mountains, where he wandered about during the severity of a most rigorous winter, clad only in a tattered shirt. At night he retired into solitary places, approaching, as the day advanced, the neighbouring villages; and in this manner he passed a va grant kind of life, till the time in which, of his own accord, he sought refuge in a dwelling-house in the Canton of St. Sernin. Here he was retained and taken care of for two or three days, and from thence was sent to the hospital of St. Afrique, afterwards to Rhodez, where he was kept for several months. During his abode in these different places, he appeared to be always equally wild, impatient of restraint, and capricious in his temper, continually endeavour ing to get away, affording materials for the most interesting observations, which were collected by a person worthy of the utmost credit, and which I shall not fail to relate in those parts of the following Essay where they may be most advantageously introduced. A clergyman, distinguish ed as a patron of science and general Jiterature, conceiving that, from this event, some new light might be thrown on the moral science of man, obtained permission for the child to be brought to Paris. He arrived there about the end of the year 1799, under the care of a poor but respect. able old man, who, being obliged to leave him soon after, promised to return, and be a father to him, if, at any time, he should be abandoned by society. "The most brilliant but unreasonable expectations were formed by the people of Paris respecting the Savage of Aveyron, before he arrived. Many curious people anticipated great pleasure in beholding what would be his astonishment at the sight of all the fine things in the capital. On the other hand, many persons eminent for their superior understanding, forgetting that our organs are less flexible, and imitation more difficult, in proportion as man is removed from society, and the period of his infancy, thought that the education of this individual would be the business of only a few months, and that they should very soon hear him make the most striking observations concerning his past manner of life. Instead of this, what did they see ?—a disgusting, slovenly boy, affected with spasmodic, and frequently with convulsive motions, continually balancing himself like some of the animals in the menagerie, biting and scratching those who contradicted him, expressing no kind of affection for those who attended upon him; and, in short, indifferent to every body, and paying no regard to any thing. "It may be easily imagined that a being of this nature would excite only a momentary curiosity. People came together in crowds; they saw him, without properly observing him; they passed their judgment on him, with out knowing him; and spoke no more on the subject. In the midst of this general indifference, the administrators of the National Institute for the Deaf and Dumb, and its celebrated Director, did not forget, that society, in drawing to herself this unfortunate youth, had contracted towards him indispensible obligations which she was bound to fulfil. Entering, then, into the hopes which I had conceived from a course of medical treatment, they determined that he should be entrusted to my care." p. 13—18. · Mr. Itard now formed a plan for the education of this youth under the following heads : "Ist. To attach him to social life, by rendering it more pleasant to him than that which he was then leading, and, above all, more analogous to the mode of existence that he was about to quit. 2d. To awaken the nervous sensibility by the most energetic stimu lants, and sometimes by lively affec tions of the mind. 3d. To extend the sphere of his ideas, by giving him new wants, and by increasing the number of his relations to the objects surrounding him. “4th. To lead him to the use of speech by subjecting him to the ne cessity of imitation. 5th. To exercise frequently the most simple operations of the mind upon the objects of his physical wants: and, at length, by inducing the application of them to objects of instruction." p. 33, 34. The sequel of this little book relates the result of his plan of instruction, which answered his most sanguine expectations. CLII. RELIGION, its Importance, the Chief Distinctions of it, and the Superiority of the Christian Religion to all others. By WILLIAM DALGLEISH, D. D. Minister of Peebles, ing, that the general sources from whence we derive its sublime and most interesting knowledge are two: "That natural reason with which God hath endued us, and those divine revelations which he hath seen proper to give us. Both are rays from the same Father of lights, from whom HE nature and design of this cometh down every good and perfect thin 8vo. boards. Two his thus expressed in the short preface prefixed to it. "This treatise has for its subject the most useful of all the sciences, Religion. Its infinite importance is demonstrated, that men may have that regard to it which they ought. "The imperfection of natural religion, and gross corruption of it over the heathen world, and the consequent necessity of divine revelation, are clearly evinced. The probability of such a revelation, and the evidences by which it must be attested, are stated; the authenticity of the sacred scriptures, in which it is preserved, is shewed, and the truth of the Jewish and Christian dispensations is invincibly established. In the course of these disquisitions, all the principal religions in the world, collected from their chief teachers into the most luminous point of view, are fairly exhibited in themselves, and in comparison one with another, that mankind may at once know them, and form a just judgment of them. The author only requests of all men, into whose hands this little treatise may come, that for their own sakes they give it a fair, a full, and a serious examination. It may, through the blessing of God, serve as an antidote to that irreligion, infidelity, and false philosophy, which of late have been attempted to be diffused over many nations, and among all classes of men. It may be of use to those who travel into foreign countries, and have occation to converse with men of different religions and it will furnish to all a rule whereby to judge of every religion; and to Christians, the strongest recommendation of their own, as being not only the true religion, but also the most perfect dispensation of it that ever has been given by God to men." Pref. The introduction to this work notices, that among all the sciences which can employ a rational mind, the noblest in itself, and the most important to man, is Divinity: observ. VOL. I gift; and, when justly perceived, must always be consistent with each other. Both are given us for the same general purposes, and jointly conduce to them; reason suggesting to us the first principles of religion, and en abling us to judge of the evidences and meaning of divine revelation; and revelation confirming the dic tates of reason, and giving us much necessary and useful instruction, which, by our unassisted reason, we could not have acquired. Divinity, so far as it is discoverable by human reason, we denominate natural religion ; and, as enlarged by divine revelation, we call it revealed. Christianity comprehends both, and both in their highest perfection, and is therefore the noblest dispensation of religion ever given by God to man. To explain and confirm this most excellent religion in its essential parts, and these in their natural order, and to recommend the proper improvement of them, is the important design of the following books. As a proper introduction to them I shall,' "I. Shew the infinite importance of religion to man. 66 "II. State the chief parts of natural religion, and the very imperfect knowledge of them over the heathen world. "III. Demonstrate the insufficiency of natural religion as a rule of faith, and guide to salvation and eternal happiness, and the necessity of divine revelation to supply its defects. "IV. Represent the probability of such a revelation, the internal characters it must possess, and the external evidences by which it must be attested. "V. Evince the genuineness and purity of the sacred scriptures, in which God's revelations to mankind have been recorded and preserved. “VI. Prove the divine authority and the truth of the Ol. Testament. "VII. Illustrate the purity and superior perfection of the Christian Religion. 4 K "VIII. Confirm, from miracles and prophecy, its divine origin. “IX. Exhibit the Mahometan religion, its errors and impostures. "X. Direct to the proper improve ment of the subject." In the third chapter are the following observations: "Even when men's natural notions and sentiments of religion are right, yet, unless strengthened by divine revelation, they want that high evidence, authority, and power, which are necessary to give them their practical influence on the temper and conduct. That religion may have its proper effect upon mankind, its truths, which shew its obligation, must be not only clear, but unquestionably certain. The laws which prescribe our duty must be not only full, but authoritative and commanding. And its sanctions, which enforce it, must be strong and impressive. All this the light of nature does, but does feebly and imperfectly, and needs the aids of divine revelation to strengthen its weakness and supply its defects. Reason in the human mind is rather a rule than a law, and derives its best light and influence from its being clearly conformable to the supreme reason, the mind of God. Conscience is an inferior lawgiver and judge appointed by God in the breast of man, and receives its highest authority from God, and its fullest direction and energy from the laws of God. The mind has often some knowledge of the truths of religion without firmly believing them, and feeling their importance. The conscience, rightly exerted, dictates what is right, but by wrong principles may be perverted, and by evil passions disregarded and controlled. The heart naturally desires, and the will chuses happiness; but through ignorance or depravity we often prefer our inferior to our supreme felicity. The perfect rule of religion, therefore, must be not only clear and right, but authoritative and forcible. But nothing can give such authority to religion, such certainty to its doctrines, such obligation to its laws, and such force to its sanctions, as its evident divinity. For no light can be so clear and strong, as a irect emanation from the infinite source of light. No truth can have such convincing evidence as an ex plicit declaration of the God of truth, who neither can be deceived himself, nor can deceive others. No laws can so 'direct and strengthen the con science, and bind every rational creature so strongly to every duty, as the express laws of God, our Creator and Lord. And no sanctions can so powerfully prompt men to universal holiness, and deter them from all iniquity, as the promise of eternal happiness to the righteous, and the threatening of eternal misery to the wicked. Divine revelation, therefore, must ever be the supreme rule of religion, exhibiting it in all its parts with the greatest clearness and certainty, and enforcing it with the highest authority and influence? So God himself, in all his dispensations of religion to mankind, hath plainly signified, and wise men in all nations and ages have acknowledged. The first dispensa. tions of religion were given by God to Adam and to Noah, to be conveyed by them to their posterity. The doctrines, laws, and institutions delivered by Moses and the prophets, Christ and his apostles, were received from God, and delivered by his accredited messengers to mankind for their religious instruction. The heathen priests, to enforce their religion, taught that it was authorized by their gods, or by responses from their oracles as directed by their gods. To procure obedience to their laws, Minos, King of Crete, gave out to his subjects that he received his laws from Jupiter; Lycurgus, lawgiver to the Spartans, that he received his laws from Apollo; and Numa Pompilius, King of the Romans, that he received his laws and religious institutions from the Nymph Egeria; and Mahomet, to give credit to his religion, pretended that it was sent down to him from God by the Angel Gabriel. It was from want of certainty and au thority no less than of purity, that the heathen religion was of so little efficacy; for strong recommendations of it the characters of their gods could not possibly give. In like manner, the small influence that natural religion has on deists, who reject divine revelation, and on all who do not seriously believe it, is but too evident. And this lamentable truth, both heathen philosophers and infidels have been forced to acknowledge." p.41 -43. This is followed by two quo tations, one from Cicero, the other the editions of our best English books. from Hume. The contents of the chapters will inform our readers of the subjects introduced in this work, and the extract we have given will enable them to form an idea of the author's method of treating them. CLIII. THE HOLY BIBLE, &c. Pub- THE HE peculiarities of these Editions will be best understood by the following extracts from Mr. Reeves's Preface, which at the same time will be found not, uninteresting to our readers. "The design of this publication is to provide the public with an edition of our Church Bible, which, according to what appears to be the taste of the present time, may be deemed a more convenient book for reading, than any of the Bibles now in use. "It has ever seemed to me a just cause of complaint, that while every English book, of any character, has had the advantage of being printed in various forms and sizes, to suit the different tastes of readers, The Holy Bible has been still printed in no other form, than that of one single book, which from the bulk of the contents must necessarily make an unhandy and inconvenient volume, even if printed in a small type. All other books that are of any length, and are in much request whether for instruction or amusement, are divided into convenient volumes, and generally have bestowed upon them the advantage of a larger print; from which it may reasonably be concluded, that this is a prevailing taste; and that for a book to have readers, it must have these recommendations. It appeared to me, that the readers of the Bible were entitled to every accommodation of this sort; and further, that it was an experiment worth trying, whether persons might not be attracted, by such means, to the reading of the Bible. Such sentiments as these suggested to me, to put to the press an edition of the Bible in separate volumes, that would make a manual, commodious for perusal, like "There still, however, appeared to me another obstacle to the Bible being generally read, with the same degree of facility and satisfaction as other English books; and that arose from the division of the matter into chapters, and more particularly into verses. This very often interrupts the current of the sense; it sometimes misleads with a false appearance, as if it presented for a complete sentence, or aphorism, what is only the fragment of a narrative, or the sentence of an argument, both of which suffer, by such mutilation. "This manner of subdividing the matter of a book into small verses, is peculiar to the Bible; and it is the abuse of a contrivance, that was designed for another purpose, the history and progress of which is worth considering. "The sacred books, whether Hebrew or Greek, came from the pen of their writers, and were in the hands of those for whom they were originally composed, without any division of this sort. The first need of any thing like such a division, was after the Babylonish captivity; the Jews had then mostly forgotten the original Hebrew; and when it was read in the synagogue, it was found necessary to have an interpretation into Chaldee for the use of the common people. To make this interpretation intelligible and useful, the reader of the Hebrew used to pause at short distances, while the interpreter pronounced the same passage in Chaldee; such pauses became established, and were marked in the manuscripts, forming a sort of verses, like those in our present Bibles. This division into verses was confined to the Hebrew Scriptures, and to the people for whose use it was contrived; no such division was made in the translation of the Seventy, nor in the Latin version; so that the Bible used in the Greek and the Western churches, was without any such division, either in the Old or New Testament. "It was, however, found necessary, in after times, to make a division and subdivision of the sacred 'books; but it was for a very different purpose; it was for the sake of referring to them with more ease and certainty. We are told that Cardinal Hugo, in the 13th century, made a concordance to the whole of the Latin Bible, and that for this purpose of reference, he divided both the Old and New Testament into chapters, being the same that we now have. These chapters he subdivided into smaller portions, distinguishing them by the letters of the alphabet; and by those means, he was enabled to make references from his concordance to the text of the Bible. The utility of such a concordance brought it into high repute; and the division into chapters, upon which it depended, was adapted along with it, by the divines of Europe. tion to an extremity. The beginning the English Bible to push this invenof every chapter had been made a fresh paragraph in all the printed Bibles; but the verses were only marked by the number, either in the margin, minute sub-divisions did not then or in the body of the matter; such ragraphs. But the English translaseem fit to be made into distinct pators, who had fled to Geneva, during the persecution of Queen Mary, and who published there a new translation, famous afterwards under the name of the Geneva Bible, separated "This division into chapters was every one of the verses, making each afterwards, in the 15th century, adopt- contrivance was soon received with into a distinct paragraph. This new ed by a learned Jew, for the same purpose of reference, in making a as much approbation as the preceding; concordance to the Hebrew Bible. and all Bibles, in all languages, began This was Rabbi Mordecai Nathan, with the verses distinguished into pa to be printed in the same manner, who carried the contrivance a step ragraphs; and so the practice has confurther; for instead of adhering to tinued to the present time. A sinthe subdivisions of Cardinal Hugo, he gular destiny, to which no other book made others, much smaller, and dis- has been subjected! For in all other tinguished them, not by letters but works, the index, or concordance, or by numbers. This invention was received into the Latin Bibles, and they whatever may be the subsidiary matmake the present verses of the Old ter, is fashioned, so as to be subordiTestament. In doing this, he might Bible alone, the text, and substance nate to the original work; but in the possibly have proceeded upon the of the work is disfigured in order to old subdivisions long before used for be adapted to the concordance that the interpretation into Chaldee. We belongs to it; and the notion of its see, therefore, that the present divi- being perused is sacrificed to that of sion of the Old Testament into chap-its being referred to. In consequence ter and verse, is an invention partly Christian, and partly Jewish, and that it was for the sole purpose of reference, and not primarily with a view to any natural division of the several subjects contained in it. "The New Testament still remained without any subdivision into verses, till one was at length made, for the very same purpose of a concordance, about the middle of the 16th century. The author of this was Robert Stephens, the celebrated printer at Paris. He followed the example of Rabbi Nathan, in subdividing the chapters into small verses, and numbering them; and he printed an edition of the Greek Testament so marked. This division soon came into general use, like the former one of the Old Testament, from the same recommendation of the concordance that depended upon it; and Latin Testaments, as well as Bibles, were ever after distinguished into chapters and verses. "It remained for the translators of of this, the Bible is to the eye, upon the opening of it, rather a book of reference than a book for perusal and study; and it is much to be feared, that this circumstance makes it more frequently used as such; it is referred to for verifying a quotation, and then can be fundamentally understood, if returned to the shelf. What book way! Those who extend their readconsulted only in such a desultory ing, but still regulate their efforts by the chapters, are not more likely to see the scriptural writings in the true view." p. i-v. prose or metre, is divided in this edi"The whole of the Bible, whether tion into sections, without any regard to the present chapters and verses. These sections are intended to consubjects; and it is hoped they will form to the divisions of the several exhibit the whole of the Bible in an order, system, and coherence, which will throw new light upon every part division, I have been obliged to dis of it. To make way for this sectional |