The darkness of Popery feems greater here than in France; although it may be feen and felt there beyond all expreffion. Oh! the pain and diftrefs of foul I was almoft continually under by the muddy rivers of Babylon in thofe lands of darkness; the harp being indeed, as it were, hung upon the willows. No fweet melody nor fong of Sion could be echoed forth (the Lord knoweth) under the power of the king of the bottomlefs pit, who rules in the mystery of iniquity. Yet fo it must remain until that almighty Arm that cut Rahab in pieces, and wounded the dragon, is pleafed to arife, and put on ftrength, that he may turn and overturn: pouring forth the vials of his wrath upon the feat of the beaft and falfe prophet, thereby making the scarlet whore of Babylon defolate, and burning her fleth with fire, that the nations may no more be intoxicated with the abominations of the wine of her fornications.'

The method in which the Author relates his meeting with Friends in public worship, is generally confined to a few fingular expreffions, fuch as We had a close, roufing time of ita trying laborious meeting-an open and comfortable opportunity-a heavy, afflicting season.' We fhall produce a fpecimen of the Author's manner of relating the event of a meeting at Sunderland, together with a hint which he throws out to the Friends who are too often inclined to make hearty dinners on firft days.

We went to Sunderland, and attended their meetings on first day. That in the morning was very open and fatisfactory; the teftimony of truth going forth freely to the feveral ftates of thofe perfons who were much affected therewith. In the afternoon it was a heavy afflicting meeting: but little felt of that which crowned the meeting in the morning. We often find afternoon meetings are the most heavy and painful, occafioned,

Our poor Friend meets with this fame dragon, not only in Spain, but in Ireland; and perhaps, where fuch a terrible animal would not have been expected, viz. in a Quaker's meeting: I went, fays he, to Meath-street [in Dublin] in the morning, where I had thorough fervice to my own great comfort and eafe, though my fpirit was much grieved to view the havock made amongst Friends in that great city by undue liberties: but most of all under a mournful fenie, that the dragon's tail had drawn down fome of the flars again into earthly pollution, and caufed a bad favour. This was offenfive to my foul-even as a nuijance in that meeting.'-Exhalans mephitim !-This could not be the dragon of the Apocalypfe; for we read nothing of his favour. It must have been the dragon of Wantley,' whole flink, as well as whofe terror, is recorded in the celebrated ballad of the Achievements of More of More Hall.'

Vid, the DEAN of Carlifle's Collection of the Reliques of antient Poetry.'

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no doubt, in part at least, by anfwering the cravings of nature to the full whereas they should be denied a full gratification, as little fuftenance for that space of time would answer much better. If any think this hint, by way of caution, impertinent, there is reafon to doubt that they are yet too much ftrangers to the nature of true worship, and the many impediments in the way of its performance: that abovementioned being none of the leaft. I was quite shut up as to miniftry in the afternoon.'

Mr. Griffith hath not informed us whether he was shut up through a full belly that overpowered the fpirit, and kept it down under a grofs load of flesh; or that fympathetic principle, which he frequently speaks of, that answers to the fituation of others, and feels, by a fecret impulfe, the workings of a good or an evil fpirit in the fociety of Friends. This is the very quinteffence of myfticifm: and foars above the comprehenfion of all but Quakers indeed. This fpiritual fympathy-this interchange or reciprocal communication of fecret feelings, is particularly defcribed by the celebrated Robert Barclay in his Apology and as it enters deeply into the ancient fyftem of Quakerifm, we think it fufficiently curious to be laid before our Readers:

"Such is the evident certainty of that divine ftrength that is communicated by thus meeting together, and waiting in filence upon God, that fometimes when one hath come in, that hath been unwatchful and wandering in his mind, or fuddenly out of the hurry of outward bufinefs, and fo not inwardly gathered with the reft: fo foon as he retires himself inwardly, this power being in a good measure raised in the whole meeting, will fuddenly lay hold of his fpirit, and wonderfully help to raise up the good in him, and beget him into the fenfe of the fame power, to the melting and warming of his heart; even as the warmth would take hold upon a man that is cold coming into a ftove; or as a flame will lay hold upon fome little combustible matter being near unto it. Yea, if it fall out, that several met together be ftraying in their minds, though outwardly filent, and fo wandering from the measure of grace in themfelves (which through the working of the enemy, and the negligence of fome, may fall out), if either one come in, or may be in, who is watchful, and in whom the life is raifed in a great measure; as that one keeps his place, he will feel a fecret travail for the reft in a fympathy with the feed, which is oppreffed in the other, and kept from arifing by their thoughts and wanderings. And as fuch a faithful one waits in the light, and keeps in the divine work, God oftentimes anfwers the fecret travails and breathings of his own feed through fuch a one; fo that the reft will find thenfelves fecretly fmitten without words; and that one will be

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as

as a midwife through the fecret travail of his foul, to bring forth the life in them; just as a little water thrown into a pump brings up the reft; whereby life comes to be raised in all, and the vain imaginations brought down: and fuch a one is felt by the rest to minifter life unto them without words. Yea, finally, when there is not a word in the meeting, but all are filently waiting; if one come in that is rude and wicked, and in whom the power of darkness prevaileth much, perhaps with an intention to mock or do mifchief, if the whole meeting be gathered into the life, and it be raised in a good measure, it will ftrike terror into fuch a one, and he will feel himself unable to refift; but by the fecret ftrength and virtue thereof, the power of darkness in him will be chained down; and if the day of his vifitation be not expired, it will reach to the measure of grace in him, and raise it up to the redeeming of his foul."

This learned Apologift produceth himself as an example of this furprifing power of fpiritual fympathy and Mr. Griffith relates, from his own experience, feveral inftances of its effect on him in the public meeting. It ferved both for eyes and ears. By it he could

See and tell of things invifible to mortal fight.'

I went, fays he, to Wigton, and attended both their meetings on first day. It was an exceeding painful, exercifing time. My mouth was as it were clofed up in mournful filence: yet not without a pretty clear view and fenfe of the forrowful states of thofe amongst them who had been the principal cause of the death and mifery I felt. I faw what they were doing in the dark, as it were, through the hole in the wall.'-There would be no living in this world if all men were fuch peepers as our Author : there are so many things done in the dark, that if men had the faculty of Mr. Griffith, they would furely find or make holes enough in the wall to peep through to fee what is going forward-fome to fpoil fport-others to blab it-and a third class to fatisfy curiofity. We may fay of Mr. Griffith what Garrick faid of Shakespeare

No maid could live near fuch a man.'

Another inftance of uncommon fagacity Mr. Griffith records of himself towards the latter part of his Journal. I had, fays he, a large meeting at Goofe Creek (viz. in Maryland). It was an exceeding dark, afflicting time. My mind was deeply impreffed with a fenfe of a corrupt, blafting miniftry being amongst them and the people having itching ears loved to have it fo. This was fo ftrong upon my mind, that I feared for fome time I fhould have been under a neceffity of declaring it publickly in the meeting. I was an entire ftranger, and did not know by any outward information that they had any who appeared in public. After meeting I took fome of my elderly

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Friends afide, and told them how it had been with me as above, for I was filent through the whole meeting. I was informed afterwards that there was a forward, unruly man who had given fenfible Friends much trouble.' At Ofwego Mr. Griffith was in the fame predicament of the spirit. I was quite a ftranger, fays he, and did not know by any outward information, that they had any one who ufually appeared in public; yet my mind was ftrongly impreffed with a fenfe that the meeting had been much hurt by a wrong ministry: and for that reafon chiefly my mouth was fhut up there in that refpect. It feemed as if the very perfon was fhewn to me in the meeting, though I had never feen him before, that I know of: but I found afterwards it was a true fenfe, and I told Friends in his hearing how things appeared to me in that meeting, which seemed to ftrike him, and he ftruggled a little. But I left it upon him.' Could an Apoftie have spoken with greater authority? Could an infpired difcerner of the fpirits have penetrated deeper into the hidden clofet of the heart? So much then for Mr. Griffith's fecond fight. So much for that moft fenfible of all poffible fenfes that is tremblingly alive' all o'er, and received impreffions from the most diftant and minute of all poffible impulfes, and affimilated his fpirit to the fpider, which, though lurking in its hole, perceives if a breath disturbs the utmost extremity of its web, and (as Pope fays) lives along the line."

We fhall be much wronged and mifunderstood if, by the preceding remarks, any of our Readers fhould imagine that we mean to throw any ridicule on the general body of the Quakers. Nothing is more foreign from our wifhes or intentions. As a religious and civil fociety, we hold them in particular respect : and numbers of its members would be an ornament to any church or any profeffion. Religious fects generally owe their origin to fome fpecies of enthufiafm. The earlier votaries of a new mode of worship, or a new system of faith, are, for the moft part, perfons of warm imaginations, and determined refolution; but too feldom of correct judgment, or confiftent practice. Their hopes of reformation are fanguine; but their method of conducting it generally precipitate, and frequently abfurd. This was the cafe with Quakerifm in the days of George Fox. But in procefs of time its harfhnefs was foftened: its irregularities were corrected: and the good that had been scattered amidst a heap of abfurdity and fanaticifm, was at length collected into a confiftent mafs, and, by degrees, modelled into fome decency of form and order. Some of its original peculiarities indeed were retained by its moft fenfible and learned advocates. But we are convinced that they are held in little account by the more judicious part of its prefent profeffors. Prudence may adhere to the form, but good fenfe will

dispute

difpute the power: and it is more than probable, that if the more enlightened and rational profeffors of Quakerism were queftioned about the doctrine of the Spirit, they would confefs, that, divefted of its myftical drefs, it in reality means nothing more than a virtuous and Chriftian principle, which determines the mind to fubdue all grofs and irregular affections, and to produce the peaceable fruits of righteousness,'-humility towards God, and juftice and charity to man.

ART, XIII. Experiments and Obfervations on Animal Heat, and the Inflammation of Combuflible Bodies. Being an Attempt to refolve these Phenomena into a general Law of Nature. By Adair Crawford, A. M. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Murray. 17 79°. 1779*.

O one, who confiders the great variety of talents, which are neceffary for the fuccefsful profecution of natural knowledge, it will not appear furprifing, that among the crowds who are daily occupied in philofophical purfuits, we should fo feldom meet with a perfon, whose labours tend in any confiderable degree to the improvement of fcience. In fome branches of literature, the cultivation of one particular endowment of the mind is fufficient to confer diftinction. But in phyfical and chymical enquiries, a combination of various and rare qualifications is requifite; and the philofopher who afpires to eminence, muft study to unite with an uncommon degree of fagacity and ingenuity, a talent for obfervation, a fcrupulous attention to minute and apparently trifling circumstances, and a dexterity in performing manual operations; accomplishments which are not always connected with the higher gifts of the mind.

The philofophers who have applied themselves to the study of nature, have in general been apt to run into extremes. Before the time of Lord Bacon, facts were almost entirely overlooked, and the advancement of science was attempted by the force of genius alone. It may be queftioned, whether fome of the prefent race of enquirers are not in danger of falling into the oppofite error of accumulating at random, experiments and obfervations, which add to the lumber of fcience, without affifting us in inveftigating the laws of nature.

We make these remarks, not to introduce a cenfure of the performance before us, but to place its merit in a more advantageous light, by contrafting it with the common productions of chymical writers. The Author of it has evidently had in view

* Certain circumstances having prevented us from giving fo early an account of this publication as we could have wifhed, we have willingly adopted the following contribution from an unknown correfpondent; at the end of which, we have thought fit to fubjoin only a few obfervations that occurred to us on the perufal of it; marking by capital letters, the paffages to which our obfervations refer.

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