pearl-muscle, the bee, were, on account of the relations of these animals to the useful arts, examined with extraordinary care. Many ac counts of monstrous births and figures of animals were from different parts transmitted for the Society's consideration. Waller's poem-" on the Summer Islands" appears to have had for its foundation a narra. tive concerning whales and whale fishing at the Bermudas, which was communicated to the publick in the Transactions of the Royal Society. Mr. Ray, examining into the nature of ants, discovered and made known to the Society, that which has been since named the formick acid. Others, with much curious pains, illustrated the history of the spider. Dr. Lister found an acid juice in another insect beside the ant. Mr. Boyle and others examined and explained the anatomical structure of fishes. In regard to the human body, especially, were these philosophers wonderfully industrious in research. "The natural accidents to which it is subject, and its anatomical structure, were never before so well illustrated as by the facts which they collected. Concerning the structure, external parts, and common teguments of human bodies; the head; the neck and thorax; the abdomen; the humours and general affections of the body; its bones, joints; their Transactions present an assemblage of facts such as must, in comparison, put to shame the industry of later anatomists.

In chemistry, they investigated the nature and composition of phosphorus, of the Bologna stone, of vegetable and mineral acids, &c. An engine to consume smoke was made known to them by M. Justel. A method of imitating the pottery of China appears also among their papers. Sir Robert Southwell com

municated an account of the method of dressing buck and doe skins, which was practised by the Caribbees in the West Indies. The phosphorescent qualities of wood, putrid flesh, the surface of the sea, &c. were particularly examined in papers communicated by Mr. Boyle and Dr. Beale.

Nor were their endeavours confined to the improvement merely of physical and mathematical science. Mr. Lodwick gave an essay towards an universal alphabet. Dr. Wallis invented a method of teaching persons deaf and dumb to speak and understand language. Mr. Edward Lloyd communicated some valuable observations in philological science. Another gentleman gave a paper of highly curious observations and conjectures concerning the Chinese characters. The collection of their papers affords likewise some valuable illustrations of difficulties in chronology. Roman, Grecian, Saxon, Runick, Egyptian, and Persian antiquities have also a variety of new lights thrown upon them in these papers. The first account of the discovery of the famous ruins of Palmyra appears here in two communications from Mr. Timothy Landy and Mr. Aaron Goodyear. the members and correspondents of the Society were engaged in journies and voyages, they never failed to register for its information at least some of the more extraordinary facts which came under their notice. And a number of its papers are, in consequence of this, narratives of such observations, interesting in the highest degree at once to philosophers and to mere popular curiosity.

When

Yet about the beginning of the 18th century the members of the Society were themselves dissatisfied with the progress and success of their efforts. They

began to feel that their first ardour of inquiry had become cool. They complained, that "the discouraging neglect of the great, the impetuous contradiction of the ignorant, and the reproaches of the unreasonable, had unhappily thwarted them in their design to perpetuate a succession of useful inventions." Nor was it to have been expected that the fears for religion and liberty in the latter part of the reign of Charles the Second and his successor, the civil and political contentions to which they gave birth, and the direction of so much of the learned ability of the time, to exercise in the field of the popish controversy, should not have proved inauspicious to the advancement of philosophical studies. The reign of William, harassed with wars, with disputes relative to the rights of the reigning sovereign and to the royal succession, with factions in church and state, introduced no new fortunate æra for the advancement of philosophy and the arts. Even in the beginning of the 18th century, and during the course of some years, the same dissensions and wars continued to produce the same effects upon the fortune of science. The wits presumed to throw ridicule upon science and erudition, which they were too idle to cultivate. The reign of Anne was for England perhaps the golden age of wit and elegant literature; and men showed themselves sufficiently disposed to prefer the light and shining, to that which was only solid and unostentatious.

Yet, while Newton, the pride of the Royal Society, distinguished himself among its active members, or presided at its meetings, it could not but continue to be regarded as the grand focus of physico-mathematical discovery and knowledge.

His own communications in opticks, astronomy, and general physicks, were invaluable. His system of the universe was adopted as one which was infallibly true, and which it was for the honour of the nation, by all possible means, to illustrate and maintain. Hence, from the commencement till nearly the middle of the 18th century, the labours of the Society were principally employ ed in pursuing the analogies of the Newtonian system throughout all that diversity of phænomena by which its certainty was to be tried. Such were almost all the experiments, observations, and theories, of the illustrious, the indefatigable Halley. Desagulier, Facio, Keill, and Maclourin, successfully laboured in the same field. Every other branch of those sciences which the Society studied especially to improve, continued also to be more or less advanced by the labours of its members.

It was at length evident that the field which its founders had, with noble ambition, marked out for themselves, was too vast. The Society of Arts arose by perhaps an unconscious derivation from the Royal Society. To the latter was still left the province of the sublimer and abstruser sciences. The latter, with admirable national enthusiasm, undertook the task of applying, and encouraging the application of, scientific truth to the improvement of the common arts.

For a time, about the middle of the 18th century, when the Newtonian system was fully established, and no new path of noble discovery had been opened, the exertions of these philosophers might comparatively languish. The discoveries of Dr. Stephen Hales, concerning the diversities of airs, about that time, however, renewed the truths which had been first explain

ed by Hooke. Discoveries in natural history and chemistry were continually more and more multiplied. Franklin at length communicated to the Society the grand truth of the identity of lightning with electricity, and a new theory, combining all the electrical phænomena, which had been as yet observed. Priestley, following Hales, Hooke, and Boyle, in experiments upon air, discovered all the varieties of aeriform substance. Cavendish, Kirwan, and others, examined airs in their relations to the calces of metals, &c, Sir Joseph Banks has done high honour to the Society by the advancement which it has, under his auspices, made in botanical discovery, and in the culture of the other branches of natural history.

At the present time, its labours are, in all the branches of physical and mathematical science, most zealously continued. Amid so many rival institutions, the Royal Society of Londor holds still the first place. Its memoirs, now with great regularity annually published, fully vindicate its claim to the highest estimation of the publick. We have reviewed its history with a conscious pride that we are of the same country and language with a succession of philosophers who have discovered, or collected and arranged, the better part of the physical knowledge peculiar to modern times. He who would aspire to the praise of a philosopher would do well to study the volumes of its Transactions with peculiar care.

THE design of biography is to celebrate useful talents, to record patriotick labours, and to exhibit characteristick traits of virtue. The distinguished mental powers, the publick spirit, and scientifical researches of the late Rev. Samuel West, of New Bedford, fully entitle him to biographical notice, and he may justly claim a place in the records of posthumous fame. Although the theatre on which he acted was retired, the spectators few, and his life spent with little diversity of event; yet his mind presented strong and prominent features: and had he lived in Europe, his reputation and usefulness had fallen little short of that of Buxtorf, Kennicot,

Mede, Poole, &c. for his mind was doubtless equal to any exertions of these men, and, with their literary means, no common embarrassments would have presented obstacles retarding his progress to the summits of their theological eminence. Although his learned connections were few, and his life spent among those incapable of comprehending many of his ideas, or profiting from his treasury of biblical information; yet were he to pass off the stage without any biographical notice, it would occasion regret to the religious, the grateful, and the learned, who knew his intrinsick merit and were favoured with his friendship.

Father West was one of the first

men in the New-England congregational churches on account of his scriptural knowledge, skill in the prophecies and a ready recollection of every text, which enabled him upon the shortest notice to collect and pertinently apply all the passages of scripture, connected with his subject, and conducive to the purpose of his argument. The epithet of Father above given, probably originated in the conviction of his judicious friends, that his sincere benevolence, his faithful and discreet counsels might be safely relied on, while his literary pre-eminence, his treasures of criticism, wit, and historical information justified the continuance of so respectful an appellation. He was born in Yarmouth, Cape Cod, March 4th, O. S. A.D. 1730, and died at Tiverton, R. I. Sept. 24th, 1807, and was buried at New Bedford, where he had been Pastor over a congregational church 43 years. His parents, though in moderate circumstances, were reputable, and he laboured with them till he had passed the 20th year of his age. During the earlier, as well the latter part of his minority, he discovered such uncommon traits of genius, and symptoms of a strong mind, as, together with his pre-eminent knowledge of the sacred scriptures, and those other few books thrown in his way, awakened the attention of the few intelligent and good men, who happened to know him. They solicited, and finally obtained his father's consent, though at a late period, to fit him for college, which was completed in the short term of six months under the care of the Rev. Mr. Green, of Barnstable. His rapid improvement, while at the seminary in Cambridge, was such, as to give him a rank for genius and learning with the most distinguished of his class.

After leaving college, his application to study was unremitted, and though devoted to almost every branch of science, yet Divinity was his main object; in this he peculiarly excelled.

In the later stages of life he is said to have applied himself to chemistry, in which it is testified by adepts, that he was a distinguished proficient. The year 1775 awakened his attention to politicks, and he became a whig partizan, writing many forcible pieces in the newspapers, which animated the confident, and revived the spirits of the timid for the important contest. These speculations gratified his friends, and were highly applauded by the publick. He also brought himself into a considerable degree of notice by decyphering Dr. Church's letter, which was written at the commencement of the revolutionary war, and exposed to a relation, who had joined the party of the enemy, the particular state of our army. The alarm which that letter occasioned is still remembered, and it was natural for every one to inquire who the person was that made it intelligible for the publick eye. And it was acknowledged by the writer, that it was done very correctly.

Dr. West was a member of the convention for forming the constitution of this State, as also that of the United States. He was an honourary member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences inftituted at Philadelphia, and of that at Boston. He received from the university in Cambridge, the degree of Doctor in Divinity, A. D. 1793.

In the latter part of his life, his memory failed to that degree, that it was with difficulty he could recognize his most familiar friends. The vast treasure of his ideas began to vanish at the age of seventy years,

and during the course of seven succeeding years, the great man disappeared, and it was an afflictive sight to his friends, and all who had known him in the glory of his understand ing, to perceive he had survived all his wit and learning.

Doctor West, notwithstanding his powers and knowledge, was not very popular, as a preacher, excepting upon particular occurrences.

He used no notes in preaching, during the last thirty years of his ministry, unless upon some special occasion. He had so retentive a memory, and such perfect knowledge of every subject, that he could preach an hour upon any text with out any premeditation, and yet with coherence and unity of design. It is to be regretted that he left behind him so little in writing. Had he in several periods of life written more, and used more bodily exercise, he might have been useful much longer.

His publications were, a Sermon at the ordination of the Rev. Samuel West, of Needham; Sermon before the provincial convention at Watertown, 1776; Sermon at the anniversary of the Fathers' landing at Plymouth, 1777; Sermon at the ordination of the Rev. Mr. Allyn at Duxborough, 1788; a small Tract on Infant Baptism, and Essays on Liberty and Necessity in two parts, in which the arguments of William Edwards and others, for necessity, are considered. Printed at NewBedford, 1795.*

This book was replied to by Dr. Edwards, and a rejoinder to him was promised by Dr. West to the publick, and so far prepared, that it might be finished with a little exertion, if the publick attention and liberality were to call for, and support the publication. It is desirable, that some person of science, and metaphysical acumen, would review Dr. West's Essays, in some of our periodical works.

Doctor West's style of writing and preaching had nothing in it peculiarly deserving imitation, though the matter of his discourses was pertinent and solid. They were always independent and commonly original in their form any defects in the tone and inflexion of his voice were always compensated by rich. information and irresistible force of argument.

His manner of studying upon relig ious subjects was not wholly pecul iar to himself, being similar to that of Mr. Locke, and Dr. Taylor; to this he adhered with strictness. Without any discoverable partiality for, or prejudice against the manner and systems of Calvin, or Arminius, Athanasius, Arius or Socinus, his appeal was always direct to the bible, which he was often wont to say "was its own best interpreter." He was therefore more frequent in the use of a concordance than a commentator, and never had recourse to the latter but in cases of great obscurity.

His common phraseology was, "Moses says,―The prophet says-Our Saviour says-The apostles say," and while he substantiated his doctrines on words and phrases clearly defined and explained, he would not lay much stress on particles, or ground an argument of the truth of an essential doctrine on the Greek article ò or any other particle in the Hebrew, Greek, or Latin languages.

His method of teaching his pupils in divinity was always consonant with the protestant principles of free inquiry, and the sufficiency of the He endeavoured to scriptures. make his pupils understand before he required their belief. His primary lessons respected the habit of attention, love of the truth, zealous disposition or research; and instead of expecting from them to imbibe at