some bread, beer, wine, vinegar, pickles, &c. The Rev. G. Holden is printing, in an octavo volume, the Scripture Testimonies to the Divinity of Christ, collected and illustrated. Mr. Henry Brook will soon publish, in quarto, with twelve plates, a Guide to the Stars; being an easy method of knowing the relative position of the fixed stars, from the first to the third magnitude. The Rev. G. Townsend has in the press, in two octavo volumes, the Holy Bible arranged in Chronological and Historical Order, that the whole may be read in one uniform connected history. Miss Benger has nearly ready for publication, the Life of Ann Boleyn, queen of Henry VIII, being the first of a series of historical female portraits. W. M. Mason, esq. has in forwardness for publication, the History and Antiquities of the Collegiate Church of St. Patrick, Dublin, in a quarto volume, with seven engravings. Prof. Leslie has in the press, Geometrical Analysis, and the Geometry of Curve Lines; also, a Treatise ou Heat, theoretical and practical. The Rev. H Gauntlett will soon publish, Lectures on the Book of Revelation, being the substance of forty-four discourses, preached at Olney. Mr. J. Noble, of Edinburgh, is preparing an Arabic Vocabulary and Index for Richardson's Arabic Grammar, with tables of oriental alphabets, points, and affixes. Rome in the Nineteenth Century, is printing in three duodecimo volumes. Travels in England, Wales, and Scotland, in 1816, by Dr. Spiker, librarian to the king of Prussia, are translating for the press. Lectures on the Philosophy of the Human Mind, by the late Dr. Thomas Brown, are printing in three octavo volumes. On the 1st of September, Mr. Brookshaw, (author of that celebrated work, the "Pomona Brittannica,") will produce the first two parts of an entirely new work on Fruit, entitled, the" Horticultural Repository," containing delineations of the best varieties of the different species of English fruit; to which are added, the blossoms and leaves, in those instances in which they are judged necessary accompanied with full descriptions of their various properties, their time of ripening, and directions for planting them, so as to produce a longer succession of fruit; such being pointed out as are particularly calculated for open walls, and for forcing. It will be completed in about twenty-six parts, price 51. each. ART. XI. LIST OF WORKS RECENTLY PUBLISHED. illustrative engravings. By the late Rev. Ezekiel Blomfield, 4to. 11. Historical Account of Discoveries and Travels in Asia, from the earliest ages to the present time. By Hugh Murray, F.R.S. E. 3 vols. 8vo. 21. 2s. MEDICINE. Observations on Variolous Inoculatiou, and Vaccination; in a Letter to a Friend. With an appendix, containing some remarks on the extension of SmallPox, in the town of Melksham and its vicinity. By J. F. Inlbert, member of the Royal College of Surgeons, London; honorary member of the Medical and Physical Society of Guy's Hospital, &c. MISCELLANEOUS. Private Correspondence of David Hume, the Historian, with several distinguished Persons; now first published from the originals in the possession of the editor. 4to. 1. 11s. 6d. Letters from Mrs. Delany (widow of Doctor Patrick Delany) to Mrs. Frances Hamilton, from the year 1779 to the year 1788; comprising many unpublished and interesting Anecdotes of their late Majesties, and the Royal Family. Now first printed from the original manuscripts. post 8vo. 6s. 6d. The Whole Correspondence of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford, now first collected. 4 vols. 8vo. with portrait. 21. 8s. Collections relative to the Claims at the Coronations of several of the Kings of England, beginning with King Richard II. being curious and interesting documents, derived from authentic sources. 8vo. 5s. The Athenian Oracle, abridged; containing the most valuable questions and answers, in the volumes of the original work; on history, philosophy, divinity, love and marriage. 8vo. 10s. 6d. An Account of the Improvements on the Estates of the Marquess of Stafford, in the counties of Stafford and Salop, and on the Estate of Sutherland; with remarks. By James Loch, Esq. Illustrated by numerous plans, &c. 8vo. 12s. The Improvement of English Roads urged, during the existing Dearth of Employment for the Poor. 8vo. 2s. Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay; containing Papers and Essays, by John Crawford, Esq.; Mr. Charles Bellino; W. Erskine, Esq.; Mr. Joseph Hammer; Mr. N. Pearce; Capt. Vans Kennedy; A. Stewart, Esq. Charles Linton, Esq.; Capt. F. Danger field; Capt. Jas. Macmurdo; Thos. Coats, Esq.; Capt. John Stewart. With a list of the members. Vol. II. 4to. 31. 3s, boards. The concluding Part of the New Cyclopædia; or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature. By Abraham Rees, D.D. F.R.S. F.L.S. &c. Editor of the last edition of Mr. Chambers' Dictionary; with the assistance of eminent professional Gentlemen. Aristarchus anti-Blomfieldianus; or, a Reply to the Notice of the New Greek Thesaurus inserted in the 44th Number of the Quarterly Review. By E. H. Barker, O. T. N. to which are added, the Jena Reviews of Mr. Blomfield's Edition of Callimachus and Eschyli Persæ, translated from the German. 8vo. 4s. 6d. A General Index to the first forty Numbers of the Classical Journal. 6s. The Establishments of M. Emmanuel de Fellenberg, at Hoffwyl, considered with reference to their claim upon the attention of men in public Stations. By the Count Louis de Villevieille. 2s. NATURAL HISTORY. A Compendium of the Ornithology of Great Britain; with a Reference to the Anatomy and Physiology of Birds. By John Atkinson, F.L.S. Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, &c. and Curator of the Museum and Librarian to the Philosophical and Literary Society at Leeds. POETRY. The Brothers, a Monody, and other Poems. By Charles Abraham Elton, Esq. feap. 8vo. 5s. Tabella Cibaria; the Bill of Fare; a Latin Poem, implicitly translated, and fully explained in copious and interesting notes relating to the pleasures of gastronomy and the mysterious art of cookery; with an appendix upon the history, art of making, and nomenclature of wines. small 4to. 10s. 6d. Court News; or, the Peers of King Coal; aud the Errams; or, a Survey of British Strata; with explanatory notes. 12mo. 3s. 6d. The Old English Poets. Volume III. Containing the Completion of Chamberlayne's Pharounida and Love's Victory. 5s. 6d. A poetical Epistle to a Friend, on Missions, Schools, and Bibles. By a Non-Confabulist. 2s. An Epistle from William Lord Russell to William Lord Cavendish, supposed to have been written the evening before bis execution. By the Rt. Hon. G. Canning, M. P. 4s. Grace Triumphant, a poem in nine dialogues. By John Fellows. Revised and recommended by Samuel Turner, preacher at Sunderland. Is. 6d. THEOLOGY. Sacred Literature; comprising a review of the principles of composition laid down by the late Robert Lowth, D. D. Lord Bishop of London, in his Prelections and Isaiah, and an application of the principles so reviewed to the illustration of the New Testament; in a series of critical observations on the style and structure of that Sacred Volume. By the Rev. John Jebb, A. M. Rector of Abington, in the diocese of Cashel. 8vo. 12s. Sermons, doctrinal, practical, and occasional. By the Rev. W. Snowden, perpetual curate of Horbury, near Wakefield. 8vo. 10s. 6d. The School Prayer Book: being a week's course of prayers for the use of schools and young persons, and a few on particular occasions: to which are added, the collects throughout the year, with an explanatory catechism prefixed to each; the church catechism, in English and French; and some select psalms and hymns. 2s. bound. Christian Liberality; or, an attempt to shew the propriety of duly apportioning our gifts for charitable purposes. A Sermon. By R. W. Newland, Minister of the Tabernacle, Hanley, Staffordshire. 1s. A Sequel to the Pleasures of Religion, in Letters from Joseph Felton to his Son Charles. 2s. 6d. TRAVELS AND TOPOGRAPHY. Travels in Brazil during the years 1815, 1816, 1817. By Prince Maximilian of Nieuwied. 4to. with map and engravings. 21. 2s. Three Months passed in the Mountains East of Rome, during the year 1819. By Maria Graham, Author of a Journal of a Residence in India. With six plates. 8vo. 10s. 6d. A Journal of Two successive Tours upon the Continent, performed in the years 1816, 1817, and 1818; containing an account of the principal places in the South of France, of the great roads over the Alps, and of the chief cities and most interesting parts of Italy, accompanied with occasional remarks, historical and critical. By James Wilson, Esq. 3 vols. 8vo. 11. 16s. An Appendix to the various Descriptions of Paris. By Madame Domeier, F. C. 4s. bds. Popular Travels and Voyages throughout the Continent and Islands of Europe; in which the Geography, Character, Customs, and Manners of Nations are described; and the phenomena of nature, most worthy of observation, are illustrated on scientific principles. By Mrs. Jamieson, late Miss Thurtle, Author of a History of France, History of Spain, Ashford Rectory, &c. With thirteen views. 12mo. 9s. ERRATUM IN THE PRESENT NUMBER. Page 172, line 5, for covering, read convenient. THE ECLECTIC REVIEW, FOR OCTOBER, 1820. Art. I. An Essay on the Evils of Popular Ignorance. By John Foster. 8vo. pp. 304. Price 7s. 6d. London. 1820. LONG before Philosophy framed it into the shape of a proposition, that Knowledge is power,' an indistinct conviction of the fact seems constantly to have guided the policy of the dominant few, in their treatment and government of the subject many. Because knowledge is power, therefore it has been deemed unwise and unsafe to intrust it in the hands of the people. Accordingly, the Papal system, which had its foundations laid in popular ignorance, has always dictated the most jealous assertion of this prerogative of the privileged orders. It was doubtless upon the principle of self-preservation, that the Church of Rome sealed up the fountains of instruction, knowing them to be, at the same time, the sources of moral power. It is a very different position from the philosophical axiom just referred to, that has been laid down by a wiser than Bacon: "That the "heart be without knowledge," Solomon has said, "it is not "good." And this position is very far indeed from having obtained the general assent of mankind. Few persons, perhaps, in our own country, would deny, in general terms, that ignorance is an evil, or that the people are, in many respects, the worse for being grossly ignorant; but a very little knowledge, almost as little of this sort of power as possible, is deemed sufficient for them. The prevailing feeling among a very large class of the nation is, an anxiety lest the lower classes should come to know too much. If the question were fairly and closely put to such persons, whether they consider knowledge to be absolutely a good thing, they would hesitate, they would plead for its being good under certain circumstances, and with certain qualifications; or they would, perhaps, at length broadly intimate, in a sense for which the poet is not responsible, that - where ignorance is bliss, 'Tis folly to be wise.' Knowledge, it is imagined, tends only to make the labouring VOL. XIV. N.S. 2 C classes discontented with their situation, to encourage spirit of insubordination; and therefore, though knowledge may be in itself a good, it is not good for them: which is only saying, in other words, that popular ignorance is not an evil. In terming this a prevailing sentiment at the present time, we shall no doubt be reminded of the unparalleled exertions which are being made to educate the lower classes, as seemingly confronting the assertion with fact. But, without going into the general subject of the causes which have produced this reluctant and unnatural movement, on the part of the new friends of national education, it is sufficient to remark, that a conviction of the evils of popular ignorance, had an extremely small share in originating it. We have known many an institutor of a national school, who has retained and avowed his sentiments of hostility to the modern scheme of making education general. To suppress a Dissenting Sunday school has, in hundreds of instances, been the only motive for establishing a rival institution under the auspices of the Church. And the incumbent and the patron of the district have yielded to the spirit of the times, or to the necessity of the case, not without sagacious intimations of doubt or alarm with regard to the probable issue. There is another class of persons, who more cheerfully concur in plans of education from a sense of duty, from the persuasion that the people ought to be taught, but who have by no means clear or adequate ideas of the greatness of the mischief and calamity which are involved in their being left in a state of ignorance. A distrust of the efficiency of mere knowledge in certain relations, leads them to underrate its vast importance, and its necessary effects in other directions. It is possible that some benevolent persons may have their exertions discouraged by the consideration of the accountableness which attaches to knowledge, and of the aggravated guilt which those who shall have been rendered more accountable by instruction, are but too likely to incur. Such a feeling is manifestly wrong, since it is at variance with the clearest precepts of duty, and would equally militate against all attempts to promote even the diffusion of religious truth. In short, while the advantages and the usefulness of knowledge have now come to be generally admitted, and plans are being every where set on foot for the better education of the lower classes, the subject of the present Essay has never received that distinct attention which it deserves; has never been fairly laid open in all its length and breadth to the view of the legislator, the political economist, and the reflective Christian. The very obviousness of the truth, that ignorance is a prodigious evil, seems to supersede the necessity of any formal method of proof to establish it; but yet, in showing how absolutely evil it is, and |