tenor of this elaborate article. "In all of this, there is enough of truth, to elude the charge of deliberate falsehood, and yet so much of error as to present a result, utterly fallacious." (N. A. Review, April, 1827.)

SELECTIONS.

DEFENCE OF JONAH'S HISTORY. Jon. i. 17, ii. 1-10. Abridged from King's' Morsels of Criticism.'

The history of Jonah, though by some carped at and turned into ridicule, contains nothing inconsistent with the soundest philosophy and experience. For,

1. Though a whale, properly so called, has so small a gullet that it could not possibly swallow a man, yet we ought to consider, that the original word does not necessarily mean a whale, as distinguished from other large fishes, but only a great sea monster, of which there are some, the shark among the rest, very capable of swallowing a man whole, and which have done so. A very remarkable fish was taken on our own coast, though probably it was not of the full size, and therefore could not contain the body of a man. But others of its species very well might. A print, and curious description of it, by Mr. James Ferguson, may be seen, (Philosophical Transactions, vol. liii. p. 170,) from which even this small one appears to have been near five feet in length, and of great bulk, and to have been merely, as it were, one vast bag, or great hollow tube, capable of containing the body of any animal of size that was in some small degree inferior to his own. And unquestionably such a kind of fish, and of still larger dimensions, may, consistently even with the most correct ideas of any natural historian, be supposed to have occasionally appeared in the Mediterranean, as well as on our coasts, where such a one was caught, having come up so far as into the Bristol Channel, and King's Road.

2. A man may continue in the water, in some instances, without being drowned. Derham tells us (Physico-Theology, b. 4, cap. 7, note, p. 158, 159; 12mo,) that some have the foramen ovale of the heart remaining open all their lives, though in most it is closed very soon after birth; and that such persons as have the foramen ovale so left open could neither be hanged nor drowned; because, when the lungs cease to play, the blood will nevertheless continue to circulate, just as it does in a foœtus in the womb. Though Mr. Cheselden doubted of this fact, yet Mr. Cowper the anatomist says, he often found the foramen open in adults, and gives some curious instances. Mr. Derham mentions several persons who were many hours and days under water, and yet recovered; and one, who even retained the sense of hearing in that state. And Dr. Platt, (History

of Staffordshire, p. 292,) mentions a person who survived and lived, after having been hanged at Oxford for the space of twenty hours, before she was cut down. The fact is notorious; and her pardon, reciting this circumstance, is extant on record. See Ray on the Creation, p. 230, who observes, that having the foramen ovale of the heart open, enables some animals to be amphibious. Where then is the absurdity in conceiving, that Jonah might have been a person of this kind, having the foramen ovale of his heart continuing open from his birth to the end of his days, in which case he could not be drowned, either by being cast into the sea, or by being swallowed up by the fish?

3. Neither could Jonah be injured by the digesting fluid in the fish's stomach; for Mr. Jo. Hunter observes (Philosophical Transactions, vol. Ixii. p. 449,) "that no animal substance can be digested, by the digesting fluid usually existing in animal stomachs, while life remains in such animal substances. Animals (says he,) or parts of animals, possessed of the living principle when taken into the stomach, are not in the least affected by the powers of that viscus, so long as the animal principle remains. Thence it is, that we find animals of various kinds living in the stomach, or even hatched or bred there. But the moment that any of these lose the living principle, they become subject to the digestive powers of the stomach, If it were possible for a man s hand, for example, to be introduced into the stomach of a living animal, and kept there for some consid erable time, it would be found that the dissolvent powers of the stomach could have no effect upon it; but if the same hand were separated from the body, and introduced into the same stomach, we should then find that the stomach would immediately act upon it. Indeed, if this were not the case, we should find, that the stomach itself ought to have been made of indigestible materials; for if the living principle were not capable of preserving animal substances from undergoing that process, the stomach itself would be digested. But we find, on the contrary, that the stomach, which at one instant, that is, while possessed of the living principle, was capable of resisting the digestive powers which it contained, the next moment, viz. when deprived of the living principle, is itself capable of being digested, either by the digestive powers of other stomachs, or by the remains of that power which it had of digesting other things."-Consistently with which observations of Mr. Hunter, we find, that smaller fishes have been taken alive out of the stomachs of fishes of prey, and (not having been killed by any bite or otherwise) have survived their being devoured, and have swam away well recovered, and very little affected by the digesting fluid. Two instances of this kind are mentioned by Dr. Platt, (History of Staffordshire, p. 246;) and others might be added.

There appears, therefore, nothing unphilosophical, or absurd, in supposing that Jonah (or indeed any other man having the foramen ovale of the heart open, or such a construction of his frame as those persons mentioned by Derham had,) might be cast into the sea, and be swallowed up whole by a great fish, and yet be neither drowned, nor bitten, nor corrupted, nor digested, nor killed; and it will easily

follow, from the dictates of common sense, that in that case the fish itself must either die, or be prompted by its feelings to get rid of its load; and this it perhaps might do more readily near the shore, than in the midst of waters; and in that case, such person would certainly be recovered again, by degrees, and escape. I acknowledge, there must have been a miraculous divine interposition in causing all the circumstances of the presence of the fish, of the formation of Jonah, and of the nearness of the shore at the time of his being thrown up, to concur rightly, to effect his deliverance; and how much the miraculous interposition might extend, we cannot, and ought not to presume to ascertain but solely to show the fact to be philosophically possible, according to the experience we are permitted to be acquainted with, is sufficient to remove, and fully to answer, the objections of scoffers.

GENEVA.

The Papal authority was abolished at Geneva, and the Reformation proclaimed, A. D. 1535. The celebrated John Calvin, passing through the city on a journey, the following year, was induced to make it his permanent abode. With various vicissitudes, especially during the early part of his ministry, he remained here till his death, in 1566. His counsel and aid were often sought and imparted in modelling the reformed churches in other places; but Geneva was the centre of his immediate influence. Here, as has been well observed “he was the light of the church, the oracle of the laws, the supporter of liberty, the restorer of morals, and the fountain of literature and the sciences. To him, the Genevese owe the establishment of their University and schools, which have enabled them to furnish to every country in Europe so many instructors and men of science,"

We propose to offer the testimony of distinguished men, eye-witnesses, as to the moral and religious state of Geneva at different periods. The first is that of John Knox, in 1557, after a residence in that city of about two years. "So much was he pleased with the purity of religion established" there," that he warily recommended it to his religious acquaintances in England, as the best Christian asylum to which they could flee."

"In my heart," says he to a Mr. Locke, "I could have wished, yea, and cannot cease to wish, that it might please God to guide and conduct yourself to this place, where I neither fear nor eshame to say, is the most perfect school of Christ that ever was in the earth, since the days of the Apostles. In other places, I confess Christ to be truly preached; but MANNERS AND RELIGION SO SINCERELY REFORMED, I have not yet seen in any other place beside."*

In 1685, after the lapse of more than a hundred years, in which time the doctrine and discipline of Calvin might be expected to produce their legitimate effects, the celebrated Bishop Burnet visited Geneva. The following is his account of the place.

Geneva is too well known to be much insisted on. It is a little State; but it has so many good constitutions in it, that the greatest may justly learn of it. The chamber of the corn has always two years' provision for the city in store, and forces none but bakers to buy it at a taxed price; and so it is both necessary against any extremities under which the State may fall, and is likewise of great advantage; for it gives a good yearly income, that has helped the State to pay nearly a million of debts contracted during the wars : and the citizens are not oppressed by it; for every inhabitant may buy his own corn as he pleases, only public houses must buy from the chamber. And if one will compare the faith of Rome and Geneva together in this particular, he would be forced to prefer the latter for if good works are a strong presumption, if not a sure indication, of a good faith, then justice being a good work of the first form, Geneva will certainly carry it. If the public makes a moderate gain on the corn, that, and all the other revenues of this small commonwealth, are so well employed, that there is no cause of complaint given in the administration of the public purse, which, with the advantages that arise out of the chamber of the corn, is about one hundred thousand crowns revenue. But there is much to go out of this: three hundred soldiers are paid, an arsenal is maintained, that in proportion to the State is the greatest in the world, for it contains arms for more men than are in the State: there is a great number of ministers and professors, in all twenty-four, paid out of it, besides all the public charges and officers of the Government. The salary for the professors and ministers is indeed small, not above two hundred crowns; but to balance this (which was a more competent provision when it was first set off a hundred and fifty years ago, the price of all things and the way of living being now much heightened) those employments are held in their due reputation, and the richest Citizens in the town breed up their children so as to qualify them for those places. And a minister that is suitable to his character is thought so good a match, that generally they have such estates, either by succession or marriage, as support them suitably to the rank they hold. And in Geneva there is so great a regulation upon expenses of all sorts, that a small sum goes a great way. It is a surprizing thing to see so much learning as one finds in Geneva, not only among those whose profession obliges them to study, but among the magistrates and citizens; and if there are not many men of the first form of learning among them, yet almost everybody here has a good tincture of a learned education, inasmuch that they are masters of the Latin, they know history and the controversies of religion, and are generally men of good sense.

There is a universal civility, not only towards strangers, but towards one another, that reigns all the town over, and leans to an excess so that in them one sees a mixture of a French openness and an Italian exactness; there is indeed a little too much of the last.

The public justice of the city is quick and good, and is more commended than the private justice of those who deal in trade.

:

There is no public lewdness tolerated, and the disorders of that sort are managed with great address. Notwithstanding their neighborhood to the Switzers, drinking is very little known among them. One of the best parts of their law is the way of selling estates. A man that is to buy an estate agrees with the owner, and then intimates it to the government, who order three several proclamations to be made, six weeks one after another, of the intended sale, that is to take place on such a day when the day comes, the creditors of the seller, if they apprehend that the estate is sold at an under-value, may out-bid the buyer; but if they do not interpose, the buyer delivers the money to the State, who upon that give him his title to the estate, which can never be so much as brought under a debate in law; and the price is paid into the State, and is by them given either to the creditors of the seller, if he owes money, or to the seller himself. This custom prevails likewise in Suisse, where also twelve years' possession gives a prescription; so that in no place in the world are the titles of estates so secure as here.

I passed the winter at Geneva with more satisfaction than I had thought it was possible for me to have found anywhere out of England. I ought to make the most public acknowledgements possible for the extraordinary civilities that I met with in my own particular; but that is too low a subject to entertain you with. That which pleased me most was of a more public nature: before I left Geneva, the number of the English there was such, that I found we could make a small congregation, for we were twelve or fourteen; so I addressed myself to the council of twenty-five, for liberty to have our own worship in our own language, according to the best English liturgy. This was immediately granted in so obliging a manner, that as there was not one person that made any exception to it, so they sent one of their body to me, to let me know, that in case our number should grow to be so great that it were fit for us to assemble in a church, they would grant us one which had been done in Queen Mary's reign; but till then, we might hold our assembly as we thought fit so after that time, during the rest of my stay there, we had every Sunday our devotions according to the common prayer morning and evening; and at the evening prayer I preached in a room that was indeed too large for our small company: but there being a considerable number in Geneva that understand English, and in particular some of the professors and ministers, we had a great number of strangers that met with us; and the last Sunday, I gave the sacrament according to the way of the church of England. I shall name to you only two of their professors, that, as they are men of great distinction, so they were the persons with whom I conversed the most: the one is Mr. Turretin,* a man of great learning, that by his indefatigable study and labor has much worn out and wasted his strength, amidst all the affluence of a great plenty of fortune to which he was born: one discerns in him all the modesty of an humble and mortified temper, and of an active and fervent charity, proportioned to his abundance, or rather beyond it; and there is in him such a melting zeal for religion, as the present con

* This must have been the second Turretin.