Mr. 13 AKENVELL'S Natural Evidence of a Future Life, derived
from the Properties of Animate and Inanimate Matter, is a work that demands a very careful and considerate examination,—we may say, a more careful and considerate one than we may have the requisite leisure to bestow, at least for some time. The subject, it will be admitted, is one of the last importance ; yet its very nature, and the difficulties which beset it, unlit it in some degree for discussion in the columns of a newspaper. The ground over which the writer travels is very extensive, and involves such questions as the Indestructibility of Matter, the Properties of Matter, and the Phcenomena of Life; all of which are more adapted for closet inquiry than popular disquisition. But if we should not again return to the volume, we can strongly recom- mend it to all who take an interest in the subjects of which it treats. From what we have read, Mr. BAKEWELL is evidently a master of reasoning and language. Ile states his objects dis- tinctly, and the manner in which lie intends to pursue them ; and his statements are couched in a pellucid style, which clearly transmits the idea without allowing it to be changed or coloured by the medium of transmission. And although we suspect the view he adopts is scarcely capable of satisfactory demonstration, we have no doubt that the reader who accompanies him through his arguments will be delighted by much acute reasoning, and have his mind enriched by much curious knowledge both in phy- sical and physiological science.
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