While our countrymen were thus successfully employed in extending the circle of the arts, and in embellishing external nature, science was not neglected: they were not inattentive to the motions of the heavens, or the operation of the human mind. Locke and Newton have had their successors, as well as Dryden and Milton. Halley illustrated the theory of the tides, and increased the catalogue of the stars; while Maclaurin made great progress in algebra, and Gregory reduced astronomy to a regular system. These men of genius have been succeeded by very able mathematicians; but the era of discovery in mathematics seems to be past. More advance has been made in other sciences, with which Newton was little acquainted. The vegetable system of Tull has led to the greatest improvements in agriculture; and the bold discoveries of Franklin, in electricity, may be said to have given birth to a new science. With the purpose to be served by many of those discoveries, which at present so strongly engage the attention of philosophers, we are yet as much in the dark as in regard to the electric principle itself. But the beneficial effects of electricity in many medical cases, and the invention of metallic conductors, by which buildings and ships are preserved from the destructive force of lightning, entitle it to notice in a view of the progress of society, should it even otherwise disappoint the hopes of its fond admirers. Among the successors of Locke, Hume is entitled to the first place. Not that his metaphysical inquiries are more acute than those of Berkeley, Baxter, Hartley, or perhaps of Reid; but that his discoveries, like those of his great master, have a more intimate relation to human affairs-are of universal application in science, and closely connected with the leading principles of the arts. His beautiful analysis of the ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS, which he comprehends under three general heads, namely, Resemblance, including contrast, Contiguity in time or place, and Cause or Effect. And his ingenious Theory of the Passions, or the COMMUNICATION of EMOTIONS, immediately laid the foundation of that PHILOSOPHY of the FINE ARTS, which was afterward formed into a system by lord Kaims, in his Elements of Criticism, and which has since been illustrated by many elegant writers.

But none of those writers have illustrated the principles of Mr. Hume so happily as himself. They may be said, indeed, only to have written commentaries on his illustrations. One example will justify this remark. The subject is Unity of Action, about which all critics, after Aristotle, had talked so much, and to so little purpose, while they directed not their taste or sentiment by the accuracy of philosophy. "It appears," says he, "that in all productions, as well as the epic and tragic, there is a certain UNITY required, if we would produce a work which will give any lasting entertainment to mankind. An annalist or historian, who should undertake to write the HISTORY OF EUROPE, during any century, would be influenced by the connexion of contiguity in time and place. All events which happen in that portion of space, and period of time, are comprehended in his design, though in other respects different and unconnected. They have still a species of unity amid all their diversity. But the most usual species of connexion, among the different events which enter into any narrative composition, is that of cause and effect; while the historian traces the series of actions according to their natural order, remounts to their secret springs and principles, and delineates their most remote consequences."

If Mr. Hume was happy in illustrating his metaphysical system, he was yet more successful in exemplifying it. His Moral, Political, and Literary Essays are perfect models of philosophical investigation. He is altogether logical, without the logical forms: he unites the plain perspicuity of Locke to the synthetic precision of Wollaston and the analytical accuracy of Harris. But this great man, who has carried human reasoning to the utmost point of perfection, has endeavoured, by skeptical doubts, to destroy the certainty of all reasoning, and to undermine the foundation of both natural and revealed religion. His attack upon the latter leads to a very curious and important Inquiry" the state of Christianity in England during the present century.”

I shall endeavour to trace the outlines of the subject, by way of termination to this view of the progress of society.

That general toleration, which was the immediate consequence of the revolution, gave birth to great freedom of discussion relative to religious matters. The crowd of sectaries, no longer held together by the common bond of persecution, or restrained by fear from unveiling the supposed errors of the church, entered into a bold investigation of the sublime mysteries of Christianity. And the apostles of each sect keenly censured the tenets of all who presumed to differ from them on any particular point. Numberless disputes were hotly agitated about doctrines of no importance to the rational Christian.

But this pious warfare was not sufficient to keep alive the fervour of zeal, either in the church or among the dissenters, in a state of unlimited liberty of conscience. A general moderation began to prevail, and the more enlightened sectaries seemed ready to join the hierarchy; when certain fiery spirits, filled with indignation of such lukewarmness, and panting for the crown of martyrdom, gave birth to new sects of a warmer complexion, and obliged the heads of the old to enforce their particular tenets, in order to prevent the utter desertion of their followers. Whitfield and Wesley in England, and the two Erskines in Scotland, rekindled in all its ardour the flame of enthusiasm, which raged, for a time, with dazzling brightness, in spite of the utmost efforts of reason and ridicule. But the fuel of persecution, the stake and the fagot, being happily withheld, it has now in a great measure spent its force. Nor have the methodists yet been able to number one martyr among the multitude of their saints.

The spirit of infidelity (as it always will, in an enlightened age) kept pace with that of enthusiasm. As many of the wilder sectaries laid claim to divine illuminations, and in their ravings pretended to prophesy, some men of skeptical principles endeavoured to bring into suspicion, and even to destroy the credibility of all prophecy; while others call in question the authenticity of the sacred books, both historical and prophetical. At the head of those skeptical writers, and the most dangerous because the most agreeable, may be placed Shaftesbury and Bolingbroke.

Tindal, in his Christianity as old as the Creation, denied the necessity of the Gospel; as it promulgated, he affirmed, no principle or precept_with which mankind were not formerly acquainted. Hume, in his Essay on Miracles, struck directly at its foundation, by attempting to show, that no human testimony is sufficient to establish the reality of a miracle. And an author, no less able or learned than either, has written an historical deduction, to prove Christianity to be of human origin.

But these rude attacks have only served more firmly to establish true religion, while they have given a severe check to enthusiasm. They have led divines to examine minutely into the proofs of revelation, and made them sensible of the propriety of explaining more rationally the mysteries in the Christian system; especially that of the Trinity, the incarnation of the Word, and the miraculous influence of grace upon the human soul. The consequence has been, that all men of sound minds and good morals conform outwardly to the religion of their country, and most of them sincerely believe it to be of divine origin. The debasing doctrine of materialism has been exploded, as alike unfriendly to all that is liberal in the human character, or endearing in the human condition ;(1) for he who considers this earthly spot as the only theatre of his existence and its grave, instead of his first stage in progressive being, can never view nature with a cheerful, or man with a benevolent eye.

(1) An attempt has lately been made, by a learned divine, to give to this doctrine a new complexion ¡ but his opinions are too whimsical ever to be generally received.

END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.