his own theory, an immense difference in the thickness and conducting powers of the beds overlaying these localities; and we have no proof of such being the case.

Το pass to chap. iii. on the Disposition of Volcanic Products on the Surface of the Globe, volcanic lightning does not appear to us accounted for, (p. 81.) as the author will have it, by the immense friction of the volcanic ashes. There may be other and better reasons; and the subject requires strict investigation, and probably a more extended knowledge of electric phenomena than we yet possess, to be fully explained.

In chap. iv. the procedure of lava, when protruded on the earth's surface, which is well described, gives valuable information as to the formation of the hills and mountains in volcanic districts, and seems to explain many geological facts in a manner highly satisfactory. The account in p. 93. also of the formation of hummochs is probable; but it is rather hypercritical to find fault with Humboldt for supposing them to be upheaved and hollow, as Mr. Scrope does farther on, (Appendix, p. 268.) when he has not himself accounted for the space necessarily left vacant when a whole continent has been pushed up from below. He afterwards makes a great difficulty of Humboldt's attributing the elevation of the plain of Malpais in Mexico to this cause; and although his own account is perhaps better, as referring to a combination of causes before developed, without having recourse to new ones, yet the hypothesis of Humboldt is surely less staggering than the elevation of a whole continent.

Chap. v. treats of the Consolidation of Lava; and here, at p. 128., in speaking of hot springs, as the only remaining indication of activity below, the author is obliged again to recur to the presupposition of foci; and yet he afterwards makes it out very clearly, that some thermal springs decrease in temperature, as well as rivers that flow through or under lava currents. And why these foci, if heat is constantly and uniformly transmitted from the central parts of the earth? What conducts it to those immense reservoirs of lava of which he speaks, any more than to other places ?

This

In chap. vi. Mr. Scrope proves that the laws of the consolidation of lava depend chiefly upon the motion of minute particles of bodies among themselves, modified by external circumstances. subject is very curious, and it is treated with much perspicuity. Chap. vii., on the Construction of Volcanic Mountains, is very interesting and satisfactory. Chap. viii. is devoted to Subaqueous Volcanos. In addition to the enumeration of subærial vents, this chapter certainly proves that the volcanic agency is very extensive by sea as well as on land; and especially as volcanos are probably more numerous in the former than in the latter, not only from the more extended surface of the ocean, but as attested by the many islands of undoubted volcanic origin. Yet although, as we before observed, the currents of the ocean are more favourable for pro

moting infiltration than the repose of stagnant waters would be, so that the percolating sea-water may by chemical action upon mineral substances beneath their depths, produce a more frequent recurrence of these phenomena than on land, still many eruptions will, as our author indeed suggests, be prevented from reaching the surface, and stifled, as it were, in their commencement under the superincumbent waves. The construction of islands covered by coral is naturally conceived and perfectly described, p. 185.

Chap. ix., on Systems of Volcanos,' attempts to trace a disposition or direction of volcanos in linear groupes on the earth's surface. Here we are inclined to conceive, from the modern discoveries in electricity, galvanism, and magnetism, that this widely diffused agent (apparently the same in all three), has much to do with earthquakes and volcanos, as well as with storms; and we therefore regret that the author has not compared the result of his researches with a variation chart: for we suspect that his arrangement of the volcanic systems would be found to be nearly that of the magnetic meridian. But we can only speak of this in a general way; it is a subject in itself for a volume, if our suspicions are grounded in truth.

In p. 191., in this same chapter, the author sees no reason to doubt the transmission of caloric from the central parts of the globe towards its circumference,' at least with equal if not greater energy, since the infancy of our planet.' Now, since he afterwards refers the origin of the continents to this cause, and in another place seems to think it is gradually decreasing, we leave to him the task of reconciling these two opinions as he can. Yet he finds it necessary, doubtless, to have recourse to such a vast power to account for the dislocations, fracture, and irregularity of position observable in mountainous districts. And, as he excludes the agency of a deluge, and knows that the highest mountains must, from their containing marine exuviæ, have been once covered by the ocean, he prefers to suppose that they have been raised to their present elevation from their submarine state, by a propelling force from below, rather than believe that the diluvian waters have deserted them, and left them dry. His system is evidently borrowed from Hutton; and he is himself an advocate for that theory. In this place, then, we learn that the whole earth is volcanic, and that the known eruptions of volcanos are but secondary phenomena.

The author's argument, that the elevation en masse renders unnecessary, or, in other words, prevents the existence of volcanos, would certainly, according to his theory, be at variance with the fact, that the immense Cordilleras of the Andes, and others of the highest mountains of the globe, are situated upon the vast fissures of continuity which he mentions, and adjoining to large remainders of continental land. He is, accordingly, now obliged to press an afterthought-hypothesis into his service; - a clumsy expedient, like an act to amend an act, in crude and hasty legislation. He supposes the elevation of the whole of the lower lands of America, for

instance, to have preceded the formation of the chain of volcanic heights. Some curious and valuable facts, however, are related, (pp. 195, 196.) respecting the linear direction of the great fissures, upon which he imagines the volcanic chains to be situated in the ocean and elsewhere.

In chap. x. Mr. Scrope considers the Developement of Subterranean Expansion, in the Elevation of Strata, and the Formation of Continents.' The protrusion of crystalline rocks is always accounted for upon one of the following principles: either, they have been originally so formed as we find them, and the successive beds deposited upon them; or, they have been propelled by an expansive power from below, and having forced their way through the superincumbent strata, have broken them into the forms which they now exhibit, subject to such modifications as may have arisen from atmospheric action or other causes. The latter supposition is preferred by the author, as coinciding better with his hypothesis: his theory of the replication of the different strata of the earth's crust is ingenious; and his great knowledge of geological facts is perhaps entitled to considerable credit. But his account of the formation of ground seems to require the agency of oceanic waters to effect that which could not be done by the upheaving of the strata; and if, as he says, the quantity of water circulating in this manner in a given time has gradually diminished from the earliest ages to the present,' his conclusion is just, that we need not therefore be prevented from attributing to its corrosive agency effects greatly exceeding in magnitude those of which it appears capable at this moment.' But his reasoning is here, as well as in other places, evidently directed against the Mosaic account of the deluge. The phrase comparatively recent geological epoch,' (p. 216.) clearly strikes at the chronological age of the world assigned by the sacred authorities; and now, (although in his preface, p. iv., he dislikes the word,) after hinting that the whole continent of Europe, and perhaps of America, owed their rise from the depths of ocean to a CATASTROPHE, he is obliged to call to his aid (note, p. 217.) a comet! This agency, he conceives, by diminishing the pressure on the surface, to have occasioned the protrusion of the subterranean granite.

If Mr. Scrope's conclusion (p. 218.) be true, that the sum of subterranean expansion taking place in a fixed time must have progressively diminished in a rapid ratio,' then the imprisoned caloric, first mentioned as existing in such abundance, will in time have passed away entirely; and certainly a comprehensive view of the earth's surface, as given by geological writers and the best maps, shows it to be highly probable that most of the irregularity of surface is owing to volcanic action now no longer enduring. In this case, whenever that time shall arrive, the earth may be likened to a fiery body completely burnt out.

Chap. xi. commences with matter prefatory to the author's grand Theory of the Formation of the Globe; which, as usual in such

cases, with some apologies, imagines, purely imagines, circumstances impossible to be determined. First, the author supposes the earth to have been "" once upon a time" an integrant part of the sun, with the usual train of circumstances necessary to make a world. Then, after tracing the different formations, the temperature of the ocean being lowered, it began to be thickly peopled by organic beings of a simple structure, and a constitution suited to the circumstances under which they were created: next, the vegetable world sprang into life;' and being swept away in that age of chaos, was buried deep to form coals for the use of future ages. At length when diminished temperature permitted, new tribes of organised beings, both vegetable and animal, came into existence;' and 'a succession of ages finally brought about the condition in which the globe at present exists.' Whence came these organised beings? And whence came man? the reasoning creature, man, who has presumed to discover by hypothesis the creation of the world on which he treads, a mere particle of its matter. Did these organised beings exist in the sun, from whence the earth was dislocated? At any rate, we learn from a note, (p. 238.) that the heat of a boiling ocean was probably not too great for its inhabitants, although they can now only live in thermal springs of no very elevated temperature. Now we have arrived at the grand secret to be elaborated from the preceding theory; and we find, for the hundredth time, that, reasoning by hypothetical induction, we can understand the creation of a world!

While the author confines his deductions to merely reasoning backwards from present natural operations, his scheme is grand,, and perhaps correct; for we can suppose a superabundance of caloric to have been employed by the Great Creator in the beginning as a means of producing the surface of the earth as we find it, and that it has gradually become inactive when the purposes of Infinite Wisdom, for which it was created, have been duly accomplished. So far we can go along with the author, whose reasoning applies very well to the unfolding of the present state of the globe. But he must not, as we before said, speak of the continuance of equal, if not greater energy of caloric,' since the infancy of our planet, or he compels us to demand from whence that continual energy is derived, and reminds us of an old query among astronomers regarding the sun : why the continual abstraction of heat from that body did not appear to produce sensible waste? Now late discoveries have made it extremely probable, that the sun is not the original source of heat in the abstract; but that the action of its rays upon a calorific medium produce, we know not how, the matter of heat, and which is also produced by various other means, without reference to the sun at all.

In conclusion, we must assure Mr. Scrope that we perfectly appreciate the profound geological learning, and research into positive and existing phenomena, which he has displayed in his (so far) very valuable and interesting work. We have read it, as he may

observe, with great attention, and have judged it by the rules of common sense, applied to philosophical principles. But we must confess, that we cannot regard with approbation any book that does not immediately recognise the one great First Cause, to which our Newton himself devoted the latter pages of his Principia; and when instead of this we find only extravagant speculations presumptuously rejecting the sacred and eternal voice of Scripture, we cannot but despair of the power of all human argument to remove so strange and unhappy a delusion. If the authors of such speculations "HEAR NOT MOSES AND THE PROPHETS, NEITHER WILL THEY BE PERSUADED, THOUGH ONE ROSE FROM THE dead.'

ART. IV. Love's Victory; or, a School for Pride: a Comedy, in Five Acts. Founded on the Spanish of Don Augustin Moreto. George Hyde. 8vo. London. 1825.

By

THERE is not a subject of popular interest in our literature, which has occasioned more discussion than the present state of the drama, nor any of which critics speak with such uniform and fixed despondency. Indeed, the history of universal literature can furnish few facts so strange, and at first view so unaccountable. The earliest, perhaps we may add the proudest glories of British genius, were gained in the drama. When all around was nearly dark, it rose a sudden light, not more wonderful for its extraordinary splendour than for the speed with which it gained its meridian. But its force seemed to have been spent when Shakspeare's star went down, and it almost expired with the generation which he left behind him. In the century which succeeded, we mark three periods, each with a character peculiar to itself, and destructive of all that could have sustained or revived the dramatic genius of England. First, there were the political convulsions, — the civil war and the sour reign of puritanism;-next, the opposite curse of a profligate court, schooled in indecencies which debased the public taste, and caused obscenity and buffoonery to be relished as substitutes for those copies of life and nature, the truth and force of which gave to the productions of our early dramatic poets that simplicity, freshness, and originality, for which we look elsewhere in vain. And then followed the period of stiff and stately manners, when poets wrote, as they dressed, by rule, and when the tyranny of French laws of criticism, (by modern pedants falsely styled Grecian,) imposed upon the drama those chill and deadening fetters, within which Rowe, and Addison, and Young, and Thomson, vainly strove to work, and the influence of which, however we may now deride and decry them, exists even to this day.

Of course it is chiefly of tragedy that we are here speaking; but comedy sympathised with it. From Ben Jonson down to Garrick and the elder Colman we have scarcely a comic poet, who is not either insufferably dull, or shocking for his indecencies. The