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STAFFORDSHIRE POTTERIES, WATTS, LANE END.-SUNDERLAND, MARWOOD. WARWICK, MERRIDEW. -WHITBY, RODGERS.-WORCESTER, DEIGHTON.-YARMOUTH, ALEXANDER.--YORK, BELLERBY MDCCCXXXIII, Ostrich, 99 Otter, 64 Pain, ou, Paley, 141 Paley, on authority, 13.: on grasses, Paradoxical animals, 115 Parish registers, 82 Parke, Mungo, in the desert, 56 Pascal on the Christian Religion, 239; Passions, Fuller, 88 Peak Carn, 153 Penrhyn slate-quarry, 93 Plague, the, at Eyam, Derbyshire, 129 Pleasure of amusement and industry, Burton, 64 Plymouth breakwater, 167 Popular calendar, 246 Population of England and Wales, 6; Sandwich Islands, Sunday at, 233 Scott on Death, 88 Scott, Sir Walter, on the Bible, 75 Secret of living always easy, 96 Seneca, remark by, 6 Sin not weakened by age, South, 187 Skinner's Excursions, 87 Snow, preservation of life under, 239 Solitude, lines on, by the Rev. W. Jones, 3; answer to by G. H. South, extract from, 55 South, Dr., on gratitude and ingrati- Southey, extract from, 3; observations Spring, Bishop Hoadly, 173 Steam engines in 1543, 30 Stork, white, 221 St. Paul's cross and church, 234 Sunday at Sea, Bishop Turner, 46; Swallows, lines on, by Hayley, 151 Swithin's, St., day, 14 INDEX TO THE ENGRAVINGS. Elizabeth Woodcock, 240 Falls of Foyers, 255 the Montmorenci, 251 Fossil elephant, skeleton of, 107 Geyser, the great, 25 section of, 26 Glendower's Oak, 241 Greensted church, plan of, 37; view Griffon vulture, 229 Hall of the Lions, 113 Hand-mills for corn in the east, 65 Hodnet Church, 213 Hough, Bishop, bas-relief on his monu- Ibis jar, 197 sacred, 197 Iron mines, 186 Israelites, departure of, 33 idols, 52 procession, 17 Kandel Steig, lake, 249 Water-bottles of the East, 44 Watson, Bishop, on equality, 111 What is Time? Rev. J. Marsden. 80 of, 38 Whichcote, Dr., on opinions, 232 White's Selborne, extract, 56 Who is alone? 91 Wickliffe's chair, 16 Widow to her child, 227 Wild Sports of the East, Captain Williams, Archbishop, on conversion, 197 Wisdom, remark on, 7 Woman in White, 166 Wotton, Sir H., lines by, 152 Yew-trees, in church-yards, 74 Page 3. for Sir Wm. Jones, read the Rev. Wm. Jones. ERRATA. Page 104. In the account of the Middlesex Luna- Page 117, for Bishop Horne, read altered by Bishop Page 169, col. 2, twelve lines from the bottom, for Page 170. The " Cockfighter's Gariand." We are requested to state, on the authority of a this poem, is not only exaggerated, but in several Page 231. Last line of second column, for Bishop UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. INTRODUCTION. It was a favourite saying with a crabbed old Greek, | past times, so common in the mouths of men who set that a Great Book is a Great Evil. He said this before the grand invention of printing, when the making and reading of books, if not a great evil, was certainly a great trouble. The only mode in which a book could then be published, was by hiring persons to write out copy after copy, upon long rolls of parchments of modern times, and ready to take every ment, or the coarse sort of paper which they called papyrus: and those who wished to read them, had to unrol the volume till they came to the place which they wanted. No wonder then that in those days books were but few, and knowledge was scarce. There were not many who could afford to buy books, and fewer still, perhaps, who could read them. Even the mighty and the noble were ignorant and unlettered, and the mass of the people were sunk in darkness and superstition. Nor did it seem possible, till the discovery of printing letters by means of moveable metal types, to bring the learning of the learned, and the wisdom of the wise, within reach and possession of all classes of the community. After this most important discovery, which we owe to John Gutenberg, of Mayence, the reading as well as the making of books became so much more pleasant, that readers and authors increased to a degree unknown in former ages. A vast number of books, upon all subjects, were written by men of masterly genius and profound learning. There was no branch of knowledge which they did not cultivate and adorn; and their works, full of immense learning and deep research,upon the knowledge and practice of our holy religion, upon history and philosophy, upon medicine and chemistry, upon geography and astronomy; in short, upon every thing connected with the advancement and refinement of mankind,-have come down to us for our improvement and instruction. : up their own age as the only one deserving of any regard, and their particular selves as the only persons worthy of being consulted in it. We are not of those who despise the wisdom of their forefathers; but we shall also show that we are alive to all the improveadvantage of them. To every thing there is a season,' says the Preacher, and a time to every purpose under the heaven; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.' Time was to plant and there never was a people whose forefathers planted more deeply and judiciously in Church and in Statefor Literature and for Arms-than ours have done. It is now time to pluck up, not the stately tree of their wisdom-long may it flourish, the glory of all true Englishmen !-but the thousands of suckers and saplings around it; not to destroy, but to transplant, to graft, to disperse and to multiply the virtues of the ancient stock. Many a skilful hand is already employed in this good work. We come to help all those who may like our manner of helping. Our recommendation is the name of that venerable Society from the bosom of which we proceed, and our little Magazine will go forth every Saturday morning, like a skilful gardener, to plant in every corner of the land, within sight of every man's door, and within reach of every man's arm, a tree of true knowledge, which growing out of the fear of God, will, under God's blessing, we doubt not, bring forth in due season the fruits of honour and of power to the nation, and of plenty and peace and truth to all our loving countrymen. An old Latin poet, a very fashionable man in his day, said that the most popular book would be that which mixed up the useful with the agreeable. We Now all these great books are very curious, many shall make such a mixture in this Magazine. By the of them very useful, and some of them invaluable; yet side of the truly useful we shall place that which they are very seldom opened by any man now-a-days, ought alone to be truly agreeable, and we will do except to be dusted, although their names are from our best to make one reflect light upon the other. time to time to be found presiding over a modern Whether the information which we convey to our readwork, to the spirit of which they may perhaps beers be given in the form of an essay or a tale, we shall altogether opposed. This neglect is partly owing to the circumstance that these books can rarely be met with out of public libraries, where a man cannot sit down comfortably to read them; partly to their occasional perplexity of thought and uncouth manner of speech; and partly also to their size to their being such very great books-which makes it a work of months, sometimes of years, to get quite through some of them. Nevertheless, they were not without their effect on the world: many of the important truths which they contain, have been preserved and illustrated in later writings, more portable in form and easy of digestion. And this improvement of their labours we hope to extend to a greater degree than has ever yet been done. But this by the way-lest in offering to our readers a very little book indeed, we should be taken to join in the abuse of the authors of sundry great books in VOL. I. keep in mind our great object of combining innocent amusement with sound instruction. We shall not relate ghost-stories, except to explain the delusions from which impressions of the reality of such things have proceeded, and will often proceed; we shall tell no Newgate legends of murder and robbery, except sometimes to point out the horrible excesses and dismal end to which a man may come, step by step, downwards, from the first dram he drank, the first oath he sworè, and the first Lord's day he profaned. But then, on the other hand, we shall show forth some of the wonderful things of Natural History; we shall recount the origin and progress of some of the greatest of human inventions, such as Navigation, Printing, the Telescope, Steam-Engines, and so on; we shall remind our readers of remarkable events in the annals of our own dear country, and of other great kingdoms on the continent; and we shall sometimes, as occasion 1 may serve, indulge ourselves with proving how sweetly the poets of England used to sing, and how sweetly some of them yet live to sing. One way or another we hope to be popular in this Magazine, which comes out on the Saturday, when most men have a pause from labor. We are not for interfering with the family talk, or the friendly walk, much less with the duties of the Sabbath, or the study of the Bible and we trust every one of our readers has one. All these good things may be done and served, and yet there will be plenty of time for perusing these few pages; the reader shall never find in any one of them a line which shall be contrary in its tendency to the improvement and the happiness of any member of his family. Thus much to explain the character and object of this Magazine! We hope to give good proofs that our intentions are as honest as our means of performance are great, and we trust that after a fair trial our readers will not think our wood-cuts or our engravings the best part of our work. For the present we say Farewell!-and put an end to this somewhat lengthy introduction. ON THE RIGHT USE OF KNOWLEDGE. KNOWLEDGE is power. This saying, which has been so strikingly illustrated by the history of the last fifty years, will no doubt be exemplified, in a still more remarkable manner, by the changes which the next ten or twenty years will produce in the state of society. Whether these changes will be for good or evil, must obviously depend upon the kind of knowledge which will be diffused through the mass of the community, and the direction which shall be given to it, in its application to the great purposes of life. If it be true that knowledge is power, this necessarily follows: for that power, whatever it is, may be for good or evil. It is a giant's strength, which it is excellent to have, if it be used for the ends of virtue and happiness; but which may be employed to the purposes of a tyrannous malice. It is impossible that the cultivation of our natural faculties, even to the utmost pitch of advancement, can be in itself wrong: for it is plain, from the very constitution of our nature, that they are given us to be improved; and their improvement, when it is really improvement, may be made equally conducive to our comfort and happiness, as inhabitants of this material world, and to our preparation for a spiritual state of being. If we are to enter hereafter into such a state, it is so plain that no reasoning can make it plainer, that to prepare for it is the main business of our existence here; and therefore, such a cultivation or employment of our faculties as thwarts and impedes, instead of seconding and advancing the work of preparation, does not deserve the name of improvement. Whereas nothing can be more worthy of man, as a thinking and moral creature, destined to advance through successive steps to a higher and purer order of being, than the diligent exercise and quickening of his mind, and the enlargement of his knowledge, with reference and in subordination to the chief purpose of his existence. We hold therefore, that knowledge is really valuable, when it is made directly or indirectly serviceable to the ends of virtue; when it is sanctified in its possession, and guided in its application, by religious principle and feeling. Seeing," says Lord Bacon," that knowledge is of the number of those things which are to be accepted of with caution and distinction, being now to open a fountain, such as it is not easy to discern where the issues and streams thereof will take and fall; I thought it good and necessary, in the first place, to make a strong and sound head, or bank, to rule and guide the course of the waters; by setting down this position, or firmament, namely, That all knowledge is to be limited by Religion, and to be referred to use and action." This is a very natural and striking similitude. Religion is the strong mound and embankment, which confines the stream of hu man knowledge within its proper channel, and guides it along its intended course; so as to fertilize and beautify the country which it would otherwise inundate and lay waste. With this guard, or firmament, as Bacon terms it, we may admit, that knowledge is not only power, but also virtue and happiness; a help, that is to say, to virtue, and an instrument of happiness, as far as happiness is to be found in any of the pursuits or acquirements of our present imperfect state. Knowledge, for instance, was a source of happiness to Newton and to Locke, far more abundant than pleasure or ambition; and it was auxiliary to virtue, because it withdrew their attention from objects of sensual enjoyment. But then Newton and Locke were Christians, and referred their extraordinary powers of mind, as well as the results of those powers, to the first Source of Light and Truth, under a deep sense of their own insufficiency, and of the limits which are set to the researches of the human mind. Newton, the most original and patient and sagacious of inquirers into natural and mathematical truth, spoke of himself, with reference to the secrets of God's nature and designs, as a child playing with pebbles on the sea-shore. We have said, that in the case of these eminent philosophers, knowledge was not only power, but virtue and happiness, because they were Christians. With Voltaire, and Hume, and Gibbon, it was power; but it was not happiness, nor virtue; because it was not sanctified nor directed by Christian belief and principle. For surely that is not happiness, nor the source of happiness, which is no preservative against the most miserable ambition, the most restless uneasiness under the world's opinion, and the most disquieting views of futurity. Consider the following argument; it is of a very plain and practical kind. If our religion be true, no kind of knowledge can be really beneficial which causes us to neglect the study of God's word, or to undervalue and disregard his laws. On the other hand, there is no kind of knowledge, deserving of the name, with which religion interferes, either in its acquisition or right employment. On the contrary, religion tends to preserve the mind in that tranquil and contented state which is necessary to the successful pursuit of every branch of useful knowledge; it teaches us to set a right value upon it when acquired, and to employ it to the benefit of mankind. Moreover, it has an obvious tendency to secure to us even the present and temporal rewards of knowledge: for who, that is looking out for an able instructor for his children, a trusty steward for his estate, or a skilful workman to be employed about his premises, would not rather have a religious man, upon whose prmciples he could rely, than an unbeliever, a scoffer, and a drunkard? So that religion, which cannot in any case impede the acquirement of knowledge, nor interfere with its right application, enhances the value of it to its possessor, with respect both to the inward complacency which it affords him, and the present recompense to which it leads. While laying up in the storehouse of his memory the materials of useful knowledge, which it will be our object to provide for him, let our reader bear in |