BABBAGE'S NINTH BRIDGEWATER TREATISE.

THE primal origin of this voluntary volume, is an opinion formally put forward by Mr. WHHWELL in his Bridgewater Treatise, that

mathematical and mechanical philosophers are not likely to afford

much help to the natural theologian. Feeling for the credit of "his order," Mr. BABBAGE determined to volunteer an additional

treatise, which, though not strictly entitled to the generic desig- nation of' " Bridgee ater," or (which is much more important) to any share ill the famous legacy, might be justified in assuming the name in consequence of the similarity of' its purpose.

The book so spontaneously produced consists of fourteen chap- ters, very few of them connected in subject with any of the rest, but all treating more or less directly on " the administration of the universe," and many drawing their arguments from mathe- matics. At the same time, we conceive they rather confirm than overthrow Mr. WHEWELL'S opinion—" that we have no reason whatever to expect from the speculations of mathematicians and mechanical philosophers any help, when we ascend to the First Cause and Supreme Ruler of the Universe." It is very question- able whether Mr. BAI3BAGE can be said to have contributed any thing of importance to the evidences already existing respecting "the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God, as manifested in the Creation."'" But it is clear that if he has succeeded, the credit is not so much due to mathematics in general, as to the author's cal- culating-machine.

His second chapter, for instance, draws its arguments and illus- trations entirely from the calculating-engine. According to Mr. BARRAGE, the display of power and wisdom is greater, when any thing is created which contains within itself the means of bringing about at given periods the changes willed by its maker at its ori- ginal formation, than it' those changes could only be effected by the contriver's interference. Thus, the revolving wheel of the calculating-machine presents to the eye of the observer a suc- cession of numbers each exceeding its predecessor by unity, (as 1, 2, 3, 100, 101, 1,000, 1,001) from one to one hundred million and one. At this period a new law comes into operation, and the next revolution of the wheel turns up "one hundred millions ten thousand and two," and proceeds onward through a series of seem- ing irregularities, but really in obedience to certain provided laws of its manufacture. Now, argues Mr. BARRAGE, as this engine, changing its operations at definite periods previously willed by its maker, shows him to be a greater artist than if he had merely made a machine to go on turning up units ad infinitum, so the facts of geology, which discover a succession of changes in the globe we inhabit, prove its creator to be far more powerful, than if the world had endured in its present condition since it was first called into being. Whilst we fully admit the general assertion of Mr. BABBABE, we feel that it is almost superfluous to point out the false analogy of his argument. Owing to the communications of its inventor, we know by testimony of the highest kind, the origin, objects, design, and laws, of the calculating-machine; which, moreover, was made by a human intellect, and is therefore fully compre- hensible by human minds of kindred, or, may be, of inferior powers. But we are compelled to infer the creation of the uni- verse, and that from a series of testimonies,—wonderful, vast, and overpowering in number, it is true, but the inward nature of the meanest of which, our finite faculties can by no means comprehend, or indeed penetrate beyond the obvious evidences of its actions, and what we call the elements of which its struc- ture is composed. Mr. BABBAGE tells us of the changes that will occur at stated periods in the operations of his machine, and that lie foresaw and willed them. But he does not adduce a tittle of evidence to show that the successive geological changes of the globe were not successively created, but took place in obedience to certain laws impressed upon it at its original formation. Even had he proved his case, his argument would have been Atheistic rather than Theistic. Grant to an Atheist the regular succession and formation of the universe in obedience to certain natural laws, and it will be difficult to prove a First Cause, or to overturn his position as to the eternal existence of matter, and its laws and eventual organizations. The evidence of successive creations, as urged by BuceLAND, is, we think, one of the strongest arguments against Atheism.

• The terms of Lord BRIDGE WATER'S WM.

Two of the chapters on Miracles (for there are three altogether) also fall back on the machine. We will not weary the reader by going at any length into this oftendiscussed subject,—which, by the by, has nothing to do with natural theology : we will, how- ever, state its leading outline, and its fallacy for any useful pur- pose, to show how a " mind hardened by the habit of rigid de- monstration" is unfitted for effectively dealing with the more deli- cate arguments of theology and revelation. " A miracle," says Mr. BARRAGE, "May be only the exact fulfilment of a general law of nature, under *such singular eircunistaoces that to those ireperfe'tly acquainted with that law it appears to be in direct opposition to it." My mephitic., he argues, may be so set as to turo up a number seeming4 in direct opposition to the law which it has been obeying for an almost unlimited number of times, but in reality in obedience to another law. Ergo. miracles Life not, or at least may not be, a deviation from the laws of nature, but arc part of them, if we did but know it. —Passing over the loose- ness of may in a philosophical definition, the merest tyro must perceive that this exposition does not resolve the difficulty which miracles offer to mere reason. A sceptic does not deny the power of omniscience to work a iniraele-.-he merely doubts the will in the alleged instances. If it took place in consequence of some natural law, with which observation could not have acquainted mankind, the supposed human agent in the seeming miracle must have had the law rerealed to him ; which is just as much a miracle as curing a disease or raising the dead. But mark in

what a light the Babbagean rule places prophets and apostles—not to mention a still more sacred character : if Joshua, when com- manding the sun and moon to stand still, knew that they would do so in consequence of a natural law, the inspired prophet is re- duced to the rank of a knowing impostor.

Of the remainder of the papers, we need notice only six. The two on the Account of the Creation, in the first chapter of Genesis, would only relieve us from all doubt on the subject by compelling us to doubt whether we can understand the narrative of Moses at

all : it appears to us that Dr. BUCKLAND's defence, in the last of the real Bridgewaters, was far more cogent. The chapter "Of the Desire of Immortality," is vague in argument, and trite both in matter and expression. " On the Permanent Impression of our Words and Actions on the Globe we inhabit," is curious, but too fine and fanciful for the leading subject on which Mr. BARRAGE is engaged. "Thoughts on the Nature if Future Punishments," iS ingenious and well expressed, with a passage of startling truth

on the haunting nature of our former follies ; but the whole is de-

void of logic—nothing is proved, and little aimed at. " Time" is an eloquent fragment, full of weighty matter, powerfully presented.

Its scope, however, is not altogether clear, nor do we catch the theo- logical purpose with which it was written. But let the reader de- cide for himself. The chapter is short, and we will quote the whole.

Time and change are great, only with reference to the faculties of the beings which note them. The insect of an hour, which flutters, during its transient existence, in an atmosphere of perfume, would attribute unchanging duration to the beautiful flowers of the eistus, whose petals cover the dewy grass but a few hours after it has received the lifeless body of the gnat. 'these flowers, could they reflect, might contrast their transitory lives with the prolonged existence of their greener neighbours. The leaves themselves, counting their brief span by the lapse of a few moons, might regard as almost indefinitely extended the duration of the common parent of both leaf and flower. The lives of indi- vidual trees are lost in the continued destruction and renovation which take place in forest masses. Forests themselves, starved by the exhaustion of the Nil, or consumed by fire, succeed each other in slow gradation. A forest of oaks waves its luxuriant branches over a spot which has been fertilized by the ashes of a forest of pines. These periods again merge into other and still longer cycles, during which the latest of a thousand forests sinks beneath the waves, from the-gradnal subeideace of its parent earth ; or in which extensive inundations, by accumulating the silt of centuries, gradually convert the living trunks into their stony resemblances. stratum upon stratum subsides in com- minuted particles, and is accumulated in the depths of the ocean; whence they again arise, consolidated by pressure or by fire, to form the continents and mountains of a new creation.

Sech, in endless succession, is the history of the changes of the globe we dwell upon ; and human obaervation, aided by human reason, has as yet disco-

vered few signs of a beginning—no symptom of an end. Yet, in that more extended view which recognizes our planet as one amongst the attendants of central luminary ; that sun itself, the soul, as it were, of vegetable and animal tai‘eence, but an insignificant individual among its congeners of the milky way ; When we remember that that cloud of light, gleaming with its myriad systems, is but an isolated nebula amongst a countless host of rivals, which the starry firmament surrounding us on all sides presents to us in every varied form ; some as uncondensed masses of attenuated light, some as having„ in obedience to attractive force, assumed a spherical figure, others, as if further advanced in the history of ;heir fate, having a denser central nuelens surreund.rd by a more diluted light, spreading into sueli vast spares that the whole of our own oebula would be lost in it ; others there are, in which the apparently unformed mat irregular mass of nebulous light is just curdling as it were into separate Systems; whilst many present a congeries of distinct points of light, each, per- baPs, the separate luminary of a creation more Om ioua than our own ; when the hiith, the progress, and the history of sidereal systems are considered, tie require some other unit of time than even that comprehensive one which astronomy has unfolded to our view. Minute and ahno•t infinitesimal as is the time which comprises the history of our race compared with that which records he history of our system, the space even of this latter period forms too limited a standard wherewith to measure the footmarks uf eternity.

It will have been gathered from all this, that the Ninth Bridge- water Treatise is of a very fragmentary nature, and must of neces- sity be deficient in that conviction which is impressed by a long concatenation of causes and a great accumulation of instantial proofs. Neither is this want atoned for by mastery of theolo- gical science, or by occasional felicity of illustration. On the contrary, if faith were likely to be shaken by philosophical disqui- sitions, (which we do not believe,) the work of Mr. BARRAGE would be liable to induce scepticism in veryclose-thinking minds, not by the arguments adduced by the author—for of his right views and intentions there can be no question—but by the impressions which his facts and the fallacy of his arguments are likely to leave behind.