and we think that our readers will plainly perceive, from what has been said, that the prophet of the New Church is equally at variance with the Scriptures and our own church, in corrupting after Sabellius the doctrine of the blessed trinity; and in denying the fundamental doctrines of the atonement of Christ, and of justification by faith alone. And we certainly do find some difficulty in conceiving, how a conscientious clergyman of the Church of England can continue in her communion, and accept her emoluments, and join in or lead her service, and at the same time, hold and propagate the tenets of Emanuel Swedenborg. But we have not yet done. Swedenborgianism would ill deserve the assuming title of the new church did it not promulge something more novel and peculiar than Mr. Clowes has had the prudence to display. We desire then to supply the defect, and to inform our readers, that the revelations, or relations, of Baron Swedenborg have taught him and mankind, that there are three future worlds, and with respect to their position, the heavens are above, the hells (such is our author's curious phraseology) are below, and the world of spirits is between them; and that into the world of spirits every person, on leaving this, makes his entrance: and in this there are three states, the first of which is so little different from the present, that husbands and wives who have not lived in concord here often renew their quarrels there, and even sometimes proceed to blows; the next state is more spiritual, and so far only the wicked go previously to their final punishmer t; the righteous proceed to the third state, which is a state of instruction and preparation for heaven. There are some exceptions, however, to this course. Some, both good and bad, proceed immediately after death, to a state called a state of vastation, and appointed for the purpose of reducing the individuals to the simple quality which predominates, This process is attended with some curious circumstances. The Baron teaches further, that the heavens are in a human form, as well as its inhabitants, that there are rich and poor in it, and that they marry, and are given in marriage*. We forbear to degrade an awful subject by adducing any farther instances of the grotesque and grovelling representa tions which a deluded man would, innocently perhaps, impose upon the world as divine communications: but there is one advantage arising from this circumstance, and that is, that it convicts them of falsehood. We have frequently been at a loss to conceive what attractions a scheme so destitute of any rational foundation, and so repugnant to every notion impressed by scriptural truth, could possess for those who have embraced it, and of whom there are some of intellectual powers and attainments far from contemptible. But the interest excited by whatever is mysterious, and in proportion to the degree of that quality; the pleasure enjoyed in the discovery of what appears to be absolutely placed beyond the sphere of human intelligence; the privilege of surveying the abodes of futurity, and of having them subjected to the senses, materialized, made visible, and tangible ;-these appear to be the causes, which alone can induce men to accept the system under consideration at so large an expence of rational conception and belief. The translation of the treatise concerning heaven and hell observes, concerning the New Northern Star, "he gives us to know from autopsy, or his own view of it, that heaven is not so dull a place, as some foolishly suppose it," &c. p. xxxiv. It is Hell, &c. second edition, 8vo. pp. 34, 225 *See Treatise concerning Heaven and -247, 327-345,385, Dr. Priestley agreed with Swedenborg in the opinion, although he had no visions to support it unless he admitted those of the Baron, that the heavenly state will not be materially different from the present. with pain we read this indirect, and probably unintended, reflection upon the broad and general views which Scripture gives, and which those, who derive their creed exclusively from Scripture, entertain, of the future world. We must say for ourselves, that whatever dullness there may be in such views of the heavenly state, it is, by no means and in no degree, relieved by the light which Baron Swedenborg has introduced into it. We see nothing so attractive, independently of their truth or falsehood, in the gross, terrestrial particularities, with which he has attempted to adorn the kingdom of heaven; nor, even with our present defective portion of spiritual conception, can we behold, otherwise than with disgust, the coarse and gaudy colourings with which this deluded and deluding visionary has presumed to fill up the vacancies left in the general outline which the word of God has deemed it sufficient to impart. The representations which that word gives of the future world, are probably as full and particular as our present state of intelligence will allow: nor probably, without powers of a higher and very different description from those which we now possess, could any additional ideas be communicated on the subject, which, not only should not fail to give information, but should not lead to more inadequate and unworthy conceptions concerning it. As we have scarcely any notions, but negative ones, of the spiritual body, for which the present is to be exchanged hereafter, so neither can we be supposed to have any more appropriate ones of the spiritual and heavenly state. Under these impressions, and more especially with the visions of the Swedish Seer still playing upon our imagination, we cleave with the greater eagerness and gratitude to the sublime generalities, the dignified reserve, and the spiritual representations of the inspired volume, on the awful subject of futurity: nor can we refrain from earnestly re questing the members of the new church, if any such should condescend to peruse our unilluminated pages, soberly to enquire into the stability of the foundation which supports their faith, when the rational faculty is not proof against delusions so palpable as those which we have now been endeavouring to expose, or when the spiritual sense even in its lowest degree, is not revolted by their earthliness and vulgarity. Notes on the West Indies, written during the Expedition under the Command of the late Gen. Sir Ralph Abercromby, including Observations on the Island of Barbadoes, and the Settlements captured by the British Troops upon the Coast of Guiana. Likewise Remarks relating to the Creoles and Slaves of the Western Colonics, and the Indians of South America. With occasional Hints regarding the Seasoning or Yellowfever of Hot Climates. By George PINCKARD, M. D. of the Royal College of Physicians, DeputyInspector General of Hospitals to his Majesty's Forces, and Physician to the Bloomsbury Dispensary. 3 vols. 8vo. London, Longman, Hurst, and Co. 1806. We regret that causes which it would be impertinent to explain to our readers, have prevented us from sooner paying to this valuable work the attention which it deserves. The taste so long prevalent in this country for narratives of voyages and travels, has led to a great multiplication of books of this class; and though the public curiosity has often been abused with fallacious, as well as insipid information, under the alluring title of a tour or voyage, yet one good consequence has resulted from the great activity of our press in this department of science. So many travellers have undertaken to describe the same regions of the earth, and the manners of the same societies, that a discerning reader who will take the pains to compare their different accounts, can rarely be at a loss to fix with tolerable precision those geographical, political, or moral peculiarities, in any civilized country, which most attract and deserve the notice of a stranger. The vanity as well as fidelity of a tourist engages him to point out and correct the mistakes of his predecessors. He again in his turn is corrected by succeeding travellers; and if at last a controversy arises on any important fact, in point of authority, attention to the characters and views of the different writers will commonly enable us to decide it. But there are certain parts of the world, very much frequented by our countrymen, in respect of which the stock of literary information is by no means copious; and this is in a very remarkable degree the case of the British and Foreign West Indies. The causes are many and various The more a country is frequented, cæteris paribus, the less is it a subject of curiosity. Thousands would peruse with avidity a well attested account of Tombuctoo, for one who would take the pains to read the most faithful description of Paris, even if they them selves were previously as ignorant of the one as of the other. In the next place we naturally are the most curious respecting those societies which least resemble our own. Knowing therefore that the West India Islands are peopled by Englishmen, or by our neighbours on the continent, a despised class excepted, of whom we see enough to satisfy curiosity at home, we are not very inquisitive as to the state of society and manners in the Antilles. The political dependency of the colonies also lessens their interest in the eyes of a tourist and his readers. How little did we learn of North America before the revolutionary war, compared to the copious information which has been lately furnished by Mackenzie, by Jefferson, Cooper, Weld, and other intelligent writers! To the It might be added, that of the very many voyagers who visit the West Indies, few have talents, and still fewer inclination and industry enough, to enlighten their countrymen in Europe, by publishing their travels and remarks. professed tourist, the Antilles present very few attractions compared with countries which he may visit with far less personal danger, and yet more of the reputation of courage. He may explore all the antiquities of the Mediterranean and the Levant at less peril by far, though the plague should sometimes take post in his front or in his rear, than the yellow fever alone will expose him to at Barbadoes, or Jamaica:-yet here he will lose amidst a crowd of voluntary and involuntary associates, the distinction due to his temerity. But the dearth of genuine West India information on those local peculiarities which are more deserving of enquiry, is greatly encreased by causes of a different nature. The subject which there most excites the curiosity of a reflecting mind, and the scarcity of impartial information respecting which is most deeply to be lamented, is that strange and unprecedented state of man to which the labouring part of the community is reduced. But on this subject a transient visitor of the West India islands finds it difficult to gain, and highly unpleasant to propagate when gained, any accurate ideas. It is not from the appearance of those negroes who meet the eye of a stranger in the town at which he lands, or in the house at which he visits, that any just notion can be formed of the nature and effects of colonial slavery. It is a very inadequate comparison to say, that the condition of the agricultural and manufacturing poor of this country might as clearly be apprehended by a Chinese, who had seen only the watermen on the Thames, the Custom House Officers on the wharf at which he landed, and the jolly well dressed footmen who waited upon him at the table of an East India Director. The contrast between the town or family negro, and those who form the great mass of the more unfortunate slaves, the common plantation drudges, is far greater than this; for the grand specific enormities of the West Indian oppression, excessive labour extorted by the driving whip and insufficiency of food, are peculiar to the plantation negroes; and excess of punishment in its shocking extremes, is rarely, if ever, openly exhibited in the towns; much less before the eyes of a stranger in a private family. As to the plantation negroes who are occasionally seen in the towns, they are for the most part either the drivers and artificers of the estates, who are exempt from the common labours of the field, or such of the more robust part of the gang as are able to procure grass or some other little article for sale in the market on their own account. Both are always enjoying a short respite from ordinary toil and discipline, when thus presented to observation beyond the bounds of the estate to which they belong; and who is so ignorant of a great law of our natures as not to know, that an air of content, or even joy, in such circumstances, would be as good an argument of the severity as of the lenity of that restraint which is for the moment suspended. It is nevertheless true that such partial and superficial views of the general system as are to be seen in the towns, and under the roof of the master in a festal hour, have been enough to satisfy some visitors of great name: and to induce them to stand forward with much confidence in defence not only of slavery but the slave trade, when they return to this country. Such men had they first landed in England from some foreign country on the May-day, and seen our little chimney sweepers dancing with their garlands and gold paper, would no doubt have vouched on their return that the state of these sooty apprentices was one of perpetual ease, festivity, and selfenjoyment. But the enquiring and reflecting tourist would not draw such rash conclusions. He would see the necessity of exploring in the interior of the plantations, in the discipline of the cane field and the homestall, in the daily and nightly routine of labour and watching at the different seasons of the year, in the number and size of the weekly rations of food compared with the number of slaves to be supported, in the treatment of the sick or feeble, and in short in all the details of the despotic administration to which these poor labourers are subject, the causes of their rapid decrease by mortality, and the truth or falsehood of those charges which have been so strongly urged against their masters by the advocates for an abolition of the slave trade. In the course of such personal investigation, the traveller would soon become a witness of scenes that might materially shorten his labours. But in order to prosecute or even commence such enquiries, a stranger must profit largely of the hospitality of the country; nay, to obtain such particular information as might be desired, and to enter as it were into the dark recesses of a planter's domestic government, he must be treated with confidence as well as kindness by the owner or manager of the plantation. With such confidence a stranger is not easily indulged. The prejudices of Europeans are borne with for awhile, but are a natural source of distrust; and in general none but those who are engaged in the administration of the slave system, or are supposed by long residence to have rubbed off their original prejudices, are treated without reserve, even as to what may be called the ordinary oppression of the island. As to more than ordinary abuses, especially in the article of food and excess of punishment, the masters who are guilty of them are naturally anxious to conceal them from all but the instruments of their own cruelty and injustice. It might be added, that all these difficulties in obtaining distinct views of plantation, slavery are naturally and greatly aggravated, since the commencement of the Parliamentary discussions on the slave trade. We have noticed these circumstances in order to prepare our readers to estimate properly the value of Dr. Pinckard's work; for he has greatly added, not only to the stock of West India information in general, but to that branch of it, among others, which is at once so interesting and of such difficult acquisition. Our author went to the West Indies in 1795, as an army physician, with the staff of General Abercromby, and after a considerable stay at Barbadoes proceeded with a detachment of the army to Berbice and Demerara, and remained in those colonies till May 1797. Here the Doctor had opportunities of observing the interior circumstances of the plantations, such as are rarely possessed by military officers, or persons attached to the ariny in the West Indies; for instead of being placed in a fortress on the sea coast, or on some insulated mountain in the interior, as is commonly the case in other colonies, he went with a detachment into the cultivated parts of the country. In the course of his official duties, or in the intervals of leisure which they afforded, he visited most parts of the settlements, mixed much with the planters, and was long posted in the heart of one of the principal plan tations. These opportunities happily concurred with a curiosity and diligence which are rarely found be tween the tropics. Our author was eager to profit by every mean of information which presented itself, and he preserved the knowledge which he from time to time acquired, by committing to writing every evening, before he retired to rest, the occurrences and remarks of the day. CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 54. We are informed that this task was undertaken chiefly from a desire to gratify a friend in England, by whom Dr. Pinckard was earnestly requested to send him accounts of whatever he might find curious or interesting in the West Indies, and to whom the work is addressed in a series of letters. As conveyances to Europe were rare and uncertain, the author, instead of sitting down to write when an opportunity offered, kept his diary in an epistolary stile, and transcribed from it as often as a vessel was departing for Europe. It is added, that the letters were not meant for publication till the opinions and solicitations of friends influenced the author to send them to the press: and though such professions are often insincere, we give them in this case entire credit; for there is a simplicity and warmth, and often a carelessness in the stile, which seems to mark it as a transcript of recent as well as genuine impressions, made on the mind of the writer by the interesting objects around him, and expressed with all the confidence of friendship. The information contained in these volumes is various and curious, often instructive, and almost always entertaining; but we do not mean to give a full view, nor even a general character, of their miscellaneous contents. We could often object to the stile, and sometimes to the matter of the work; but Dr. Pinckard has every where known how to gain the entire confidence of his readers, and we believe it is because he has no where attempted to deceive. On those subjects which have chiefly attracted our attention, the deeply interesting topics of slavery and the slave trade, Dr. Pinckard is peculiarly entitled to attention. We believe he has never taken any part, public or private, in the abolition controversy, and that while it appears from the present work that he is, through the natural effects of his residence in the West Indies, on terms of friendship with many gen 3 C |