404 
at Ascension, during Buonaparte’s exile 
at St. Helena, which I believe is not 
withdrawn, as the English flag was flying 
on Cross Hill as we passed; it is in 
lat. 7° 55’, and long. 14° 16’. The wea- 
ther continued fine, with light airs: rate 
of sailing between four and five knots an 
hour. Crossed the equator on the 10th 
March, in long. 19° 20’. . From this 
time to the 17th, had light breezes and 
fine weather, averaging a run of about 
100 miles a day. Spoke an American 
schooner, from Bordeaux to Pernam- 
buco, in lat. 6° 36’, and long. 25° 5’. 
Fresh breezes, with occasional showers 
Requisites for Metaphysical Inquiry. 
[Decay 
of rain. 25th.—Theodore De Fuscher 
departed this life; committed his body 
to the deep in lat. 20° 21’, and long. 
‘35° 17’; light airs and fine weather. 
30th.—Boarded the brig Africa, from 
Greenock to Honduras, out twenty- 
seven days, in lat. 25° 19’, and long. 
35° 34’, from whom we received a very 
seasonable supply of potatoes and 
fish, 
ERIE: (a 3 * Je egal 
23d April. — Pleasant, with light 
breezes, and clear weather; made 'the 
west end of the Isle of Wight; out from 
Mauritius 101 days. 
—<— 
THE INQUIRER.—NO. III. 
Has the World Existed from Eternity ? 
Tue advice we should give to every reader who has not the habit of deep and intense 
thinking is, to pass over this paper altogether ; for these are not subjects to parrot about : 
and what but parrots are we, when we repeat, upon any subject, what we have merely 
heard, or read, without question or examination—in short, without fully and completely 
understanding, not only every syllable that is said, or written, but the applicability or 
non-applicability of every sentence to the subject, and the pertinency or insutficiency 
of every position and induction, to the premises and to the conclusion. Yet the severe 
examination and the intensity of thought such subjects require, are, to many readers, 
painful :—to some, insupportable. It is for this reason that we are somewhat shy of giving 
place to such subjects in our pages. Yet, a Magazine should have something to suit all 
tastes ; and, while there are few, perhaps, who read every line of such a miscellany, 
‘there are some to whom a strenuous exertion of the intellect is an agreeable—nay, some- 
times, even a necessary recreation. There are minds, as well as bodies, that cannot be 
kept in health, without some portion of that exercise, in which the faculties, as the 
muscles, must be strained to their utmost strength. Among exercises of the intellectual 
class that require an effort of this description, must be regarded all arguments and inves- 
tigations which have reference to matter and spirit—to origin and eternity—to space and 
infinitude. Upon trials of their strength in exercises like these, there are some minds 
that cannot forbear occasionally entering ; and though, after repeatedly putting forth, and 
perseveringly exerting their utmost powers, and concentrating their energies to the point 
proposed, till they feel the brain pinched, as it were, or screwed between a vice, they 
still find something which their comprehension cannot master :—they must, nevertheless, 
go to it again. 
Art thou one of these, reader? If not, pass over this paper. 
tion may not be thrown away. 
We remember, many years ago, to have heard Dr. Young say—during a discussion at 
the Lyceum Medicum, which was getting a little metaphysical,—that “it was good to go 
a little way into the dark sometimes, that we might know how far we could see.” And 
for minds that can bear the experiment, so it is; but there are some people who can 
never go beyond the twilight, without seeing phantoms and buggaboes. Let such never 
enter into “the dark impalpable obscure” of metaphysics. Such inquiries require nerve 
as well as intellect—or the latter becomes mastered by the imagination; and superstition, 
or mysticism (mental diseases both, which are only modifications of insanity), are almost 
inevitably engendered. 
_The only real use of such inquiries is, that they exercise the intellect ; and it ought 
to be pure intellect, and nothing else, that is exercised upon them. The dogmas of 
authority, on the one hand—and the sport of the fancy, the vagueness of conjecture, or 
the flourishes of rhetoric, on the other—are equally out of place. It is pure unsophisticated 
logic alone that must be trusted to on these occasions, in which every individual word, 
2s well as position, is weighed, and considered, and comprehended ; in which not a syl- 
lable is out of its place, nora syllable admitted that is superfluous: for, in close rea- 
soning, we must have a language as close. Whatever is not necessary to the sense, is 
likely to lead us from it; and, in revising or examining an argument upon such subjects, 
the first care ought to be, to draw 4 pen through every syllable that is not necessary to the 
expression of the thought. 
These observations may tend to shew—that if there are few who are fit to read upon 
such subjects, there can be very, very few indeed, who are fit to write upon them. 
Very 
If thou art,—thy atten- 
