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beneficent Providence. It is a mild substitute for a most malignant distemper; it is certainly not more influential in exciting latent complaints of the constitution, most probably much less so, than the old inoculation; and, to crown all, it does not sow the seeds among the community of a loathsome and devastating distemper! On the merits of the treatises, the title-pages of which stand at the head of this article, we need say but little. The first of the volumes we have indeed tacitly expressed our approbation of, by the large use we have made of its contents. It is a most interesting,-we had almost said (notwithstanding that it is a treatise on small-pox) a fascinating work. The author has proved himself rich in resources and masterly in the management of them. Indeed, we have no hesitation in placing this performance of Mr. Moore among the few lasting monuments of medical literature. Sorry, however, are we to add, that the spirit of the partisan has, in the second volume, too much taken place of the mind of the liberal and learned historian; its composition, too, as a literary production, is, in all respects, inferior to the other. The author has been guilty in it of many offences, not merely against precision and taste, but against the most common principles of grammatical construction; and these become more conspicuous when contrasted with the chaste and classical style which pervades his History of Small-pox.

ART. VI.-Essays on the Proximate Mechanical Causes of the General Phenomena of the Universe. By Sir Richard Phillips. London.

IT

12mo.

T is not without some reason that the life of a man of science is commonly thought dull and uninviting. He spends his time in researches of remote utility and little general interest, and it is in most cases only by toilsome processes, and after repeated disappointments, that he arrives at his results. There are some, however, who attain the same ends by easier means, whose ardent progress in discovery no cold medium knows,' who scorn the slow path of gradual advancement, and leap at once beyond the farthest bounds of knowledge.

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Of this small, but envied class, Sir Richard Phillips appears to be a distinguished member. His mind, unfettered by prejudice, unincumbered by knowledge, can, at one glance, and apparently without any remarkable expenditure of thought, see through the fallacies of those systems of philosophy which have till now deluded the world, and dive into the secret foundations of nature. He has kindly and boldly determined to communicate his discoveries to the world. With a chivalrous spirit, worthy of a knight of better times, he despises the dangers which await such an undertaking. Of these

dangers he is well aware; he knows that 'combinations against truth are more systematic and compact in this age than in any former period;' that 'prejudices are universally the tests of truth;" and he fully expects to be vilified, reviled and anathematized for many years to come.' 'He consoles himself, however, with reflecting that words and grimaces break no bones; and having the confidence of a martyr in the verity of his general system, he will bear his reproaches with patience, and, like a martyr, expect his reward in a crown of glory in some future age, when he shall be insensible to the distinction.' Upon this distant expectation he has acted, and as 'it is his ambition to publish great truths in small books,' he has in a thin duodecimo raised the first curtain which hitherto has veiled the Temple of Nature.' Let us hope that mankind may be sensible to his merits, and that his reward may not be so long deferred as his modest fears anticipate.

Our author's first enterprise is an attack upon the errors and absurdities of Newton's philosophy, errors, some of which are so striking that he almost blushes to name' them. He sneers at the 'awkward attempts' of Sir Isaac to do that which was reserved for Sir Richard, and easily explodes 'the philosophical trinity of gravitating force, projectile force, and void space.' He explains to us how it happened, that Newton was gradually led from one mistake to another to establish so ridiculous a system. It seems that the root of the evil, the first error,' was the admission of the doctrine of gravitation. Newton mistook the local cause of the fall of projectiles he adopted the errors of his own age and education in this radical principle of his philosophy.' This unfortunate slip ' rendered it convenient to admit the other power of an innate projectile force,' 'the greatest absurdity ever broached in science. It was not from any more creditable motives, or on better grounds, that the notion of a vacuum was admitted into the system.

Is it necessary to examine in the first place, whether any medium exists or does not exist in space? Newton annihilated such medium for the purpose of conferring perpetuity on his original projectile force! If, said he, there be matter in space, its resistance would destroy the projectile force; for as he ascribed the centripetal force to an innate or metaphysical principle, and, as on his system, intervening matter was not required to concur in producing the motions, it would, if it existed, necessarily resist them. Newton, therefore, deemed it expedient to assert, that matter is not infinitely diffused throughout space.—p. 51.

We confess that notwithstanding the present exposure of the many fallacies by which Sir Isaac Newton has deceived us, we have still remaining a small degree of kindness towards him, which makes us grieve to see him thus hardly used. We wish our knight had spared his rival a little, and, considering that he was 'as feeble

as other men in his estimate of arguments, derived from moral and metaphysical considerations,' censured him less harshly for falling into some of the errors of his own age and education.'

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Having decided that the entire fabric of the Newtonian physics is without any natural foundation,' the next step is to erect a new one; and as gravitation by itself is incapable of producing the phenomena,' some other moving power, some other mode of accounting for the operations of nature, must be sought for. Sir Richard has found (wonderful discovery) that it is motion which is the great moving power, the cause of all motion, the universal principle,'' the source of momentum or potentiality,' and 'the animating soul of the universe.' It is to motion that all phenomena of matter are referred.

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'As it affects atoms it produces various densities; as it affects aggregates it creates varied organizations; and as it affects different aggregates it developes the relative properties of matter. It appears, in truth, to be the proximate agent of Omnipotence, and to be a direct emanation from the primary and eternal source of all power.'-p. 15.

It seems that all change of place is occasioned by motion, and however startling the proposition may be at first, the following reasoning places it beyond a doubt, that the common phenomenon of a stone falling to the ground is the consequence of a downward

motion.

Here is a phenomenon of motion; the cause therefore must be ana lagous, i. e. must be motion; it must be co-equal to the effect, i. e. equal motion; and it must be fit or applicable to the end, i. e. it must be in the direction of the motion produced.'-p. 16.

Our author next goes on to explain that the particular motion which is the cause of all terrestrial phenomena is the rotary motion of the earth, which he supposes to have been originally impressed on it, and to have reduced it from a chaotic mass to its present state of order.

"We know from the diurnal phenomena, that the earth and atmosphere have such a common rotatory motion; without which the common orbicular force must confer on the masses unequal momenta. It is, however, a necessary mechanical effect of such common rotatory motion, to equalize the momenta of masses of various density, and to force them to range themselves, or to seek to range themselves, on concentric circles or radii of rotation inversely as their respective densities. By their mutual collision the lighter bodies must, by the mechanism of equal mormenta and equilibria, ascend from the centre towards the circumference; and the heavy ones be forced towards the centre. Such must be the law governing all masses that are free to move among one another, as fluids and unrestrained solids. It is an effect resulting from the action and re-action of the earth and atmosphere, and is a necessary result of the mechanism by which a two-fold motion produces an harmo

nious balance of forces, among the heterogeneous parts of which the terrestrial mass is composed.'-p. 20.

According to the vulgar notions of the nature of matter, there are some objections to this reasoning. A uniform rotary motion alone could never cause a body to ascend or descend, and would have no tendency to make it move except in its own accustomed circles. There could be no mutual collisions among bodies uniformly revolving round a common centre. These notions, however, Sir Richard was born to overthrow, and when he has ex pounded what is meant by the mechanism of equal momenta and equilibria,' we shall comprehend more clearly why the earth has, as he has discovered, arranged itself in concentric shells of decreasing density. Things being, by whatever means, thus situated, and every portion of matter having a station appropriated to it precisely suited to its bulk, density, and rotatory velocity, if any extrinsic force disturb this harmonious regularity, and project a heavier body upwards, among the more ethereal particles that are performing their gyrations in the upper regions, they, impatient of the weight and tardiness of their new associate, repel the intruder, downwards to his natural station.

That is to say, a body suddenly elevated from an inferior circle of rotation into one where a more rapid motion exists, or where a motion exists which does not accord with the density of the elevated body, is necessarily expelled from superior strata to inferior strata, till it finds its true level, or balance of motion and density, or till it finds support above its due station in the concrete or fixed masses of the earth's surface.'P. 24.

Labouring, as we are, under the prejudices of our education, we should not have thought the effect of the elevation of a body to be such as is here described. We should have thought that the revolving par ticles having no motion, and no tendency to motion, in a central direction, could not communicate any in that direction, and that instead of driving the slower body up or down, they would accelerate it till its velocity would be equalized with their own. But Sir Richard sets all these matters in quite a new light; we are willing to give up our error, and to allow that the particles of matter take a malicious delight in keeping down their inferiors; and we do it the more readily as we are pleased with the analogy between this new property of matter and some of the propensities of human nature. Thus it is among mankind, that when an aspiring individual attempts, whether by muscular or explosive force,' to raise himself into the superior strata,' the exclusive spirit of those amongst whom he wishes to fix himself often repels him to his former and 'due level.' Thus it may happen that Sir Richard, who has ele vated himself in a ' novel or unnatural direction' into the regions of

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science, may find his flight curtailed by the envy and prejudices of the circumambient' philosophers, and be 'deflected' downwards, till his gyrations are contracted to a proportion more suitable to his bulk and density.

The same principles are applied, and in a similar manner, to account for the motions of the planets, and some of the other phenomena of the universe. We shall, however, content ourselves with having given a general outline, and for a fuller exposition of this sublime theory refer the reader to the work itself, where, if he should not be enlightened, he cannot fail of being amused.

Before we conclude we cannot refrain from giving one specimen of a new method of analytical investigation, of which Sir Richard has made considerable use, and which, in researches of this nature, will doubtless be found a wonderful assistance. m is put for momentum, d for density, and r for radius. And m being = rxd, dm d

r is

m

m

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= and m = xd= that is dm-dm; or m is to π'

d

m, as d to d; i. e. the relative momenta are directly as the densities.'-p. 26.

We are informed in a note, that 'Wisdom in an individual is always in the direct ratio of the number of prejudices which he overcomes. If this proposition be true in its full extent, if every new prejudice that is dismissed adds something to our wisdom, and if knowledge thus arises from a rapid succession of error, we congratulate Sir Richard on the strength of mind which he has displayed in divesting himself of old prejudices (for prejudices no doubt they were) on the subject of physics, and exchanging them for new ones. If he has been equally successful in religion, politics, and trade, he will soon be held the ' Wise' xar' εšoxyv.

ART. VII.-The Northern Courts; containing Original Memoirs of the Sovereigns of Sweden and Denmark, since 1766. By Mr. John Brown. 2 vols. 8vo. London. 1818.

INSTEAD of fabricating nations, as in former times, the northern

parts of Europe, it would seem, are now chiefly employed in manufacturing spurious memoirs. With us such productions are not indigenous; but the courts of Petersburgh, Stockholm, and Copenhagen have, within the last century, furnished ample materials for them, and, it must be confessed, they have not been neglected.

Mr. Brown is the last in the field, and, with a considerable share of gallantry, has dared to tread in the steps of Sir Nathaniel Wraxall, without taking warning by his example, or profiting by his errors. 49

VOL. XIX. NO. XXXVIII,

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