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merely a symbolical rite expressive of the purifying effects of the Christian religion, the quantity of water employed does not seem to be very material; and that, as no particular rules and instructions are laid down in the Gospel respecting its administration, Christians are left at liberty, and should not abuse each other for different modes of conduct. Do they mean to consider the baptismal fluid as possessing properties like those of the river Styx; and that, if even a heel be left dry, the christianizing invulnerability is incomplete?

It appears by the adjuncts to this sermon that a warm controversy has been carried on in the author's neighbourhood, on the subjects of Baptism and the Atonement; and also that the combatants are more likely to irritate than to enlighten each other. We are sorry to notice altercations of this kind. A neighbourhood split into religious parties must be very uncomfortable. Mr. Shaw and Mr. Brocas seem to love one another as well as the devil loves holy water.

Art. 51. A Discourse occasioned by the Death of Elizabeth Prowse, late of Wicken Park, Northamptonshire; delivered in Substance at Fulham Church, March 4, 1810. By the Rev. John Owen, M. A., Rector of Paglesham, Essex, and Curate and Lecturer of Fulham. 8vo. Is. Hatchard.

Demonstrative discourses are peculiarly adapted to the pulpit; for, to use the words of a writer on oratory, σε to what purpose can eloquence be better employed than in celebrating virtuous persons and actions, in such a manner as to excite mankind to their imitation ?"— Exemplifications of the blessed fruits of religion ought not to be neglected by the Christian minister; and Mr. Owen must he applauded for the public notice which he has taken of the truly estimable character who is the subject of this discourse. It is not our province to detail the eminent virtues of the late Mrs. Prowse, which are here so strikingly delineated by this able preacher: but, if his picture be correct, of which no doubt can be entertained, this lady was an example which ought to be held up to the rich, especially in her forgetfulness of selfish considerations; and we would say to every person in afflu ence, after having surveyed this portrait, "Go and do thou likewise."-The sermon is an excellent specimen of that kind of eloquence which we have specified at the commencement of this article ; and which, from its exhibition of fact and example, was so properly denominated demonstrative by the antients.

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CORRESPONDENCE.

It is not now in our power to revert to the object of B. H.'s inquiry.

T. P. O. will soon be presented with an account of the work to which he wishes to direct our attention.

We are pleased with the manly candor and rational acquiescence of Philalethes. Were all authors like him, criticism would indeed be a most pleasing and a most beneficial office.

THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For APRIL, 1812.

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ART. I. Journal of a Tour in Iceland, in the Summer of 1809, By William Jackson Hooker, F.L.S., and Fellow of the Wernerian Society of Edinburgh. 8vo. pp. 560, 16s, Boards, Vernor and Co. 1811.

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HE dreary coast of Iceland does not invite very numerous visitants, even in this tourifying age: yet that northern region is by no means destitute of objects which may gratify scientific and literary curiosity; and it has accordingly, at various times, been explored by the curious traveller, At the present moment, our attention to it is called forth by more than one detail of excursions to its shores; but the volume now before us is the first in order, and has for some time been lying on our table. We were, however, fearful of bringing the subject under the eye of our readers during the winter-months, lest the bare mention of Iceland should add disagreeably to their chilly feelings, and perhaps even induce them angrily to throw our Review into the fire, in order to increase its welcome glow, instead of incurring fresh shivers by a perusal of hyperborean descriptions. Now, however, when we are once again preparing to sing,

"Diffugere nives, redeunt jam gramina campis,

Arboribusque coma,"

we may perhaps venture to talk of a summer's voyage to a

northern latitude.

Mr. Hooker's occasional communications to the Linnéan Society have already attracted our favourable notice; and his present publication appears before us under circumstances which powerfully plead for the utmost indulgence of criticism. When this gentleman found that he could not put in execution a voyage which he had projected to a tropical climate, Sir Joseph Banks apprized him of an opportunity of a passage to Iceland, in a merchant-ship which was expected to sail in three days. On the second of June 1809, he accordingly embarked on board the Margaret and Anne, Captain Liston, lying at Gravesend, and bound for Reikevig. Mr. Phelps and Mr. Jorgensen, who superintended this mercantile adventure in VOL. LXVII, persons

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person, were kindly solicitous to afford the naturalist every possible accommodation, and contributed, by their agreeable society, to beguile the irksomeness of a sea-voyage. A lamen table accident, which will be related in its proper place, snatched from Mr. Hooker nearly all the hard-earned fruits of his painful excursion; nothing of his manuscripts and collections being preserved except a portion of his journal, containing little more than the occurrences of the first four weeks of his residence on the island, and the wedding-dress of an Icelandic lady. From such scanty relicts, with his own recollections, and the assistance of others, he was enabled to commit to writing a narrative of his proceedings, designed for the perusal only of his private friends: -but, on the flattering representation of Sir J. Banks, and with the view of counteracting any unfavourable impression which might be conveyed through the medium of surreptitious and mutilated extracts, the author has agreed to submit it entire to the judgment of the public.

To Sir Joseph Banks,' he observes, besides being honoured with his counsel and assistance preparatory to the undertaking of the voyage, I am indebted also for the truly hospitable entertainment I experienced from the inhabitants of Iceland, who felt, I am sure, a real pleasure and satisfaction in having it in their power to offer their services and to pay every possible attention to a stranger visiting their country with an introduction from their great and generous benefactor. Not, however, satisfied with this, on my return to England, no sooner did Sir Joseph learn that I was preparing my Recollections of Iceland for the press, than he most liberally offered me the use of his own manuscript journal and various other papers relative to the island, together with the magnificent drawings of the scenery, dresses of the inhabitants, &c. which were made by the artists who attended him on his voyage thither in 1772. From the former of these valuable collections I have extracted such parts as were not noticed by Von Troil; and from reduced copies of a few of the latter, have been made the engravings that accompany this volume. These are indeed upon too small a scale to give an adequate idea of the ori ginals, which would do honor to a large and copious history of Iceland, but parvum parva decent, and they are well suited both to the size and pretensions of the book they are designed to illustrate.'

Neither can I suffer to pass in silence the civility of Sir George Mackenzie in collecting plants for me in his late excursion to Ice. land; nor the attention shown me by Doctor Wright of Edinburgh. Though a stranger to him, till my arrival at that city on my return from Iceland, he participated feelingly in my misfortunes, and beg. ged me to make any use I pleased of the subjects of natural history in his possession, which had been collected in Iceland by his nephew, the late Mr. Wright, an amiable young man who accompanied Sir John Stanley in his voyage to that country. This offer was succeeded by the present of a considerable collection of Icelandic minerals, and a scarce and curious work, entitled Rymbegla, sive Rudimentum Computi Ecclesiastici Veterum Islandoram."

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Much

Much valuable and interesting information is contained in the introductory notices of the history and statistics of the island: but we can glance only at a few of the particulars. It appears that, towards the end of the ninth century, the whole country was overrun with forests, though now it may be said to be destitute of trees. All attempts in recent times to rear even the more hardy sorts have proved ineffectual; and, for their necessary supply of wood, the inhabitants are obliged to depend entirely on importations from Norway, and on the drifttimber which is supposed to be conveyed by the winds and currents from North America. — Of the higher mountains of the island which have been measured with any degree of .accuracy, the elevation is nearly 7000 feet, though they are by no means the most lofty. Hecla is more celebrated for its eruptions than its height, which is only about 5000 feet.

The population of Iceland, which has, on various occasions, been subjected to very afflicting reductions, at present amounts only to 48,000 inhabitants; who, from the rigours and instability of the climate, can never rely on their native produce even for the necessary articles of subsistence. The arrival of enormous masses of floating ice not only induces a degree of cold which destroys vegetation and cattle, but affords an opportunity to the white bears of Greenland to visit the island; which they occasionally do in alarming numbers, and render it necessary for the natives to assemble in parties for the purpose of destroying them, lest so unwelcome a visitor should fix himself permanently among them.'

In Iceland, the same individual, as happens in very thinly peopled and rude countries, is necessarily occupied with various sorts of employment; as tending cattle, fishing, assorting wool, preparing skins, drying and securing hay, repairing dwellings, &c.; separate and distinct professions being scarcely known. The principal articles of export are, dried fish, especially cod, (of a superior quality,) mutton, lamb, beef, butter, tallow, train-oil, coarse woollen cloth, the skins of sheep, lambs, and foxes, eider-down, and feathers; and their chief importations are timber, fishing-tackle, various implements of iron, tobacco, bread, spirituous liquors, salt, linen, &c. A large proportion of their food consists of fish, butter, and various preparations of milk. The fish are mostly eaten in a dry and uncooked state; and the butter is made without salt, with all the whey and superfluous moisture pressed out, in which state it will keep for fifteen or twenty years, acquiring in the interim a degree of rancidity which is not unpleasant to an Icelandic palate.'. The flesh of either sheep or bullocks and rye-bread is [are] only brought to the table of the superior class of people. Birds

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of various kinds, especially water-fowl and the larger inhabitants of the deep, are of course only occasionally procured, and cannot be taken into account while speaking of the general mode of subsistence of the Icelanders, any more than the native vegetable productions which are occasionally prepared for food; such as the Angelica Archangelica, Cochlearia, Rennices, and Dryas octopetala, with Lichens and Fuci of two or three kinds. The Lichen Islandicus alone is sometimes eaten in considerable quantity; but more is gathered for exportation.'

A want of hospitals, and of other proper medical aids, is stated as a very serious evil in a country of which the inhabitants are incident to inveterate scurvy, leprosy, elephantiasis, St. Anthony's fire, jaundice, pleurisy, and depression of spirits; and where sick and lame are seen crawling about in the most pitiable manner. Independently of the cutaneous distempers to which they are peculiarly liable, the nutriment of the poor and their manner of living are adverse to health and longevity; and many of the children die, during infancy, because the women either do not suckle them at all, or, at most, only for a few days; after which they feed them with cows' milk, through a quill, with a piece of rag fastened to the end.

Their amusements, which are chiefly confined to reading or repeating their antient sagas, are little calculated to dispel their gloomy and superstitious habits; wrestling, cards, chess, music, and dancing, in which they formerly indulged, being now scarcely known. Yet, so strong is their attachment to their native soil, that few of them would exchange their cold and sterile mountains for all the abundance and comfort of milder regions. Mr. Hooker is not unmindful of their progress in literature and science during the darker ages: but this striking feature in their history will, doubtless, be familiar to most of our readers.

The rents of the royal farms are inadequate to the public expenditure of the island, which, according to the data that are here distinctly exhibited, amounts to 18,713 rix-dollars, and sixty-three shillings.

Mr. Hooker's journal commences with a short account of the passage outwards; which enabled the author to recognize some of the sublime rocky scenery on the northern extremity of Scotland that he had formerly visited on land. This voyage, however, was not unaccompanied with danger; since, on the 16th of June, the vessel was within a few minutes' sail of a sunken rock, directly in its course, and which was not laid down in any of the charts. Owing to the coolness and prompitude of Mr. Jorgensen, the ship was instantly put about, and the crew were rescued from imminent peril almost before they were aware

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