citizens, which disqualifies them for refifting the influence of febrile poifon." P. 21. In the winter, on the contrary, he has known the mercury to fink to the 6th degree. The next circumftance the author adverts to, is the mode of building in the city of Philadelphia. The walls of the houses are faid to be flight, the streets broad, and the windows large, and frequently continued to the ground. In this, he fays, they have copied the English fafhion, without adverting to the difference in the climates of the two places. Hence, in the fummer, their habitations are like hot-houses, and in the winter are but a flender guard against the severity of the froft. In a country expofed to the extremes of heat and cold, the houses should be lofty, the walls thick, the windows fmall, and the streets narrow. Thick walls, and fmall windows, afford a barrier equally against heat and cold; lofty buildings, and narrow streets, prevent the rays of the fun from entering the lower apartments, and, at the fame time, increafe the rapidity of the currents of air. He defends the manner of constructing houfes in Spain, which has been adopted, he fays, on philofophical principles, and is perfectly adapted to the climate; and ridicules the idea of its having been chosen as a guard to the chastity of the women, though it eventually fecludes them from the gaze of the impertinent and debauched, at the fame time that it denies ingrefs to the rays of the fun. The population of Philadelphia, the author computes at about 75,000 perfons, and as the inhabitants live principally on animal food, even during the hot feafon of the year, the air is conftantly loaded with putrid matter, of itself fufficient, he thinks, in fuch a climate, to account for the production of peftilential fever, without its being imported, which, he says, was never fatisfactorily proved. On the fubject of the difappearance of fwallows at certain feafons of the year, the author offers fome plaufible conjec tures, to show that they do not conceal themselves in caverns, immerge in rivers, or become torpid at fuch times, as has been fuppofed; but that they retreat to more fouthern climes, in fearch of their food, and return to us again in the summer. The arguments, however, which he ufes in fupport of this opi nion, are only fuch as have been often repeated, and need not be here recited. Goitres have been supposed to be produced by fome ill quality in the water, commonly ufed in the countries where the difeafe is most frequent, particularly to drinking fnow-water. "Quis tumidum guttur miratur in Alpibus." Dr. Barton, in a Memoir on the fubject, attributes them to miafmata floating in the atmosphere, the produce of putrid animal and vegetable matter, matter, fimilar to that which gives rife to bilious and remitting fevers. To this fanciful opinion, Dr. C. anfwers by showing, that goitres are rarely seen in those countries where fuch fevers are endemic. But here, as in every part of the volume, the ftyle is rather declamatory than argumentative, and affertion is pretty generally fubftituted for facts. The volume concludes with an addrefs to the Medical Society at Philadelphia. In this the author repeats the arguments used in the first and fecond Memoirs, to prove that the yellow fever, like the plague, are produced by highly putrid or malignant atmofpheres, and that they are not contagious. With his arguments in proof of thefe pofitions, we thall conclude our account of the work. "Epidemic plague and yellow fever," he fays, "refemble each other in their decline and termination, no less than they do in their rise and progrefs. "Having raged with more or lefs violence throughout the fummer and autumnal months, the career of both is immediately clofed on the acceffion of cold weather. So completely are their femina blafted by a moderate froft, that, after fuch an occurrence, there remains in ge neral no shadow of ground to dread their influence. It is indeed true, that sporadic cafes of these diseases appear even in the depth of winter but they are the offspring of caufes which operate only on a circumfcribed scale. It belongs to fpring, fummer, and autumn, particularly to the two latter feafons, to render the plague and yellow fever epidemic. The reafon of this is obvious. It is during thefe feafons only, that a fufficiency of putrid exhalation can be evolved, to impregnate the atmosphere to the peftilential point." P. 326. And adds: "The fudden and entire ceffation of plague in Syria and Egypt about the fummer folttice, and in Conftantinople on the acceffion of cold weather, is inimical to a belief in its contagious nature. Immediately after its termination in thefe places (which is fometimes almost inftantaneous, and where a belief in the doctrine of fatality prevents every measure for the removal or deftruction of contagion) the apparel of the dead is worn by their furviving connections, their beds are flept on, and their furniture in general ufed and handled in the moft familiar manner. Nor is this all. Even the low filthy hovels, which had been utterly depopulated by the disease, are, without purification, prefently filled up again by fresh inhabitants: yet, from all this intercourfe, apparently fo inconfiderate and dangerous, no inconvenience whatever is experienced. Inftead of immediately sweeping off those who thus plunge into the midst of its fuppofed fomites, the dif eafe is heard of no more, till the return of the next season of exhalation, or perhaps till a much more diftant period, and then appears again without being attributable to any cause, except the existing ftate of the atmofphere." P. 334. As As we have before paid fome attention to the medical writers of America, Dr. Rush and others, and their molt important works are usually imported here, we were unwilling to let Dr. Caldwell pafs by in filence, whose book certainly contains fome curious and interefting particulars. ART. IX. Illuftrations of the Truth of the Chriftian Religion. By Edward Maltby, B. D. Domeftic Chaplain to the Lord Bilbop of Lincoln. 8vo. 5s. 5d. Rivingtons. 1802. WE E have two main proofs of the divine origin of Chriftianity; the one drawn from external, the other from internal evidence. The external evidence, is that of miracles and prophecy; the internal evidence, is that of its intrinsic worth, inafmuch as the doctrines of Chriftianity not only are confirmed by reafon, as far as reafon extends, but, where the latter fails, fupply its defects. On each of these heads, Chrif tianity has had very able advocates. The argument from miracles is undoubtedly the ftrongeft: for, when any one delivers doctrines as derived from heaven, and in proof of the affertion performs fuch acts as cannot be done by human means, it is clear that the do&rine fo delivered must be of divine origin. We find accordingly that Origen, Athanafius, Gregory of Nazianzum, Cyril of Alexandria, Chryfoftom, Auguftin, and other Fathers, infift particularly on this proof, in oppofition to Celfus, Porphyry, and Julian; who either denied the reality of the miracles, or endeavoured to give a falle explanation of them. Nor have modern ages produced lefs able advocates in Lardner, Campbell, Weft, Ditton, the author of the Trial of the Witneffes, and particularly Archdeacon Paley, who, in his View of the Evidences of Chriftianity, has treated the argument from miracles in a more masterly manner than any of his predeceffors. The argument from prophecy has been conducted by Juftin Martyr, and Tertullian, who endeavoured to prove, from the prophecies of the Old Teftament, that Jefus Chrift was the expected Meffias. The fame argument has been conducted in modern times, and with great ability, particularly by Chandler and Sykes. The arguments from internal evidence have been ably treated by Locke, Fofter, and Conybeare, who wrote against Tindal; by Stackhoufe, Chapman, and Benfon, who wrote against Chubb and Morgan; alfo by Whitby, Leland, Doddridge, Watts, and Jenyns. After After fo many excellent writers on the divine origin of Christianity, it is extremely difficult either to find new matter, or to place the old in a light, in which it had not been placed before. The author of the volume now before us has not at tempted a fyftematic proof, either from the external or the internal evidence; but he has many very fenfible obfervations in regard to both, which, as the title of the work imports, illuftrate the truth of Chriftianity. The work itfelf confits of eight Chapters, forming fo many unconnected differtations, which were written at different times, and on different occafions; but they are all of them so far related, that they are all illuftrations of the fame thing. The author very properly begins with a fubject, which must precede all inquiries into the origin of Chriftianity, namely, the origin and authenticity of that work, in which its doctrines are contained. The titles of the feven following Chapters are, Of the Proof arifing from the Nature and Strength of the Prejudices of the Jews. On the Conduct of the Difciples. On the Miracles wrought by the Difciples during the Life of our Lord. On the Scheme of the Gofpel. On the Character of Jefus. Mr. Godwin's Mifrepresentations of the Chriftian Religion, and the Character of its Founder examined. View of the Defects of the Evidence in Favour of the Mahometan Religion. To these are added, a Thefis on the Infufficiency of Human Reafon, and a Concio ad Clerum on the fubject of Jephtha's Vow. In the firft Chapter, which is entitled, "Of the internal Evidence of Genuinenefs and Authenticity in the Books of the New Teftament," the author begins by defining the terms “genuine" and "authentic." "A genuine book," he fays with Bishop Watson, "is that which was written by the perfon, whose name it bears, as the author of it. An authentic book is that which relates matters of fact, as they really happened.' Thus the word "authentic" is made fynonymous to "true," a fenfe which does not exactly correfpond to the Latin word authenticus, 'from which it is derived. Authenticus is a technical term of the Roman civil law; for inftance, authenticæ tabulæ fignifies a will written by the very person whofe name it bears; and hence the English word, authentic," has been ufed to denote that which was written by the person whose name it bears, even though it be only a copy, and not an autograph, as authenticæ tabulæ denotes. No inconvenience, however, will arife from using the word "authentic," as fynonymous to "true," when it has been properly defined. Mr. Maltby's arguments for the genuinenefs and authenticity of the Books of the New Testament, are are arranged under the following seven heads. 1. Style and Idiom. 2. Minutenefs of Detail. 3. Abfence of all party Spirit. 4. Candour of the Writers in relating their own Failings. 5. Agreement of the Facts, with the Suppofition of a miraculous Interference. 6. Uniform Prefervation of Character. 7. Various Proofs arifing from a Comparison of the genuine Scriptures with the Apocryphal Books. As a diftinction is here made between genuinenefs and authenticity, it would have been better, perhaps, if the arguments in favour of each had not been intermixed: it would have contributed to perfpicuity to have given, in the first place, the arguments for their genuinenefs, that is, for the fact, that the books in queftion were written by the perfons to whom they are afcribed; and then to have ftated the arguments for their authenticity, that is, in the fenfe of this author, for their truth. Of the above-mentioned heads, the first and seventh relate to the former; the third, fourth, and fifth to the latter; the fecond and fixth, to both of thofe fubjects. The ftyle and idiom of the books of the New Teftament are proofs, that the authors must have lived in the first century, and have been in that very fituation, in which we know that the Apoftles and Evangelifts were: and a comparifon of the apocryphal with the canonical writings of the New Teftament, though it affords no direct proof of the genuinenefs of the latter, fhows at leaft how much greater their pretenfions to genuineness are. The arguments under the third and fourth heads, namely, abfence of party fpirit, and the candour of the writers in relating their own failings, fhow that those writers are worthy of credit, or, in the sense of this author, that their writings are authentic. The fifth head contains likewife an argument for credibility, namely, the credibility of the miracles. The arguments under the fecond and fixth heads, which relate to minutenefs of detail, and the uniform prefervation of character, fhow in the first place that the hiftorical books of the New Teftament cannot have been the work of an impoftor, and in the next place that the narration itfelf is a faithful one. As a fpecimen of the author's mode of reasoning, we felect, from the fixth head, the following paffage; in which, though the argument itself is not wholly new, it is delivered in a very perfpicuous manner, and shows that the writer is mafter of his fubject. "It has ever been confidered as a requifite in fictitious compofitions, that the characters fhould not only have the diftinguishing marks of the peculiar fituation and circumftances in which they are placed, but that a confiftency fhould be strictly obferved throughout the fame character, and if the perfon thus reprefented be brought from real life, it is invariably required, that he should bear fome vifible marks of those qualities, |