140 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



At the conclusion of the lecture^ Mr. Addison pointed out the 

 clear and intelligible distinction which, in physical investigations, 

 is always made and understood between the material substance, the 

 invisible energy or power, and the effects, or the results, derived by 

 the action of the one upon the other, and alluded to the necessity 

 for the same distinction in metaphysical inquiries : thus, the living 

 body would represent the material substance ; the intellectual prin- 

 ciple, or soul, the invisible power ; and the mind, the phenomena 

 or effects derived from the action of the one upon the other. 



CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



Natural Evidence of a Future Life, by F. C. Bakewell. London : 

 Longman and Co. 1835. 



It may appear paradoxical, but we cannot help feeling that di- 

 vines are not always the best writers on divinity. It may be urged, 

 indeed, that having dedicated more time to the subject, they are, 

 therefore, more competent to undertake the task — that, as physical 

 sciences are best explained by those who have devoted their minds 

 to such investigations, so, also, in spiritual matters, clerical profes- 

 sors should be the best expounders. As far as critical inquiries ex- 

 tend, this may be, indeed, admitted ; but we must recollect that, 

 with theological analysis, early habits, education, and various preju- 

 dices are so closely intermixed, that it is next to impossible to expect 

 absolute impartiality and the absence of all partial associations. On 

 points of faith, therefore, we can rarely expect to meet with more 

 than the best arguments in favour of some favourite and adopted 

 theory ; general views of the question in its various bearings and 

 ramifications being in a manner precluded by the peculiar circum- 

 stances in which the writer is placed. Not so with the laity : they 

 can step forward, free and unshackled, with a freshness and origi- 

 nality excluding those warpings and biassed feelings to which their 

 ecclesiastical brethren are of necessity more or less exposed. With 

 these impressions, we hailed a work from the pen of a layman, 

 written with a view to establish the important doctrine of a future 

 state, and the immortality of the soul ; and the more so, as it pro- 

 fessed to be founded on scientific principles. And conscientiously 

 and strongly do we recommend it, not only as an admirable speci- 

 men of able and conclusive reasoning, but as a valuable tribute to 

 the utility and importance of science, which has been so frequently 

 and unfairly assailed as hostile to religion, and therefore to be shun- 

 ned by those who would preserve their minds in a state of orthodox 

 purity ; a charge made, we think, with as much justice (because 



