or the writings of the prefent day; and to attempt a reply to them, in a way fo far popular and familiar, as may be not unacceptable to those who are either not profeffionally engaged in theological ftudies, or not deeply skilled in the questions that are agitated refpecting the doctrines or the establishment of our national church. That any new arguments will be produced, it were prefumption to pretend; nor can it be expected they fhould easily be found. The Chriftian religion is limited to the truths contained in its own records. To the fe no addition or diminution can be allowed. The arguments too, by which it is fupported, are coeval with the religion itself: and from its nature and importance it has engaged the attention of the wifest and best men in every age fince its promulgation to the world. All the objections, and all the difficulties, which the subject can admit, have probably long fince been urged; and confequently all have been repeatedly examined and difcuffed. Some difficulties are capable only of one adequate folution; and of the various anfwers applicable to others, the beft, no doubt, have already been employed. A few illuftrious indi. viduals, by the exertion of fuperior powers of mind, or by the judicious or fortunate direction of their ftudies, have occafionally thrown an additional ray of light on the evidence or the doctrines of our faith. But all its other advocates must be content with the humbler talk of producing the ftores already provided; and adapting them to the occafions by which they appear to be required. The novelty, however, which it is thus difficult to find, we conceive not to be neceffary to the cause in which we are engaged. It cannot reasonably be demanded from us, till either new difficulties fhall be brought forward, or the modes of reafoning already employed fhall appear infufficient to convince the fincere and candid enquirer. With the fame arms, with which we have fo often triumphed, we may still hope to conquer. But our adverfaries have lately endeavoured to adapt the style and form of their objections to the tafe and capacity of the moft ordinary readers; to give their artillery fuch a direction and level, as may be likely to do the most extenfive mifchief; and we mult prepare to meet them on their own ground. The champion of Chriftianity muft regulate his defence by the nature of the attack. It feems neither ufeleis nor unneceffary in thefe times, to reduce the fubftance of more learned difquifitions into more familiar forms, and to comprefs them into a narrower compafs; to collect from every quarter, fuch arguments as appear the moft appofite and decifive; and to prefent them recommended, if not by eloquence and erudition, at leat by modefty and candour; it not by their depth or novelty, at leaft by their concifenefs and perfpicuity. If the prefent preacher can produce that which the learned and the ju dicious may hear without difgutt, and by which the young, the gay, or the uninformed may be perfuaded to think and to enquire, he hall confider his time and attention as having been well employed; and the. talk as tulfilled, which he undertakes to perform. To fupport the cause of religion and virtue very different methods may be purfued; and the moft promifing will not always prove the most effectual. By the interpofition of heaven, Chriftianity was at firit propagated by means and inftraments apparently very inadequate to their object; and at this day the higheit or humbleft abilities, the weakelt or the molt

powerful

powerful effort, muft depend for its efficacy and fuccefs on the favour and bleffing of heaven. Paul planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the encreafe." P. 39.

After examining the feveral Difcourfes contained in this volume, we cannot perceive any part more calculated to give the reader a juft idea of their merit, than, the opening of the fecond, which treats of the Neceffity of divine Revelation. This therefore we shall infert, as a further fpecimen of the Lectures.

what we to

receive "The first and broadeft ground of objection, as a divine revelation, has generally been, that it is not neceffary; that mankind do not stand in need of fuch preternatural inftruction and affittance, as it profeffes to communicate. The Creator, fay the adverfaries of revealed religion, has given to man the faculty of reafon; and by the native powers, or by the due improvement, of this faculty, he is enabled to attain all the information that is neceffary to his enjoyments or his virtue. He is enabled, they maintain, not only to afcertain the rules and principles of good morals; but to urge fufficient arguments and motives to enfore the practice: to collect fatisfactory evidence, not only that he is at prefent in a state of probation and refponfibility; but that he is deftined for a future and more permanent exiftence; in which he muft receive the juft recompence of his merits or his crimes. He is enabled to discover, they affert, not only the exifence of a Supreme Being; but his attributes and perfections; not only that he has been the author and giver of life; but that he will hereafter be the judge of our conduct; or in the language of revelation itself; that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently feek him. From thefe premifes they conclude it to be improbable and incredible, that the Almighty fhould give, what was not wanted; that he should, without ufe or neceffity, contrive and conduct the extenfive and complicated work of the redemptica of mankind by the gospel; and that it is much more probable, this fuppofed revelation is the invention of human policy; either the pious fraud of the benevolent, to allure men into peaceable fubjection to the laws of focial order; or the artifice of the ambitious, to keep the timid and the weak in fubjection to the cunning and the bold.

"If unaflied reafon were really able to difcover, all that is here afcribed to it, the neceffity of a divine revelation, as far at least as it is a fyftem of moral instruction, would certainly be fuperfeded. But if according to the obfervation of Cicer, to fay that no man has been wife, and that no man can be wife, amount to the fame thing; if it be fair to assume, that men are not able to do, what in fact they have never done; then will it not be difficult to fhew, that reafen cannot effect what the objection fuppofes, that it is not fufficient guide, or a fufficient authority, in our purfuit of truth, virtue, and happiness." P. 45.

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The author then fhows, that the light of reafon is by no means fufficient in each individual, for the purpofes required; and after noticing the inftances of children and labouring perfons, proceeds thus:

"This

"This confideration will appear of ftill greater weight if we reflect, that the rules of morality, when first announced, are not all felf-evident and indifputable many of them require examination and proof, be fore they bring conviction. They are maintained by different men on different grounds; and various reafons are affigned for the rules themfelves; and ftill more various, for their authority and obligation.

"It feems fair to affume too, that if the light of reafon were fufficient, in each individual, to discover right principles of faith and action, each individual muft certainly difcover them. Otherwife, the Creator must have beftowed a faculty, for a purrofe which it dees not answer; and the endowment is a mockery. That each individual, however, does not difcover them, is too obvious in point of fact, to require argument or evidence. Nor will any fuppofed neglect or abuse of our reafon fatisfactorily account for fo extraordinary a failure; or, upon the hypothefis of the objector, vindicate the wifd m and juftice of the Creator. No time can be specified when it was fuccefsful; no fuch inftances can be produced, as will warrant any general conclufion in favour of its fufficiency: no individual can be named, who adopted and fixed his opinions, by the exertions of his own reafons alone; who, without inftruction or affiftance, formed for himself a fyftem of religion and morality.

Another argument, against this fufficiency of reafon in each individual, may be drawn from the general uniformity in natural endowments. Our fenfes, our paffions, and our inftincts, in themfelves, and in their operations and effects, unless where they are occafionally controled by fome fuperior influence, are regular and univerfal. They may differ in degree, but not in kind. Had this fuppofed light of reason then resembled other natural endowments; it must have refembled them alfo in the regularity of its effects. And as truth and right, the greatest and the best objects of its research, are always the fame; every man must have difcovered the fame articles of faith, and the fame principles of conduct. The rules of morality would have been every where alike; and the doctrines of religion uniform and confiftent, But how far this is from being the cafe, the most superficial infpection of hiftory will inform us. Not two nations upon earth, whofe fentiments are known to us, however fimple in their opinions and manners, precifely agree in their religious doctrines, or rules of practice. Not a civilized people can be found, with whose history we are acquainted, who have not at fome time or other changed, in important articles, their fyftem of faith, and in fome points, their precepts of morality. Nor can a nation be pointed out, that is not difturbed by fects, herefies, and factions. In the populace this might not be allowed to have much weight in point of argument; because they may have been led aftray, by the influence of a celebrated name, by the policy of power, or the authority of conqueft. It still, however, proves the want of unanimity amongst mankind; and the truth is, that amongst the more exalted in rank or talents not much more uniformity will be found. Not a philofopher can be named, who was in all points of religion and morality decided in his opinions; or at all times even confiftent with himfelf; and how little they agreed with each other, their numerous fects and endless difputations will abun

dantly

dantly inform us. The academic ridiculed the ftoic; the epicurean derided both; and the fect of the feeptics is faid to have taken its rife from the diffentions of the reft. The light of nature then has not enabled each individual to discover any rule of conduct that is, what fuch a rule evidently ought to be, clear and uniform, confiftent and univerfal." P. 50.

The reader will obferve, in these specimens, that, though the author is frequently obliged to tread on beaten ground, he is by no means deficient in the talent of putting his arguments in a new light, and a convenient form; and that occafionally he alfo fuggefts new confiderations of much weight and value. A fimilar character, accompanied by a clear and equable style, pervades the whole volume, which cannot fail to be confidered as the work of an able reafoner, and a found well-judging divine.

ART. XVII. [A] View of the Ruffian Empire during the Reign of Catharine the Second, and to the Clofe of the prefent Century. By William Tooke, F. R. S. Member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, and of the Free Economical Society at St. Petersburg. Three Volumes. 8vo. Near 600 pp. each (with a large Map of the Ruffian Empire) 11. 75. Longman and Rees. 1799.

THE

HE ample and interefting Life of Catharine II, published anonymously by this author*, had already turned the attention of the public to the Ruffian Empire, when the vast and beneficial effects produced by the arrival of the armies of the Emperor Paul in the fouthern parts of Europe, ftill further augmented the popularity of the fubject. At fuch a period, for a man long refident in Ruffia, and fully converfant with the people and books of that country, to fend forth a work defcriptive of the whole ftate of the Empire, for the prefent period, and that most lately elapfed, is to write with a certainty of finding encouragement. Nor is the work before us unde ferving of the attention it cannot fail to obtain, as it comprehends a great variety of information, well written, and clearly digefted. The author undertook his work alfo with the advantage of having the very best materials abundantly prepared to his hands. About the middle of the year 1767, as he informs

* Noticed by us in vol. xii, p. 288, and xiii, p. 447.

US,

us, Catharine II conceived the useful project of fending feveral learned men to travel through her valt territories, and collect every species of information, concerning the natural features and actual condition of the various countries and people comprehended in that vaft circuit. The perfons chofen for this great undertaking were men, whofe very names are now a fufficient pledge of their ability to fulfil the views of the Emprefs in the completelt manner. The chief of them, GMELIN and PALLAS, are known to all Europe as men of fcience, and acute investigation. GEORGI feems to have been very properly added to the number; and the character given by Mr. Tooke of Captain Rytfchof, M. Lepechin, and Dr. J. GuldenStadt, is fuch as gives reafon to expect very excellent refults from their enquiries. The labours of thefe men form profeffedly the foundation of the prefent work; and the author, in his Introduction, gives with great judgment, an exact view of the travels performed by each of thefe enquirers. The objects of their enquiry, as prefcribed by the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg, were reduced to ten heads, which are thus enumerated by Mr. Tooke.

They were to make accurate examinations into-1. The nature of the foil and that of the waters. 2. The means of putting the de fert places into cultivation. 3. The actual ftate of agriculture. 4. The most common diseases, both of men and cattle; and the methods of healing and preventing them. 5. The breeding of cattle, particularly fheep, and that of bees and filk-worms. 6. The fishery and the chace. 7. Minerals and mineral waters. 8. Arts, trades, and objects of induftry. 9. They must alfo apply to the discovery of interefting plants. And, 1o. To rectify the pofition of places, to make geographical and meteorological obfervations; to report all that relates to manners, various cuftoms, languages, traditions, and antiquities; and mark down exactly whatever they fhould find remarkable concerning all these points.

"All thefe different views were fulfilled in a fuperior manner by thefe gentlemen; and there is no exaggeration in what has been faid, that natural hiftory never at one time obtained fo great an increase of its treasures, the ineftimable fruit of the labours of thefe truly useful men; and their narratives are become a lating monument of their zeal, their uncommon talents, and their unwearied activity.” Vol. i. p. xvii.

The author the proceeds to fpecify the journies taken by each of the learned men who were employed; and as every thing refpe&ting fuch men must be thought worthy of notice, we fhall infert his account of the first three, Gmelin, Pallas, and Georgi.

"SAMUEL GEORGE GMELIN, phyfician of Tubinguen, began the courfe of his travels June 23, 1768, accompanied by four students, James

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