the main causes to which we must ascribe the present fallen condition of British literature and British science. And yet, in no country is a strong manly sense more generally prevalent; in no country is the race of what are called clever men more abundant; in no country are the political institutions so well calculated to call forth the exercise of talent; in none, during the present age, have all the excitements which literary genius can receive from a nation's military prowess and glory been more abundantly furnished; but, owing to the causes above assigned, these advantages have been in a great measure weakened and neutralized.

We have been led into this course of reflections by the work now before us-a work which, we think, is destined to form an era in the history of our literature. The connexion of its author with this journal may seem to render some reserve necessary in our remarks, and to set a restraint on those terms of eulogy, which his production so justly merits; but when we consider the distance at which he is now removed from us, we trust we shall be excused, if we give some scope to our natural feelings of admiration. Dr. Wiseman has been for several years known in this country, and more particularly on the Continent, as a most able Hebrew and Syriac scholar, and as a learned, acute, and sagacious Biblical critic. But he was yet to give proof of all those higher qualities of that brilliancy of fancy, originality of thought, and power of eloquence, united to the most fervent piety and the most amiable amenity of disposition, which, while they have endeared him to the British Catholics, have raised him to the first rank in the literature of his country.

It was in the healthful and bracing pursuits of philology and divinity, that the youthful mind of our author was long trained and exercised. Divinity, considered in itself, apart from the arid forms in which it is too often communicated, is certainly, by the importance and elevation of its matter, and by the many sciences subsidiary to it, a study more than any other calculated to ennoble the heart, exalt the fancy, and expand and invigorate the understanding. Philology, too, though an inferior, is a most excellent discipline of the mind; for not only is it the invaluable key to vast stores of knowledge, but, in a pre-eminent degree, it strengthens the memory, calls forth critical acumen, and, by requiring and stimulating assiduous application, renders every other study afterwards comparatively easy.

In the work before us, the impress of these two studies is very manifest. If theology has at once consecrated and directed our author's researches, at once proposed the term, and marked the limits, of his enquiries; philology, in her turn, has furnished him,

in a great many instances at least, with means and appliances for the prosecution of his task. The object of the present work is to prove that in science, as in every other department of human activity, the controul of an all-wise and all-loving Providence is visible; that out of evil He often causeth good to come; that all the efforts of perverse men to belie the word of His revelation, conduce only to His greater glory-the consolation of the just, and the humiliation of the wicked; that in the works of God there is no contradiction, nor even real discrepancy: that a perfect unity, a sublime harmony, pervades all his manifestations, whether as declared by external nature, or by the inward conscience, or as deposited in the word of his special revelation; that although the faith of God's righteous servants is often tried and tempted by the shadowy doubts which an apparently hostile science casts on his revelation; yet in his own good season, the Almighty causeth those doubts to be dispelled by the light of investigation; in fine, that experience teaches that every science, the more it is investigated, and, according to the nature and degree of affinity which it bears to religion, increases and confirms the evidences of divine revelation; and that thus the old adage of Bacon,-"A little knowledge leads men away from Christianity, but a great deal brings them back to it," is signally confirmed by the voice of history, and the testimony of individual experience.

To say that a theme so noble, yet so arduous, has been worthily executed by our author, is to pronounce the highest eulogium on his work. The first characteristic of his book is, the admirable method with which, out of elements the most opposite, and even the most heterogeneous, he has produced an harmonious whole, and moulded subjects the most various, and even the most dissimilar, into one connected work. Thus philology, physiology, geology, chronology and early history, archæology and biblical criticism, successively come under review; yet so masterly is the author's talent of transition, that we pass from one subject to the other without scarcely perceiving the change; and while each of those sciences is made to adduce its testimony in illustration and confirmation of the truth of Holy Writ, the collective evidence of the whole, by the skilful arrangement of the parts, acquires additional force. The next quality of this work is, the vast and various learning which the author has brought to bear upon subjects he treats-a learning always full, but never exuberant, and pervaded throughout by a spirit of the soundest criticism. Indeed the research which Dr. Wiseman has here displayed, is above all praise: the time, labour, and expense which the composition of such a book must have cost the writer, few will be able

the

to appreciate. In truth, from the extensive acquaintance here evinced with the living literature of the Continent, especially of Germany; from the frequent citation of writings almost inaccessible to the English scholar, such as foreign periodicals, detached essays, and transactions of foreign learned societies, we make bold to affirm that none but an Englishman, long resident on the Continent, could have been the author of this production. The last and higher characteristics of the work before us, are a sagacity of judgment, and an honesty of purpose, which no love of theory, however specious, not even the more laudable zeal for religion, can ever shake or suborn-a power of philosophic generalization, unhappily so rare in our country, and which can impart an interest to the most trifling, and a dignity to the most important, subjects; in fine, a style free, bold, and manly, and which rises at times to a lofty eloquence.

But it is now time to lay before our readers an analysis of the present work, interweaving in it, from time to time, our own observations. We shall also extract such passages as furnish favourable specimens of the author's research, mode of reasoning, and style.

He opens his subject in the following dignified manner :—

"Were it given unto us to contemplate God's works in the visible and in the moral world, not as we now see them, in shreds and little fragments, but as woven together into the great web of universal harmony; could our minds take in each part thereof with its general and particular connexions, relations, and appliances, there can be no doubt but religion, as established by Him, would appear to enter, and fit so completely and so necessarily into the general plan, as that all would be unravelled and destroyed, if by any means it should be withdrawn. And such a view of its interweaving with the whole economy and fabric of nature, would doubtless be the highest order of evidence which could be given us of its truth. But this is the great difference between nature's and man's operation, that she fashioneth and moulds all the parts of her works at once, while he can apply himself only to the elaboration of one single part at a time; and hence it comes, that in all our researches, the successive and partial attention which we are obliged to give to separate evidences or proofs, doth greatly weaken their collective force. For, as the illustrious Bacon hath well remarked, the harmony of the sciences, that is, when each part supports the other, is, and ought to be, the true and brief way of confutation and suppression of all the smaller sort of objections; but on the other hand, if you draw out every axiom, like the sticks of a faggot, one by one, you may easily quarrel with them, and bend and break them at your pleasure.*

"To the difficulties thus thrown in our way by the limitation of our faculties, prejudices of venerable standing have added much. For ages it

Bacon, De Augm. Scient. 1. vii. p. 330.

has been considered by many useless and almost profane to attempt any marriage between theology and the other sciences. Some men in their writings, and many in their discourse, go so far as to suppose that they may enjoy a dualism of opinions, holding one set which they believe as Christians, and another whereof they are convinced as philosophers. Such a one will say that he believes the Scriptures, and all that they contain; but will yet uphold some system of chronology or history, which can nowise be reconciled therewith. One does not see how it is possible to make accordance between the Mosaic creation and Cuvier's discoveries; another thinks the history of the dispersion incompatible with the number of dissimilar languages now existing; a third considers it extremely difficult to explain the origin of all mankind from one common parentage. So far therefore from considering religion, or its science, theology, as entitled to sisterhood with the other sciences, it is supposed to move on a distinct plane, and preserve a perpetual parallelism with them, which prevents them all from clashing, as it deprives them of mutual support. Hence, too, it is no wonder that theology should be always considered a study purely professional, and devoid of general interest; and that it should be deemed impossible to invest its researches with those varied charms that attract us to other scientific enquiries.

"Reflections such as these have led me to the attempt whereupon I enter to-day, the attempt that is to bring theology somehow into the circle of the other sciences, by showing how beautifully it is illustrated, supported, and adorned by them all; to prove how justly the philosopher should bow to her decisions, with the assurance that his researches will only confirm them; to demonstrate the convergence of truths revealed with truths discovered; and, however imperfectly, to present you with some such picture as Homer hath described upon his hero's shield, of things and movements heavenly, that appertain unto a higher sphere, hemmed round and embellished by the representation of earthlier and homelier pursuits.

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My purpose, therefore, in the course of lectures to which I have invited you, is to show the correspondence between the progress of science and the developement of the Christian evidences; and before proceeding farther, I must be allowed to explain the terms and limits of my enquiries. By the simple statement of my theme, it will be seen that I do not intend to enter upon the well-occupied field of natural theology, or to apply the progress of science to the increasing proof thereby gained of a wise all-ruling Providence. It is of revealed religion alone that I mean to treat; of the evidences which Christianity has received in its numberless connexions with the order of nature, or the course of human events. And when I use the word evidences, I must be understood in a very wide and general signification. I consider that whatever tends to prove the truth of any narrative in the sacred volume, especially if that narrative, to merely human eyes, appears improbable, or irreconcilable with other facts, tends also essentially to increase the sum of evidence which Christianity possesses, resting, as it essentially does, upon the authenticity of that book. Any discovery, for instance, that a trifling date, till lately inexplicable, is quite correct, besides the

satisfaction it gives upon an individual point, has a far greater moral weight in the assurance it affords of security in other matters; and hence a long research, which will lead to a discovery of apparently mean importance, must be measured according to this general influence, rather than by its immediate results."-vol. i. p. 3-7.

We have not hesitated to lay this long extract before our readers, as it furnishes them with a key to the whole purport of these volumes.

The first two lectures are devoted to Ethnography, or comparative philology,-a field of literature little explored or cultivated in this country, but abounding with matter of the highest interest for the philosopher and the historian. This science has only within the last thirty years attained to any degree of consistence-it has been hitherto without an historian; and therefore the materials out of which our author has drawn his very interesting account of the rise and progress of this study lay scattered and far apart. In no portion of his work has Dr. Wiseman, we think, displayed a more praiseworthy sagacity, and a more perseverant spirit of research. After speaking of the opposite theories proposed by Christian and infidel philologists and philosophers respecting the origin of language, he gives the following interesting sketch of the infancy of philological pursuits :

"The history of the comparative study of languages presents the same features in the moral sciences, which chemistry does among physical pursuits. While the latter was engaged in a fruitless chase of the philosopher's stone, or a remedy for every disease, the linguists were occupied in the equally fruitless search after the primary language. In the course of both enquiries, many important and unexpected discoveries were doubtless made: but it was not till a principle of analytical investigation was introduced in both, that the real nature of their objects was ascertained, and results obtained far more valuable than had first caused and encouraged so much toilsome application.

"The desire of verifying the Mosaic history, or the ambition of knowing the language first communicated by divine inspiration, was the motive or impulse of the old linguists' chimerical research. For it was argued, if it can only be shown that there exists some language, which contains, as it were, the germ of all the rest, and forms a centre whence all others visibly diverge, then the confusion of Babel receives a striking confirmation; for that language must have been once the common speech of mankind.

"But here such a host of rivals entered the lists, and their conflicting pretensions were advanced with such assurance, or such plausibility, as rendered a satisfactory decision perfectly beyond hope.

"The Celtic language found a zealous patron in the learned Pezron :* the claims of the Chinese were warmly advocated by Webb, and by

* "Antiquité de la nation et de la langue des Celtes." Par. 1704.