years in time which is perpetually disappearing, we should so little care about that eternal state in which we are to live for ever, when this dream is over! When we shall have existed ten thousand another world, where will be all the cares and fears and enjoyments of this? In what light then shall we look upon the things which now transport us with joy, or overwhelm us with grief? What trifles will they all appear! And now they appear comparatively trifles to the mind which duly contemplates and realizes eternity. Eternity! Awful word; at the sound of which we awake as out of sleep! Eternity! Before its view, how do the councils of princes, the plots of ambition, the revolutions of states, and the fates of empires, shrink into nothing! Ye immortal souls, whom I address upon the most important subject, ponder, I pray you, upon that eternal state to which you are swiftly carried by the flood of time! You see your fellow-creatures around you dying; you take a hasty glance at the shifting scenes around you, the harmony and end of which you see not; you ask, Why was man made in vain; why does he come into life only to be dissolved again? Alas! you mistake; you see man going out at the gate of death, but you see not the extent of country behind. All the busy tribes of men whose memorial has long perished here; these all are living in another state, whose happiness and misery, objects and attainments, are upon a scale infinitely greater than all the things of this transitory life. And is it so, indeed, that your happiness in that state depends upon your life here? Who, then, can speak in terms of sufficient emphasis of the value of this life? Awake thou that sleepest! Awake thou that dreamest of days and years; awake to contemplate ages! Thou that lookest at a family, a sect, a tribe, survey assembled worlds! Thou that art oppressed with the pains and aches and weakness of a vile body, behold a spiritual body pure and free from infirmity ! Thou that buryest all thy hopes in the earth upon which thy foot treadeth, see what a state of immortality and glory remains after this earth is burned up, and the elements have been dissolved with fervent heat! Oh, look to that state; let all your hopes center in attaining a happiness which only then begins to exist, when all the schemes of worldly greatness and worldly bliss are extinguished, to live no more! pp. 380-332. We had marked many other passages for quotation, both in he first and second volumes; some of them, in our opinion, ar superior to any that we have extracted. But the preceding pecimens will, we are persuaded, be regarded by every reader of taste and piety, as fully confirming our sentiments respecting he value of these compositions. We could wish any person who is so fascinated with mere tyle, as unduly to appreciate the sentiment which it conveys, o compare the second, third, and last, of the preceding quotaions, with the passages which were extracted from "Alison's Sermons," at pages 58 and 59 of our present volume. He will hen learn the difference between a Christian divine whose heart VOL. III. N. S. 2 Ꭲ . is deeply imbued with right principles, and an elegant, philo sophic, sentimentalist. Each writer evinces a refined taste, an accurate judgement, a warm and benevolent heart ;-each abounds in pathetic touches which reach the soul-but while one approaches it through the imagination, the other approaches it through the medium of the conscience. So again, if one courts retirement and seclusion from the busy world, or invites his hearers thither, it is that, by tracing the various associations suggested by surrounding objects, by analysing the emotions thus excited, by speculating upon the benignity of the Great Author of all, the sum of enjoyment may be augmented, and, perchance, a species of factitious devotion created: while, if the other either seeks or recommends retirement, it is that, by means of self-examination, of devout meditation, and fervest prayer, the soul may escape from terrestrial illusions to hervenly realities, may explore the mysteries of redemption, may commune with angels, may catch a glimpse of the glory which surrounds the Throne of the Eternal,' may be refreshed by the stream which runs at its feet,-and return from such seclusion with a countenance beaming and a heart burning with love to God and man. Persuaded that Mr. Venn's Sermons are admirably calculated, under the Divine blessing, to produce genuine benevolence and true piety, we cordially recommend them to general perusal. They are of a suitable length to be read in families; and whether employed in the domestic circle, or in the closet, they can scarcely fail, we think, of making those who hear them, or those who read them, wiser and better. Art. V. Part of the Introductory Lecture for the Year 1815, erhi biting some of Mr. Hunter's Opinions respecting Diseases. Delvered before the Royal College of Surgeons, in London. By John Abernethy, F. R. S. Professor of Anatomy and Surgery to te College. 8vo. pp. 37. Price 2s. Longman and Co., 1815. AN opportunity has but recently been afforded us of expressing ourselves in favourable terms respecting the talents and Jabours of Mr. Abernethy. To dissent, indeed, from this opinion of his character, were to dissent from all who are able to discern merit and appreciate intellectual worth. In the pampalet now before us, which is a continuation of his former dscourses, our ingenious physiologist appears in a point of view particularly interesting; and seems sedulously to aim at diverting towards another object that credit the public are ready to award to himself. The merits of Mr. Hunter, and the value of his discoveries, continue to be the favourite theme of Mr. Abernethy's pen but we cannot help suspecting, that as far as a application of principles to the general theories of living existence, and consequent pathology of living actions, is concerned, Mr. A. sees more in his predecessor, than his predecessor him-. self ever saw. That Mr. Hunter was a truly great man it would be absurd to deny. His name will go down to posterity shining. brightly in the records of physiological science, to the stores of which he effectually and largely contributed. His investigations on the subject of the absorbent system; his discoveries in, and ardent pursuit of, that too much neglected science-comparative anatomy; his pathological inquiries into the nature and peculiarities of secretory and inflaminatory action; and even his speculations concerning the blood: (where we think we find him most at fault,) these will ever stand as so many monuments to his fame, and evidences of the advancement of surgical science. But while we say thus much, we cannot help repeating our couvietion that Mr. A.'s enthusiasm in behalf of his predecessor, seems to have blinded him to some of the obvious defects of Mr. Hunter's reasoning, which, if not often founded upon a false analogy, is sometimes made to speak the language of metaphorical and unwarrantable generalization. As one instance out of many that might be brought to substantiate this charge, we may refer the reader to his mode of explaining the coagulation of the blood, which he says appears to him to arise from the stimulus of necessity';-a statement which would be very well as an enunciation of a fact, with a confessed ignorance of its cause; but which, when taken as an explication of a law, is open to all the objections that oppose themselves against the imaginary entities of the antient philosophers.-It is making the language of poetry usurp the place of the language of science. Indeed, Mr. H.'s notions respecting the living principle of the blood, have always in our judgement partaken altogether too much of a gratuitous and unmeaning mode of philosophizing. One of the great beauties of Mr. A.'s pathological speculations, consists, we think, in its freedom from this common error of substituting a mere change of terms for a change of doctrine. Into the discussion of his particular views it is not our design at present to enter, as we purpose to treat more at large on the modern doctrine of nervous sympathies and digestive derangements, in our next number, where Dr. Yeates's recent treatise on Hydrocephalus will come under our notice. In connexion with the pamphlet now before us, we have merely to remark, that whether Mr. Abernethy's doctrines are true or false; whether his principles are carried to too great a length, or are not yet sufficiently extended; whether their application to medical and surgical science will eventually constitute an improvement or not, in these respective branches of the healing art ;we think they would have emanated from the workings of his own active and original mind, without any previous hints derived from the discoveries or doctrines of Mr. John Hunter. In his former lectures on the analogy of living actions to the phenomena of electricity, which he then also denominated a defence of Mr. Hunter, we confess we could not find much of Mr. Hunter throughout the whole of his very ingenious researches. To his own reflections, and pertraps in some measure to an attendance upon the lectures of Sir Humphry Davy, did our Author seem principally indebted. But we will not now pursue this subject. Let the medical and philosophical reader peruse the respective works of the two great men whom we have mentioned together on this page, and let him compare, and collate, and judge for himself. Whatever his conclusions may be on the question in debate, he will, we venture to promise, be amply recompensed for his trouble; for neither Mr. Hunter nor Mr. Abernethy can ever be read without pleasure and profit. We shall in the present instance confine ourselves to transcribing the very animated and impressive conclusion of the pamphlet now before us. < There is one sentiment (says Mr. A.) which ought, I think, to attach every English surgeon to the memory of John Hunter. It is that esprit de corps which belongs to all associations of mankind. We should be grateful to him, for he has exalted us. He has dignified our profession. Baron Haller, commenting on the character and conduct of surgeons in general, expresses his surprise, that no one has been particularly eminent in that profession. To me it would have been surprising had it been otherwise, considering the debased condition into which the profession had sunk, and in which it had remained for ages. I admit that surgery was gradually rising, and would eventually have obtained its proper level among sciences; when Mr. Hunter suddenly raised it to its present elevated situation. Mr. Hunter became a physiologist, and to become such a physiologist as he was, it was necessary that every variety of structure and of function should be surveyed in every variety of living being; that nature and nature's laws should be examined with the most minute attention, and upon the most extended scale; that parts should be observed with microscopic scrutiny, and yet that comprehensive views should be taken of the whole. Afterwards, with the enlightened eye of a physiologist, he surveyed the perverted actions of living bodies in the production of diseases. Thus did he make surgery a science. It is the knowledge of health that makes us to understand the nature of disease. He connected pathology with physiology, and it is impossible in future ever to disjoin them. He raised a solid and permanent pillar of physiology, and he placed surgery on the top. where it must ever remain equal in rank and elevation to any other science. perhaps superior in utility to all There is no path to scien tific improvement in our profession but that which Mr. Hunter trod. It is the path of physiology. It is now fairly laid open to you. He has been your pioneer. Enter, and in proportion as you pursue t with vigour and constancy, so will you arrive at knowledge, and obtain renown. Do this; and it is certain no future Haller will have cause to express surprise, that Surgeons have been undistinguished characters in the medical profession.' Art. VI. Letters from Albion to a Friend on the Continent. Written in the Years 1810, 1811, 1812, and 1813. 2 Vols. pp. 260 and 281. Price 14s. Gale, Curtis, and Fenner, Paternoster-row. 1814. A MILITARY Lord has recently published a work descrip tive of "A forced Journey through several Parts of France." With either the merits or the faults of this work we do not pro fess to be much acquainted; but we have heard a person who was bold enough to venture upon its purchase without waiting for the decision of the critics, and who, of course, deserved to be taken in; we have heard him complain of this Noble performance, on the ground of its comprising nothing more than dissertations on good dinners and pretty women. Had we, in the present instance, been guilty of the misdemeanour that has been invidiously laid to the charge of Reviewers, that of merely looking into, and not actually reading, the works upon which they dare pass severe judgement, we might have been disposed to condemn the present production of a German Baron, on the same plea on which our disappointed friend censures the book of the British Lord; and, verily, there is a great deal too much, in the little volumes before us, of flippant, common-place, and gossiping jejuneness. All, however, is not so bad; and we are of opinion, that in this book-making and book-buying day, many fourteen shillings are expended in worse bargains than will be obtained by the purchasers of " Letters from Albion." The history of these Letters is given in a short Preface. • They arose from a correspondence which a foreigner, during his residence in this country, really kept up with an intimate friend on the continent. They were originally written in German, and, of course, not designed for publication. As, however, the author's stay here was protracted by the unfavourable turn in the affairs of Europe previous to the battle of Leipsic, he found a particular consolation in translating the letters into English. Hence, perhaps, some slight departure from the acquired idiom which may claim the reader's indulgence.' The first of these letters the Author dates from Harwich, and in this he gives his friend an account of his journey from Berlin to Cuxhaven, and thence to the place from which he commences his correspondence. His route from Berlin lay through Hamburgh; and in this place he expresses his indignant feel |