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EDUCATION..

Art. 25. The Arithmetical Preceptor, or a complete Treatise of Arithmetic, Theoretical and Practical. In Six Parts. To which is added, a Treatise on Magic Squares. By Joseph Youle, Master of the Boy's Charity Schools, Sheffield. 12mo. pp. 485. 8s. Boards. Longman and Co.

Arithmetic is a science of which so many consider themselves as masters, and the love of authorship is a feeling so prevalent in the present day, that scarcely a month passes over our heads without adding three or four to our arithmetical treatises; yet every new writer offers his reason for intruding himself on the public. One finds former treatises too incorrect for the purposes of tuition; another deems them too contracted in their plan; a third thinks that they are too prolix; a fourth cannot approve of the common arrangement, &c. &c.

Mr. Youle, like most of his brother arithmeticians, furnishes us with his motives for publishing; and we, as reviewers, must give him our reasons for saying that he ought not to have published, at least unless he had written better. If he had not written at all, we should never have felt the want of his Arithmetical Preceptor: but, as he chose to appear in print, he ought to have consulted the best authors, and availed himself of their improvements; and not have perpetuated the errors and inconsistencies of the most obsolete works. Had he followed this plan, he certainly would not have given the rule which he has stated for compound proportion; and which, though it has been admitted into a number of arithmetical school books, is founded on error, and in many cases gives erroneous conclusions. In his rule of three, again, he follows the worst method that he could have selected, had he examined every author for that purpose. He unnecessarily divides the rule into two cases, direct and inverse; and he arranges his terms so as to exhibit the ratio of incongruous quantities. What ratio can subsist between 3 gallons and 19 shillings; between horses and a bushel of oats, or between a flitch of bacon and 6s. 6d. ? Had not this inconsistency of former authors been pointed out by later writers, we might have been less disposed to censure it in the present work: but, after it had been shewn to exist, and the required alterations had been made in the arrangement of the terms, no apology can be offered for persisting in following such an erroneous method.

We must mention, however, one part of this author's plan, which we should be glad to see adopted in all subsequent treatises of arithmetic, as it has been in some lately published, viz, the introduction of a small table of logarithms; and a chapter shewing the method of employing them in various arithmetical problems. We wish to see this take the place of many useless rules with which most of our treatises are incumbered; particularly of what is called the rule of position, which is in fact worse than useless. We would also explode all those that are commonly given under the terms Factorage, Brokage, Insurance, Barter, Loss and Gain, &c. &c., which are merely so many cases of simple proportion, and ought to be included under one general rule.

The last So pages of the present treatise are occupied with rules for forming magic squares and magic borders, magic circles and. magic circle of circles, and other magical problems: but we are (to use the author's own words) so convinced of the nonusefulness' of this part, that we think it should be 'pretermitted,' or 'ejected;' being, in no respect that we can perceive, appendant on a treatise of arithmetic.

RELIGIOUS.

Art. 26. An Attempt towards a new historical and political Expla nation of the Book of Revelation or an analytical Interpretation of the allegorical Phenomena of the Apocalypse of St. John; founded in Facts, and the Course of Society and Empire, from the Commencement of History to the present Time. To which is added, in an Appendix, Distruction and Misery the constant Effect and Consequence of aggressive Wars, both to the Conquered and to the Conqueror, being a brief historical Sketch of the Consequences and final Events of the most important Attempts at Conquest, from the earliest Accounts of History to the present Time. With a few other Papers, containing Strictures on some particular Points more remotely connected with the general Subject. By the Rev. James Brown, D.D. of Barnwell, Northamp tonshire. 8vo. pp. 364. 8s. Boards. Cowie and Co.

How fortunate must Dr. Brown consider himself, in having found a key which thousands for many centuries back have been seeking in vain! but how unfortunate must the world and the church have been, that it should not have been discovered before! As the author pretends to be a prophet, he may be supposed to understand the language of prophecy here, however, a little difficulty occurs; since, if Dr. Brown's explanations are to be appreciated by his skill in predictions, his book is not worth a farthing except as waste paper. He wishes the reader to believe that a signification entirely rational, and highly interesting to human affairs, may be found even in this, so often unsuccessfully attempted, Book of Revelation; and this, he is confident, his present work will enable every unprejudiced reader to discover. It is singular, after the repeated failures of learned mer, during many centuries, in their attempts to develop the secrets of this mysterious book, that Dr. B. should speak with such confidence of his undertaking; and we are persuaded that all his readers will consider the boldness of his language as ill according with his atchievements. To exemplify his mode of commenting, we shall ex, tract a passage from his digressions relative to "The Little Book to be eat up by St. John."

The writer pretends to no supernatural gift, though he thus prophecy. Nor is he a stranger to the confident compliments paid to the wisdom and virtue of government, by those whose interest requires the continuance of the present perversions. But though they, or an angel from heaven, should affirm that the present government of this country may subsist, for generations, and the public state be permanent, conducted upon its present principles and practices, man capable of the free exercise of a rational mind can believe it, They are now born who may witness another Revolution; he that

shall

shall see another century as far advanced as the present will assuredly The characters, the capacities, the principles, of the princes of Europe at the present day secure it. In this country, they are by the Royal Marriage-Act legally and necessarily consigned over to libertinism and profligacy of life and manners. For, whether they marry according to the mode of courts, without knowing, without seeing, without the possibility of affection or fidelity to the object; or, whether they remain in licentious celibacy, this is the naturally expected, and experienced, consequence: though it cannot be denied that we have a striking and truly admirable example to the contrary in the first personages of the empire. This pernicious and impious act, " which frameth mischief by a law," is equally hostile to the virtue and to the happiness of both sexes of the royal descendants.' Shall we quote another passage?

A Pitt, and a Patch *, will, no doubt, be thought an odious comparison by the admirers of that great and accomplished statesman, as they are pleased to represent him; yet, in justice and reason, it may be fairly doubted, whether the last be not the clearest and least responsible character. Can we wonder then, that such, and their associates, that the Beast, and "they that worship the Beast and his image, and receive his mark,-shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture in the cup of his indignation; and shall be tormented with fire and brimstone, in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb ?"""

This is a political explanation of the Revelation! What are we to understand by the word explanation? As it would be useless to follow such a writer through his declamations and digressions, we shall only copy his account of the inference to be drawn from the whole of the book of Revelation, and his exposition of it:

That the great source of human misery is the perversion of government and rule, and the folly, delusion, and debasement of the people, in submitting to be in the hands of depraved rulers, the instruments of their own destruction.-The supreme design of Omnipotence in creation could only be to diffuse being and enjoyment in the greatest number and variety of ways. Hence, the greatest possible perversion of the purpose of God in creation is the interruption of happiness and enjoyment, or the diverting them from the many to the few. And hence it may be concluded, that the present perverted state of the world cannot long subsist in the sight of God; and that some important change in human affairs is approaching. But who shall say what is long to him with whom one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day!'

O, Jemmy Brown! Jemmy Brown, O!

A Patch. Patch, who being first entertained as a friend by Mr. Blight, and afterwards taken into partnership in business with him; one evening as they sat together in Mr. Blight's parlour, rose up, and went out, under the pretence of going into the garden and having left the door a-jar, returned, and introducing the muzzle of a pistol, shot him dead in his chair.'

Art.

Art. 27. Twenty-four additional select Discourses, from the Works of eminent Divines of the Church of England, and from others never before published, with explanatory Notes, to which are added Dr. Dodd's Address to his unhappy Brethren, and his last written Prayer. By the Rev. Uriel Harwood, A.M. 8vo. IOS. 6d. Boards. Longman and Co. 1813.

Few professional men seem to carry less of sound judgment with them into their studies than speculative divines. They often aim more at frightening than at convincing men: but they forget that, though for the moment terrific words may alarm, no permanent effect will be produced by them unless they are founded in reason. It is to be wished that Mr. Harwood, before he had written or selected the following passage at p. 61. (for we know not whether the discourse be his own or not,) had opened his eyes to the palpable absurdity, we might have said to the blasphemy, of the assertion. Speaking of the wicked, the preacher says:

Their souls and bodies shall continue in endless misery. The worm, our Saviour tells us, is never to die, or the fire to be quenched. Whatever punishments are meant by these awful threatenings, the wicked shall continue in them without intermission and without pity; without ever seeing a conclusion of their sufferings.'

What a view of the perfect justice and infinite mercy of the Divine Being! He "knoweth of what we are made;" he sends us frail creatures into an imperfect state for a short period; and then, for our misdeeds committed in this state, he dooms our souls and bodies to endless misery.' Could "the Judge of all the earth do right" if he thus proceeded? We firmly answer, No. The Divine Being would not be an object of our love and adoration, if he could act in a manner so diametrically in opposition to every principle of equity and mercy. Mr. H., however, by one sweeping clause, not only robs God of justice but his creatures of pity. According to him, the wicked are to endure the eternally excruciating torments of hell without exciting any pity. When Dr. Siop asserted that the Devil was damned to all eternity, "I am sorry for it," was the reply of Uncle Toby; and if he were sorry for the eternal punishment of the Devil, surely saints and angels may be allowed to pity the fate of poor mortals, who, for offences of less magnitude, are devoted to the same punishment. Could that benevolent Saviour *, who wept over the city of Jerusalem, behold sinners eternally writhing in the flames of hell without extending his pity towards them?-At p.175. the subject of future punishments is resumed: but here the assertions are not so broad and revolting as those which we have just noticed. We could not, however, abstain from a smile at the paddyism of the following comment on the words "outer darkness." This,' says the preacher, relates to the

* Christ did not mean by the worm that never dies, and the fire that is never quenched, to intimate that bodies devoured by worms or thrown into the fire are never consumed. The passage is metaphorical, and alludes to the valley of Hinnom; where, owing to the constant burying and burning of bodies, the worms were always kept alive, and the fires burning.

manner

manner of punishing unprofitable servants among the Jews; which was by casting them into a loathsome dungeon;' i, e. outer darkness means darkness in the inside of a dungeon. Were we to offer an explanation of outer darkness, or of the darkness which is without, we should say that it has a reference to the weddings of the Jews, which were celebrated in the night, when those who behaved themselves amiss were pushed out from the splendid festival into the street, or to the darkness without.

We need not enlarge on this subject; it will be seen from the above short extract that Mr. H. is either too rash with his own pen, or is not, as a selector or editor, sufficiently alert in correcting or stigmatizing the rashness of others. Let him review this volume, and strike out of it every passage which is at variance with good sense; and then, in a second edition, he will obtain that praise which it would be as gratifying for us to offer as for him to receive.

The first part of this selection, anonymously published, was noticed in our lxviith Vol. p. 203.

AGRICULTURE.

Svo. Pp. 68.

Art. 28. A Treatise on Natural and Practical Agriculture, by Wil-· liam Greaves, Agriculturist, of Sheffield. Boards. Bumpus, Holborn.

128.

Was it a high opinion of self, or a mean estimate of the judg ment of the public, which induced Mr. Greaves to ask twelve shillings for this little shadow of a treatise, and for which much more seems by a deleted notice to have been originally demanded? Vanity being a very common failing, this Agriculturist of Sheffield may think that every hint from him contains most important advice; and that the essence of wisdom, which his few pages include, furnishes matter for a bulky volume. If, however, he thus thinks, he surely must think alone. A more superficial writer rarely blunders himself into our notice; and Mr. G. had better have kept to his old trade of making razors, than have puzzled his brains with agricultural theories. Our scientific readers will divert themselves with this writer's opinions, that every seed-bearing plant has three genders, masculine, feminine, and neuter;-that trees which produce their leaves early have hotter constitutions than others; - that mildew is occasioned by the congelation of exhalations ;'-and that smut in corn is a disease which bears an analogy with the consumption in the human body. Proud as Mr. G. may himself be of such conceits, they cannot be worth twelve shillings to any human being; and, though his hints for practice are thrown into the bargain, the purchaser of a copy still has reason to complain. By the marks on the cover, now erased, we fear that the subscribers paid a yet higher price: if so, they may say of Mr. G. that he cuts like a razor; unless, in allusion to his recommendation of salt-water as a manure, they choose to call him a pickler,

MISCELLANEOUS.

Art. 29. Apparitions; or the Mystery of Ghosts, Hobgoblins, and Haunted Houses, developed. Being a Collection of entertaining Stories founded on Fact; and selected for the Purpose of

eradicating

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