In estimating the true value of the "wisdom of our ancestors," we ought to steer a middle course, neither despising as worthless all their political bequests, nor indiscriminately adopting all their opinions, without carefully weighing them in the balance. We should also consider what our ancestors would have done, had the times in which they lived precisely resembled those in which we live, for, though the laws enacted by them might exactly have suited their own generation, it by no means follows that they were intended to apply to totally altered circumstances. Similar reasoning applies to what are familiarly termed "vested interests," such as pensions on the civil list, sinecures, patent places, ecclesiastical pluralities, and so forth; for spoliation, as it is called, does not consist in their abolishment, but in their original institution. If the rulers of the country, some centuries agone, conferred certain hereditary offices on their friends and adherents, to which emolument is attached, we maintain that the equity, and justice, and policy of the original grant is liable to the investigation and approval of posterity, or else the doctrine of "final measures" would be conceded.

Admitting then, that when the constitution is once formed, the sovereignty of the people is suspended, we deny that it is extinct. They still have a right to make any change which general utility may demand at all times and on all occasions, for unless this power of reform were impliedly reserved, government would not be a trust, but a property. But the grand argument in favour of the principle of progression rests on a holy and sanctified basis, for it is clearly intertwined with the commands and precepts of Christianity. We are strictly ordered to love our neighbour as ourselves, and to do unto others that which we would have others do unto us. Now, in as much as an educated man knows the nature of his social duties better than an ignorant man, so also must an educated nation understand their relative duties better than an unenlightened community. When they do know them, they are bound to carry them into execution, and, consequently, if any old laws or customs exist which cramp their exercise, we are under a religious obligation to amend or abolish them, as the case may require, for the means must be adapted to the end. Our ancestors, as well as the ancestors of every other people, possessed no sound knowledge of the true principles of legislation. The law of the strongest was the only one that they respected; their systems were founded in selfishness, in exclusiveness, and injustice, nor had they the least notion of any scheme of comprehensive benevolence. We have a striking proof of this barbarous intolerance in the maxim, not even yet extinct, that the people of France are our natural enemies, as if, under a Christian dispensation, any living man can be the natural enemy of another.

A narrow and short-sighted policy, based on the subversion of every Christian principle, prompted the statesmen of earlier periods to cramp

the energies of neighbouring countries in the hope of exalting their own. This system was specially pursued in reference to commerce, and it is to be lamented that many enemies to free trade still exist. It has pleased our Creator so to construct the planet on which we live, that various climates prevail in various latitudes, and this difference renders commodities scarce in some places, which are redundant in other places. It may fairly be inferred from this constant law of nature, that this arrangement, coupled with the desires implanted in man to enjoy all the bounties of Providence, was intended as a mean to associate the whole human race e; and if that conclusion be just, then restrictions on commercial intercourse are impious, for they tend to retard civilization, and consequently, to limit the spread of Christianity. Most assuredly they are highly impolitic, for it is of no use to produce an article, unless you can sell it, and if you impoverish neighbouring nations, you necessarily limit their faculty of dealing with. If Spain, for instance, were what she ought to be, and what we trust she soon will be, how immensely would the exports of mercantile England be encreased, and how vastly her manufactures would be augmented; and why? simply because she would find a new market, crowded with additional customers, able and willing to purchase the produce of her industry.

We have already stated, that the true object of political government is the greatest happiness of the greatest numbers for the longest period of time. We do not confine this opinion within certain geographical boundaries, called England, Russia, America, or any other portion of the earth called "a country." Certainly, in each separate division, the rule ought to be enforced for the benefit of those who inhabit it; but, in a more comprehensive sense, we look forward to that extensive scheme of civilization, founded on extensive benevolence, which will unite all mankind by the ties of a single family. Nor is this a chimerical project, for the means to effect it, if properly used, are ready to our hand. These means are the application of the precepts and principles of Christianity to every human law, whether it, influences our internal or external relations; secondly, the diffusion of education, moral, religious, and scientific, as the instrument, under Providence, to prepare the minds and hearts of men to receive the Gospel, not as a mere ceremonial of faith, but as a rigid rule of duty. When government is viewed in this light, political constitutions will be erected on the basis of universal charity and good will to all men : we shall hear no more of one race of men being the "natural enemies" of another race of men; the black negro, the swarthy Arab, the tawny Hindoo, the red Indian, and the white European, will no longer dispute about the aristocracy of the skin; free trade will be adopted to interchange happiness over the globe; and, in anticipation of the divine promise that there will ultimately be "one shepherd and one fold," all the nations of the earth, recognizing one uni

versal constitution, founded on the principles of natural law, which is a declaration of the Will of God, will live together in the harmony of Christian brotherhood.

In a cloister or a pew,

Others always seek for you:

But their search alike is vain,
These morose, and those profane.

VI.

The mother only with fond care
Hugs her child and finds thee there,
Kisses while asleep it lies

And upon it feasts her eyes;
'Till the little bantling came
Just to lisp its mama's name,
Then her airy hopes decay,
Like visionary shades, away.

VII.

Since thy throne thou dost not place,

In a palace, or a face;

Since thou coyly passest by,

Pleasures, riches, harmony:

Since we cannot find thee out

With the witty, or devout;

Since I here of thee despair,

I'll aim at heaven, and find thee there.

ON THE CHEMISTRY OF THE ANCIENTS.

If we are guided by the greatest number of etymologists, there needs no deep research to demonstrate the antiquity of chemistry. Its name seems to declare its origin. It is agreed almost by all, that it was first cultivated in Egypt, the country of Cham, of whom it is supposed primarily to have taken the name Chemeia sive Chemia, the science of Cham.* But without entering here into a philological discussion, I shall content myself with considering whether the ancients were chemists, and to what degree; and I hope to make it appear, that they not only knew that art scientifically, but had such an insight into some particulars, that in those points they excelled the moderns.

The first instance that occurs, for ascertaining the antiquity of the science, is of a very remote date. Nobody, I think, will disallow that Tubal-Cain, and those who with him found out the method of working in brass and iron, must have been able chemists. In reality it was impossi

In the one hundred and fifth psalm, Egypt is called "The land of Cham." According to Bochart, the Coptes called themselves Chemi or Chami; and Plutarch, in his Isis and Osiris, speaking of a district in Egypt, names it Chamia quasi Chimia. Another etymology is assigned to this word, by deriving it from the Arabian kema, occultare, to conceal; because chemistry is in the nature of an occult art.

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ble to work upon these metals, without first knowing the art of digging them out of the mine, and refining and separating them from the ore; all which are chemical operations, and must have been at first invented by those who excelled in the art, however afterwards they might be put in practice by the meanest artizans. Those who are engaged in the working of copper mines, for instance, and know that the metal itself must pass above a dozen times through the fire, before it can acquire its proper colour and ductility, will easily enter into this sentiment. It appears to me needless to bring together here all the passages of heathen historians, which speak of Vulcan in the same manner as the sacred author does of Tubal-Cain ; or to show from the resemblance, and as it were identity of names, that all of them relate to one and the same person. That would occupy too long a digression. It is enough to observe, that those authors represent Vulcan as skilled in operating upon iron, copper, gold, silver, and all the other bodies capable of sustaining the action of fire.

I likewise pass over whatever carries in it the air of fable; such as the story of the golden fleece; the golden apples that grew in the garden of Hesperides; the reports of Manethon and Josephus with relation to Seth's pillars, whence deductions have been made in favour of the translation of metals. I come to facts more real and established; and, for the sake of chronological order, shall still adhere to the sacred text in considering an action of Moses, who, having broken the golden calf, reduced it into powder, to be mingled with water, and given to the Israelites to drink; in one word he rendered the gold potable; an operation so difficult, that it is entirely impracticable to most of the chemists of our days, and owned by Boerhaave, to be of so exalted a kind, that it was unknown in his days even to the most skilful. Yet it must be admitted, that it has been looked upon by some able chemists as practicable, who at the same time acknowledge it to be a most remarkable proof of Moses's eminent skill in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. For how, without the aid of chemistry, could Moses have dissolved the golden calf, and that too without applying corrosives, which would have poisoned all who afterwards drank of the water? Yet this is to be done, and in a short time too, though there be but one way of doing it. Frederick the Third, king of Denmark, curious to put this operation into practice, engaged some able chemists of his time to attempt it. After many trials, they at last succeeded, but it was in following the method of Moses, by first of all reducing the gold into small parts by means of fire, and then pounding it in a mortar along with water, till it was so far dissolved as to become potable. This fact cannot be called in question, nor has it any thing supernatural about it. We know that Moses was instructed in all the learning of the Egyptians, among whom the sciences were cultivated with all manner of success, and from whom the most eminent philosophers of Greece derived all their knowledge. That they were not unworthy