The most minute species of this great genus (lichens) hold a much more important place in the economy of nature than is apparent to superficial observers. They are the first beginning of vegetation on stones of all kinds exposed to the air, whose decomposing surfaces are the receptacle of their imperceptible seeds, and soon afford nourishment to the sprouting plants, whose minute fibrous roots still farther insinuate themselves. The larger species take possession of every cavity and fissure, both of stones, and of the decaying external bark of trees. In time they all decay, and furnish a portion of vegetable mould, capable of nourishing mosses, or still larger plants. The residuum of these being still more ronsiderable, is washed by rains into large cavities, where even forest trees can scatter their seeds, by the penetrating power of whose roots, great masses are dislodged from the most lofty rocks. Thus the vegetable kingdom exercises dominion over the tributary fossil world, and, in its turn, affords the same no less necessary aid to animal existence. Nothing in nature is allowed to remain stationary, idle, or useless, and the most inconsiderable agents frequently appear, in the hands of Divine Providence, to be the most irresistible.

The shortest day, or winter solstice, happens on the 21st of December; and the joyful season of Christmas is now fast approaching. Some rustic pursuits and pleasures, at this period of the year are beautifully described in Bampf Ide's charming Sonnet on Christmas:

With footstep slow, in furry pall yclad,

His brows e nwreathed with holly never sere,
Old Christmas comes, to close the wained year;
And aye the shepherd's heart to make right glad;
Who, when his teeming flocks are homeward had,
To blazing hearth repairs, and nut-brown beer,
And views well pleased the ruddy prattlers dear,
Hug the grey mungrel; meanwhile maid and lad
Squabble for roasted crabs. Thee, Sire, we hail,
Whether thine aged limbs thou dost enshroud,
In vest of snowy white, and hoary veil,
Or wrap'st thy visage in a sable cloud;

Thee we proclaim with mirth and cheer, nor fail
To greet thee well with many a carol loud.

In this month, those wild animals which pass the winter in a state of torpidity, retire to their hiding places. The frog, lizard, badger, and hedgehog, which burrow under the earth, belong to this class; as also the bat, which is found in caverns, barns, &c. suspended by the claws of its hind feet, and closely enveloped in the membranes of the fore feet. Dormice, squirrels, water-rats, and field-mice, provide a large stock of food for the winter season. 'On every sunny day through the winter, clouds of insects, usually called gnats (tipulæ and empedes,) appear sporting and dancing over the tops of evergreen trees in shrubberies; and they are seen playing up and down in the air, even when the ground

covered with snow. At night, and in frosty weather, or when It rains and blows, they appear to take shelter in the trees.

Little work is done by the farmer, out of doors, in this month; his cattle demand almost all his attention and assiduity.

The grave of the year is now prepared, and "the dark and wintery wreath" is already strewn over it: another year, another delightful season which is again to awaken all nature, and diffuse warmth and life and happiness around, is eagerly anticipated;-inspiring new hopes, and the most pleasing expectations:

Another Spring! my heart exulting cries:
Another YEAR! with promised blessings rise!
ETERNAL POWER! from whom those blessings flow,
Teach me still more to wonder, more to know:
Seed-time and Harvest let me see again;
Wander the leaf-strewn wood, the frozen plain :
Let the first flower, corn-waving field, plain, tree,
Here round my home, still lift my soul to THEE;
And let me ever, midst thy bounties, raise
A humble note of thankfulness and praise.

BLOOMFIELD.' pp. 334—6.

Art. VIII. Dr. Watts no Socinian: A Refutation of the Testimony of Dr. Lardner, as brought forward in the Rev. T. Belsham's Memoirs of the late Rev. Thomas Lindsey. By Samuel Palmer, 8vo. Price 18. 6d. Conder, &c. 1813.

THIS vindication of our devotional poet and evangelical divine

from the charge of Unitarianism, is worthy of the excellent and venerable author, who has now entered on his heavenly rest. We gratefully accept this last production of a pen which has been so often and so ably employed in the service of truth, and in the defence of those who have suffered for its sake. At the termination of a life, protracted beyond the usual period, and distinguished by unremitted activity, it is highly pleasing to receive so favourable a specimen, as this pamphlet affords, of mental energy unimpaired.

Mr. Belsham appears to glory not a little in being able to adduce the testimony of Dr. Lardner, to prove that "Dr. Watts's last thoughts were completely Unitarian." This assertion is to be regarded merely as the opinion of Dr. Lardner, and an opinion formed, partly, on a cursory view of some of Dr. Watts's manuscripts, and partly, on the opinion of Mr. Neal, who visited in the family in which Dr. Watts lived. That both Dr. Lardner and Mr. Neal were mistaken, Mr. Palmer shews by evidence which appears convincing, and arguments which may be pronounced unanswerable. Mr. Palmer maintains, that Dr. Watts did not materially change his sentiments on the points in question, after his two last publicaVOL. XI. Bb

tions, and that he left no manuscripts which afforded any evidence that he was become a Socinian. In proof of this assertion, says Mr. Palmer, 1 appeal, in the first place, to the testimony of those who were intimately acquainted with Dr. Watts, and who visited him within a short time of his departure. Besides Mr. Joseph Parker, his amanuensis, who was constantly with him, and the late Mrs. Abney, in whose house he died, (with both of whom I myself had very satisfactory conversation on the subject,) I refer you to the testimony of Dr. Gibbons, respecting what he heard from the Doctor's own lips, in the last visit he made him.' After adducing a quotation from Dr. Gibbons's Memoirs of Dr. Watts, Mr. Palmer brings forward the distinct and conclusive testimony, which he himself received from Dr. Stennett, who conversed with Dr. Watts a few months before his death. Dr. Stennett declared that "so far from having embraced the Socinian system, he expressed his firm belief of the doctrine of Christ's Atonement, and lamented even with tears, that so many should have given it up."

Dr. Lardner insinuates, that the unpublished manuscripts of Dr. Watts contained evidence that he became an Unitarian. That this is a most unwarrantable supposition, Mr. Palmer satisfactorily proves. Subsequently to the time in

which Dr. Lardner imagined the Doctor's change of sentiment to have taken place, and within two years of his decease, it appears that two volumes were published; the one of which is entitled "Useful and important Questions concerning Jesus, the Son of God," and the other, "The glory of Christ as God-man, &c." In these publications, the author strongly maintains the pre-existence of Christ, and his intimate union with the Deity.'

In the Preface to the "Christian doctrine of the Trinity," there is a passage which deserves attention for the very strong language in which Dr. Watts there expressed his sentiments in regard to Socinianism. We think Mr. Palmer, might have adduced it with great advantage.

The late controversies about the important doctrine of the Trinity, have engaged multitudes of Christians in a fresh study of that subject; and among the rest I thought it my duty to review my opinions and my faith. In my younger years, when I endeavoured to form my judgment on that article, the Socinians were the chief or only popular opponents. Upon an honest search of the Scripture, and a comparison of their notions with it, I wondered how it was possible for any person to believe the bible to be the word of God, and yet to believe that Jesus Christ was a mere man. So perverse and preposterous did their sense of the Scripture appear, that I was amazed how men, who pretended to reason above their neighbours, could wrench and strain their understanding, and subdue their assent to such interpretations and I am of the same mind still.'

Among the manuscripts committed to the care of the executors, it appears from Mr. Neal's letter to Dr. Doddridge, there was one intitled, "A faithful inquiry after the ancient and original doctrine of the Trinity," &c. Of this treatise a small edition it is said was printed in the year 1745, while 'the author was living, but by the solicitations of friends, the impression was destroyed, with the exception of one copy, which by accident escaped, and from which a new edition was published in 1802. Of the genuineness of this production Mr. Palmer was fully satisfied, both from internal and external evidence; and in this last work the sentiments expressed are as remote from Unitarianism as those of the two volumes to which reference has been already made. Whether we regard this work as unquestionably genuine, or still involved in some degree of uncertainty, the other parts of the evidence are sufficiently convincing, and we are decidedly of opinion, that most readers will rise from the perusal of this pamphlet, with a lively sense of obligation to the lamented author, and with a firm persuasion, that the question with respect to Dr. Watts's sentiments is for ever set at rest.

Art. IX. The Bride of Abydos. By Lord Byron. 8vo. pp. 72. Price 5s. Murray. 1813.

TIME was, when, whatsoever country or whatsoever age our poets were writing of, there crept in insensibly something of English costume, and the manners of their own times. A Venetian, in Shakespeare, talks of the trial by jury; and Voltaire makes himself very merry with the mention of paper and striking clocks in Julius Cæsar. Un papier, du temps de César! n'est pas trop dans le costume.' Ce n'est pas que les Romains eussent des horloges sonnantes, mais le costume est observé ici comme dans tout le reste.' The truth is, that Shakespeare draws man, and not an inhabitant of this or that country; he gives the features and the exact character, and does not always remember to add the precise cut of the hair or of the doublet. We do not say that this latter should have been neglected; it is undoubtedly of but little comparative consequence; but still it is pleasing to the imagination to be surrounded for a time with the scenery and customs and persons of another age or country.

It is, however, very difficult for the poet to place us in such a situation, without bringing before our eyes objects to which we are so unaccustomed as not to receive any delight from them; objects which, because we have never been made acquainted with them in real life, awaken no associations, and therefore produce

little interest. Besides this, in poems so perfectly in costume, the imagination has frequently to stop for the understanding; and woe to the passage which requires a note for its explication! And again we must observe that all the learning which serves to deck out the muse in such exquisite costume, which brings her necklace out of one dusty tome, her dead-dress out of another, her slippers from a third, and so on,-all this learning is utterly lost upon the majority of readers. For instance, we know, and every reader will see, that the dresses and decorations of the Bride of Abydos, are not in the English style; but that they are all perfectly in the Turkish, shall one in a hundred undertake to say? A foreigner the poem is, but of what nation or kindred few can tell;-the learned say, a Turk.

We make these observations, because this custom, of disfiguring his pages with words that are not English, seems growing upon Lord Byron. There was something of it in the Giaour, but there is hardly a page in the present poem, but forces us to the notes at the end, for the explication of two or three outlandish terms. A rose and a nightingale are now Gul and Bulbul; a sailor, a Galiongee; and a rosary a Comboloro; Musselim, Ollah, and Tchocada are not, we suppose, more generally understood; and old Giaffir

'Resign'd his gem-adorn'd Chibouque,
And mounting featly for the mead,
With Maugrabee-and Manialuke→→→
His way amid his Delis took,
To witness many an active deed
With sabre keen-or blunt je eed.

The Kislar only and his Moors

Watch well the Haram's aзsy doors.' p. 12,

There is, however, no other passage so unintelligible. For many of these words the corresponding English might have been used; and those for which it could not, it was part of the author's business to manage without.

The story, in the order of the poet, is this. The Pacha, Giaffir, has, or is supposed to have, two children, Selim and the beautiful Zuleika. Zuleika is ordered by her father to prepare for the reception of a lover that he has provided for her, and then left alone with Selim, who has been angered by a very sharp rebuke for a very venial offence. She endeavours to rouse her brother from the reverie in which he is plunged; and Selim, awakened by an ardent protestation of more than sisterly affection, starts to convulsive life,' declares he is not what he appears to be, not the son of Giaffir,--though 'thanks to her,' he yet may be,-and appoints a rendezvous in the haram-garden, where he promises to disclose the mystery.