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the gates of the fortress were about to be closed. In the back ground the high hills of Suabia were visible, embrowned with the remnants of the ancient forest, and their broad expanse rendered more magnificent, as seen through the medium of the sultry twilight. Ere long the clouds of night descended on the valley; the course of the river was now only discernible by a vast serpentine wreath of mist, which gathered on its waters, though its streng and sonorous flow was distinctly audible, "piercing the night's dull ear," and the wild note of the bittern was heard while she ascended from her lonely nest in some willowy isle, to the still region above the clouds. Without other sight or sound I stood alone in this majestic wilderness. I soon found, however, that I had unfortunately wandered so long and so far among the low brushwood near the river, that I had entirely lost all

trace of any thing resembling the footsteps of the human race. If I turned towards the land I might walk into one of those deep pools filled with water to defend the frontier-if I bent my course in the other direction, one step into the Rhine would be my first and last, and I might find myself off the Dogger-bank by the morning of the ensuing day. What was to be done? I was about to ruminate seriously on this important subject, when I heard the vociferous shout of a ferryman within a few yards of my forlorn post. I accosted him in good Scotch and bad French, supposing if he were a German he would probably understand the one, if a Frenchman, possibly the other. He seemed to comprehend both, and with his assistance and direction I succeeded in returning to the town which I had left a few hours before, my head-quarters for the night. P. R.

MINERALOGY OF INDIA.

INDIA has been celebrated from a very remote period on account of the number, variety, and beauty of the gems which it affords. Of late years geologists have endeavoured to ascertain the situations of these precious mineral productions, with the view of their discovery in other parts of the world. The gold and tin of India have also been explored in a geological manner, and the numerous volcanoes in the Indian islands have engaged the particular attention of many observers. Some European mineralogists are, we understand, at this moment actively employed in examining the geological structure of the Himalaya Alpine land, while others are tracing out the distribution of the alluvial and secondary rocks of the plains of Hindostan, and investigating the structure of the volcanic islands of Java. Our celebrated countryman, Sir James Mackintosh, in a discourse pronounced at the opening of the Literary Society of Bombay, in the following passage, strongly recommends to mineralogists the investigation "of the mineral structure and productions of India."

"The science of mineralogy, which has been of late years cultivated with great activity in Europe, has such a palpable connexion with the useful arts of life, that it VOL. IV.

cannot be necessary to recommend it to the attention of the intelligent and curious. India is a country which I believe no mineralogist has yet examined, and which would doubtless amply repay the labour of the first scientific adventurers who explore it. The discovery of new sources of wealth would probably be the result of such an investigation; and something might perhaps be contributed towards the accomplishment of the ambitious projects of those philosophers, who, from the arrangement of earths and minerals, have been bold enough to form conjectures respecting the general laws which have governed the past revolutions of our planet, and which preserve its parts in their present order.

The botany of India has been less neglected, but it cannot be exhausted. The higher parts of the science-the structure, the functions, the habits of vegetables-all subjects intimately connected with the first of physical sciences, though unfortunately the most dark and difficult, the philosophy of life-have in general been too much sacrificed to objects of value indeed, but of a value far inferior: and professed botanists have usually contented themselves with observing enough of plants to give them a name in their scientific language and a place in their artificial arrangement. formation also remains to be gleaned on that part of natural history which regards animals. The manners of many tropical races must have been imperfectly observed in a few individuals separated from their fellows, 4 G

Much in

and imprisoned in the unfriendly climate of Europe.

The variations of temperature, the state of the atmosphere, all the appearances that are comprehended under the words weather and climate, are the conceivable subject of a science of which no rudiments yet exist. It will probably require the observations of centuries to lay the foundations of theory on this subject. There can scarce be any region of the world more favourably circumstanced for observation than India; for there is none in which the operation of these causes is more regular, more powerful, or more immediately discoverable in their effect on vegetable and animal nature. Those philosophers who have denied the influence of climate on the human character were not inhabitants of a tropical country.

"To the members of the learned profession of medicine, who are necessarily spread over every part of India, all the above enquiries peculiarly though not ex clusively belong. Some of them are eminent for science, many must be well inform ed, and their professional education must

have given to all some tincture of physical knowledge. With even moderate preliminary acquirements they may be very useful, if they will but consider themselves as philosophical collectors, whose duty it is never to neglect a favourable opportunity for observations on weather and climate; to keep exact journals of whatever they observe, and to transmit, through their immediate superiors to the scientific depositories of Great Britain, specimens of every mineral, vegetable, or animal production which they conceive to be singular, or with respect to which they suppose themselves to have observed any new and important facts. If their previous studies have been imperfect, they will no doubt be sometimes mistaken. But these mistakes are perfectly harmless. It is better that ten useless specimens should be sent to London, than that one curious specimen should be neglected."

We intend to lay before our readers an account of the contents of this very interesting volume.

HORE HISTORICE.

No II.

On the Origin, among Rude Nations, of Political Institutions, out of Sentiment and Passion.

In the history of very early nations, we observe a singular concurrence of the Institutions of Policy with the strong natural feelings of men. Both their forms of government, and those laws which regulate individual rights throughout society, bear a character by which we might judge them to owe their birth rather to deep-rooted sentiment, than deliberating and contriving thought; and accordingly, in searching the records of their Institutions, we do not merely discover the frame of polity under which a people chose or submitted to live; but in them we read, as it were, the bosoms of the men themselves, their characters, their affections, and their passions. I. Kingly government, not elective, but fixed and inviolable, has been, for the most part, it is probable, in its origin an usurpation. It has been the assumption by a single man of domination over a whole people; and how attained? By the force within his single mind, of passions ungovernable and insatiable, giving to Will a preternatural impulse, which permits in

tellectual power to rest in nothing less than sovereignty; till thousands of spirits were bowed under the ascendancy of one, and the natural superiority of mind over these was converted into dominion over wealth, liberty, and life.

If we could look upon such an origin only as this, the government, as constituted, would appear to us the wildest and most terrible subversion of all the rights and laws of nature. But we look down through the history of mankind, and we discover, that the form of government which thus arose, was that by which alone the societies of men could be held together. It is that which the wisdom of men would have appointed, if their wisdom could have presided to establish their government, for it is in effect that form which the necessities of their condition demanded. So that, comparing the beginning of monarchies with their result, we find, that here, as elsewhere, the fierce and lawless passions of men, in fulfilling their desire, have fulfilled a more important purpose, which was

not their own: and we wonder to see, that even the iron yoke, by which the usurpers of tyrannical sway have subdued under them the strength of a nation, was the very bond by which, in future, their restless, discordant, infuriate wills required to be compelled together into peace.

Thus, in the most important single point of all history, namely, the Supreme Government of the communities of human society, we find that which would seem to demand the utmost wisdom, effected by mere sentiments and feelings; and this is one memorable instance how, in looking into early times for the history of political institutions, we find ourselves engaged in examining a picture of the conflicts and triumphs of human passions.

II. To take another which is nearly connected with it. Survey the world, and we find, that one main pillar of the strength of these communities has been the institution of Nobility. If kings have held the people of vast regions in one union the races of nobility have more than any thing else maintained, unchanging, stedfast, and secure, the frame of political society, through successive generations. But look to the infancy of society for the origin of nobility, and what do we find? Human wisdom! No; the blindness of human imagination; and perhaps the generous blindness of human affection,

The stability, the strength, and the authority of the noble races of barba rous nations, is found chiefly in two causes; first, the reverence of superstition with which the imagination of the people very rapidly invests an illustrious house; and secondly, that legal and devoted zeal with which men bring themselves to hazard in service of protecting power,-if that power have a hold on their imagination.

If we could pursue this various inquiry, we should soon find, that in following the line of political investigation, we were brought into the recesses of human feeling. There is scarcely any more interesting part of history than that which regards the nobility of barbarous and half-civilized nations. Witness the Clans of Scotland.-Witness the feudal history of Europe. Without engaging further in the question, it may be sufficient to observe, in proof of what was said of the intimate developement of hu

man feeling involved in such inquiry, that a necessary condition of the devotedness of zeal that characterizes the loyalty here spoken of, is, that the service to be rendered should be accompanied with the danger of life; that it is the peril and difficulty of the service that has made its law so deeply binding on the hearts of men. It is plain, then, that the solution must be found deep in nature. When it is further considered, that much of the force of loyalty depends on its transmission from father to son; and as was before observed, that a superstitious reverence, in place of a rational acknowledgment of utility, is requisite to produce its high and noble strength, no more need be said to shew in what curious, interesting, and affecting problems of human feeling the inquirer will be engaged, who attempts to understand this portion of political history. Whether he attempt to understand it or no, he will surely be moved with wonder and affection at the delineation.

III. If we turn from great political institutions to the laws of domestic life, we shall still find, that we are reading the history of men's nature, not of the science of legislation. The two most important obligations of life to be guarded from violation are the conjugal and filial relations. Among many nations, altogether barbarous, the pu nishment of the adulteress was death from the husband's hand. Among one tribe of the northern barbarians of Europe, she was scourged half-naked, from village to village, by the women, till she sunk and expired under their strokes. The purity of the unmarried is guarded by the sanctity of marriage. "It is related of Hippocrenes, a citizen of the blood of the kings, that when he discovered a man with his unmarried daughter, he crushed him beneath the wheels of the chariot in which he, with his daughter, rode, whom afterwards he immersed alive." The nations who visited with such dreadful retribution the stain of chastity, were rearing up a moral strength among themselves of immeasurable importance and power; but they knew not the work in which they were labouring; they only felt, with an intensity and depth of which we have no longer a conception, the holiness of woman's purity; and they leaped up in madness to revenge its violation.

IV. Of the reverence with which the filial relation has been guarded, we have an admirable example among the early Romans. They gave to the father the power of life and death over his children. The institution seems dreadful to us, who have no understanding of the force with which the great laws of nature are felt by men in the primitive conditions of society. We judge unjustly, if we perceive in that law nothing but the inhumanity of a barbarous people. The Romans were not murderers of their children. But the authority of a father over his child appeared to them one of those great inherent rights with which no other authority may interfere; and the liberty given to sell into slavery, and to put to death, was with them not the constituting of a barbarous privilege, but the recognition of a natural ungainsayable right;-a nobler, conception, and a policy wiser in the truth of nature, than that of the Spartan lawgiver, who attributed to the state a paramount property in the children of its members, and broke up the relation of parents and children to build upon its ruins an unlimited, but a false and unnatural sovereignty of the country. The Spartan did indeed build up his invincible state. But the state of Rome was yet more glorious and more heroic, upheld for ages the sanctity of its domestic manners, and has left a memory to the world, in which the shadow of departed power appears yet more awful in the majesty of moral greatness.

V. If we would see the minds of men in their laws, let us compare with this severe sanction of the great obligatory affections of nature, the penalties by which some rude nations, of most distinguished character, have protected life. The visitation of public justice on the head of the shedder of blood, was, among all the German nations, a pecuniary fine to the kindred: among that heroic people the act of homicide was regarded merely as an outrage to the family, which might be compensated by acknowledgment. A wound which maimed-a blow-a word of scorn-had each its similar punishment. Each was an outrage demanding, but also admitting compensation. The greater outrage had only its proportionate amercement. Among most nations a different law has prevailed. The retribution for blood has been

blood. Nature seems to us to require this satisfaction. But we cannot the less wonder at that lofty and fearless character of mind which could look in altogether a different light upon the act of death, and which in some sort lifted the men above the law of our

common nature.

How are we changed from our ancestors! we who requite the dishonour of the marriage-bed by money; and guard the pettiest interests of our property with the blood of man.

VI. The origin, among rude nations, of Political Institutions, out of sentiment and passion, may be illustrated in quite another kind. We can hardly conceive any thing more remote from government and law than the art of poetry. Yet we find, among some nations of remarkable manners, the office of the poet having the name, and the national importance of political institution. Such were the Sennachies, the scalds, the bards. Not without reason when not only the national renown was committed to their care, who recorded all high deeds and virtues in their songs; but the national character and valour itself was, in part, dependant on their skill, who kindled or sustained the lofty spirit of the people by the fervour of their inspiration.

VII. The illustration might be carried far with little difficulty. But it is much more interesting to pursue it in the volume itself of history. One observation suggests itself on considering such specimens as these, that there seems to be some sort of energy or power of human nature operative in such ages, which is not known to times like ours. Advancing civilization seems to subdue and almost extinguish in men's minds those great and prominent passions which in their earlier condition govern the courses of life, and even the establishment of society. It raises up above all the other powers of our nature, the power of intellect.

In the rudest as in the most enlightened time, opinion is the mistress of life. But in those simple or barbarous ages, opinion is the offspring of sentiment and passion; under the influence of civilization, it will consent to acknowledge no parent but reason. The student of history may be often inclined to question the grounds of this change; and may, perhaps, hold himself justified in

ascribing it in part to the pride, and not altogether to the wisdom of philosophy. Viewing mankind in their actual existence, not conceiving of them in ideal speculation, he may be led to a belief, that the force of unenlightened, unreflecting sentiment thus allowed in important and ruling opinion, has given a life and a strength of the utmost consequence to the relations of men, and to the power of society itself: he may seem to find a want

of the same vigour of social life among civilized nations. And doubting, as perhaps he will do, the capacity of human societies to govern themselves by pure reason alone, he may be disposed to conclude, that in an unwise impatience to invest themselves with a strength they were not qualified to assume, they have neglected and thrown away that which was measured to their condition, and was already their

own.

OBSERVATIONS ON GURNEY'S "VISITS TO SOME OF THE PRISONS IN "" SCOTLAND.'

To a philosophical and religious mind, the unfortunate are not such awful objects of human charity as the wicked. A guilty conscience is a more terrible affliction than the severest dispensation of Providence, and outward adversity seems as nothing when compared with the misery in the heart. When the virtuous fall into trouble, they are saved from hopelessness by conscious rectitude, and the sympathy which suffering worth never fails to inspire into all who witness its trials. Though the waters break over them they are not utterly overwhelmed and many a helping hand is held out to their relief, till they are finally enabled to regain the shore. But, alas! for the wretches in whom sin has been the parent of sorrow-and in whom punishment, instead of awakening repentance, stirs up only an unavailing remorse, or more deplorable still, a savage hardihood, and a reckless despair.

We do not say that it is unnatural or wonderful that they, who have lived a life of outrage on the laws of soeiety, should suffer a sort of excommunication from its sympathies; but, assuredly, even the most wicked and abandoned cannot forfeit all the rights which they hold as beings of a common nature with ourselves-and even if we could entertain such a belief, we are called upon by the dignity of our immortal souls, to save them who care not for their own safety, and, if possible, to arrest the suicidal descent of the wicked into misery and perdition.

A good heart opens at once to an appeal in favour of the old-the diseased-the lame, or the blind. Then, it may almost be said

"That pity gives ere charity begins ;"

but it requires thought and reflection to know what is the best charity to the wicked-and a high Christian spirit to keep the avenues of the heart open to the wants of those who no longer seem to care for themselves, and who, if we forget them, are often in their desperation willing to be forgotten. Both the heart and imagination kindle when we look on stately Hospitals and Infirmaries, in which poverty is kept in comfort, and disease freed from pain-but the dark and sullen prison-house is suffered to stand in its frightful and repulsive solitude, and in our righteous condemnation of the guilt of its inmates, we are but too apt to forget their misery. A blessing therefore must attend on the efforts of all who forsake not the self-forsaken, and in whose creed "hopelessness" is a word inapplicable to any state of our human nature.

Few men are better entitled to the name of benefactors to their race, than Howard-for few have contributed more to the alleviation of human suffering. It may, however, be remarked, without the slightest derogation from the merits of that great man, that his mind was chiefly directed to the removal of bodily wretchedness and disease from those loathsome prisons from which the light and air of heaven had been for ever debarred. He had to roll away, as it were, the physical filth with which, through long years of shameful abuse, the moral nature of the wretched convicts had been defiled and indurated-he had to fight against disease and death, that seized for their prey the wretches whom society had cast out-and before any thing like a regular system could be laid down for action on their minds, it was necessary to li

Printed for Longman & Co. London, and Constable & Co. Edinburgh, 12me. 3s. 6d. 1819.

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