under the fulleft conviction of its truth... "Each individual is in this refpect absolutely and completely a law unto himself. Nor can any human authority have a right to determine what a man fhall believe, any more than what he fhall eat or drink, or wherewithal he fhall be clothed." Now, if no authority, merely human, can have a right to determine what a man fhall believe (which is, in other words, to deny a state the right to establish by law a fyftem of religious faith), no merely human authority can have the ftill farther right to require that its own determinations refpecting points of religious faith and doctrine, fhall be taught to the people, and no other.-If a foldier break an article of war, he is punishable for the offence, being amenable to a court of judicature which has lawful cognizance in the affair, as it is fanctioned by the fame authority that made the articles of war. But, as no human authority has power to make one article of faith, fo it cannot lawfully amene to any of its courts, any man, either for the purpofe of requiring fecurity for his religious belief, or punishing him as a delinquent in a matter of that nature.'

The last fection confiders the claim of a right to require proteftants to subscribe human articles of faith, from which we shall make the following extracts: The Chriftian religion, fays he, is the religion, acknowledged in thefe realms to be of divine original, and established as fuch. That religion, it is further acknowledged, is contained in the writings of the Old and New Teftament. They alone are to proteftants the rule of faith and doctrine. The point being thus brought home to ourselves, as proteftants, the question is, On what principle, which is not inconfiftent with an establishment on this proteftant bafis, fhall the state proceed farther to enjoin an acknowledgment of the truth of a fyftematical formulary of faith and doctrine diftinct from fcripture? The ftate, we are told, has a right to do this on the fame principle, be it what it will, that it has a right to enjoin an acknowledgment of the fcriptures themfelves.". "On the fame ground that a ftate eftablifheth the Chriftian religion, it must have a right to declare, in its own terms, what that religion is, and to explain its own ideas of it." Aftate, it fhall be readily granted, has that right. But then it would not exercise that right, but would arrogate a right which cannot belong to it, if it was to explain its own ideas of the Chriftian religion in any other manner than its own laws warrant it to do; that is, in the cafe before us, if it was "to declare what the Chriftian religion is," by a fyftem of faith and doctrines conceived in other terms than thofe of fcripture. For the ftate has already declared, and (while its own religious eftablishment remains the fame) doth constantly "declare in its own terms what the Chri

0 4

ftian

ftian religion is," by declaring, that it is contained in the scriptures and in them only; and has explained "its own ideas of it." The ideas it entertains of the Chriftian religion, are the ideas which are given of it in the fcriptures. To declare what the Chriftian religion is, or to explain its own ideas of it by any other fyftem, would be to act inconfiftently with its own eftablishment. It would be to declare the Chriftian religion to be contained in the fcriptures only, and at the fame time to declare, that it is contained in fome other fyftem. In fhort, this would be to establish Chriftianity upon two different principles.—If the religion of proteftants be contained in the fcriptures only, and that religion be moreover confirmed to them by law, then, as members of the establishment itfelf, they rightfully claim an exemption from all obligation" to acknowledge the truth and authority" of any form of doctrine diftinct from " thofe fcriptures which avowedly contain that form which the ftate has eftablished." They may claim this by law. And if by law itself they claim an exemption from all fuch obligation, then the state has not a right to impofe the obligation.'

In the clofe of the pamphlet a queftion is proposed to the established clergy; which is, Whether fubfcription to the thirty-nine articles of the church of England, be conftitutionally required of them? And, it is added, if mature, honeft, and free enquiry fhall produce conviction in any, that it is not even a conftitutional requirement, the friends of religious truth and freedom cannot doubt, that fuch of the clergy will be ingenuous in publicly afferting their privileges, as members of the English church itself; and it may be farther hoped, that they will, as Englishmen, be ready on any fair occafion, to fue in a conftitutional way for redrefs of the grievance.'

Thus we have laid before our Readers fome account of this pamphlet. As to fingle fermons, it is our general method only juft to give a lift of their titles. Mr. Forfter's being rather peculiar, and appearing to be well written on that part of the argument, we give a little more attention to it. But it would have been inconfiftent with our plan, not to have taken a much farther notice of this performance which it has occafioned: and thereby feems, in all probability, to have laid the foundation of a new controverfy on an old fubject, that hath often been agitated, but which, perhaps, will never be fettled, to the fatisfaction of all parties.

The Author of the fermon difcovers much candour and generofity of fentiment, as well as good fenfe and abilities: but judging as impartially as we can, though it is extremely difficult, on any fide, to diveft the mind of prejudice, we muft for ourfelves think, that truth rather appears to reft with his op

ponent.

ART. IV

ART. IV. Continuation of the Philofophical Tranfactions. Vol. For the Year 1769. See our laft Month's Review.

LIX.

PAPERS relating to NATURAL HISTORY in general. Article 4. A Letter from the Honourable William Hamilton, his Majefty's Envoy Extraordinary at Naples, to Matthew Maty, M. D. Sec. R. S. containing fome farther Particulars on Mount Vefuvius, and other Volcanos in the Neighbourhood.

N this paper the ingenious and inquifitive Author favours the fociety with fome further communications, relative to his favourite fubject. In our account of his former letter, we recommended to the notice of electricians the appearances refembling lightning, which were obferved by himself during the great eruption in 1767 *. In this letter he confirms his own obfervation of these phenomena, by the teftimony of the peasants in the neighbourhood of his villa, who all agree in their account of the terrible thunder, and forked lightning, which continued during almost the whole time of the eruption; and which was particularly confined to the mountain †. If these appearances proceed from actual lightning, and are not merely a fallacious refemblance of it, they are highly worthy the attention of electricians; who, amidst the numerous and striking difcoveries, which have been made on the fubject of artificial electricity, have never yet fucceeded in their attempts to inveftigate the manner in which natural electricity is produced; or, in other words, to discover the particular agents which nature employs, in putting the electric fluid in motion, and in breaking the equilibrium between the earth and clouds; by the operation of which, lightning, and the many meteors connected with it, are produced.

The opportunities which the Author has had of fecing volcanos in all their states, induce him to declare, that every fyftem, hitherto given on this fubject, might be demonstratively confuted, by an attentive and philofophical confideration of thofe in the neighbourhood of Naples. His own hypothefis, were he to form one, should be that mountains are produced by volcanos, and not volcanos by mountains.' The entire bafis of the island Ifchia, about 18 miles in circumference, is

*See Monthly Review, vol. xlii. February 1770, page 107.

We did not recollect, till after this was written, the very refpectable teftimony of Sig. Beccaria, to the fame effect, in his Lettere dell' ellettricifmo, p. 226, 362, &c. the fubftance of which the Reader may fee in that useful repofitory of electrical facts and obfervations, the Hiftory of Electricity, page 392, first edition.

formed

formed of lava. The great mountain in it, formerly called Epomeus, and now San Nicolo, which is nearly as high as Vefuvius, he is convinced was thrown up by degrees; and that the entire island has arisen out of the fea. He entertains the fame opinion with refpect to even Vefuvius, and all the high grounds near Naples; obferving that it will not appear very extraordinary that Mount Vefuvius fhould, in the course of many ages, rife above the height of 2000 feet, when it is confidered that the Montagno Nuovo near Puzzole, three miles round, and about 150 feet high, rofe out of the Lucrine lake, as is well attefted, in one night, fo lately as the year 1538. Mr. H. entertains fome thoughts of foon making a vifit to Puzzole, with a view of diffecting that mountain; which, from the nature of its production, appears to be well adapted to give light into the formation of many others, and to enable him to diftinguish those which may be called original mountains, from such as have been the offspring of volcanos. To these particulars we fhall only add the following remarkable obfervation, that in digging a well very lately near the Author's refidence at Villa Angelica, close by the fea fide, the workmen came to a firatum of lava, at the depth of 25 feet below the level of the fea. Article 5. On the Trees which are fuppofed to be indigenous in Great

Britain. By the Honourable Daines Barrington. F. R. S.

Dr. Watfon having fent to the Author a fpecimen of supposed chefnut tree, which was taken from the old hall of Clifford's Inn, he here examines into the authorities on which is founded the notion which generally prevails, that this and fome other trees, afterwards mentioned, are of the native growth of Great Britain. He first lays down fome general rules, by which the enquirer may be directed in determining, whether any particular tree is indigenous or not in any country; and in conformity to thefe rules, and from other confiderations, concludes that the fpecimen fent was only common oak, and that the chefnut tree is not a native of this ifland. He is inclined to grant, however, that the Scotch fir was formerly indigenous in the northern parts of England: fubterraneous firs having been dug up, at a very confiderable depth under the furface; although the tree is not now to be found in this country, except where the plantation appears moft evidently to be of modern date. He next mentions fome other trees, which do not appear to him to be natives of this ifland, though they are generally conceived to be fo. These are the elm, the lime, the greater maple, and the box. With regard to the white poplar and the yew he is doubtful-but we muft refer the botanical antiquarian to the article itself, for the reasonings and authorities on which these opinions are founded; obferving only with regard to the last mentioned tree, that the Author here gives an account of one,

of

of a moft extraordinary fize, which ftill continues to vegetate in the church-yard of Glen-Lyon in Scotland, though greatly decayed within thefe 20 years, which he twice measured himfelf, and found to be 52 feet in circumference.

Article 17. Differtatio Epiftolaris de Offibus & Dentibus Elephantum, aliarumque Belluarum, in America Septentrionali, aliifque borealibus Regionibus, obviis; qua indigenarum Belluarum effe oftenditur. Auclore R. E. Rafpe, fereniffimo Haffiarum Landgravio à Confiliis, & R. S. S.

We have lately had occafion to treat of this curious subject of natural history, in our account of Dr. Hunter's observations on the bones of the animal incognitum, found on the banks of the Ohio, and in Siberia, and elsewhere, published in the preceding volume of the Tranfactions. In this differtation Mr. Rafpe recites the accounts that have at different times been given of those large foffil bones which have likewise been found in Germany, and other northern countries, and which have been parts of animals that evidently no longer exift there. He endeavours to fhew that the animals, to which these bones formerly belonged, were natives of thofe countries in which we now find their remains: but he oppofes the opinion of thofe who, fuppofing them likewise to have been formerly indigenous in thofe places, account for their extinction, by having recourse to a fuppofed change in the obliquity of the ecliptic, or in the pofition of the earth's axis, or its center of gravity; productive of correfpondent changes in the climates of the earth; and endeavours to fhew that none of thefe folutions are admiffible.

Granting, for argument's fake, that there is, and has been, a regular and fucceffive diminution of the inclination of the earth's axis to the plane of the ecliptic, and making the moft liberal allowances with regard to its quantity, these conceffions will not, according to him, be fufficient to furnish any just grounds to infer, from any alterations in climates produced by this caufe, that Siberia for inftance, or any country under the fame parallel, has ever been adapted to breed and support the prefent race of elephants, or any animals refembling them in habit or way of life. With regard to a supposed alteration in the position of the earth's axis, or in its center of gravity, the Author obferves, that if the change was fudden or inftantaneous, little less than a total deftruction of the earth, and of its inhabitants, must have been the confequence of it; and that, from modern obfervations, there are no grounds to fuppofe it to have been flow and fucceffive. In fact, the great elevation of the equatorial parts of the earth, produced by its revolution on its axis, and which have probably been in their present fituation ever since

Monthly Review, vol xlii. February 1770, page 108.

the