stitutes the great end for which the holy Spirit came into the Church, and for which the other two measures were bestowed" (118). And after discussing the nature of the first and second of these, he says of the third :-"That this is not only an influence upon, and an aid to our old natural powers, but absolutely a new principle, which by the Holy Spirit is sown in our hearts, where, if duly encouraged, it springeth up and taketh root downwards, and beareth fruit upwards, receiving its proper nutriment from God: is the doctrine of the Scriptures and our Church." And he brings many passages both of the Old and New Testament in proof of this, and refers to the homily for Whitsunday, and the office for baptism as evidence of the doctrine of the Church of England on this point.

The various forms of superstition are then adverted to, and after dwelling upon the grosser superstitions of the Roman Church, he adds:" But another kind of superstition remains; it is to be found in Protestant countries-the resting in the means without looking to the end of those means. By means, I intend the worship of God in public and in private-hearing his word--receiving the sacraments, &c. The end for which these means are appointed was to produce holiness of life, and they are all powerful when used as means to promote that end. The superstitious Protestant is he who thinks that God is pleased with the mere use of the means, without any reference to the end. Thus, then, superstition may be defined to be-1. A fear of those who by nature are not gods. 2. A hope of acceptance from the observance of means, resting in them as if they were ends. 3. An unfounded idea that God is pleased with ordinances which he has not commanded, or displeased with the doing things which he has not forbidden.

"Enthusiasm-TO EvОcov: fanaticus furor-impetus numine afflatorum. Its origin is coeval with superstition. Superstition created false gods; enthusiasm inspired their priests, and gave forth their oracles. In all false religions (I mean of Pagan origin), the priests pretended to supernatural communications. This fanaticism ceased not when the world became Christian, but still upholds its head. How many instances are there of a similar spirit, and lying miracles to uphold the idolatry of the Romish Church. To come home, let us see the marks of the same spirit: it is not like the Popish superstition, resting in means, but it is independent of all means; believes itself the favourite of heaven already, and therefore rejects all means as unnecessary: springs from pride and self-confidence, and therefore overleaps too often all bounds of society and religion " (122).

But to pass from these higher topics, which necessarily occupied the prominent place in Mr. Kirby's mind, that branch of

natural history, to which he rendered such important services, is found to be sometimes of great public interest and connected with the national prosperity :-" At the close of the last century the most intense anxiety prevailed in this country, in consequence of what was supposed to be a new disease in the corn, threatening not only present scarcity, but exciting the most lively apprehensions lest it should prove something more than a casual blight, and a general famine prevail before its cause could be detected or a remedy suggested."

This alarming blight was found to proceed from a minute fly which deposited its eggs in the grain; and by one of those wonderful compensations, observable in so many cases, another fly of the Tchneumon class, by depositing its egg in the larva of the blight, keeps down its numbers, which might otherwise produce all the evils which were at first apprehended :—“ That they are destroyed by any other insect than the Tchneumon I have no reason to believe; and it seems to me most probable that this little friend to man is the destroyer of the greater part of them..........The superstition of the ancients, had they been acquainted with the advantages which appear to be derived to man through this important though minute link in the chain of creation, would have erected altars to it as a beneficent deity: can we, who enjoy the clear light of revelation, do less than adore and extol that goodness which thus preserves a due balance in his works, and says to the destroyer, "Thus far shalt thou come, and no farther?" (136).

The wheat suffers also from other insects, and minute fungi produce another kind of blight; all which casualties are found to be best counteracted by dressing and preparing the seed just before it is sown, with lime or other chemical ingredients, according to the kind of blight which may be suspected.

The timber used in shipbuilding is often preyed upon by minute insects, and the counteraction of this evil may therefore often become a national object. The oak timber in the royal dockyards of Sweden were observed to have sustained great injury from some unknown animal in the time of Linnæus, and the king directed him to endeavour to find out the cause and suggest a remedy. An insect named in consequence Cantharis Navalis was the occasion of this mischief; and the remedy proposed was that the timber should be immersed in water during the usual time of the insect's appearance.

But some of the insects which infest timber remain for many years burrowing their way without appearing on the surface. An instance is given in which an insect made its exit from a table which had been in use for twenty years in Guildhall;

which insect Mr. Kirby thinks must have been in the timber before it left the shores of Norway.

Mr. Kirby paid much attention to botany; and as the flower to which Christ alludes, in speaking of "the lilies of the field" (Matt. vi. 28) had been called in question, and Sir J. Smith had maintained that it was not the white lily, but the Amaryllis Lutea, Mr. Kirby was requested to state his opinions on this subject. He accordingly wrote a paper showing that Sir J. Smith was mistaken in supposing that our Saviour instanced an assemblage of plants, since the Greek construction shows that he was calling attention to one particular object so as to know it well-implying that an individual plant was to be considered" He next removed all difficulty arising from the assertion that the lily does not grow wild in Palestine, and by an exact line of argument proves that no other than the Lilium Candidum could be the plant intended; then in an elegant manner he sets forth its peculiar fitness for the comparison instituted by our Saviour" (351).

The publications of Mr. Kirby in the "Linnæan Transactions" were very frequent, amounting to nearly fifty, and spreading over an equal number of years. Many other tracts by him appeared in various periodical publications. But the "Monographia Apum Anglia," which was published in 1802, first made him known to foreign naturalists, and laid the foundation of his future fame. His "Introduction to Entomology," written in conjunction with Mr. Spence, was published in 1815, and it contributed much towards rendering the study of this branch of natural history popular, as is evinced by the fact of its having gone through six editions. And in 1835 his Bridgewater Treatise on "The History, Habits, and Instincts of Animals" established his claim to be regarded as at the head of this department of science in England during his own day and generation.

It has seldom been our happiness to meet with an instance in which so ardent a pursuit of science, and so many real discoveries in an obscure and difficult branch of it, has been united with so much modesty, so much deference for others, and so little exaggeration of his favourite studies, as in the case of Mr. Kirby. But this is mainly, and, we do not hesitate to say, exclusively to be attributed to his fervent and habitual piety. He had given himself unreservedly to God, and everything he did was under the abiding sense that the glory of God must be the uppermost thing in his mind; and where this is the case there will be no parade of piety, no ostentatious display, no impertinent moralizing. All will be calm and equable, because

VOL. XXXIII.-R

the stream is deep. And this habitual piety gave also a tone of perpetual cheerfulness, and even hilarity, to his manner: for all was peace within, and external circumstances were of little consequence, more especially as he regarded them as being appointed and overruled by Divine Providence. To this contentment, springing from lively faith, we attribute in no small degree the good health which he usually enjoyed, and a life protracted to the very unusual term of ninety years; and we cite it as a verification of the apostle's assertion that godliness is profitable for all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and also of that which is to come.

12mo.

The Psalter of the Blessed Virgin, written by St. BONAVENture. Translated from the last French Edition of 1852, and carefully compared with the Latin. By the Rev. JOHN CUMMING, D.D. London: Hall, Virtue, and Co.; and J. F. Shaw, 1852. DR. CUMMING has rendered good service to the cause of true religion, and against the idolatrous worship of the Church of Rome, by the publication of Bonaventure's "Psalter of the Blessed Virgin." Bonaventure is one of the most distinguished Romish saints; and his psalter is perhaps the best known of his various treatises written in her honour:-" "It is a collection of a hundred-and-fifty Psalms suggested by the Psalms of David. Each Psalm begins by the same words as those of the royal prophet: the general sense of them is preserved and applied to the Virgin" (p. 1). These Psalms are followed by eight canticles in imitation of as many passages from the books of the Old Testament, and by imitations of the Te Deum, and of the Hymn which bears the name of Athanasius; all of which are addressed to the Virgin. The volume concludes with the "Litanies of the Blessed Virgin Mary." We give the following concise specimen, that our readers may form some conception of the extent to which the idolatrous worship of a holy, but still peccable woman is carried by the Romish Church and her deluded followers :

PSALM I.

"Blessed is the man that cherishes thy name, Virgin Mary; thy grace will strengthen his soul.

"As a garden watered by springs of living water, thou will multiply in that soul the sweetest fruits of justice.

"Thou art blessed among all women, because of the humble faith of thy holy heart.

"For thou art exalted above all women by the beauty of thy person; thou surpassed the angels and the archangels by the excellence of thy sanctity.

"Thy mercy and thy grace are celebrated everywhere. God has blessed the works of thy hands.

"Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, now and always, and from generation to generation. Amen” (page 9).

This cheap and beautifully printed volume will be found particularly useful to those who are necessarily engaged in discussions with the advocates of Popery. We hope that it will have an extensive circulation.

The Philosophy of the Senses; or, Man in connection with a Material World. By ROBERT J. WYLD. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd. Tuis is truly a philosophical work, meriting high commendation equally from the knowledge it displays, as the ability with which it is written and the object to which it tends. Unlike many works of its class, which have their origin in the faithless and irreligious principles of their authors, and which under the profession of philosophy inculcate a heartless infidelity, this pleasing and informing work bases all its reasonings upon revealed truth, leads the thoughts from the minutest subject it treats of to the great first cause of all, and displays on them all the wondrous wisdom of the Creator on these several works of his creation. The chapters that more especially explain, and philosophize, upon sound and light are of great interest, and will afford to many readers much useful information; and they bring under notice many facts and phenomena of great interest, and supply numerous subjects for thought on very many of the daily circumstances and incidents of our every day life. Indeed, the laws that govern, and the peculiarities that distinguish, the several senses are so fully and so ably observed upon as to form very brief, but yet very clear, philosophical treatises on those subjects. Not the least valuable portion of this most unassuming little volume is a history of all those many metaphysical enquiries upon mind and matter that have been published abroad to the world from the times of Thales and Anaximes, through Spinoza and Leibnitz, to Kant, Fichte, Schelling and Hegel. The uprising and the downfalling of these several systems of godless philosophy of atheism, pantheism, and deism, with all their false reasonings, their contradictions and absurd conclusions, it is alternately painful and amusing to read of. They prove that there is always a certain party in the world especially eager to catch at any chance of being persuaded that there is no God in this creation, or no God that will ever interfere with them; and that they owe their being to blind chance, or to means that leave them accountable to no