there none that seems to possess more of the passions of humanity. The wounded one dived immediately, and brought up anumber of its companions; and they all joined in an attack upon the boat. They wrested an oar from one of the men; and it was with the utmost difficulty that the crew could prevent them from staving or upsetting ber, till the Carcass's boat came up and the Walruses, finding their enemies thas reinforced, dispersed. Young Nelson exposed himself in a more daring manner. One night, during the midwatch, he stole from the ship with one of his comrades, taking advantage of rising fog, and set out over the ice in permit of a bear. It was not long before they were missed. The fog thickened, and Captain Lutwych and his oficers became exceedingly alarmed for their safety. Between three and four in the morning the weather cleared, and the two adventurers were seen, at a considerable distance from the ship, attacking a huge bear. The signal for them to return was immediately made: Nelson's comrade called upon him to obey it, but in vain: his musket had fashed in the pan; their ammuition was expended; and a chasm in the ice, which divided him from the bear, probably preserved his life. 'Never mind,' he cried, do but let meget a blow at this devil with the butend of my musket, and we shall have him Captain Lutwych, however, seeing his danger, fired a gun, which had the desired effect of frightening the beast, and the boy then returned, somewhat afraid of the consequences of his tres. The captain reprimanded him ateraly for conduct so unworthy of the office which he filled, and desired to know what motive he could have for hunting a bear? Sir,' said he, pouting his lip, as he was wont to do when agitated, "I wished to kill the bear, that I might carry the skin to my father.'" I have made the foregoing extracts, for the amusement of such of your readers, who may never have had the opportunity of perusing Commodore Phipps's Voyage.

Now, permit me, sir, to add some thing relative to the four vessels, which are at this moment fitting out in the River, preparatory to their sailing on voyages to explore the northern regions, geographical knowledge, in that part of the world, is at present very

as our

defective.

: Captain Ross in the ship Isabella, burthen 380 tons, 50 men, accompanied by Lieutenant Parry, in the ship Alexander, 270 tons burthen, 33 men, will proceed up Davis's Strait, taking their course in a north-westerly direction to Behrings's Strait.

Captain Buchan will sail in the ship Dorothea, 375 tons, 50 men, accompa nied by Lieutenant Franklyn in the brig Trent, 270 tons, 33 men, and proceed as nearly as possible, due north, on the meridian of Greenwich, passing over the North Pole, and then to make the best of their way to Behring's Strait ; where the four vessels will endeavour to join company and sail together through the Pacific Ocean, touching at the Sandwich Islands, then proceed to Cape Horn, and from thence to England.

All the vessels are provided with wooden awnings, sloping like the roof of a house, over the upper decks, to keep the inclemency of the weather, when the ships are blockaded up in the ice.

The men are not to take their repose in hammocks, but in wooden cabins, just sufficiently large for three men to sleep in; there are sliding wooden doors to each cabin, and so contrived that if it should be required they can be removed whole, as they are now placed.

In the captain's cabin (between the cabin-windows) is fixed, in a perpendicular direction, a new patent log, in a round frame covered with glass, having the appearance of a time-piece; this machinery has communication with the, rudder of the ship, whereby they can ascertain how many knots an hour their vessel has run.

Should this expedition prove successful, most probably, owing to the inclemency of the climate, it would not be beneficial in a commercial point of view, yet it may be the means of improving our geographical knowledge in those un explored regions, and perhaps make us better acquainted with "the variation of the compass, and the attraction of the magnet, circumstances of infinite importance to navigation; and it is not impossible but that a more careful examination of the polar regions may lead to the solution of problems that have hitherto baffled the enquiries of the ablest navigators."

At present we are unacquainted with the northern coasts of Greenland, and North America; nor is it known whether the regions adjoining to the Pole

are land or water, frozen or open sea; nor does it appear by any maps or globes, that I have had the opportunity of seeing, that any land has ever been discovered towards the North Pole, further than about 81 degrees, being the latitude of the northerly parts of Spitsbergen.

In the present enterprising expedition they must not only expect to meet with dreadful extreme of cold, so intense, indeed, as to blister the skin; but also with many impediments of mountains, and rocks of ice, frozen seas, adverse winds, &c.; notwithstanding which, I most sincerely hope, that they may be enabled to overcome every difficulty, accomplish their intended voyages, return in perfect health, and once more enjoy the endearing company of their relations and friends whom they had left in old England. I remain, Sir, Your constant Reader,

London, 16th March, 1818.

W.F.

For the EUROPEAN MAGAZINE.
On the HOPE that EARTHLY ATTACH-
MENTS will be RENEWED in HEAVEN.

MONG the various miseries which

air is indispensably necessary for th continuation of all animal existence and therefore it embraces a contradic tion to assert the contrary. Again; we are told that a government, whos measures were invariably characterize by cousummate wisdom, had place arms in the hands of its subjects for th purpose of overthrowing itself, w should ridicule such a palpable absur dity, and disbelieve it as impossible But where, I would ask, is the contradic tion where the absurdity, in the doc. trine I am endeavouring to establish Does it consist in the interchange o perceptions between spiritual beings No; a mutual intercourse must subsis among them, though we can form a adequate idea of the manner in which it is conducted; even if we ascend to the divine Creator of all things, wi must be convinced, that he has establish ed means by which he manifests his wil to his creatures, or how could that wil be executed? And though it is proba ble that between the soul of man, an the highest order of created beings there is an almost immeasurable dis tance, yet it is not too much to con

A embitter human life, there is not clude, that it may possess, though in a

one that rears a more towering fabric of wretchedness in the heart, than the loss of a dear relation or valued friend; deprived of the society that he loved, the sufferer surveys the world and finds it a desert; and existence appears continued only for the recollection of joys that are annihilated for ever; in this moment of affliction, the hope of a future re union and recognition seems like a star shining through the gloom of night, and pointing its rays to worlds of interminable bliss The hope of a re-union after death with those whom we have loved on earth, will prove an antidote to the poison of many a grief, which would otherwise cause the complete overthrow of mental health. To advance this object, I shall consider its possibilities, its probalities, and its certainty. It is possible, because the infinite Controller of the Universe can dispose the perceptions of spirits, as easily as he can impress form upon matter; but, not to insist on this position, which is indisputable, let it be remembered, that a thing to be literally and strictly impossible, must involve either a contradiction or an absurdity; for instance, if we bear it maintained, that an animal will live after a certain time, in the exhausted receiver of an air-pump, we declare it to be impossible, because we know that

limited degree, many of those excel· lencies which distinguish those to whom the Author of existance has assigned the first rank in creation.

I trust that what I have said has been sufficient to prove, that the subject we possibility, and I shall now attempt to are considering does not contain an im display the force of those arguments which render it probable.

The human mind is compounded of various, and opposite sensations and principles; the evil proclaims the man, while the good incontrovertibly testifies that it had its origin in heaven. But if there is one feeling more than another which communicates to life its brightest charm, it is social affection; the indul gence of this affords a happiness so pure and unalloyed, that Angels might de scend from Glory and drink its cup with gratitude;-it is the crowning gem to the diadem of human pleasures: -it is the Sun, whose wild effulgence irradiates though it may be unable to dispel the gloomy clouds of wretchedness and woe: the possession never produces s2tiety, nor the recollection of it remorse; and when every other virue has forsaken the heart, this will alone remain, and compel us to admire and esteem the husband, the father, and the friend, though we abhor and despise the traitor,

the robber, and the murderer. Can it thea for an instant be imagined, that the exercise of a feeling so innocent will be terminated by the grave; in power it is equal to devotion, and it is only the infinite difference of the objext that constitutes its inferiority. When man is moved from earth, and is become an inhabitant of heaven, though his nature will be improved, yet the inference that it will be altered is not deducible, either from reason or from Scripture. It may appear a bold assertion, but I am inclined to maintain, that so long as memory continues, the possession of Heaven itself could not coofer happiness without that society, which had written every character of joy, eugraved on the annals of recol

rection.

If the soul is to exist in another world in a state of complete and eternal bliss, if every thing is to continue which present composes it, but purified, aed, and enlarged, those beings on Wamit had bestowed its fervent and leptimate attachments during the pered it was feltered by the chains of mortality, must participate in its enjoyments or regret, will diminish that piess which gratitude and praise to a Ged of boundless mercy will render

mcapable of destruction.

Should the truth of the doctrine in question be denied, it must be admitted that there is a sorrow incident to humaly, for which Christianity affords no alleviation, no remedy, the Saviour of and has left the minds of his followers in the hour of distress and agony, as the heathen who believes death to be an eternity of sleep.

I shall now conclude, by detailing those arguments which support the cerLaraty of it. It is a subject incapable of either sensible or demonstrative evidence; and when reason has proved that it is possible and probable, her task is faished, and she resigns to revelation the completion of the task she had Comtucaced. I shall therefore select from the Bible those passages which are adapted to my present purpose; and Which, when weighed with their dependencies and consequences, will, I think, be sufficient for the establishment of the ductrice in question. The first I shall mention is the declaration of David, When be is made acquainted with the death of his infant son: "But now he dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." If

David believed that his child was eternally separated from him, what consolation could it be for him to reflect, that in a few years he should mingle his dust with that of his infant? Or if he went farther, and referred to their mutual existence beyond the grave, still the hope of his child's immortality could not relieve the woe he was then suffering, for the loss would be to him as irrevocable as if absolute annihilation had taken place. But it is evident that his mind was relieved by his anticipations of futurity, and that anticipation must have been, that he should follow his child to realms where sorrow was unknown, and where a re-union with the being he had regretted would obliterate the remembrance of the anguish he was at that moment enduring.

com

In the narration delivered by our Saviour, of the rich man and Lazarus, there is a positive assertion that the former recognized the latter during the period between death and the general resurrection, that he conversed with him, and that he continued in eternity to remember the events of time. If it is contended that this was not an actual circumstance, but a parabolical representation, it militates nothing against my argument, for Jesus never posed his parables from impossible incidents, but from those which were probable, and occurring daily. But I see no reason for concluding that it was a fiction, though the discussion of it would be totally irrelevant to the present subject. If the reality of the history is conceded, confirmation is stamped upon the doctrine, and its belief is grounded on the rock of certainty. The last passage I shall cite is extracted from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Thessalonians: "But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope; for if we believe that Jesus died, and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." As this was professedly written to comfort those who were lamenting the dissolution of the ties of kindred and affection, the inference must be immediately assumed, that at the resurrection union shall succeed to separation, and that torch shall be illumined, which the damps and chillness of the grave had smothered, but not extinguished. If this was not its import, the Apostle's reasoning was a mockery; he substitutes delusion for reality, and

offered to heart-rending misery a hope that could never subtract an atom from its sum of bitterness. But let us humbly indulge the conviction, that different, very far different, was the result intended by St. Paul, remembering in the hour of agonizing affliction, that submission is the first duty of a Christian to his Creator, and that Christianity exalts patient submission to cheerful resignation, by inculcating the belief, that those beings whose loss has occasioned the death of earthly happiness, will welcome our admission to perfect and immortal bliss, whose effulgence shall brighten through eternity, for infinity will impart the rays that

constitute it.

M. A. R.

MR. TATE'S REPLY to MR. G. M. H.
SIR,

OUR Corresondent, Mr. G. M. H.

singular, that, with the cancelment of long and troublesome division, he shou exhibit his plan to shew the differen in figures.

I shall further intrude upon yo time, sir, only to state, that the study complex arithmetic, as Mr. G. M. terms it, is neither my pursuit nor t object of my establishment. The or merit I can claim from my system calculations, is that of arranging a explaining numerous appropriated pla of calculations, which are practised the first accountants in various depa ments of business, and possibly som times making a tittle improveme and that I should probably not have co sidered it necessary to take any noti of Mr. G. M. H.'s observations, h he not intimated that his abbrevial plan had been imported from abroa and consequently its affording an o

Ylving in your Magazine for the portunity of shewing how very i

last month, expressed his incapability of seeing wherein one of the forms of calculation used in this concern is meant to supersede the old method, I beg leave, through the same medium, to inform him, that it in no respect differs from the usual plan of multiplying the principal by the number of the days, and dividing the product by 7300; except in the substitution of a very easy and ingenious approximation, instead of the above divisor.

With regard to the plan proposed by that gentleman, the rule for which is most inaccurately expressed, it is nothing more than the working of a question in proportion where the interest for 365 days, at 5 per cent, being as many shillings as there are pounds in the principal, is required to find the amount of the same sum for any other number of days; and should the rate be any other than 5 per cent, adding to, or subtracting from the original sum, or either of the products, as many fifths as are requisite to proportion it to the given per centage. This plan, as well as mine, has long been practised in one of the first schools for calculation in the universe-I mean the Stock Exchange; and I gave the preference to the one which I adopted, not only as being more simple, but as in many instances not requiring the expression of half the number of figures, which any of your intelligent readers may determine, unless indeed he possesses the head of a Zerah Colburn, or a Jedediah Buxton, and can perform the division by 365 with the appa rent conciseness of Mr. G. M. H.'s performance; and it certainly is a little

founded the opinion is which some p sons have imbibed of the calculatio used in some places of the continer far excelling ours in conciseness a simplicity. I am, Sir,

Your very obedieut servant, Finishing Academy, W. TAT Cateaton Street.

To the Editor of the European Magazin

SIR,

I would call the attention of you

numerous nautical readers to ty important errors of the equation time, in the Nautical Ephemeris f 1818, printed by the Board of Long tude, and seven in the one for the ye 1819. It becomes of consequence the errors should be known, as during t last year several vessels put into Port mouth, out of their course, for the co rection of their chronometers; whi appearance of error arose from th misprint of the Ephemeris.

1818.

Min. Sec.

Min. Sec.

March 9, for 19 54 0 read 9 54
May 8, 4 43 6

1819.

3 43

April 12,

1 59 0

0.58

13,

1 41 9

0.41

14,