ing where he was, he arrives at thofe bounds which were at fuch a distance from him, that he could not touch them without advancing toward them all which is abfurd, while the fact and truth remains, that before he began to move he had a locality, and occupied a certain portion of space, which was his place; that he fucceffively, in moving, occupied diferent places; that there was between thefe different places extent or diftance, or fpace, left behind him; and that there was yet extent, distance, or space, before him, into which he could move." P. 64. Eternity, as an attribute of fpace, is then argued with confiderable acu encfs, and all the fuperftructure of which these principles admit-in the existence of an eternal intelligent Being, his moral and providential adminiftration, the progreflive knowledge and virtue of man, and the indestructibility of his effence (as being an individuum, an unit, a monad) by any operation or procefs of nature. On each of these subjects a confiderable thare of reafoning is employed; and the mind receives abundant conviction from arguments which are generally found, though not always expreffed in the moft engaging and perfpicuous terms. As the limits of our work have compelled us to pafs over thus briefly thefe important topics of difcuffion, we will present our readers with a thort extract from the close, in which the effence of our author's reafoning is condenfed, and the points in difcuffion recapitulated. "If man had not been created fo far free as to be the author of his own actions, and the former of his own character, he might have been an unerring machine; he could not, however, at the fame time, have been moral: he could not have been virtuous; nor a creature poffeffing, as deferving, happinefs. On the other hand, if he were created free, he muft, of neceffity, be fallible, and commencing his progreffive existence from the lowest degree of the capacities of his nature, being, at the fame time, a creature of habits, he muft, however perfect on principle, become devious. Now it appears, on the first fuperficial view, and therefore arifes as an objection to this fyftem, that, man thus formed, his liberty would be a fare to him; and his progreffive nature, thus devious, lead to his ruin; if the ills and evils arting in the course and by the confequences of this fyftem were incorrigible and unfanative, abfolute, and eternal: but we have feen that the ills thus arifing, and all the evil thus created, become by the operation of a corrective process of nature, co-operating with a corespondent fanative principle in man, working to habit, become the means and occafions of good finally and abfolutely. This fyftem of Providence, there fore, when confidered as we have feen it to be, is fo far from being liable to the objection raised to it, from the origin and exiftence of evil, in this flate of being, that we may itate pofitively and directly, that the infinite wifdom and goodness of Providence is the caufe of fuch evil, as is found in the fyftem; fo framing man, and fo placing him in the world, or permitting him fo to place himfelf, in fuch deranged circumftances of it, that all the natural ills and moral evils, as well well as good, are all equally parts of the general fyftem, working together for good, by the wifeft and moft beneficent procefs. Thus feen as being what they are, they become direct proofs of, inftead of objections to, the confummate wifdom, the infinite goodness, and abfolute rectitude of the Creator and Governor of this fyftem: a fyftem which appears to be the only poffible one by which a moral creature can advance and be wrought to a decided moral rectitude, fixed and affured; yet fo fixed, as to be not only confiftent with, but formed by perfect liberty wher by a free and moral creature can approximate in a direct progreffion towards that co-existence of all its powers and properties which conftitute its perfect nature; that is, its good, its happiness. We have feen that this is a fyftem which is, and inuft be, progreffive, and working in a fucceflion of ftages of existence. And we have finally feen, I hope, in demonstrative proof, that God has fo framed us; that that part of us which we call OURSELF, is fo created as to continue in existence, for aught there is in the powers of nature to the contrary, to a fucceeding itage, and moft likely to an infinite fucceffion of itages of existence." P. 250. Upon the whole, we have found in this work much to admire; but our admiration must be confidered as applying_rather to the train of reafoning, than the method or ftyle. The first is indiftinct, and the laft is uncouth and embarrassed. A long intermiflion of intellectual ftudies (which is pleaded in the preface) may probably be confidered by the public as a ground of excufe for thefe defects. In other refpects this ef fay is deferving of confiderable praife. It opens a track of ufeful and diverfified enquiry; and furnishes the materials of folution and defence, for fome of the most important questions in philofophy and morals. ART. XI. A fecond Differtation on Fever, containing the Hiftory and Method of Treatment of a regular Tertian Intermittent. By George Fordyce, M. D. F. R, S. Senior Phyfician to St. Thomas's Hofpital, and Reader on the Practice of Phyfic. 8vo. 156 pp. 35. Johnfon. 1795. IN N the first part of this work, the differtation on fimple fever*, the author gave a general account of fever, its nature, causes, and fymptoms. In this, the principles there laid down are purfued, but fo far only as relates to the hiftory and treatment of a regular tertian fever, to the confideration of which it is ftrictly confined. The author firft defcribes the difeafe, the * See Brit. Crit. vol. iv. p. 615. manner manner of its attack, the time of its recurrence, its effects upon the conftitution, and its termination, which, when the fever is not interrupted, fometimes does not take place, until the end of four months. As regular tertians are rarely fatal in temperate or cold climates, and are even not unfrequently found to improve the general health, and to free the conftitution from rheumatifin, and various other complaints, to which the patients had before been fubject, fome practitioners have recommended leaving them to take their courfe, without attempting to check or ftop them by medicines. Dr. Fordyce therefore first defcribes the regimen neceffary to be obferved when this method is adopted, and then examines the effets of the remedies which are ufually employed to put a stop to, or fhorten the duration of the difeafe. In purfuing the first plan, the principal attention is applied to the quantity and quality of the food proper to be given, and to the times of adminiftering it. When, in the beginning of fever, the intermiffions are imperfect, the patient thould be confined, for his fole nouriflment, to barley water; when the intermiffions are become more perfect, fago, as next in point of facility of digeftion, and containing more nourishment, and panada, fhould be given; to thefe, raifins, figs, oranges, baked apples, &c. may be added. No food more difficult of digeftion fhould be employed, until the crifis, and confequently the intermiflion, fhall have become tolerably perfect. In the progrefs of the difeafe, milk, and animal broths, and, at length, when the crifes are quite perfect, folid animal food is to be allowed on the intermediate days, at the time of the principal meal. Or, as a general rule, "for the first fortnight (p. 45) food of eafy digeftion fhould be used ; afterwards more nourishing food, according to the perfection of the intermiflions; again food of calier digeftion when they grow imperfect towards the end." During this procefs, attention is to be paid to the state of the ftomach and bowels, which are to be occafionally unloaded of their contents, and fleep, when required, is to be procured. The medicines moft proper to be ufed for thefe purposes, and the times and manner of giving them, are diftinctly defcribed. When the disease has continued fo long as to occafion confiderable debility, air, exercife, and bitters, as bark, chamomile flowers, columbo, &c. are to be employed to restore the tone and energy of the body. A curious difquifition here follows on mufcular ftrength or tone, which does not depend, the author fhows, on the cohefion or elafticity of the animal fibre, "but exifts in confequence of the life of the part." P. 76. The author next proceeds to treat of the method of stopping the progrefs of a regular tertian, or curing it, by medicines. The feveral fubftances recurred to for this purpofe, as antimony, bark, zinc, fteel, arferic, &c. are examined, the mot ufeful selected, and the particular manner of exhibiting them defcribed in a clear, diftin&t, and matterly manner, every where as in the former differtation, appealing to experience, as the only guide to be depended on. The author concludes with promifing to continue the fubject, until he has completed the hillory of fever, namely, "by a third differtation on a regular continued tever; a fourth on irregular intermittents, and the accidents which happen in them; and the last will contain the history and the manner of treatment of the accidents which happen in continued fevers, and their irregularities." P. 156. Thefe will, doubtlessly, be anxiously expected by the public. From ART. XII. Mifcellaneous Papers and legal Inftruments, under the Hand and Seal of William Shakspeare, including the Tragedy of King Lear and a jmall Fragment of H mlct. the original MSS. in the Paffeffion of Samuel Ireland, of Norfolk-freet. Imperial Folio. 15 pp. win 7 additional, containing the Fragment of Hamlet, and many Plates. 41. 4s. Egerton, &c. 1796. OUR UR remote readers, if perchance they have heard anything of this phenomenon of the metropolis, may have been a little impatient to receive fome account or opinion upon the fubject. Of this, however, we hope they have felt convinced, that, if we had thought ourfeives authorized to announce a genuine difcovery of papers from the hand of Shakspeare, we hould have haftened to impart intelligence, fo very interesting to every lover of our drama, and its mighty mafter. This was not the cafe. Sufpicion, from the very beginning, has hung on every part of the tranfaction. The original ftory was moft improbable, and it has ftrangely varied, without becoming probable. The papers themfelves, and the printed book, offer in every part of their contents innumerable topics for objection, and little but obj.ction: and the miraculous box or trunk, which, after having produced letters, deeds, drawings, printed books, manufcript plays, and fuch a farrago of things as never box contained before, ftill teems with difcoveries, in a way that overthrows all power of belief. Would you imagine, reader, that in a year and a half, or two years, the contents of one trunk could not be afcertained? Were there twenty a little twenty they might have been examined in a month; month!" Yet to this hour thefe Shak fpearean treafures increase upon us; and, instead of "three MS. plays and part of apother," as mentioned in the preface to this book, we now hear of many more, all written in the fame hand. "Ipfa fi vellet credulitas credere hæc, non poffet." It may be remarked that the credit of thefe wonderful difcoveries has gradually decreafed, as the particulars have be come more known. When they were first announced and difplayed, the ancient appearance of the deeds and papers, and even their quantity, induced feveral perfons of knowledge and fagacity to give a temporary affent: and though, to various infpectors, many ftrong objections even at that time appeared, fome few were perfuaded even to give credit, to the amount of four guineas. The prefent volume, therefore, appears with a lift of one hundred and twenty-three fubfcribers. Small as this number may feem, to thofe who confider merely the fame of Shakspeare, and the natural effect of his name, it was, under the circumitances, tolerably large: and the weight of opinion from thefe perfuaded perfons, prevailed for a time fo far, that Mr. Sheridan (we believe, without seeing the subject of his bargain) entered into an agreement for the play of Vortigern, paying down a part of the money on the fpot. But the publication of this volume proved fatai to the credit of the papers, and perhaps to the play of Vortigern. On the appearance of this document the veil was withdrawn. The incredible abfurdity of the fpelling, and in various refpects of the contents, which had been obfcured by cramp hands, dufky paper, and a partial infpection, was now laid open in the fineft ink, on the whiteft wire-woven paper, and hot-preffed. It has been urged, with a degree of acrimony, against fome of the moft eminent critics, that they have acted unfairly, in deciding pofitively again't thefe Shakspearean papers, without having feen the originals. No argument can be more falfe. The whole force of deception certainly lay in the external appearance of the papers; and if it was poffible for any fagacious perfons to be deceived, it was only by the manual art employed in their fabrication. But this is not the part to which the critics have objecled (except fo far as fac-fimile copies of them have been publifhed) it is to their contents; which undoubtedly may be appreciated with more eafe and certainty in the printed volume than in the written papers. The confequence was that, as foon as the book appeared, the greater part, even of the fubfcribers, fell from their faith; and, by the time when the play of Vortigern was brought forward, it did not want |