as the whale. In the brute creation, God has also exhibited his wonderful skill and power; for a proof of which I would recommend the reader to attend Mr. Peale's elegant and splendid Museum,* at the moderate price of 25 cents, wherein are exhibited 100,000 • This splendid establishment under the patronage of government, has become the most extensive, useful and interesting in the United States, and but little inferior to the Imperial Museums of Europe. It is displayed with method and neatness, in the following order: The Quadruped Room, which contains 185 animals, all preserved in appropriate attitudes, and all but the largest in glass cases, besides horns, skins, &c. The Long Room is furnished with an elegant display of Birds, in glass cases, to the amount of 1240, a series of Portraits of distinguished characters, 140 in number, including those which are at present in the other rooms, and not including various other Pictures; a splendid collection of Minerals and Fossils, 1920; besides Insects and miscellaneous curiosities, exceeding 6000; and large, rich toned key'd Organ of 8 stops. The Mammoth Room exhibits the stupendoes skeleton of the Mammoth, which was dug from a morass in Ulster county, N. York, in 1801, by C W. Peale, at an immense expense and risk; this antideluvian skeleton measures 18 feet in length, and 11 feet 5 inches in height: contrasted with the skeleton of a Mouse. In this room are likewise Wax Figures of Indians, &c. habited in their own dresses; Instruments of War, Tools, and Dresses; of Indian and other nations, 800 in number-The Marine Room (up the Lobby-stairs) contains 121 Fishes, 148 Sn kes 1-12 Lizards, 40 Tortoises and Turtles, and of Shells and articles worthy of the inspection of the peasant and the potentate; there he may see animals with the assistance of the microscope, not observable with the naked eye, and there he may see the skeleton of the enormous Mammoth or Megalonyx, a carnivorous animal, which, when alive, was about 25 feet high, and 60 feet long. Perhaps God made these animals to show what he could do, and then graciously destroyed the race, lest they should destroy both man and beast. In the above museum, which has been greatly improved, by the ingenuity and indefatigable exertions of Mr. Peale, may also be seen, thousands of the feathered tribe in great perfection; there the ingenious observer, may contrast the enormous eagle, with the delicate and diminutive hummingbird. We have made these few preliminary remarks, which do not properly Corals, &c. 1044, besides cases humourously exhibiting a variety of Monkies employed in the occupations of men. And, lastly separated from this room in a private apartment, a variety of Anatomical Preparations, Deformities, Skeletons, &c. belong to this department, with the view of attracting the reader's attention, to the consideration of the power and goodness of God in the creation. First requesting pardon for the digression, we will proceed to the appeal relative to the impartiality and consistency of the doctrines of the Bible, which, for my own part, I am morally certain, are just and generous, as well as correct, at least the fundamental ones. I will not pretend to deny that any mistakes have attended the translators of the Bible in their researches: indeed, there are some things mentioned in the Old Testament, which, I am confident in the opinion, are mis-translations. And there are other things, perhaps, which savour of the political opinions of the translators. For instance, the men, who with a cringing servility, and fulsome adulation, entitled a poor proud, petulant worm of the earth, with appellations only applicable to God, surely would flatter royalty with all lowliness, in their translation of the Bible. The men who entitled King James the "most high and mighty prince James," or the Most High prince James, or if you please, the Almighty prince James, all of which are synonimous terms, which the translators of the Bible most assuredly did; I say, (or at least, I firmly believe) that such servile mortals would, in order to court the favour and smile of such a prince, make certain parts of Scripture to savour of absolute monarchy, and preach unconditional submission to the higher powers, on pain of eternal damnation. But leaving every other part of Scripture out of the question, the sermon of our high and mighty, and I would add, glorious and gracious Redeemer, is a sufficient light to direct our wandering feet into the path that leads to everlastting day, and tallies in every punctilio, with the sentiments suggested in the book of creation. Even the famous political writer, Thomas Paine, in his miserable theological work, entitled the "Age of Reason," allows, that the morals inculcated by the gracious Redeemer, (blessed be his most holy name,) exceed any thing of the kind ever written by the pen of man. The Scriptures of truth, give a faithful historical account of the people of God in different ages of the world, and his providential favours conferred upon them; they also contain the precious doctrines of Christ, with his exhortations, declarations and sentences.There is a majesty of style, a coherence in parts, an equilibrium in sentiment, a brilliancy of imagery in the book of God, not to be found in any other book in the world. Will any of the critics compare Homer's Iliad, or Virgil's Enead to it? These beautiful epic poems, when compared to the poetry of David, is like comparing a drop of water to the ocean. The world would have been better, if neither Homer nor Virgil had ever composed a line: the object of the first seems to have been the encouragement of war and bloodshed, and the object of the other, to flatter royalty with a cringing servility, and sycophantic adulation, and for which he was superbly rewarded by the Roman emperor Augustus. Could the Scriptures be read in the languages |