generally of the material and spiritual world, and reconcile the teachings of the Scriptures with the current doctrines. of natural science; but which, in fact, instead of contributing to that end, misrepresent and mislead. The work consists of two parts. In the first the author treats of matter and the material universe, and endeavors to show that creation, organization, life, growth, death, and all other processes take place by a law of material forces; and in order to that, assuming that all other material worlds are formed of the same species of matter as ours, maintains that the great forces of which organization, life, growth, and other processes are the effects, are light, heat, electricity, and magnetism; and that they act in the same forms and give birth to the same effects in all other worlds as in this:-that the formation of the worlds must therefore have occupied vast periods; that the light of the sun and stars is the effect of combustion, as artificial light is in this world; that as few and perhaps none of the other orbs have the same degree of heat and density as ours, few or none of them can be supposed to be inhabited by vegetables, animals, and intelligences; that this theory of material forces corroborates the modern geological doctrine respecting the gradual formation of our world; and finally, that the narrative of the creation by Moses may be interpreted so as to harmonize with this scheme. In the second part he treats of intelligent creatures, and maintains that man is the highest in rank; that angels and all other orders are bodied beings; that corporeal death is the penalty of the sin of angels as well as the sin of men; that light, heat, electricity, and magnetism are the life forces of human beings; and that it is by them, acting by a law, that organization, life, growth, and death are now wrought, and that the change hereafter of the living from mortal to immortal, and of the dead from corruptible to incorruptible and spiritual, is to take place. He touches also on many other subjects. We shall not follow him through his circle of topics, but shall only point out the groundlessness or error of his leading theories, and show that in place of reconciling the Scriptures with what he denominates science, he arbitrarily divests them of their meaning and authority, and assigns them a signification that suits his philosophy. How clearly it is his aim, not so much to unfold and vindi

cate the word of God, as to draw confirmation from it of his peculiar views, is seen from the following passage:

"A traveller who, by some rare accident, is enabled to examine some locality which was never before, or may never again be visited, would be an extremely valuable contributor to any science dependent on such phenomena as he had witnessed. It is upon this principle that the facts and phenomena of Scripture ought to be valuable to the scientific inquirer, because they are, many of them, disclosures of things now not seen, and yet intimately connected with the things that are. In a narrative which describes events and phenomena connected with heaven and earth, God and man, angels and devils, it was impossible that there should not be many facts stated which, when viewed in connexion with modern science and with each other, are possessed with the highest scientific value. An objection to receive them as legitimate contributions to natural science, cannot be justified on any ground consistent with the acknowledgment of their truth, and though they may appear to some as though they were incapable of being incorporated with the ascertained results of modern observation and experiment, a more mature philosophy will find in them not isolated and mysterious and heterogeneous elements, but connecting links and consistent phenomena."-P. 23.

I. He commences his discussion with the infidel objection to the work of redemption drawn from the slightness of our world compared not only to the universe, but to many of the resplendent orbs that sparkle in the sky; and, instead of meeting it on proper grounds, attempts to set it aside by his theory that there is no such disproportion between the intelligent inhabitants of the universe and the population of our world, as subsists between the material worlds as a whole and our earth; and endeavors, in order to establish that, to show that a few only of the countless spheres that fill the realms of space are the abodes of intelligences.

"First, It can be shown that science does not give us any reason to conclude that any great proportion of the celestial bodies are capable of sustaining animal or vegetable life. Second, That out of those which are capable of supporting animal and vegetable life, there is reason to believe that not one in a million is inhabited by a race of intelligent and moral beings;

and Third, that out of this extremely minute proportion, another unknown, and probably only very small number is inhabited by fallen intelligences, to whom alone the incarnation would be necessary or desirable."-P. 35.

But he thus in fact gives validity to the objection by offering as his only answer to it, what he concedes he cannot prove. If he can give only a possible or probable answer, the infidel may claim that by concession the objection is possibly or probably legitimate; and that is to admit that Christianity is not a demonstrated truth, but only possibly or probably true. His theory, moreover, in place of deriving confirmation from the Scriptures, contradicts them; as they represent the universe generally as peopled by intelligent beings, Neh. ix. 1, and Ps. ciii. 19-23.

Instead of that mistaken method, the proper reply to the objection is, that the size of our earth is not the measure or determiner at all of the number of the race who are the objects of Christ's redemptive work; inasmuch as they do not all exist here contemporaneously, but come into life in succession. As they enter life in a series, and are to continue to through innumerable ages, the number who will at length become the subjects of redemption will not only infinitely transcend the capacity of the earth to sustain them, but the capacity of thousands and myriads of other orbs however great may be their dimensions beyond ours. The vastness of the race who will be saved will finally, therefore, become proportional in a measure to the wonderfulness of Christ's work, and vindicate his wisdom and love in stooping to the assumption of their nature, and submission to their penalty, in order to their recovery from the sway and curse of sin. On the other hand, as their hosts are finally to be so infinite, the orb in which they enter on existence must of necessity be disproportioned to them as an aggregate, and may, for aught that appears, most advantageously. fill the office assigned it, if only of the moderate dimensions of our earth. The numbers it can sustain at once, and the rapidity with which they enter and pass from life, and other peculiarities that spring from the size of the world, may be conditions of the wisest administration that could be chosen. The removal also of countless millions of the race, in their glo

rified form, to other worlds, though a necessary result of the earth's narrow dimensions, may have ends of great significance to other intelligences. They may be placed in intimate relations to them, and be the means of advancing them to a knowledge of Christ's work and its effects which they would never otherwise attain. The objection is thus shown to be wholly groundless. The diminutive size of our globe, instead of an obstacle to its being the scene of the work of redemption, is a qualification for it.

II. He proceeds on the assumption, and makes it the ground of many of his hypotheses, that all other worlds are formed of the same species of matter-though differing in their proportions-as ours. But that assumption is altogether unscientific and absurd. It cannot be inferred from the fact that only certain elements, that differ in kind, are constituents of our globe, that there are no other species of matter, any more than from the fact that in certain portions of the earth only half of those elements are found, it can be inferred that only that half subsist anywhere else. It cannot be supposed that it is impossible to God to create other species of matter. As other species are to him as conceivable as these, and as he is able to speak what he conceives into existence, he has only to command, and infinite varieties will leap into being. There is accordingly no reason to suppose, and it cannot scientifically be assumed that there are not innumerable species in other worlds, that are unlike those of which our world consists. There may be other metals, other earths, other gases, other acids, other alkalies, and myriads of kinds as unlike in nature to the great constituents of our globe, and to one another, as the most diverse of ours are to each other.

All we know of the nature of other worlds is, first, that they are material, because they are fraught with and subject to the force of gravity. But that yields no clue to the species of which they consist. As gravity is a property of all matter, that it is a property of the planets and stars is no more a proof that they consist of one set of species, than it is that they consist of another. The only property of their materials which it can indicate, is their density as an aggregate; the attracting and gravitating forces of an orb being determined by the density of its elements. But inasmuch

as there may be innumerable species of matter that are of the same density, and innumerable combinations of species, differing in density, in masses that would have the same average weight, neither the strength of the gravitating force nor the density of the mass would be any clue to the species of which it consists. And next that light and heat, or the causes of the phenomena of light and heat, are among their elements. They belong to them, because they radiate or reflect them, or cause them to be radiated and reflected to our world. That there is a solitary species of matter besides that is common to them and our world, however possible or probable it may be, we have no absolute certainty. That light, for example, is reflected from the planets and their moons, is no proof of the identity of the matter in kind from which it is reflected, with the matter of our world which reflects light. For as nearly all solids and fluids here reflect the light that strikes them, it only proves that the matter of those orbs is of such a nature and of such density as to produce that effect on the sun's rays; but as that nature and density may belong to innumerable species of matter, it contributes nothing towards determining what the particular species are of which those worlds consist.

Such, consequently, of our author's speculations in respect to the planets, sun, and stars, as proceed on the assumption that they consist of precisely the same elements as our world, instead of resting on a scientific basis, are mere hypotheses or conjectures, and contribute nothing towards a reconciliaation of what he calls natural science and the teachings of revelation.

III. His theory of the causes of the light and heat of the sun, founded on his hypothesis that the materials of that orb are exactly those of our world, is so unscientific and wild as to excite the feeling that he aims to entertain his readers with a dashing sketch from his fancy, rather than express the convictions of his reason.

His assumption is, that the sun is surrounded by an atmosphere millions of miles in height of pure oxygen; that the space extending from that far beyond the remotest planet, and perhaps to the limits of the sun's attracting influence, is filled with meteorolites and gaseous bodies, that like inflammable gases, metals, and earths of our globe, are capa