ly sympathize with people so placed, as to hail the meeting of a few professors and scholars as a national triumph, and make it a subject of universal rejoicing.

"The privilege of copyright will bring the interests of the different petty literary centres of Turin, Milan, Venice, Florence, &c., to a common understanding, secure the free circulation, at least, of all the works published in the country; whilst the increase of daily, weekly, and monthly periodicals, will hasten and extend their diffusion, and lay the basis of a universal Italian bibliography. For hitherto, the Italian despots did not even agree in their system of oppression; or rather, they were sometimes pleased to flatter their subjects by a little display of comparative mildness, and indulge in the specious illusion of a precarious independence. But the equitable intercourse of literary commerce, necessarily attendant upon a mutual guaranty of copyright, will soon bring a beneficial uniformity in the police regulations of the different states; and the Italians, are not, perhaps, too sanguine in their expectations, if they hope, the decree on literary property may be considered as a first step towards the establishment of a moderate freedom of the press. — Vol. 11. pp. 367–370.

One may have a sufficient notion of the disastrous effect to authors from this want of copyright protection, by a single glance at the map of Italy, showing into how many separate states the country is divided. Each of them is filled with an active, hungry tribe of publishers, who, the moment any new offspring of the brain is fairly fledged, and has left the parent nest, pounce on it as fair prey for their own cormorant appetites, while the author himself is starving, perhaps, in a garret. Botta's "History of Italy" was making the fortunes of booksellers at home, who published and republished it, while he was an exile, in the extremity of poverty, in Paris. Manzoni's "Promessi Sposi," the most popular novel of the time, brought its author only a trifling sum, and that in the form of a gratuity from a publisher !

We can better appreciate the nature and extent of the evil, from being exposed to a similar one in our literary intercourse with Great Britain. It is true, we are distinct nations; scarcely more so, however, than the different Italian States. We have, like them, a community of language, and, although an ocean rolls between us, the improvements in navigation have brought us nearer to each other for all practical purposes, than is the case with some of the nations of Italy. Yet such is the indifference of our government to

the interests of a national literature, that our authors are still open to the depredations of foreign pirates, and, what is not less disgraceful, the British author, from whose stores. of wisdom and wit we are nourished, is turned over in like manner to the tender mercies of our gentlemen of the trade, for their own exclusive benefit, and with perfect indifference to his equitable claims. A very striking case of this national injustice is forced on our notice by the presence of Mr. Dickens among us. No one has enjoyed such a literary triumph in the homage of a grateful public, since the coronation of Petrarch. But what does it all amount to? We dine him, and dance him, throw up our caps and fête him, in every possible way, till human nature sinks under it; but as to the solid compensation by which the real value of things is settled, we take it all to ourselves. We read and praise. But our praise is not worth a penny -to the author. He asks us for bread, and we give him a bubble, the bubble reputation; for which, indeed, he owes us no thanks, since he has blown it up with his own breath. We do not mean to underrate the homage thus spontaneously paid by individuals to this eminent writer, which he has so well won by his remarkable talents employed in the cause of humanity. It is an expression honorable alike to the party which gives, and to that which receives it. But it is all incomplete, unless the nation secures to him, and to other writers of his country who stand in a similar relation with him, the full benefit of their labors, thus enabling itself to demand for American writers a corresponding protection from literary pillage on the other side of the water.

But it is time to bring our hasty remarks to a close. In reference to mere style, the work before us is altogether extraordinary, as that of a foreigner, laboring under all the embarrassments of a language, so different in its organization and genius from his own. It is true, we occasionally meet with phrases and idioms intimating its exotic origin. But they are far from ungraceful, and only show, by the rareness of their occurrence, how intimate the author has made himself with the nice mechanism of the English tongue. In the higher quality of thought, we may commend him for his acute and often original criticism, and his quick perception of the grand and beautiful in his native literature. However we may differ, too, from some of his conclusions, we must admit his liberal

views, on all themes of moral and political interest, and the ardent, yet not intemperate patriotism, which still binds the exile to the beautiful land of his birth. His volumes cannot be commended, indeed, as an elementary text-book for the young beginner. But to those who have made some advance in Italian literature, and to cultivated minds generally, they will suggest much food for meditation, melancholy though it be, on the singular destinies of a nation, which, endowed with the fatal gift of beauty, seems doomed to contend in vain against circumstances,—in the eloquent language of her poet, "Per servir sempre, o vincitrice, o vinta."

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ART. V. On Natural Theology. By THOMAS CHALMERS, D. D. and LL. D., Professor of Theology in the University of Edinburgh, and Corresponding Member of the Royal Institute of France. New York: Robert Carter. 1840. 2 vols. 12mo. pp. 404 and

420.

DR. CHALMERS was one of the persons appointed, under the will of the late Earl of Bridgewater, to write a treatise "On the Wisdom, Power, and Goodness of God, as manifested in the Creation." This general subject being divided into eight branches, the portion of it allotted to our author was "The Adaptation of External Nature to the Moral and Intellectual Condition of Man." The work which Dr. Chalmers published, in compliance with this call, has been for some years before the public, and we have had occasion in this Journal to express, incidentally, our opinion of its merits. The volumes now before us contain a republication of the Bridgewater Treatise, with some additional chapters on the argument for the being of a God, and on a few other subjects, designed so far to fill out the deficiences of the former publication, as to entitle the entire work to be called an exposition of the whole science of Natural Theology. These supplementary portions of the book are all that require present notice, and very few words may suffice for a consideration of their merits and defects.

Dr. Chalmers does not appear qualified in an eminent

degree, either by the peculiarities of his style, or his habits of study and thought, to become a scientific writer. With a great command of words, considerable power of amplifying a subject, and, at times, of expressing himself with much force and earnestness, he lacks precision of statement and definiteness of views. His style is often incorrect, and almost always verbose and tumid, and, amidst a wilderness of words, the reader is sometimes at a loss how to find any meaning whatever. Such a style may be very effective in the pulpit, where familiar thoughts are to be handled, to be amplified and set forth under every variety of aspect. The constant repetitions will enable the hearer to comprehend the general drift of the argument, and the swell and copiousness of language will fasten it upon his memory. But the inaccuracy and vagueness of such a manner are serious objections in a scientific treatise. One is often puzzled by contradictory statements, and loses sight of the chief object of inquiry, while the author is expatiating at great length on some incidental topic.

But these defects might be pardoned, if they did not proceed from much confusion of thought, and a hasty manner of prosecuting an abstract inquiry. Dr. Chalmers elaborates nothing, but gives out the first draft of his arguments and speculations, pretty much in the order in which they first occurred to him. Consequently, there is no proportion between the parts, but a crude mass of materials is presented, which, if duly worked over, might be found to contain many sound remarks, and some trains of reasoning and reflection, followed out with considerable success. The subject of his Bridgewater Treatise, forms but a small fraction of the whole science of Natural Theology. But, desirous of publishing something, that should appear to cover the whole ground, without revising or retrenching to any extent the original work, he annexes to it a few introductory chapters, interpolates one or two more in the body of the book, and then sends it forth as a new and complete treatise.

Dr. Chalmers is not a learned writer; at least, not in this department of science. Of many important contributions to Natural Theology, he makes no mention whatever, and thus many arguments and objections pass unnoticed by him, a full consideration of which is essential to any effective treatment of the subject at the present day. Dr. Thomas Brown is

about the only philosophical writer, with whose works he appears to be fully acquainted, though neither the general reputation, nor the completeness of this author's speculations, make him a very safe guide in abstruse and difficult inquiries. Dr. Chalmers does not in himself possess sufficient acuteness and skill in treating metaphysical questions to make up for this lack of information, and the chapters in which he hazards any attempt at subtile and refined reasoning, as, for instance, in answering the objections of Hume, are among the least satisfactory portions of the book.

In spite of these defects, there is some valuable matter in these volumes. Dr. Chalmers has a full perception of the true nature of the question, and a clear insight into the principles on which it must be resolved. If he has not added much to the argument for the being of a God, he has not perplexed it with any extraneous matter. Good sense and a vigorous mind may be discerned through the cloudy envelope of words, in which his remarks are enclosed. The spirit in which he has conducted the inquiry, and the general tenor of his reasoning, may be inferred from the following remark.

"We hold it with Paley greatly more judicious, instead of groping for the evidence of a Divinity among the transcendental generalities of time, and space, and matter, and spirit, and the grounds of a necessary and eternal existence for the one, while nought but modifications and contingency can be observed of the other, we hold it more judicious, simply to open our eyes on the actual and peopled world around us, or to explore the wondrous economy of our own spirits, and try if we can read, as in a book of palpable and illuminated characters, the traces or the forth-goings of a creative mind anterior to, or at least, distinct from matter, and which both arranged it in its present order and continues to overrule its processes." Vol. 1. p. 113.

The expression here is a fair sample of that wordy manner, of which we have complained; but the opinions, which are stated, respecting the proper character of the reasoning to be employed in Natural Theology, appear sound and judicious. They agree substantially with the views, which we attempted, in a very imperfect manner, to set forward and defend in the last number of this Journal. * As we propose

* See pp. 102 et seq.