who have tranflated the preceding volume of his Obfervations into the French and Italian languages. But as Dr. Priestley has with great propriety devoted a section of the present work to the emendation of thofe miftakes, we hope the progrefs of experimental knowledge on the continent will meet with no refardment on that account; and we are glad to find, for the benefit of philofophy, that the ingenious Sig. Landriani, who is converfant with the English, has undertaken to tranf late all that has been written by our author on the subject of air.

In the preface to this volume Dr. Prieftley complains of the fentiments which he expreffed in a former work having been invidiously misreprefented;, and as it was done through fuch a channel as may have widely propagated an opinion injurious to his moral reputation, we think it a duty incumbent upon us to infert his defence in our Review.

• Notwithstanding my ftudies and writings are chiefly of a theological nature, and my philofophical purfuits only occafional; notwithstanding, in my Inftitutes of natural and revealed Religion, I have an intire volume on the evidences of christianity, in which I flatter myfelf I have placed feveral parts of it in a new and ftronger light, and this from inclination only, without a fhadow of intereft to biafs me, I have been reprefented in an artful advertisement, frequently repeated in all the English newfpapers, as not believing in a future ftate. The author of the advertisement has, for this bafe purpofe, quoted the following mutilated sentence from an Essay of mine prefixed to my edition of Dr. Hartley's Obfervations on the Human Mind, p. zo.

"I am rather inclined to think, though the fubject is beyond our comprehenfion at prefent, that man doth not confift of two principles fo effentially different from one another as matter and fpirit, which are always defcribed as having no one common property, by means of which they can affect or act upon each other, &c. I rather think that the whole man is of fome uniform compofition, and that the property of perception, as well as the other powers that are termed mental, is the refult (whether neceffary or not) of fuch an organical structure as that of the brain. Confequently that the whole man becomes extinct at death, &c."

The wickednefs of this reprefentation will appear by reciting the remainder of the fentence.

-“at death, and that we have no hope of furviving the grave, but what is derived from the scheme of revelation."

In the fame page I also observe that, though this doctrine favours the opinion of the lower animals differing from us in degree only, and not in kind, "it does not neceflarily draw after it the belief of their furviving death as well as ourselves; this privilege being derived to us by a pofitive conftitution, and de

pending

pending upon the promife of God, communicated by express revelation to man.' ""

This affair has been the occafion of much exultation among bigots, as a proof that freedom of thinking in matters of religion leads to infidelity; and unbelievers, who have never read any but my philofophical writings, have confidered me as one of their fraternity. To the former I fhall fay nothing, because it would avail nothing. To the latter, of whom I have more hopes, I would take this opportunity of obferving (and in this I addrefs myself to foreigners more than my own countrymen) that, as they will agree with me in the opinion of the natural mortality of the foul, which is agreeable to every appearance in nature, it nearly concerns us to confider whether there be no evidence of a future life of retribution independent of the contrary doctrine, which has no countenance from the fcriptures*; that it argues extreme narrowness of mind, unworthy of the spirit of philofophy, not to extend our views and inquiries beyond the circle of thofe objects about which natural philofophy is converfant, which terminate in gaining a knowledge of the visible fyftem of nature; and that it behoves us to confider whether the great Author of Nature has not afforded us fufficient data for knowledge infinitely more interefting to us, more immediately respecting our relation to himself, and his gracious provifion for our improvement and happiness, not only in this infancy of our being, but to a period which has no bounds.

Let philofophers, as certainly becomes their character, confider facts, and the phenomena of the human mind, as influenced by facts, and it muft appear to them to be utterly incredible, that chriftianity fhould have arifen, have been propagated, and have established itself in the world, in the circumstances in which all history fhews that it did arife, and was propagated, if it had not been founded on truth and fact; fuch facts as are ftrictly the fubject of historical investigation.

:

The common objection against religion among philofophers is, that it was invented by artful interested priests, or wife magiftrates but it is not fact that chriftianity had any fuch origin. No priest was concerned in the invention of it, nor did any civil magiftrate fofter it: but, on the contrary, it was violently opposed by all priests, and all magiftrates, wherever it appeared

In this opinion I am far from being fingular. It is known to have been the opinion of Luther, and many of the moft eminent of the first reformers. Of late years it has been moft ably fupported by the prefent excellent bishop of Carlisle, and is now generally adopted by rational chriftians. The opinion of the natural immortality of the foul, had its origin in the heathen philofophy; and having, with other pagan notions, infinuated itfelf into chriftianity' (which has been miferably depraved by this means) has been the great fupport of the popish doctrines of purgatory, and the worship of the dead.

and

and by its own evidence it triumphed over both. These are facts worthy of the attention of philofophers, as fuch.'

This work opens with an Introduction, containing an account of an additional apparatus for experiments on air, and of the precautions proper to be attended to in the use of it. The author then proceeds, in the first fection, to relate his experiments on vitriolic acid air, the idea of which he first conceived, upon having formerly exhibited the marine acid in the form of air. The experiment anfwering his expectation,. he profecuted an enquiry into vegetable acid air; ufing for that purpose a quantity of exceedingly ftrong concentrated acid: of vinegar; by means of which he made the obfervations recited in the fecond fection.

The limits of a Review would be infufficient for conveying a particular account of a work of this nature, we must therefore be content with enumerating the various fubjects of which it treats.

Se&t. III. is employed on Dephlogisticated Air, and the confitution of the Atmosphere.

Sect. IV. A more particular account of fome Processes for the Production of dephlogifticated Air.

Sect. V. Mifcellaneous Obfervations on the Properties of dephlogisticated air.

Sect. VI. Of Air procured from various Substances by means of Heat only.

Sect. VII. Of Air produced by the Solution of Vegetable Subftances in Spirit of Nitre.

Sect. VIII. Of Air procured by the Solution of Animal Subftances in Spirit of Nitre.

Sect. IX. Mifcellaneous Experiments relating to Nitre, the Nitrous Acid and Nitrous Air.

Sect. X. Some Obfervations on Common Air.

Sect XI. Of the Fluor Acid Air.

Se&t. XII. Experiments and Obfervations relating to fixed. Air.

Se&. XIII. Mifcellaneous Obfervations.

Sect. XIV. Experiments and Obfervations on Charcoal, first published in the Philofophical Tranfactions, Vol. LX. Sect. XV. Of the Impregnation of Water with fixed Air. The first part of the work contains a particular account of the discovery. Part II prefents us with directions for the procefs of impregnating water with fixed air, and obfervations upon it. Part III. exhibits Dr. Nooth's objections to the preceding method of impregnating water with fixed air, and a comparison of it with his own method, both as published by himfelf, and as improved by Mr. Parker.

Se&t.

Sect. XVI. An Account of fome Mifreprefentations of the Author's Sentiments, and of fome Differences of Opinion with refpect to the Subject of Air.

Sect. XVII. Experiments relating to fome of the preceding Sections, made fince they were printed off.

The volume concludes with an Appendix, containing the fol lowing articles, viz.

Number I. Experiments and Obfervations relating to fome of the Chemical Properties of the Fluid, commonly called Fixed Air; and tending to prove that it is merely the Vapour of a particular Acid. In two Letters to the rev. Dr. Priestley, by Mr. Bewly.

Number II. A Letter from Dr. Percival, to Dr. Priestley, on the Solution of Stones of the Urinary and Gall Bladder, by impregnating Water with Fixed Air.

Number III. A Letter from Dr. Dobfon of Liverpool, to Dr. Priestley; with Cafes of the Efficacy of Fixed Aïr in putrid Disorders.

Number IV. Extract of a Letter from Dr. Warren of Taunton, to Dr. Prieftley; with a medical Cafe, proving the Ufe of Clyfters of Fixed Air in a putrid Disease.

Number V. A Letter from Dr. Magellan, on the Subject of Dephlogisticated Air.

Number VI. A Third Letter from Mr. Bewly, contain ing farther Experiments and Obfervations on the mephitic

Acid.

The numerous obfervations Dr. Priestley has communicated in this volume, and with more of which, it is to be hoped, he will yet favour the public, may juftly be confidered as fome of the most curious difcoveries in philofophy; and they not only extend the bounds of natural knowledge, but pro mise such an influence in the cure of difeafes, as never before was fo much as conceived in idea, from the earlieft ages of me. dical science.

IV. The Lufiad; or, the Discovery of India. An Epic Poem. Tranflated from the Original Portuguese of Luis de Camoëns, By Willian Julius Mickle. 4to. 11. 15. fewed. Cadell.

IN

N our Review for August 1771, we gave an account of the Firft Book of this tranflation, which was then published as a fpecimen of this work. At that time, we congratulated the lovers of poetry, on the profpect of having fo elegant a verfion

of

of the Lufiad in our language; and we now repeat our congratulations on the completion of that event.

To this tranflation of the epic poem of Camoëns, Mr. Mickle has prefixed an Introduction, in which he enters into a difcuffion of fome fubjects relative to the work. He begins with refuting the opinion of those politicians who confider the origin of European commerce with India, on which the Lufiad is founded, as a deplorable incident in modern hiftory, and who affert that the increase of trade is only productive of moral degeneracy. He endeavours to evince, that the voyages both of Gama and Columbus have not only already carried a fuperior degree of happiness, and the prospect of infinitely more, to the Eastern and Western worlds; but that they have also proved the means of refining the intellectual powers, and extending civilization over Europe. In treating of this fub, ject, we are prefented with the following lively defcription of European barbarifm, before the genius of Don Henry gave birth to the spirit of modern discovery; which our author contrafts with the prefent ftate of these countries in respect of opulence and learning.

• Several ages before this period the feudal fyftem had degenerated into the most abfolute tyranny. The barons exercised the most defpotic authority over their vaffals, and every scheme of public utility was rendered impracticable by their continual petty wars with each other; and to which they led their de pendents as dogs to the chace. Unable to read, or to write his own name, the chieftain was entirely poffeffed by the most romantic opinion of military glory, and the fong of his domeftic minstrel conftituted his highest idea of fame. The claffics flept on the shelves of the monafteries, their dark, but happy asylum, while the life of the monks resembled that of the fattened beeves which loaded their tables. Real abilities were indeed poffeffed by a Duns Scotus and a few others; but these were loft in the moft trifling fubtleties of a fophiftry, which they dignified with the name of cafuiftical divinity. Whether Adam and Eve were created with navels, and how many thousand angels might at the fame inftant dance upon the point of the finest needle with out one jostling another, were two of the feveral topics of like importance which excited the acumen and engaged the controveries of the learned. While every branch of philofophical, of rational investigation, was thus unpurfued and unknown, Commerce, incompatible in itfelf with the feudal fyftem, was equally neglected and unimproved. Where the mind is enlarged and enlightened by learning, plans of commerce will rife into action, and which, in return, will, from every part of the earth, bring new acquirements to philofophy and fcience. The birth of learning and commerce may be different, but their

growth