Gospel. In our country alone are its truths] Prof. Arago, to the Academy of Sciences, to be found free from the cloudiness of on the part of the missionary society in mysticism, and separate from the grossness France, who have resolved upon establishof superstition; and therefore it is that the ing two bishops in New Zealand and on the highest minds amongst us both are, and coast of California, for such instructions as always have been, the readiest to acknow- might enable them to conduct scientific inledge the paramount authority of revela- vestigations in meteorology, magnetism, tion. "Some of your people here seem to and analysis of the air. The academy rebelieve in Christianity," was the observa- joiced, it is said, thus to see missionary tion of a foreign Romish ecclesiastic to zeal connecting itself with philosophical inDoctor Robinson, of the observatory at quiry. But if the application had been for Armagh, at one of the meetings of the learned men by whom the mission might scientific association. The doctor gravely be attended, what must have been the rereplied, "Yes, truly; and there are very sult in such a country as France? Simply few, indeed, of our scientific men, who are that infidelity would be associated with rephilosophers, and who are not Christians." ligion. The philosopher would go out to This, we say, furnishes an additional reason mock at the faith which the missionaries why England should address herself to the labored to teach; and instead of promoting, work of evangelization in the East, with an their efforts must be adverse to the cause earnestness proportioned to her peculiar fit in which they professed to be engaged. ness for such a task, and the vast facilities But how easy would it be in this country for its accomplishment which, in her ex- to supply a society bent upon missionary tended dominion, are so providentially af- purposes, with the ablest scientific men, forded. By other nations, if religion be who are at the same time the firmest bepresented, it will be in antagonism with lievers in revelation? Sir William Hamilphilosophy; or if philosophy, it will be in ton, Professor Lloyd, Professor M'Cullagh, antagonism with religion. Amongst the Dr. Wall, Professor Whewel, and a host of enlightened members of the Church of other distinguished names might be enuEngland alone, the highest truths of the merated, who are most devoted adherents one blend and commingle, as it were, with the highest attainments in the other. Religion is recognised as the perfection of philosophy, even as philosophy is recognised as the perfection of reason. They lead to, and mutually support each other. The path is as the shining light, lustrous as the galaxy in the heavens,

“Which leads through nature up to nature's God." And the difficulties attendant upon revelation are found, upon the most impartial and diligent examination, to be no other than those which would equally militate against natural religion, respecting which they are admitted to be no difficulties at all. Let us, therefore, bestir ourselves as the peculiar people to whom this great task has been specially enjoined, of making reason the herald of faith, and turning the labors of pure science to the account of revelation; and let us evince our sense of the blessings which we have so long enjoyed, by our readiness to extend them to, and disseminate them amongst the benighted nations, who may thus be led to recognise us not only as conquerors by whom they have been subdued, but as deliverers by whom they have been brought out of dark ness into the marvellous light of the Gospel. The French papers have lately informed us that an application was made, through

to our Established Church, and by whom science is regarded but as the handmaid of religion! This it is to have a scriptural church, which respects antiquity, but reverences the Bible; and neither requires, on the one hand, the belief of do mas by which reason is outraged, and the foundation of credibility overthrown; nor permits, on the other, any curious or carnal questioning respecting those mysterious truths which must be received implicitly upon the authority of revelation.

Let England, therefore, not be forgetful of the great and the glorious destiny for which she has been exalted so far above all the other nations of the world. Let her rulers be convinced that her prosperity and greatness are intimately bound up with an honest endeavor to become the enlightened disseminator of revealed religion, in the purest form in which it has ever been professed since the days of the apostles. The Grecian states were raised up, and permitted to attain the pre-eminence which they enjoyed, for the cultivation of literature and the arts; and the finished products of the genius and the skill of that exquisite people have survived the ravages of conquest and the horrors of slavery, and have asserted, and still do assert, the supremacy of their dominion over the taste and the imaginations of the most enlightened nations, even

for the exercise of more coercive restraints. From its strict and acknowledged adherence to justice, it acquires the love and esteem of the Athenians, even when it exerts the most absolute and irresponsible authority. Innocence, summoned before it approaches without apprehension, and the guilty, convicted and condemned, retire without daring to murmur.

to the present day. The Roman empire was raised up to be the great seed-bed of law and order; and the laws of the ten tables, and the code Justinian, are, under one modification or another, at this moment in active operation over the most enlightened portion of the world. The destiny of Great Britain is, to uphold and to exhibit purified religion, The origin of the name is involved in considerfor the instruction and edification of distant able obscurity. Some affirm that it has been so denations; to be thus the herald messenger of nominated from the Amazons-the daughters of Ares, who encamped in this place when they atglad tidings to those who are "lying in dark- tacked the Cecropian citadel; while others assert ness and in the shadow of death," and to that this designation arose from its being the place cause the Gospel verities to shine with so where sacrifices were anciently offered to the god pure and sweet a light, that their own in- of war. But the truth or falsity of these and simitrinsic excellence may be their all-sufficient lar conjectures is of inferior moment; for the recommendation. May she worthily dis- celebrity of the Areopagus depends on more imcharge this high and holy duty; may her portant considerations-the character of the judges, rulers be duly impressed with their great confidence reposed in them by their countrymen. the equity of their decisions, and the unlimited and solemn responsibility; and may the new This far-famed seat of justice occupies a rocky fields of commerce which have been open-eminence, separated from the western end of the ed by her arms, be cultivated by her arts, Acropolis by a hollow, forming a communication and enriched and adorned by that better between the northern and southren divisions of knowledge, which would cause the Chinese people to regard all their present terrors and sufferings as the cheap purchase of the greatest blessings which they could enjoy

on this side heaven.

We repeat it, a field of glorious enterprise is now before the British statesman; and never, since we were a nation, did a conjuncture arise in which a minister of a large and lofty mind had such an opportunity of combining commercial prosperity with moral usefulness, and of achieving immortal fame by stamping an impress of his policy upon the world.

A SCENE AT THE AREOPAGUS.

the city. The area of the court is of a quadrangular form, and large enough to contain a vast crowd of spectators. It is sunk a few inches lower than the rest of the craggy elevation out of which it is excavated. Massy equidistant pillars are placed around its entire extent, intended to support a temporary covering, should the inclemency of the weather render such a protection requisite. The seats of the Areopagites, fifty-one in number, are also scooped out of the rock, in that part of the area which overhangs the city.

A few nights ago, my long-cherished desire of witnessing a capital trial at the Areopagus was gratified. It was, no doubt, the ideas of justice, integrity, and awe, associated in my mind with the name of this venerated judicatory, that led me to remark a sombre stillness pervading the entire day, ominous of the distressing scene with which its duties were likely to terminate. I could read, moreover, an expression of thoughtful seriousness in the countenances of the Athenians, darkening and deepening as the eventful hour approached. About sunset, individuals from all parts of Athens

A LETTER FROM AN ANCIENT ROMAN, TRAVELLING could be seen slowly directing their steps towards

IN GREECE, TO A FRIEND AT ROME.

From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal.

the winding stony stair that leads to Mars' Hill. Business of every description became suspended by edict. One subject formed the conversation of all. In attempting to furnish you with an account of The loungers abandoned their favorite haunts in the judicial system of Athens, it may appear strange the streets and market-place. The curious and that I should pass over the minor courts, and com- interested were all proceeding to the place of trial; mence with the Areopagus. But my mind is so and I, although in violation of my better feelings, totally engrossed with what I lately witnessed at soon found myself moving along in the silent and this remarkable tribunal, that I cannot resist be- gradually increasing stream of human beings. Ere ginning where I more properly should have ended. I reached the summit, the last faint streaks of This most august of Athenian judicatories, com- the sun had for some time faded on the horizon, posed of archons of the most approved character, is which now appeared of the same deep blue tint traced to the age of Cecrops. For its present con- with the rest of heaven. The moon moved high in stitution, however, it is mainly indebted to Solon, the serene sky of Athens in unclouded brilliancy. who invested it with the superintendance of morals, My eyes never rested before on so magnificent a subjecting to its decisions every species of immor- spectacle. Around me in every direction, as far ality, as well as crime. As it displays the most as my glance could pierce, stood citadels of massive unrelaxing vigilance in reforming manners, and strength, or, in lighter architecture, more graceful the greatest firmness in suppressing delinquencies structures, indicating science, elegance, and ease. of an aggravated character, it never applies punish-To the west, and in close proximity to where I stood, ment until slighted admonition and menaces call arose the Acropolis Propylæa, and Erectheium VOL. I. No. III.

40

ance.

with their gigantic colonnades and domed roofs and the pursued. Midway between the seats of bathed in the moonlight. Through the plain of the judges and these pillars, there stands a tabular Athens, the Ilissus in a flood of light, fantastically mass of stone, on which the urns are placed, in interrupted by the lofty trees which at intervals which when giving judgment, the Areopagites interlace their boughs across its current, rolled its deposit their suffrages. One of these is termed the winding volume to the sea. At a distance some- Urn of Mercy, the other the Urn of Death. Whilst what greater could be seen the three Athenian these things were being explained to me, the harbors, still crowded with the fleets that had won parties-the impeacher and the impeached-apfor Attica the empire of the sea. Immediately peared at the top of the flight of steps that leads to below lay fair Athens herself, with her rows of the Arcopagus. They had no sooner entered the palaces and costly temples; whilst here and there court than they proceeded to the seats already mencould be seen the statue of a god or godlike hero, tioned, as by law and custom assigned them. Timarexciting mingled feelings of patriotism and vene-chus, the criminal, was to be tried on a charge of ration, as they presented themselves successively murder. He had faithfully and successfully disto my view, dinily discovered in the silvery radi-charged the various civil and military duties which As I was contemplating this diversified entitled him to the archonship, and had begun, conprospect with intense emotions of wonder and sistently with his right, to sue for that distinguished delight, the stern voice of a herald dissipated the office. Timon, an influential archon at the time, spell. This officer, in accordance with a custom had rendered his canvass unsuccessful by a wide long established in Athens, announced to the and active circulation of calumnious reports. Tiassembled multitude that the Areopagites had left marchus, writhing under the chagrin of disappointthe Temple of Truth, where they were wont, on ment and defeat, rushed upon him, it appears, in a such occasions, to assemble, and were on their moment of frenzied excitement, and deprived him way to sit in judgment. The former hum of min- of life. Clearchus, the brother of Timon, took up gled voices was instantly succeeded by the deepest the cause, and arraigned Timarchus as an assassin silence. The spectators, who, in groups, were before the Areopagus. eagerly discussing the probabilities of condemna- The more impotrant preliminaries now comtion and acquittal, immediately separated, and falling menced. The aged priest of the Temple of Faith back towards the sides of the area, left for these led forward a victim, among the torn and bleeding venerable functionaries a free uninterrupted pass-members of which he placed the partics, who, after age. The Areopagites, walking in single file, with imprecating the most fearful curses on themselves their heads uncovered, soon after appeared, preced- and their children, in attestation of their innocence, ed by the eldest of their number, for whom a cen. swore solemnly to the truth of their respective tral seat is by law assigned. Up to this hour, asseverations. The horror of the oath was augmust confess that I remained comparatively unim-mented by their calling mutually to witness the pressed by the gloomy preliminaries which had inexorable Furies, who, from a neighboring temple, already been performed around me; but now the seemed listening to their invocations, and ready to grave demeanor of the Athenians, the increasing punish the perjured. The parties were no sooner solemnity of the scene, and the appearance of these seated, than the eldest of the Areopagites placed venerable and inflexible ministers of justice, advan- the urns before them, which were soon to declare cing with slow step and uncovered heads, indicating an absolving or condemnatory verdict. But why as it were a consciousness of being under the im- do the Areopagites deliberate and decide under the mediate inspection of the tutelary gods of Athens, bare canopy of heaven, and in the silence of night? awoke within me feelings kindred to those of the These arrangements are characterised alike by an multitude with which I was mixing, and suited to exalted love of purity, and a scrupulous regard to the consecrated locality on which I stood. There unbiassed justice. So strongly is murder execrated is a principle of gross curiosity in our nature, which by the Athenians, that they would consider the delights in the contemplation of the awful and very walls of a court polluted, had they but receivterrific; and these, when neither we nor ours are ed an assassin within them, and themselves tainted endangered, sway our feelings and judgments no with his crime, if they inhaled the air which his less powerfully than the beautiful and the sublime. breath had infected. They meet and adjudicate How often do the more material elements of our mo- in the night-time, lest the appeals made to their ral nature hurry us eagerly along to gaze on spec-feelings by the supplicating glances of the culprit tacles, at which our finer sensibilities are revolted; and how frequently, when our more elevated sympathies regain their rightful influence, do we feel ashamed of the callous unimpressibleness that in duced us to regard with selfish apathy what we should feelingly commiserate! Remorseful thoughts of this description were passing through my mind as the Areopagites silently and devoutly took their seats, from which they were likely not again to arise until they had fixed the irreversible | destiny of a fellow-mortal.

In front of the Areopagites, and at the distance of a few feet, stand three small pillars; on the central one, which is somewhat higher than the others, are inscribed the crimes of which the court takes cognisance, and the penalties annexed to each. The remaining two are the seats of the pursuer

himself, and the silent yet powerful eloquence of the tears and sighs of relatives, may sway their judgment, and lead them to sacrifice to false sentiment what is justly due to impartial justice. The mode of conducting a trial in the Roman Forum and in the Athenian Areopagus is widely different. At Rome, the speakers are allowed to avail themselves of all the power of eloquence; they may resort to every persuasive wile and rhetorical artifice. At the Areopagus, eloquence is no less dreaded than falsehood. The advocates must banish from their harangues all exordia, digressions, perorations, and ornaments of style: nay, even the language of feeling is rigorously interdicted, lest it may operate on commiserating minds.

The speaker for the pursuer now entered on the

business of the trial, by a simple well arranged friendless, companionless world. Thrice in the statement of facts. There was no coloring, no heart of the bent, frail, weeping old man, did the intentional exaggeration, no assertion but which agonised feelings of the father prevail, for a time, the most irrefutable evidence seemed to corrobo- over the rectitude of the judge; thrice did his rate. The pleader for the defender pursued a withcred trembling hand essay the terrific duty; course exactly similar. A little mystery, it must thrice it instinctively recoiled. Memory was busily be admitted, hung over the whole case, and the crowding into his mind her gathering hosts of mel judges, no less than the spectators, seemed divided lowing melting associations. All that was bright in opinion. The friends of the different parties at in his past, and gloomy in his future existence length concluded, and the portentous silence that intermingled their joys and terrors, and for a little, prevailed, broken at intervals by a sigh, or the his resolution wavered; but at last, and as if the stifled expresssion of more significant sorrow, genius of Athenian justice had whispered a chiding seemed to anticipate the nature of the verdict. remonstrance in his ear, an effort that tore asunder During this period of painful uncertainty, Sophro- the very heart-strings of the holiest sympathies, niscus, the eldest of the Areopagites, arose, and in and a revulsion of feeling that uprooted the most the following words, couched in the usual form, deeply-seated elements of parental affection, raised proffered the criminal a choice of alternatives :-him erect, and fired, as he seemed, with a suddenly"Timarchus, the laws of thy country now empower inspired enthusiasm, he advanced with unfaltering thee to withdraw from the trial,if thou fearest the step, and threw the destiny-fixing pebble in the result; but a withdrawal convicts thee of the revolt-urn of Death. Brutus, I exclaimed, no longer ing crime for which thou art impeached-strips enjoys the undivided glory of the high-souled patrithee of all thy honors and possessions-banishes otisin that adjudged death to his sons for their thee for ever from Athens and her soil, and sub- attempted restoration of the banished Tarquinii; jects thee, shouldst thou hereafter be discovered and Justice, thought I, dwells no longer at Rome lurking within her territories, or detected as a alone; she is a denizen of the world. spectator at her festivals or games, to the most ignominious death at the hand of any-even the meanest of her sons. How sayest thou, Timarchus; dost thou retire, or do we proceed to judgment?" Timarchus retired not. Sophroniscus now, as his duty required, proceeded to distribute to each Areopagite a black and a white pebble, the former to condemn, the latter to acquit, and demanded of his fellow-judges, in a firm authoritative voice, to throw their suffrages into the urn of Death or Mercy, according as their convictions dictated. The Areopagites were proceeding to vote; but ere they began, I observed-for I stood, near-a venerable old man, one of their number, station himself before the urns. Night prevented me from tracing distinctly anything in his countenance that might account for such unusual conduct. I thought, however, that I observed a keen anxious wistfulness glistening and trembling in his eye; for his fellow-judges shunned his glance, either struck with horror, or melted into pity. He seemed wishful to conceal his sorrow; for, as the pale light fell on his hoary head, I could see the decayed remnants of his silvery locks, now tossed about in the breeze, as if they had been intentionally thrown over his features. He stooped much under his heavy load of years, and as he often raised his hand to his face, I thought he wept. With the most eager vigilance he counted each successive pebble as it dropped in the urn of Death. The votes were at last all tendered save his own, and it, if thrown into the death-decreeing urn, would equalise the numbers. The final decision would consequently devolve on Sophroniscus ; and his unbending integrity, and general leaning to the side of severity, left the nature of that decision no longer doubtful. And why, it may be asked, did the aged Areopagite hesitate? I shudder while I explain the cause. He was the father of Timarchus, who was an only son. The rest had fallen gloriously in the service of their country, and now, in the waning evening of his existence, a doom of the direst disgrace was to dissever him for ever from the only object that gave declining life a charm, and leave him alone in a dreary,

At this moment, when all eyes seemed fixed on Sophroniscus, the priest of Minerva, advancing rapidly from the body of the court, approached the Areopagites, and thus addressed their leader: Sophroniscus, the numbers are equal; they have not been so before in the memory of the oldest man in Athens. There is an ancient custom, instituted by Minerva, now fallen into desuetude; the propriety of which, however, has never been questioned. When Orestes was tried at this court, the pebbles placed him in the present condition of Timarchus. The goddess suddenly appearing, overruled the decision of the president, recorded a casting vote, and turned the scale of justice in favor of Orestes. By the precedent thus established, she invested my office with a discretionary power of acquitting, but never of condemning the culprit, should a like emergency again occur. As one of the duties, therefore, attaching to my priesthood, I give the suffrage of Minerva in favor of Timarchus." The applauding shout ascended to the ears of the goddess, and the late funereal silence was followed by prolonged and deafening acclamations.

SONNET.

From Bentley's Miscellany.

SAIL on, thou pearly barque, through ocean heav'n,
Young summer-moonlight turn away from me-
A happy course through starry isles is giv'n

To thy fair splendor in that waveless sea!
Why look upon a wretch in sorrow weeping
Over a tomb, where all he loved lies sleeping?
He would be lonely in his grief, but thou

Dost light him to the glare of curious eyes-
Let a dim vapor hide thy glorious brow,
And leave him to the darkness he doth prize!
Or, like the anguish'd parent-bird, that flies

Far from her nest, to lure the hunter on;
Be thou that bird to me, with kind disguise,
Oh! turn thy beams eleswhere, and leave me lone!

SIR JAMES CLARK ON CLIMATE.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

DISEASE is so prevalent in this sin-stricken world, and health so rich a blessing,-the human family is so deeply interested in every thing which may tend to render life comfortable, that we doubt not the following article will find read

ers.

It contains important observations, especially on chronic diseases, including pulmonary consumption, and suggests considerations well worthy the attention, as well of the medical profession, as of those who are afflicted with the ills of diseased lungs. ED.

From the Edinburgh Review.

The Sanative Influence of Climate: with an Account of the Best Places of Resort for Invalids. By SIR JAMES CLARK, BART., M. D., F. R. S. Physician in Ordinary to the Queen. 8vo. Third Edition. London: 1842.

the circumstances under which disease occurs, in a great variety of situations; in other words, by a comprehensive system of Medical Topography.

The subject of Climate cannot be strictly classed among those belonging either to Both Medical Topography or Hygiene, these contemplate the object in reference to healthy individuals-the former being devoted to the investigation of the causes of disease; the latter teaching us the art of escaping, as much as possible, from the operation of these causes. But the labors of those who follow the track of the author of the work before us, are of a higher kind, and of much greater difficulty. They have to study the objects of Medical Topography, and to apply the doctrines of Hygiene, not to the state of health—that is, to a comparatively fixed state; but to that of disease a state extremely various, and constantly varying. This application reTHE branch of Medical Philosophy which quires a degree of knowledge and expericontemplates man as influenced in his bod-ence which can fall to the lot of only few ily or physical condition by the medium in individuals. It does not by any means folwhich he lives, and by the things with low, for example, that because a certain which he is perpetually in connection, is now climate or locality is innoxious in the case commonly termed Hygeiene or Hygiene, of a person in health, it will therefore be so from the Greek word signifying health-in the case of one afflicted with disease; since it necessarily involves the considera- much less that it will prove beneficial to tion of every thing concerned in the preservation of this invaluable blessing. This term, however, although now pretty gener ally employed by our more recent medical writers from the absolute want of some word of the kind, has failed to naturalize itself in England; possibly because the subject which it is intended to characterize has been singularly neglected in this country. We should not quarrel about a name, however, if we had the satisfaction of being able to state, that the thing itself was more studied and better understood.

such a person. We find many instances of this important fact in the work before us.

With all his noble faculties and high aspirations, man in his present state is still of the earth, earthy, and controlled and modified throughout his whole fabric, mental as well as corporeal, by the influence of the things around him. If, by the superiority of his reasoning faculties, and the greater plasticity of his physical organization, he is, unlike other animals, enabled to pass from one end of the world to the other, and to live and multiply his kind in every climate; he is still, like the inferior creation, subject to the influence of the objects amidst which he lives, on whatever spot he may stay his foot. Every part of the surface of our globe that has been visited by man, is, no doubt, capable of sustaining human life, and is even compatible with health; but each region will present the physical and moral condition of the inhabitants under a different aspect, according to the character of the climate, and other circumstances amid which they are placed.

But we regret to say, that extremely lit tle has been hitherto done towards the formation of even an outline of a general system of Hygiene applicable to the inhabitants of this country; or even towards the investigation of the more common causes of disease, as these prevail in particular towns or districts. Of the vast importance of such an inquiry, in a national point of view, no doubt can exist; since it must be admitted, in the first place, that the prevention is an object of greater consequence to the community than even the cure of The difference, indeed, may be so slight, disease; and secondly, that the only ra- or of such a kind, as frequently to escape tional system of prevention must be founded observation; but it is no less real on this on an accurate knowledge of the causes of account. And whenever there exists a conour maladies. But these causes can be as-siderable difference in the external circumcertained only by a close investigation of stances, the difference in the condition of