more fully and exclusively
displayed--we should have been more gratified; but we are thankful, in
the main, for what we have received. An impulse has been given to
popular inquiry, and a vast field for discussion opened, from which we
can prospectively discern neither less love for man, nor reverence for
God.

Who the author is we have no certain knowledge. It is not, we suspect,
Lord KING, nor Lord THURLOW, nor Lady BYRON; but it may be the author of
the _Essay on the Formation of Opinions_, and of the _Principle of
Representation_. Mr. BAILEY, of Sheffield, though little known,
possesses the fine reasoning powers, intellectual grasp, independence of
research, abstract analysis, and attic style, that would qualify him to
produce the _Vestiges of Creation_, though we never heard that he is a
great natural philosopher. But, as just hinted, deep science is not
evinced by the _Vestiges_, only an able, systematic, and tasteful
arrangement of its distant and recent advances.

"EXPLANATIONS:"

A SEQUEL TO THE

"VESTIGES OF THE NATURAL HISTORY OF CREATION."

(_From the_ ATLAS _of December 20, 1845._)

So many strong objections had been arrayed against the _Vestiges of
Creation_, that the author was called upon to elucidate and reinforce
his argument, or abandon the ground he had taken up. The more candid and
equitable of his judges--those who were disposed to try him upon the
merits, and independently test the claims of his inquiry, as in fairness
it ought to be, as strictly a scientific speculation, regardless of any
constructive bearings it might have on current opinions or
prejudices--could not arrive at any more favourable conclusion than that
he had failed to establish his hypotheses. Indeed this was the only
verdict that could be safely delivered in. The impugners of the work
were in the same helpless predicament as its author, who had, however,
more venturously presumed to unravel unsearchable mysteries, concerning
which, in the existing state of science, men can only conjecture,
wonder, and adore, utterly unable to affirm or deny aught respecting
them. What, for instance, with the remotest semblance of certainty, can
be predicated of the stellar orbs? Is it not idle almost to speculate on
the impenetrable secret of their origin when their very existence is
undefinable--when their end, their glittering discs, and all but
immeasurable distances are wholly unapproachable? Nor hardly less beyond
our grasp i