leading principles, of this formal and learned assertion of the right of England to the dominion of the sea.

Selden was a member of the Long Parliament, and took an active and useful part in many important discussions and transactions. He appears to have been regarded somewhat in the light of a valuable piece of national property, like a museum or great public library, resorted to as a matter of course and a matter of right, in all the numerous cases in which assistance was wanted, from any part of the whole compass of legal and historical learning. He appeared in the national council, not so much the representative of the contemporary inhabitants of a particular city, as of all the people of all past ages, concerning whom, and whose institutions, he was deemed to know whatever was to be known, and to be able to furnish whatever, within so vast a retrospect, was of a nature to give light and authority in the decision of the questions arising in a doubtful and hazardous state of the national affairs. He was uniformly found acting with the friends of freedom; but yet evinced such a friendly moderation with respect to the king, such a disinclination to the demolition of the national consti tution, and such an unquestionable superiority to any mean views of self-interest, that he was held in great respect by the royal party. He protested equally and zealously against the measures of both parties in their commencing approaches toward war; but when the mutual demands and resentments had rendered it inevitable, he deemed it his duty, as a citizen and a public man, to continue to take a practical interest in the national concerns-and therefore to take that side on which, whatever errors his judgement charged upon it, he regarded the balance of justice as decidedly preponderating judged it enough that he could perceive which of the parties, and that he was absolutely certain that only one of them, afforded any ground of hope for national liberty. But when this cherished hope had declined with the progress, and at last perished with the complete ascendancy of war military tyranny, he withdrew in a great measure from public business, and was consoled by the unabated delight with which he could still pursue his learned studies. To these his pertinacity of application was such that he could not, sometimes, endure interruption even from his learned acquaintance, and it is told that when Isaac Vossius sometimes was ascending his staircase to pay him a visit, when he was engaged in some deep research, Selden would call out to him from the top that he was not at leisure for conversation. This indefatigable course was prosecuted, with probably very little remission, till near the end of his life, which took place on the last day of November, 1654, sixteen days short of the completion of his

He

seventieth year.As to the use which such a life of thinking had taught him to make of religion at the close of it, we are informed that,

*Sensible that his end was approaching, he sent for his friends, Primate Usher and Dr. Langbaine, with whom he discoursed concerning the state of his mind. He observed " that he had his study full of books and papers of most subjects in the world; yet at that time he could not recollect any passage wherein he could rest his soul, save out of the holy scriptures; wherein the most remarkable passage that lay most upon his spirit, was Titus ii. 11, 12, 13, 14.”'. p. 151.

**His opinions on controverted doctrinal points appear to have been kept very much to himself; but the biographer very fairly presumes that the spirit of his motto, "Liberty in all things," was extended to his theological inquiries, and that the legitiinate consequence might very probably be some defect of exact conformity to any model of faith, prescribed by national authorities, or taught by the leaders of sects. Some rather licentious observations in his "Table-Talk," appearing to implicate in some degree as well his moral sentiments as his faith, are considered by Dr. A. as only a sort of free and sometimes witty vivacities, to which he would not have given his authority as serious principles. He was not favourably disposed toward the puritans, except as the enemy of the persecuting measures employed against them; and he was, consistently, not less the enemy of that intolerant spirit strongly manifested, on the attainment of power, by some of those who had previously suffered and protested under persecution.→ Selden's general faith in Christianity had the approving testimony of Sir Matthew Hale; and, with respect to his character on the whole, the biographer says,

•That he was regarded with extraordinary veneration and esteem by his contemporaries of different parties, we have the fullest evidence: indeed, the man who reckoned among his friends and admirers Whitelock and Clarendon, Usher and Hale, must have possessed no ordinary share of moral, as well as intellectual, excellence.'

The memoir concludes with a number of sensible observations on his character and opinions, principally founded on passages taken from the work called his Table-Talk." Among them is a wild exclamation concerning the abuse of the precept Search the Scriptures; the biographer's comment on which excessively exaggerates the difficulty, (espe cially if we take into view the assistance so easily obtained, of a number of confessedly very able and very honest critics and expositors of different parties,) of obeying this injunction, to any extensively good purpose, without understanding the original languages.

The Life of Usher will occupy a short allotment of space in

a future number.

Art. XI. The Esculapian Monitor; or Faithful Guide to the History of the Human Species, and most important branches of Medical Philosophy; combined with moral reflections, and enforced by religious precepts. By the Rev. Edward Barry, M. D. Rector of St. Mary's, Wallingford. 8vo. pp. 170. Longman and Co. London. 1811.,

WE believe there is a pretty strong conviction in the minds of the

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thinking part of society, that there is enough in any one of the learned professions, to exhaust the talents and activity of any individuał of the ordinary standard ;-and to those whose minds are not yet made on the subject we would recommend the perusal of the Esculapian Monitor. It professes indeed to be a faithful guide to the history of the human species, and the most important branches of medical philosophy :" but in the exercise of our critical functions we have often occasion to verify the remark of the Roman satirist, "fronti nulla fides." We are told in the advertisement that with much original matter of his own, the author has availed himself in all important cases of disease, of the sanction and advice of the most able medical writers; and he even expresses a hope, "that, although his work may appear what it is primarily intended to be, for those who are altogether unacquainted with the subject it endeavours clearly to explain, it may be considered as a book not unworthy even professional regard, and as embracing objects of general interest."

That the work certainly does embrace objects of general interest, the table of contents sufficiently proves : for it contains references to articles on all the medical sciences, and to some which are not so; to some important diseases; and to a series of remedies in all cases of emergency. Unfortunately, however, it does not embrace these objects very closely, and as to the sparkles of original thought and extensive reading promised in the advertisement, we have not been fortunate enough to detect them. The work appears, indeed, to have been chiefly intended for all those who preside over the weighty charge of public and private education,'and their pupils; as there is a preliminary address to each of these classes of his majesty's subjects; and perhaps the learned author might think it unwise to exhibit to their uninitiated understandings all the resources of his erudition and experience:-We shall not attempt a regular analysis of the work, but shall exhibit a few specimens taken pretty much at random, and shall begin with an extract from the Section on Botany, which will exhibit a pretty fair example of our author's mode of instructing his readers on scientific snbjects.

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The person who makes two blades of grass to grow on the spot where hitherto there had been only one, deserves the thanks of the public, but he who makes one animal devour the produce of that which formerly was sufficient for two, cannot surely in this matter, especially in times of scarcity, be considered as doing any benefit to society. Our sheep, hitherto of comely shape, of sweet pasturage, (to the sheep-eaters we presume) and deneious flavour, are now rendered in, consequence of such modern eccentricity, inconvenient in size for the purpose of the table, the flesh is coarse in texture, rank in flavour, wasteful in dressing, and disgustful even to the eye.'

The section on the alkalies we shall transcribe entire alkalies are saline bodies, that freely combine and effervesce with acids: fixt. mineral VOL. VIII.

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alkali is obtained from sea salt, fixt vegetable alkali from vegetables, and volatile alkali from animal substances:'-And that on metals: Perfect ar noble n'etals are those which undergo no oxidation in the furnace, and are three in number, namely gold, platina, and silver; other metals which suffer decomposition, such as copper, iron, tin and lead, are on that account called imperfect or base.' These sections we presume contain some portions of the original matter which the learned author announces in his advertisement: for we never before heard of a pure alkali (and such from the title of his chapter it must have been his intention to describe) effervescing with acids, nor of metals suffering decomposition in a furnace. We had been always taught to consider the metals as simple bodies, and simple bodies the author has vouchsafed to inform his readers in his chapter on chemistry, cannot be resolved into any thing more simple:' he might have added—ergo, they cannot be decompounded.

The chapter on pneumatics exhibits another specimen of the author's profound knowledge of chemistry. After informing his readers that the atmosphere is composed of oxygene and nitrogene, he proceeds to tell them that the latter, or nitrogene, is extremely noxious, being a very mixed assemblage of exhalations from every substance capable of being sublimed by the heat of the sun.'

So much for the author's scientific knowledge: we must now exhibit him as a physician; and on medical subjects he tells us at the threshold of this department of his work, that truth, brevity. and clearness of description shall be the ruling principles of our dissertation?' As an example of the author's notions of brevity and clearness, we shall transcribe his definition of disease. Disease then is a preter, or supernatural affection of some part or parts, or the whole of the machine, by which the system ́is injured or disturbed; or the action of a part impeded, perverted, or destroyed, attended with peculiar symptoms, adapted to the nature of the affection, and parts affected; or appearances deviating from health, from some general or partial affection, by which the system in general, or in part, is oppressed or disfigured!' Of the materia medica the learned author informs us we have, except from its mechanical effects, very little. knowledge; and he quotes, in support of his opinion, the reply of Moliere's medical candidate, who being aske! by the professor Cur opium facit dormire, replied, Quia habet vim dormitivam. He might have added, that there are other drugs besides those sold by the apothecary which possess this "somniferous property."

The account of "remedies in all cases of emergency from sudden accident and alarm" constitutes by far the best part of the book, as they are chiefly extracted from the reports of the Humane Society and other sources but even to these the learned author has added some other

important observations' of his own. Thus he has subjoined the following important observation' under the head of Remarks, to the account of the mode of treating persons apparently dead from drowning. Accidents from the watery element are evidently most frequent in the bathing season, particularly in deep muddy rivers, abounding with clay, weeds, shoals, and quicksands; such for instance, as the river Avon, between Bath and Bristol, in which many melancholy disasters have happened, and which, by an uncommon degree of fatality, have generally precluded all hopes of recovery'. In the chapter on prisons the learned author remarks that

happily few of the mineral poisons are known to the common people, except arsenic, corrosive sublimate, and opium.'

The work, however, as is noticed in the title page, is interspersed with moral reflections, and we shall conclude our observations with a specimen of the author's talents in this way, which occurs in his treatise on che mistry. • Saturation is a word which signifies, that a fluid has imbibed as much of any substance as it can dissolve; (this by the bye is rather the meaning of the word saturated.) thus if camphor be added to spirit of wine more than the menstruum can readily dissolve, the excess will fall to the bottom, because the spirit was before saturated-had received enough, had not capacity to act on more, and therefore rejected it. Surely so useful a lesson from the school of chemical to that of moral philosophy, most forcibly points out unto us, how loathsome to nature is excess in meats, drinks, or any other sensual indulgence.'

Such, patient reader, is the Esculapian Monitor; in our perusal of which we should have been often tempted to suspect that the medical honours of the reverend author had been conferred upon him by a mistake of the printer, rather than by that of a college, if we had not noticed such phrases as, "under the direction of his medical attendant," intentionally rendered more conspicuous by being printed in italics.

Art. XII. The Dairyman's Daughter; an Authentic and Interesting Narrative, in five Parts. Communicated by a Clergyman of the Church of England. Published by the Religious Tract Society. 8vo. pp. 48. Price 3d. each, or 25 for 5s. 4d. Collins. 1811.

THIS is a beautiful and affecting tale, calculated to interest the best af

fections of the religious mind, and to arrest the attention of the careless and casual reader, by an impressive portraiture of the loveliness, the blessedness, the high anticipations of piety. We extract the clergyman's description of his visit to the dying bed of the Dairyman's Daughter.

The soldier took my horse and tied it up in a shed: a solemn serenity appeared to surround the whole place. It was only interrupted by the breezes passing through the large walnut trees, which stood near the house, and which my imagination indulged itself in thinking were plaintive sighs of sorrow. I gently opened the door; no one appeared, and all was stil! silent. The soldier followed; we came to the foot of the stairs.

6 66 They are come," said a voice, which I knew to be the father's; "they are come."

He appeared at the top; I gave him my hand, and said nothing. On entering the room above, I saw the aged mother and her son supporting the much loved daughter and sister; the son's wife sat weeping in a window seat with a child in her lap; two or three persons attended in the room to discharge any office which friendship or necessity might reqnire.

I sat down by the bed side. The mother could not weep, but now and then sighed deeply, as she alternately looked at Elizabeth and at me. The big tear rolled down the brother's cheek, and testified an affectionate regard. The good old man stood at the foot of the bed, leaning upon the post, and unable to take his eyes off the child whom he was so soon to part from.

Elizabeth's eyes were closed, and as yet she perceived me not. But