thentic information. It was only by an accurate examination of living testacea, and by comparison of the osteology of the existing vertebrated animals, with the remains found entombed in ancient strata, that this favourite dogma was exploded; and all were at length persuaded that these substances were exclusively of organic origin."

And so Mr. Lyell mentions the old opinion that basalt and other mineral masses, were of aqueous origin, was once exceeding popular, though far wide of the truth; but it was at length exploded by an examination of the structure of active volcanoes, the mineral composition of their lavas, and by comparing the undoubted products of fire with the ancient rocks in ques

tion.

After some other observations, Mr. Lyell goes on to say:

"We are now for the most part agreed as to what rocks are of igneous and what of aqueous origin, in what manner fossil shells, whether of the sea or lakes, have been imbedded in strata-how sand may have been converted into sandstone, and are unanimous as to other propositions, which are not of a complicated nature; but when we ascend to those of a higher order, we find as little disposition as formerly to make a strenuous effort in the first instance to search out an explanation in the ordinary economy of nature. If, for example, we seek for the cause why mineral masses are associated together in certain groups, why they are arranged in certain order, which is never varied; why there are many branches in the continuity of the series; why different organic remains are found in distinct sets of strata ; why there is often an abrupt passage from an assemblage of species contained in one formation to that in another immediately super-imposed. When these and other topics of an equally extensive kind are discussed, we find the habit of indulging conjectures respecting irregular and extraordinary causes to be still in force.

"We hear of sudden and violent revolutions of the globe, of the instantaneous elevation of mountain chains, of paroxysms of volcanic energy, declining according to some, and according to others increasing in violence from the earliest to the latest ages. We are often told of general catastrophes, and a succession of deluges, of the alteration of periods of repose and disorder, of the refiguration of the globe, of the sudden annihilation of whole races of animals and plants, and

other hypotheses, in which we see the ancient spirit of speculation revived, and a desire manifested to cut rather than patiently untie the gordian knot."

We shall now finish our views of the subject by giving, in a brief compass, Mr. Lyell's general outline of opinion as to the history of the earth. After mentioning some objections that have been made by those who wish to consider the earth of recent formation, perhaps coeval with the creation of man, he observes :

"As geologists we learn that it is not only the present condition of the globe that has been suited to the accommodation of myriads of living creatures, but that many former states have often been equally adapted to the organization and habits of prior races of beings. The disposition of the seas, continents, and islands, has varied; so it appears that the species has been changed, and yet they have all been so modelled on types analogous to those of existing animals and plants, as to indicate throughout a perfect harmony of design and unity of purpose. To assume that the evidence of the beginning or end of so vast a scheme lies within the track of our philosophical enquiries, or even of our speculations, appears to us inconsistent with a just estimate of the relations which subsist between the finite sources of man, and the attributes of an infinite and eternal being."

This appears to us to be most philosophical and just; as consistent with sound reasoning as it is agreeable to the most sincere religious feeling. "Sit nostra fides cum Lyellio!

Memoirs of Robert Hall. By O. Gre

gory.

IT is much to be lamented that Sir James Mackintosh did not live to write a memoir of his accomplished and departed friend. He would have done more with a few bright touches of his pencil than can be effected by all the laborious accumulations of common biographers. But Sir James had many occupations and engagements, his society was ever in request, and he felt an indisposition to commence any new work of labour, after sixty years that had been spent in writing, talking, studying, teaching, thinking, declaiming, with little intervals of repose. He was also a valetudinarian, and so week

after week elapsed, the work was not commenced, and he also dropt into the tomb.

Dr. Olinthus Gregory then undertook the task, and has executed it in a very laudable manner; and we give him much praise for not having extended it into those huge narratives which, as Sir James says, are only a tasteless parade and a sure way of transmitting nothing to posterity. As a scholar Mr. Hall stood rather in an eminent rank; certainly the foremost among the dissenters. He was well acquainted with Hebrew, read Greek with facility, and the Latin language of course was familiar to him. He

made some advances in the sciences connected with geometry, but his main strength was in his metaphysical acumen. Poetry he never cultivated, though his brilliant and lively imagination, we should have supposed would have longed to explore the enchanting domains which it holds in its possession. Mr. Hall had great promptness of thought, condensed energy of expression, happiness and variety of illustration, and precision of language. If there is any defect in his printed sermons, we think it consists in too stately and unvaried a march of oratory, a style wrought too uniformly to a high elevation; no relaxation, no graceful descents, no repose is given to the attentive, admiring, and exhausted mind of the reader.

As a preacher we know how anxiously he was followed, how attentively he was listened to, how fervently he was admired, how loudly he was praised; no one came near him; no one possessed at all his combinations of excellence; his only drawback was a deficient elocution. Mr. Foster has given at some length some ingenious observations on the style of preaching adopted by Mr. Hall, and entered very candidly and acutely into its excellence and defects. The main blemish, according to this gentleman, appears to have been that his arguments were too generalized; that they did not enter into particular applications; that they were not rendered practical by division, and he instances this forcibly, by describing what Mr. Hall's sermon against the love of money was, and what he considers it ought to have been. In the justice of Mr. Foster's observa

tions we fully agree, and we have no doubt that this was a main defect in Mr. Hall as a preacher, and a drawback from the utility of his discourses. He loved subjects of an elevated order, where his mind could expatiate freely on the wings of a powerful imagination, and a fine sensibility of disposi tion; yet he was free from all visionary modes of thought; he carefully fell back when he approached the confines of the awful, the mysterious, and the unknown; and feared to look at those mysterious phenomena which are found in the moral economy of the world. Of Mr. Hall's unfeigned piety, and calm and cheerful resignation to the Divine will, his whole life of sickness and pain, was an eminent example; and we exclaim, with his attached friend and companion: "Truly a great man has fallen in Israel."

Southey's Naval History of England. Vol. I. Lardner's Cyclopædia.

THIS is a volume which is introductory to the Lives of the British Admirals; it is admirably written ; with great accuracy of fact, extent of research, neatness and simplicity of style, warm patriotic feeling, and sound moral and religious sentiment. We shall give one or two extracts; the first will not be deemed uninteresting to lovers of philosophy.

"Bede, Alfred, and Roger Bacon, are the three Englishmen who attained all the knowledge that in their respective times and stations it was possible for them to acquire, and who made the best use of that knowledge for posterity.Bede preserved for us the only materials which exist for no inconsiderable nor unimportant portion of our national history. Roger Bacon anticipated some of the most momentous chemical discoveries which were made in after-ages; he had a clear foresight of others; and it was in his then unpublished writings, that his namesake, the more celebrated, but not the greater Bacon, found the principles of that experimental and inductive philosophy distinctly stated, which he produced as his own invention.-No other Sove

reign ever manifested so earnest a desire for improving the moral and intellectual condition of his people, as Alfred. No one ever entertained wider or wiser views of national defence; and modern legislation has nowhere yet attempted to institute a system of policy for the prevention

of offences, and the security of persons and property, so efficacious as that which he established in his kingdom."

Our Poet Laureat has been always celebrated for the facility of his belief of the marvellous; he has no doubt of the existence of mermaids and mermen, which, as we are not poets, but reviewers, we hold to be seals and morses. We believe, when young men are said to be carried off by water nymphs, their rape may be otherwise accounted for; and that Etty's late beautiful picture of Hylas and the Naiads, is nothing more than a symbolical representation of a fit of the cramp.

The Laureat, however, shall

speak for himself:

"A remarkable circumstance is recorded as having happened in the early part of this King's reign, or in the latter years of his father's. Some fishermen of Orford in Suffolk caught in their nets, what the chroniclers call a fish, but which they describe as resembling in shape a wild and savage man; he was naked, and in all his limbs and members resembling the right proportions of a man. He had hairs also on the usual parts of his body; albeit that the crown of his head was bald. His beard was long and ragged, and his breast hairy.' The fishermen presented him to Sir Barth. de Glanville, who had then the keeping of Orford Castle. When meat was set before him, he greedily devoured it; and he ate fish whether raw or boiled, only pressing in his hands those that were raw, till he had squeezed out the moisture. He would get him to his couch at the setting of the Sun, and rose again at the rising of the same. He would not or could not utter any speech; although, to try him, they hung him out by the heels, and miserably tormented him. His after-usage must have been exceedingly kind, and he must have been of a most forgiving temper, not to resent this cruelty; for it seems he was well reconciled to living ashore. One day they took him to the Haven; and, inclosing a part of him within their strong nets, to prevent, as they thought, his escape, they let him take the water for his diversion. He presently dived under the nets, rose beyond them, sported about, as if mocking his keepers, and then of his own accord returned to them, and remained their guest about two months longer; then, being weary of a land life, he took an opportunity of stealing to sea.-Strange as this story is, and incredible as it will be deemed by most readers, it is inserted

here, because there is complete evidence that a similar circumstance occurred in the latter part of the 17th century, on the coast of Spain, with this remarkable difference, that the man who had thus chosen an aquatic life, was recognised, and the history of his disappearance known at the place where he was supposed to be drowned in bathing. He was carried back to his mother's house, resided there nine years, and then took again to the water."

We think this additional fact, now for the first time made known to us,

mer.

throws some illustration on the forWe have very little doubt in our own minds, that this Orford merman was some poor half-witted, half wild kind of man, who in those times of little civilization, wandered about without regard and without impediment. That he was used to the sea, and the sca-shore, perhaps reached Orford from some distance, from the Yorkshire or northern coasts; picked up his living from the muscles, fish, and offal cast on the shore; and perhaps was discovered wading in the shoals (like those who catch shrimps) for his prey. If he were an idiot, of course his want of speech can be accounted for; and, at length, he either escaped or was drowned. There is nothing very improbable in this supposition, when we recollect how Peter the Wild Boy supported himself in a savage state; and surely it is by far the more rational way of escaping out of the jaws of a most extraordinary circumstance. We think the hair on the breast and beard throws suspicion on the whole; as we consider that human hair would be destroyed by constant immersion in water; nor do we recollect any marine animals with hair. This is a well-known story; but had it not been for the faith placed in it by Mr. Southey, we should never have thought it worthy of a serious investigation. It comes down only on the faith of the chroniclers; but such vague and general testimony as theirs can never be received, when the fact is so singular, so unexampled, so contrary to all experience. We are writing these observations but a few miles from the very spot where this miraculous gentleman appeared; and all we can say is, that it would be very easy to raise a similar miracle on the same spot at the present day, with

very little ingenuity or artifice, Consider, too, other extraordinary circumstances, which we have on the faith of the same old chroniclers; palpable falsehoods and fabrications. Think what, in modern days, Goldsmith has inserted as facts in his Natural History; and recollect the late accounts of sea snakes, mermaids, and gigantic polypusses which have drawn down China ships in their monstrous embraces, tea, nankeens, supercargoes, India crackers," and all: think how man is attached to the marvellous ; and, gentle reader! whenever you again hear of the Orford Merman, recollect our explanation, and be satisfied.

Since writing the above, we have found that Fabyan says, "they kept it six months on land; and because they could have no speech of it, they cast it again into the sea." Thus another difficulty of his escape is removed. The inhabitants got tired of keeping the unprofitable monster, and threw it into the sea, where it was drowned. "He ate fish whether raw or boiled." Is there no gleam of truth in this one word? His hands were not webbed, nor his feet; for the chroniclers say he was in all his limbs and members exactly formed like a man.

He used his hands to squeeze the fish. Now, we ask the Laureate (who doubtless can swim, as he lives so near a lake) how he could sustain himself in the water without fins, or webbed limbs? how could he defend himself against his piscatory enemies? As he was formed exactly as a man, he must have lived always on the surface of the water; the necessity of breathing through lungs, and not gills, demanding fresh inspirations of air constantly renewed. But we think really the whole of this ingenious story is at once destroyed by the circumstance, that "when meat was offered him, he greedily devoured it." Some day or other, if ever we should have a day to spare, which we much begin to doubt, we will put together some of the miracles of the old Chroniclers; and only forewarn our readers that they will want a strong digestion as well as a good appetite.

Notre Dame. By Victor Hugo. 3 vols.

IN contemplating some of those splendid and singular landscapes which GENT. MAG. VOL. I.

occasionally our great painter Turner sends to irradiate the walls of the Exhibition; while we feel that they are by no means a correct imitation of nature, we still own that, as works of art, they are possessed of great independent merits; that in the magnificence of the conception, in the splendour of their colour, in the fine combination of their hues, and in their magical effects of light, they evince the painter to be a man of genius. We must say the same of this celebrated work of the French novelist. It is a work not true to nature. There never were such characters, probably never such passions in like circumstances. All is extravagant, or constantly stepping on the utmost limits of the possible; the combinations of persons and incidents are out of common usage. The construction of the story is wretched, loose, disjointed, and unsatisfactory; all is meant for strong effects ; like the pictures of Caravaggio and Guercino, all consist of strong lights and deep shadows, without any medium to unite and harmonize; wretchedness, and misery, and sin, as the terrible wrecks of unhallowed and ungovernable passion, come drifting across the dark and perturbed tide of events, in fearful succession. But still, the power of the artist is displayed; great effects are produced, great emotions awakened, violent sympathies and affections aroused; and the agonized bosom of the reader is seen panting and throbbing over a tale of woe, but too powerfully conceived and exhibited.

There is much of the German taste in parts; an odd quaint bantering kind of humour, that one does not know whether to like or dislike, a rough unfinished kind of drollery, consisting more in words than things, something like what may be found in Rabelais, and such writers. Then there is a minute and antiquarian style of composition, taken from Scott, to whom the author seems much indebted, not for any particular parts, but for his general train of thinking; and, lastly, there is much powerful writing and vivid description, and accurate delineation of passion and feeling, which would do honour to any writer.

That we may not appear to have exaggerated the main features of the work, we shall say that the chief chaL

racters are a hideous deformed dwarf called Quasimodo; a gipsy girl of unrivalled beauty, elegance, and acuteness named La Esmerelda; and thirdly her little goat, with gilded horns and hoofs, who can almost read and write. Then there is a young officer called Phoebus, and Claude Frollo the archdeacon. These are the chief Personæ Dramatis. But the main defect is in the construction of the story, and in the moral justice distributed to the agents of the piece. Phoebus, a worthless, faithless, foolish coxcomb, is prosperous and happy, while poor Esmerelda, whose only fault is love, whose only crime is being too beautiful, and whose only weakness is being too confiding, young, virtuous, innocent, playful, gentle, and with a character that enchains itself round the heart of all,-is delivered first to the torment, in a manner that harrows up the soul of the reader, and makes him wish Monsieur Victor Hugo and his work were alike annihilated; and secondly she is hanged, because she is mistaken by ignorance for a witch.

Claude Frollo is hurled down from the parapets of Notre Dame, and the skeleton of the dwarf Quasimodo is found locked in the embraces of poor Esmerelda in the common tomb. There is a long parenthetical part, containing a sketch of Louis XI., which is evidently suggested by Scott; and all the commencement, the Feast of Fools," is unconnected with the events of the story, and perhaps did not originally belong to it. At any rate we consider the novel, striking and powerful as it is in parts, to have been written without any settled plan having been laid down. The first scenes that exhibit the full power of the author, are the trial of Esmerelda, and the conflagration of Notre Dame; indeed nothing can exceed the vivid painting, the rich colours, and fine grotesque illuminations of the latter. We fear to say how often we have perused it with renewed delight.

The work is translated by one of the gentlemen who do into English for Mr. Effingham Wilson. Mr. Wilson is a most respectable publisher; but he certainly has the most unfortunate, ill-tempered, surly, spiteful set of writers and translators in his pay, of any person we know. Are they not

well-fed enough by their keeper; are their dens not cleared out, and fresh straw given every day? Is Mr. Bruin the translator, and Mr. Isgrim the anti-priest, in want of the things becoming their situation? are they confined by Mr. Wilson to less than two quarts of thick pease-soup and three pound of tripe each ? Is not a change of liver and damaged beef allowed on Sundays? What is the portion of "heavy wet" to each person? is tobacco permitted? We do sincerely hope that attention will be paid to the diet and lodging of these gentlemen, (especially the cage in which a Mr. Howitt is, should be well looked to, and the bars secured,) and then we trust there will not be such an accursed snarling, growling, spitting, and quarrelling from the Menagerie of the Royal Exchange. They seem particularly excited when a person in a black coat happens to pass by; but a shovel hat, or a silk apron makes them absolutely mad; also if the word

King is mentioned in their presence, they go into convulsions; and foam and stretch their claws, and swing their tails as if they would tear the very bars of the cage down. At p. xxiii. a Bishop is called "a right reverend Father of mischief.”—On what account? Because he dared at the meeting of the Abbotsford subscription to defend the moral tendency of Scott's writings. Should the system we have recommended to Mr. Keeper Wilson fail of its due effect, we advise him to dispose of his present stock to any travelling exhibition, where these gentlemen will be harder worked and less fed, and procure for himself a more respectable supply of translators and authors, who have been already civilized; such as reflect an honour on the establishments of Messieurs Murray and Longman; who can see a Minister of the Crown pass by without hooting or pelting him; and who can relieve a beggar* without

See Notre Dame, vol. I. p. 141. In Earl Grey's speech it is announced "That it would be the anxious but grateful duty of government to promote by all practicable means habits of industry and good order among the labouring classes of the community," which words (says Mr. Translator Bruin) are intolerably insulting.