is then certainly delightful. It is true, that though the thermometer is scarcely ever below fifty in the shade, it is sometimes cold to sensation, and that an immense quantity of rain falls during this season; but this comes down at once, and never hangs condensed in a canopy of vapour, or spitters, as in England, in a perpetual drizzle. There are few days in which there is not a large allowance of suu-shine, and it would be a cruel injustice to the temperature of this period to compare it to that part of an English winter, which is, by courtesy, called spring, or even to the month of June of our ordinary summer. This latter season is particularly oppressive in Malta, from the extreme heat of the night, which is almost as sultry as the day. The sciroc, which fortunately seldom lasts long, is a severe infliction, and we can compare the feel and temperature of the air during the prevalence of this wind to nothing better than the atmosphere of an extremely hot washhouse. Very detailed and scientific observations on these points will be found in the first subject of this review. These were furnished to the author by M. Dolomieu in his own words, as was the substance of some others on the formation of these islands, which are well worthy of attention, though certainly open to dispute; and it must be ad mitted that if neither Malta, Gozo, or Cumino, which are all composed of calcarious rock, offer interesting productions in mineralogy, they present many appearances well deserving the investi gation of the geologist.

The sum of M. Dolomieu's theory is that these three isles are only fragments of a more considerable land which stretched in the direction of the S. S. E. and that they have resisted, through the solidity of their materials, the violence which overwhelmed the country, to which they belonged. The cause to which he attributes such effects is an immense mass of water put in action by some irregular libratory motion of the earth; but he allows, we quote his words,

"That even since the establishment of population in Malta, the island has been diminished in extent; a proof of which is to be seen in the tracks of wheels, at the extremities of the cliffs. Indeed it is a matter of common occurrence that large portions of the rock give way, occasioned by the fretting of the sea, or by the spontaneous destruction of the beds of the inferior strata, the substance of which,' he proceeds to state, has every where throughout the three islands, more or less tendency to decomposition, on exposure to the air.'

An idea, started in the course of these speculations, has, perhaps, created some unnecessary alarm.

This valley, (that of La Marsa) says M. Dolomieu, which is now one of the widest, most extensive, and, at the same time, most fertile of the island, was anciently almost entirely occupied by the sea, which

reached

reached nearly to the Casal Fornaro, even at no very remote period: but the soil and fragments of rocks washed down from the higher ground, the labour of man, and above all, the settling of the substances, brought in by the sea with a N. E. wind, have by little and little filled it up. In a little time the interior of the harbour will undergo the same change, which might be hastened by means of dykes and basins, in which the sea always calm, would lodge the substances that are at present suspended by its agitation. This has happened without its being intended to the bason in the small valley, called the Little Marsa, and which in a very short time will be completely choaked.'

We must observe that these predictions, even if well founded, threaten no immediate danger. It is only the farther part of the port which is menaced, because the rubbish which is to accomplish this mischief, can only come from the sides and bottom of the harbour itself. Little can be brought in from the open sea, the bottom of which is, we believe, generally speaking, composed of rock. Moreover, the winds which are to be the agents on this occasion, are not so prevalent, but that their effects might be counteracted by art. At present the great depth of water is an inconvenience, inasmuch as it precludes the possibility of laying down buoys, by which ships might warp out in winds with which they cannot work, owing to the extreme narrowness of the channel.

With these observations, we dismiss the subject of Malta. If, in the course of this article, we have in several instances entered into much detail, it has been, not only because the ponderous works written on this subject reach not to the present period, but because in all these, many points worthy of observation, have been postponed to objects of comparatively small interest or curiosity. For the long discussion, into which we have been drawn, in the examination of Mr. Eton's book, in particular, we think no apology is necessary. In tenui labor may be objected to us by such as look only to the extent and ostensible wealth of the country, whose factions form the subject of the argument, but such an accusation will not be preferred by those who contemplate it in the more enlarged and liberal light which it deserves. We are happy to find that in this light it is considered by the present government, and in the commission of inquiry which they have sent out to Malta, we hail an instance of attention to its affairs, which cannot but be followed with advantage, since, if not attended with immediate benefit, it must at least tend to the discussion, and consequently to the better understanding, and ultimate improvement of this important possession.

ART.

ART. II. Sermons by Samuel Horsley, LL. D. F. R. S. F. S. A. late Lord Bishop of St. Asaph. Vol. 3. 8vo. Hatchard.

MONG those ornaments of literature, and of the church

of England, which have lately been removed by death from the stations to which unassisted merit had advanced them, are to be deplored the names of Porteus and Horsley, men of talents and dispositions more different perhaps than ever actively and harmoniously co-operated in the same cause. The one was elegant in deportment, gentle in manners, popular in the choice and treatment of his theological subjects, never profound but always impressive; and though often familiar, yet, by matchless dexterity, never inattentive to his own dignity. The other was rough, haughty, and imperious, of an understanding vast and comprehensive, addicted in his discourses to the choice of novel and difficult subjects, and mingling involuntarily with those, which were intended to be popular, disquisitions at once entertaining and profound. Both having been educated in the university of Cambridge, the one abandoned, as soon as academical restraints were removed, the pursuit of abstract mathematics for more elegant studies; while the other, after having graduated in another faculty, spontaneously and through life pursued them to a considerable extent. Both were admitted into the families of great prelates, eminent for their attainments in Hebrew literature; a pursuit which was too rugged for the one, and a mere relaxation to the other: and, while both were equally orthodox in their religious principles, the one maintained the essential doctrines of Christianity by clear and perspicuous statements, the other by irrefragable argument. Porteus had more taste than eloquence, Horsley more eloquence than taste: the first was unquestionably the most amiable; the second, the ablest man of their latter days. In their character as legislators, the same original diversity of temper marked their conduct. Ever attentive to the interests of religion and the establishment, the Bishop of London maintained on questions merely temporal a delicate reserve, which enabled him to interpose with tenfold effect in his own peculiar province; while the Bishop of St. Asaph, with a strong tendency to law and business, together with a constitutional absence of all timidity added to his other qualifications, never scrupled to interpose and to dictate on secular subjects.

With the character and peculiarities however of this great man, as a legislator, a mathematician, an Hebrew critic, or even as a controversialist, (excepting so far as his discourses are controversial,) we have no concern. His original and admirable sermons, many of which were preached in the pulpits of the metropolis, and yet

live in the memories of his hearers, are now before us. Of these the first and characteristic feature is, that which distinguishes the gifted few from a numerous and subordinate class, entitled men of abilities only; the splendour of original genius. It is by the predominant influence of this rare quality that the sermons of Horsley are freed from that dry severity of ratiocination which never fails to cramp the style of ordinary mathematicians, when writing on theological subjects. Proficiency in this science, we mean as distinct from invention and discovery, is no decisive test of superior talents. Great perseverance united to ordinary understandings, will suffice for the purpose: but great perseverance long employed in this single direction, will, if such qualifications have been bestowed on the mathematical student in a moderate degree alone, extinguish imagination, check the flow of native eloquence, and cramp every movement of free and excursive rhetoric. It is only minds like those of Barrow and Horsley (for the influence of the mathematical curb is visible in the discourses of Clark) in which the vigour of the more elastic and animated faculties is not broken by pertinacious meditation or abstract science; for where the acquirement is difficult, the whole understanding is absorbed; the mind takes a single ply, and when bent by a long and laborious attention to mathematical truths, becomes so tense and rigid, that it never after applies itself to moral or religious truths with ease or grace. In intellects of an order sò superior, the other faculties, vigorous from the beginning, remain unimpaired, while the student passes at will and with ease from the exercise of pure analysis, to the ever varying gradations of moral evidence, to the persuasive topics of rhetoric, or to the awakening and animating strains of popular eloquence. An union of excellencies so rare and, in general, so little compatible, we repeat it, has hardly been attained but by Barrow and Horsley, among the divines of this or any other age or country.

Another excellence common to both, and of immense importance at present, for which the world may hold itself equally indebted to the intrepidity of their tempers, and the perspicacity of their understandings, is, that they never decline a difficulty, nor ever fritter away the peculiar doctrines of Christianity, because they have been abused by fanatics. This species of fortitude, (for to be unfashionable always requires some portion of that quality,) which began to be wanted among the latitudinarian divines of Charles the Second's time, is become much more valuable now. On the evidences of Christianity, the present reign in England has produced more luminous and convincing works than perhaps the whole Christian world from the age of the apostles: but it is impossible not to observe among first-rate divines a certain shyness as to doctrines:

doctrines: we are convinced indeed that Christianity is a revelation, but we are left to collect for ourselves what has been revealed. Meanwhile the fanatic outrages its doctrines to the destruction at once of morality and common sense; the Unitarian pares them down to the standard of reason, and, what is worse, of his own reason; while the preacher of the church of England, disgusted with one extreme, and afraid of the other, too often conceives that he has attained to the seat of truth, by placing himself in any part of the wide interval between opposite errors. On the firm ground of orthodoxy, as detailed in the articles of the church of England, or rather as contained in the volume of inspiration, Bishop Horsley took his stand, and that perhaps with the greater alacrity, as his peculiar position in the midst of an enemy's host afforded abundant scope for his polemical talents and propensities. He disdained the poor and cheap praise of liberality; he sought no security by concessions and compromises; he avowed, he displayed the difficulties of his own system; he restated with greater force the objections of his adversaries, that he might but the more triumphantly overbear them.

In point of matter and manner, at a period abounding with good theology, the discourses of Bishop Horsley stand pre-eminent and alone. They are compositions sui generis. Never perhaps did philosophy, certainly never did the philosophy of physics, lend more powerful aid to the cause of revelation. In acuteness of conception, in felicity of illustration, the theological works of Paley may be paralleled with those of Horsley; but in force and profundity, and still more in point of erudition, of which that original thinker had but a small proportion, the distance is immense. Both however could open at pleasure a vein of rich and happy eloquence; both had that contempt for artificial elegance, and that tendency to coarseness of style, which seems to be incident to minds of the first order; but Horsley is never playful, and Paley is never long or willingly grave. The former dogmatizes ex cathedra; the latter instructs with the easy gaiety and naïveté of a fireside companion. Both however enjoyed in perfection one attribute, (the first which can belong to reasoners, or to teachers,) namely, a precision and distinctness in their ideas, with an aptitude and felicity of expression, which, if they are not understood, leave the blame or the misfortune with their readers.

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We have already mentioned the seasonable intrepidity of our author in bringing to that prominent and conspicuous station which they ought always to occupy in Christian discourses, the peculiar doctrines of revelation. Of this the following may serve as a specimen :

It is God's will that all men should be brought to a just understanding