E?isor's 'Natural Theology. 383 



of interpreting the words of the Evangelist, " katabainon hosei 

 peristeran" " descending like a dove ; " or, "as it were, a 

 dove ;" and hence the figure of a dove is usually employed 

 as an emblematical representation of the Holy Spirit. But 

 it is, I conceive, an error to suppose that the Holy Spirit 

 assumed the form or shape of a dove, although the expression 

 in the English version will bear that sense. St. Luke (iii. 22.), 

 indeed, says, He " descended in a bodily shape, like a dove " 

 " somatiko eidei hosei peristeran." All that the evangelists 

 assert is, that the Holy Spirit assumed on this occasion a 

 visible bodily shape, and in that shape (whatever it was) de- 

 scended in like manner as a dove is often seen to hover and 

 descend in the air. The comparison to a dove relates not to the 

 appearance or bodily form, but merely to the mode or manner 

 of descent. The figure of a dove introduced into pictures, 

 &c, to represent the Holy Spirit, and adopted originally 

 from an erroneous interpretation of the sacred text, has pro- 

 bably mainly contributed to propagate the vulgar notion 

 that the Holy Spirit assumed the bodily shape of a dove. — 

 W. T. Bree. Allesley Rectory, Sept. 9. 1834. 



REVIEWS. 



Art. I. Notices of Works in Natural History. 



Ensor E. : Natural Theology : the Arguments of Paley, 

 Brougham, and the Bridge water Treatises on this Subject 

 examined: also the Doctrines of Brougham and the Imma- 

 terialists respecting the Soul. 8vo, 59 pages. 1836. This 

 has been printed [by R. Taylor, London] for the Author's 

 Friends, but may be reprinted by any one. 



The author's purpose is to show the untenableness of some 

 of the conclusions that have been drawn on the ends and 

 objects for which natural things are as they are ; and his 

 mode of pursuing his purpose is mainly by instancing the 

 inconsistency of some of the conclusions with facts, and with 

 one another, when compared. The author's work, one thinks, 

 is worth the best attention of every naturalist whose object in 

 the studying of nature is the acquisition of instruction on the 

 question of his " being's use and end ; " although the manner 

 in which the work may subserve to this object is, one judges, 

 rather by showing him conclusions that are disputable, than 

 by supplying him, in substitution, with those that are not. 



It may be that portions of the work will be reprinted in 

 future Numbors of this Magazine. 



