The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-03-04 00:00:00

ON THE STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY.

Oar object in examining the stone, the rock, the lichen, the
moss, the flower, the fruit, the insect, the bird, or the quad-
ruped, is to exercise our faculties by learning how beautifully
and with what wisdom all things have been constructed, how
wonderfully they are formed with relation to each other, and
how manifestly they display a power of which we could form
no conception were we not to attend to its working as exhibited
by them. It is true we cannot fully Comprehend the compli-
cated relations of the most common objects, much less under-
stand the ordination of the universe, or even of our own
world ; but we labour in hope ; we are studying, some of us,
no doubt, very superficially—others more profoundly—the
works of the Deity, and the more progress we make the more
we glorify Him by an intelligent, not a vague admiration.
There are some who aim at the knowledge of general laws,
some who seek simple facts. I^% Parties will find enough to
engage their faculties, and neither will do the work of the
other efficiently. There is no reason why one should despise
the other. Contempt of anything but viceindicates an
unsound mind, a defective judgment, an ignorance of the
relations which men have to each other and to their creator,
an undue self-estimation and a contempt of the rights of other
men. He who measures the orbit of a comet has not, there.
fore, higher faculties than he who examines the cytoblast of a
fungus ; and there is far more to be seen by us in a beetle
than in a planet—upon that granite mountain opposite, at the
distance of nine or ten miles, than in the sun and the moon
and the stars.

Such pleasing self-abnegation and sincere devotion
to his favourite study was eminently characteristic of
Macgillivray. Jealousy of others found no place in
his simple and unpretending yet earnest mind. The
work has been carefully and judiciously edited by
Dr. Lankester, who adds an interesting appendix to
the volume, under the title of " Notes on the Deer of
Scotland," in which much valuable and not very
generally known information is conveyed.

The Papal Con.spiretcy Exposed ; or, the Roraish
Corporation Dangerous to the Political Liberty
and Social Interests of Man. By Edward
Beecher, D.D. ; with Preface by the Rev. James
Begg, D.D. Edinburgh : James Nichol.
This is a volume containing the result of much
reading and no small amount of study. It is written
with much energy ; and, if lacking in some of the
attributes of polished literary composition, it more

than compensates for that deficiency by the intense
earnestness with which the subject is treated, and in
the clearness with which the social dangers against
which it holds out warning. are treated. The author
of the work has, with much zeal, devoted his attention
to an examination of the origin and progress of papal
domination. In prosecution of this object he has dili-
gently read the popular and collated the less generally
known authorities ; and from these he deduces argu-
ments in favour of the conclusion inferred in the title
of his book. The scenes and incidents upon which his
theory is built are not new, but are, unfortunately
for the credit of onr sinful nature, too well known
and too generally authenticated to admit of contradic-
tion, or to be even open to cavil. The chief duty of the
author, then, has been so to connect and weave them
into a continuous, consistent, and strong web, and so
to present them to his readers that no one can miss
his object or mistake his meaning. This he has done
clearly and well. His next object has been to point
out the gross inconsistency between the papal usurpa-
tion, as that is taught and acted on by its accredited
teachers, and the freedom of thought and action incul-
cated by American institutions. He satisfactorily
shows that the wiles and cruelty of the Romish
Church, as these have been exercised with undeviating
aim through successive ages, have proved too strong
for the practical opposition of civil government ; while
her peculiarly constructed tenets, framed entirely for
her own aggrandisement, have invariably resulted in
such a prostration of the human intellect as to render
her sway, politically, as dangerous as it was morally
noxious and degrading.
Having established and illustrated these points
of importance, he proceeds to show, that as Popery
has been, so it will always be, inimical to free institu-
tions and to free thought. This latter position he
deduces, with considerable logical clearness, from the
past history and present operations of the Romish
adherents in the United States, and argues with much
force, that if a check be not put upon those proceed-
ings, even the vigorous republicanism of America
will quail and perish before the insidious machina-
tions of Rome and the stealthy advances of her
cunning and unscrupulous myrmidons. To avert
this, he calls loudly upon his countrymen to resist the
inroads of the Romish clergy made in all directions,
and emphatically warns them of the danger ere it be
too late.

The volume, which is illustrated by a spirited wood-
cut from the graver of Adams, is also furnished with
a preface, addressed to the British public, by the Rev.
Dr. Begg, in which that gentleman, in his usual style
of declamation, calls the attention of British Protest-
ants to the value and importance of the work.

Blackwood's _Magazine. Edinburgh : Blackwoods.
The number for March opens with a review of a
History of Rome, by the Yen. Dr. Liddell, Dean
of Christchurch, Oxford, in which much interesting'
light is thrown on ancient history, by the inscriptions
discovered through the researches of enterprising
travellers in the East. " Monteil" is a story from
the French, and though we have a kind of national
prejudice against French literature, the present cor-
dial alliance between the two nations may justify the
translation of a story which possesses considerable
merit. " Biography gone Mad," is a withering sar-
casm of' the recently-published biographies of two
notorious New York editors. The writer is unsparing
in his denunciation of the libel upon literature by such
works, and might have included in his anathema the
Recollections of the late Samuel Rogers. An article
on the Greek Church contains some valuable informa-
tion on a phase of Christianity which, whilst it was
made the pretext for a quarrel which led to the war
with Russia, will, after peace has been concluded,
excite still greater interest than it has yet done, as
being the direct antagonistic principle to Mohammed-
anism. The recent war of words, in the United States,
on British influence in Central America, though not
likely to result in more than bluster, will give an
interest nevertheless to the article entitled "Nicaragua
and the Filibusters," which details the recent pro-
ceedings in that district. In a paper on " The Scottish
Fisheries," attention is called to a subject of con-
siderable importance to our northern neighbours, from
its promising, under proper management, to become
one of the most considerable sources of wealth as well
as means for the employment of native industry. In
striking contrast with the previous article on " Bio-
graphy Gone Mad," is a review of the memoir of the
" Rev. Sydney Smith." As a rare event in Black-
wood's .Magazine, this number concludes with two
papers on the same subject ; the one headed " Peerages
for Life," by an English, and the other entitled
" The Wensleydale Creation," by a Scotch lawyer.
By both writers the subject is handled in a masterly
style, and the dangers to the Constitution, had resist-
ance not been so nobly made by the House of Lords,
are ably pointed out. On the whole, this number
contains much, both of the useful and ornamental,
that is well deserving of perusal, and Blackwood's
Magazine maintains its position at the head of our
periodical literature.