Clergy's exhortations, and remonstrances, and instructions; many no being satisfied that they are the effect of conviction and feeling.'

The narrative of the first appearances of our Lord on the day of his resurrection, supposes the main difficulty to consist in reconciling the first clause of Matthew xxviii. 9. with the rest of the story; and endeavours to make the whole consistent by rejecting that clause as spurious.

Art. XII. Enquiries, Historical and Moral, respecting the Character of Nations, and the progress of Society. By Hugh Murray. 8vo. pp. 430. Longman and Co.

THE prominent object of this work, is to pourtray the

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moral history of man as exhibited in the manners and characters of nations, and the circumstances on which these are dependent. It contemplates man as a progressive being, pro-ceeding by the lapse of ages, from a state of barbarism to a condition of civilization and refinement; and it inquires, 'What effect does this change produce on man considered as a moral and intelligent being? Does it render him really wiser, better or happier? Is it a tendency which the legislator ought to encourage, or an evil which he ought to check?' The foundation of this enquiry is laid by Mr. M. in a general view of the various characters which man has assumed in the different stages of his progress, gathered from the history of society and manners in nations of the greatest celebrity, properly arranged and classified; To this plan, we see no particular objection, and if the execution does not entirely correspond, or the results of the enquiries' do not appear altoge ther satisfactory, candour requires some allowance to be made for the difficulty of the subject.

In the present volume Mr. Murray carries his plan no farther than as it relates to the earlier and ruder periods of society; but considers this part of his subject as sufficiently detached to form the matter of a complete work. It is divided into three books; of which the first investigates the circumstances which regulate the progress, and the moral condition of society;' the second takes a view of man in the primitive state;' and the third considers man in the 6 savage state.'

It is in the first book that our author developes the principal characteristics of his system, and the conclusions to which an examination of the various facts: connected with the moral history of man has conducted him. The general principle in which his analytical investigation has terminated; and which he finds it necessary to state at the outset, although it was not admitted till after long and attentive consideration; is as

follows there is in human society, a process of corruption, previous to the process of improvement, and arising from the first operation of the same causes-and every thing which ultimately tends most to improve the character and condition of man is positively injurious in its first operation. (p. 18.)

This general conclusion will probably, at first sight, appear a little repulsive to our readers, and we own it is one which we should feel considerable reluctance in admitting. Contemplated a priori, it certainly gives but an unfavourable view of the economy of nature, or rather of the moral government of the author of nature. To say that mankind cannot attain an improved and ameliorated condition without previously being subjected to corruption and misery, is to exhibit a very forbidding picture of the lot of humanity. Corruption and misery, we readily admit, are the concomitants of man in every stage of his progress, and why they are so, we are able to explain from a much higher authority, than the most celebrated of any of the schools of philosophy. The price of man's disobedience is the sin and the wickedness with which every member of the human race is more or less polluted, and from which nothing can free him but an adherence to the conditions made known in the scriptures of truth. Imperfection, therefore, is inseparable from the lot of humanity; and there is no merely human means of improvement applicable to human affairs, which is not in some degree also a means of corruption,, But must the process of corruption necessarily precede in the order of time the process of improvement; so that the first races of men are condemned to misery, in order that their posterity may enjoy felicity? We think not. Such, however, is the position of Mr. Murray, and into the evidence by which he endeavours to support it, we shall now proceed to inquire.

The circumstances in human affairs which have a tendency to produce corruption in the first instance, and ultimate ime provement, are denominated in the system of Mr. Murray, progressive principles; and he arranges them under the following heads: 1. Numbers collected into one place: 2. Free communication between different societies, and different members of the same society: 3. Wealth: 4. Great public events to which he adds two of a negative character tending to repress both corruption and improvement, viz, labour and coercion. This arrangement of the progressive principles does not strike us as peculiarly luminous or philosophical; but we shall take it as we find it, in order to meet the author on his own grounds, which we certainly do not think strong enough to maintain him in the position, that the process of corruption must always, of neecssity, precede that of improvement.

Numbers collected into one place have no doubt a direct tendency to produce moral depravity, as is sufficiently evinced by experience: but they have at the same time, and in the first instance also, a direct tendency to promote improvement. The emulation kindled by assembled numbers, becomes the source of excellence in every department. It is among large assemblages of men, that the arts and sciences have always originated: the bustle and activity to which such an assemblage gives rise, is necessary even for perfecting the moral judge ment, by presenting human nature, under a variety of aspects. Nor is it true, that these beneficial effects, are necessarily postponed in the order of time to the corrupting influence of numbers, as the system of Mr. Murray requires. Emulation undoubtedly shews itself from the instant that men are collected together with a common object: the arts are invented though not perfected, as soon as man quits the merely savage state, and laws are enacted, and consequently principles of right and wrong established, as soon as a permanent assem blage of families takes place.

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Similar remarks are easily applicable to the second in order of Mr. Murray's progressive principles' the free communit cation between different societies, and different members of the same society. This principle, we admit, possesses a corrupting as well as an ameliorating influence: but we have no hesitation in asserting that the beneficial influence as it is the most powerful, so it is prior in point of time to the pernicious influence. ̈ A wide intercourse with the world is no doubt attended with the risk of unsettling a man's principles, and rendering him too familiar with folly and depravity; but without such an intercourse, how is it possible to form an enlightened, liberal, or magnanimous character? It is only thus that we can effectually destroy that blind submission which is commonly paid to the prejudices of country and education, and furnish the intellectual and moral powers with suitable materials on which to act. To raise the faculties of the mind to a profitable coercion, it is not enough that a man associate with those whose situation and habits are the same with his his own: he must be brought into contact with men of different habits, manners, and opinions: he must compare, digest, and analyse what is offered to his view in every variety of situation; and out of the diversified ways of thinking which are thus presented to him, he may at length learn to select those which are best, and be able to form a› standard of judgement, on the foundation of reason and not of chance. If we contrast the history of republican Greece with that of any of the barbarous tribes of Africa, Asia, or America; we shall find abundant evidence of the highly beneficial effects

of a wide and diversified intercourse upon the human cha.racter; and its influence in accelerating the progress of arts, literature, and legislation. Nor shall we see any good reason to suppose that this beneficial influence is not felt from the very commencement of its operation; or is at least coeval with the pernicious operation which, no doubt in some measure belongs to this merely human source of improvement. With respect to wealth, the third of Mr. Murray's' progressive principles,' we are as ready as he can beto admit its corrupting power; but it is manifestly a principle which does not come into play in the earlier and ruder stages of society, but only exerts its baneful effects when arts, agriculture, and commerce have paved the way for luxury and refinement. This, therefore, instead of being called a progressive principle, might fitly have been named a retrogressive or corruptive principle: for it is universally acknowledged, that when a nation becomes wealthy, it becomes at the same time, luxurious, vicious, and corrupt; and requires the utmost, wisdom of the legislator to preserve it from ruin. As, however, there is nothing in human attainments absolutely perfect, so perhaps there is nothing purely and abstractedly pernicious; and wealth, even when excessive, has the beneficial operation of encouraging the arts, and giving birth to the refinements of life.

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In the fourth of his progressive principles great public events, we think Mr. Murray is equally unfortunate. For it surely can never be admitted that these have a necessary tendency, in the first instance, to corrupt rather than to improve. If such events are unfavourable to political freedom or personal independence, their tendency is no doubt unpropitious not only in the first, but in every future stage. But if they are of an opposite character, and lead to the emancipation of the human race from thraldom and degradation; upon what principle can it be rationally contended that they exert in the first instance a detrimental influence? The great political convulsion of Athens, by which Pisistratus was enabled to assume despotic power, may fairly be considered as pernicious, to the interests of humanity: but can the same thing be said of the succeeding convulsion by which liberty was restored to that celebrated commonwealth? Can the same character apply to the usurpation of Cromwell and the abdication of the second James? to the institution of a despotic government, and the establishment of a well organized and Judiciously balanced political constitution? This is in truth to confound the characters of events not only different, but even diametrically opposite in their effects; and to censure what is deserving of the highest praise.

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Mr. Murray is sufficiently disposed to admit the final benefit of great public events in calling forth the best energies of the human mind, although he considers their effects as uniformly pernicious in the first instance. He justly remarks, that a familiarity with great events has a peculiar influence in animating and enobling the efforts of genius. Literary excellence is not the mere offspring of recluse leisure: it requires also great and interesting objects to exercise the understanding, and warm the fancy. The literary eminence of Greece was at its acmé, when her splendid victories raised her to a height of military renown, before unparalleled in the annals of nations. The classic or Augustan age of Rome, was also that in which she had reached the zenith of her greatness. Italy, at the period of the revival of learning was the scene on which were acted the greatest events of the age; and formed, as it were, the centre, around which the political system of Europe revolved. The age of Louis XIV., was equally distinguished among the French for success in arms, and in literary pursuits. And in England, the most remarkable epochs of literary eminence immediately succeeded the great political struggles of the restoration, and the revolution.

The occurrence of great public events, adds Mr. M., besides prompting to the cultivation of literature, is peculiarly efficacious in giving a proper direction to its efforts. To their absence I am disposed to attribute that corruption of learning, which has been supposed to be the natural consequence of its continuing to be cultivated beyond a certain period, Literature, it will be found, is thus corrupted, when its votaries are ignorant of, or inattentive to, the objects of real life; when the philosopher employs his mind on questions that are of no importance to the happiness of mankind; when the poet ceases to occupy himself with human interests and human passions; and when both seek only to gratify vanity, by the display of misplaced ingenuity. To this wrong bias the writer will always be liable, when there is passing on the scene of life, nothing great or varied, to turn his views in that direction. Whenever a man seeks to shine by writing on a subject in which he takes no interest, his taste is inevitably corrupted.

An exemplification of this remark seems to have been afforded by Alexandria, after the period of its subjection to the Roman empire. Even then, from its situation, its commerce, the number of its inhabitants, and the splendid patronage of literature in the time of the Ptolemies, it continued, even after its subjection to Rome, to flourish long as a seat of learning. But there is, perhaps, no situation less productive of interesting events, than the remote provincial town of a despotic empire. In the capital, the residence of the monarch and the scene perhaps of frequent revolutions, a considerable degree of bustle is always kept up. But here there were no objects of real importance to occupy the thinking mind; it was left to feed entirely on its own reveries; and Alexandria became the centre of all kind of dreaming and useless speculation.