smile and sing lampoons upon their masters. Why are the Egyptians, who are described as having been still more grave than the Parisians, at present the most lazy, frivolous, and cowardly of people, after having, as we are told, conquered the whole world for their pleasure, under a king called Sesostris ? Why are there no longer Anacreons, Aristotles, or Zeuxises at Athens? Whence comes it that Rome, instead? of its Ciceros, Catos, and Livys, has merely citizens who dare not speak their minds, and a brutalized populace, whose supreme happiness consist in having oil cheap, and in gazing at processions? Cicero, in his letters, is occasionally very jocular upon the English. He desires his brother Quintus, Cæsar's lieutenant, to inform him whether he has found any great philosophers among them, in his expedition to Britain. He little suspected that that country would one day produce mathematicians whom he could not understand. Yet the climate? has not at all changed, and the sky of London is as cloudy now as it was then. in his own country) would be affected by leprosy, he will obey you with joy; prohibit it to a Westphalian, and he will be tempted to knock you down. Abstinence from wine is a good precept of religion in Arabia, where orange, citron, and lemon waters, are necessary to health. Mahomet would not have forbidden wine in Switzerland, especially before going to battle. There are usages merely fanciful. Why did the priests of Egypt devise circumcision? It was not for the sake of health. Cambyses, who treated as they deserved both them and their bull Apis, the courtiers of Cambyses, and his soldiers, enjoyed perfectly good health without any such mutilation. Climate has no peculiar influence over this particular portion of the person of a priest. The offering in question was made to Isis, probably on the same principle as the firstlings of the fruits of the earth were everywhere offered. It was typical of an offering of the first fruits of life. Religions have always turned upon two pivots,-forms or ceremonies, and faith; forms and ceremonies depend much on climate; faith not at all. A Everything changes, both in bodies doctrine will be received with equal faand minds, by time. Perhaps the Ame-cility under the equator or near the pole. ricans will in some future period cross the sea to instruct Europeans in the arts. Climate has some influence, government a hundred times more; religion and government combined more still. Influence of Climate. Climate influences religion in respect to ceremonies and usages. A legislator could have experienced no difficulty in inducing the Indians to bathe in the Ganges at certain appearances of the moon; it is a high gratification to them. Had any one proposed a like bath to the people who inhabit the banks of the Dwina, near Archangel, he would have been stoned. Forbid pork to an Arab, who after eating this species of animal food (the most miserable and disgusting It will be afterwards equally rejected at Batavia and the Orcades, while it will be maintained, unguibus et rostro with tooth and nail-at Salamanca. This depends not on sun and atmosphere, but solely upon opinion, that fickle empress of the world. Certain libations of wine will be naturally enjoined in a country abounding in vineyards; and it would never occur to the mind of any legislator to institute sacred mysteries, which could not be celebrated without wine, in such a country as Norway. It will be expressly commanded to burn incense in the court of a temple where beasts are killed in honour of the divinity, and for the priests' supper. This slaughter-house, called a temple, would be a place of abominable infection, if it were not continually purified; and without the use of aromatics, the religion of the ancients would have introduced the plague. The interior of the temple was even festooned with flowers to sweeten the air. The cow will not be sacrificed in the burning territory of the Indian peninsula, because it supplies the necessary article of milk, and is very rare in arid and barren districts, and because its flesh, being dry and tough, and yielding but little nourishment, would afford the Brahmins but miserable cheer. On the contrary, the cow will be considered sacred, in consequence of its rareness and utility. The temple of Jupiter Ammon, where the heat is excessive, will be entered only with bare feet. To perform his devotions at Copenhagen, a man { requires his feet to be warn and well covered. men, although you should be passionately The inhabitants north of the Caucasus subject themselves to these laws, and { adopt, in its fullest extent, a religion which was never framed for them. In Egypt the emblematical worship of animals succeeded to the doctrines of Thaut. The gods of the Romans afterwards shared Egypt with the dogs, the cats, and the crocodiles. To the Roman religion succeeded Christianity; that was completely banished by Mahometanism, which will perhaps be superseded by some new religion. and grew up towards its fulness of stature in Alexandria, inhabits now those countries where Teutat and Irminsul, Freya and Odin, were formerly adored. In all these changes climate has effected nothing; government has done everything. We are here considering It is not thus with doctrine. Poly-only second causes, without raising our theism has been believed in all climates; unhallowed eyes to that Providence and it is equally easy for a Crim Tartar which directs them. The Christian reand an inhabitant of Mecca to acknow-ligion, which received its birth in Syria, ledge one only incommunicable God, neither begotten nor begetting. It is by doctrine, more than by rites, that a religion extends from one climate to another. The doctrine of the unity of God passed rapidly from Medina to Mount Caucasus. Climate, then, yields to opinion. The Arabs said to the Turks: "We practised the ceremony of circumcision in Arabia without very well knowing why. It was an ancient usage of the priests of Egypt to offer to Oshiret, or Osiris, a small portion of what they considered most valuable. We had adopted this custom three thousand years before we became Mahometans. You will become circumcised like us; you will bind your-province. People adopted a cheaper self to sleep with one of your wives every Friday, and to give two and a half per cent. of your income annually to the poor. We drink nothing but water and sherbet all intoxicating liquors are forbidden us. In Arabia they are pernicious. You will embrace the same regi There are some nations whose religion is not the result either of climate or of government. What cause detached the north of Germany, Denmark, three parts of Switzerland, Holland, England, Scotland, and Ireland, from the Romish communion? - Poverty. Indulgences, and deliverance from purgatory for the souls of those whose bodies were at that time in possession of very little money, were sold too dear. The prelates and monks absorbed the whole revenue of a religion. In short, after numerous civil wars, it was concluded that the pope's religion was a good one for nobles, and the reformed one for citizens. Time will show whether the religion of the Greeks or of the Turks will prevail on the coasts of the Euxine and Agean seas. COHERENCE-COHESION-ADHESION.-COMMERCE. COHERENCE-COHESION-AD- "It THE power by which the parts of bodies are kept together. It is a phenomenon the most common, but the least understood. Newton derides the hooked atoms, by means of which it has been attempted to explain coherence; for it still remained to be known why they are hooked, and why they cohere. treats with no greater respect those have explained cohesion by rest. is," says he, "an occult quality." He has recourse to an attraction. But is not this attraction, which may indeed exist, but is by no means capable of demonstration, itself an occult quality? The grand attraction of the heavenly bodies is demonstrated and calculated. That of adhering bodies is incalculable. But how can we admit a force that is immeasurable to be of the same nature as one that can be measured? 313 at the commencement of the eighteenth century. Carthage, Venice, and Amsterdam, have been powerful; but they have acted like those people among us, who, having amassed money by trade, buy lordly estates. Neither Carthage, Venice, Holland, nor any people, have commenced by being warriors, and even conquerors, to finish by being merchants. The EngHelish only answer this description: they who had fought a long time before they knew how to reckon. They did not know, when they gained the battles of Agincourt, Cressy, and Poictiers, that they were able to deal largely in corn, and fabricate broad cloth, which would be of much {more value to them than such victories. The knowledge of these arts alone has augmented, enriched, and strengthened the nation. It is only because the Eng} lish have become merchants, that London exceeds Paris in extent and number of citizens; that they can spread two hundred ships of war over the seas, and keep royal allies in pay. Nevertheless, it is demonstrated that the force of attraction acts upon all the planets and all heavy bodies, in proportion to their solidity; but it acts, therefore, on all the particles of matter; it is, therefore, very probable that, while it exists in every part in reference to the whole, it exists also in every part in reference to cohesion: coherence, therefore, may be the effect of attraction. This opinion appears admissible till a} better can be found, and that better is not easily to be met with. COMMERCE. SINCE the fall of Carthage, no people had been powerful in commerce and arms at the same time, until Venice set the example. The Portuguese having passed the Cape of Good Hope, were, for some time, great lords on the coast of India, and even formidable in Europe. The United Provinces have only been warriors in spite of themselves, and it was not as united between themselves, but as united with England, that they assisted to hold the balance of Europe When Louis XIV. made Italy tremble, and his armies, already masters of Savoy and Piedmont, were ready to take Turin, Prince Eugene was obliged to march to the skirts of Germany, to the succour of the Duke of Savoy. Having no money, without which he could neither take nor defend towns, he had recourse to the English merchants. In half an hour, they advanced him the sum of five millions (of livres), with which he delivered Turin, beat the French, and wrote this little billet to those who had lent it him: "Gentlemen, I have received your money, and I flatter myself that I have employed it to your satisfaction." All this excites just pride in an English merchant, and makes him venture to compare himself, and not without reason, to a Roman citizen. Thus the younger sons of a peer of the realm disdain not to be merchants. Lord Townsend, Minister of State, had a brother who was contented with being a merchant in the city. At the time that Lord Orford governed England, his they invented this term, supposed that nothing entered the mind except by the senses; otherwise would they have used the word sense to signify the result of the common faculty of reason? younger brother was a factor at Aleppo, whence he would not return, and where he died. This custom-which, however, begins to decline-appeared monstrous to the petty German princes. They could not conceive how the son of a peer It is said, sometimes, that common of England was only a rich and powerful sense is very rare. What does this extrader, while in Germany they are all pression mean? That, in many men, princes. We have seen nearly thirty dawning reason is arrested in its progress highnesses of the same name, having no- by some prejudices; that a man who thing for their fortunes but old armouries judges reasonably on one affair will deand aristocratical hauteur. In France,ceive himself grossly in another. The anybody may be a marquis that likes; Arab, who, besides being a good calcuand whoever arrives at Paris from a re-lator, was a learned chemist and an exact mote province, with money to spend, and astronomer, nevertheless believed that a name ending in ac or ille, may say- Mahomet put half of the moon into his "A man like me!" "A man of my qua-sleeve. lity!" and sovereignly despise a merchant; while the merchant so often hears his profession spoken of with disdain, that he is weak enough to blush at it. Which is the most useful to a state-a well-powdered lord, who knows precisely at what hour the king rises and retires, and who gives himself airs of greatness, while playing the part of a slave in the anti-chamber of a minister; or a merchant, who enriches his country, sends orders from his closet to Surat and Aleppo, and contributes to the happiness of the world? COMMON SENSE. THERE is sometimes in vulgar expressions an image of what passes in the heart of all men. "Sensus communis," signified among the Romans not only common sense, but also humanity and sensibility. As we are not equal to the Romans, this word with us conveys not half what it did with them. It signifies only good sense -plain, straight-forward reasoning-the first notion of ordinary things-a medium between dullness and intellect. To say, "That man has not common sense," is a gross insult; while the expression, “That man has common sense," is an affront also; it would imply, that he was not quite stupid, but that he wanted intellect. But what is the meaning of common sense, if it be not sense? Men, when How is it that he was so much above common sense in the three sciences above mentioned, and beneath it when he pro{ceeded to the subject of half the moon? It is because, in the first case, he had seen with his own eyes, and perfected his own intelligence; and, in the second, he had used the eyes of others, by shutting his own, and perverting the common sense within him. How could this strange perversion of mind operate? How could the ideas which had so regular and firm a footing in his brain, on many subjects, halt on another a thousand times more palpable and easy to comprehend? This man had always the same principles of intelligence in him; he must have therefore possessed {a vitiated organ, as it sometimes happens that the most delicate epicure has a depraved taste in regard to a particular species of nourishment. How did the organ of this Arab, who saw half of the moon in Mahomet's sleeve, become disordered?-By fear. It had {been told him, that if he did not believe in this sleeve, his soul, immediately after his death, in passing over the narrow bridge, would fall for ever into the abyss. He was told much worse-if ever you doubt this sleeve, one dervise will treat you with ignominy; another will prove you mad, because, having all possible motives for credibility, you will not sub mit your superb reason to evidence; a third will refer you to the little divan of a small province, and you will be legally impaled. belonging to the priest; and this was called "the confession of calves." It is said in the same Mishna, that every culprit under sentence of death, went and confessed himself before witnesses, in some retired spot, a short time before his execution. If he felt himself for all my sins!" If innocent, he said, "May my death atone for all my sins! excepting that of which I am now ac All this produces a panic in the good Arab, his wife, sister, and all his little family. They possess good sense in all the rest, but on this article their imagina-guilty, he said, “May my death atone tion is diseased like that of Pascal, who continually saw a precipice near his couch. But did our Arab really believe in the sleeve of Mahomet? No; he endea-cused." voured to believe it; he said, "It is impossible, but true—I believe that which I do not credit." He formed a chaos of ideas in his head, in regard to this sleeve, which he feared to disentangle; and he gave up his common sense. CONFESSION. REPENTANCE for one's faults is the only thing that can repair the loss of innocence and to appear to repent of them, we must begin by acknowledging them. Confession, therefore, is almost as ancient as civil society. Confession was practised in all the mysteries of Egypt, Greece, and Samothrace. We are told, in the life of Marcus Aurelius, that when he deigned to participate in the Eleusinian mysteries, he confessed himself to the hierophant ; though no man had less need of confession than himself. This might be a very salutary ceremony; it might also become very detrimental; for such is the case with all human institutions. We know the answer of the Spartan whom an hierophant would have persuaded to confess himself: "To whom should I acknowledge my faults? to God, or to thee?" "To God," said the priest. "Retire, then, O man." On the day of the feast which was called by the Jews the solemn atonement, the devout among them confessed to one another, specifying their sins. The confessor repeated three times thirteen words of the seventy-seventh psalm, at the same time giving the confessed thirty-nine stripes, which the latter returned, and they went away quits. It is said that this ceremony is still in use. St. John's reputation for sanctity brought crowds to confess to him, as they came to be baptised by him with the baptism of justice: but we are not informed that St. John gave his penitents thirtynine stripes. The Confession was not then a sacrament; for this there are several reasons. first is, that the word sacrament was at that time unknown; which reason is of itself sufficient. The Christians took their confession from the Jewish rites, and not from the mysteries of Isis and Ceres. The Jews confessed to their associates, and the Christians did so too. It afterwards appeared more convenient that this should be the privilege of the priests. No rite, no ceremony, can be established, but in process of time. It was hardly possible that some trace should not remain of the ancient usage of the laity of confessing to one another. In Constantine's reign, it was at first the practice publicly to confess public offences. It is hard to determine at what time this practice was established among the Jews, who borrowed a great many of their rites from their neighbours. The In the fifth century, after the schism of Mishna, which is the collection of the Novatus and Novatian, penitentiaries were Jewish laws, says, that often, in confess-instituted for the absolution of such as had ing, they placed their hand upon a calf fallen into idolatry. This confession to |