3^ CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



matter, and the relations which quadrupeds bear to other groups of 

 the animal kingdom, is full of instruction and interest — and from 

 the forcible chapter, treating on primary definitions, on matter, time, 

 and space, and the station of man in the creation, we shall now 

 principally confine our comments. 



Locke asserts, that every thing which the mind of man can con- 

 ceive is either intelligent or unintelligent. " Of intelligent beings," 

 Mr. Swainson, in his primary definitions, remarks, — 



" There is but one universal, primary, and continuous cause, — God, in 

 whose hands is the life and being of every thing. From the will of this great 

 Omnipotent has emanated other intelligent orders, created, indeed, and, 

 therewre, incontinuous ; but whose entire nature, being spiritual, is incor- 

 ruptible, and who have been destined, by their Creator, to live in that state 

 for ever. Following these purely spiritual beings, is Man, whose essence, 

 or soul is immortal, but whose substance, or body, is material and corruptible. 

 These, for a season, are united ; but the Creator of the human soul has de- 

 clared, in language the most unequivocal, that it will continue to 'exist 

 through the countless ages of eternity ; and finally, that, by obedience to 

 the conditions He has revealed, it will be united, so to speak, with the puri- 

 ty and holiness of Him from whom it proceeded. Neither revelation nor 

 reason can suggest to the mind any other order of created intelligences than 

 these, although each contains its own internal or component qualities ; one of 

 these, for insta,nce, is the Godhead itself. » * * Of unintelligent beings, 

 we can conceive, in like manner, t)ut of three sorts ; namely, matter, time 

 and space. Matter is incontinuous, but time and space are not so ; for there 

 never was a time in which there was no time, or a thing which did not occu- 

 py space. « • * Time and space are eternal; for it is impossible to con- 

 ceive them otherwise than as coexistent with the Deity. All time is His 

 duration, and all space is filled by His presence: they are evidently not causes; 

 yet we cannot understand how they can be effects. Thus, as it has been 

 well observed, we come to the inconceivable conclusion, that they are neither 

 causes nor effects. Their definition, in fact, is so difficult, not to say impos- 

 sible, that, inconsistent as it may appear, .those philosophers who have relin- 

 quished the effbrt in despair, are those who have the greatest knowledge on 

 the subject. Looking collectively to the three great divisions of unintelli- 

 gent beings, — time, space, and matter,— we shall find that the latter is equal- 

 \y incapable of strict definition. Each, in fact, can be judged of only by its 

 properties. Time and space may be divided, yet they are continuous; for it 

 is impossible that one of these divisions can exist without being connected to 

 others ; but every mass or particle of mntter may be isolated, and so exist 

 without other parts. Time and space are capable of mensuration ; but to 

 space is added the property of figure. Matter is the same, but is at once 

 distinguished from time and space by being incontinuous. Of time we know 

 but 01 three primary divisions, which we distinguish as the past, the pre- 

 sent, and the future. The first and t\)e last are incalculable, for they are 

 eternal ; while ^he present is but ag a connecting filament to each. Space, in 

 hke manner, may be broken ii>t:o infinite portions; but of its first great divi- 

 sions we know nothing more than can be dimly gathered from certain pas- 

 sages in revelation." 



The nature and division of nig.tter, organic and inorganic, are 

 next considered, and some curious inferences gathered from the fore- 

 going definitions, are deduced with much subtlety and plausibility. 

 The station of man as an intelligent being, the author has clearly 

 pqijiited o\it, and Jhias takeji much pains to separate the palpably in- 



