great difference appeared, in the nature of the country, from that which they had formerly inhabited. Description of the soil and climate, &c. of Egypt.-Of the Nile and its phenomena: This country ill suited to the pastoral state, from the overflowing of the river, but favourable peculiarly to agriculture. Impossible that they should not perceive the fruitfulness of the soil, and the supply it afforded for the wants of men. Agriculture rendered them stationary; introduced the idea of property in land; afforded the means of subsistence to a far greater number of men than the same portion of territory in pasturage.

The increase of population led to the division of employments, and opened a wide field for invention in the arts. Hence, the foundation of cities, the division of ranks, (introduced by the inequalities of property), the beginning of commerce, and the great outlines of regular government. While the rest of the inhabitants of the globe, in this early period, were wandering in hordes through Arabia, the citizens of Egypt were led, by the nature of their soil and climate, to establish themselves in a fixed territory, to cultivate the ground, instead of living by their flocks; and in consequence of this difference of situation and employment, were gradually advancing in improvement, in population, in subordination, and in laying the foundations of future greatness. Egypt was, therefore, naturally the mother-country of improvement, because it was the country which first led men to settle; in which agriculture was first practised; in which the number and the diversities of property among men, first called for the establishment of regular government; and in which the extent of population first gave rise to the various arts which an extensive population requires. The nature of the climate and soil of Egypt may therefore be considered as the cause of its being the mother of civilization, and of its taking the lead in the history of human improvements.

Though we can thus perhaps, with some probability, assign the cause of the early civilization of Egypt, yet we are altogether at a loss when we inquire into the period when this improvement began. The first ages of the history of this country are covered with impenetrable darkness; and so far from being able to trace the progress of improvement in it, the first credible accounts which are come down to us, commence with the period of its greatest refinement. We say, the first credible accounts, because there are not wanting writers, who ascribe to Egypt an antiquity utterly incredible.Account of the Egyptian claims to antiquity.

Insufficiency of these claims demonstrable. First, from their total want of coincidence with the universal history of mankind; there being no appearance that the earth was inhabited previous to the time assigned by Moses. Secondly, from their want of correspondence with our uniform experience of the manner in which population is extended; men being always found to increase in proportion to the means of subsistence, and to spread themselves, in a much shorter portion of time than the Egyptian chronology arrogates, round the common centre from which they sprang. If the Egyptian claims, therefore, were true, the whole earth ought to have been fully peopled many thousand years before the first æra of history commences. The real history of the population of the earth, on the contrary, accords perfectly well with the period of the deluge, and affords a strong proof that a more distant æra cannot be Thirdly,-from the history of arts, sciences, &c. which, upon the Egyptian supposition, ought to have made great progress, and to have been generally diffused among mankind, long before we know that they were. Fourthly,-from the progress of the Egyptians themselves in the sciences and arts, which, however great, is no more than might naturally have taken place in the long period that intervenes between the era of the deluge, and the first certain accounts we have from other nations, oft heir policy and institutions. These arguments may be thought sufficiently conclusive against the Egyptian pretensions in particular.

true.

It may still, however, be urged in their favour, that other nations have made the same pretensions; and that, therefore, there is a general concurrence of opinion, which, as it hath prevailed in different ages and in different countries, may be thought to militate against the Mosaic system. It is, therefore, necessary to subjoin a brief confutation of these opinions, which may, perhaps, be classed under these three heads. First,the opinion of those who rest their arguments on ancient records, such as Sanconiatho, Berosus, the Chinese, and Indians. Secondly, of those who argue from the advanced state of the arts in particular countries, as in Peru. And, Thirdly,-of those who argue from the appearances of nature, as Brydone.

The confutation of these pretensions, and particularly of the Egyptian, supplies a proper basis, in which we may establish the truth of the Mosaic history; and, in the prosecution of this inquiry, we shall find that, as the former betray evident marks of falsehood and imposture, whether we consider

their internal or external evidence, so the latter is recommended by every argument of which the subject is capable.-Summary view of the arguments in favour of the Mosaic æra of the creation and of the deluge.

CREATION.-NO. II.

IN essay No. 1, page 15, we left the atoms of this universe in a fluid state, one huge unformed mass in the centre of the system, and upon the face of this vast abyss was darkness; action was being induced therein by the tremulous brooding motion of the Holy Spirit upon its face, and these undulations pervaded all its parts; concocting the whole mass, and inducing therein the energies of activity. It was yet the first day, creation was not completed; the matter already called into existence was inert and opaque, its only motion arose out of the im. mediate action of the Holy Spirit upon and within it, and chaotic darkness pervaded the universe. An energetic agent was lacking; one which in the hands of the Creator would become the spirit of this inert matter, giving and continuing thereto consistence and action. Infinite wisdom beheld no such agent amidst the matter which omnipotent power had already created; or, doubtless, such is the economy of the Infinite in all His works, He would have called it forth-and therefore recourse is had to a new creation.

Elohim pronounced, "Let the light be, and the light was!" The word is spoken, and, like a flash of lightning, the light stands forth. How wonderful is this! how sublime! This first recorded speech bursts upon us from the great Master of the sentences, with a solemnity which has excited astonishment throughout the ages of time, and which will continue to excite astonishment until time is no more. Once begun, the omnific word ceases not, until creation in all its lovely forms is hailed in "beauty and perfection!" Thus rescued from the abyss of chaotic darkness, creation amidst its first day arises, robed in light, while beams of glory, shed from its present GOD, crown it with a radiance erewhile unknown.

Light, unlike the atoms of the universe, which in their primitive state were crude and chaotic, was created perfect; for, on an immediate survey, Elohim pronounced it to be "beautifully perfect." This inestimable substance is an independent essence, distributed throughout the universe in the richest plenitude; it is every thing which we call calorific-fire, in all its modes of light, of heat, of combustion, of disseveration, of association, of genial warmth, and of invigorating and renovating power.

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Hydrogen gas, a substance included in the first creation, is the lightest of all ponderable matter; but here we have a substance separately and distinctly created, so exquisitely subtile, that of its specific gravity we are utterly incapable of taking the least cognizance: we cannot, therefore, compare it with hydrogen, nor indeed with any portion of ponderable matter, because we can neither analyze its substance, nor construct a test so to act upon it in mass, as to cause its real nature to stand confest before us; and the word by which it is expressed in the sacred volume, although it frequently occurs, is no where expressive of the essence, but always of the properties, of this universal substance, viz. light, heat, fire, &c. Light was the first distinct entity in the creation; and its entity at this moment is as distinct as it was on the first day.

The beauty of light transcends every other substance in creation; and the decomposition of its rays by liquids, or transparent solids, such as rain on forming the rainbow, a prism on separating the rays, &c. forms objects splendid in the extreme. Indeed, almost, if not all the objects in creation, animate and inanimate, are beautiful or not, in accordance with the action and decomposition of the rays of light upon their several surfaces. Light is therefore the crown of matter, the grandeur of visible creation, and, although faint, an emblem of that glory which surrounds the throne of Him who created all. The velocity of light is inconceivable; 200,000 miles in a second of time, is stated to be the rate of its flight from the sun to our sphere; and in electric experiments, no lapse of time can be observed between its entrance upon, and exit from, a wire of great length; the experiment has been made along a wire of even three miles in length, but no perceptible time elapsed during the passage of the flame from end to end.

It is to us, who are incarnated in, and surrounded by matter, while all our organs are material, and we can only receive and communicate through the medium of material agency, it is to us, I say, inconceivable how spirit, whose essence is spiritual, can act instantaneously and with such rapidity upon gross matter of immense bulk and correspondent density with such amazing effect as we know it really does. But, whoever has attended experiments in electricity upon a large scale, and beheld the instant rush of that powerful emblem of spirit, light; or whoever has coolly surveyed the progress of, and critically examined the devastations wrought by thunder-storms, will not easily divest himself of that awe which ever accom

panies an approach to the works of the Great Spirtt, while the lesson will raise him one step at least, if not more, in the progression of evidence, that what is impossible with man is possible, yea, easy with God. With such a powerful agent as light, universally present and perfectly under the command of Jehovah, the visible creation, throughout all its parts, lies in jeopardy every hour; and were it not well known that the goodness of God is equal to His power, and that His eyes go to and fro throughout creation, beholding and watching over all His hands have made, terror, instead of security and peace, would pervade mankind.

Notwithstanding the astonishing velocity and terrific fury of light in action, this subtile substance is in general latent, and certain portions thereof have even continued latent from the æra of creation to the present moment. The phosphorescence of minerals, extracted from the greatest depths beneath the earth's surface ever explored by miners, from the bosom of regular and unbroken strata, which evidently retained the positions they occupied at the moment of creation, until the moment they were thus disturbed by the hand of man, and which instantly, on being thus released, displayed in contact with heat all the brilliant beauty, activity, and energy of pristine light, evinces this position beyond all contradiction. What a power is this, which, after a latent existence of nearly six thousand years, amidst the dark and dank dungeons of the earth's strata, hundreds of yards beneath the surface, springs up, and instantly shines forth with all the energy of youth!

Light is capable of an union with every substance in the visible creation, both in an active and in a latent state; and it does pervade the atmospheres and all the substances of the whole solar system, above, beneath, and around. No heights were ever attained by man, where light, latent and active, was not; no depths were ever explored, where latent it was not more or less, a component part of the earth, and where it was not capable of action the moment it was released therefrom; and no where has man yet voyaged or travelled upon the earth's surface, where light was a stranger to his path. Faithful to the stroke of flint on steel, even amidst the polar regions, where all around is ice and snow, and quicksilver itself, yielding to the stern decree of all-binding frost, becomes a solid metal; faithful, I repeat it, to the stroke, even there the spark springs forth, the tinder feels its genial glow, and the well-tipped match communicates the flame; and man, erst frozen man, invigorated, yet endures the absence of the sun; through the long night of

That powerful principle which is diffused in and acts upon every object, however minute or however vast, throughout the universe, called attraction, is in continual cooperation with light: perhaps light is the immediate agent in the hands of the Infinite, and attraction the sub-agent of light; for rarefaction and condensation, the effects which arise from the receiving in and giving out of light, are ever in abeyance upon attraction, and multitudes of its effects arise out of this cause. Many of the substances, which are solids in the ordinary temperature of the atmosphere, are fluids when treated with fire. Several simple bodies, on being brought into contact with other simple bodies and treated with heat, become fixed compound bodies, and cannot be restored to simple bodies except by a like treatment; and numerous compound bodies found in and upon the earth, can only be resolved into simple substances by the action of fire. Polarity, attraction, and repulsion in electricity, and affinity, cohesion, the polarity of particles in the act of crystallization, elective attraction, &c. in chemistry, bear such a genial subjection to light, that the relation is apparent on most occasions. The attraction of gravitation and of the magnetic needle to the north, seem however more remote in their subjection to the general agency of light, and more independent on second causes.

To vegetation, light is the balm of life,the spirit-invigorating principle, which continues to each plant its entity, and crowns the whole with that peculiar grandeur which foliage, buds, blossoms, flowers, and fruits, display to the gazing millions of mankind. The verdure of the meads, the golden hues of harvests, the richness of the clusters of autumn, the luxuriant vegetation of spring, the full-grown leaves of summer, and the yellow hues of the declining season, alike owe their loveliness to the ever-streaming light, which beams from year to year to renew the earth.

Nor do the rarefying energies of this powerful agent less contribute to the verdant feast. Vapours exhaled from oceans, lakes, pools, and streams, arise in subtle forms, become mists and clouds, and descend in dews and rains; yet re-arise, and fall again and again, furnishing nutritive moisture to plants, to beasts, and men. Mountains re

ceive these rains, and, through long, sinuous streams, water the ravines and vales as well as plains below.

To animation, light is the genial pabulum of existence, for while warmth is hailed as the sign of life, its opposite, cold, since sin introduced into the world death with all its horrors, is pronounced to be the sign of dissolution. Nor do the beauteous hues and loveliness of animals depend less upon light than those of vegetables. What produces these but the powers of certain portions of their exteriors to decompose the solar beams, and send back to that wonderful structure, the eye, light in various shades, associated into loveliness, and fraught with charms!

Light, I conceive, is a simple substance; because with whatever intensity heat is pushed, it never fails, never exhausts itself, or becomes decomposed or dissipated. Water is decomposed at a certain heat, being then resolved into its primitive gases, and ceases to be water; but light is always light, how ever intensely pressed, and it cannot be pushed by any extremity into either concretion or dissipation, or a change of nature. It remains amidst the rush of ages unaltered, and by human means light is unalterable. This imperishable substance is reserved to become the executioner of this sphere; for, "The earth, and the works that are therein, shall be burnt up."

Thus did the great Creator lay the foundations of this portion of creation, purify the matter created, and fill the space allotted to this universe in rich abundance with the loveliness of light. Not only do we behold in creation the substantial and the useful, but also, in equal proportions, the delicious and the beautiful. Glory is inseparable from the Self-existent, and its radiance sheds loveliness throughout His works. The beauty of holiness cannot be beheld by mortal eye, the excess of glory could not be seen but at the expense of life: but the lovely emblems of these, dispersed throughout creation, may be beheld with delight, for they are suited to the organs, and associated with the faculties of man. Who that beholds these can withhold praise! Who that contemplates them in their original uses and perpetuity, can withhold adoration to the benign Creator! Glorious art Thou, O Jehovah, and lovely are thy works! We also are the workmanship of Thine hands; O, touch our souls with a live coal from thine altar, and teach us adoration and praise. For Thine is the kingdom, Thine is the power, Thine is the glory, for ever and ever, Amen.

WM. COLDWell.
King Square, January, 1831.

EXPERIMENTS ON MAGNETISM.

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An interesting and very important discovery in magnetic variation, has been lately made by Professor Barlow, at Woolwich. Of the several discoveries in this department of science, the last is of no less importance than the preceding. It was found that an iron wire, while conducting an electric fluid, was in a state of magnetic induction, or that it was then magnetic.

It occurred to Professor Barlow, to try the effect of various currents of electric fluid on a magnetic needle; and that his experiment might have some relation to the globe, he obtained a wooden globe of 10 inches diameter. On the surface of this he cut various grooves, in the direction of the meridians, and parallels of latitude, at every ten degrees : and each of these he filled with an iron wire. The poles of the meridians he placed in the position assigned to them by Captain Parry, in his northern voyages, and a belt round the equator in the line of no variation.

The geographic position of London he then placed in the zenith, and a magnetic needle, suspended immediately over it, was exposed to an electric current passing along the wires from pole to pole. The needle immediately assumed a position answering to the variation and dip, as it is now found at London, and on bringing the north and south poles of the globe to the zenith, the needle became vertical, with the same ends pointing downwards. Over the equator, when placed in the zenith also, it assumed a horizontal position, all of which coincides with the observations of terrestrial magnetism.

Mr. Barlow is of opinion, that a globe of different metals, under the same circumstances as his, would produce similar results. He also attributes the phænomenon of magnetism to the agency of caloric; having seen a metal globe, when in a heated state, become highly magnetic. He then arrives at the conclusion, that there is no such thing as magnetism as a single quality, without electricity; but that it depends on it, and that the heat of the sun produces the magnetism of the earth.

It would appear then, that there remains, now, but one particular to be explained in this extraordinary phonomenon; which will also involve the consideration of magnetic variation as it now is. This is, the constant change which is taking place in the variation of the compass, by the shifting of the magnetic poles; the reason for this, and what law it obeys in receding from its maximum quantity, is the desideratum; or, in other words, the law which assigns the range of the magnetic poles of the earth.

In the year 1580, at London, the magnetic variation was 11° 15′ easterly. It gradually decreased till 1657, when there was no variation at London. Since that period it has gone on increasing till 1819, when it arrived at its maximum, 24° 37′ of westerly variation at London. So that the northern magnetic pole has been constantly shifting its position to the west, since the year 1580, and consequently the southern one to the This at present remains a mystery; but the dip and variation were equally so, until Professor Barlow succeeded in explaining them; and he will, it is to be hoped, arrive at this, with that perseverance and deliberate investigation which he evinces in those his favourite pursuits.

east.

Mr. Barlow is not the only labourer at work in this field of science. The celebrated traveller Humboldt has also been pursuing it with ardour during his last travels in the north of Asia; although not with that undivided attention which it has received from Mr. Barlow. The observations made by him, in different parts of America, have been successively confirmed by Professor Hanstein, to whom we are indebted for the discovery which led Mr. Barlow to make his experi

ments.

The daily variation, or the amount of the excess to which the needle oscillates on each side of the variation, is another among the inquiries of M. de Humboldt; and, since his return, he has established an observatory at Berlin, which is constructed without a particle of iron, and in which these observations are made. The amount of daily variation was very successfully observed by Captain Foster, at Port Bowen, during one of Captain Parry's northern expeditions, and found to amount to 7 and 8 degrees on each side of the true variation; so that an observation for the magnetic variation would be so much in error at different times of the day. But M. de Humboldt still following up this subject, has established simultaneous observations in many parts of the globe. The Russian missionaries at Pekin are making these observations, as well as others in the Cordilleras of the Andes, at his suggestion. And with a view of discovering the effect of heat in producing the daily variation, M de Humboldt has instituted these observations also at the bottom of wells, in consequence of their being out of the influence of the solar rays. This will in a great measure show the effect of the sun's heat in producing the daily variation, and no doubt, with observations made outside the well at the same time, some curious results will be obtained, from which science may ultimately reap great advantages.

A DESCRIPTION OF THE AURORA BOREALIS, SEEN AT CHATTERIS, IN THL ISLE OF ELY, ON THE EVENING OF THE 7TH OF JANUARY, 1831. BY W. R. BIRT.

THE inhabitants of the Isle of Ely were, on the above evening, entertained with a view of that splendid meteor, the Aurora Borealis: and, as it may be interesting to the general reader to peruse an account of the principal features of this surprising phenomenon; as, also, the observations here, compared with observations in other places, and with those of an earlier date, may elucidate the natural history of the Aurora, the observer will faithfully relate the appearances he saw, endeavour to classify them, and offer a few remarks thereon.

The writer laments that he did not observe the commencement of this Aurora; but from the accounts he could gather, he believes it was seen soon after sun-set. The first intimation he received of it was about half-past five, when he immediately went to his door, which nearly faces the south. The atmosphere was free from clouds, and the first thing that struck his attention was, a bright streak, or body of luminous matter, stretching across the constellation Orion, rather above his belt, and parallel to the horizon; its length being about the same as that of the constellation across which it was thrown. Its form was similar to two cones united at the base, the extremities ending in a point. There was a similar appearance to the west of south, but the form was rather different. The light of these meteors was perfectly white, and possessed not the slightest approximation to a coloured hue; the lustre of them was equal to the appearance of the moon, when emerging from behind a cloud.

These appearances were not associated with that quick, shooting motion, observed in some of the perpendicular coruscations of this meteor, but were accompanied with an horizontal motion of a moderate rapidity, in the direction of west by south to east.

The contemplation of these laminæ, which the observer would propose to call them, occupied but an instant or two; for he hastened to a church-yard adjoining his house, which commanded a view of the northern horizon, that he might notice the appearance in that quarter of the heavens; and here a most splendid scene awaited him.

One half of the horizon, from a point a little to the south of west, to a little to the north of east, appeared of a very bright crepusculum, which formed an arch of considerable elevation, and which was interspersed with numerous coruscations. These