the publication in question his apology is satisfactory.

"In my youth," he observes, "when my stock of knowledge consisted of such an acquaintance with Greek and Roman History, as is acquired in the course of a regular scholastic education, when my heart was full of poetry and romance, and Lucan and Akenside were at my tongue's end, I fell into the political opinions which the French Revolution was then scattering throughout Europe; and following these opinions with ardour wherever they led, I soon perceived that inequalities of rank were a light evil compared to the inequalities of property, and those more fearful distinctions which the want of moral and intellectual culture occasions between man and man. At that time, and with these opinions, or rather feelings, (for their root was in the heart, and not in the understanding,) I wrote Wat Tyler, as one who was impatient of "all the oppressions that are done under the sun." The subject was injudiciously chosen, and it was treated, as might be expected by a youth of twenty, in such times, who regarded only one side of the question. There is no other misrepresentation. The sentiments of the historical characters are correctly stated. Were I now to dramatize the same story, there would be much to add, but little to alter. I should not express those sentiments less strongly, but I should oppose to them more enlarged views of the nature of men, and the progress of society. I should set forth with equal force, the oppressions of the feudal system, the excesses of the insurgents, and the treachery of the government, and hold up the errors and crimes, which were then committed, as a warning for this and for future ages. I should write as a man, and not as a stripling; with the same heart, and the same desires, but with a ripened understanding, and competent stores of knowledge."

This ingenious sophistry might have been effectually answered, by quoting some of the author's subsequent works, particularly the Notes to Madoc, and the Letters of Espriella, where the same opinions are amplified in plain prose, that Wat Tyler and John Bull expressed in the play.

The next appearance of Mr. Southey before the public, was in a capacity

for which we cannot help thinking he was ill qualified; not certainly from a want of ability, but of that minute information, which is essential to do justice to professional and religious biography. We should hardly pay much respect to the man, however clever, who should undertake the Life of Locke, Descartes, or Newton, without being deeply conversant in modern metaphysics and mathematics; nor can we conceive that one whose reading has been desultory, and whose religious principles have never been very steady, is the sort of person in whose hands so extraordinary a character as John Wesley is likely to be drawn with advantage or impartiality. It is easy enough to give the details of such a history, but the difficulty lies in developing the springs of action, the internal as well as the external causes which led to the religious revolution effected, without violence, by that wonderful man. In all this Mr. Southey has failed; and he could not do otherwise, for it required something beyond an acquaintance with mere books, to delineate the conceptions and progress of a mind working against prejudice, and from a sole sense of duty acting for the general good.

The biography, however, excited notice, and so far it may be supposed to have answered the writer's purpose, for it is no want of charity to ascribe his multifarious labours to the principle honestly avowed by Johnson, when congratulated upon the success of his literary labours: "It is all work; and my inducement to it is not love or desire of fame, but that of money, which is the only motive to writing that I know of."

Soon after this publication, the author received the degree of Doctor of Laws, from the University of Oxford; a distinction the more remarkable, as the sister seat of learning had just before refused to suffer another Unitarian to read lectures on botany in any of her colleges.

On the death of the late king, the Poet Laureate thinking himself bound by his office to hang his wreath on the funeral urn, determined to execute his task in such a manner as should raise wonder, if it did not produce admiration. The heathen nations of antiquity made it a practice to deify departed heroes and monarchs; but

trating into places inaccessible by other means, or for making philosophical observations on the superior regions of the atmosphere, are sufficiently obvious. We cannot, however, boast of any addition having been made to the stock of atmospherical knowledge, though very many aerial voyages have been performed.

The probable causes of this are, that balloons have seldom ascended above two miles high;-that the novelty and grandeur of the scene beheld from a balloon has prevented a strict attention to the phenomena that may have presented themselves;-and more especially, that most of the experiments were performed by ignorant and mercenary imitators, who have been more desirous of taking the advantage of the credulity of the vulgar, than of making valuable observations, or relating them with fidelity.

The invention of the heated air balloon is the undoubted right of the Brothers Mess. Stephen and Joseph Montgolfier, who made the first experiment at Avignon, in November, 1782. The first balloon raised in the atmosphere by means of inflammable air, was constructed by public subscription, opened by M. Faujas St. Fond, at Paris: it was prevented from escaping by ropes. The first aerial voyage was performed with the same balloon by M. Pilatre de Rozier, and the Marquis d'Arlandes, who passed over the city of Paris November 21, 1783. They were carried about twenty-seven miles in one hour and three quarters. The great rarity of inflammable air was first ascertained in 1766, by Mr. Cavendish, and the idea of its application to the purpose of floating a bag in the atmosphere, was explained by Dr. Black in his lectures next following that period. Several philosophers made attempts to carry this into effect, previous to June, 1782, and succeeded so far as to inflate soap bubbles with inflammable air, which rapidly ascended to the ceiling of the room. On the 14th of June, 1785, the intrepid Pilatre de Rozier fell a victim to the new art, of which he was the first adventurer. He attempted to cross the British Channel, in company with a gentleman whose name was Romain; but when they were about six thousand toises high, the upper balloon took fire, and burst; Pilatre de Rozier was the first who came to the ground,

and no signs of life were perceived in him; but his companion is said to have uttered an exclamation before he expired.

The first aerial voyage ever performed in England, was by Vincent Lunardi, an Italian, who made his ascent from the Artillery Ground, London, on the 15th of September, 1784. His balloon was made of oiled silk, striped alternately with blue and red. Its diameter was 33 feet. Mr. Lunardi took with him on this expedition, a dog, a cat, and a pigeon, and ascended to such a considerable height, that on returning to the ground, after an absence of about an hour and half, his cat was nearly dead with the excessive cold to which it had been exposed. The thermometer which he carried with him stood, during the course of his voyage, so low as 290, and the drops of water collected round the balloon were converted into solid ice.

From that period to the present, balloons have been so common, both in England and in other countries, that, except in the vicinity of their immediate ascent, they half cease to excite astonishment. On most public occasions, the ascent of a balloon is an item in the list of amusements; and the huzzas and admiration of the gazing throng, are, perhaps, the principal recompence with which the adventurer is rewarded.

During the experiments which have been made, many melancholy disasters have occurred, attended with circumstances almost too shocking to be recorded. But these have been insufficient to deter others from making experiments in the aerial regions; and perhaps the inducements to daring adventurers have increased in proportion to the dangers which awaited them, and the hazards they must encounter.

There can be little doubt, that on certain occasions, balloons may be applied to purposes, for which no other vehicle can be adapted; and with a wind that is favourable, a journey may be accomplished with a degree of rapidity that bids defiance to every other mode of conveyance. But when we contrast with these solitary advantages, the expense of constructing the machine, the uncertainty of the state of the atmosphere, and the deficiency of art to guide it in such

directions as shall suit the purposes of the voyager, we may view it as a scientific companion to the discovery of the north-west passage, should that great object ever be accomplished. As imposing spectacles, they may gratify the ambition of speculators, amuse the idle, and add new trophies to the honours of ingenious intrepidity, without being of much advantage to commerce, or of any substantial benefit to mankind.

"GOD'S ARROW AGAINST ATHEISM AND

IRRELIGION."

THE following tract was published early in the seventeenth century, and the style in which it is written partakes of that tedious prolixity which was common to most of the writers of that period. Yet the arguments are in general of great weight; and the subjects here treated of have not lost any of their importance in the present day. An abridged republication of the work, it is hoped, will be no unacceptable present to the readers of the Imperial Magazine: I have ventured to add a few explanatory sentences to the work itself.

J. COUCH.

CHAPTER FIRST.

There is a GOD,-who ought to be worshipped.

THERE is something within the human mind, which accords with the idea that there is a God; and Cicero forcibly observes, that this impression is found to exist among those, who, in regard to civilization, are the most savage and barbarous. Among the more refined heathens, atheism and irreligion were ever odious, insomuch that Protagoras, for that he doubted whether there were any God, was, by the Athenians, banished from their country. That this idea is a natural one, is shewn by the instinctive lifting up of the mind to heaven, which is felt by all in cases of sudden or severe distress; and it has been proved by the experience of all ages, that such as have in health and prosperity professed themselves to be atheists, when they have come to die, or have fallen No. 45.-Vol. IV,

This

into great misery, have shewn a great and anxious fear of God; and hence, Zeno was accustomed to say, that it seemed to him a more substantial proof of this matter to hear an atheist, when he drew near to death, preach God, (when he asked God and all the world forgiveness,) than it was to hear all the philosophers in the world disputing of the point; for at this instant of misery and death, it appears, that such men display an earnestness and sobriety of spirit, who before denied the Divinity through wantonness, and for greater facility of sinning. was exemplified in the Emperor Caligula, who, though a notorious scorner and contemner of the gods, was accustomed, when he heard terrible thundering and lightning, to creep under a bed to hide himself. And the being of a God may also be concluded, from that sense of shame, which is felt by all men after the commission of an offence; for though different nations may differ as to the particular nature of certain actions, an impression that some are good and others evil, is written in the heart of every man; and whence this conviction should proceed, except from God, it is impossible to conceive.

As the being of a God is felt in every man's conscience, so is he seen in all the works of his material creation. That this world had a beginning, has been taught by the most excellent philosophers; and though Aristotle, for a time, supposed it to have been from eternity, yet in his old age he believed the contrary, as we find from his treatise "Of the World," a work which Justin Martyr calls the epitome of all Aristotle's true philosophy. If this world be confessed to have had a beginning, it could not have been its own creator; nor could any thing which forms a part of it, create the whole; for such ideas are plainly absurd. So then we perceive the force of that sentence quoted by St. Paul from Aratus, "we are his offspring ;" and as it is confessedly a natural duty, that we should honour those who have begotten us, our duty to the eternal Creator of all things flows immediately from this conclusion. And the daily benefits and blessings of life teach the same things; they are too well adapted to our real wants to proceed from mere accident; and that they are a proof, both of the existence 3 N