perty, originated in, or was occasioned by, previously diminishing the quantity of currency in circulation, by the unjust, and impolitic measure, of increasing the value of the pound sterling. This withdrew from the public a large proportion of the nominal pounds sterling, or circulating medium before in existence; depreciating property in the same proportion, or making two pounds represent that which three did before; or one hundred pounds, what was before represented by one hundred and fifty.

Unless these doctrines, as to the rise and fall of prices, are admitted, it will be in vain to attempt remedying the distresses which we now experience.

4. Digest, or Code of Religion.

I have also ventured to sketch out a plan and introduction for the proposed Code of Religion. The undertaking is intended chiefly as a compendium of the evidences for natural and revealed religion, and of the more important doctrines and moral principles which revelation has established. The execution of such a work will require much time and exertion; but the encouragement I have met with from distinguished characters, who have had an opportunity of examining the plan, I trust will be considered an ample justification for engaging in such a work.

From a respectable Prelate, to whom, among others, I submitted the plan of the proposed Code of Religion, I had the satisfaction of receiving a letter, of which the following is a copy:

"I am much obliged by your communication of the inclosed, and return it with many thanks. Though in the midst of a Visitation, I immediately read it, and beg to express my entire approbation of the plan. A clear and popular demonstration of the evidences of natural and revealed religion, with a deduction of the Will of God from both, in a cheap form, is a grand desideratum; and proceeding from you, would go a great way in stopping that overflowing of ungodliness, of which there is no one but must be afraid. I am sorry that I have not time to say more, except to express my sincere hope, that you may complete the work you have in hand, and that it may accomplish all the good you wish for."

Another eminent Prelate acknowledged the receipt of the commencement of the Code of Religion, in the following terms:

"I had the honour of receiving your letter, and the communications accompanying it. My advanced age and infirmities wholly prevent me from attending to any matters unconnected with my professional engagements, which are rather more than I am now equal to.

But you

must allow me to congratulate you, upon having applied to such studies, as interest all for their eternal welfare, after having dedicated so much time to the improvement of their temporal interests."

The celebrated Hannah More, as appears by the subjoined extract of a letter from her friend Mrs Frowd, dated Barley-Wood, June 20. 1820, has expressed her approbation of the work, in the following energetic terms:

"I lament exceedingly to inform you, that in consequence of a long, suffering, and almost hopeless illness, Mrs Hannah More has been for very many weeks indebted to my feeble pen, (a friend staying with her), to answer her letters. Since the time she was favoured with a former letter from you, Sir, (I think before Christmas), she has been <a close prisoner in her chamber, and for upwards of three months past, has been confined to her bed or sofa, alarmingly ill; and I am sorry to say, she still continues in a very weak, suffering, and unrecovered state.

"Mrs More commissions me with her best acknowledgments for your last letter. She desires me to say, that she greatly approves of the plan of your work, and fully appreciates the labour and research which must have been used, to bring, into the compass designed, so large and interesting a mass of religious and moral information and improvement. The method and arrangement of it also, she thinks highly useful; and the deductions arising from considerations of the human mind and body, being novel, are likely to prove very striking, as they are certainly intelligible to all moderately informed persons.

"She desires me to say, it is her sincere opinion, that the work will, as a whole, be extremely interesting and beneficial; but with respect to the assistance you are so obliging as to hope from her, it would be impossible she could render any, under the present sad circumstances of her declining health, she not being even competent to common correspondence, or reading, except in a very limited degree, on account of a complaint she has been a long time troubled with in her eyes; independent of which, Mrs Hannah More says, she could not presume any aid of hers would be acceptable, towards the accomplishment of so learned and scientific a work."

In regard to the advantage of such a work, with the view of promoting the introduction of Christianity in other countries, it has been remarked, "That it would be desirable to arm missionaries, with the means of explaining the grounds on which the superiority of the Christian Religion can be proved; for, where miracles are out of the question, there is no other mode of bringing conviction to the mind, but by a chain of reasoning. With this weapon, the missionaries would be

armed, if the Code of Religion were properly completed. It could not be rendered so perfect as might be wished, without a combination of information and talents, but surely that will not be wanting for so important an undertaking."

It has been well observed by an author who has recently published a valuable work on religion, that unbelievers are often most unreasonably averse to listen to any arguments which may be urged by a clergyman to establish the truth of Christianity, which is an additional argument for a layman taking up the pen, on that most interesting of all subjects *.

The general advantages of the Codean System are strongly exemplified in the subjoined extract of a communication from Mr Attwood of Birmingham: "In the more early ages of society, before knowledge was less multitudinous in its various channels, it might be easy for a man of tolerable application to make himself acquainted with it, upon any given subject. But now, works upon every branch of knowledge are so exceedingly numerous, and so great a proportion of almost every work becomes antiquated by the progress of things, that it is really an Herculean task to search, read, study, and discriminate them all. Therari nantes in gurgite vasto,'-the few scattered truths which have resisted so many storms in the ocean of time, and which even seem to derive strength from the assaults which have shattered the fabrics of error,—all these valuable relics of the days gone by, ought certainly to be collected and preserved, as the inestimable guides of life. To extract, condense †, and exhibit these truths, which the progress of things, and of the human mind, elicits, is the grand object of The Codean System of Knowledge'.

Another author, (Mr Mill, in the preface to his History of India), has ably remarked, "That as no fact is more certain, so none is of more importance, in the science of human nature, than this, that the powers of observation, in every individual, are exceedingly limited; and that it is only by combining the observations of a number of individuals, (or, in other words, forming Codes regarding each important branch of science), that a competent knowledge of any extensive subject can ever be acquired."

* Evidence of the Truth of the Christian Religion derived from the Fulfilment of Prophecy. By the Rev. Alexander Keith, minister of St Cyrus.

+ "Condensation" is the result of much thought and judgment, preserving the truly important facts and observations, and rejecting what is no longer use. ful.

ment.

An author who proposes a new plan of a literary nature, has many difficulties to struggle with in his own country. He has often to encounter personal dislike, party prejudices, and even national resentIt is only in foreign countries, that he can expect an impartial consideration of his schemes. In this respect the author of the Codean System has every reason to be highly gratified, having received a greater number of marks of respect from the public institutions of foreign countries, than has probably fallen to the lot of any other individual *.

I have thus submitted to the reader's consideration, the laborious plan I have undertaken, which nothing would have induced me to attempt at so advanced a period of life (seventy-six), but an irresistible impulse to promote the public good. I may not be able to complete the plan now, in the manner that would perhaps have been practicable some years ago; but I trust it will be in my power to lay a foundation, on which others may erect a superstructure which will last for ages, and which will yet be considered as an important era in the history of literature.

There is nothing that could have induced me to have thought of so laborious an undertaking, at so advanced a period of life, but my having adopted the following division of time, by which I hope to be enabled to live for five or six years longer, without any material diminution of personal strength or of mental power.

It is incredible how much mental labour may be gone through, in the course of twelve months, by a constant and regular application of seven hours per day, to study and business, if the labour is divided, and too much is not undertaken at a time. By adopting, also, a regular system in regard to meals, exercise, and sleep, a good state of

* See the list in the Introduction to vol. i. p. 24.

+ On Sundays, the above plan must be varied, for the purpose of attending "Public worship" in the morning; and in the evenings of that day, from 10 to 11 is employed in "Family worship."

health, and excellent spirits, may at the same time be secured. In short, the "mens sana, in corpore sano," may be enjoyed in the greatest perfection *.

• When young, I was accustomed to study from 10 to 12 hours per day, and to devote only 6 hours to sleep. But it is necessary, as age advances, to diminish the hours of study, and to increase the hours of sleep; and at 76 I am convinced, that the hours of repose should be increased to about 9, and of mental labour decreased to about 7 hours per day.