From the correspondence with Washington, we find that nothing more illustrative of the single-heartedness and devoted affection of the subject of these Memoirs could be presented in a small compass than what the above extracts furnish. We, therefore, must content ourselves with only one quotation more, and this shall be from a letter of the great champion of American independence himself, on his resignation of the presidency. What an epoch in one's life it would be to receive such an epistle from such a man!

"Mount Vernon, February 1st, 1784. "At length, my dear marquis, I am become a private citizen on the banks of the Potomac, and under the shadow of my own vine and fig-tree, free from the bustle of a camp, and the busy scenes of public life. I am pleasing myself with those tranquil enjoyments of which the soldier, who is ever in pursuit of fame; the statesman, whose watchful days and sleepless nights are spent in devising schemes to promote the welfare of his own, perhaps the ruin of other countries, as if this globe was insufficient for us all; and the courtier, who is always watching the countenance of his prince, in hopes of catching a gracious smile; can have very little conception. I - am not only retired from all public employments, but I am retiring within myself. I shall be able to resume the solitary walk, and tread the paths of private life with heartfelt satisfaction; envious of none, I am determined to be pleased with all, and this, my dear friend, being the order of my march, I will move gently down the stream of life, until I sleep with my fathers.** I thank you most sincerely, my dear marquis, for your kind invitation to your house, if I should come to Paris; at present, I see but little prospect of such a voyage; the deranged situation of my private affairs during these few years, will not only oblige me to suspend, but perhaps for ever hinder me from gratifying this wish. This not being the case with you, come, with Madame Lafayette, and view me in my domestic walks. I have often told you, and I repeat it again, that no man could receive you in them with more friendship and affection than I should do, in which I am sure Mrs. Washington would cordially join with me. We unite in respectful compliments to your lady, and best wishes to the little flock.

"With every sentiment of esteem, admiration, and love, I am, &c.

In these volumes there are many notices that are novel to us, or are more fully explanatory, even of great public transactions and occurrences than any that have before appeared,-Lafayette's opportunities and unquestioned integrity, as well as candour,rendering every one of his statements worthy of being relied on by the future historians. For reasons already stated, we need not more precisely indicate what these statements are, or to whom they refer. We only add, confirmatory of the unparalleled character of Washington, that in giving an account of General Arnold's treason and of his escape, when his wife was in an agony of terror for his safety, Lafayette writes, that Washington ordered one of his aids-de-camp to tell her," that he had done everything he could to seize her husband, but that, not having been able to do so, he felt pleasure in informing her that her husband was safe."

398

ART. VIII. The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise. A Fragment. By CHARLES BABBAGE, Esq. London: Murray. 1837.

THE author correctly states in his preface, that this volume does not in reality form a part of that series of works known by the name of "Bridgewater," but he says-" I have, however, thought, that in furthering the intention of the testator (referring to the Earl of Bridgewater's bequest of 8,000l. to be divided among eight authors, for the purpose of advancing arguments in favour of Natural Religion), by publishing some reflections on that subject, I might be permitted to connect with them a title which has now become familiarly associated in the public mind, with the evidences in favour of Natural Religion." Without impugning Mr. Babbage's motives in the selection of a title to his work, we think that its connection with the subjects of these celebrated treatises might have been announced, and sufficiently understood, though their precise titles had not been assumed. But to pass over this matter, and proceed to the performance of our more important functions, it is not immaterial to our readers to know, that the performance is the farthest possible from having any just claim to the title of Treatise; for, in truth its chapters are a series of fragments, and not even closely connected in respect of theme. There is, however, one object which the author drives at more particularly than any other, and which has been in a great measure suggested by an opinion expressed in Mr. Whewell's Bridgewater Treatise, which is in these words-"We may thus, with the greatest propriety, deny to the mechanical philosophers and mathematicians of recent times, any authority with regard to their views of the administration of the universe; we have no reason whatever to expect from their speculations any help, when we ascend to the First Cause and Supreme Ruler of the universe. But we might perhaps go farther, and assert that they are in some respects less likely than men employed in other pursuits, to make any clear advance towards such a subject of speculation." Now Mr. Babbage combats the opinion uttered in the former sentence of this statement, and is wroth at the insinuation contained in the latter. He has therefore undertaken to show, by a new class of analogies of a mathematical kind, or rather by his own extraordinary invention, the celebrated calculating machine, that the power and knowledge of the great Creator of matter and of mind are unlimited. But while we do not think that mechanical philosophy and mathematics necessarily incapacitate the mental powers from appreciating moral relations and the grounds of theological faith, although the study of them, from being perhaps engrossingly pursued, has very frequently been followed by the results complained of, yet, we have doubts in reference to Mr. Babbage's present efforts, whether he has

really succeeded by them to bring an accession of evidence in support of the other innumerable proofs of " the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God, as manifested in the Creation," which were the objects contemplated by Lord Bridgewater's will. We are perfectly aware that the same argument will produce very different degrees of conviction on different minds; and the views, many of these novelties, which the volume before us holds out, for aught we know, may send to the minds of many most salutary and abiding convictions. After a perusal of the volume, however, the impression left with us has been that of admiration as respects the author's ingenuity, and dexterous use of that knowledge for which he is so renowned, rather than that of having received new and additional strength to our previous belief. But it is not to tell our readers what are our impressions and convictions, so much as to give an account of the arguments and doctrines which are in this "Ninth Treatise" advanced, that we are called upon to explain. Accordingly we proceed to present an outline of its peculiar views, and to let certain specimens speak for themselves.

Mr. Babbage lays down this doctrine, that the display of design, contrivance, power, and wisdom, is greater when, in the course of nature, we see general laws changed, violated, and then rectified again in accordance with some more comprehensive law transcending the limits of analysis; or, in other words, that the display is more godlike when the Creator of a complicated system has communicated to it the means of producing of itself certain pre-ordained changes, than if it required the application of the creative hand to interfere and bring about those changes. To illustrate and enforce this doctrine, the calculating machine is introduced, the revolving wheel of which presents many millions of times a sequence of figures regularly increasing by units, as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5001, 5002, 5003, &c. But when it reaches one hundred million and one, the next succeeding term is one hundred millions ten thousand and two, thus departing and for a time following a seemingly irreconcilable and different law, but in truth only fulfilling some more general and comprehensive law in the original principles understood by the contriver. Now, Mr. Babbage compares the seeming irregularity in his machine to geological facts, which present incontrovertible proofs that great changes have occurred in our globe, but which, as explained in the following extract, are evidences of far greater wisdom and power than if no such changes had taken place, or, than if it had required a putting forth of an immediate and new creative power, to produce what was desired and willed :—

"In turning our views from these simple consequences of the juxtaposition of a few wheels, it is impossible not to perceive the parallel reasoning, as applied to the mighty and far more complex phenomena of nature. To call into existence all the variety of vegetable forms, as

they become fitted to exist, by the successive adaptations of their parent earth, is undoubtedly a high exertion of creative power. When a rich vegetation has covered the globe, to create animals adapted to that clothing, which, deriving nourishment from its luxuriance, shall gladden the face of nature, is not only a high but a benevolent exertion of creative power. To change, from time to time, after lengthened periods, the races which exist, as altered physical circumstances may render their abode more or less congenial to their habits, by allowing the natural extinction of some races, and by a new creation of others more fitted to supply the place previously abandoned, is still but the exercise of the same benevolent power. To cause an alteration in those physical circumstances-to add to the comforts of the newly created animals-all these acts imply power of the same order, a perpetual and benevolent superintendence, to take advantage of altered circumstances, for the purpose of producing additional happiness.

"

But, to have foreseen, at the creation of matter and of mind, that a period would arrive when matter, assuming its prearranged combinations, would become susceptible of the support of vegetable forms; that these should in due time themselves supply the pabulum of animal existence; that successive races of giant forms or of microscopic beings should at appointed periods necessarily rise into existence, and as inevitably yield to decay; and that decay and death-the lot of each individual existence-should also act with equal power on the races which they constitute; that the extinction of every race should be as certain as the death of each individual; and the advent of new genera be as inevitable as the destruction of their predecessors ;—to have foreseen all these changes, and to have provided, by one comprehensive law, for all that should ever occur, either to the races themselves, to the individuals of which they are composed, or to the globe which they inhabit, manifests a degree of power and of knowledge of a far higher order

"The vast cycles in the geological changes that have taken place in the earth's surface, of which we have ample evidence, offer another analogy in nature to those mechanical changes of law from which we have endeavoured to extract a unit sufficiently large to serve as an imperfect measure for some of the simplest works of the Creator."

We think there is a deficiency as respects the analogy sought to be established between the calculating machine and the universe, as above explained, because the design and the laws which regulate the former may be fully understood, and its whole history and principles beheld and comprehended; whereas in the latter there is much that we cannot understand, and much too of that which we believe concerning it, that has been derived alone from extraordinary testimony. We are afraid, too, there is something of that tendency which is apt to sway the minds of those who are enthusiasts in mechanical philosophy, to assimilate every thing to its principles and standard, and to lead to the belief that the Creator's providence is general, and not particular or immediate. To our minds a grander and more consolatory doctrine is taught, by those who believe that

the Almighty eye and arm is ever directly upon, even the smallest and most evanescent of his creatures, and that the wonderful revo. lutions which the globe we inhabit has undergone, are the results of creative power, which is never idle. We fear that the term laws, and the habit of connecting human inventions, in the shape of machinery for example, which, when set in motion is capable of working out certain purposes, while the contriver may be a mere lookeron at his ease-with premeditation, future approval or correctionare apt to mislead the mind, and to suggest resemblances, which sound ethics, and a spiritual religion cannot countenance. Nay, although Mr. Babbage contends that his doctrine does not lead to fatalism, we have not been able to arrive at the same conclusion. In the chapter, too, in which this is maintained, we find that mode of speaking of the Divine procedure, which, according to our opinion misdirects on subjects that baffle our understandings, in such sentences as the following:-" The Being who called into existence this creation, of which we are part, must have chosen the present form, the present laws, in preference to the infinitely infinite variety which he might have willed into existence." We have thrown into

italics certain terms which cannot surely be applied to Him who "is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever," with whom there is no past and no future, in the same sense in which they are used relatively to man. "He must have known and foreseen all, even the remotest consequences, of every one of these laws," which he has instituted, is liable to the same sort of objection, convincing us that the person who so writes and thinks, is not so conversant with theological as with mechanical and mathematical science.

Mr. Babbage devotes two chapters to the account of the creation as given by Moses, which though ingenious, by no means pleases us. "The revelation of Moses itself rests, and must necessarily rest, on testimony. Moses, the author of the oldest of the sacred books, lived about fifteen hundred years before the Christain era, or about three thousand three hundred years ago. The oldest manuscripts of the Pentateuch at present known, appear to have been written about 900 years ago. These were copied from others of older date, and those again might probably, if their history were known, be traced up through a few transcripts to the original author; but no part of this is revelation; it is. testimony. Athough the matter which the book contains was revealed to Moses, the fact that what we now receive as revelation is the same with that originally communicated revelation, is entirely dependent on testimony. Admitting, however, the full weight of that evidence, corroborated as it is by the Samaritan version; nay, even supposing that we now possessed the identical autograph of the book of Genesis by the hand of its author, a most important question remains,-What means do we possess of translating it?

"In similar cases we avail ourselves of the works of the immediate predecessors, and of the contemporaries of the writer; but here we are