234 



Monthly Review of Literature.. 



[Aua 



self arrived at the rery conclusion of Messrs. 

 Brothers and Woodley long before he had 

 the honour of becoming acquainted with 

 either of those enlightened personages ; 

 and the very arguments, and others that 

 sound like them, but are not, which con- 

 ducted Newton and his successors to one 

 set of conclusions, have led this learned 

 trio of Thebans to their very antipodes. 

 The Editor, for himself, considered, first, 

 that, though the earth is represented as 

 moving through an orbit whose diameter is 

 190 millions of miles, no sensible paralax 

 is discernible ergo, the earth must be sta- 

 tionary. The two bears whirl round the 

 axle of the sky in twenty-four hours, and 

 such an effect cannot be produced by the 

 daily revolution of the earth ergo, the 

 earth is stationary, and the stars go round. 

 If, again, the revolution of the earth could 

 produce such an effect, (appearance he 

 means,) then the traversing so vast a space 

 as 190 millions must needs produce some 

 sensible changes in the stars ; but, strange 

 to say, none is perceptible ergo, and be- 

 cause it impugns the veracity of his eye- 

 sight, understanding, and creed, the New- 

 tonian system is an imposition. And, in 

 the fourth place, Tycho Brahe, Aristotle, 

 Archimedes, and Homer, represent the sun 

 as describing a course in the heavens 

 Zerubbabel declares, it compasses the hea- 

 vens about ; and Solomon knew the altera- 

 tions of the turning of the sun, &c. ergo, 

 and, also, because the compass, or a pole 

 kept constantly pointed to the north, instead 

 of 23 degrees to the right or the left, as if 

 to produce, by that means, the seasons, 

 there exists abundant evidence that the 

 Newtonians are imposing upon the credulity 

 and ignorance of the world. 



The value of these same reasons, and the 

 novelty of them, such of them as are intel- 

 ligible, are sufficiently obvious, and super- 

 sede the necessity of farther analysis. Every 

 eight or ten years, for a century past, have 

 introduced persons of this unlicked caste 

 men of ardent piety and cloudy perception, 

 whose reasoning powers are always citra 

 ultrave the line of common sense, and who 

 can measure the evidence neither of morals 

 nor mathematics. 



Universal Mechanism, as consistent with 

 the Creation of all Things, the Appearances 

 of Nature, and the Dictates of Reason and 

 Revelation, by G. M. Bell. The author's 

 purpose is, as may be partly gathered from 

 the title, to demonstrate that all things 

 owe neither their origin nor their preser- 

 vation to chance, as is the opinion of some, 

 nor exist from all eternity, as is supposed 

 by others, but were created by the all-wise, 

 all-perfect, and eternal God, and are pre- 

 served alone by his care and protection. 

 We discover no novelty of illustration, and 

 cannot imagine what could prompt the 

 author to publication, with Paley before 

 him, to whom he repeatedly refers. His 



explanations of the Six Days of Creation 

 can only excite disgust, consisting, as they 

 do of idle speculations, repeated a thou- 

 sand times confirming nothing, and teach- 

 ing nothing. 



On the Portraits of English Authors of 

 Gardening, with Biographical Notices, by 

 S. Felton Mr. Felton, it may be sup- 

 posed, is not only a horticulturalist, but a 

 portrait collector. After glancing at Greeks, 

 Romans, and Orientals, and two English- 

 men, one Alfred, of the thirteenth century, 

 and one Henry Dane, of the fourteenth, of 

 both of whom he thinks it not very likely 

 portraits will be discovered, he throws his 

 writers upon gardening into two classes 

 without portraits, and with. Of the former 

 he reckons up sixty-nine, the earliest of 

 whom is Ralph Arnolde, who has, it seems, 

 in his Chronicle, printed in 1502, a chapter 

 on the Crafte of Graffynge and Plantynge, 

 and Alterynge of Fruits, as well in colour 

 as in taste ; and in whose chronicle, by the 

 way, appeared first the ' Nut-brown Maid.* 

 Of those of whom portraits happily still 

 exist, the author ennumerates we know not 

 how many, and some whose names we did 

 not expect to see. Numbers of the devotees 

 of the garden have lived to a great age. 

 The volume is full of agreeable recollections 

 the anecdotes, to be sure, are all very well 

 known, and the author catches at any peg 

 to hang a note upon. Charles Cotton's 

 works are enumerated ; a quotation alludes 

 to Essex, and then we are told Essex lost 

 his head for saying Elizabeth grew old and 

 cankered, and that her mind was as crooked 

 as her carcase. " Perhaps," he adds, " the 

 beauty of Mary galled Elizabeth." This 

 leads to Anne Boleyn, and Mr.Hutton, and a 

 modern writer on horticulture, who tells us 

 Queen Elizabeth, in her last illness, eat little 

 but sucory pottage. Mr. Lowden says it is 

 used as a fodder for cattle. The French 

 call it chicoree sauvage. Her taste must 

 have been something like her heart, &c. 



The Senate, a Poem. Part I. The 

 Lords. No uneffective sketch of the Lords, 

 with a dash of satire ; but presenting fair, 

 and generally favourably fair judgments. 

 The versification is a mixture of Pope and 

 Goldsmith, with a turn or two of Campbell 

 and Crabbe, and the effect is often expres- 

 sive and impressive. The palm of elocution 

 we hope the writer uses the word strictly, 

 and not loosely, for eloquence is assigned 

 to Lord Grey, 



Whose port erect, and proud, yet gracious state, 

 Denote the dignified aristocrat. 



" True to the crown (witness the rectory of 

 Bishopsgate), the people, and the laws." 



Next, on his crutch, see generous Holland rise, 

 Gout in his feet, good humour in his eyes: 

 The classic Holland, to the Muses known, 

 Peer, poet, orator Amphitryon. 



With more, that amounts to extravagance. 



