those of the crazy Scotchman, Irving, but in plain demon English, in rappings and cabalistical gabblings about the present or future, the oracular insubstantialities, preferring mahogany to deal, perhaps for improving the euphony of the monosyllabic language, in which the messages from the unearthly illuminati are conveyed to a credulous and tremulous auditory already under a cold shiver.

We admit that we owe innumerable benefits to the suggestions of imagination; those ideas of things to be realised, which are the first shadowy outlines in the soul of what become tangible realities. We give too little credit as a prompter to that extraordinary faculty, solely the property of the mind, the originator of all those conveniences which are useful, without being palpable to the senses, until ripened by mechanical aid. Hence it is a most distinguished mark of intellectual existence in its higher order. It no doubt conjured up the seven devils that Cardan saw in Greek apparel, and the demon with which Tasso used to converse under his mental indisposition.

The author first treats of the general idea of life, its universality of presence by which all things are said to subsist, then of its source, remarking our ignorance in that regard. He notices the varieties of life and the faulty definitions of it. The best of these, namely, "the continuous adjustment of internal relations to external relations, was a very unsatisfactory definition indeed." What we want to know is the power which, under the great First Cause, maintains that continuous adjustment of the relations which constitute life organic and inorganic, the latter ceasing its vitality for the most part as soon as it is formed, that of organic life increasing after it is fully formed for a term more or less considerable. Such topics necessarily lead to things analogous, and to conjectures drawn from circumstances more or less weighty in connexion with them, as, for example, those contributing to organic subsistence, as light, food, air, heat, electricity, and the like, not as connected with animal life alone, but as well with vegetable vitality. Some of the examples in proof here are exceedingly curious, and interesting to those who are strangers to the study. Life, too, is considered under the heads of vital stimuli, food, and atmosphere. This, farther on, very naturally leads to the great compensating law" of renewal, after noticing the causes and nature of death. Speaking of electricity, the author observes, in regard to the maintenance of life:

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"There cannot be a doubt that it performs a part fully as energetic as either heat or light, and this whether we take animals or plants. As regards the former, its peculiar relation appears to lie with nerve-force.' 'Nerve-force' is excitable by electricity." We presume the writer means the power of the nerves; this compound word is too Germanic for our taste. "Electricity may be produced by the exercise of nerve-force,' as exemplified in those remarkable creatures, the Torpedo and Gymnotus." Thus, after alluding to the genial effect of the electric action upon the human frame, we find that proofs have been adduced that "light, heat, and electricity are only one, variously set forth, and mutually convertible. This great doctrine, known as that of the correlation of the physical forces, provides, in the estimation of some, a solution of the great problem of organic life."

How this is supposed to be effected, we cannot enter upon for want of

space. The present volume is very closely printed in above four hundred pages. We can only give an inadequate idea of a small portion of its interesting contents, embracing as it does such a mass of matter for the consideration of its readers, at the same time that much of it is destitute of proof, although ingenious and entertaining to readers of reflection, and therefore most interesting to those who love to expatiate on imaginative suggestions.

In connexion with this part of his subject, the author is careful to separate the natural heat and vital energy from any connexion with the more mysterious sentient principle of which the body is but the vehicle in man, and the cause of his animal "life" or existence, sustained by food. In this, he makes out hunger and love to be the great ministers of the world. How true, under one of these heads, is his observation that it is difficult for " a famished man to believe that there is a father in heaven, till he feels that he has brothers on earth. If there be one farce more wretched than another, it is the building a 'ragged church,' and holding 'special religious services' as the 'first' thing indispensable to bettering the condition of the poor." The author alludes to some details on the subject, generated by reference to a work, by R. B. Howard, M.D., published in 1839. We must here refer to the author for the proofs of his position regarding hunger and love, which will, no doubt, be found to the full as craving as he makes them out, and therefore as imperious in those demands for satisfaction as the experience of others will testify to those who doubt.

an

We have, next, "the atmosphere in relation to life," which is in accord with Franklin's doctrine of air-bathing. Our author deems air "the great physician' of the world," but does not explain directly whether he means the "cure-or-kill" effect of the practician, the relief by restoration or death, which belong to the practice of the "conjectural art." We imagine, from our atmospherical experience, that the author inclines to the vulgar meaning-that sanitary effect, such as, in the freshness of youth long past, we felt on a mountain height, when we thought ourselves relieved of full half our weight of fleshly integument, and that we could, by getting rid of a few ounces more, soar to the empyrean. To be "animal" signifies a "breather," it seems; and this cannot be denied. Jupiter stands for Zeus, a personification of air; Cáo, to live, which came from dew, to breathe, and the prefix (à. However, we do not put much stress upon these derivations, but cordially assent to our author's remarks on the relation of the atmosphere to animal life, as well as to motion. Most truly also do we assent to his remarks upon death, as connected with Adam, at least so far as that it contradicts, while it accounts in a certain way for the vulgar idea regarding it. A thing often requires a miracle upon a miracle to sustain it, for the vulgar have no notion of a creed without miracles-the more extraordinary the more welcome, if the Hindoo faith go for anything. For this we must refer to the work itself, lest we do it an injustice, because we have not space to quote to the extent we could desire, either pro or con., as regards our idea of certain portions of it. Our author's next chapter touches on the various diseases that shorten inorganised vitality, such as relate to trees and plants. Yews, it seems, will live 3000 years; cedars, 2000; and oaks, 1500. Among organised beings, the elephant appears to live longest, or about a hundred

and fifty years. Birds, reptiles, and insects follow; and lastly man, whose lease is fixed at a century, though Haller collected a thousand instances of individuals aged from 100 to 110; sixty, from 110 to 120; twentynine, from 120 to 130; fifteen, from 130 to 140; six, from 140 to 150; and one, to 169.

The author now enters upon a consideration of the grounds of the various "leases of life," and upon what he calls the spiritual basis of

nature.

We

This chapter treats upon subjects much more conjectural than were before handled. The title runs, 66 Grounds upon the various lease of life, and the spiritual basis of nature." If in the preceding part of his work he deals principally with realities, the author now falls into the expression of much which is conjectural, and here and there fanciful; but everywhere worthy of the reader's fair consideration, however his conclusions may differ from those of the author. We cannot always deal with fact. must permit imagination to have its turn of play, so that as with waste thrown up out of a precious mine, we find here and there overlooked among it lumps of rich ore, so in the erratic and vast region of imagination we come upon scattered truths, which collected together compose a mental wealth, by which society is enriched. We are thus enabled to extend our previous acquirements in that knowledge which refining man farther advances him more towards that unknown consummation, before which dwells a haze impenetrable to mortal vision. It is in the effort to penetrate this obscurity, and disclose what is concealed behind it, that the author abandons reality for conjecture, giving the latter that kind of confirmation which has no proof of its validity but the credit given to it by its expounder.

The author informs us that the reason of the diversity in the duration of life, considered apart from those grounds which are physiological, are comprised under the laws of " Correspondence" and "Use." Such is his system of belief. The first unfolds the relation of the material to the spiritual world, showing the primary causes of visible nature; and the second, or Use, the particular ends for which the various objects of creation have been designed, and the necessity of them. Then comes the condition of "Form," emanating from one of these laws, under which head are ranked, not only the configuration of things, but all which establishes identity, as size, organisation, and vital economy; on which last ultimately depends the duration of life. Things must be traced to their beginnings. Every cause must have its chain of effects. All this, it must be observed, is pure conjecture in connexion with non-existent intangible things, in regard to which, without demonstration, a negative, it may be pleaded, is a sufficient replication from those who do not think. Having the heads of "Correspondence," "Use," and "Form," the author proceeds to explain his meaning in the adoption of those terms; and here the more speculative part of his work may be said to begin. That, in fact, which requires something more than the word credo, to sustain his theory. Many who reflect will demand proof, and the want of it destroys the most pretentious advances, seeing what is advanced, if correct, is in the teeth of universal experience, and being based upon imagination, will not have that fair scrutiny to which it is entitled. Correspondence" is, in the author's opinion, the science of the relation of the two worlds; in

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other words, the guide to the objects and phenomena of the "material," and to the typical forms of the "spiritual;" in fact, the key to all human knowledge. The adoption of a theory, put forth under the present form, is not likely to be received, because so much which it involves must be taken for granted, or not taken at all. The world wants proofs, in order to give assent to similar doctrines. It is true we cannot take for proved those imaginative creations which the more vivid fancies of the age may put forth as realities, and here it is that we must pause in yielding our assent to many things which can be at best only conjecture, however ingeniously wrought out and however agreeable in theory. It is not possible here to do that justice to the author's system which it merits, for it would require much space to give even an outline of what rests so much upon the ideal in almost all its relations. We observe, too, that the author is one of those who, we presume, must credit some of the doctrines of Swedenborg, with his two worlds, the natural and the spiritual, on which, or something similar, some might think the basis of the present work is placed. Swedenborg was a very ingenious and clever mechanic and mineralogist, a good man, naturally of a vivacious temperament, until in his advancing age he became possessed with the notion that he had been called by the Lord, under a personal appearance, imparting to him a sight of the spiritual world, and enabling him to converse with supernatural beings and angels, a privilege continued to himself. This was evidently monomania.

From that time to his death he forsook his scientific studies, and published works partaking in general of the predominant idea. His followers, called "New Jerusalemists," have since constituted a small sect, by no means deficient in zeal in support of his ideas, and what he called "the new and perpetual church," of which he was the founder. He furnished a remarkable example of the fact that, to quote a distinguished author, "when the imagination once gets astride of the senses, there is nothing which a man may not bring himself to persuade other people to believe." This we state par parenthesis only, because Mr. Grindon has quoted from Swedenborg, and that there is a similarity in some of his views to those of the distinguished Swede; not that this circumstance creates any prejudice in our remarks upon his pages, but because the similarity is a fact, and there is evidence beyond his own quotation that he exhibits in his scheme that he has considered the labours of that erratic intellect.

Under the head of "Correspondence," the author classes that sympathy which the soul holds with natural objects, and which every thinking man must perceive. These being felt are really within man, for all natural objects exist" because" of man. The author truly says:

"When we admire nature, when we love it, it is virtually admiration of the spiritual and immortal, and this is why the love of nature is so powerful a help towards loving God. Hence, also, the concurrence of science and metaphysics, which are concerned with things essentially the same, only presented under different aspects and conditions. So intimate is the correspondence between the body of man and the faculties of the soul, that Klencke has built upon it an entire system of organic psychology, incited perhaps by the hint of Lord Bacon, when he says that with all this knowledge of the concordances between the mind and the body,

that part of the inquiry is most necessary which considereth of the seats and domiciles which the several faculties do take and occupy.' The concord, or correspondence between nature and the human soul is no new discovery, says the present author. The mind is in unity with the spiritual essence of the world. How the author works out his "Correspondence" must be seen in his own pages, which are well worthy of perusal, if only, as before observed, for supplying materials for speculative thoughts, besides which, in the course of the advocacy of his principles, he details many facts in natural history which, though cited to strengthen his own views, are, as articles of pleasing information, even under the mode in which they are put or applied, most worthy of attention.

Regarding the author's law of "Use," which he styles the second grand cause of the diversity in the lease of life, so vast in itself, no definition of it will answer that can come into a reasonable compass. It suffices that all uses are said to be answerable to the welfare of the existing organisms, to the instruction and delight of man, and to the glory of God. Each of these three heads is then worked out or explained. The discoveries of geology are touched upon, and all is applied to the support of the author's theories.

The spiritual expression of life, nature, and the seat of the soul, form the head of the next chapter. In that which follows we find "soul, spirit, ghost," disserted upon, the body being their appendage. We have never observed the author's distinction between (wn and puxn as the recipient. As to the difference between "ghost" and "spirit," in English, the words are identical in meaning, though the former is often ludicrously applied, and not understood. Holy Spirit should always be substituted when used in a religious sense. We have a chapter on the "True idea of youth and age," well worthy of perusal. The sixteenth chapter treats of the intellectual faculties in relation to life. It concludes with the remark, "We often hear of fine boys. The finest of all boys is the fine old boy, he who has obeyed the poet's great command, 'keep true to the dream of your youth.' The religious element of life is next considered, in which the author truly remarks that "religion is to 'live' a doctrine, not simply to believe' in one." The author sometimes names obscure writers both of the past and present; where the quotation is given all is well, but it is not so with readers who must plead the misfortune of their ignorance in such readings. By-the-by, why does he not print Goethe, or Göthe, not Goëthe, as he quotes German? not that it is of much moment. Regarding religion, he truly observes, "Religion does not consist in for ever busying oneself with religious ideas, in season and out of season; but in letting our knowledge of what is right, colour and 'ensoul' whatever we do. Unhappily, in many minds, religion has been made to consist too much in the performance of certain ceremonies, acknowledging God at stated hours, speaking on given subjects in a certain way; to be, in a word, not what in its purity it really is-a temper, but a pursuit. The consequence is, that, to a great extent, it is shut up in the church at the close of the service, and left there until the Sunday comes round again."

The eighteenth chapter considers that Life is realised by activity, action being the law of happiness, Here we have remarks on the ministration of angels. In another chapter Death is treated in relation to the spiritual