophia Walker from ladies of the South Society in

Danvers

Rev. Mr. Emerson from Ladies in Beverly

Rev. Mr. Worcester Do. Salem

Rev. Mr. Howe, from ladies in Hopkinton

« PoprzedniaDalej »