we have already extended our remarks, should put it so entirely out of our power to do justice to the very extraordinary merit which many of his subordinate speculations possess. It would however be a serious omission did we not particularly recommend to the notice of our readers, the very valuable information which our author has brought together at the second part of this section, in illustration of the use and abuse of hypothesis in philosophical inquiries; as also his remarks upon the very erroneous notions which prevail among a certain class of persons, as to the real nature of experience in the science of political economy. Our author's sentiments upon this subject are stamped with all that good sense and good feeling which he so very eminently possesses. But the part of his volume to which we would more particularly direct the attention of our readers, is the truly admirable dissertation upon final causes with which he closes. Among the inexhaustible variety of important facts and most eloquent remarks with which the whole of this section abounds; the difficulty of rejection is so great, as hardly to leave the possibility of choice; we shall however venture upon the following passage, as affording a just specimen of the spirit which pervades the whole. After remarking the confusion between final and efficient causes, which is to be found in the writings of some of our latest and most eminent moralists, and noticing the bad effects which the same error formerly produced upon physical science, Mr. Stewart observes:

To the logical error just mentioned, it is owing, that so many falseaccounts have been given of the principles of human conduct, or of the motives by which men are stimulated to action. When the general laws of our internal frame are attentively examined, they will be found to have for their object the happiness and improvement both of the individual and of society. This is the final cause, or the end for which we may presume they were destined by our maker. But in such cases, it seldom happens, that while man is obeying the active impulses of his nature, he has any idea of the ultimate ends which he is promoting; or is able to calculate the remote effects of the movements which he impresses upon the little wheels around him. The active impulses, therefore, may, in one sense, be considered as the efficient causes of his conduct; inasmuch as they are the means employed to determine him to particular pursuits and habits; and as they operate (in the first instance, at least) without any reflection on his part on the purposes to which they are subservient. Philosophers, however, have in every age been extremely apt to conclude, when they had discovered the salutary tendency of any active principle, that it was from a sense or pre-knowledge of this tendency that the principle derived its origin. Hence have arisen the theories which attempt to account for all our actions from self-love; and also those which would resolve the whole of morality, either into political views of general expediency, or into an enlightened regard to our own self-interests.'-pp. 473, 474.

x 2

After

After producing an appropriate quotation from Adam Smith, in confirmation of this very sensible observation, and instancing Paley and Godwin as writers by whom it has been altogether overlooked, our author goes on to expatiate upon the many blessings both to society and ourselves, which follow in the train of our social virtues.

'It does not, however, he continues, follow from this, that it is from such a comprehensive survey of the consequences of human conduct, that our ideas of right and wrong are derived; or that we are entitled in particular cases to form rules of action to ourselves, drawn from speculative conclusions concerning the final causes of our moral constitution. If it be true (as some theologians have presumed to assert) that benevolence is the sole principle of action in the Deity, we must suppose that the duties of veracity and justice were enjoined by him, not on account of their intrinsic rectitude, but of their utility; but still, with respect to man, these are sacred and indispensable laws;-laws which he never transgresses without incurring the penalties of self-condemnation and remorse: and, indeed, if without the guidance of any internal monitor, he were left to infer the duties incumbent on him from a calculation and comparison of remote effects, we may venture to affirm that there would not be enough of virtue left in the world to hold society together. To those who have been accustomed to reflect on the general analogy of the human constitution, and on the admirable adaptation of its various parts to that scene in which we are destined to act, this last consideration will, independently of any examination of the fact, suggest a very strong presumption a priori against the doctrine to which the foregoing remarks relate. For is it at all consonant with the other arrangements so wisely adapted to human happiness to suppose, that the conduct of such a fallible and short-sighted creature as man, would be left to be regulated by no other principle than the private opinion of each individual concerning the expediency of his own actions? or, in other words, by the conjectures which he might form, on the good or evil resulting on the whole from an endless train of future contingencies were this the case, the opinions of mankind respecting the rules of morality, would be as various as their judgments about the probable issue of the most doubtful and difficult determinations in politics. Numberless cases might be fancied, in which a person would not only claim a merit, but actually possess it, in consequence of actions which are generally regarded with indignation and abhorrence ;-for unless we admit such duties as justice, veracity, and gratitude, to be immediately and imperatively sanctioned by the authority of reason and of conscience, it follows, as a necessary inference, that we are bound to violate them, whenever by doing so, we have a prospect of advancing any of the essential interests of society; or (which amounts to the same thing) that a good end is sufficient to sanctify whatever means may appear to us to be necessary for its accomplishment. Even men of the soundest and most penetrating understandings might frequently be led to the petration of enormities, if they had no other light to guide them, but. what they derived from their own anticipations of futurity. And when

per

we

we consider how small the number of such men is, in comparison of those whose judgments are perverted by the prejudices of education and their own selfish passions, it is easy to see what a scene of anarchy the world would become. Of this, indeed, we have too melancholy an experimental proof in the history of those individuals who have in practice adopted the rule of general expedience as their whole code of morality; a rule which the most execrable savages of the human race have, in all ages, professed to follow, and of which they have uniformly availed themselves, as an apology for their deviations from the ordinary maxims of right and wrong. Fortunately for mankind, the peace of society is not thus entrusted to accident, the great rules of a virtuous conduct being confessedly of such a nature as to be obvious to every sincere and well-disposed mind. And it is in a peculiar degree striking, that while the theory of ethics involves some of the most abstruse questions, which have ever employed the human faculties, the moral judgments and moral feelings of the most distant ages and nations, with respect to all the most essential duties of life, are one and the same.'-pp. 477-480.

We shall now bring to a close our remarks upon this very able and eloquent volume. The extraordinary length to which they have already extended will force us to take our leave of Mr. Stewart somewhat abruptly; we shall, however, once more apologize for the freedom with which we have so often differed from his opinions, trusting that our best excuse will be found in the reasons which we have invariably stated for our dissent. We are promised in the advertisement to this second volume, that it will be soon followed by a third; and the subjects which our author seems to have reserved for consideration in it, appear to be so much less connected with his peculiar tenets, than those which we have just been examining, that we may confidently affirm, not even Mr. Stewart's most zealous admirers can look forward to the time when he shall be able to fulfil his promise, with greater hopes either of profit or of pleasure, than ourselves.

ART. II. Travels to the Source of the Missouri River, and across the American Continent to the Pacific Ocean. Performed by order of the Government of the United States in the Years 1804, 1805, and 1806. By Captains Lewis and Clarke. Published from the Official Report, and illustrated by a Map of the Route, and other Maps. London; Longman and Co. 4to. pp. 662.

FIFTY years ago our countryman Carver formed a plan for travelling across America from the Atlantic to the Pacific, in the broadest part of that vast continent, between 43 and 46 degrees north latitude. Having failed in two attempts for want of means,

he planned a third in the year 1774, in conjunction with Richard Whitworth, a man who has left some brick and mortar monuments of his eccentricity in the town of Stafford, which he represented in parliament. Their scheme was to ascend the Missouri, discover the source of the Oregan or River of the West, and proceed down that river to its mouth-precisely what Captains Lewis and Clarke have now accomplished. There they were to have formed a settlement, and attempted to discover a passage from the Pacific to Hudson's Bay, and they were to have taken with them artificers and seamen sufficient to build and navigate vessels for this purpose. The promotion of such discoveries is one of the glories of the present reign government approved the enterprize, and it was on the point of being realized when the troubles in America began.

That the completion of the scheme,' says Carver, which I have had the honour of first planning and attempting, will some time or other be effected, I make no doubt. Those who are so fortunate as to succeed in it, will reap (exclusive of the national advantages that must ensue) emoluments beyond their most sanguine expectations. And whilst their spirits are elated by their success, perhaps they may bestow some commendations and blessings on the person that first pointed out to them the way; these, though but a shadowy recompense for all my toil, I shall receive with pleasure.'

Carver has long been beyond the reach of any such recompense; but it would not have misbecome the American journalists, if they had bestowed upon their able and enterprizing forerunner, the commendation which he anticipated and desired.

Had the expedition been executed under the auspices of the British government, it would have been fitted out with characteristic liberality; draftsmen and naturalists would have been attached to it, and the official publication might have vied in beauty and excellence with that of Cook's Voyages. It is both ungrateful and unjust to censure an individual traveller if he fail as an artist, or be deficient in those branches of science which would have enriched his observations: every man who contributes to the stock of our knowledge is a benefactor to the public, and entitled to our respect and gratitude. But when expeditions for the purpose of discovery are undertaken by a public body, that body is censurable, if any thing be wanting to render the information full and complete. There could be no want of draftsmen and naturalists in the United States, and young men of liberal pursuits are never likely to be wanting in enterprize. The fault therefore rests with those who directed the expedition, and is probably imputable to the spirit of an illiberal and parsimonious government.

The expedition under Captains Lewis and Clarke was proposed to Congress in the beginning of 1803, and begun in the May of the following

following year. The first notice of it was a summary narrative by Captain Lewis, which, with some account of the Indians, was presented to Congress in 1806, and afterwards re-printed in this country. There is some curious matter in this publication, but the writer has not distinguished what is original and what is mere com→ pilation, and has made free use of Carver's Travels without referring to them. A second and fuller account by Patrick Gass, a serjeant in the party, was published at Pittsburgh, re-published here, and noticed in our second number. We have now the official narrative, printed from the American original, the sheets of which were forwarded to this country by the proprietors. It is a volume which, for weight and fullness, reminds us of old times, containing nearly as much as three quartos, such as quartos are in these degenerate days.

The party consisted of nine young men from Kentucky, fourteen soldiers, who volunteered their services, two French watermen, an interpreter and hunter, and a black servant; all, except the last, were enlisted to serve as privates during the expedition, and three serjeants were appointed from amongst them. In addition to these, seven soldiers and nine watermen were engaged to assist in carrying the stores, and if need should be, in repelling an attack, of which some apprehensions were felt in the earlier part of the journey. Captain Merewether Lewis, who was Mr. Jefferson's private secretary, and Captain William Clarke, both officers of the army, were associated in the command. They embarked in three boats; the first was a keel boat, fifty-five feet long, drawing three feet water; a deck of ten feet in the bow and stern formed a forecastle and cabin, and the middle was covered by lockers, which might be raised so as to form a breast-work in case of attack; the other two were perioques, in American language, or open boats, one of six, the other of seven oars; and two horses were to be led along the banks for the use of the hunters. On the 14th May, 1804, leaving their encampment at the mouth of the Wood River, a small stream which falls into the Mississippi opposite to the entrance of the Missouri, they began the longest river voyage that has ever been undertaken since that of Orellana. They were not indeed amused by such tales as were told to Hennepin and to Marquette, when they explored the Mississippi; that it was full of monsters who devoured canoes as well as men; that the devil stopt its passage and sunk all those who ventured to approach the place where he stood, and that the river itself at last was swallowed up in the bottomless gulph of a tremendous whirlpool; nor did they expect to meet with the Spirits and Pigmies, who were formerly said by the savages to inhabit the countries through which they were to pass. But there was enough