country by Mr. Wilson, in one octavo volume, with a short prolegomenon to each book, and that an English version of it has appeared which we shall examine in our next volume. M. Otto of Gottingen continues to publish his Neuer Kritischer Commentar über das Nue Testament." New Critical Commentary on the New Testament." We noticed the commencement of this work in our retrospect of foreign literature for 1805. There is a keen spirit of research, combined with deep reverence for the importance of the sacred writings evinced in this work, which cannot fail to render it highly serviceable to the learned writer's country, and to Germany in general. It is not always that we have seen in the critical commentators of this part of the continent, so much learned indagation, chastized by so resolute a determination to abide by admitted texts and received opinions. The very laudable object of the author, indeed, appears to be rather to support what is generally allow ed, than to innovate with untried and fanciful conjectures. We have reason to believe, though we have not been able to obtain a copy of the work so far, that M. Otto has continued his labours to the close of the gospels, and with these has concluded his third volume. Professor Thiess, who still continues in his dignified retirement at Holstein, still continues, also, to favour the world with additional parts of his commentary on the Old Testament. This commentary we are glad to find, is less imbued with the heterodox theology of his contemporaries, than we were fearful, at its commencement, it would have been. The learned expositor, we understand, has reached the first book of Samuel; though the copy we have received hardly extends to the whole range of the Pentateuch. At Nuremberg, M. Hübner has published a plain and cheap history of the bible (Bibliche Historien), with plates, for the use of children. It is in one volume octavo, and well compiled; it deserves encouragement, and might, perhaps, be successful in an English dress. Of sermons we have met with but few that are entitled to much distinction. Amongst those that that have best pleased us, we may mention M. Ewald's " Predigten über Naturtexte," "Discourses on Natural Subjects," printed in two volumes, 8vo. at Hanover; and an additional volume by M. Ammon of Gottingen, entitled, "Christliche Religions Vortrage in Geiste Jesu.” Christian Sermons in the Spirit of Jesus." We also perceive a new version of Dr. Blair's Sermons, “Blair's Predigten," published at Halle, in four volumes 8vo. Before we close this department of the German press, we will first notice that M. Bardt has given a very useful and interesting work to preachers of every denomination in his "Rhetorik für geistliche Redner." "Rhetoric for Pulpit Orators" It abounds with judicious remarks, and lays down a system of rules, that are well entitled to attention. This work is also from the we now find that the whole is on the point of conclusion, with the same sobriety of criticism, and accuracy of investigation, which distinguished the earlier parts of this admirable work. Our communication with Denmark has, unfortunately for us, been small indeed. We have already observed that Professor Thiess is prosecuting his commentary on the Old Testament in his dignified retirement in Holstein; to which we may add, that M. Nicholas is continuing his learned and valuable labours at Copenhagen, under the title of Theologisk Maanedskrift für Faedrelandets Religionslaerere;" or, as we should denominate it in our own country, Theological Monthly Repository for the established Religion." To this establishment all due reverence continues to be paid; but a very high degree of liberality towards the doctrines of other churches, and the opinions of individual theologians, is indulged in every page. This work appears to be conducted with an equal portion of hierarchical attachment and true Christian charity. May it long possess and exhibit these qualities. Voyage Religieux et Sentimental aux Cimetières, &c." "Religious and Sentimental Visits to the Church-yards of Paris, containing a great variety of inscriptions, accompanied with devotional and moral Reflections: by Anthony Caillot, vol. I. 8vo." This is one of the best written books upon the subject of religion that has reached us from the Paris press. Unlike our own Harvey or Young, M. Caillot was engaged in an actual survey of the state of the church-yards at Paris by order of government, and the reflections which follow, are the result of the visits he progressively paid to these mansions of the dead; and unlike our English writers, also, he neither indulges in horrific melancholy, nor disgusts us with the affectation of fine writing. There is a spirit, sentimentality, and candour in this volume, which do great credit to its author, and present him in a very favourable point of view: his reflections are for the most part natural, and are given with animation and pathos. Having visited one of the cemeteries belonging to the Palais Royal, and afterwards a church-yard in the fauxbourg Saint Antoine, he could not avoid noticing the very striking difference that exists in the ages of the dead in these different reposito ries, as engraven on their monuments. "What was my astonishment," he observes, "to find the greater number of these sad inscriptions informing me that they commemorated the graves of fathers of families who died at an advanced age, or after having passed the maturity of life! How striking the contrast from the graves in the church yard of Montmartre, the greater part of which contains husbands and wives, and young girls cut off in the vigour of youth. How is this phanomenon to be accounted for, and why does the enemy of mankind, strike more young persons than old in one place, and more old than young in another?" His explanation of this curious fact is perfectly satisfactory, and we copy it, as being well worthy of attention, not only in France, but in our own country. He ascribes this difference of dates not to a difference between the air respired in the fauxbourg Saint Antoine, and that of the Palais Royal; but to the intemperance so prevalent in the latter of these districis, and to that intoxicating passion for public exhibitions and nocturnal festivities, in which the youth of both sexes violate the laws of nature, and disobey the dictates of prudence; while, on the contrary, in the fauxbourg Saint Antoine, industrious habits, regular hours, and more mo. derate and simple pleasures, instead of committing an outrage against nature, produce better health, protect against bodily infirmities, and ensure a peaceful and venerable old age. On remarking, in the cemetery of La Chaise, not only that all ranks of life, but that individuals of all religious sects, had deposited their bones in the same receptacle, he thus exclaims with genuine liberality, "Ah! who shall now dare to tell me, that if I do not adopt such particular opinions I shall be condemned to eternal punishment? What barbarian shall now dare to assert" out of my communion there is no salvation?" Incomprehensible and all-merciful Being! hast thou - then empowered any individual to avenge thyself? Does it belong to a vile creature to say to his fellow mortals, "subscribe my creed, or be for ever miserable?" What limits, great God ought finite beings like ourselves, to athix to thy clemency and justice? How shall I exclaim to thee, here shalt thou punish, and there shalt thou reward? Answer O ye dead! who are mouldering into dust,' was it possible for you all to follow the same creed? * "Histoire Critique de la Philosophisme, &c." "Critical History of English Philosophism: by M: Taba'rand." This is a more useful work in France than in our own country, in which the previous labours of Leland, conducted upon a broader scale, and brought down to a lower period, have altogether superseded its scope and object. M. Tabarand commences with Lord Herbert, and closes with Lord Shaftesbury: Blount, Hobbes, Locke, Collins, Tindal, Toland, and Woolston, filling up the interspace. The range of his inquiry, therefore, descends to the period of time in which Voltaire first imported these treasures of English philosophy, as he denominated them, into France. The writer appears to have viewed the opinions of Locke, and even some few of those of Shaftesbury, through a false medium. His critical exami nation of the tenets of the rest is, for the most part, correct, and his refu tation of their errors complete, and in several of his arguments, original. From America we have received but little that is entitled to any degree of attention. Dr. Clarke, of Boston, in a work entitled "The Office of Reason in Religion," bas called his countrymen to an examination of their religious creeds by the test of intellect. Nothing, however, can be more illogical. Reason or intellect should rather be applied to the facts on which such creed is founded, than to the doctrines of which it is composed, which, in many instances, cannot fail to bid de fiance to its powers, not as being in congruous, but incomprehensible. In a book of a diametrically opposite character, the Rev. Mr. Edwards of Northampton, has published "A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising work of God, in the conversion of many hundred souls in Northamp ton, and the neighbouring towns and villages of New Hampshire in New England." This is, indeed, in the language of the writer, a surprising work! which is almost the only assertion it contains in which we can agree with him. CHAPTER I CHAPTER II. PHYSICAL AND MATHEMATICAL. Comprising the chief productions of France, Germany, Sweden. N the department of medicine, M. E. Duvillard has furnished us with a very valuable and laborious work in his " Analyse et Tableaux de l'Influence, &c."" Analysis and Tables of the Influence of the Small Pox on Mortality at all ages; and of the Influence which such a preservative as Vaccination may have on Population and Longevity, 4to, Paris." The best inquiries which have hitherto been pushed into this subject, are those of Daniel Bernouilli, published in the volume of the French Academy of Sciences, for the year 1760; and that of D'Alembert, published in the same work in the year ensuing, with a view of controverting some of Bernouilli's results. The question is here examined upon other grounds than those of statistics, which, in point of fact, do not go to the root of the inquiry; mathematics, in the papers before us, add their aid to statistics, and the investigation is continued through the medium of the differential and integral calculus. The analysis and tables before us are conducted upon the same principles, and with a direct reference to the antecedent labours of these great calculators; and M. Duvillard has a very considerable advantage over his predecessors, by being able to draw a great body of facts from the effect of vaccination, as a supposedly perfect preservative, and to muster them as a datum of new power and influence. It is not sufficient," he observes, " in order to ascertain the influence of the small-pox on the mortality of each age, to know the proportion of deaths produced by it, compared with deaths produced by other diseases; it is equally necessary that the following important questions should also be resolved: What are the laws of the mortality of a given country, and the number of persons living at different ages in the natural state? What the number of those who have never had the small-pox? Of these again, how many annually catch it, and under what ages? Of these moreover, how many die, and under what ages? Amongst those who have died of other diseases than the small-pox, how many have not received this complaint, together with their different ages? What is the law of the mortality of those who have had the smallpox, and of those who have never had it?" Among the more extraordinary results obtained by M. Duvillard, it appears that the mortality of catching the small-pox increases and decreases in a small degree only with the danger of dying when attacked by this disease; and that the disease is less dangerous after the age of twenty-nine, and in proportion to the patient's advance in years bɛyond this period. We are not quite satisfied, however, with the nature or extent of the tables upon which this last result is founded, yet we cannot avoid observing, that the vaccinists of our own country, in calculating calculating the actual saving of life to the community, by the introduction of vaccination, admitting it to be a complete prophylactic, have reasoned very inconclusively while confining their observations to a mere comparison of the effects produced by vaccination and variolation. The aggregate of life and population, in a statistic view, can only fairly be contemplated in conjunction with a variety of other causes, or agents, which ought not to be separated from these. We shall conclude with observing, that one of the chief objects of the book before us is, to recommend vaccination from a mode of reasoning that has not hitherto been applied to it, and.which is, nevertheless, perhaps possessed of as much, or more validity, than any that has hitherto been brought forwards. "Recherches Physiologiques sur la Vie et la Mort, &c."" Physiological Inquiries concerning Life and Death, by M. X. Bichat, physician of the Hôtel Dieu, professor of anatomy, physiology, &c." This is the work of a man of some judgment, but of more fancy; yet who has certainly studied his subject with minute attention, and whose theories are entitled to respect. It consists of two parts-Inquiries concerning Life-Inquiries concerning Death. Life," observes our author, "is the union of those functions which resist dissolution." This, however, is a vague and unsatisfactory definition; it gives us nothing tangible or substantive; a union of functions should imply a something that performs those functions, and upon which such an union operates. What is this something? We are completely out at sea, and without helm and compass. Living organiseu bodies, we are told, are surrounded by agents of destruction. Upon such living bodies, inorganic bodies act incessantly, and a mutual conflict is the result. Life is alone preserved by a permanent principle of re-action, which is here supposed to be the principle of life, and which is only known by its phænomena. Life is divided into animal and or ganic; and each of these into two orders of functions: the existence of animal life is evidenced in man, and other animals; that of organic life in vegetables. The first order of animal functions is, that which communicates the impressions of the senses to the brain; the second, that which communicates the impressions of the brain to the organs of loco-motion; the first comprises sensation, the second volition. The first order of the functions of organic life is denominated composition, resulting from digestion, circulation, respiration, and nutrition. This illustration is unquestionably gratuitous and fanciful; for the second quali y is often incapable of proof in the subjects of mere organic life, the third nearly as often incapable, and the first equally so in various instances. In tde author's inquiries concerning death, which constitute his second part, he observes, that in all sudden deaths, the organic survives the animal life a certain greater or less time, and that the contrary cannot happen, though the death of both may, in some cases, be nearly synchronous. This, however, is by no means correct; for, on various occasions, both kinds of death may be perfectly synchronous; and we now allude to death from electricity or lightning, and from a sudden and violent blow on the stomach. Of sudden death, indeed, produced by a violent blow on the stomach, so fully examined into by the late Mr. John Hunter, and accompanied with the very extraordinary phænomenon of a destruction of the coagulability of the blood |