PREFACE. not exclusively on either side of a question. This should teach us to moderate the asperities of censure against others, who may have taken views of the same subject different from our own, and lead us to examine with caution, those opinions which offer themselves to us without a correspondent degree of evidence. But while we thus recommend diffidence and caution, we must not forget, that, on multitudes of subjects relating to divinity, to morals, and to science, various questions may be proposed, to which no satisfactory replies can be given. He, therefore, who refuses his assent until all difficulties are removed, will live in the region of scepticism, and die without a creed. Into the field of politics it has been rarely our lot to enter. The IMPERIAL MAGAZINE espouses neither Whig nor Tory principles; but it embraces every opportunity of introducing articles which tend to check the progress of anarchy, or to benefit the condition of mankind. The conductors of this journal are well aware, that amidst the fluctuations of public opinion, the orders and gradations of society must be preserved. When these cease, civil government is no more; and consequently, every effort that is made to weaken the ties which bind man to man, tends to dissolve the social compact, and to introduce disorder and confusion into the community. : The enormities which are daily committed, the culprits which are arraigned, and the executions which frequently take place in the metropolis, are dreadful evidences of the prevalence of vice, the source of which may be traced to that laxity of morals, which the principles avowed in many modern publications are calculated to diffuse through society. The moral poison thus disseminated, operating upon the degeneracy of human nature, easily finds a lodgment in the heart, which no antidote can reach, and communicates a contagion which no antidote can expel. So far as human means are concerned, it is only by pre-occupying the mind with scriptural truths, with moral principles, and with just conceptions of things, that these evils can be prevented. To several topics of natural and experimental philosophy, the pages of this volume will shew that we have not been inattentive; and various papers bear evidence, that we have not been destitute of original communications. The plates which adorn the present volume, have been procured at a vast expense, which nothing but an extensive sale could justify, and which nothing could have induced the proprietor to risk, but a confident persuasion that his numerous subscribers would continue their patronage of the IMPERIAL MAGAZINE, and, so far as they deem it worthy of support, recommend it to their neighbours and friends. INDEX TO VOLUME III. A. 912 448, 622 ABILITIES, Natural or Acquired, Replies COL. ....... 702 to a Query on,... 846, 926, 1091 | Caloric,......... 436, 528, 726, 791, 1137 27 C. COL. Cain, Punishment and Mark of, 332 931, 933 Canibalism in New Zealand, 560 ..... 389 928 Adages by Oliver Cromwell, Adulterated Flour, to detect, Atonement, on the, .... Authors and Books, Observations on, Awful Occurrence,..... - Claims, Reflections on the,.... ....720 Caution-Catholic Emancipation, 348 Caxton Printing Office, Destruction of the, 243 Chalmers' Discourses, reviewed, ...... 562 Sermons, Extract from, ..... 902 Chemical Essays, . 436, 528, 726, 971, 1137 Chilblains, to cure and prevent, Children, on the Treatment of, China, Christianity in, .... 1097 ..... 317 117 B. Coincidences-Sneezing-the Trinity, 32 Collins, Ode to the Genius of, ..... 442 Bahama and Bermuda, Inquiries respect ing,..... Benefit derived from Learning, the Arts, 583, 680, 776, 871, 967, 1063, 1159 .... Colours, Observations on, 750 Biblical Column, or Sacred Pillar, .... 998 Birds' Nests, edible, 21 viewed, 383 Cordwainers, Reply to a Query on,.... 1203 Coronation of His Majesty George IV. .. 765 Ode on the, .... 806 Cottage of Pella, by J. Holland, reviewed, 668 Cows, Advantages of Cottagers keeping, 129 Cruelties practised in India, ...... 49 ... 5. Alexander Dherma Rama, formerly a High Priest of Boodhu, .... COL. 42 175 243 378 ......... 1229 7. Adam Sireh-goona Munhi Rathana, formerly a High Priest of Boodhu, 9. Alexander Tilloch, LL. D. &c. ... ...... 10. Rev. J. Campbell, the Missionary Traveller in South Africa, 11. Rev. Sam. Lee, M. A. Professor of Arabic in the University of Cambridge, 13. John Ray, the Botanist, ...... ...... Sketch of New South Shetland, by Capt. Sherratt, 1153 .... 1161 .1215 |