t The Fifty-sixth Number of the Family Library commences a
very difficult undertaking—the adaptation of JOHN WESLEY'S Compendium of Natural Philosophy to the state of science in the present day. When it is remembered that little was known of Physiology, and comparatively nothing of Chemistry, at the tima WESLEY wrote, it would have seemed more advisable to produce an entirely new work, (ifonc were needed after PALEY and the Bridge- water Treatises), rather than attempt to patch together old and new garments. The name, however, of the great Dissenter, was, we suppose, all-powerful with the publisher, when the professed ob- ject of the publigation was to make the facts of nature illustrate the doctrines of theology ; and in selecting Mr. MulHE for the task, lie has perhaps chosen the person best fitted for it by a competent general knowledge of the subjects combined with powers of popular explanatim.
Previous page
