that conclusion. God has providentially appointed, to many parts of the habitable globe, an extraordinary flux of the ocean for several days every fortnight; and the moon, by an exact coincidence of motion, serves as a perpetual inder to the tides, whereby mathematicians are enabled, for the benefit of navigation, to calculate, beforehand, the periodical courses and returns of the tides, which otherwise could not be done. As to calculating tide-tables upon what are termed Newtonian principles, it is all a farce, and something worse to pretend to it." What does Mr Prescot mean by the moon being an inder to the tides? A clock has an index, which points out the hour of the day, but the index is governed by the clock; the moon, then, is an index to the moon, and the tides are governed by the moon. The first person who clearly pointed out the cause of this phenomenon, and showed its agreement with the motions of the moon, was Newton. The moon had, from time immemorial, been considered as the principal agent in producing motion in the waters of the ocean. Thus, if the tide be now at high-water mark, in any harbour, it will soon begin to subside, and flow regularly back for six hours. It is then at low-water mark. After this it will gradually rise for six hours, and subside again as before. The interval, however, between the flux and reflux, is not exactly six hours, but six hours and a little more than twelve minutes; so that the time of high-water is later, by three quarters of an hour every day, for nearly thirty days, after which it recurs again as before. Now these motions of the tides exactly answer to the motion of the moon, for this luminary rises about three quarters of an hour later every day than on the preceding; and, moving round the earth in this manner, she completes her revolution in about thirty days. Can this perfect harmony of motions then possibly arise from the mere concurrence of fortuitous causes? On the contrary, the coincidences are so complete, and the principles so obvious, that we are compelled to look to the moon as the principal cause of them. Beside, the disturbing forces of the sun and moon

evidently depend on their distances from the earth. The earth moves round the sun in an elliptic orbit, and the perihelion distance is a little after the winter solstice. Now, in winter, the spring-tides are greater than in summer, when the sun is at his greatest distance. In the same manner the moon revolves round the earth in an elliptic orbit, and the greatest tides happen, cæteris paribus, when she is nearest to the earth. On these principles, and they are Newton's, tide-tables are calculated, and there is no farce in the business. Mr Prescot finds, by a tedious process, that the power of attraction of the sun upon the earth is greater than that of the moon; and on this account, that the tides produced by the sun ought to be greater than those produced by the moon. This, he says, is an important point, and they cannot get over it! Tell it not in Gath-the explanation may be found in almost every book of Ástronomy extant: but as Mr Prescot is totally ignorant of every branch of the mathematics, farther than arithmetic, there is no marvel if he can neither understand, nor even read, such explanations. The first principles of every science must first be known; we can then climb, step by step, till we reach the summit. The road is easy, and the horizon bright and clear; but, without first principles, we are like men wandering in a mist, who, mistaking one object for another, are deceived themselves, and then seek to confound others. Mr Prescot's book is really a wonderful book, and his system altogether a wonderful system. The moon, he tells us, is a globe of ice, which reflects to us the light of the sun. Now, on this principle, she being no where opaque, we wonder how he will explain how she puts on such different phases, from the narrow, and almost invisible crescent, to a full round phasis. But this, by the bye, is a very great improvement on the Newtonian moon; for this moon of ice would shine perpetually. We are greatly afraid that this supposition does not agree with the experience of the senses!

One thing we are remarkably curious to ascertain, either from himself or any of his friends, and that

is, whether his moon of ice has any effect upon the weather here; also, if she has any effect upon weak minds, such as we may suppose Mr Prescot or Mr Cormouls to have. We rather suspect that both of them have been for some time in a pretty close contact with lunar influence. We shall also be happy if he will inform us why Venus and Mercury put on phases exactly resembling those of the moon-why Mars is sometimes seen gibbous-and how it happens that bright spots, near his poles, appear and disappear once during every revolution of the planet? We wonder whether Mr Prescot ever took a peep at Jupiter, or Saturn, through a pretty good telescope? If not, he would be very much surprised to see four lucid particles of ice always moving round Jupiter, constantly at the same distance, and always in the same period of time. He is, perhaps, not aware of the existence of this phenomenon. There are also seven satellites, or particles of ice, moving round Saturn, beside a very curious ring, perhaps of ice, forming a most beautiful object. This ring, and satellites, are certainly of no use to the inhabitants of this earth; nevertheless, we should be very sorry if they were to dissolve in rain. The earth being the centre of the system, how does it happen that Venus never sets at a period more than three hours after the sun; and that Mercury is never seen above two hours after sun-set? How will Mr

are

Prescot explain the direct and retrograde motions of the planets, which "natural appearances?"-But enough has been said to convince Mr P., if he be not too far gone, that he had better let such things rest: his knowledge of these subjects is more contemptible than he probably conceives. We would seriously advise him to apply his time, in future, to his day-books and journals, where his talents may be more respectably employed. On carefully examining this book, which is a specimen of West-of-England Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century, we could not avoid smiling at the immense number of learned quotations which the author has raked together, not thinly scattered to make up a show, but arranged in deep phalanx, capable of supporting any thing but the shock that is sufficient to overturn a system of the universe. Prescot, we have no doubt, placed great confidence in these quotations, as indications of much learning, and patient research after truth; but the supposition, like his system, is founded in error: for neither these, nor his abominable practice of supporting his vagaries with perverted texts from the sacred writings, nor the name of Sir H. Davy, nor that of the Ministers and other great characters to whom he has sent his performance; no, nor our review, will be able to rescue it from that oblivion to which it is hastening beyond all power of redemption !!

Mr

Where is the voice to tell their tale who rest,

Thus rudely pillow'd, on the Desart's breast?

Doth the sword sleep beside them ?

Hath there been

A sound of battle midst the silent scene

savage mirth,

More fearful far than all the woes of earth!

The laughter of cold hearts, and scoffs that spring

From minds to which there is no sacred thing,

And transient bursts of fierce, exulting glee,

The lightning's flash upon its blasted tree!

But still, howe'er the soul's disguise were worn,

If from wild revelry, or haughty scorn, Or buoyant hope, it won an outward show, Slight was the mask, and all beneath it—

woe.

Yet was this all ?-amidst the dungeongloom,

The void, the stillness, of the captive's doom,

Were there no deeper thoughts?—and that dark Power,

To whom Guilt owes one late, but dreadful hour,

The mighty debt through years of crime delay'd,

But, as the grave's, inevitably paid; Came he not thither, in his burning force, The lord, the tamer of dark soulsRemorse?

Yes! as the night calls forth from sea and sky,

From breeze and wood, a solemn har. mony;

Lost, when the swift, triumphant wheels

of day,

men;

Drawn to that vortex, whose fierce Ruler blent

The earthquake-power of each wild ele

ment,

To lend the tide which bore his Throne on high,

One impulse more of desp❜rate energy; Might, when the billow's awful rush was o'er,

Which toss'd its wreck upon the stormbeat shore,

Won from its wand'rings past, by suffering tried,

Search'd by remorse, by anguish purified ; Have fix'd at length its troubled hopes

and fears

On the far world, seen brightest through our tears!

And, in that hour of triumph, or despair, Whose secrets all must learn, but none declare,

When, of the things to come a deeper

sense

Fills the rais'd eye of trembling Penitence, Have turn'd to Him, whose bow is in the cloud,

Around life's limits gathering as a shroud; The fearful mysteries of the heart who knows,

And, by the tempest, calls it to repose.

Who visited that death-bed?-who can tell,

Its brief sad tale, on which the soul might dwell,

And learn immortal lessons?-who beheld The struggling hope, by shame, by doubt repell'd

The agony of prayer-the bursting tears, The dark remembrances of guilty years, Crowding upon the spirit in their mightHe, through the storm who look'd-and there was light?

Prospects of Cultivation and Improvement.

YES! let the Waste lift up the exulting voice!

Let the far-echoing solitudes rejoice! And thou, lone Moor! where no blithe reaper's song

E'er lightly sped the summer hours along, Bid the wild rivers, from each mountain

source,

Rushing in joy, make music on their course!

Thou, whose sole records of existence mark

The scene of barb'rous rites, in ages dark,

"Mercy, not sacrifice!" And when, of old,

Clouds of rich incense from his altars roll'd,

Dispers'd the smoke of perfumes, and laid bare

The heart's deep folds, to rend its homage there!

LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF SCOTTISH LIFE, ONE VOLUME 8vo. EDINBURGH, 1822.

ABOUT sixty years ago, the German poet Gesner published a set of pastorals, which he called Idylls, and which charmed all the young sentimentalists of Britain, as well as Germany. The sentiment, however, was chiefly calculated to captivate inexperienced but susceptible minds, who had never looked at life in the mirror of Nature, but had admired the flattering pictures which Romance and Fiction had drawn, without closely examining their pretensions to inculcate what may be termed, if the phrase is practical virtue. The sentiment was not too coarse for refined ears, rather of a syrupy kind, which, after no great space of time, went out of fashion in Britain, or was confined, at least, to certain girlish philosophers of the boarding-school, or to coteries of a delicate sort, which had not then acquired a title they have since assumed, but on what grounds, or from what etymology I know not, of Blue Stocking Associations.

The author of these "Lights and Shadows" seems to have nearly followed the model of Gesner; and he has published a volume of short sto→ ries, chiefly of a rural kind, descriptive of the scenery and manners of what his title imports to belong to Scotland. The justness of this title may, however, be questioned. The scenery in some places is indeed Scottish, and carries us among moors, and rocky banks, and mountain rills; but neither the language nor manners are of that country. They are rural manners, refined and exaggerated, but of no particular place or country, except we should denominate them Arcadian-an epithet by which some of the shepherds might be designated. Rural images, however, are always pleasing to any one who has not, in the callosity of am