548 Literary and Critical Proemium. [Jan. I, 
carry them. The cavalry should be armed with 
sword.? and lances; and pistols, which abound in 
Greece, might be given to both services. 
At a time w hen it appears to be the ob¬ 
ject of government to emulate the military 
establishments of the continent, and to give 
to that description of force a decided pre¬ 
ference over the other branches of the ser¬ 
vice, we observe with pleasure the appear¬ 
ance of a work calculated to recal the 
public attention to the merits of our Navy, 
which, whilst it forms an effectual defence 
against foreign attacks, is free from the ob¬ 
jections which render a standing army so 
obnoxious at home. Mr. James is already 
known as the author of “An Account of the 
Naval Occurrences of the late American 
War,” and he has now presented us with 
two volumes of The Naval History of 
Great Britain , from 1793 to January , 
1820. These two volumes form only part 
of the intended work, and embrace the 
transactions of the war commenced in 
1793, and terminated by the peace of 
Amiens in March, 1802. We are surprised 
at the mass of information which Mr. 
James has been enabled to collect, and 
which render his work of the highest value 
to those who are professionally interested 
in naval matters. In a series of tabular 
abstracts, which he asserts to be the only 
documents of the kind ever published, 
Mr. James exhibits the state of the British 
navy as it existed at the commencement of 
every year from 1793 inclusive. After 
taking an introductory view of the gradual 
progress of our naval force, the author di¬ 
vides his subject into four annual heads, 
consisting of the state of the British navy, 
encounters of fleets, encounters of de¬ 
tached ships, and coast and miscellaneous 
occurrences. These details are drawn up 
with a minute and scrupulous attention to 
impartiality and truth, and from the pecu¬ 
liar sources of information to which Mr. 
James had access, he has been enabled to 
correct many exaggerations and mis-state¬ 
ments. The reception of this part of the 
work, will, we have no doubt, excite the 
author to the speedy completion of an un¬ 
dertaking, which is at once of great im¬ 
portance to the politician and historian, and 
by no means devoid of interest to readers 
of a different class. 
Mr. W. Frend has published his annual 
volume, called Evening Amusements, for 
the year 1822. These pleasing volumes 
have effected more for astronomy than all 
the works ever published, and have also 
done much towards dispelling numerous 
errors. The liberal mind of Mr. Frend, 
superior to the prejudices engendered by 
university education and dignities, has led 
him to become the first public advocate of 
the simple and palpable system of nature 
promulgated at different times in this 
Miscellany : and as the accession of such 
au advocate to the cause of truth is a very 
important circumstance in the future his¬ 
tory ot science, we shall quote several pas¬ 
sages of Mr. Freud’s work, as opinions 
meriting general circulation, and as autho¬ 
rities entitled to the respect of the public. 
A considerable length of time must necessarily 
elapse before men can get rid of the errors and pre¬ 
judices engrafted on them in the long series of the 
dai k ages. Yet the time will come, and the errors 
of the present generation will be no less a matter of 
wonder to our posterity, than the ignorance and 
superstition of the dark ages are to us. We have 
seen, in the instance of Galileo, the folly of at¬ 
tempting to darken the light of philosophy; yet 
how many are there, even in this island, who la¬ 
bour under a similar piejudiee with the priests in 
those days. In the same'manner the Newtonian 
dream of attraction will share a similar fate, and 
its end is much nearer than its advocates imagine. 
The opinions maintained in one age, upheld by 
authority, by force, or by fraud, are in another 
age justly stigmatized with the name of delusion 
and imposture. It has been objected to me, that, 
in opposing the atomick system of attraction set up 
by Newton, I have advanced no theor) oi my own 
to supply its place. The fat-e of the system makers 
in preceding ages is assuredly no great encourage¬ 
ment to such a task. Where are now the cycles 
and epicycles of Ptolemy ? the vortices of Des¬ 
cartes ? the atoms of Boscovich and Newton ? 
Each has had i Is supporters for a time ; but New¬ 
ton himself is not likely to retain much longer his 
sway, even with the French philosophers. 
Sir Richard Phillips has published a work on the 
Proxinrnte Causes of Material Phenomena, and the 
true Principles of Universal Causation. This is 
by no means an inglorious attempt to lay down a 
system that shall solve tlm phenomena of the uni¬ 
verse ; and in this we must do Sir Richard the jus¬ 
tice to allow, that he has surpassed his predeces-or 
Sir Isaac; tor he derives his principles from an 
actual survey of the phenomena in the universe, 
instead of laying down a system upon paper, and 
then bringing the real world to an imaginary one, 
formed on an hypothesis which has no basis in 
nature. But before he gives us bis own system, be 
has very properly, and in a yevy judicious manner, 
pointed cut the errors into which his predecessor 
had fallen. 
I shall select a few of his objections to the New¬ 
tonian system, which have long appeared to me in¬ 
controvertible. Newton assumes, that matter is 
made up of indefinite small particles, each of 
which has a power beyond any distance that we 
can name; and this power is of such a nature, as 
to diminish with the distance, according to a cer¬ 
tain law. This is a gratuitous assumption ; as no 
one would have dreamed of it, if it had not been 
gravely repeated by high authority, that the parings 
of his nails were exerting an influence on the Moon, 
the Sun, and the Planets. On this idle supposition, 
now so generally adopted, and pretended to be be- 
lievtd, Sir Richard properly observes, 
Matter is not itself an agent or source of power. 
It has no consciousness ol any distant matter to 
be moved or attracted. 
It has no means of knowing the relative quantity, 
and of moving accordingly. 
On the supposed projectile force, which first di¬ 
rected the motion of the planets, he observes with 
great propriety, 
It is a gratuitous assumption, that the Deity 
hurled the planets into space at their creation, and 
a draft on faith beyond what the worth or necessity 
of the gravitating hypothesis justifies. 
The "doctrine of vacuum is a great point with the 
Newtonians, but Sir Richard contends, that 
A vacuum is impossible on the principle of elns-. 
fieity; and, if it could exist, all elastic bodies 
would expand and fill it. 
It is impossible, on the principle of motionj; 
as, without resistance, every impulse would carry 
bodies through infinite spaces in the smallest 
time. 
It is inconsistent with the phenomena of the pla¬ 
net 
