Hence though her writers be numerous, few or none have risen to the rank of classics. Longinus, so far as I recollect, is almost the only exception; who, though sprung from the Alexandrian school, yet being raised by his subsequent fortunes to a familiarity with great events, and illustrious characters, shook off the pedantry of his origin, and has displayed, in his interesting writings, all the correctness and purity of a happier age.

Precisely the same perversion took place in the infant state of the literature of modern Europe; when it could not have arisen from any natural effect of continued cultivation. But it seems sufficiently accounted for by the observations just made. Learting, during the middle ages, was entirely in the hands of monks; they alone possessed the leisure and wanquillity requisite for its cultivation. But these were men secluded by their very profession, from the living (scene; for whom it was a religious duty, to shut their eyes on every thing relating to the business of this world. Even had they been otherwise disposed, their nar ow and confined mode of life would have left hem little opportunity of indulging their inclination. Ignorant both of nature and of man, they 'could form no just conceptions, even on those important subjects to which they had devoted themselves. Nothing remained but a few barren and uninteresting ideas to ring continual changes upon, and to torture into a thousand different shapes, without the least profit either to themselves or others. The cloud was never dispersed, till the diffusion of wealth and intercourse made letters be generally cultivated by men of the world. This character belongs in a peculiar degree to Bacon, the great philosophical reformer, and the first to expose the futility of monkish Even then it dispersed only by degrees; and the literature of modern Europe continued, during several ages, to smell of the cloister.

studies.

In consequence of the wide diffusion of literature through all classes of society, it is now exempted, in a great measure, from these political vicissitudes. Having struck its roots deeper, it no longer requires the same fostering care, nor the same combination of favourable circumstances, to make it Hourish. The great number of persons, of all ranks, by whom it is cultivated, place its patronage on a surer and more permanent basis. From the same causes, its direction is likely to be more sound and useful. Having for its object, the gratification, not of a few recluse individuals, but of mankind in general, it must recommend itself by being natural, and adapted to general use.' pp. 60-63.

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We have little to object to the observations which Mr. Murray has made on his repressing principles, coercion and the necessity of labour, except the technical and obscure phraseology in which some of his propositious are expressed. As when he is pleased to inform us that the capacity for enJoying liberty will be found to be in the inverse ratio of the progressive principles in their corrupting state, and in the direct ratio of the same principles in their improving state.' (p. 93.) And when he gives to the progressive principles when operating upon an individual character the name of stimulating, and to the repressing that of sedative. This very learned and

scientific style of nomenclature, we humbly conceive to be very little calculated to throw light upon the causes of the progression of human nature from rudeness to refinement,

Our author concludes his first book with a chapter on certain circumstances upon which national character has been supposed to depend,' which he classifies as follows-climate, race, the oscillatory tendency in human affairs, and the mode of subsistence, including some remarks on the principle of population.' Here, as before, we do not conceive Mr. Murray's arrangement to be peculiarly accurate; and we have conside rable scruples in giving our assent to some of his leading tenets. He professes an unqualified dissent from the doctrine universally prevalent ainong the ancient philosophers, and which has been so elegantly defended by Montesquieu, that much of the natural diversity among the races of men is due to the physical effects of climate. His own inquiries upon the subject, he says, have led him decidedly to the conclusion, that climate (physically considered) has no influence whatever upon human character.' (p. 140.) This we are quite satisfied is at least as erroneous an extreme of theory, as that which ascribes every natural diversity, both in the bodies and minds of men, to climate and climate alone. The causes which determine the characters and capacities of men, we conceive to be partly physical, such as climate, soil, race; and partly moral, such as education, mode of life, government, &c. That all these have their effect, cannot, we think, be rationally denied; although it is a problem of no common difficulty, to settle the precise extent and influence of each, and the mo. difications to which they are mutually subjected during the ordinary progress of events.

The second and third books of Mr. Murray's volume are oceupied in digesting the accounts supplied by voyages and travels respecting the manners and dispositions of man in the ruder stages of society. This is no doubt the most entertaining, though least original part of the work; and a very laudable diligence appears to have been exerted by the author in examining the best modern authorities concerning the habits of newly discovered tribes. The least advanced stage of human improvement, called by Mr. Murray the primitive state, is contemplated under the separate heads of solitary individuals, such as Peter the wild boy, and the savage of Aveyron, separate families, as those of the Laplanders, and Samo, iedes, and a few families united as in Greenland, St. Kilda, &c. Of this primitive condition of man, he appears to have formed a somewhat too favourable opinion. He pictures it as exhibiting the absence of crimes-tranquility maintained with

out the restraint of government-no fighting, no bloodshedthe guilt and the miseries of war unknown.' (p. 221.) He admits, however, of a little shade to this flattering portrait-as in the following rather amusing account of the gloomy superstitions of the Laplanders, which the reader, if he pleases, may conrast with the well-known panegyric of Linnæus.

In a people so situated, we may naturally expect a disposition to seriousness and gloom. Melancholy is the child of solitude. Society and plenty, the great cheerers of human life, are both wanting. Alone with his family, the Laplander wanders on, with nothing but dreary wastes around him on every side. He meets with nothing to enliven his existence, or to break its monotony. Hence suicide is common; many are content, even thus, to escape from a life which presents only a cheerless unvaried round.

This combination of fear and melancholy, naturally renders them liable to the influence of superstition. It is wonderful, considering their limited faculties in other respects, how complicated a mythology they have formed. Not only the earth, but two regions above, and two beneath are all filled with their appropriate deities. A mystic drum, with the sounds which it utters, is their oracle, to which they resort on all occasions for advice and direction. And, what we should hardly expect, even in this small and poor society, are found men, who endeavour to promote their own interest and consequence, by working on the fears and credulity of their fellow men. Lapland has been long the favourite abode of witches and conjurors, where powers above humanity are claimed by beings that are scarcely entitled to the epithet of human. The conjuror possesses power over the winds, which, like olus of old, he confines in bags, and sells at a high price to the credulous mariner. Invisible flies (suggested, probably, by the musquitoes, which, during the summer months, swarm in the forests of Lapland,) are ever at hand to execute vengeance on those who have dared to offend him. He claims also, along with the rest of his fraternity, the power of foreseeing the future. Votaries resort to him, often from a great distance, to whom, after receiving presents, and throwing himself into frightful contortions, he delivers oracles that are believed to be infallible.

even

Nor are timidity and gloom the only symptoms of this deficiency in the character of the Laplander. The benevolent affections, having so few objects on which to exert themselves, remain concentrated within himself; and a selfishness ensues, which excludes not only social, but the nearest relative affections. Of this a Swedish writer has adduced some instances, which seem to pass all comprehension. A Laplander having drowned himself, his wife was obliged to give six rein-deer to her father-in-law before he would assist in the interment of his own son. Avarice, the vice of little minds, reigns even in Lapland. If a woman were deaf, blind, and a hundred years old, she is said to be certain of suitors, provided she possesses a plentiful supply of rein-deer. The small sums which they have gained by the sale of their furs, are often buried in the earth; and as their reserved character prevents them from ever disclosing the place where they have been deposited, it is by accident only if the discovery be ever made.

'Nor, though guiltless of deeds of violence, are they exempt from a certain impotent species of malignity. Slander and detraction are said to compose a favourite subject of their ordinary conversation. It is asserted also, that witchcraft is sometimes resorted to, in the hope of destroying their enemies by secret methods; though as such relations are naturally mixed with fable, much reliance is not to be placed on them." pp. 186-189.

The savage state is described by Mr. Murray at considerable length, under three heads also, viz. imperfect division into tribes-small free nations-and small despotisms.' The first of these conditions he represents as pregnant with almost every evil except that of war, from which it is exempted on account of the want of separation into distinct independent communities. The condition of small free nations, is exemplified chiefly among the North American savages, so remarkable for the cruelty and vindictiveness with which they pursue their enemies, and the fidelity and affection with which they bear themselves towards their friends. Of the despotic governments among savage nations, the picture drawn by Mr. Murray is too flattering; and he includes under this title several rude communities where we believe the authority of the chieftain to have been very limited. In various instances, however, the subjection of the savage is as wonderfully excessive, as is, in other cases, his love of personal independence.

In the Canaries, when a lord came of age, or married; several of his people precipitated themselves from a high rock, in celebration of those happy events. Every reader must have heard of the Schiek or Old Man of the Mountain, so famous in the time of the Crusades. It was upon this devotion of his people, upon the alacrity with which, at his command, they faced inevitable destruction, that he founded the system of assassination which rendered him so formidable. It is related, that one day, standing with an European ambassador on the brink of a precipice, he with the mere view of displaying his absolute power, called to him a boy who at his command, instantly threw himself down and was dashed to pieces.

'It was customary with the Floridans to make their first-born a sacrifice to their king; and in the presence of an assembled multitude, the inhuman ceremony was performed, amid shouts and savage rejoicings. Among the Ansicans, with whom human flesh is considered as the most delicious food, the nobles are said often to present themselves and families, for the purpose of being served up as a dish at the table of their master.

'Among other nations, we find customs less fatal indeed, but no less expressive of unbounded veneration. In Otaheite, on the death of the sovereign, the whole people take new names; as if, by this mighty change, they had all been converted into different beings. When he has entered any house, it is from that time sacred to him; no other

person must set foot within it. Captain Cooke having landed at a village in the Sandwich Islands, found all the inhabitants lying prostrate at the doors of their houses; and on enquiring the reason, learned that it was in honour of a certain great man who had recently arrived there. The same navigátor having invited the king of the Friendly Islands into his cabin, the monarch's attendants instantly took the alarm, and remonstrated against a measure which would enable any one to walk alove his majesty.'-p. 356.

Such are the general arrangements and theoretical positions respecting the character of nations, and progress of society, to which the Enquiries of Mr. Murray have conducted him in the present volume; and we are ready to acknowledge, that some of the views of human manners which he presents to us are not uninteresting, although we are far from acquiescing in the general soundness of his doctrines, or the accuracy of his conclusions.

Art.XIII. Sketches, Civil and Military, of the Island of Java, and its immediate Dependencies; comprising interesting Details of Batavia, and authentic Particulars of the celebrated Poison-Tree. Illustrated' with a Map. 8vo. pp. 420. Price 148. 6d. Stockdale. 1811.

Art. XIV. An Account of the Island of Java, from Anjesie, in the Strait of Sunda, to Batavia; containing its Natural History, Customs, &c. Intended as a Supplement to "Sketches Civil and Military, &c. 8vo. pp. 50. Price 28. Stockdale.

THE

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HE contents of this Volume and its Appendix, are avowedly extracted from Stavorinus, Staunton, Barrow, Tombe, Valentyne, &c.; and communicate, on the whole, a somewhat more than sufficient account of the island of which it professes to be a survey. The form of it is altogether objectionable. It makes no pretensions to arrangement; since, though it contains, indeed, the details for which it is likely to be consulted, the expediency of setting them in their proper places appears scarcely to have suggested itself to the editor. He does, it is true, make a feeble attempt at apology, for what he calls the plan of comprizing each separate account in one book; and expresses his regret that it must subject the reader to some repetition' But he seems, at the same time, to think it a suffi cient excuse for this vexatious and inexcusable absurdity, that it is calculated to do more justice to the respective travellers,' &c. If it had occurred to Mr. Stockdale, that it was of much more importance to do justice' to his subject, and to his readers, he would have found it easy to make the first more intelligible and interesting, in half the space; and he might have gratified the latter by a less rapacious demand upon their leisure and their purses. As the larger portion of this work has long been familiar to the public, we shall content ourselves with a few brief indications of its contents.

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