or acumination, or accumulation, of soul takes place, an increased warmth is felt, and an increased power of detecting the contiguous sensible phænomena. If the soul, bent on seeing a beautiful object, chooses to rush into the eye, the eye-ball becomes in consequence somewhat more distended and more polished, and views with more complete distinctness the picture or the prospect under contemplation. If the soul, bent on hearing a fine melody, chooses to rush into the ear, the organ becomes more elastic, and, after gratification, clammy. During anger, we may feel the soul rush into the fist, try every sinew there which may be wanted to wield a weapon, or to deal a blow, and prompt a chafing of the finger-ends. The phænomena of touch escape in a great degree the avowed notice of the clothed nations: but they strongly corroborate the doctrine of the soul's loco-motive power, and of the increased sensibility of the part in which its head-quarters are assembled. Now it is very questionable whether attention consists in a rapid application of the soul, or in an exclusive application of it to the sensible phænomena under contemplation. Is it accomplished by accustoming the soul to spring like lightening from eye to ear, to see with a glance and hear with a hint; or is it by accustoming the soul to a still and patient and gradual observation of one thing only, leaving it absent or asleep with respect to contending objects? Probably, exercise facilitates both the quickness and the selection of our notice. - But these are transcendental speculations. A good illustration afforded by Miss H. is the use of cleanliness in evolving intellect: If we invariably find, that where habits of cleanliness and order have been established among the poor, the male and female children are, in the early period of life, equal to each other in point of intelligence; and that where contrary habits prevail, the girls evince a manifest inferiority, it must be to the difference, in respect to the habits of cleanliness and order, that we must look for an explanation of the circumstance. In the former case the attention requisite for preserving cleanliness, and neatness, and order, awakens the perceptions, and gives them perpetual exercise. It is on the female part of the family that these demands upon attention are particularly made. The consequence is, that the daughter of the cleanly peasant, having been taught from infancy to observe every slight alteration produced in the appearance of the objects around her, by any casual spot or stain, and having been compelled to attend to the proper place and situation of every article that pertains to the homely dwelling, acquires habits of observation and activity, which remain with her through every period of life. Destined as she is to labour for a subsistence, those habits are to her of obvious advantage. By the culti vated state of her perceptions she is enabled quickly to learn, and accurately to perform, every species of domestic work, as far as the performance performance of it requires only the use of her hands and eyes; and though, in many branches of household economy, there is so much minute detail, and the objects of attention are so numerous, as to seem, at first view, extremely intricate, we find from experience, that where the perceptions are quick and accurate, none of those various branches escape attention. And as whatever has been an object of attention makes an impression on the memory, even when the parts of the business are multiplied and intricate, we shall find, that where the perceptions have been cultivated, as above described, it seldom happens that any are neglected or forgotten.' Essay III. examines the effects, resulting from a peculiar direction of attention, on the power of imagination, and in producing the emotions of taste. This dissertation still continues to apply in detail, and to exemplify with considerable felicity, the use of attention; especially in forming the taste and empowering the fancy. To the works of Alison and of Dugald Stewart, many obligations are displayed and acknowleged. A certain tautology of sentiment, a disposition to repeat and re-echo the same fundamental propositions, accompanied indeed with new illustrations, and applied successively to other though parallel cases, but varied rather to the ear than to the intellect, forms the characteristic of Miss Hamilton's manner. She makes sentences as it were with a multiplying glass; every new facet shifts the position, or alters the dimen sion, or exhibits a reverse of the thing seen: yet the crowd of objects is merely ideal, and consists but in a polygraphic delineation of the one something to which its focus was first directed. In the fourth Essay, Miss H. designs to combat the propensity to magnify the idea of self. The dialect of English metaphysics has not a convenient substitute for the French. manner of using the word egotism. In its primary or proper signification, it implies an excessive use of the pronoun I, (in Latin, ego,) which, both in conversation and in letterwriting, is a natural but an unpolite practice. In its secondary or metaphoric sense, it designates an excessive regard for self, an arrogance of claim on a person's own behalf, which oversteps the limits of equity. If a man be too much occupied, and loudly occupied, about himself and his own concerns, he is guilty of egotism. It is against this fault that the present writer anxiously inveighs: she justly observes that the propensity to magnify the idea of self is distinct from selfishness and self-love; and that more of vanity than of interestedness is often mixed up with the failing. Like all the inherent tendencies of human nature, egotism has often a beneficial as well as an injurious operation; and the object of the present inDd 3 structress structress is to teach not its extirpation, but its regulation. It is to be counteracted by exercising ourselves in magnifying the idea of others, and in giving a preference of attention to the claims not connected with self. These counsels are developed and detailed in a fifth essay, which is intitled an Inquiry into the Means appointed by Providence for the Developement and Cultivation of the Benevolent Affections. It is divided into eight chapters, which constitute the mass of the second volume, and are terminated by a concluding summary, which attains a high degree of pious and religious fervour. Great as is the merit of this long composition, we may not conceal from our readers that it exhibits an inclination to prolixity. Every thing is spun out; and to make a little staple of argument supply the longest possible thread of discourse seems to be the aim and ambition of the spinner. Paley's Natural Theology is a miracle of amplification: but here, with less of exemplary fact, and chiefly by the resources of methodical subdivisions, and of a diction which may emphatically be called prosing because it studiously shuns the picturesque or brilliant colouring of poetic eloquence, a larger succession of sheets is thickened into a heavy book. Were we employed to distil back to its essence this fluid mass, and to separate those elemental ideas which are here diluted and accommodated to the thirst of the multitude, we should observe that the first volume is employed to enforce the duty of attention; that the second is made to enforce the duty of diverting that attention from self; and that the pith, the substance, and the result of the whole may consequently best be expressed and condensed in these two emphatic words: MIND OTHERS. The study of works on female education may expediently be recommended not only to the mother but to the daughter. They inspire docility, and prepare superintendance. Indeed, it is not to the female world alone that they are likely to be useful since commonly, as here, they contain a multitude of sage, benevolent, and familiar exhortations, practically sound and elegantly phrased, which are adapted not merely to be read in the parlour but to be proclaimed from the pulpit; which on the week-day would instruct, and on the Sunday would properly amuse. ART. ART. X. Observations on the Corn-Laws and the Corn-Trade in 1813 and 1814. 8vo. PP. 48. Richardson. ART. XI. Observations on the Effects of the Corn-Laws, and of a Rise or Fall in the Price of Corn on the Agriculture and General Wealth of the Country. By the Rev. T. R. Malthus, Professor of Political Economy at the East India College, Hertfordshire. 8vo. pp. 44. 28. Johnson. 1814. ART. XII, Substance of the Speech of the Right Hon. George Rose, in the House of Commons, 5th May 1814, on the Subject of the Corn-Laws. 8vo. pp. 79. 2s. 6d. Cadell and Davies. With additional ART. XIII. The Substance of the Speech of Charles Callis Western, ART. XIV. 8vo. Is. 6d. A Letter on the Corn-Laws. By the Earl of Lauderdale. 8vo. pp. 89. 3s. Longman and Co. 1814. LTHOUGH the subject of the trade in corn, and of the in fluence of legislative enactments with respect to it, is at all times interesting, it has at the present moment particular attraction as being an object of Parliamentary discussion and of new propositions. Our readers, therefore, will probably thank us for bringing before them, at one view, the contents of the tracts of which the titles are placed at the head of this article, and for dwelling on them at some length. The author of the first of them appears to have been among the earliest of those who have employed their pens on this topic; and, from the practical information which his pamphlet contains, we infer that he is a corn-dealer. At the close of his preface, he signs himself John Brickwood. He is a friend to our old corn-laws, and discusses them in a manner which shews that he did not anticipate the storm which the attempt to revive them has excited. Apparently, he deemed it impossible that, while other branches of industry enjoyed legislative protection, the same safeguard would be withholden from agriculture: but, if we correctly understand his meaning, he regards as too high the scale of duties which was lately rejected by parliament, namely, 24s. per quarter on foreign wheat, whenever the average of the United Kingdoms should be at or under 105s. 2d. per quarter,—of 2s. 6d. per quarter, whenever the average should be at or above 105s. 2d. and under 135s. 2d. per quarter, - and of 6d. per quarter, when the average should be at or above 135s. 2d. per quarter. Mr. Brickwood would not have the duties so heavy as to amount to a prohibition. To prohibit importation,' he says, would not only be to reject abundance, but would be contrary to the Dd 4 policy policy of rendering us the emporium for all commodities from every country, whether coming in exchange for our manufactures or allured by our capital. It is (he adds) essential to the prosperity of those of our manufactures which are consumed in continental corn-countries, that we should not only encourage the consumption of their corn, but also in order to keep down their cost in the markets in which they enter into competition with foreign manufactures.' Mr. B. seems to be anxious to impress on his readers the following facts, viz. that, under the old system of the cornlaws, Great Britain was an exporting country; that the high price of provisions rendered her such in a small degree in the year 1811; that the climate and soil of Great Britain are in the best manner adapted to the cultivation of wheat; and that policy requires that our West India colonies should derive their supplies of corn from the mother-country. Those who are to legislate on this subject will not, by a perusal of this pamphlet, throw away their time. It is written in a simple and unaffected manner, and is equally pleasing and instructive. In the tract which stands second in our list, no opinion is given on the general question: the eminent author professing merely to state the advantages and disadvantages on each side, without pronouncing between them. Its determination, according to him, will depend on the answers to the following queries: Would the United Kingdom, if the trade in corn were free, grow an independent supply of corn? If that should not be the case, is such a supply so desirable, as to justify the interference of the legislature; and, if such interference should be deemed proper, what restrictions are best adapted to attain the end in view? By none, we apprehend, will it be disputed that, if the trade in corn were free, we should import largely. As we might expect from a person so conversant with political economy, though Mr. Malthus strictly maintains his character of neutrality, he cannot conceal the raptures which he feels while he sets forth the simple, regular, and beneficial operations of free trade, and the admirable system which it establishes in human transactions. By this author it cannot but be admitted that, viewed in a commercial light, freedom of trade is incomparably the most eligible course. Two considerations seem principally to induce him to regard the question as balanced; the one, the inconvenience which would attend the removal of a system of long standing, by the provisions of which the price of corn in this country has been raised above the level of the rest of Europe;' the other, the risk which would be run by making a considerable part of our population depend upon a foreign 5 |