24

34

384/ 473

55

57

614

64

612

55

41

453

49.

Average of the whole year, Several remarkable circumftances are afforded by the meteorological obfervations of this year. The cold of January is well remembered for its unufual feverity. An average of eight degrees below the freezing point for the whole month, is certainly very rare in any part of England, much more in a great city. The cold of one day (Jan. 25th) was probably unprecedented for a long period, the mercury having funk to 5. In fome places in the vicinity of London, it was at or below o. It was accompanied with thick mift; and on feveral of MONTHLY MAG.

the coldest days in this month, the atmofphere of London was remarkably foggy, and the fmoke could not ascend. Snow fell chiefly about the middle or latter part of the month.

Froft, with fair weather, continued for the moft part throughout February, though with occafional interruptions. March had much chill and rainy wea ther. April was pretty fair, and tolerably warm, though its average fell short of that of the whole year, with which it generally coincides. May had fome very fine and warm weather, and vegetation pushed forwards with remarkable vigour during the course of it. The average of June very little exceeded that of May, and much of it was wet and ungenial. On the night of June 19th, many new-fhorn theep were killed by the cold. July was, on the whole, plea fant and moderate. Auguft was the hotteft month, and generally dry. The highest point of the thermometer obferved was seventy-four. A more remarkable September was probably never known. Its heat a little exceeded that of July; and a bright cloudless sky reigned for entire weeks. The weather of October was fine in general, though intermixed with heavy rain and tempeftuous winds. Its average was nearly that of May. November and December feemed to have changed places. The former had many bright clear days, with froft. The latter was almoft five degrees warmer on the average, and had much clofe miz. zling dark weather, with fome very violent tempefts. The nights of November 5th, and December 28th, were dif tinguished in this respect, I fhall

B

AMONG men who have not fo far abandoned common fenfe in purfuit of the convenient fubtleties of fophiftry, as altogether to reject the notion of natural rights, there can be no difpute concerning the natural right of every man to enquire after truth. The power of enquiry, with which every human mind is endued, is itfelf a licence from the Author of Nature for its exercife: each individual comes into the world poffeffed of this birth-right, and can neither refign it without folly, nor be deprived of it without injuftice.

From the first dawn of reason, man is an enquirer. Before the infant has been taught the ufe of fpeech, his inquifitive eye afks for information. Curiofity, as he advances in life, ftill continues to stimulate his fearch; and every day he goes to the school of experience, to learn new leffons. Experience is always his beft inftructor. Other teachers may load his memory with words, but experience alone can put him in poffeffion of truths. It is only by contemplating objects in their mutual actions and relations, either by actual obfervation, or through the report of others, that thofe general conclufions can be drawn, which conftitute knowledge.

With refpect to individuals, to doubt of the wisdom of enquiring after truth, is to doubt whether the eye was made for fecing, and the ear for hearing. Every man's capacity of enjoyment, and of nfefulness, is proportioned to his know.

I

ledge. Diminish the number of his ideas, and you fo far carry him back towards the ftate of the inert matter from which he was formed: enlarge his intellectual ftores, and you proportionally elevate him above the brutes, and give him an alliance to fuperior natures. Illumine his path with the rays of truth, and you guide him to happiness.: furround him with the mifts of error, and you delude his imagination, mislead his paffions, and involve him in endless perplexities.

In fociety, what are the arts which contribute to the fupport, the comfort, and the embellifhment of life, but ingenious applications of previous experiment and knowledge to fome uteful purpofe? When one community excels another in the utility of its civil inftitutions, in the benefit of its agricultural and mechanical labours, and in its general profperity, it is because it better underftands, and follows, the principles of found policy. When a ftate falls into diforder and decay, its misfortunes may be ultimately traced up to the ignorance of the people, or the mistakes of their rulers: this holds true, even in thofe cafes, where public calamity is the immediate effect of criminal paffions and depraved manners; for men never act wrong, but from fome previous mifapprehenfion.

The unalterable connection between truth and good being thus established by univerfal experience, it might have been expected, that the founders and leaders of communities would always have confidered the advancement of knowledge, as the direct and fure mean of promoting the happiness of fociety; and that it fhould never have come into question, Whether the Freedom of Enquiry ought to be reftricted? To communicate all poffible information on fubjects connected with individual or public welfare, and to give the utmoft encouragement and affiftance to thofe who are defirous of acquiring knowledge, as well as to those who are ambitious of extending the bounds of fcience, might feem, incontrovertibly, the wifeft policy of statesmen and philofophers. The contrary of this, however, has in all ages been the practice.

The firft organized nations, of which hiftory has preferved any records, prefent us with regular fyftems of government, upon the erroneous and mifchievous plan of keeping the people in ignorance. In India, which modern inform ation points out as the parent of ori

ental

ental learning, a race of wife men, under the name of Brachmans, appear to have engroffed all the fcience of their country: and fince their time effectual care has been taken to prevent the diffufion of knowledge, by keeping the Bramins, the depofitaries of learning, a diftinct caft, and giving them the exclufive right of reading the facred books, the Vedas and Shafters, and communicating their contents to the people. Among the Egyptians, we find, from the earliest times, a regular fyftem of concealment. The myfteries of philofophy and religion were written in hieroglyphic characters, understood only by the initiated; and thefe facerdotal writings were depofited in the inmoft receffes of the temples, where they could be examined only by the fuperior claffes of the priesthood. Hence arofe the diftinction between the exoteric and efoteric doctrine; the former addreffed to the vulgar, the latter confined to the priests, and a select number of other perfons admitted to the holy myfteries. A fimilar diftinction between fecret and public doctrine, was known among the Perfians, and in moft of the fchools of the the Grecian philofophers: and the practice of facred myfteries, begun in the moft remote ages, made a diftinguished part of the religious ceremonials of Greece and Rome.

own

If the ancient philofophers, with few exceptions, thus kept their knowledge within the precincts of their fchools, and left the general mafs of mankind under the bondage of ignorance and fuperftition, it may, perhaps, be fairly pleaded as fome excufe for their conduct, that their enquiries commonly turned upon fubjects too abftrufe for vulgar comprehenfion, and little capable of practical application. When, however, a new fect arose, under a Mafter who taught fimple truth, and who was eminently the inftructor and friend of the poor, it might have been expected that the preceptors in this school, would, after the example of their Founder, have faid to all the world, "Hear and understand." Yet Chriftian teachers, though they preached to the people, very early addreffed them on fubjects, and in terms, to an unlettered multitude as unintelligible, as if their difcourfes had been in an unknown tongue. In order to check the daring fpirit of enquiry, creeds were iffued from their councils, which the people were required, on pain of eternal

3

damnation, to believe. The ufe of a vernacular version of the Scriptures was afterwards prohibited, and public devo tions were in every Chriftian country. performed in the Latin language. Thefe latter abfurditics were, it is true, removed at the Reformation; but free inquiry has ever fince, in almost all Proteftant churches, been difcouraged, and, as far as was poffible, without the inflic tion of bodily pains and penalties, forbidden, by making the recital of certain formularies of belief, a part of the ordinary fervice, and by loading all devia tions from the inftituted faith, with the odium and hazard of herefy.

The fame difpofition to difcourage and reftrain the freedom of enquiry has ap peared with refpect to fubjects of civil policy. The brilliant pages of history in which the people appear as agents in forming and conducting their own fyftem of government, are few. We almoft every where find them merely paffive machines in the hands of arbitrary power, without any opportunity of judg ing and choofing for themfelves, and confequently without any inducement to enquire into the general grounds of civit fociety, or to inform themfelves concerning the particular interefts of their own community. Over affairs of government, as well as of religion, a veil of mystery has been artfully thrown; and the people have been trained to an implicit acquiefcence in the proceedings of their governors, under the notion that fecrets of ftate were far above their comprehenfion. Even in countries most celebrated for liberty, the ruling powers have always kept a jealous eye upon the progrefs of opinion, and have commonly adopted the narrow policy of throwing difficulties and difcouragements in the way of free enquiry. Few states have had the magnanimity to permit, much lefs the wifdom to encourage, the unreferved difcuffion of all political queftions: almoft all exifting governments have preferred ftability to improvement. England, the boafted land of freedom, has had its tefts, and its reftrictive laws; and even the new Republic of France has, with glaring inconfiftency, restrained the freedom of the prefs.

Has the fyftem of reftriction, thus eftablished by univerfal precedent, had any better origin than the ambition or avarice of men in power? Have they difcouraged the free fearch after truth, and the universal diffemination of knowledge, merely through a timid and felfB 2

ith

4

examined.

"Remove all restriction and difcouragement from enquiry;-fet the door of the school of knowledge wide open, and invite people of all claffes to enter;-confider what would be the confequence with refpect to the lower orders of fociety. They would be diverted from thofe neceffary labours, on which their own fupport and the wealth of the nation depends: they would become conceited poffeffors of that little knowledge,' which is a dangerous thing they would learn to look upon the neceffary fubordination of fociety as a grievous evil; would become restless under the unavoidable burdens and reftraints of civilized life; and, in their violent efforts to throw them off, would involve their country in confufion, and introduce all the horrors of anarchy."

Thefe phantoms, conjured up by the Alarmift's wand, it will require no incantation to difperfe. The poor man, though, doubtlefs, born to labour which, by the way, ought in one form or another to be the lot of every manis alfo born to enjoy his existence as a rational being, and ought not to be denied leifure and opportunity to partake of the pleasures of intellect. He would not be the lefs able or inclined, to fill up his proper ftation in fociety, for knowing his rights and his duties. It is ignorance, not knowledge, which makes men difcontented and troublefome. The abject fpirit which is produced by religious and political fuperftition may be convenient in a state of oppreffion; but a government which purfucs by direct means the honeft end of the public good, will, unquestionably, conduct its operations with greater facility and effect over an enlightened, than an ignorant people. Nothing would fo certainly prevent the miferies attending fudden political concuffions, as the general difFufion of knowledge. The neceffity of violent commotions would be fuperceded by the gradual and peaceable, but fure, progrefs of reformation: for, "when the most confiderable part of a nation either for number or influence become convinced of the flagrant abfurdity of any of its inftitutions, the whole will foon be prepared, tranquilly, and by a

fort of common confent, to fupercede them.”

The queftion cannot be fully determined by an appeal to fact: for the experiments have been hitherto almost all on the fide of reftriction; fcarcely any country having adopted the liberal policy of allowing free enquiry and difcuffion without any exceptions or embarraffments. But, it has always been found, as was to be expected, that the more the freedom of refearch has, in any country, been encouraged, the greater progrefs has that country made in civilization and profperity. On the contrary, wherever the ruling powers have thought it expedient to clog the human understanding in its natural en

deavour to free itfelf from error and prejudice, the minds of the people have become enfeebled by indolence, enflaved by fuperftition, and corrupted by vice; till long and fad experience of the mifchiefs arifing from blind credulity and tame fubmiffion, has rouzed to action their dormant faculties, and produced energetic exertions, beneficial, doubtless, in their confequences, but in their first efforts fcarcely lefs tremendous, than the unexpected explosion of a long filent, and almoft forgotten volcano.

Inftead of thus giving a preternatural vigour to the defpairing ftruggles of the free-born mind, by forcibly comprefling its natural elafticity, had the leaders of the world encouraged and aided the progrefs of knowledge ;---had the Grecian philofophers, inftead of making the academy, the porch, and the Lyceum, refound with the clamour of their barren difputes, imitated the wife Socrates in bringing philofophy into the common walks of life ;---had the early fathers of the Chriftian Church, inftead of perplexing the world with abftrufe queftions and incomprehenfible myfteries, employed themfelves in teaching the fimple principles and rules of Chriftian morals--had the moft fubtle, profound, irrefragable, angelic, and feraphic doctors of the fcholaftic age, inftead of amusing themfelves with raifing phantoms of abftraction, like elves and fairies, in the field of truth, ftudied nature, and communicated ufeful information to the common people ;-in fine, on the revival of letters, had our public fchools been formed with lefs attention to the parade of learning, and the oftentation

of fcience, than to the general diffemination of knowledge, and advancement of civilization;-it is impoflible to fay, to what degree of perfection human nature might not by this time have attained.

It is certain, and cannot too often be repeated, that knowledge is power. Why then should men be reftricted in thofe improvements of intellect, which by enlarging their sphere of action, cannot fail to increafe their capacity of happiness ? Can they be too wife, or too happy? If not, let the excurfions of invention be unconfined, let the refcarches of reafon be uncontrolled. This is, undoubtedly, the policy which philanthropy teaches; and a narrower policy can only be dictated by bigotry or felfishness. If the perfectibility of numan nature be not the dream of benevolence--the philofopher's ftone of the present day—if at leaft it be true, that man has not yet reached his appointed fummit of knowledge and happiness, let not his progrefs be retarded by coercive reftrictions on the freedom of enquiry, of fpeech, and of writing: let all good men, who love their country and their fpecies, unite to folicit the removal of every obftruction to the difcovery and the application of truth, and the inftitution of one univerfal law for the protection and encouragement of enquirers; that, henceforward, Opinion, like the air, may become a chartered libertine."

a difproportionate fhare of attention is beftowed upon the doctrine of the Trinity; and the point chiefly laboured is, that this doctrine was conveyed by ancient tradition from the Hebrews to the Indians; the awful myftery having been originally revealed to Adam in the facred bowers of Eden,' where he 'freely converfed with the holy perfonages that compofe the Trinity,' and faw the radiance of the divine Triad.' I muft take permiffion,' fays Mr. M. 'to affert my folemn belief, founded upon long and elaborate investigation, that the Indian, as well as all other triads of Deity, fo univerfally adored through the Afiatic world, and under every denomination, whether they confift of perfons, principles, or attributes deified, are all corruptions of the Chriftian doctrine of the Trinity.' (1)

After this folemn affeveration, no one will doubt the fincerity of Mr. Maurice's belief: but his belief will produce no fympathetic affent in minds capable of enquiry, till a clearer connection is establithed between his faith and his long and elaborate inveftigations,' than ap pears in thefe volumes. The exiftence of three principal objects of worship, under the names of Brahma, Vecthnou, and Seeva is afcertained. That thefe three divinities are fometimes worthipped in union, under the name of Trimourti, appears probable; and that their union is fymbolically defignated by the monftrous image found in the cavern-pagoda of Elephanta, with three

AVAILING myfelf of the new field of liberal difcuffion which you have opened, I fubmit to the confideration of the public a fingle obfervation on a late important publication, Mr. Maurice's Indian Antiquities.

I leave it to profeffional critics to estimate this writer's literary merit, and to apportion to him his due fhare of praise for the induftry with which he has, from various fources, collected a large mafs of curious and useful information, My fole object is to put enquirers after truth upon their guard against a precipitate adoption of the conclufions which Mr. Maurice deduces from his facts. Through the whole work the author appears rather in the capacity of a theological polemic than an hiftorian. A large, and, many will think,

not agreed upon the fact, with four, is a plaufible fuppofition: but, to fay that this magnificent picce of fculpture decidedly eftablishes the folemn fact, that from the remoteft ages the Indian nations have adored a tri-une deity, and that the cavern was a ftupendous temple to this trinity (2), is to affert fomewhat too confidently. A ftatue with three or four heads, without any infcription or record, can at beft only furnish matter for uncertain conjecture.

Through the whole of Mr. Maurice's work, the reader will find no proof that the primitive Indian faith concerning the divine nature, was trinitarian. Large extracts, given by various authors, from the ancient facred books of India, fhew that the early philofophers of that country were believers in the unity of the Divine Nature. It is the decided opinion of

(1) P. 427, (2) p. 773,

Mr.