by entering upon the more particular confidnration of minuter circumstances. I must beg permiffion, however, to make a few remarks on the following paffage, which I quote from the Medical and Phyfical Journal for Feb. 1803, as a fpecimen of the degradation which a man fuffers when he becomes illiberal.

"P. S. A la'e writer on Scarletine (Dr. Peart) takes upon himself confiderable merit for propagating what he calls a difcovery of his own, vix. that the Ammonia preparata is a specific in this difeafe. To prove that this is no modern difcovery (at leaft that its fe is not fuch) it will be fufficient to quote a paffage from Dr. Withering's treatise; after commending the use of fixed alkali, he obferves, "the volatile alkali may likewife be given with advantage, but it is difficult to get a fufficient quantity of it fwallowed

:

1

"

If the above paffage be in Dr. Withering's work, as a folitary, cafual remark, what does it amount to? All that Dr. W. has faid upon the fubject is, that volatile alkali may be ufeful; and, for any thing that is faid to the contrary, it may not be useful; for Dr. W. pretends to no experience on the fubject and it is very evident he had none, otherwife he would have known that the volatile alkali is much lefs difficult to get down than fixed alkali is; and from comparative experiments which I made to determine whether volatile alkali acted in the manner I conceived, or merely as anti-acid, I prefume he would alfo have found it incomparably more useful than what he wrote expreffly to recommend.

My communication, on the contrary, fays, that volatile alkali, in between two and three hundred cafes, many of them of the most dangerous kind, was ftrikingly and invariably fuccefsful; and not unfrequently fhewed its powerful efficacy on taking the very first dofe; confequently the two reports bear no refemblance; and Dr. Withering's valuable and benevolent treatife, which does him honour and entitles him to esteem, does not, in any refpect, anticipate mine, or render it unneceffary.

But ftill farther to do away the hated idea of plagiarism, which that paffage was abruptly lugged in for the very purpofe of attaching to me, permit me, Mr. Urban, thus publicly to affert, that at the time when I determined to employ the volatile alkali; at the time

when I found it fo eminently ufeful; at the time when the great fuccefs attending it determined me to make it public; and, at the time when that tract was written and published, in confequence of that determination, I did not know that Dr. Withering had ever written upon the fubject. His work was published before I was a medical practitioner; nor have I at this mo ment ever feen it.

I fhall now proceed to the next tract, which is on inflammation of the bowels and ftrangulated rupture; the practical parts of which thall be prepared for your valuable Magazine without delay. E. PEART.

T is more easy to applaud the wishes, than to juftify the proceedings, of the Society mentioned by your correfpondent" Serious," p. 1013. It is doubtlefs the heart's defire of every fincere Chriftian, that true Christianity were known and embraced, not only in France, but, as we humbly truft it one day fhall be, in all the earth; but I am not therefore at liberty to defert the proper duties of the ftation in which it has pleafed God to place me, and to go on a Quixote adventure to convert the world. The " religious fociety" in queftion appear to have no authority from the ecclefiaftical or civil governors, either of this country or of France, to enter upon this expedition: fo that the ordinary providence of God opens no way for their undertaking; and if they pretend to any extraordinary commiffion for the purpose, that commiffion fhould be proved, as fuch commiffions always have been, by miracles.

There is alfo reafon to fear left the parties concerned in this business should too much refemble thofe of another day, who compaffed fea and land to make one profelyte, and then made him two fold worfe than themselves. A publication, it seems, is projected for the benefit of France" fimilar to the Evangelical Magazine;" that is, fimilar to a montly vehicle of wild enthu fiafm and the most grofs and unfounded abufe of the Church of England. In a late number of that work, which 1 faw yesterday, it is faid, "the Gospel is now preached in thirty-eight pulpits of the Established Church in London and its vicinity." I believe and hope I never met with a member of the

Church

Church of England, whether layman or clergy man, who hoped for falvation but through the alone merits and death of Jefus Chrift; but when thefe felf-commiffioned teachers or their friends preach any where among thofe whohold this faith, they fpeak of the tranfaction as if the Gofpel was as much unknown and unheard of till they came thither, as it was at Philippi or at Athens, when St. Paul firit pronounced the name of Chrift in thofe cities. They alfo fpeak of their own labours in what they efteem fo good a caufe, in terms not only applicable to thofe only who, like St. Paul, have an immediate commiflion from Heaven, but who are alfo, as he was, armed with miraculous gifts for the discharge of it.

we

What was faid of the Law is not lefs true of the Gofpel: "it is good if a man ufe it lawfully." But that " the end fanctifies the means," or that " may do evil that good may come," though it is a principle which the Apoftle condefcends no otherwife to refute than by pronouncing the damnation juft of thofe who hold it, is yet a principle which has been too much exemplified in all ages; but not often more than in our own days, if we except "the reign of the Saints" in the grand Rebellion, and during the ufurpation of Oliver Cromwell.

It is needlefs to lay, that the miffionary voyages to the Southern Pacific Ocean are fimilarly exceptionable with this projected crufado for converting France; and that no fuch exception by any meaus lies against either the plan or the proceedings of the two excellent Societies eftablished in this country, one for promoting Chriftian Knowledge, and the other for propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts. R. C.

MR.

MEMOIRS OF MR. JONES. TR. JEREMIAH JONES, the learned author of "A New and Full Method of Settling the Canonical Authority of the New Tellament," firft published in 1726-7, received his academical learning under his uncle, the Rev. Samuel Jones, firft of Gloucefter, then of Tewksbury, the tutor of Chandler, Butler, and Secker. He was fellow ftudent with the latter in the year 1711, and was a diftinguished fcholar when he entered upon academical fludies. It is apprehended, that he was a native of the North of England, and that his father was a gentleman in af

fluent circumftances. There was with him, at the above feminary, a younger brother, a youth of quick parts, who afterwards fettled as a Ditenting minifter at Manchefter. Mr. Jones, foon after he had finifhed his courfe of preparatory ftudies, became the minifter of the congregation of Proteftant Diffenters, who affembled for worship in Forest Green, Avening, Gloucefierfhire, and refided at Nailfworth, where he alfo kept an academy. He had the character of being an eminent linguift. He was popular as a preacher; for the place of worship was confiderably enlarged in his time. His difcourfes yet met with the approbation of the more judicious, for his falary amounted to one hundred pounds a year, and the whole fubfcription came from perfons of fuperior rank in life. Though a deep scholar and hard ftudent, he was not a man of fevere manners; but of an open and focial difpofition, and one of a bowling-party at a place, ftill called the Lodge, on Hampton common, at which healthy exercife he relaxed from his fludies, and by his prefence and influence preferved decorum in the company. His character fecured him the marked refpect of a neighbouring clergyman. His anxiety to fulfil an engagement which he had made, to perform fome minifterial fervice at a place on the other fide of the Severn, haftened his death. It efcaped his recollection till the time drew near; to prevent difappointment, he made fo much speed that his tender confiitution was injured by it, and a complaint contracted, from which he never recovered. He died in aged 31.

1724,

Mr. Jones's firft publication was "A Vidication of the former part of St. Matthew's Gospel, from Mr. Whitton's Charge of Diflocations, or an Attempt to prove that our prefent Greek Copies of that Gofpel are in the fame order wherein they were orignally written by that Evangelift; in which are contained many Things relating to the Harmony and Hiftory of the Four Gofpels, 1719. This wok, fays Dr. Harwood, is very valuable, it abounds with ingenious remarks, and displays the critical acumen of ine amor. He prepared for the prefs before his death another excellent performance, milu led, "A New aud Full Meshed of Settling the Canonical Authority of he New Teliament," which was pub

lithed

Lifted in 1726. in two volumes, 8vo, They ere flowed by a third voInve I: drawing up thefe works, he took care, i teems, to confult and exam the originals, inítead of fatisfying felt with the quotations of other learned med. They remain as monuments of his learning, ingenuity, and inde Arguable induitry; and would have done credit, it has been obferved, to the affidity and ability of a literary man of fixty. They were become very fearce, and bore a high price, when, with he liberality and zeal which reflects honour on them, the conductors of the Clarendon prefs lately re-publifhed them at Oxford. Mr. Jones, offerves a judicious, learned, and candid author of the prefent day, has brought together with uncommon diligence and judgement the exterual evidence for the authenticity and genuinene's of the canonical books; and he has, with equal ability and fairness, flated his reafons for deciding against the authority of the apocryphal. In the profecution of this important defign, he has not only quoted, but tranflated the greater part of the contents of Fabricius's two first volumes. Mr. Jones intended another and diftinct volume on the Apoftolical Fathers.

tect, however much supported by the authority of the antients, will fucceed but badly if he refufe to temporize with the prevailing tafte. This we find was the fame in the æras preceding the Augullan age; for Vitruvius tells us, that the people of Ionia having seen Doric temples in Achaia, without knowing their fymmetry, determined to take the commenfuraie height of a man for that of their column, and finding the foot about fix times in his height, gave the column fix diameters, and contented themfelves to call this the Doric. But when thefe loniaus would devife a temple to Diana, their thoughts naturally turned to the idea of a more feminine fymmetry, and they gave their new Ionic column 8 diame ters. The next age became fomewhat more airy, and fettled 7 diameters for the Doric, and 84 for the Ionic; then came Callimachus with his 10 diameters for the Corinthian. And, as the world now approaches faft to the zenith of delicacy and fine tafte, the Architect muft bow fubmiflion to their influence. The only complaint in thefe days against the Grecian tyle is, that it appears too maffive and heavy to remove this caufe of complaint (and they have no other to alledge,) we have but to lengthen the fhaft of the column, and the end will be gained. But the queftion is, to what degree this may be carried without incurring the cenfure of Gothic intemperance, or violating the Grecian fymmetry by unprecedented liberties? ́ We find Vitru vius himself increased the commenfurate heights of columns, when circumftances of propriety called for fuch change; and, if the increase of height now intended fhall be but little more than he has occafionally given, there will be no danger of offending againte Attic propriety, or of falling into Gothic excels; while we fhall enfure for the Grecian Architecture a better reception by all who conform to the talte of the age.

There is a paffage then in chap. IX. book 5. of Vitruvius, which, rightly underfood and brought out of the clouds in which Perrault has obfcured it, will authorize the above propofal, and determine the degree of increased commenfurate length of the thafts of columns. "About theatres, fays Vitruvius, there are porticoes and walks, which it feems ought to be laid out fo as to be double. On the outfide, Doric

columns