REVIEWS—OUTLINES OF NATURAL THEOLOGY. 201 
Outlines of Natural Theology for the use of the Canadian Student. 
By James Boveli, M.D., Professor of Natural Theology in Trinity 
College, Toronto, C. W. Toronto: Printed by Rowsell and 
Ellis, 1859. 
The accomplished author of this work is well known to the 
readers of the Canadian Journal, as occupying a prominent position 
in the scientific ranks of Canada; whilst, in the special department 
of physiology, his reputation has extended beyond the Province. 
The work now before us, unlike the general character of Dr. Bovell’s 
writings, is strictly a compilation from various sources, put together 
in accordance with the author’s special views; but this is fairly stated 
by Dr. Bovell, and is indeed in keeping with the proposed object and 
plan of the book: a book not intended for the critical investigation 
of the scientific inquirer, to whom the facts brought forward in it 
- must necessarily be familiar, but one offered to the student of 
Natural Theology, as a convenient and accessible text-book, in the 
prosecution of his studies. This being the general intention of the 
work, it has been thought advisable to elucidate the subjects discussed 
in its pages, by a considerable number of wood-engravings and some 
lithographed geological sections. Of the engravings, chiefly restora- 
tions of extinct reptilian and other types, some few, perhaps, might 
have been judiciously omitted ; and, as the work is intended mainly 
for Canadian students, it would have been as well—so far as regards 
the older rock formations—to have substituted Canadian subdivisions 
for the local terms and groupings more or less peculiar to the-British 
Isles. Subordinate matters of this kind, however, can easily be 
rectified in a future edition ; and in alluding to them here, we do so, 
truly, in no hypereritical spirit. 
Analytically considered, the subject matter of Dr. Bovell’s work, 
as there discussed, involyes two distinct principles: the proofs 
of a great First Cause or Creator, and the exposition of Divine 
goodness and wisdom as shewn in natural objects and phenomena ; 
and secondly, the reconciliation of geological discoveries with the 
statements of the Mosaic Record. Under the first division of his 
subject, the author refutes, with great force and skill, many of the 
pantheistic and other prevalent doctrines of a cognate character, that 
haye been put forth more or less openly of late years, not only in 
continental Europe, but by names of distinction also in British 
Science. The passages in which these doctrines are thus discussed, 
will well repay the reader’s perusal. We would willingly have quoted 
