Nature. Yet he is, not disposed so to deem or speak of Nature as to veil behind her the immanence and necessary action of God in all her phenomena. Nature is the art of God.' Again, he will not, with the vulgar, ascribe any real power to chance or fortune; it is we that are blind, not fortune;' which is but another name for the settled and predetermined evolution of visible effects from causes the knowledge of which is inaccessible to us. He could himself (§ 21) produce a long list of difficulties and objections in the way of faith, many of which were never before started. But if these objections breed, at any time, doubts in his mind, he combats such misgivings, not in a martial posture, but on his knees.'

From this description of the contents of the first few sections, the reader may form some notion of the peculiar and most original vein of thought which runs through the book. As the first part treats of faith, so the second gives the author's meditations on the virtue of charity. A delightful ironical humour breaks out occasionally, as in the advice which he gives to those who desire to be strengthened in their own opinions. When we desire to be informed, 'tis good to contest with men above ourselves; but to confirm and establish our opinions, 'tis best to argue with judgments below our own, that the frequent spoils and victories over their reasons may settle in ourselves an esteem and confirmed opinion of our own.'

The treatise on vulgar errors, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, is an amusing examination of a great number of popular customs and received explanations, which, after holding their ground for ages, during the long night of science and philosophy, were now breaking down on all sides under the attacks of the enfranchised intellect. The Garden of Cyrus is an abstruse dissertation on the wonderful virtue and significance of the quincuncial form. This is mere mysticism, and of no more value than the dreams of the Pythagoreans as to the virtue of particular numbers.

S

Physical Science.

The present Royal Society, incorporated with a view to the promotion of physical science in 1662, arose out of some scientific meetings held at Oxford in the rooms of Dr. Wilkins, the President of Wadham College. They soon had the honour of numbering among their fellows the great Newton, some of whose principal discoveries were first made known to the world in their Proceedings. Newton was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge; in the chapel of which society may be seen a noble statue of him by Roubillac, with the inscription, Qui genus humanum ingenio superavit.'

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CHAPTER V.

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

WE will commence, as in the last period, with a brief summary of the political history.

The opening of the century beheld the firm establishment of the state of things brought in at the Rovolution of 1688, by the passing of the Act of Settlement, limiting the succession to the crown to Sophia, wife of the elector of Hanover, and the heirs of her body, being Protestants. Upon the accession of Anne in 1702, a Tory ministry came into power for a short time. But its principal member-the able and unprincipled Godolphin-passed over to the Whigs, and it was Whig policy which engaged the nation in the war of the Spanish succession. Marlborough, the great Whig general, was closely connected with Godolphin by marriage. Everyone has heard of the victories of Blenheim, Ramillies, and Oudenarde. The Whig ministry was dismissed in 1710, and their Tory successors, Harley Earl of Oxford, and St. John Lord Bolingbroke, concluded the peace of Utrecht in 1713. But at the death of Anne in the following year the Tory ministers, who showed symptoms of favouring the claims of the Pretender (the son of James II.) were at once hurled from power, and the long period of Whig rule commenced, which only ended with the resignation of Sir Robert Walpole, in 1742. This celebrated minister practically ruled the country for twenty-one years, from 1721 to 1742, during which period England, through

him, preserved peace with foreign powers; and such wars as arose on the continent were shorter and less destructive than they would otherwise have been. But in 1741 the temper of the country had become so warlike that a peace policy was no longer practicable, and Walpole was forced to succumb. The administration which succeeded, in which the leading spirit was that fine scholar and highminded nobleman, Lord Carteret (afterwards Earl Granville), engaged in the Austrian succession war on the side of Maria Theresa. England played no very distinguished part in this war, the success at Dettingen (1743) being more than counterbalanced by the reverse at Fontenoy two years later. The intrigues of the Pelhams drove Lord Granville from office in 1744, and the Duke of Newcastle, with his brother, Mr. Pelham, formed, with the aid of the leaders of the opposition, what was called the 'Broad bottom' ministry. Newcastle-a man of small ability, but strong in his extensive parliamentary influence-remained prime minister for twelve years. In 1745 occurred the insurrection of the Highland clans in favour of the Prince Charles Edward, grandson of James II. After defeating the royal troops at Prestonpans, the Prince marched into England, and penetrated as far as Derby. But, meeting with no support, he was compelled to retreat, and in the following year his followers were totally routed by the Duke of Cumberland at Culloden. The continental war was terminated by the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. At the breaking out of the Seven Years' War in 1756, in which England was allied with Frederick of Prussia against France and Russia, the Duke of Newcastle's incapacity caused everything to miscarry. Minorca was lost, and the Duke of Cumberland capitulated, with his whole army, to the French, at Closter-seven. Pitt, the great Commoner, the honest statesman, the terrible and resistless orator, had to be admitted, though sorely against the king's will, to a seat in the Cabinet. The force of his genius and the

contagion of his enthusiasm effected a marvellous change; and the memorable year 1759 witnessed the triumph of the allies at Minden, the victory of Wolfe on the heights of Abraham, which led to the conquest of Canada, and the defeat of the French fleet by Hawke off Belleisle.

Pitt had to resign in 1761, making way for the king's favourite, Lord Bute, who concluded the treaty of Fontainebleau at the end of 1762, by which Canada, Cape Breton, part of Louisiana, Florida, the Senegal, and Minorca were ceded to Britain. For the next twelve years England was universally regarded as the most powerful and successful nation in Europe. But the war had been frightfully expensive, and Mr. Grenville, who was prime minister from 1763 to 1765, conceived in an unlucky hour the idea that a revenue could be raised from America by taxes laid on the colonies by the authority of Parliament. The Repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766 delayed the bursting of the storm; but fresh attempts at taxation being made, and resisted by the people of Boston, the war of independence broke out in the year 1775, and, through the help of France, which allied itself with the new Republic in 1778, resulted in the recognition by Great Britain of the independence of the United States in 1783. Lord Chatham, who had all along condemned the awkward and irritating measures of coercion employed by the ministry, vainly opposed, in his memorable dying speech in the House of Lords, the dismemberment of this ancient monarchy.'

6

The administration which conducted the American war was presided over by the Tory premier, Lord North, who governed the country for twelve years, from 1770 to 1782. Up to the former date the powers of government had, ever since 1688, been exercised, with the exception of a few brief intervals, by the great Whig families-the Russells, Pelhams, Fitzroys, Bentincks, &c. (together with the commoners whom they selected to assist them)-who