priest the growth of schism, the priest would turn short and charge him with being the cause of that evil of which he complains. Mr. B. is fully aware of the consequences of diffused knowlege, and depre cates the employment of persecution in order to produce uniformity of opinion, or the external appearance of it: but he does not seem to be sufficiently enlightened respecting the real sources of dissent from the Established Church. It is ridiculous to attribute the diversity of religious opinions in the Christian world to the love of novelty; or to imagine that those, who object to the doctrines of the 39 Articles, can be induced to forsake the conventicle by an eulogy on the sublimity of the Liturgy. As Mr. B. cannot or will not see the true causes of separation, or schism, he is not qualified for prescribing a remedy. Much, therefore, as we applaud the liberality of some of his remarks, we cannot think that his discourse is on the whole likely to produce any good effect.

CORRESPONDENCE.

The Rev. W. Lisle Bowles, whose Sonnets and other poetical works are well known, has avowed himself to us as the author of the poem intitled the Missionary, on which we bestowed merited commendation in our Number for April last; and at the same time he informs us that a new and corrected edition of it will appear in the course of this year, the favor of the public having disposed of the first impression.

P. T. of Birmingham will have the goodness to summon a little patience to his aid. He is perhaps very little aware of the multitude of publications which claim notice in our pages. If he will vigilantly keep a list of all the new works which issue from the press in the course of six months, before he writes another poem, he will have some idea of the nature of the case, and will give us time to read and review that which he has written.

We do not yet know what reply to make to Inquisitor: but we will consider the matter to which he refers.

S. R. arrived too late for present consideration.

In some copies of the Review for May, an error appears in the substitution of the name Menelaus for Manalus, in page 3. line 9. from the bottom, and p. 14. 1. 8. from the bottom.

The APPENDIX to Vol. lxxiii. of the M. R. was published

on the 1st of June, with the Number for May.

THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For JULY, 1814.

ART. L The Character of Moses established for Veracity as an Historian, recording Events from the Creation to the Deluge. By the Rev. Joseph Townsend, M.A., Rector of Pewsey, Wilts. 4to. PP. 454. With twenty-one Plates. 31. 38. Boards. Longman and Co. 1813.

WIT

́ITH unusual form, this volume is ushered into public notice by two Introductions. In the first, we are apprized that the work is the result of half a century of travel and geological research, of extensive and appropriate reading, and of personal intercourse with some of the most eminent surveyors of rocks, mountains, and strata; and, in the second, we are reminded of the dissonant sentiments of Cudworth and Huet with respect to the identity of Hermes and Moses.

We are next presented with two chapters, the first of which treats of the genuineness of the Pentateuch; and the second, of the credibility of the Mosaic history, deduced from internal and external evidence. In these, however, we can discern neither novelty nor ingenuity of argumentation; nor can we refrain from intimating a suspicion, that the pious author has made a toilsome but fruitless parade of learning and philosophy. That certain trains of events are recorded in our sacred books cannot be called in question; and that the occurrence of them, combined with subsequent traditions, ought to - have convinced the Jews that the events themselves were accomplished by the immediate interposition of Heaven, will scarcely admit of discussion: but the sceptic of the present day may call for proofs of the alleged miraculous facts, or of the inspiration of the books in which they are recorded. If either of these points could be satisfactorily established, no candid inquirer could impeach the veracity of Moses as an historian: if, for example, he has furnished us with a transcript of real occurrences, we can obtain no more powerful evidence of divine agency; or, if it can be demonstrated that his narratives were dictated by the superintending influence of Deity, the most pertinacious dogmatist must yield assent to their truth, VOL. LXXIV. however

however incompetent he may be to reconcile their spirit and tendency to his preconceived notions of an allwise and benevolent Being. Had Mr. Townsend settled these fundamental principles, he might have spared himself and his readers the trouble of those tedious inductions, by which he labours to reconcile present appearances with the Mosaic account of the Creation and the Deluge; because every rational mind must then have believed the scriptural record, independently of all appearances whatever. He might then, too, have dispensed with the slight and obscure notices of the Jewish story which heathen writers have conveyed to us, the crude and fanciful legends of classical cosmogonies and mythology, and the absurd creeds of barbarous tribes, which, though they may present some general and remote points of resemblance to the outlines of the book of Genesis, furnish only conjectural and feeble evidence of their having proceeded from the same source. The very converse, indeed, of this latter supposition has been seriously maintained: but, granting that the impurer theogonies of subsequent periods were copied from the Mosaic writings, or borrowed from the traditions to which those writings gave rise, the question concerning the truth of the matters related still recurs, and we are left without a ray of biblical criticism to direct us to the history of the original documents. Nay, we are not distinctly apprized of some of the strongest objections which have been urged against the ascription of the books in question to Moses, and which we have more than once had occasion to examine in the long course of our professional career. We grant, indeed, that the observance of the seventh day of the week, in many countries of the world, seems to bespeak affinity with the Jewish institutions: but the leading reason, which the sacred text assigns for the hallowing of that day, is not unattended with difficulty; since it implies a repose from labour, as if fatigue could be attributed to Omnipotence, or as if a spirit of boundless benignity required to pause in doing good.

The analogy between the golden age and the state of Adam and Eve in Paradise is somewhat forced; at least, we cannot easily suppose that the former was suggested by the latter, since the one refers to the condition of the whole race, and the other only to the two progenitors of the stock. In the one case, also, the change from happiness to misery is represented as instantaneous; and, in the other, we have intermediate stages of blended good and evil. The golden, silver, brazen, and iron ages may, in fact, be considered as mere poetical embellishments of a very prevalent but erroneous notion, that the human race has gradually dwindled and degenerated both

in

in physical and mental properties, and that "the former days were better than these." The other instances of coincidence, between the Mosaic account of the fall of man and the opinions and tales of antient and modern heathens, appear to us to be so faint or fanciful that they cannot be seriously maintained in the way of argument. Neither can we allow that the idea of sacrifice, with a view to propitiate the wrath of imaginary deities, is not natural to man, when placed in a state of ignorance and superstition; or that the savage practice of immolating human victims originated in a positive command from heaven. To the same exalted source the author is willing to trace the practice of paying tithe: but, at this rate, we might attribute every human institution of extensive prevalence to direct communications with the Supreme Being.

Proceeding in the same strain of reasoning, Mr. Townsend enters on the grand theme of his labours, namely, the Deluge; and, in his accustomed manner,-without stopping to inquire whether the passage which describes this event may not be interpreted allegorically, whether it may not allude to some violent but partial inundation, whether the dimensions of the ark were commensurate to the tranquil maintenance of all the landanimals and birds which were directed to occupy its compartments, whether the windows of this vessel could transmit light, and withstand the pressure of the enormous torrents from above, &c.,-he quietly appeals to the fables of antient mythology, and to the mention of a flood, of some sort, in the scattered notices which have been transmitted to us respecting the superstitions of different countries:

• Traditional reports have been collected and brought forwards by every apologist for revelation, from the first ages of Christianity to the present day, and may be referred to in Stillingfleet, Gale, and Ramsay: but independently of divine authority, the most convincing evidence is to be sought for in the records which remain engraved in the deepest mines, and on the most elevated mountains.

In the display I am about to make of this natural evidence, scattered over the surface of the earth, I shall simply state my facts, and then examine what inferences may fairly be derived from them. And for this purpose, I shall first explore one small tract of country, that the attention of the young geologist may not be distracted by a multiplicity of objects crowding at once upon his view. When he has surveyed this island, he may be the better qualified for more is. tant excursions, and be able to compare its strata and extraneous fossils with those of every other portion of the globe. He will be thus prepared to follow me in my general conclusion, and will be convinced that the Mosaic account of the deluge is agreeable to truth.'

The strata which are particularized are those of chalk, sand, the superior oolite, calcareous grit, coral rag, Kelloway rock, corn brash, forest marble, the great oolite, the inferior oolite, lyas, red ground, coal and subjacent strata; under which last are included mountain lime-stone, iron, argillaceous and siliceous schist, pudding-stone, porphyry, gneiss, micaceous schist, and granite. Between these occasionally basalt appears, but not in the vicinity of Bath. Such is the usual succession of strata; but in some places the intermediate beds are wanting, and therefore at Chard the chalk and lyas meet together; and the oolite reclines in Portland on the lyas beds, but at Mells upon the

mountain lime-stone.'

It is shewn that an arrangement nearly similar takes place in Wales, Ireland, and Scotland; and that an analogous structure of the superficial parts of the globe has been observed in France, Spain, and various other countries. This simple fact, if accurately ascertained, may suggest practical results of the greatest utility, whatever be the inferences which theorists may be inclined to deduce from them. The thickness of the

strata, it is admitted, is subject to great varieties, whether we compare them with one another or with themselves in different places but an attempt is made to calculate, as nearly as it is possible, their usual thickness in the west of England, and on our southern coasts.

The chalk has been commonly estimated at three hundred feet. At Selbourn, in Hampshire, this, by actual measurement, has been found, as Mr. White informs us, to be its thickness. On Canford Heath, in Dorsetshire, it is two hundred and eighty feet. In the Isle of Wight it has been laid open to the depth of two hundred feet; but at Slindon, near Chichester, Lord Newburgh's well is sunk three hundred and twenty feet, in chalk. At Šline House, near Warlingham, in Surrey, Mr. Banion sunk his well three hundred and twenty-six feet, through the chalk, and yet his house is not on the hill, but in the bottom. At Sanderstead the wells are three hundred and sixty feet deep. At Wimbledon six hundred feet, including the superincumbent alluvial beds. In Kent, by the assistance of my valuable friend General Donkin, I have been particularly fortunate in procuring measurements of four wells, on the chalk ridge, near Sittingbourne. At Torry Hill, on the summit of the ridge, the well is three hundred and sixty-three feet deep, and the water rises sixty feet in the well.

A mile further on the same ridge, at Minsted, Mr. Patterson's well is three hundred and ten feet deep, and contains seven feet of

water.

Mr. Tylden's well, at Milsted, a mile lower down, is two hundred and twenty-eight feet deep, and the water rises fifty feet.

At Sittingbourne the wells are twenty feet deep; and below Sittingbourne the springs break out.