avios is derived,' and as the signification of the 'substantive of which it is the adjective.' To prove this he refers to several passages in Homer, where unquestionably a signifies life. On this narrowed basis he supports the idea of limited duration. It would not however be difficult to shew that, in the majority of instances, in classical as well as scriptural authorities, it is employed to denote proper eternity; and that in its application to existences of limited duration, it is not the quality of limitation that is denoted by the term, or that is a prominent idea in the complex thought of which it is the symbol. The correct definition of a seems to be that of duration indefinitely, or continued existence; its etymology obviously suggests the idea; and as the general exposition of its meaning, it will be found to include all the special and more restricted applications. For this definition we have the authority of Aristotle. Speaking of the celestial intelligences, he says, they are without change or infirmity, and possessing a most excellent and satisfying life, they continue through all eternity.' (da T άala ANA) 'Then follows a remarkable passage, including a definition founded on the obvious etymology of the term. For this word has been divinely spoken by the ancients: For ⚫ the consummation containing the time of every life not su'pernatural is called its age: (its period of duration) For the same reason, the consummation of the whole heaven, and the 'consummation containing the unlimited duration, and the im'mensity of all things is eternity deriving its name from always being-immortal and divine.' (Lib. I. Cœl. c. x.) 6 It is a well founded rule in critical interpretation that every term be taken in its proper sense, except there be something in the subject or connexion which requires an improper or figurative explanation. But this can appear only by proving that the subject is incapable of the former explanation. When everlasting punishment is directly opposed to everlasting life, the contrast-fixes at once the meaning of the term, and proves the perpetuity of both states to be alike unlimited. Here a natural question suggests itself---what is the impression which would be fixed on the mind of an unbiassed reader of the New Testament, one totally ignorant of the controversy in question, by its uniform scope and language on this subject? He would find the same duration applied to the state of the impenitent which is attributed to the happiness of the righteous. He would meet with incidental allusions to the former subject of tremendous import; and he would find nothing to encourage the hope of any alteration of that sentence which the judge of all will pronounce at the last day. We are persuaded that the impression would directly contradict the scheme of universal restitution. There is one passage which, in the present case, appears to us peculiarly decisive. It is the awful language of the Saviour concerning Judas: it had been good for that man if he had not been born.' Now extend the idea of away--- Toy xx as far as we can, if the terms do not convey the notion of future unlimited duration, that duration bears no assignable proportion to the eternity that will follow. It will therefore ultimately be good even for Judas, that he had been born. But this is in direct opposition to the solemn assertion of Jesus Christ himself. The difficulty is honestly confessed by Dr. E.; and his explanation is evidently unsatisfactory to himself. 'Till more satisfactory answers be given' he says, 'I am willing that the difficulty should remain, and be resolved into our ignorance.' (p. 184.) This extorted concession is fatal to the scheme, and pronounces its condemnation. In many parts of the volume before us, the author makes pathetic appeals to our feelings. It requires no penetration to perceive that such subterfuges are totally inadmissible where the language and conduct of God are concerned. If they prove any thing, they prove too much. It would not be difficult to make the same appeals to the advocates of restitution on behalf of an hypothesis that should assert there is no future punishment at all: and on Dr. E's. principles the appeal in this case would as successful as his own. Let his own account already cited (p. 170) be seriously considered, and if man is to be the judge of the degree of punishment apportioned to his deserts, we might address the children of frailty" in the same style of impassioned and sentimental eloquence which this soothing teacher of religion so frequently adopts. We might recommend the new scheme as the cure of infidelity and favourable to the general reception of Christianity;' as removing every thing terrific from the religion of the Bible, and infallibly securing an immense multitude of converts. Were Dr. E. to reason about the necessity of punishment in some form and to a certain extent, we might remind him of his own distinction between sin and the sinner, the quality and the person,' (p. 204.) and as the former only can be the object of detestation, the person of a sinner ought not to suffer for a mere 66 quality!" But we must leave the Doctor and his unmeaning abstractions, and enter our solemn protest against a system which is thus, in the fury of its imaginary benevolence, subversive of all the admonitions and denunciations of the sacred volume; which nourishes the fatal hope of impunity; and reduces to an unmeaning chimera the awful sanctions of the divine law. It was our intention to have adverted to the affected, the sickening sensibility of this slender volume. We designed also to notice the frequent attempts of the author to represent persecution as receiving its vital principle from the doctrine which he opposes. And yet, judging from the virulence of the party, we should have considerable apprehensions, if the legislature of these kingdoms were to be new-modelled by a Socinian faction. While they are very tolerant towards infidels, they are outrageously rancorous against those who are often contemptuously termed evangelical preachers.' As a proof of this we need only to advert to the last discourse of this volume. Dr. E. in the zeal of his charity asserts that British and Gallican catholics disclaim the principle of persecution: but from this commendation' he excludes a considerable number of those who in the established church? assume to themselves the exclusive character of evangelical preachers;' and a 'large proportion' of the evangelical sectaries. We have neither leisure nor inclination to expose the absurdity of this ungenerous imputation; but must leave it to be refuted by the zealous exertions, and active benevolence of the calumniated party. ART. XIV. SELECT LITERARY INFORMATION; Gentlemen and Publishers who have works in the press will oblige the Conductors of the ECLECTIC REVIEW, by sending Information (post paid) of the subject, extent, and probable price of such works: which they may depend upon being communicated to the public, if consistent with its plan. Many friends of the late Dr. Williams having expressed a wish for his portrait, it is in contemplation to publish an engraving in Quarto, by a first rate artist, from an original painting by Allingham (now in possession of Mrs. Williams,) as soon as a sufficient number of Subscribers can be obtained. Price 15s. Proofs 11. 1s. Subscriptions will be received by the Rev. J. Whittenbury, Darlington, Durham, the Rev. J. Gilbert, Rotherham, Mr. S. Williams, Plymouth, and Mr. James Black, Yorkstreet, Covent Garden In consequence of the death of the lamented editor a very large number of copies of the complete Works of President Edwards are lying at the disposal of the Executors. Individuals who may wish to purchase this valuable publication will greatly oblige them by sending in their names as above, on or before the 31st of Dec, when the Subscription price of 31. 12s. the set will be raised to 41. Those who take seven Copies to have an eighth gratis. Catalogues of the Dr.'s Library have been printed, and may be had on application to Mr. Black, the authorised publisher of all his works. In the course of the present month will be published a new edition of the Life of Janeway, with a Preface by the Rev. Robert Hall, of Leicester. resolutione verborum, alter de articulis uterque perutilis, et æque desideratus. Early in October will be published, a new edition of Potter's Grecian Antiquities, with an Appendix by Professor Dunbar; containing a Concise History of the States of Greece, and an Account of the Lives and Writings of the most celebrated Greek Authors. The Plates have been all re-drawn with great care under the Professor's Inspection, and restored to the Classic Purity. Shortly will be published an Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. By Adam Smith, LL. D. &c. A New edition, with Notes, and an Additional Volume, containing Dissertations ou the Subjects treated of in the Text of Dr. Smith, by D. Buchanan. The following notice has been recent. ly issued by the Solicitors for the University of Cambridge. Whereas by an Act, passed in the Eighth Year of the Reign of her late Majesty Queen Anne, intitled "An Act for the Encouragement of Learning," &c. a Copy of every new Book, and of every other Book reprinted and published with Additions, is required to be delivered by the Printer for Printers thereof to the Warehouse, keeper of the Stationers' Company, at their Hall,before such Publication made, for the use of the Library of the University of Cambridge, which Act, in an Action brought by the Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the said Univer sity, conformably with a Notice published on their behalf in January 1811, has been decided by the Court of King's Bench to extend to all books published as therein mentioned, whether they are entered in the Register of the Stationers' Company or not; Notice is hereby In November will be published, a new edition of Cornelii Schrevelii Lexicon Manuale Græco-Latinum et LatinoGræcum: studio atque opera Josephi Hill, Joannis Entick, Gulielmi Bowyer, nec non Jacobi Smith, D. D. adauctum. Insuper quoque ad calcem adjectæ sunt Sententiæ Græco Latinæ, quibus omnia Græcæ linguæ primitiva comprehenduntur. Item Tractatus Duo: alter de given, that the Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars of the said University of Cambridge, require the Directions of the said Act to be complied with, and an Action will be brought to enforce the Penalties of the same in every instance in which one Copy of a Book, published as aforesaid after the Date of this Notice, shall not be delivered to the Warehousekeeper of the Stationers' Company, for the Use of the said University. Sir Everard Home has in the press, a Course of Lectures on Comparative Anatomy, delivered by him at the College of Surgeons, Col. Montagu has nearly ready for publication, a Supplement to his Ornithological Dictionary, which will contain much new and interesting matter on the Natural History of British Birds. The Rev. Frederic Nolan is printing a Series of Sermons on the Operations of the Holy Ghost, with notes and illustrations. en A Picturesque Voyage round Great Britain, illustrated by coloured gravings, is preparing for publication, in imperial quarto; to commence with a Voyage from the Landsend, toward Anglesea. The narrative will be written by Mr. Richard Ayton, and the prints engraved by Mr. William Daniel, from his own drawings. Mr. Wm. Godwin has nearly ready for the press, Memoirs of the Lives and Writings of Edward and John Philips, the nephews of Milton. Mr. Wm. Dodsworth is preparing for the press a Description of Salisbury Cathedral, including an account of its monuments, and biographical memoirs of the bishops, in a quarto volume, with engravings. C. Clarke, Esq. proposes to publish an Investigation of the Mechanical Science and Historical Descent of Architecture in England, during the middle ages, in a quarto volume, with about thirty engravings. Mr. Barker is preparing for publication, a View of all the best and most valuable editions of the Classics, and of works on Latin criticism and antiquities. The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge are preparing to publish periodically, a Family Bible, in two quarto volumes, with notes by the Rev. George D'Oyly and the Rev. Richard Mant, and appropriate engravings. The Medical and Chirurgical Society of London will publish the Fourth volume of their Transactions in the course of next mouth. Mr. Hobhouse has nearly ready for publication, a second edition of his Travels in Turkey. Dr. Smith, president of the Linnean Society, will soon publish a third edition of his Introduction to Physiological and Systematical Botany. A new edition, carefully revised and corrected, of Dr. Gray's Delineation of the Parables of our Saviour will soon® appear. The Rev. W. Faulkner, of St. Andrews, Worcester, has in the press, an improved edition of his Strictures on reading the Church Service. A new edition of Baxter's Treatise on Converse with God in Solitude, is nearly ready, the profits of which if any, are to be devoted to a Charitable object. In the French exposé, for 1812, the population of France is stated as under. -Old France (containing 147, 973 square miles) 28,786,911: Countries lately annexed (containing 61,049 square miles 13,951,466: in all 42,798,377 inhabitants. The rate of population in old France is 194. 5 to a square mile, and in the late conquests 228. 5. The present rate of population in England is 196. 3 to a square mile. Mr. T, Sheldrake has been long engaged in the means of impelling vessels on the water by machinery. His design is to produce boats which will move along rivers or canals by means of the arm, or by steam, so as to reduce the labour expended on inland navigation one half. Steam boats are already in use on the river Aire. The seventh Annual Report of the Hibernian Society has just been patlished, and may be had at Hamilton's Faternoster-Row. The net revenue of the post office for 1812, amounted to 1,414,2241. In 1785 it did not exceed 150,000. The Committee of the Religious Tract Society have issued tickets at 3s. per dozen of a size convenient for the Pocketone of which given to beggar or hawker, will entitle the bearer to receive twelve enter→ taining Penny tracts with cuts; and thus to commence a profitable trade with ad |