1822.| 
him to.escape, and Dr. Brewster has lent 
him as little aid here as elsewhere. Neither 
in the doctrines nor in the experiments .is 
much novelty discernible, and all kinds of 
supernatural, agencies, after some equi- 
vocation, are finally recognized. Thus he 
gtavely admits, (vol. 3, p. 132,) as evi- 
dences, that matter atiracts matier, the 
two vulgar wonders of Maskelyne and 
Cavendish, about the plummet and the 
lead-balls; although two bungs floating on 
water so much better shew the same thing, 
and the whole is so palpably caused by the 
partial interception of the atmospherie 
pressure on the near sides of the bodies. 
Dr. R. then tries to substitute deflecting 
force for gravitating force, and mutual 
defiection for mutual gravitation; but he 
forgets that he then assumes the reality of 
a prior ectilinear motion, and gets into a 
labyrinth ; while, in fact, all these sup- 
posed deflections are but actions and re- 
actions through a gazeous medium di- 
rectly as the masses; and, because diffused 
through a gaseous medium, inversely as the 
squares of the distances. He exults about 
the orbits of comets, but forgets that the 
impulses of the sun on the medium of 
space, create a cone of revolving matter, 
whose power is a maximum only in the 
plane of its motion ; that is, in or near the 
zodiac. Such would have heen mechunical 
philosophy; but the doctrines in these vo- 
lumes are worthy of the man who detected 
the conspiracy against social order; and 
those who believed in the latter are fully 
qualified to believe in the former. To 
such persons we recommend the book ; but 
in truth we wonder at the commercial har- 
dihood which could induce any speculating 
bookseller to print four such unwieldy 
tomes in the face of the succinct, though 
equally old fashioned and ill-founded, sys- 
—all hypothesis from beginning to end. 
There is no evidence whatever that the 
planets ever did or would move in straight 
lines, or that they possess any force be- 
yond that which produces their motion 
from minute to minute. Hence, there- 
fore, there is no necessity for the central 
attractive force to deflect that motion, 
which had no previous existence. Besides, 
the central force would, if it existed, 
produce a spiral:—oh no, (say the New- 
tonians,) the rectilinear force is always 
equal to itself, and competent to counter- 
act the other; and, though its direction 
varles every instant, yet in every new. di- 
rection its force is the same, What a mon- 
strous ny pothesis, and how Catholic must 
be the faith which can believe it! How 
much more simple is, the principle of 
action and re-action, diffused through the 
medium of Space in which the motions 
must be reciprocally as the masses, and the 
forces inyersely, as, the. squares. of the 
distances, 
Literary and Critical Proémium. 
341 
tems of Enfield and Playfair, and the well- 
written Lecteres of Young. 
While verbal critics have been. dis- 
puting and. disserting in regard to the 
antiquity of the Poems of Ossian, Mr. 
HuGu CAMPBELL has employed himself 
in visiting the district of country in which 
the events described in Ossian occurred ; 
and on the spot he made many unexpected 
discoveries, and verified, beyond contra- 
diction, the authenticity of these ancient 
productions. The site in which he iden- 
tifies all the scenery of Ossian is the north- 
east corner of Ireland, opposite Cantire, 
or the modern Antrim and Dowa, in which 
counties he has determined nearly a hun- 
dred localities alluded to in the Poems. 
Mr. Campbell has therefore published a 
new and authenticated edition of Ossian, 
with notes on the Poems; and an original 
dissertation, with a. map and views, which 
will set at rest for ever all further ques-' 
tions’ on this point. Ossian will, hence- 
forward, therefore be recognized as a le- 
gitimate classic, or a native British or 
Irish Homer; and Mr. Campbell, as his first 
and best editor. Mr. Campbell, however, 
with proper anxiety to confer perfection 
on this edition, has annexed the disserta- 
tions of Macpherson and Blair, thereby 
putting the purchaser in possession of all 
that he can desire on the subject. 
Journal of a Visit to some parts of 
Ethiopia, by GEORGE WADDINGTON, esq. 
Fellow of ‘Trinity College; and the Rev. 
BArNARv Hansury, of Jesus College, 
Cambridge. These gentlemen reached 
a great distance beyond tie second ca- 
taract of the Nile, in company with the 
Turkish army, which was then advancing 
on an expedition against the provinces 
above that place. The account of the 
maneceuvres and intrigues of the Maho- 
metan army, which this volume affords, 
would alone suffice to give it an original 
and amusing character, if it possessed no 
other merits. That is, however, by no 
means the ease. Several aiitiquities, hi- 
therto we believe unknown, were dis- 
covered and explored by the authors, who 
have made drawings and plans, illustrative 
of them: these are only tolerably litho- 
graphed, The style of the work’ is, as 
might be expected, extremely clear and 
elegant; and this Journal will, we doubt 
not, be highly esteemed’ by all lovers of 
Egyptian antiquity. It commences at the 
second cataract, where it also concludes 
on their return, and the reader’ thus 
escapes the fatigue of well-known recitals 
and descriptions, 
The publishers lave brought to a ‘con- 
clusion their Lines of Eminent Svotch 
Poets. The sixth and last number of this 
neat little work contains, besides’ several 
original lives; as in the former numbers, a 
supplement, composed of brief notices of 
minor poets, arranged ‘alphabetically; thus 
forming 
