furnith a strong prefumption of independent, unexceptionable teftimony, honeft, and without collufion. Aberrations, especially in dates and numbers are found in the best authenticated biftories. No one can fuppofe Mofes himself fuch palpable deviations from accuracy, to have been the writer of the laft chap- where forgery could not fail to correct, ter of Deuteronomy. It is probable, and where accuracy is eafily attainable, that this chapter is only a conjectural account; for from the account of our Saviour's transfiguration, it may be inferred, that Mofes was tranflated, as Enoch and Elias had been before him. The difficulty concerning the city of Dan, mentioned Gen xiv, 14, (compared with Judges xviii, 27) is folved tions mentioned in the book of Job are by the obvious remark, that two places not the fame with the Greek names, may be called by the fame name. Or, but entirely different. if it fhould be found neceffary to al The Hebrew names of the conftella The Jewith prophets were not the low, that fome interpolations or fome lefs prophets because they delivered changes have been made in the body of their predictions in measured phrafe, the Mofaic history, with an intention of rather than in fimple profe; any more giving greater perfpicuity and clearer than the appellation of prophets, given connection to the narrative, for the to the Greek poets, deftroyed their purpose of accommodation to pofteri- claim to poetic honours. or circumftances in the fubftitution of names and places by altering the obfolete to the current denomination, fuch uneffential variations do not in the leaft tend to invalidate the narrative at large; unless facts themfelves, which appear, abundantly corroborated, and both nu merous and important, can be proved at the fame time anachronous and falfe. From comparing Numb, xxxi, 14 19, with Judges xxi, 11, it appears, that the exemption from univerfal extermination was an act of benignity, to incorporate the refidue of the devoted people with the Jews. The claufe, Job. xxiv, 31, all the days of the elders that overlived fishua, may have been the addition of fome future penman, who digefted and mo delled thefe hiftories. The affertion, that the NEW TESTAMENT is founded upon the prophecies of the old, and must follow the fate of its foundation, is inaccurate. The authenticity of the New Teftament is feparately grounded upon evidences of its own, hiftorical, moral, and prophetical and thefe are no further affociated and interwoven with the Jewish fcriptures, than as chriftianity profeffes itfelf to be a completion of the former difpenfation, prefuppofing and allowing the divine delegation of Mofes. Although, where the parts of a fory difagree, the whole cannot be true, a leading fact may be true, in the relation of which there are many circumftances of difagreement. All that is advanced against the genealogies of Matthew and Luke is The account of the fun flanding fill ftale, and out of date. Some of the is, probably, not to be confidered as firmest believers in chriftianity have the hiftorical relation of a miraculous perceived that juft exceptions lie against fact, but as a poetical embellishment; thefe genealogies: yet they have not for it is a quotation from the book of feen fufficient caufe to reject revelation Jafhir, mentioned again 2 Sam. i, 18, which may probably have been a collection of poetic fongs. The words are of a poetical complexion; and fimilar hyperboles are found in the oriental, Greek, and Roman poets. The mention of the moon is merely as a fuitable appendage, to complete and dignify the imagery. On the diffonance of 2 Kings i, 8, and viii, 16, it may be remarked, that altogether, for one or more untenable interpolations in the records of their faith. The Scriptures now here, as Mr. Paine intimates, make the belief of our Saviour's miraculous conception neceffary to falvation. In Thomas Paine's animadverfions on the evangelifts, not a fingle inconfiftency is pointed out, or the fhadow of a difficulty ftated, that has not been propofed, propofed, confidered, and confuted is the quinteffence of downright ignoagain, and again, and again. rance, or the confummation of flagitious falfhood. The number of other authors, in whofe authentic writings exact quotations from the evangelifts are regiftered, is a complete confutation of this falfhood. Origen, who was born in the year 185, and died in 253, in his reply to Celfus, probably written about the year 230, quotes a very large portion of the New Teftament verbatim; which is an irrefragable proof of the exiftence of the New Teftament at leaft feventy years before the conclufion of the third century. Concerning the refurrection of Chrift, Mr. Paine fays, that Paul's account of the five hundred witneffes is the teftimony of one man, and not of the five hundred themfelves; of a man too who did not believe a word of the matter himself at the time it is faid to have happened; that is, thefe five hundred brethren never faw Chrift rifen from the dead, because they are faid to have feen him when Paul was not yet a believer in Chrift. See, on the refurrection of Chrift, Ogden's fifth Sermon on the Articles of the Chriftian Faith. The twenty fourth chapter of Matthew is occupied in a detail of circumftances preceding, contemporary with, and fubfequent to, the deftruction of Jerufalem now, no teftimony or argument, hiftorical or internal, can be brought to prove the priority of the deftruction of Jerufalem to this com pofition, or fuggeft a fingle probability for fuch forgery in the first chriftians. The date of this chapter, afcertainable within a few years, and from every reasonable deduction indubitably prior to the cataftrophe, conftitutes an irrefragable argument for the prophetic character of Jefus, and for the confequent authenticity of the Golpel proclaimed by him and his apoftles. As to the petty difcordancies difcovered in the writings of the New Tef tament, nothing is more common than for eye or ear witneffes, who agree in the main fact, to be at variance with each other on minute circumftances connected with it: and fuch difcordancies are no fufficient ground for rejecting teftimony, fupported by other ateftations and probabilities. A thoufand undefcribable peculiarities of time, place, and perfonal impreffion, may occafion diverfities in narratives delivered by any number of people, privy to the fame tranfaction, without any with to deceive, or any motive for wil ful mifreprefentation; and thefe diverfities afford a ftrong evidence, that there has been no concerted impofition. To affert, that there was no fuch book as the New Teftament till more than three hundred years after Chrift, Hib. Mag. Feb. 1796, [N. B. Mr. W. feems here to have miltaken Mr. Paine's meaning: if the whole paffage be confidered, it will perhaps appear, that Mr. Paine refers to the time when the canon was fettled, and the hitherto fcattered fcriptures were collected into one volume, or, as he afterwards fays, when the New Teftament was formed into a book."] Mr. Paine's objections against St. Paul's reafoning on the refurrection of the fame body, 1 Cor. xv, is impertinent and abfurd: for the apostle does not fuppofe the future body to be the fame with, or fimilar to, but different from the prefent. St. Paul's illuftration from a grain of corn-feed, which had been employed before by Jefus, John xii, 24, is pertinent as an appeal to a popular notion. Perhaps, as a germ of vitality remains unimpaired in the grain during the corruption and diffolution of it's integuments, fo the exiftence of the infect, in paffing from the worm to the butterfly, is never difcon❤ tinued, but merely fufpended in a kind of oblivious torpor: if fo, the tranfmutation of the butterfly would have been as inappofite to the establishment of a refurrection to another life, as the fuppofed revivifcence of a grain of corn. We are forry that Mr. W. has not enabled us to extend our abstract of his reply to Mr. Paine to a greater length, by adding to his general statement of the evidence of the Jewish revelation, a fummary of the leading arguments for the credibility of the gospel hiftory, and fome particulars to afcer tain the dates and authors of the feveral ૨. books books of the Old and New Teftament. fea weed, fweeping of ditches, old These additions would, doubtless, have ditches. Having fpecified the diftincbeen very acceptable to many readers: tive properties of each, he treats next and it ought to have been remembered, of the mode by which their predominant that the great object, in a reply to Mr. ingredients may be afcertained. As Paine, is, not to gratify the feelings of fome of our readers may defire to know thofe who view his writings in the fame the mode of affaying calcareous 'and light with Mr. W., by expofing him to argillaceous marle, two very general ridicule, contempt, and indignation, and excellent manures, we hall combut to obviate the doubts and fcruples, municate Dr. K.'s directions in his own which is objections or cavils may have words. P. 139. raifed in the minds of perfons who have not ftudied the fubject. To find its compofition, pour a few ounces of weak, but pure fpirit of nitre or common falt into a florence flask; Tranfactions of the Royal Irish Acade- place them in a scale and let them be my. Vol. V. (Continued from page 30.) ART. 9. What are the manures most advantageously applicable to the various forts of foils, and what are the caufes of their beneficial effect in each particular inftance, by Richard Kirwan, efq. LL. D. F. R. S. & M. R. 1. A.-This paper contains much ufeful information, and we have been highly gratified by it's perufal. While it merits the thanks of the fociety and the public, it furnishes a proof, in addition to many we have already had, that the refearches of Dr. K. are not the inquiries of an idle curiolity, but the invefligation of a mind eager to convert the discoveries of philofophy into inftruments of public utility and advantage. Previous to his confidering either of the queftions propoled by the academy, he endeavours to define with accuracy the different fpecies of foil and manure. Soils, he obferves, confift of different combinations of two or more of the four primitive earths, viz. the calcareous, magnefia, argil, and the filiceous. The foils imoft frequently met with, and which deferve a diftinct confideration, he diftinguishes into clayey, chalky, fandy, gravelly, chalky with loam, fandy with loam, gravelly with loam, ferruginous with loam, boggy and heathy. After defcribing and defining thefe, he proceeds to confider the different fpecies of manure. Thefe, he obferves, are principally chalk, lime, clay, fand, marle, gypfum, afhes, ftable dung, mucks, farm yard dung, pounded bones, balanced; then reduce a few ounces of dry marle into powder, and let this powder be carefully and gradually thrown into the flafk, until after re peated agitation no effervefcence is any longer perceived; let the remainder of the powdered marle be then weighed, by which the quantity projected will be known; let the balance be then reftored; the difference of weight between the quantity projected, and that requifite to reftore the balance, will difcover the weight of air loft during the effervefce c; if the lofs amounts to 13 per cwt of the quantity of marle projected, or from 13 to 32 per cwt. the marle effayed is calcareous marle. This experiment is decifive when we are affured by the external characters abovementioned that the fubftance employed is marle of any kind; otherwife fome forts of the fparry iron ore may be mistaken for marle. The experiments to difcover the argillaceous ingredient, being too difficult for farmers, I omit. The refidue left, after folution, being well washed, will, when duly heated, generally harden into a brick. Argillaceous marle contains from 68 to 80 per cwt. of clay, and confequently from 22 to 20 per cwt. of aerated calx its colour is grey, or brown, or reddifh brown, or yellowish or bluish grey-it feels more unctuous than the former, and adheres to the tongueits hardness generally much greaterin water it falls to pieces, more flowly, and often into fquare pieces-it alfo more flowly moulders by expofure to the air and moisture, if of a loofe con fiftence; fiftence; it hardens when heated, and forms an imperfect brick.-It effervef tes with fpirit of nitre or common falt, but frequently refufes to do fo with vinegar when dried and projected into fpirit of nitre in a florence flask, with the attentions abovementioned, it is found to lofe from 8 to 10 per cwt. of its weight. The undiffolved part, well washed, will, when duly heated, harden into a brick. Having thus in chap. 1ft explained the nature of foils and manures, he proceeds in chap. 2d to inquire into the food of plants. This our author, on an ultimate analysis, determines to be water, coal, earth, and falts, to which, he obferves, fixed air fhould likewife be added. The feparate functions of each of these he next examines. Water he confiders as an effential, but not, as fome have fuppofed, the only requifite for the growth of plants.-Coal, or the carbonic principle, he deems alfo effential-Of the earths, he reckons calcareous the most neceffary. Fixed air he believes to be favourable to the growth of plants, when imbibed by their roots; and faline fubftances, he says, act rather as a condimentum, or promoter of digeftion, than as a pabulum. From the food of plants, our author's attention is next directed to the conftitution of fertile foils, and the method of eftimating their comparative fertility. -In treating of the compofition of foils, Dr. K. obferves, that where there is much rain, the great predominance of filiceous earth is effential to fertility, the filex rendering the foil open and eafy of evaporation. When there is little rain, he deems the calcareous earth neceffary in a higher proportion than in the former cafe, it retaining for a longer time the communicated moisture. In a fertile foil at Turin, where the rain was 40 inches, filex was found 77, 79; argile 9, 14; calx 5, 12. In a fertile foil in Sweden, where the rain was 24 inches, filex was 56, argile 14, calx 30. Having in the fucceeding chapter explained the mode, in which the compofition of foils may be afcertained, he proceeds in chap. 4th to inquire what manures are beft fuited to different foils, and to explain the causes of their beneficial effect in each particular inftance;' and with this inquiry the memoir is concluded. Art. 10. On the nature and limits of certainty and probability, by the Rev. George Miller, F. T. C. D. & M. R. I. A. The author introduces this memoir with obferving, that' Locke has been deficient in not giving, with fufficient diftinctness, a general defcription of all thofe propofitions, in which demonftration certainly is unattainable, and in not pointing out the caufe, which in thefe propofitionsprender certainty hopeless. To fupply.this want of dif tinctnefs.' fays Mr. M., p. 201,' and to correct thefe errors, I would divide all our enquiries into three claffes; the first of which should comprehend all thofe in which our ideas are compared together, without being confidered as connected by the relation of caufe and effect, but merely regarded as independent objects of thought, correfponding in fome particulars which enter into the compofition of each idea; the fe cond fhould include those in which a confideration of the relation of cause and effect is directly or indirectly involved, limited however to the mere fact of their connection, and not extending to the nature of that connection or manner of operation; and the third fhould confift of enquiries into the nature of caufes or the manner of operation.' we cannot In the perufal of this paper, the learned reader will find' fome judicious and pertinent obfervations: however give the author the praise of a correct understanding, or a difcriminating judgment.-Several of his pofitions betray inaccuracy of thought, and a fuperficial acquaintance with the fubjects which he difcuffes. Art. 11. Meterological Obfervations in Ireland, in the year 1793, by Richard Kirwan, Efq. LL. D. F. R. S. & M. R. I. A. Dr. K. having, in his former communications on this fubject, laid down the rules of probability or measures of expectation,' relative to the three moft important feafons, from an experience of forty one years, exhibits in this memoir a fhort view of the feafons, under Q2 their their refpective denominations, and alfo of the measures of expectation. Art. 12. Experiments on a new earth, found near Strenthian, in Scotland, by Rich. Kirwan, Efq. LL. D. F. R. s. & M. R. I. A.-The external characters of this earth, which Dr. K. has termed fronthianite, are thefe: it's colour is whitish, or light green; it's luftre common; it's tranfparency intermediate between the tranfparent and the opaque; it's fracture ftriated; it's hardnefs moderate; and it's fp. gravity from 3,4 to 3,644. This fubftance is alfo wery brittle, and is eafily foluble in the marine acid, whether concentrated or diluted, and with confiderable effer. vefcence. In the folution it loses about 26 per cwt. It refifts the influence of the nitrous acid, unless it's fpecific gravity be reduced to 1,3, and is fcarcely acted on by the vitriolic, whether mild or calcined. It is foluble, though flowly, in diftilled vinegar. Art. 13. Obfervations on rain gages, by Thomas Garnett, M. D. member of the royal medical, royal phyfical, and natural hiftory, fecieties of Edinburgh; of the medical fociety of London, and the literary and philofophical ficiety of Manchefter-Does not require any particu. lar notice. Art. 14. Obfervations and inquiries made upon and concerning the coal works at Whitehaven, in the county of Cumberland, in the year 1793, by Jofeph Fisher, M. D. fellow of the royal phyfical fociety in Edinburgh. Communicated in a letter from the Rev. Dr. Young, fenior fellow of Trinity college, Dublin, and M. R. 1. A. to the right honourable the arl of Charlemont, prefident of the Royal Irifh Academy. Art. 15. On the fish enclofed in fione Monte Bolca, by the Rev. G. Graydon, LL. B. M. R. I. A. and fecretary of foreign Correfpondence.-Monte Bolca lies on the border of the Veronefe territory. The whole of this hill, as far as Mr. G. could obferve, is compofed of argillaceous matter, except the quarries, where the fishes are found, which are entirely calcareous, and lie about half a mile from the fummit. Thefe quarries do not form a continued firatum, but lie wholly in diftinct maffes, as if they had been accidentally embedded in the fide of the hill. The mode of extracting the fishes is thus defcribed by the author, P. 286. The manner of working thefe ftones is by detaching from the face of the quarry moderate fized blocks, which are then drawn out, fet an edge, and quickly fplit with fharpfided hammers or wedges, the workmen glancing between the leaves, to obferve if there be any mark of fish, or other organic fubftance; when they difcover fuch, if they happen to be fhattered, as they generally are, by the rude manner of opening, and the fragile texture of the ftone, they fet about to collect all the fragments that compose the piece as carefully as poffible, detaching alfo from the great fione fuch parts as may remain adhering to it. When their day's work is finished, they bring their collections to their houfes, until they happen to go, either to market, or on any other occafion, to Verona, when they take them in baskets, juft as they are, to the proprietor of the foil, who is their landlord and employer; or frequently, I believe, to fell underhand, for their own profit, to fome naturalift there, or to fome of the fhops that vend thefe productions. Thofe who receive them in this manner from the pealants are then obliged to employ a skilful ftone-cutter, to find and arrange together the feveral fragments that compofe each piece, and fineer or cement them on another ftone of the fame kind, which is fometimes done with fuch art and exactnefs, that it is not easy to difcern where they have been joined; and thus the fpecimens are made up for cahinets or for fale. The ftones being calcareous and of a fchiftous nature, the operation is more eafy, and lefs injurious to the form of the fifh. The fone when fcraped hard, or truck, emits a peculiar and fetid fmell: the fishes are of a dark brown colour, and their profile, with their feveral parts, are found little, if at all, diftorted from their natural fhape. After specifying these facts, Mr. G. proceeds to inquire into the caufe of this fingular phenomenon. This inquiry is introduced by obferving, P. 292, that the forms of the fish on Monte Bolca, differ effentially from the ་ forms |