]827.J 



Domestic and Foreign. 



641 



he recovers, and very soon after contrives, 

 on learning 1 De Guyon's failure, to get 

 into Edward's presence, and actually 

 stabs him in the arm with a poisoned dag- 

 ger, but is finally overcome by Edward, 

 and an end put to him and his murderous 

 course. De Mow bray is now in pursuit 

 of the lost Vadilah, and luckily catches 

 her just as she was flung- down the whirls 

 of a cataract; and so, after all their perils 

 and escapes, they return to England with 

 Edward, and marry, and live, and love, 

 and die, the happiest pair in Christendom. 



Elements of tke History of Philosophy 

 and Science, by Thomas Morell, Author 

 of "Studies of History," fyc. ; 1827. 

 Though a very dry, and here and there 

 intolerably meagre, this is not a useless 

 compilation. Fuller histories of particu- 

 lar branches of science and literature are 

 numerous enough, but we know not where 

 to turn for a general sketch of the pro- 

 gress of the whole. Mr. MorelPs is an 

 attempt to supply the deficiency, by com- 

 pressing into a moderate compass the lead- 

 ing and more prominent facts in the his- 

 tory of philosophy and science, from the 

 earliest records to the commencement of 

 the eighteenth century. He follows the 

 established division of physical and intel- 

 lectual science, and divides the whole 

 series of ages into four great periods that 

 of remote antiquity, confined of course 10 

 the oriental nations that of the Greeks 

 and Romans that of the middle ages, and 

 that of the revival of letters to the days of 

 Locke and Newton. The writer stops at 

 this point, because, subsequently, he says, 

 " the ramifications of human knowledge 

 (of what other knowledge might he be 

 thinking ?) have become so numerous, as 

 to require a series of volumes for even the 

 most cursory review, and especially be- 

 cause a variety of small elementary works 

 already exist, in which the later improve- 

 ments of science are accurately and mi- 

 nutely described." 



Of his first general period, the literary 

 history is subdivided geographically, that 

 is, according to the relative positions 

 which the several nations occupied in the 

 map of the world its records scarcely 

 admitting of a different classification. Of 

 the second, the history takes a chronolo- 

 gical order, and scientific discoveries and 

 philosophical systems are more distinctly 

 marked. Of the third, the progress of the 

 sciences is separately sketched, under the 

 two great divisions of matter and mind ; 

 and of the fourth, when the names crowd 

 and accumulate, not only are physical 

 and intellectual sciences distinguished, 

 and notices given of individuals, who con- 

 tributed to their advancement, but their 

 productions are analysed, and the influence 



M.M. New Series. VOL. IV. No. 24. 



of their writings estimated, immediate and 

 remote. 



The first part, which is a sort of review 

 of oriental philosophy, under the heads of 

 Assyria, Babylon, Chaldea, China, India, 

 Persia, Arabia, Egypt, and Phoenicia, was 

 a severe trial on our patience opening 

 as it does with some miserable conjec- 

 tures on the state of science before the 

 flood. He starts with telling us, with 

 great solemnity, that the book of Genesis 

 is the "most ancient historical document 

 the world has ever known," and then 

 from its contents infers so much, that we 

 are driven still farther to infer, that, 

 in such a state of advancement, there 

 must have been many a one before. Be- 

 sides, we attribute the book to Moses 

 nobody does to any one earlier and he 

 was indebted for his learning for his 

 ability to write at all to the Egyptians ; 

 therefore they had learning, and books, 

 and doubtless "historical documents," long 

 before. For the oriental nations, general- 

 ly, Mr. Morell trusts almost entirely to Sir 

 William Jones, who was manifestly mani- 

 festly we mean to such as are not dazzled 

 by names to say the least, very adven- 

 turous, and to Dr. Morrison, whose judg- 

 ment we may, we believe, be allowed to 

 distrust. Speaking of the Egyptians, he 

 says, " they were most famous for magic." 

 " It cannot be doubted (he cautiously 

 adds) there was much of juggle and arti- 

 fice in this pretended science ; yet, from 

 what is stated in the book of Exodus, of 

 the successful imitation of some of the 

 miracles of Moses, it is evident the magi 

 of Pharaoh must have possessed a greater 

 knowledge of some of the latent proper- 

 ties of natural substances than was known 

 to their descendants." This remark is of 

 course copied, without consideration ; > 

 no man who had recently glanced at the 

 said miracles as it was the writer's duty 

 to do, when he chose to talk about them 

 could have prated of any " knowledge of 

 latent properties." For what did these 

 magicians do ? Produce a serpent a piece, 

 colour some water, and find a few frogs. 

 What knowledge of latent properties is 

 here? In truth, if the whole volume were 

 written with as little of a critical spirit as 

 the first part, we should have pronounced 

 it worthless ; but the other periods are 

 more carefully executed ; and the book is 

 a very good one for a general glance, not 

 only as to the progress of science, but the 

 particular steps made by particular indi- 

 viduals. Enfield, Playfair, Dug. Stewart, 

 and Bossuet, are his chief authorities. 



The causes of the decay of literature 

 are very neatly and accurately stated. 

 After describing the more obvious and 

 immediate causes the rise of the Sara- 



4 N 



