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some of his followers at this day and we recognise in ourselves aa image of god that is of the supreme not indeed equal nay far and widely different not and to express the whole more briefly not of the same substance with god yet that than which of all things made by him none in nature is nearer to god which image is yet to be by re formation that it may be nearest in likeness also for we both are to know that we are to love to be this and to know it in these then moreover no falsehood resembling truth us xi c as translated in s ed of london vol vo p note the late dr seems aware of the of language and its inability to express the idea of a indeed there is oo word in any language which can convey a precise idea of this follow the attempts to one person out of these two natures some said there was one will others two wills in the person of christ this was the quarrel of the and the others said the union was effected by the loss of the attributes of the human or divine being some supposing the one passed into and so became the other or that both in a but it became to affirm that each retained all its peculiar attributes and so the two were united now this doctrine may seem very wise because it is very but the same words may be applied to other things we have very little skill in showing up but can apply all this language to very different matters and it shall sound quite as well as before thus we may take a circle instead of the father and a for the son and say the two natures were found in one the circle became a and yet lost none of its while the became a circle yet lost none of its the union of the two was perfect the character of each being preserved they point for point area for area centre for centre for yet was one still a circle the other a but both made up the the one was not inscribed nor the other we would by no means deny the great fact which we think lies at the bottom of this notion of the a fact however which it seems to conceal as often as to express in our times that the deity and therefore himself more or less perfectly in human beings and especially in the climax of human beings through whom proceed the divine influences which also proceed from the father hence the doctrine of the holy ghost this truth we think is expressed in all in the of the notions of the the angels and that make up the of the which daniel seems to imitate and the author of the to have in his eye distinction for it is not similar to any other distinction in the minds of men so that it is very whether we use the name person or any other name or a instead of a name in upon this subject sermon iv p b s april but to return these points fixed the catholic dwelt chiefly on the divine in christ and continued to do so till the while the human side was represented by and whom here we have not space to name we now pass over some centuries in which there was little life and much death in the church times when the rays of religious light as they came through the darkness fell chiefly it seems on men whom the light rendered suspicious to the church and come down to times after the after the great battles had been fought through and the council of held its and the incident to all great of thought had passed over and the oriental and one sided view of christ s nature had been the human side of of it comes out once more into its due by the long one sided contemplation of the divine in christ his person came to stand as somewhat absolutely as the other side of and beyond human nature something perfectly inaccessible to the thought while it is the greatest thing in christianity to recognise oar brother in him with the there had tendency which laid small stress on the old notions of christ in which the divine nature had and crushed the and human nature in him this new tendency is a feature of the it shows itself in the doctrine of justification by faith and quite as powerfully in the altered form of but here too we must tread with rapid feet and rest on only two of the numerous systems of this period one from the themselves the other from a the human nature is capable of divinity said the early what christ has first done all may do afterwards well said martin strange as it may seem to modern who learn history from the library of useful knowledge lo christ takes our birth that is the of human nature from us unto himself and sinks it in his birth and gives us his that we thereby may become pure and new as if it were our own so that every christian may enjoy this birth of christ not less than if he also like were born bodily of the s virgin mary or doubts this the same is no christian again this is the meaning of to us a child is born to us a son is given to us to us to us is he born and to us given therefore look to it that thou not only out of the a fondness for the history itself but that thou this birth thine own and with him free from thy birth and pa over to his then thou indeed shalt sit in the	37
lap of the virgin mary and art her dear child this thought lay at the back ground of the which itself was but an imperfect exhibition of that great principle he that will look traces the action of this same principle in that great revival of religion five centuries before christ in the numerous from the first century to the in such writers as the st and many others perhaps it appears best in that little book once well known in england under the title and now studied in germany and called a book of which says in the preface to his edition of it in next to the bible and st i have never met with a book from which i have learnt more what god christ man and all things are read this little book who will and then say whether our is old or new for this little book is not new we give a few words from it relating to the of god for the private ear of such as think all is new which they never heard of before and all naughty things exist only in german it says man comes to a state of union with god when he feels and loves no longer or that or his own self but only the eternal good so likewise god loves not himself as himself but as the eternal good and if there were somewhat better than god the god would love that the same takes place in a divine man or one united with god else he is not united with him this state existed in christ in all its perfection else he would not be the christ if it were possible that a should be perfect and entire in true obedience be as the human nature of christ was that man would be one with christ and would be by grace what he was by nature man in this state of obedience would be one with god s april for he would be not himself but god s own and god himself would then alone become man christ is to you not merely the isolated in his but we are all called to this that god should become man in us he that believes in christ believes that his christ s life is the noblest and best of all lives and so far as the life of christ is man so far also is christ in him in this book and its ideas are as old in this shape as the time of the the historical christ is only the primitive type the divine idea of man who appears only as a model for us and we may be all that he was and we are christians only in so far as we attain this it is only on this we take it there can be a which does not the nature of man this same idea that all men are capable of just the same kind and degree of union with god which attained to runs through all the following it appears in a modified form in and whom we shall only name f but they all place the historical below the internal christ which is formed in the heart and here what dr calls the of the principle of the though the between nature and grace was still acknowledged by the but as our author thinks the view received a one sided development especially in and the who differ however in this at least that while the former in his way allows christ to be in part the dr a very able writer and professor at sums up the various theories in this way must be regarded either as a necessary process in the development of the deity himself as he the idea of his being or as an and necessary process in the development of man as he becomes reconciled with himself the one is wholly the other wholly or as the of a which holds the human and divine natures both so both the above in this case reconciliation rests entirely on the historical fact which must be regarded as the necessary condition of reconciliation between god and man of course he who takes this latter view considers as a sacrifice for the sins of the world see his die von der in c t see s de j c et l his in etc see also von j c und von der s closely in many respects with that of s ter considers him certainly a created being to whom god had imparted the divine attributes we pass over and and give a few from with him man is an of the whole world a favorite notion with many all his knowledge is the eye by which all things are seen is man himself but only in reference to natural knowledge for in supernatural knowledge man himself is not the eye but god himself is both the light and the eye in us our eye therefore must be passive and not active yet god is not foreign to men in whom he is the eye but that passive relation of man to him has this significance that man is the yielding instrument by which god becomes the seeing eye this light in us or the word is for him the true christ and the historical god man entirely in the back ground the book whence all wisdom comes is god s word a book written by the finger of god in the heart of all men though all cannot read it out of this are all books written this book of life to which the sacred are an external testimony is the likeness of god in man the seed of god the light the word the son christ this book lies concealed in the heart concealed in the flesh concealed in the letter	37
of but if it were not in the heart it could not be found in the flesh and the scripture if this were not preached within us if it were not always within us though in we could have nothing of it a doctrine common enough with the fathers of the first three or four centuries if we had remained in paradise we should never have needed the outward word of scripture or the historical of but from paradise and fallen through sin it is needful that we be born again of christ for we have lost the holy flesh and the holy ghost and must recover both from christ be quaint george has a similar thought we quote from memory for sure when adam did not know to sin or sin to he might to heaven from paradise go as from one room to another s april cause we cannot read this inner book god will alter our spirit by and sermons all books are only for men christ was necessary to the race as the steel to the stone but his office is merely that of a prophet and preacher of for god was in adam and as well as in and the lord from heaven exists in all men the external christ who was born of mary is an expressive and visible model of the internal christ in a word he makes christ the universal divine spirit shed down into man though it lies buried and immovable in most men but whenever it comes to consciousness and is lived out there is an of god these views were shared by many teachers who them more or less of whom we need mention but a few of the more prominent henry more and robert and thomas and this view appears in jacob and through him it passed on to philosophy for it is absurd to deny that this surprising man has exerted an influence in science as deep almost as in religion german philosophy seems to be the daughter of but we must make a long leap from to who has had an influence on that will never pass away it came as a thunder bolt out of the sky to strike down the of doubt and scatter the clouds of admits that io practice and the actual life of man the moral law is subordinate to this he calls radical evil then to perfect mankind we need a radical restoration to restore the principles to their from which they have been this restoration is possible on three conditions i by the idea of a race of men that is well pleasing to god in which each man would feel his natural destination and it is the duty of each to rise to this believe it and trust its see who will his three on the glory of christ as god man and s book to which he knowledge of god the father and his son j c see also the writings of edward worth s sermon before the house of parliament in the american ed of his works vol ii p er this state may not be attained but by embracing the principle well pleasing to god and all the faults in this principle vanish when the whole course is looked at we should not be disturbed by fear lest the new moral disposition be transient for the form of goodness with the exercise of it the past sins are only by suffering or of well being in the next stage of progress the foundation of a moral without this there will be confusion this is possible only on condition that it is religious also thus this is at the same time a church though only an ideal one for it can rest on nothing external but only on the authority of reason which contains in itself the moral idea this ideal church to become real must take a form for it is an universal tendency of man to demand a confirmation of the truth of reason and this renders it necessary to take some outward means of introducing the true rational religion since without the of a revelation man would have no confidence in reason though it disclosed the same truths with revelation because it is so difficult to convince men that pure morality is the only service of god while they seek to make it easier by some superstitious service on these notions the following is naturally constructed man needs no outward aid for the purpose of reconciliation or happiness but the belief in an outward revelation is needed for the basis of the moral christianity can allow this as it has a pure moral spirit here everything turns on the person of its founder he demands perfect virtue and would found a kingdom of god on the earth it is indifferent to practical religion whether or not we are certain of his historical existence for historical existence adds no authority the historical is necessary only to give us an idea of a man well pleasing to god which we can only understand by seeing it realized in a man who preserves his morality under the most difficult circumstances to get a it is a saying of pagan in the we shall never have perfect men until we can surround them with perfect circumstances an idea the english are attempting to carry out in a very one sided manner vol ii no iv a april knowledge of qualities such as the idea of the good moral actions must be presented to us performed in a human manner this is only needed to awaken and moral emotions that in us the historical appearance of a man without sin is possible but it is not necessary to consider he is born even if the impossibility of the latter is not absolutely but since the of a man well pleasing to god lies in us in	37
son of god is the human race created out of the substance of the father of all appearing as a suffering divinity exposed to the horrors of reaching its highest point in christ it the world of the and that of the infinite as the sign of the spirit with this conclusion the in which christ as the only god man has been arrayed must fall off the ever living spirit will clothe christianity in new and permanent forms speculation not limited by the past but com distinction as it stretches far on into time has prepared for the of christianity and the of the absolute gospel viewed in this light christianity is not regarded merely as doctrine or but as divine act the history of christ is not merely an and single but an eternal history at the same time it finds its anti type in the human race christianity therefore is not merely one religious constitution among others but the religion the true mode of spiritual existence the soul of history which is ed in the human race to it into one vast body whose head is christ thus he would make us all brothers of christ and show that the of god still goes on to in the birth of the son of god until the divine life takes to itself the whole human race and all through it and it as bis body of which christ is the head as his temple of which christ is the corner stone we shall not dwell upon the excellence of this view nor point out its defects the few who understand words of st john and the many who do not understand them can do this for themselves our remarks are already so far extended that we must omit the of though this however we do with the less reluctance as the last word of that system has but just reached us it comes with the conclusion of s work on we regret to pass over the views of which have had so deep an influence in germany and among many of the more of our brethren in this country to most of our own only the horrors of its faint echo have come we give dr s conclusion in his own words has now reached a field as full of as it is of but the anxiety which here takes possession of us is a joyful one and bears m itself the tranquil and certain conviction that after a long night a beautiful dawn is nigh a great course has been run die c von dr d f you to s through and the deep of the greatest minds of the primitive times of christianity begin to find their scientific after long toil of the human mind the time has at last come when a rich harvest is to be from this while the union already hastening is effected between the essential elements of which seem the most hostile to each other previous have chiefly presented these elements in their separation and opposition to one another now while we contemplate them together in their living unity which their distinction from one another we see their historical confirmation and necessity and now as and according to the prophet were to present their homage to the lord so must the middle ages with their and modern philosophy the whole of history as well of the as that of the christian about the one the son of man that they may lay down their best gifts before him who first them to understand themselves while on the other hand he on them the dignity of his own and them to contribute to it so that by their service likewise his character shall pass into the consciousness of the human race with an increasing brilliancy now if we ask what are the merits and defects the work we have passed over the answer is easy it is a valuable history of as such it is rich with instruction and suggestion a special history of this matter was much needed that this in all historical respects answers the demands of the time we are not competent to decide however if it be imperfect as a history it has yet great historical merits its chief defects are of another kind its main idea is this that the true christ is perfect god and perfect man and that is the true christ now he makes no attempt to prove either point yet he was bound in the first instance as a to prove his proposition in the second as an historian to his fact he attempts neither he has shown neither the eternal necessity nor the actual existence of a god man nay he admits that only two writers in the new testament ever represent as the god man his admission is fatal to his fact he gives us the history of a of the church but does not show it has any foundation to rest on s we must apply to this book the words of in his letter to on the manner of establishing the christian religion i have often remarked as well in philosophy as and even in medicine and his tory that we have many good books and good thoughts scattered about here and there but that we scarce ever come to i call it an establishment when at least certain points are determined and fixed forever when certain are put beyond dispute and thus ground is gained where something may be built it is properly the method of who separate the certain from the the known from the unknown in other it is rarely followed because we love to flatter the ears by fine words which make an agreeable mingling of the certain and the uncertain but it is a very transient benefit that is thus conferred like music and the opera which leave scarce any trace in	37
the mind and give us no thing to repose on so we are always turning round and round treating the same questions in the same way which is and subject to a thousand exceptions somebody once led m the elder into a hall of the and told him the have disputed here for more than three hundred years he answered and what have they decided it is exactly what happens to us in most of our studies i am confident that if we will but use the abilities wherewith god and nature have furnished us we can remove many of the evils which now mankind can establish the truth of religion and put an end to many which divide men and cause so much evil to the human race if we are willing to think and proceed as we ought i would proceed in this way and distinguish into two classes what could be by a necessity and in an way what could be morally that is in a way which gives what is called moral certainty as we know there is a china and a though we have never seen them truths and are also of two kinds the first rest on and ed vol vi p april from true philosophy and natural the second rest in part on history and events and in part on the interpretation of on the and divinity of our sacred books and even on antiquity in a word on the sense of the and again we must the truth of natural religion that is the existence of a being powerful and wise and the immortality of the soul these two points fixed there is but one step more to take to show on the one hand that god could never have left man without a true religion and on the other that no known religion can compare with the christian the necessity of embracing it is a consequence of these two plain truths however that the victory may be still more complete and the mouth of be shut forever i cannot forbear hoping that some man skilled in history the tongues and philosophy in a word filled with all sorts of will exhibit all the harmony and beauty of the christian religion and scatter forever the countless objections which may be brought against its its books and its history p mt love for thee hath grown as grow the flowers earthly at first fast rooted in the earth yet with the promise of a better birth putting forth shoots of newly powers tender green hopes dreams which no god makes ours and then the stalk fitted life s to bear to brave the wildest tempest s wildest art the immovable resolution of the heart ready and armed a world of ills to dare and then the flower fairest of things most fair the flower divine of love that in thee the sum of things that are that hath no eye for aught mean or but ever ever the mysteries the holy ghost ii ad v p record of the months t record of the months new i t e philosophy of the founded upon their history by the rev william b d fellow of college and professor of moral philosophy in the university of cambridge vice president of the society of london vo this work contains the moral of the tale that was told in the author s history of the the author s aim is great and noble to give the philosophy of science to inquire what that organ or intellectual method is by which solid truth is to be extracted from the observation of nature of course the work must be critical in part positive in part it contains a criticism of the of the school the author does not stop at great names nor hesitate to from bacon and even from himself he now and then s reasoning but widely from him and while he his great obligations to yet to condemn some of his opinions the book is designed in some measure to take the place of bacon s it is one of the philosophical attempts of the present century the author measures himself against the greatest of all the sons of science shall he stand or fall the work opens with a preface containing one hundred and thirteen respecting ideas six concerning science and seventeen greater respecting the language of science the third respecting will show the school of philosophy to which professor belongs the by means of which we interpret consists of the ideas existing in our own minds for these give to the phenomena that and significance which is not tn object of sense again vii and viii ideas are not bat sensations for without ideas sensations have no form the sensations are the the ideas the of every act of perception or knowledge and iv concerning science facts are the mat of science bnt all facts involve ideas since in facts we cannot ideas we must for the purposes ii ko it s record of the months april of science take care that the ideas are clear and applied the process of may be resolved into three steps the selection of the idea the of the conception and the determination of the ma these occupy about a hundred valuable pages the author then comes to the real work the philosophy of the this is divided into two parts l of ideas ii of knowledge part i is distributed into ten books treating of ideas in general i the philosophy of the pure that of the mechanical that of the secondary mechanical that of the the philosophy of that of the of and of part ii is divided into three books which treat of the construction of science of former opinions upon the nature of knowledge and the means of seeking it and of methods employed in the formation of science	37
the above hasty sketch shows what a wide field the enters upon and passes over we hope in a subsequent number of this journal to follow him into details and examine his method and trust soon to see an american of the book for at present its price it to few hands on the foundation of morals four sermons preached the university of cambridge by the rev c d edition cambridge and london do date vo xi and these four sermons which are very respectable better suited to the pulpit than the press are designed to recall men to the eternal foundation of our ideas of the good and true and to the absolute and therefore morality which rests they are at war in part with the of of whom he thus speaks in the preface p v the evils which arise from the countenance thus afforded to the principles of s system namely by making his moral philosophy the standard in the university are so great as to make it desirable for us to withdraw our sanction from his doctrines without further delay although i am not at present aware of any system of constructed on a basis which i should recommend to the of the university he often to butler as the of a system ite to that of and chiefly to butler s first three of the months sermons on the fifth and sixth on compassion the eighth and ninth on resentment the and twelfth on the love of neighbor and the and on the love of god as expressing view of man s moral nature and duties which result the substance of the sermons is this god has written his jaw on the constitution of man conscience is man s power to read that law duty is obedience to it of course it follows from such premises and their that man may obey completely and in that case both in this world and the next the highest possible human welfare but here the author s comes in and the work in some measure and he as follows conscience is his minister the law of the heart is his writing the demand for the obedience of thought and will is his word and yet how small a part is this of that vast by which the sting of death which is sin was plucked out and the strength of sin which is the law the law oi moses however not the law of god was tamed and the victory was won for us and the conqueror having spoiled and powers made a show of them openly and death and sin and the law of moses and the law of nature the law of god all become only as figures belonging to the procession this is eloquent and full of pious feeling but it is not philosophy the book well deserves with us and carries the reader back to the times of the latitude men about cambridge when there were giants in that university and morality was taught by men wont to out watch the bear with thrice great or the spirit of men who believed goodness and god were to be loved for their own sake in of history ancient and modem by john von d d of the university of a new and literal translation from the original latin with copious additional notes original and selected by james d d with additions by henry m a of with mount london vo here we have the able translation of by our learned and laborious by an english scholar with new additions and printed in the most elegant style of the times we ought also to add that mr has of the month april his sir edward of gentle reader if thou not sir edward we will add for thy the remaining words whose religious habits anxiety for the spiritual weu fare of all within his influence due sense of obligation as an patron and liberality cast a lustre upon an ancient family and display the value of an hereditary this volume c c the valuable labors of dr the reader might ask what need of a new editor the answer is plain in a field so vast as that of history so filled with inquiring spirits some new treasure is yearly brought to light some old jewel or rough with is now and then turned up by the of a scholar or accordingly if a score of dr had worked a score of years upon the volume there would still be work fi r new the history of local churches is never complete besides the world daily grows older and new towers and are added to the church or some over with decay and falls to the ground the separation of what is old and the silent of the new always affords work for the historian mr has aimed not only to supply the incumbent upon him as editor but also as a work to correct the defects of or expression in dr dock and to appear before the world as a clergyman in the church of england and he would be very sorry to act ia any degree as if his convictions did not with his interests he has also added original matter relating to the history of the english church of itself sufficient to form an volume of moderate size thus unquestionably says he vol i p xl the british have at length offered to their notice an history comprehensive though not superficial and arranged with special reference to their own use mr his own original matter from the notes of his by the mark ed however we are led in doubt where he corrected the or dr but we should account him peculiarly well fitted for this task of judging from some remarkable expressions of his own such as if men would stop when their leaders mean	37
of easy access what we must otherwise seek for in several volumes if he has not done all the duty of an editor we will take what he gives his sketch of the history of the present century though superficial and in some respects scarcely accurate is yet a convenient statement of some of the outward facts we will only add that mr s is likewise the author of the saxon church its history and general character of the religious history and of a lecture which we have never seen nor heard of except through his own and the of iv german anti six lectures on s life of delivered at the chapel in south place by philip d c london viii and mr s design as he tells us in the preface is to inquiry into a subject which he regards as of first rate importance on historical and moral speculation here then we have a clergyman yes a clergyman known by a few stirring and pious sermons setting forth and in great measure accepting the results of mr he gives a brief but fair and able of the celebrated life of and adds a few observations of his own for our own part we think mr is often mistaken that he the historical element and sometimes comes hastily to his conclusions which therefore cannot be all maintained though record the long ago we believed he was doing a signal to christianity itself mr we think the conclusions of his author more entirely than reasonably and like him is blinded by the so that he does not always see the fact they cover and conceal the book may be regarded as the of a which if once begun will not be soon ended it requires no to the final result it will lead thinking men to ask for the facts of the case before they reason about the facts but is it well judged to give the results of a book like s without the process by which the results were reached some will reply yes others no but the same thing is done in science and history why not in historical again it will be asked is it wise to bring the case at once before the people some men love an historical answer and here it is greater questions have been brought quite as directly before the people in the day of moses the problem was to separate religion and morality from the and of and what was his method he said unto the people hear oh the lor d is lord he the bull and the consecrated cats to take care of themselves in the time of christ when the problem was to separate religion and morality from the that world addresses himself to the people he tells a the hour when ye shall neither in this nor at worship the father but the true shall worship him in spirit and in truth is not salvation for the sick this question has long enough been known to scholars perhaps decided by scholars it is the popular that requires and how shall this be effected bat by appeal to the people we apprehend no danger is to be feared at least no danger to religion and morality nor to christianity when the work is tried by fire why should not the wood hay and be burned up that the precious stones may appear and the foundation that is discerned that men may build the temple that ever the old never passes away till all the good of the thing gets transferred to the new we give mr s conclusion in his own words what are we to do with christianity that wonderful which has come so mysteriously into our world and lived in it eighteen years already with such a wealth and fulness of life and living power doing so much and so much an old and a new one upon its ruins doing so much and in so many ways both of good and evil christianity the inspiration of the and the horse of the tyrant the word of god a record of the months the heart of the prophet and the lie on the lips of the bis the and the of for conscience sake christianity with all its ideas and spiritual forces working in countless ways and through countless channels upon literature art philosophy and all the other interests of our social and moral being what are we to do with this great enduring all spirit or power of christianity those of us who believe be simply a growth of nature and the human heart with no other divinity or divine authority than its own truth recognised by our own minds and no other divine right or sanction than what we infer from what we see of its nature and its history what are we to do with christianity perhaps some will say we have nothing to do with it we have already done away with it by its evidences in miracle the miracles being false it is without evidence it is a false thing altogether a dead thing and we have nothing to do but bury it out of our sight without more words hardly so i think miracles do not make a religion nor the of miracles a religion miracles are not religion but only a particular sort of machinery by which a particular form of religion may or may not at a given time and place get room for itself in tb world the essence of a religion is never in its miracles true or false but in its ideas its the phases of character the modes of intellectual and moral being which it calls into existence the religion is not in the of egypt and the of but in the the and the morality of the the christian religion is not in changing of water into wine	37
find from their testimony that christianity is absolute religion then the question comes what were the forms of religion it invented how did they act upon one another and what was the result the historian of christianity must tell us what christianity is this is the great point if he fail here he does not accomplish his work he may collect materials but the history is not written now we think this is what mr has not done of course then his work fails of end it is not a history of christianity he has left out that by an unlucky accident mr s book is marked by in general he writes generally in a pleasant style though h is sometimes careless he has a good deal of historical knowledge though far too little for the undertaking as we think but he does not with the subject like a strong man he talks about it not of it he is wanting in the philosophy of the matter when he comes to the details of historical inquiry he states some facts not previously known to the readers of ordinary history if his book be regarded as a whole it is an interesting work beyond this we can allow it little merit either as an original performance or considered as a from ancient or contemporary scholars his learning is not wide nor his philosophy deep he belongs rather to the class of historical if it be not to say so and not in the ranks of genuine the work might be entitled historical about christianity by an however we welcome the book and will gratefully accept it for what it t not for what it is not we rejoice in its spite of the shabby appearance the edition makes and trust it recall attention to this too much neglected field of history n the history of the decline and fall of the roman empire by edward esq with notes by the re h h d c new york vo this work is from the same press with the former and the paper and print are of the same character this new edition contains in addition to the original work of a preface by mr which is valuable for its hints and suggestions notes from the same hand with others selected from m and m a german of a part of the work the notes of m which over only a very small part of the history are apparently the work of a scholar familiar with the sources of ancient story and also with recent historical essays the notes of m are more numerous and sometimes important they are marked in general by a certain aspect but are not seldom deficient in liberality of sentiment we should say has the better head and the better heart for surely he is no but of mr mil man s own we must speak more at length he undertook the task of a new edition of this problem therefore was before him to render his original as complete in relation to all historical literature now as it was at s time in relation to the literature written before his day the editor is to make s history a manual as fit for the present day as it was when first published for that day this is a serious work i the editor must expose his author s errors and correct his this he has attempted but rarely accomplished and for this plain reason such a work would require at least the equal of the learning of the scholar the thought of the philosopher from mr we must expect neither still we are grateful for what he has done now and then he an error or points out an unfair remark a sarcasm or a sneer he always does it if we remember well in good l c a an temper and does not think it part of a duty to get into a passion with an ii we should demand of an editor a reference to all the important literature which or the text and a of it in the proper places a reference to all the valuable made in s time or subsequently himself in a very simple way to all the most valuable literature relating to the vast range of subjects that comes before him he gives an of critical information respecting roman affairs but few works of importance escaped his eye whether they favored his opinions or opposed them now mr rarely to any of the numerous works published in opposition to an account of those attacking his celebrated and chapters so numerous so respectable are some and so insolent are others would be interesting and instructive in our day when they are for the most part forgotten with their authors iii the editor must connect all discoveries and conclusions of subsequent with the text or them with the notes and thus make the work complete for our times this m attempts in some points and not without success mr now and then makes the attempt but rarely his notes in general when compared with s are weak and frivolous we have collected some instances to the assertion but have not space for them at present but to to the first head supplying the and the errors of his author and a case in point s great sin it seems to us in regard to his treatment of christianity is this that while he no occasion to sneer at the pretensions of the church the wickedness and superstition of its members he continues to pass dry shod over the instances of becoming christians and living a divine life of faith and works these it was incumbent on the editor to supply especially when the editor is a christian and his author an and still more especially when the editor is himself the historian of christianity to sum up the	37
matter in a few words between the historian and his editor appears to us as a tall giant with a haughty and a face even to marked with coarse but stamped with strong and masculine sense and lit up with keen and flashing eyes walking about in the ruins of a temple with a huge in his hand smoking like a light house where he some walls and some columns fall he applies his torch now to the face of a marble statue makes its features appear in his plain light but leaves a on the face now he holds his torch april at the entrance of some hidden supposed to be full of relics and the apparatus of and deceit he throws down images and them to dust delights to what seems fair to the pious and bring to light what mortals hide with shame though he represent the outline of each object as it is yet by shifting his light he makes their shadows take what forms he will on the other hand mr mil man ia a well dressed page who walks gracefully and at a respectable distance behind the giant carries in a silver case a little of wax with a delicate attempts to remove the but sometimes makes it worse up the fragments of sacred stone but cannot make them live again holds up his tiny light to discover the well wrought finger of thundering in the marble but has not light enough to give the awful face of the god still less to change the shadows of the giant s torch we are obliged to notices of several works that have been sent us by their authors to the next number of this publication the method of nature an the society of the in college in august by boston samuel g entered according to act of in the year by samuel g in the clerk s office of the district court of by b no n let us exchange congratulations on the and the promises of this day and this hour a literary is a of the intellect and so the of a great force into the assembly of the learned and through them into the world the land we in has no interest so dear if it knew its want as the fit of days of reason and thought where there is do vision the people perish the scholars are the priests of that thought which the foundations of the earth no matter what is their special work or profession they stand for the spiritual interest of the world and it is a common calamity if they neglect their post in a country where the material interest is so as it is in america we hear something too much of the results of machinery commerce and the useful arts we are a and a folk hesitation and following are our diseases the rapid wealth which hundreds in the community acquire in trade or by the incessant of our population and arts the eyes of all the rest the luck of one is the hope of thousands and the of the bribe acts like the neighborhood of a gold mine to the farm the school the church the house and the very body and feature of man i do not wish to look with sour aspect at the industrious village or the of commerce i love the music of the water wheel i value the railway i feel the pride which the sight of a ship i look on trade and every mechanical craft as education also but let me what is precious there is in each of these works one act of invention one intellectual step or short series of steps taken that act or step is the spiritual act all the rest is mere repetition of the same a thousand times and i will not be deceived into admiring the routine of and how splendid the result any more than i admire the routine of the scholars or class that splendid results from the labors of stupid men is the fruit of higher laws than their will and the routine is not to be praised for it i would not have the sacrificed to the splendid result i would not have the sacrificed to my convenience and pride nor to that of a great class of such as me let there be worse cotton and better men the should not be of that nobility which comes from the superiority to his work and the knowledge that the product or the skill is a momentary end of no value except so far as it his spiritual if see nothing to admire in the shall i admire a million men stand in awe of the city but do not honor any individual citizen and are continually yielding to this dazzling result of numbers that which they would never yield to the solitary example of any one whilst therefore the multitude of men live to each other and give to doctrines the scholar must be a of hope and must man against himself i sometimes believe that our literary will presently assume a greater importance as the eyes of men open to their here a new set of distinctions a new order of ideas prevail here we set a bound to the respectability of wealth and a bound to the pretensions of the law and the church the must cease to be a to day into our charmed circle power cannot enter and the of existing institutions feels the terrific of this air which heat in every corner that may restore to the elements the of ages nothing solid is secure everything and rocks even the scholar is not safe he too is searched and is his learning dead is he living in his memory the power of mind is not mortification but life but come forth thou curious child hither thou loving poet	37
man and yet one who the true order of nature and the visible as proceeding from the invisible cannot state his thought without seeming to those who study the physical laws to do them some injustice there is an defect in the organ language statements of the infinite are usually felt to be unjust to the and undoubtedly spoke a truth of thought when he said i am god but the moment it was out of his mouth it became a lie to the ear and the world itself for the seeming by the good story about his shoe sow can i hope for better hap in my attempts to spiritual facts thus only as far as i share the of truth so far shall i be felt by every true person to say what is just the method of nature who could ever it that rushing stream will not stop to be observed we can never surprise nature in a corner never find the end of a thread never teu where to set the first stone the bird to lay her egg the egg to be a bird the we admire in the order of the world is the result of infinite distribution its is the of the pitch of the its is a perpetual every natural fact is an and that from which it is an also and from every is a new if anything could stand still it would be crushed and dissipated by the torrent it resisted and if it were a mind would be as insane persons are those who hold fast to one thought and do not flow with the course of nature not the cause but an ever novel effect nature always from above it is unbroken obedience the beauty of these fair objects is imported into them from a and eternal spring in all animal and vegetable forms the that no no can account for the facts but a mysterious principle of life most be assumed which not only the organ but makes the organ how silent how spacious what room for all yet without place to an in in equal fulness in balanced beauty the dance of the hours goes forward still like an of incense hke a strain of music like a sleep it is and boundless it will not be nor nor shown away profane philosopher thou in nature the cause this to that and that to the next and the next to the third and everything thou must ask in another mood thou must feel it and love it thou must behold it in a spirit as grand as that by which it exists ere thou know the law known it will not be but gladly beloved and enjoyed the life throughout the whole body the equal serving of innumerable ends without the least emphasis or preference to any but the steady degradation of each to the success of all allows the understanding no place to work nature can only be conceived as existing to a universal and not to a particular end to a universe of ends and not to one a work of ecstasy to be represented by a circular movement as intention might be signified by a straight of definite length each every other there is no revolt in all the from the no of an individual hence the catholic character which makes every leaf an of the world when we behold the landscape in a poetic spirit we do not reckon individuals nature knows neither palm nor oak but only vegetable ufe which into forests and the globe with a of grass and vines that no single end may be selected and nature judged thereby appears from this that if man himself be considered as the end and it be assumed that the final cause of the world is to make holy or wise or beautiful men we see that it has not succeeded read alternately in natural and in civil history a of for example with a volume of french pour when we have spent our wonder in this hospitality with which boon nature turns off new without end into her wide common as fast as the make coral and hospitable to souls and then the sight to look into this court of louis and see the game that is played there duke and and madame a gambling table where each is laying traps for the other where the end is ever by some lie or fetch to your rival and ruin him with this solemn in wig and stars the king one can hardly help asking if this planet is a fair specimen of the so generous and if so whether the experiment have not failed and whether it be quite worth while to make more and the innocent space with so poor an article i think we feel not much otherwise if instead of beholding foolish nations we take the great and wise men the eminent souls and narrowly inspect their biography none of them seen by himself and his performance compared with his promise or idea will justify the cost of that enormous apparatus of means by which this spotted and person was at last procured is to questions of this sort nature replies i grow i grow all is infant when we are with the of the toiling to the length of her line the return of her curve we are by the perception that a great deal is doing that all seems just begun remote aims are in active accomplishment we can point nowhere to anything final but tendency appears on all hands planet system total nature is growing uke a field of in july is becoming somewhat else is in rapid the does not more strive to be man than yonder of we call a to be a ring a a globe and parent of new stars why should	37
not then these of and plot for and ribbons for a season without prejudice to their faculty to run on better errands by and by but nature seems further to reply i have ventured so great a stake as my success in no single creature i have not yet arrived at any end ttie gardener aims to produce a fine or but my aim is the health of the whole tree root stem leaf flower and seed and by no means the of a monstrous at the expense of au the other functions in short the spirit and peculiarity of that impression nature makes on us is this that it does not exist to any one or to any number of particular ends but to and endless benefit that there is in it no private will no rebel leaf or but the whole is oppressed by one tendency that or excess of life which in conscious beings we call ecstasy with this conception of the genius or method of nature let us go back to man it is true he to give account of himself to himself but at the last what has he to but the fact that there is a life not to be described or known otherwise than by possession what account can he give of his essence more than so it was to be the reason the grace of god seems the only tion of our but ever identical fact there is virtue there is genius there is success or there is not there is the or the receding of god that is all we can affirm and we can show neither how nor why self accusation re and the morals of self denial and strife with sin is a view we are constrained by oar constitution to take of the fact seen from the platform of action but seen from the platform of there is nothing for us but praise and wonder the fact of facts is the termination of the worm in a man this appears to be the last victory of the universal does not attract us until in an individual who the waste abyss of possibility the ocean is the same but it has no character until seen the shore or the ship who would value any number of miles of atlantic bounded by lines of latitude and p confine it by granite let it wash a shore where wise men dwell and it is filled with expression and the point of greatest interest is where the land and water meet so must we admire in man the form of the the of the vast the house of reason the cave of memory see the play of thoughts what gigantic creatures are these what what shall be named with these the great pan of old who was clothed in a skin to signify the beautiful variety of things and the his coat of stars was but the representative of thee o rich and various man thou palace of sight and sound carrying in thy senses the morning and the night and the in thy brain the of the city of god in thy heart the bower of love and the of right and wrong an individual man is a fruit which it cost all the foregoing ages to form and he is strong not to do but to not in his arms but in his heart not as an agent but as a fact the history of the or the old itself in the experience of every child he too is a demon or god thrown into a particular chaos where he ever to lead things from into order each individual soul is such in virtue of its being a power to the world into some particular language of its own if not into a picture a statue or a dance why then into a trade an art a science a mode of living a conversation a character an influence you admire pictures but it is as impossible for you to paint a right picture as for grass to bear apples but when the genius comes it makes fingers it is and the power of the affair in the street into and colors must be born and must be born there is no like that of a new man the sleepy nations are occupied with their political routine england france and america read which no high genius now and nobody will read them who his own eye only they who are deceived by the popular repetition of distinguished names but when napoleon his map the eye is commanded by original power when leads the debate men may well listen because they must listen a man a personal is the only great phenomenon when nature has work to be done she a genius to do it the great man and you shall see what the world has at heart in these ages there is no omen hke that but what strikes us in the fine genius is that which belongs of right to every one let us speak plainly and with no false humility the humility which is the ornament of man in the presence of the ideal good and fair is not to cloud his perception of that energy which he is a man should know himself for a necessary actor a link was wanting between two craving parts of nature and he was hurled into being as the bridge over that yawning need the two else facts his two parents held each of one of the wants and the union of foreign in him him to do gladly and gracefully what the assembled human race could not have to do he knows his own materials everywhere he applies himself to his work he cannot read he cannot think he cannot look but he the hitherto separated into a perfect cord what are the thoughts we utter but	37
the reason of our to utter these thoughts we took of the everlasting word which will be spoken should not a man be sacred to himself and to men is it for him to account himself cheap and superfluous or to linger by the for opportunities did he not come into being because something must be done which he and no other is and does if only he sees the world will be visible enough he need not study where to stand nor to put things in favorable in him is the light from him all things are to their centre illuminated what patron shall he ask for employment and reward was he born to deliver the thought of his heart from the universe to the universe to do an office which nature could not forego nor he be discharged from rendering and then into the holy silence and eternity out of which as a man he arose god is rich and many more men than one he in his bosom their time and the needs and the beauty of all is not this the theory of every man s genius or faculty why then thou as some or listening to this saint or to that that is the only ma here art thou with whom so long the universe in labor thou think of whom the fate brought forth to unite his ragged sides to shoot the gulf to reconcile the whilst a necessity so great caused the man to exist his health and consist in the fidelity with which he influences from the vast and universal to the point on which his genius can act the ends are momentary they are for the current of inward life which as it is spent a man s wisdom is to know that all ends are momentary that the best end must instantly be by a better but there is a mischievous tendency in him to transfer his thought from the life to the ends to quit his agency and rest in his acts the tool runs away with the workman the human with the divine i conceive a man as always spoken to from behind and unable to turn his head and see the speaker in all the have heard the voice none ever saw the face as children in their play run behind each other and seize one by the ears and make him walk before them so is the spirit our unseen pilot that well known voice speaks in all languages all men and none ever caught a glimpse of its form if the man will exactly obey it it will adopt him so that he shall not any longer separate it from himself in his thought he shall seem to be it he shall be it if he listen with ears richer and greater wisdom is taught him the sound to a music he is borne away as with a flood he becomes careless of his food and of his house he is the fool of ideas and leads a heavenly ufe but if his eye is set on the things to be done and not on the truth that is still taught and for the sake of which the things are to be done then the voice grows faint and at last is but a humming in his ears his health and greatness consist in his being the channel through which heaven flows to earth in short in the fulness in which an state takes place in him it is pitiful to be an artist when by to be artists we might be vessels filled with the divine enriched by the of and are there not moments in the history of heaven when the human race was not counted by individuals but was only the influenced was god in distribution god rushing into benefit it is sublime to receive sublime to love but this lust of as from us this desire to be loved the wish to be recognized as individuals is comes of a lower strain shall i say then that as far as we can trace the natural history of the soul its health consists in the fulness of its reception call it piety call it veneration in the fact that enthusiasm is organized therein what is best in any work of art but that part which the work itself seems to require and do that which the man cannot do again that which flows from the hour and the occasion hke the eloquence of men in a tumultuous debate it was always the theory of that the word of a poet was and final he was supposed to be the mouth of a divine wisdom we rather envied his circumstance than his talent we too could have gladly standing in that place we so quote our and the so quoted and the rest if the theory has out of modem criticism it is because we have not had poets whenever they appear they will redeem their own credit this state seems to cause a regard to the whole and not to the parts to the cause and not to the ends to the tendency and not to the act it respects genius and not talent hope and not possession the anticipation of all things by the intellect and not the history itself art md not works of art poetry and not experiment virtue and not duties there is no office or function of man but is rightly discharged by this divine method and nothing that is not notions to him if detached from its universal relations is it his work in the world to study nature or the laws of the world let him beware of pro to himself any end is it for use nature is as if one looking at the ocean can ber only the price of fish or is it for pleasure be is	37
there is a certain air in woods and mountains which draws on the to want and misery there is something social and in the nature of all things they seek to and each the nature of every other creature and itself alone in all modes and throughout and spirit to prevail and possess every star in heaven is discontented and and cannot content them ever they and court the eye of every every man who comes into the world they seek to and possess to pass into his mind for they desire to themselves in a more delicate world than that they occupy it is not enough that they are jove and the north star in the they would have such poets as and that they may re exist and re appear in the finer world of rational souls and fill that realm with their fame so is it with all objects these beautiful set their brute glorious eyes on the eye of every child and if they can cause their nature to pass through his wondering eyes into him and so all are mixed therefore man must be on his guard against this cup of and must look at nature with a supernatural eye by piety alone by conversing with the cause of nature is he safe and commands it and because all knowledge is to the object of knowledge as the power or genius of nature is so must its science or tiie description of it be the poet must be a his inspiration a sort of bright his will in it only the surrender of will to the universal power which will not be seen face to face but must be received and known it is remarkable that we have out of the of antiquity in the ascribed to the half a statement of this fact which every lover and of truth will recognize it is not proper said to understand the intelligible with vehemence but if you incline your mind you will apprehend it not too earnestly but bringing a pure and inquiring eye you will not understand it as when understanding some particular thing but with the flower of the mind things divine are not by mortals who understand things hut only the light armed arrive at the summit and because ecstasy is the law and cause of nature therefore you cannot interpret it in too high and deep a sense nature represents the best meaning of the wisest man does the sunset landscape seem to you the palace of friendship those purple skies and lovely waters the dressed and only for the exchange of thought and love of the purest souls it is that all the other which base men have put on it are con and false you cannot twice in the same river said and i add a man never sees the same object twice with his own the object new aspects does not the same law hold for virtue it is by too much will he who aims at progress should aim at an infinite not at a special benefit the whose fame now fills the land with anti slavery non resistance no government equal labor fair and generous as each appears are poor bitter things when for themselves as an end to every reform in proportion to its energy early are incident so that the is surprised at the very of his first triumphs with and sickness and a general distrust so that he his associates hates the enterprise which lately seemed so fair and to cast himself into the arms of that society and manner of life which he had newly abandoned with so much pride and hope is it that he attached the value of virtue to some particular as the denial of certain in certain and afterward allowing the soul to depart found himself still as wicked and as far from happiness in that as he had been in the abuse but the soul can be appeased not by a deed but by a tendency it is in a hope that she feels her wings you shall love and not the of money or the of trade an mind and not a diet sympathy and usefulness and not or tell me not how great your project is or how pure the civil of the world its into a christian church the establishment of education diet a new division of labor and of land laws of love for laws of property i say to you plainly there is no end to which your practical faculty can aim so sacred or so large that if pursued for itself will not at last become and an offence to the the imaginative faculty of the soul must be fed with objects immense and eternal your end should be one to the senses then it be a god always approached never touched always giving health a man himself with prayer and love as an aim an action what is strong but goodness and what is energetic but the presence of a brave man the doctrine in vegetable of the presence or the general influence of any substance over and above its influence as of an or a living plant is more of man you need not speak to me i need not go where you are that you should exert on me be you only whole and and i shall feel you in every part of my life and fortune and i can as easily the of the globe as escape your influence but there are other examples of this total and supreme influence besides nature and the conscience from the poisonous tree the world say the two species of fruit are produced sweet as the waters of love or the society of beautiful souls and poetry whose taste is uke the immortal of what is love and why is it the chief good but because it is	37
an overpowering enthusiasm never self possessed or prudent it is all is it not a certain admirable wisdom to all other advantages and whereof all others are only and because this is that in which the individual is no longer his own foolish master but an and celestial air is wrapped round with awe of the object for the time that object with the real and only good and every omen in nature with tremulous interest when we speak truly is not he only unhappy who is not in love his fancied freedom and self rule is it not so much death he who is in love is wise and is becoming wiser newly every time he looks at the object drawing from it with his eyes and his mind those virtues which it possesses therefore if the object be not itself a and soul he presently it but the love remains in his mind and the wisdom it brought him and it a new and higher object and the reason why all men honor love is because it looks up and not down and not and what is genius but finer love a love a love of the flower and perfection of things and a desire to draw a new picture or copy of the same it looks to the cause and life it proceeds from within outward whilst talent goes from without inward talent finds its models and methods and ends in society exists for exhibition and goes to the soul only for power to work genius is its own end and draws its means and the style of its architecture from within going abroad only for audience and spectator as we our voice and phrase to the distance and character of the ear we speak to all your learning of all would never enable you to anticipate one of its thoughts or expressions and yet each is natural and as household words here about us forever the ancient so old and so unutterable behold there is the sun and the rain and the rocks the old sun the old stones how easy were it to describe all this yet no word can pass nature is a mute and man her articulate speaking brother lo i he also is a mute yet when genius arrives its speech is like a river it has no straining to describe more than there is straining in nature to exist when thought is best there is most of it genius sheds wisdom uke perfume and us that it flows out of a deeper source than the foregoing silence that it knows so deeply and speaks so because it is itself a of the thing it describes it is sun and moon and wave and fire in music as is thought and harmony in masses of matter what is all history but the work of ideas a record of the energy which his infinite aspirations into man has any thing grand and lasting been done who did it plainly not any man but all men it was the and of an idea what brought the here one man says civil and another die desire of a church and a third that the motive force was plantation and trade but if the could rise from the dust they could not answer it is to be seen in what they were and not in what they designed it was the growth the and of the human race and resembled the revolution which was not begun in or or virginia but was the overflowing of the sense of natural right in every clear and active spirit of the period is a man and knowing and his own master we turn fix m him without hope but let him be filled with awe and dread before the vast and the divine which uses him glad to be used and our eye is to the chain of events what a debt is ours to that old religion which in the childhood of most of us still dwelt uke a sabbath morning in the country of new england teaching self denial and sorrow a man was born not for prosperity but to suffer for the benefit of others uke the noble rock which all around our villages for the service of man not praise not men s acceptance of our doing but the spirit s holy errand through us absorbed the thought how dignified was this how all that is called talents and success in our noisy becomes and din before this man how our and the we use shame us now shall we not quit our companions as if they were thieves and pot companions and ourselves to some desert cliff of mount some recess in lake to our and to recover it and with it the power to communicate again with these of a more sacred idea and what is to replace for us the piety of that race we cannot have theirs it away from us day by day but we also can in the great morning which rises forever out of the eastern sea and be ourselves the children of the i stand here to say let us worship the mighty and soul it is the office i doubt not of this age to that divorce which the superstition of many ages has effected between the intellect and the lovers of goodness have been one class the students of wisdom another if either could exist in any purity without the other truth is always holy always wise i that we keep terms with sin and a sinful literature and society no longer but a life of discovery and performance accept the intellect and it will accept us be the lowly ministers of that pure and deny it not before men it will bum up all profane literature all base current opinions all the false powers of the world as in	37
a moment o time i draw from nature the lesson of an intimate divinity our health and reason as men needs our respect to this fact against the and against the contradiction of society the of man needs the of this force his nobility needs the assurance of this inexhaustible reserved power how great have been its they are a drop to the sea whence they flow if you say the acceptance of the vision is also die act of god i shall not seek to penetrate the mystery i admit the force of what you say if you ask how can any rules be given for the of gifts so sublime i shall only remark that the of this spirit as long as there is life are never tenderly tenderly they and court us from every object in nature from every fact in ufe from every thought in the mind the one condition coupled with the gift of truth is its use that man shall be learned who his learning to practice affirmed that it was opened to him that the spirits who knew truth in this but did it not at death shall lose their if knowledge said the unto practice well if not it away the only way into nature is to our best insight instantly we are higher poets and can speak a deeper law do what you know and perception is converted into character as islands and were built by invisible or as these forest leaves light and and the oak to live a thousand years is the arrest and of the most and currents the doctrine of this supreme presence is a cry of joy and exultation who shall dare think he has come late into nature or has missed anything excellent in the past who the admirable stars of possibility and the yet untouched continent of hope glittering with all its mountains in the vast west i praise with wonder this great reality which seems to drown all things in the of its what man seeing this can lose it from his thoughts or entertain a subject the entrance of this into his mind seems to be the birth of man we cannot describe the natural history of the soul but we know that it is divine i cannot tell if these wonderful qualities which house to day in this mortal frame shall ever re in equal activity in a similar frame or whether they have before had a natural history like that of this body you see before you but this one thing i know that these did not now begin to exist cannot be sick with my nor buried in any grave but that they through the universe before the world was they were nothing can bar them out or shut them in but they penetrate the ocean and land space and time form and essence and hold the key to nature i draw from this faith courage and hope all things are known to the soul it is not to be surprised by any communication nothing can be greater than it let those fear and those who will the soul is in her native and it is wider than space older than time wide as hope rich as love and fear she refuses with a beautiful scorn they are not for her who on her robes and goes out through love to universal power discourse on th transient and permanent cl ti ti d at the of mr charles c in the place church in boston may by minister of the second church boston printed for the author boston printed by and b washington street preface this discourse is now printed in consequence of some and printed statements respecting its contents i have made a few verbal alterations changed the order of a few sentences omitted here and there a few words which were only of former sentences and added a few which though written in the manuscript were necessarily omitted in consequence of the length of the discourse but i ave changed nothing in the substance or doctrine and have made the alterations only to set the doctrine in a clearer and stronger light the and somewhat style though less well adapted to reading than hearing i could not change without exciting a suspicion of with the above exceptions the discourse is printed just as it was delivered it is not necessary i should remark upon the article relating to this discourse signed by several and so by the religious journals the thing speaks for itself others likewise i find have lifted up their heel against this discourse or the of it i was not so vain as to expect my humble attempts to make a distinction between religion and or to deliver christianity from heathen and notions would be either acceptable or understood by all nor yet am i so young as to be surprised at the cry of and which has been raised against nearly all of the religion of from to worth west june discourse xxi beaten and shall pass away but ht shall not pass in this sentence we have a very clear indication that of believed the religion he taught would be eternal that the substance of it would last forever yet there are some who are by the faintest rustle which a makes among the dry leaves of they tremble lest christianity itself should perish without hope ever and anon the cry is raised the be upon us and christianity is in danger the least doubt respecting the popular or the existing machinery of the church the least sign of distrust in the religion of the pulpit or the religion of the street is by some good men supposed to be at enmity with faith in christ and le of shaking christianity itself on the other hand a few bad men and a few pious men it is said on	37
both sides of the water tell us the day of christianity is past the latter it is alleged would persuade us that hereafter piety must take a new form the of are to be passed by that religion is to wing her way sublime above the flight of christianity far away toward heaven as the leaves forever the nest which sheltered his youth let us therefore devote a few moments to this subject and consider what is transient in christianity and what permanent therein t ie topic seems not to the times in which we live or the occasion that calls us together christ says his word shall never pass away yet at first sight nothing seems more fleeting than a word it is an impulse of the most element it leaves no track where it went through the air yet to this and this only did the truth wherewith he came laden to the earth truth for the salvation of the world he took no pains to his thoughts they were poured forth where occasion found him an audience by the side of the lake or a well in a cottage or the temple in a s boat or the of the jews he no institution as a monument of his words he no order of men to preserve his bright and glad revelations he only bids his friends give fi the truth they had freely received he did not even write his words in a book with a noble confidence the result of his abiding faith he scattered them broad cast on the world leaving the seed to its own vitality he knew that what is of god cannot fail for god keeps his own he his seed in the heart and left it there to be watered and warmed by the dew and the sun which heaven sends he felt his words were for eternity so he trusted them to the uncertain air and for eighteen hundred years that faithful element has held them good distinct as when first warm from his lips now they are translated into every human speech and murmured in all earth s thousand tongues from the pine forests of the north to the palm groves of eastern ind they mingle as it were with the roar of the city and join the of the desert sea of a sabbath they are repeated from church to church from isle to isle and land to land till the music goes round the world these words have become the breath of the good the hope of the wise the joy of the pious and that for many millions of hearts they are the prayers of our churches our better devotion by fireside and the enchantment of our hearts it is these words that still work wonders to which the first recorded miracles were nothing in grandeur and utility it is these which build our temples and our homes they raise our thoughts of they our ideal of purity they our prayer for truth and love they make and divine the life which plain men lead they give wings to our tions what they are sorrow is at their bidding they take the sting out of disease and rob of his power to disappoint they give health and wings to the pious soul and in his voyage through life and encourage him to tempt the perilous way once more they make all things ours christ our brother time our servant death our ally and the witness of our triumph they reveal to us the presence of god which else we might not have seen to clearly in the first wind flower of spring in the falling of a in the distress of a nation in the sorrow or the rapture of a world silence the voice of christianity and the world is well nigh dumb for gone is that sweet music which kept ia awe the rulers and the people which cheers the poor widow in her lonely toil and comes like light through the windows of morning to men who sit stooping and feeble with failing eyes and a heart it is gone all gone only the cold bleak world left before them such is the life of these words such the empire they have won for themselves over men s minds since they were spoken first in the mean time the words of great men and mighty whose name shook whole though in metal and stone though stamped in institutions and defended by whole tribes of priests and troops of their words have gone to the ground and the world gives back no echo of their voice meanwhile the great works also of old times castle and tower and town their cities and their have perished and left scarce a mark on the bosom of the earth to show they once have been the philosophy of the wise the art of the accomplished the song of the poet the of the priest though honored as divine in their day have gone down a prey to oblivion silence has closed over them only their now haunt the earth a of blood has swept over the nations a night of darkness more deep than the darkness of egypt has lowered down upon that flood to destroy or to hide what the had spared but through all this the words of christianity have come down to us from the lips of that hebrew youth gentle and beautiful as the light of a star not spent by their through time and through space they have built up a new civilization which the wisest never hoped for which the most pious hebrew never foretold through centuries of wasting these words have flown on like a dove in the storm and now wait to descend on hearts pure and earnest as the father s spirit we are told came down on his lowly son	37
the old and the old earth are indeed passed away but the word stands nothing shows clearer than this how fleeting is what man calls great how lasting what god true looking at the word of at real ity the pure religion he taught nothing appears more fixed and certain its influence as light extends it as the nations grow more wise but looking at the history of what men call christianity nothing seems more uncertain and while true religion is always the same thing in each century and every land in each man that feels it the christianity of the pulpit which is the religion taught the christianity of the people which is the religion that is accepted and lived out has never been the same thing in any two centuries or lands except only in name the difference between what is called christianity by the in our times and that of some ages past is greater than the difference between and the the difference at this day between opposing classes of christians the difference between the christianity of some and that of christ himself is deeper and more vital than that between and pagan as we call him the christianity of the seventh century has passed away we recognise only the ghost of superstition in its faded features as it comes up at our call it is one of the things which has been and can be no more for neither god nor the world goes back its terrors do not frighten nor its hopes us we rejoice that it has gone but how do we know that our christianity shall not share the same fate is there that difference between the nineteenth century and some seventeen that have gone before it since to warrant the belief that our notion of christianity shall last forever the stream of time has already beat down and temple and church though never so old and re how do we know there is not a element in what we call christianity tells us his word is the word of god and so shall never pass away but who tells us that our word shall never pass away that our notion of his word shall stand forever let us look at this matter a little more closely in actual christianity that is in that portion of christianity which is preached and believed there seem to have been ever since the time of its earthly founder two elements the one transient the other permanent the one is the thought the folly the uncertain wisdom the notions the of man the other the eternal truth of god these two bear perhaps the same relation to each other that the phenomena of outward nature such as sunshine and cloud growth decay and bear to the great law of nature which and them all as in that case more attention is commonly paid to the particular phenomena than to the general law so in this case more is generally given to the transient in christianity than to the permanent therein it must be confessed though with sorrow that transient things form a great part of what is commonly taught as religion an undue place often been assigned to forms and doctrines while too little stress has been laid on the divine life of the soul love to god and love to man religious forms may be useful and beautiful they are so whenever they speak to the soul and answer a want thereof in our present state some forms are perhaps necessary but they are only the accident of christianity not its substance they are the robe not the angel who may take another robe quite as becoming and useful one has many forms another none yet both may be equally christian in spite of the or the deficiency they are a part of the language in which religion speaks and exist with few exceptions wherever man is found in our calculating nation in our we have retained but two of the rites so numerous in the early christian church and even these we have to the last degree leaving them little more than a of the ancient form another age may continue or both may revive old forms or invent new ones to suit the altered circumstances of the times and yet be christians quite as good as we or our fathers of the dark ages whether the de signed these rites to be perpetual seems a question which belongs to scholars and not to us as christian men and women so long as they sat or help the pious heart so long they are good looking behind or around us we see that the forms and rites of the christians are quite as as those of the from whom some of them have been not adopted by the earlier church again the doctrines that have been connected with christianity and taught in its name are quite as as the form this also takes place if observations be made upon nature which must take place so long as man has senses and understanding there will be a philosophy of nature and philosophical doctrines these will differ as the observations are just or and as the from observed facts are true or false hence there will be different schools of natural philosophy so long as men have eyes and of different clearness and strength and if men observe and reflect upon religion which will be done so long as man is a religious and being there must also be a philosophy of religion a and doctrines these will differ as men have felt much or little of religion as they their sentiments correctly or otherwise and as they have reasoned right or wrong now the true system of nature which exists in the outward facts whether discovered or not is always the same thing though the philosophy of nature which men invent change every month and be	37
one thing at london and the opposite at thus there is but one system of nature as it exists in fact though many theories of nature which exist in our imperfect notions of that system and by which we may and at length reach it now there can be but one religion which is absolutely existing in the facts of human nature and the ideas of infinite god that whether acknowledged or not is always the same thing and never changes so far as a man has any real religion either the principle or the sentiment thereof so far he has that by whatever name he may call it for strictly speaking there is but one kind of religion as there is but one kind of love though the of this religion in forms doctrines and life be never so it is through these men to the true expression of this religion now while this religion is one and always the same thing there may be numerous or of religion these with their and of doctrines by reasoning upon the facts observed may be and false either because the observation was too narrow in extent or otherwise in point of accuracy or because the reasoning was and therefore the each of these three faults is conspicuous in the systems of now the system as it exists in fact is permanent though the notions of and of and about this system prove transient imperfect to the true expression so the christianity of is permanent though what passes for christianity with and with and churches in the first century or in the nineteenth century prove transient also now it has sometimes happened that a man took his of nature at second hand and then attempt ed to make his observations to his theory and nature ride in his thus some philosophers refused to look at the moon through s for according to their theory of vision such an instrument would not aid the sight thus their notions stood up between them and nature now it has often happened that men took their thus at second hand and distorted the history of the world and man s nature besides to make religion to their notions their stood between them and god those obstinate philosophers have in no number what another has said of false systems of science will apply equally to it is barren in effects fruitful in questions slow and languid in its improvement exhibiting in its the of perfection but ill filled up in its details popular in its choice but suspected by its very and therefore up and with even those who have been determined to try for themselves to add their support to learning and to its limits have not dared entirely to desert received opinions nor to seek the spring head of things but they think they have done a great thing if they and contribute something of their own considering hat by their assent they can save their modesty and by their their liberty neither is there nor ever will be an end or limit to these things one at one thing another is pleased with another there is no dry nor clear sight of any thing every one plays the philosopher out of the small treasures of his own fancy the more sublime wits more and with better success the with less success but equal obstinacy and by the discipline of some learned men are bounded within the limits of some certain authors which they have set down imposing them upon old men and them into young so that now as upon caesar s the star by an and authority is taken for truth and not truth for authority which kind of order and discipline is very convenient for our present use but those which are better any one who traces the history of what is called christianity will see that nothing changes more from age to age than the doctrines taught as christian and insisted on as essential to christianity and personal salvation what is falsehood in one province passes for truth in another the of one age is the belief and only rule of the next now and now is lord of the both were in their turn each for what the other denied men are burned for what men are burned for denying for centuries the doctrines of the christians were no better to say the l than those of their contemporary the doctrines derived from our fathers seem to have come from and the caprice of far more than they have come from the principle and sentiment of christianity the doctrine of the the very of belongs to philosophy and not religion its cannot even be expressed in om tongue as old became and died out they left to the rising faith as to a their forms and their doctrines or rather as the giant in the fable left his poisoned garment to work the overthrow of his conqueror many that pass current in our seem to be the refuse of idol temples the of and heathen cities rather than the sands of virgin gold which the stream of christianity has worn off from the rock of ages and brought in its bosom for us it is wood hay and wherewith men have built on the christ laid the fabric is in peril when tried by fire the stream of christianity as men receive it has caught a stain from every soil it has through so that now it is not the pure water from the well of life which is offered to our lips but streams troubled and by man with mire and dirt if paul and could read our books of doctrines would they accept as their teaching what men have in their name never till the letters of paul had faded out of his memory never till the words of had been torn out from the book	37
which time has not fulfilled men who in some measure partook of the darkness and limited notions of their age and were not always above its mistakes or its the history of opinions on the new testament is quite similar it has been assumed at the outset it would seem with no reason without the smallest pretence on its writers part that all of its authors were and inspired so that they could commit no error of doctrine or fact men have been bid to close their eyes at the obvious difference between and john the serious between paul and peter to believe on the smallest evidence accounts which shock the moral sense and revolt the reason and tend to place in the same series with and of accounts which paul in the never though he also had a vein of the miraculous running quite through him men have been told that all these things must be taken as part of christianity and if they accepted the religion they must take all these along with it that the living spirit could not be had without the killing letter all the books which caprice or accident had brought together between the of the bible were declared to be the word of god the only certain rule of religious faith and practice thus the bible was made not a single channel but the only certain rule of religious faith and practice to any of its statements or even the common interpretation put upon those statements by the particular age or church in which the man belonged was held to be if not in the name of him who forbid us to judge our brother good men and pious men have applied these terms to others good and pious as themselves that state of things has by no means passed away men who cry down the of in the worst spirit of the french free call others and who point out though reverently other which men have piled upon christianity so the world goes an regard for the imperfect scripture of god s word is the apple of which running for the hand of divine truth but the current notions respecting the inspiration of the bible have no foundation in the bible itself which which of the new testament what prophet or of the old testament ever claims authority for himself or for others which of them does not in his own writings show that he was and with all his zeal and piety possessed but a limited inspiration the bound whereof we can sometimes discover did ch ever demand that men should assent to the doctrines of the old testament credit its stories and take its poems for histories and believe equally two accounts that contradict one another has he ever told you that all the truths of his religion all the beauty of a christian life should be contained in the writings of those men who even after his expected him to be a king of men who were sometimes at with one another and misunderstood his divine would not those modest writers themselves be confounded at the we pay them opinions may change on these points as they have often changed changed greatly and for the worse since the days of paul they are changing now and we may hope for the better for god makes man s folly as well as his wrath to praise him and continually brings good out of evil another instance of the of doctrines taught as christian is found in those which relate to the nature and authority of christ one ancient party has told us that he is the infinite god another that he is both god and man a third that he was a man the son of joseph and mary born as we are tempted like ourselves inspired as we may be if we will pay the price each of the former parties believed its doctrine on this head was true and formed the very substance of christianity and was one of the essential conditions of salvation though scarce any two distinguished teachers of ancient or modern times agree in their expression of this truth almost every that has ever been makes christianity rest on the personal authority of and not the truth of the doctrines themselves or the authority of god who sent him into the world yet it seems difficult to conceive any reason why moral and religious truths should rest for their support on the personal authority of their any more than the truths of science on that of him who makes them known first or most clearly it is hard to see why the great truths of christianity rest on the personal authority of more than the of rest on the personal authority of or the authority of as of all teachers one would naturally think must rest on the truth of bis words and not their truth on his authority opinions respecting the nature of christianity seem to be constantly changing in the three first centuries after christ it appears great latitude of speculation prevailed some said he was god with nothing of human nature his body only an illusion others that he was man with nothing of the divine nature his miraculous birth having no foundation in fact in a few centuries it was by that he was god thus the divine element next that he was man also thus admitting the human side for some ages the catholic church seems to have dwelt chiefly on the divine nature that was in him leaving the human element to and other persons whose bodies served to flesh the swords of the stream of christianity has come to us in two channels one within the church the other without the church and it is not too much to say that since the fourth century the true christian life has been out of the	37
its truth if he were ever mistaken in the smallest matter as some christians have thought he was in his second coming these doctrines respecting the have often changed and are but fleeting yet men lay much stress on them some cling to these notions as if they were christianity itself it is about these and similar points that battles are from age to age men sometimes use worst the treasure which god this is especially true of the use men make of the bible some men have regarded it as the heathen their idol or the savage his they have reason conscience and religion to this thus have they lost half the treasure it bears in its bosom no doubt the time will come when its true character shall be felt then it will be seen that amid all the of the old testament its legends so beautiful as so appalling as facts amid its that have never been fulfilled amid the of god which sometimes occur and the cruel that both and prophecy there is a reverence for man s nature a sublime trust in god and a depth of piety rarely felt in these cold mortal hearts of ours then the devotion of its authors the of their aim and the majesty of their life will appear doubly fair and prophet and will warm our hearts as never before their voice will cheer the young and the gray headed will charm us in the toil of life and the cup death gives us when he comes to shake off this mantle of flesh then will it be seen that the words of are the music of heaven sung in an earthly voice and the echo of these words in and paul owe their to their truth and their depth and to no accidental matter connected then can the word which was in the be and now is find access to the heart of man and speak there as now it seldom speaks then shall the bible which is a whole library of the deepest and most earnest thoughts and feelings and piety and love ever recorded in human speech be read oftener than ever before not with superstition but with reason conscience and faith fully active then shall it sustain men bowed down with many sorrows rebuke sin encourage virtue sow the world broad cast and quick with the seed of love that man may reap a harvest for life everlasting with all the obstacles men have thrown in its path how much has the bible done for mankind no abuse has deprived us of all its blessings you trace its path across the world from the day of to this day as a river springs up in the heart of a sandy continent having its father in the skies and its birth place in distant unknown mountains as the stream rolls on itself making in that arid waste a belt of wherever it turns its way creating palm groves and fertile plains where the smoke of the curls up at even tide and noble cities send the gleam of their splendor far into the sky such has been the course of the bible on the earth despite of bowing to the dust before it it has made a deeper mark on the world than the rich and beautiful literature of all the heathen the first book of the old testament tells man he is made in the image of god the first of the new testament gives os the motto be perfect as your father in heaven higher words were never spoken how the truths of the bible have us there is not a boy on all the hills of new england not a girl born in the cellar which a capital in europe and cries to god against the of modern civilization not a boy nor a girl all through but their lot is made better by that great book doubtless the time will come when men shall see christ also as he is well might he still say have i been so long with you and yet hast thou not known me no we have made him an idol have bowed the knee before him saying hail king of the jews called him lord but done not the things which he said the history of the christian world might well be up in one word of the and there they him for there has never been an age when man did not the son of god afresh but if error prevail for a time and grow old in the world truth will triumph at the last and then we shall see the sou of god as he is lifted up he shall draw all nations unto him then will man understand the word of which shall not pass away then shall we see and love the divine life that he lived how vast has his influence been how his spirit wrought in the hearts of the rude selfish as at first they were how it has wrought in the world his judge the nations the wisest son of man has not measured their height they speak to what is deepest in profound men what is in good men what is in religious men they anew the flame of devotion in hearts long cold they are spirit and life his truth was not derived from moses and solomon but the light of god shone through him not colored not bent aside his life is the perpetual rebuke of all time since it ancient civilization it modern civilization wise men we have since had and good men but this youth strode before the world whole thousands of years so much of divinity was in him his words solve the questions of this present age in him the and the human met and embraced and a divine life was	37
born measure him by the world s greatest sons how poor they are try him by the best of men how little and low they appear him as much as we may we shall yet perhaps come short of the mark but still was he not our brother the son of man as we are the son of god like ourselves his excellence was it not human excellence his wisdom love piety sweet and celestial as they were are they not what we also may attain in him as in a mirror we may see the image of god and go on from glory to glory till we are changed into the same image led by the spirit which the humble viewed in this way how beautiful is the life of heaven has come down to earth or rather earth has become heaven the son of god come of age has taken possession of bis the brightest revelation is this of what is possible for all men if not now at least hereafter how pure is his spirit and how encouraging its words lowly sufferer he seems to say see how i bore the cross patient be strong see bow i toiled for the and the merciless mistaken sinner see of what thou art rise up and be blessed but if as some early christians began to do yon take a heathen view and make him a god the of god in a peculiar and exclusive sense of the of his character is gone his virtue has no merit his love no feeling his cross no burden his agony no pain his death is an illusion his but a show for if he were not a man but a god what are all these things what his words his life his excellence of achievement it is all nothing weighed against the greatness of him who created the worlds and fills up all time and space then his resignation is no lesson his life no model his death no triumph to you or me who are not gods but mortal men that know not what a day shall bring forth and walk by faith dim sounding on our perilous way alas we have of man and so cut off bis brightest hope in respect of doctrines as v ll as forms we see all is every where is and opinions have changed most on points deemed most vital could we bring up a christian teacher of any age from the sixth to the century for example though a teacher of of faith whose word filled the churches of would scarce allow him to kneel at their altar or sit down with them at the lord s table his notions of christianity could not be expressed in our forms nor could our notions be made intelligible to his ears the questions of his age those on which christianity was thought to depend questions which perplexed and divided the subtle doctors are no questions to us the quarrels which then drove wise men mad now only excite a smile or a tear as we are disposed to laugh or weep at the of man we have other of our own to quarrel for their ancient books of devotion do not speak to us their is a vain word to look back but a short period the speculations of our fathers during the last two centuries their practical divinity even the sermons written by genius and piety are with rare exceptions found such a change is there in the doctrines now who shall tell us that the change is to stop here that this or that or even all united have exhausted the river of life and received it all in their so that we need draw no more out of the eternal well but get refreshment nearer at hand who shall tell us that another age will not smile at our doctrines and quarrels about christianity and make wide the mouth at men who walked brave in ment to the names of and repeat again the old charge he hath who shall tell us they will not weep at the folly of all such as fancied truth shone only into the contracted nook of their school or or men of other times may look down equally on the hunters and men hunted for and wonder at both the men of all ages before us were quite as confident as we that their opinion was truth that their notion was christianity and the whole thereof the men who lit the fires of persecution from the first martyr to christian down to the last murder of the had no doubt their opinion was divine the contest about and the purity of the hebrew and greek text of the was with a bitterness in these days the smiles at one the catholic at the other and men of sense wonder at both it might teach us all a lesson at least of forbearance no doubt an age will come in which ours shall be reckoned a period of darkness like the sixth century when men for the wall but stumbled and fell because they trusted a transient notion not an eternal truth an age when temples were full of set up by human folly an age in which christian light had scarce begun to shine into men s hearts but while this change goes on while one generation of opinions passes away and another rises up christianity itself that pure religion which exists eternal in the constitution of the soul and the mind of god is always the same the word that was before in the very will not change for that word is truth from this nothing to this he added nothing but be came to reveal it as the secret of god that cunning men could not understand but which	37
filled the souls of men meek and lowly of heart this truth we owe to god the revelation thereof to our elder brother god s chosen son to turn away from the of the and the of the and the of old school and new school and come to the plain words of of christianity is a simple thing very simple it is absolute pure morality pure religion the love of man the love of god acting without let or the only creed it lays down is the great truth which springs up spontaneous in the holy heart there is a god its is be perfect as your father in heaven the only it demands is a divine life doing the best thing in the best way from the highest motives perfect obedience to the great law of god its sanction is the voice of god in your heart the perpetual presence of him who made us and the stars over our head christ and the father abiding within us all this is very simple a little child can understand it very beautiful the mind can find nothing so lovely try it by reason conscience and faith things highest in man s nature we see no we feel no deficiency examine the duties it humility reverence gentleness charity forgiveness fortitude resignation faith and active love try the whole extent of christianity so well up in the command thou shalt love the lord thy god with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind thou shalt love thy neighbor as and is there any thing therein that can perish no the very of christianity have rarely found fault with the of the end of christianity seems to be to make all men one with god as christ was one with him to bring them to such a state of obedience and goodness that we shall think divine thoughts and feel divine sentiments and so keep the law of god by living a life of truth and love its means are purity and prayer getting strength from god and using it for our fellow men as well as ourselves it allows perfect freedom it does not demand all men to think alike but to think and get as near as possible at truth not all men to live alike but to live holy and get as near as possible to a life perfectly divine christ set up no pillars of beyond which men must not sail the sea in quest of truth he says i have many things to say unto you but ye cannot bear them now greater works than these shall ye do christianity lays no rude hand on the sacred peculiarity of individual genius and character but there is no christian which does not a man it would make all men think alike or their conviction in silence were all men or or there would be much less of thought character and life less of truth active in the world than now but christianity gives us the largest liberty of the sons of god and were all men christians after the fashion of this variety would be a thousand times greater than now for christianity is not a system of doctrines but rather a method of with god it demands therefore a good life of piety within of purity without and gives the promise that does god s will shall know of god s doctrine in an age of corruption as all ages are stood and looked up to god there was nothing between him and the father of all no old word be it of moses or of a living or of no sin or of the will as the result of this virgin purity of soul and perfect obedience the light of god shone down into the very of his soul bringing all of the which flesh can receive he felt that god s word was in him that he was one with god he told what he saw the truth he lived what he felt a life of love the truth he brought to light must have been always the same before the eyes of all seeing god nineteen centuries before christ or nineteen centuries after him a life supported by the principle and quickened by the sentiment of religion if true to both is always the same thing in or new england now that divine man received these truths from god was more clearly by the light that every man combined and involved all the truths of religion and morality in his doctrine and made them manifest in his life then his words and example passed into the world and can no more perish than the stars be wiped out of the sky the truths he taught his doctrines respecting man and god the relation between man and man and man and god with the duties that grow out of that relation are always the same and can never change till man ceases to be man and creation into nothing no forms and opinions change and perish but the word of god cannot fail the form religion takes the doctrines wherewith she is can never be the same in any two centuries or two men for since the sum of religious doctrines is both the result and the measure of a man s total growth in wisdom virtue and piety and since men will always differ in these respects so religious doctrines and forms will always differ always be transient as christianity goes forth and the seed she bears in her hand but the christianity holy men feel in the heart the christ that is born within us is always the same thing to each soul that feels it this only in degree and not in kind from age to age and man to man there is something in christianity which no from	37
the to the latter day saints ever entirely overlooked this is that common christianity which in the hearts of pious men real christianity gives men new life it is the growth and perfect action of the holy spirit god puts into the sons of men it makes us any form or any system of doctrines we have devised and approach still closer to the truth it would lead us to take what help we can find it would make the bible our servant not our master it would teach us to profit by the wisdom and piety of david and solomon but not to sin their sins nor bow to their it would make us the holy words spoken by men of old but still more the word of god spoken through conscience reason and faith as the of all it would make christ the of the soul but the brother of all men it would not tell us that even he had exhausted the fulness of god so that he could create none greater for with him all things are possible and neither old testament or new testament ever hints that creation the creator still less would it tell us the wisdom the piety the love the manly excellence of was the result of miraculous agency alone but that it was won like the excellence of men by faithful obedience to him who gave his son such ample it would point to him as our brother who went before like the good shepherd to charm us with the music of his words and with the beauty of his life to tempt us up the of mortal toil within the gate of heaven it would have us make the kingdom of god on earth and enter more the kingdom on high it would lead us from christ in the heart on which paul laid such stress and work out our salvation by for it is not so much by the christ who lived so and beautiful eighteen centuries ago that we are saved directly but by the christ we form in our hearts and live out in our daily life that we save ourselves god working with us both to will and to do compare the christianity as christ sets it forth on the mount with what is sometimes taught and accepted in that honored name and what a difference one is of god one is of man there is something in christianity which have not reached something that will not be won we fear by battles or the quarrels of pious men still we may rejoice that christ is preached in any way the christianity of of the pulpit of society is a fly it will pass off and be forgot some new form will take its place suited to the aspect of the changing times each will represent something of truth but no one the whole it seems the whole race of man is needed to do justice to the whole of truth as the whole church to preach the whole gospel truth is for the time to a ark of human contrivance though often she always comes safe to land and is not changed by her that pure ideal religion which saw on the mount of his vision and lived out in the lowly life of a peasant which his cross into an emblem of all that is on earth which makes sacred the ground he trod and is dearest to the best of men most true to what is truest in them cannot pass away let men improve never so far in civilization or never so high on the wings of religion and love they can never the flight of truth and christianity it will always be above them it is as if we were to fly towards a star which becomes larger and more bright the nearer we approach till we enter and are absorbed in its glory if we look carelessly on the ages that have gone by or only on the of things as they come up before us there is reason to fear for we confound the truth of god with the word of man so at a distance the cloud and the mountain seem the same when the drift changes with the passing wind an eye might fancy the mountain was gone but the mountain stands to catch the clouds to win the blessing they bear and send it down to the fainting violet to form streams which valley and meadow and sweep on at last to the sea in deep channels laden with thus the forms of the church the of the the conflicting opinions of teachers float round the sides of the christian mount and swell and toss and rise and fall and dart their lightning and roll their thunder but they neither make nor mar the mount itself its lofty summit far the tumult knows nothing of the storm which below but burns with rosy light at evening and at in the of the midday sun sees his light when the long shadows creep over plain and and all night long has its head in the heavens and is visited bj troops of stars which never set nor veil their face to aught so pure and high let then the transient pass fleet as it will and may send us some new of the christian faith that shall stir men s hearts as they were never stirred some new word which shall teach us what we are and renew us all in the image of god some better life that shall fulfil the hebrew prophecy and pour out the spirit of god on young men and maidens and old men and children which shall realize the word of christ and give us the who shall reveal all needed things there are enough in the cottages and churches of new england plain men and pious women who wait	37
of the poet and the painter the twin loves dialogue the to readers th death of a song of the sea to the poets th american by r w herald of of the tragic saturday and sunday among the l the prince the visit church human nature the dial vol iv july no i the great man men woman women this great suit has now been carried on through many ages with various results the have been numerous but always followed by appeals to still higher courts how can it be otherwise when the law itself is the subject of frequent constant man has now and then enjoyed a clear triumphant hour when some irresistible conviction warmed and the atmosphere of his planet but presently he sought repose after his labors when the crowd of bound him in his sleep long years of imprisonment followed while his enemies in his spoils and no counsel could be found to plead his cause in the absence of that all promising glance which had at times kindled the poetic soul to n of his claims of his rights yet a foundation for claim is now established it is known that his inheritance consists in no partial sway no exclusive possession such as his desire for they not content that the universe is rich would each one for himself appropriate treasure but in vain the garment which clothed with honor an elected son when rent asunder for the many is a worthless spoil a band of robbers cannot live in the prince s castle nor would he like them be content with less than all though he would not like them seek it as fuel for enjoyment but as his to administer and guard for the use of all living things therein he cannot be satisfied with any one gift of the earth any one department of knowledge or peep at the heavens he feels vol iv no i i hie great july himself called to understand and aid nature that she may through his intelligence be raised and interpreted to be a student of and servant to the universe spirit and only king of his planet that as an minister he may bring it into conscious harmony with the law of that spirit such is the inheritance of the orphan prince and the children of his family will not always be able to keep it from him for from the fields which they sow with s teeth and water with blood rise monsters which he alone has power to drive away but it is not the purpose now to sing the prophecy of his we have said that in clear triumphant moments this has many many times been made manifest and those moments though past in time have been translated into eternity by thought the bright signs they left hang in the heavens as single stars or and already a thickly radiance the wanderer in the darkest night heroes have filled the of beneficent labors and then given up their mortal part to the fire without a murmur and have bent their ne est k me et rare i c si quit fort re of into clumsy english hj mr gay as follows jove said be all your fears th fires thou great hero scorn who all things shall subdue the flame the part alone of gross maternal frame fire shall while that from me he drew shall live immortal and its force renew that when he s dead i ll raise to above may all the powers the righteous act approve if any god and judge too great the sacred honors of the heavenly seat even he shall own his deeds deserve the sky even he reluctant shall at length th assembled powers assent man men whole nature to the search for truth and thought themselves happy if they could buy with the sacrifice of all ease and pleasure one seed for the future poets and priests have strung the with heart strings poured out their best blood upon the altar which reared anew from age to age shall at last sustain the which rises to highest heaven what shall we say of those who if not so directly or so in connection with the central truth yet led and fashioned by a divine instinct serve no less to develop and interpret the open secret of love passing into life the divine energy creating for the purpose of happiness of the artist whose hand drawn by a harmony to a certain medium it to expressions of life more highly and completely organized than are seen elsewhere and by carrying out the intention of nature her meaning to those who are not yet sufficiently to divine it of the who steadily for causes and from those obvious those yet unknown of the historian who in faith that all events must have their reason and their aim records them and lays up from which the youth of may be fed the man of science the statement the facts and connection even where he cannot its purpose lives too which bear none of these names have yielded tones of no less significance the set in a low place has given light as faithfully where it was needed as that upon the hill in close in dismal the word has been read as distinctly as when shown by angels to holy men in the dark prison those who till a spot of earth scarcely larger than is wanted for a grave have deserved that the sun should shine upon sod till answer so great has been from time to time the promise that in all ages men have said the gods themselves came	37
down to dwell with them that the all creating wandered on the earth to taste in a limited nature the sweetness of virtue that the all himself to guard in space and time the of his world that heavenly genius dwelt among the to sing to them and teach them how to sing indeed der den he has constantly shown himself favorable to the great july and these in green pastures and natural students of the stars were selected to hail first of all the holy child whose life and death presented the type of excellence which has sustained the heart of so large a portion of mankind in these later generations such marks have been left by the footsteps of man whenever he has made his way through the wilderness of men and whenever the stepped in one of these they felt within the breast somewhat that promised larger stature and purer blood they were tempted to their evil ways to the side of selfish personal existence of and of possessions conviction flowed in upon them they too raised the cry god is living all is his and all created beings are brothers for they are his children these were the triumphant moments but as we have said man slept and selfishness awoke thus he is still kept out of his inheritance still a still a pilgrim but his is sure and now no mere glimmering consciousness but a certainty is felt and spoken that the highest ideal man can form of his own is that which he is destined to attain whatever the knows how to seek it must attain knock and it shall be opened seek and ye shall find it is it is a he no longer his proper nature in some peculiar form and says had it but man must have it however disputed by many however used or by those who do receive it the fact of an universal revelation has been too clearly stated in words to be lost sight of in thought and sermons preached from the text be ye perfect are the only sermons of a and deep searching influence but among those who upon this text there is great of view as to the way in which perfection shall be sought through the intellect say some gather from every growth of life its seed of thought look behind every symbol for its law if thou see clearly the rest will follow through the life say others do the best thou to day shrink not from incessant error in this gradual state follow thy light for as much as it will j man men show thee be faithful as far as thou in hope that faith presently will lead to sight help others without blame that they need thy help love much and be forgiven it needs not intellect needs not experience says a third if you took the true way these would be in purity you would not learn through them but express through them a higher knowledge in yield thy soul to the soul do not disturb its by methods of thine own be still seek not but wait in obedience thy commission will be given could we indeed say what we want could we give a description of the child that is lost he would be found as soon as the soul can say clearly that a certain demonstration is wanted it is at hand when the prophet described the lamb as the expression of what was required by the coming era the time drew nigh but we say not see not as yet clearly what we would those who call for a more triumphant expression of love a love that cannot be show not a perfect sense of what has already been expressed love has already been expressed that made all things new that gave the worm its as well as the eagle a love to which it was alike to descend into the depths of hell or to sit at the right hand of the father yet no doubt a new is at hand a new in the day of man we cannot expect to see him a completed being when the mass of men lie so entangled in the sod or use the freedom of their limbs only with energy the tree cannot come to flower till its root be freed from the worm and its whole growth open to air and light yet something new shall presently be shown of the life of man for hearts it now if minds do not know how to ask it among the strains of prophecy the following by an earnest mind of a foreign land written some thirty years ago is not yet and it has the merit of being a positive appeal from the heart instead of a critical declaration what man shall not do the of man that he must be filled from the divine fountains which are being through all eternity so that at the mere name of his af he may be to tlie great july cast all his enemies into the abyss that he may deliver all parts of nature from the that them that he may the atmosphere from the that it that he may preserve the bodies of men from the corrupt influences that surround and the that them still more that he may keep their souls pure from the malignant which and the gloomy images that obscure them that we may restore its serenity to the word which false words of men fill with mourning and sadness that he may satisfy the desires of the angels who await from him the development of the of nature that in fine his world may be filled with god as eternity is another attempt we will give by an obscure observer of our own day and country to draw some lines of the desired image it was suggested by seeing the design	37
who weep who an immortal spirit cannot fail of universal recognition we no less at the pomp than the strife of words we feel that never were lungs so puffed with the wind of on moral and religious subjects as now we are tempted to these word heroes th se word word to beware of cant above all things to remember that is the most hopeless as well as the meanest of crimes and that those must surely be by it who do not keep a little of all this morality and religion for private use t we feel that the mind may grow black and in the smoke even of we start op from the to go into our closet and shut the door but when it has been shut long enough we remember that where there is so much smoke there must be some fire with so much talk about virtue and freedom must be mingled some desire for them that it cannot be in vain that such have become the common topics of conversation among men that the very newspapers should proclaim themselves of the king that so costly a cannot be a mere count of fiction we have waited here long in the dust we are tired and hungry but the procession must appear at last of all its none has been more steadily and under none has more and for real sacrifices been shown than that of the of the t or one piece of advice be written on every door clear your mind of cant but to it was so acceptable in clearing away tbe vine down the building toe s it note worthy cant n t it off it ho i the great july african and this band it is which partly in consequence of a natural following out of principles partly because many women have been prominent in that cause makes just now the warmest appeal in behalf of woman though there has been a growing liberality on this point yet society at large is not so prepared for tiie demands of this party but that they are and will be for some time coldly regarded as the of their day is it not enough cries the sorrowful that you have done all you could to break up the national union and thus destroy the prosperity of our country but now you must be trying to break up family union to take my wife away from the cradle and the kitchen hearth to vote at and preach from a pulpit of course if she does such things she cannot attend to those of her own sphere she is happy enough as she is she has more leisure than i have every means of improvement every indulgence have you asked her whether she was satisfied with these no but i know she is she is too amiable to wish what would make me unhappy and too judicious to wish to step beyond the sphere of her sex i will never consent to have our peace disturbed by any such consent you it is not consent from you that is in question it is assent from your wife am not i the head of my house you are not the head of wife god has given her a mind of her own i am the head and she the heart god grant you play true to one another then if the head no natural pulse of the heart there can be no question as to your giving your consent both will be of one accord and there needs but to present any question to get a full and true answer there is no need of precaution of indulgence or consent but our doubt is whether the heart with the head or only in its decree and it is to ascertain the truth on this point that we propose some measures thus vaguely are these questions proposed and discussed at present but their being proposed at all much thought and suggests more many women are considering man mm woman women within themselves what they need that they have not and what they can have if they find they need it many men are considering whether women are capable of being and having more than they are and have and whether if they are it will be best to consent to improvement in their condition the numerous party whose opinions are already and adjusted too to their mind to admit of any new light strive by lectures on some model woman of like beauty and gentleness by writing or little to mark out with due precision the limits of woman s sphere and woman s mission and to prevent other than the shepherd from climbing the wall or the flock from using chance gap to run astray without ourselves at once on either side let us look upon the subject from that point of view which to day offers no better it is to be feared than a high house top a high hill top or at least a cathedral spire would be desirable it is not surprising that it should be th anti slavery party that for woman when we merely that she does not hold property on equal terms with men so that if a husband dies without a will the wife instead of stepping at once into his place as head of tlie family only a part of his fortune as if she were a child or ward only not an equal partner we will not speak of the innumerable instances in which or idle men live upon the of industrious wives or if the wives leave them and take with them the children to perform the double duty of mother and father follow from place to place and threaten to rob them of the children if deprived of the rights of a husband as they call them planting themselves	37
inward and outward freedom for woman as much as for man shall be acknowledged as a right not yielded as a concession as the friend of the negro that one man cannot by right hold another in bondage so should the friend of woman assume that man cannot by right lay even well meant on woman if the negro be a soul if the woman be a soul in flesh to one master only are they there is but one law for all souls and if there is to be an of it he comes not as man or son of man but as son of god were thought and feeling once so far elevated that man should esteem himself the brother and friend but the lord and of woman were be really bound with her in equal worship arrangements as to function and em would be of no consequence what woman needs is not as a woman to act or rule but as a nature to grow as an intellect to discern as a soul to live freely and to such powers as were given her when we left our common home if fewer talents were given her yet if allowed the free and full employment of these so that she may render back to the his own with she will not complain nay i dare to say she will bless and rejoice in her earthly birth place her earthly lot let us consider what this good era and what signs give reason to hope that it draws near i was talking on this subject with a woman who if any in the world might speak without heat or bit j of the position of her sex her father was a man who cherished no sentimental reverence for woman but a firm belief in the equality of the sexes she was his eldest child and came to him at an age when he needed a com from the time she could speak and go alone he addressed her not as a but as a living mind among the few verses he ever wrote were a copy addressed to this child when the first locks were cut from her head and the reverence expressed on this occasion for that head he never it was to him the temple of immortal intellect he respected his child however too much to be an indulgent parent he called on her for clear judgment for courage for honor and fidelity in short for such virtues as he knew in so far as he possessed the keys to the wonders of this universe he allowed free use of them to her and by the of a high expectation he forbade as far as possible that she should let the e lie idle thus this child was early led to feel herself a child of the spirit she took her place easily not only in the world of organized being but in the world of mind a dignified sense of self dependence was given as all her portion and she found it a sure anchor herself securely her relations with others were established with equal security she was fortunate in a total absence of those charms which might have drawn to her bewildering and of a strong electric nature which those who did not belong to her and attracted those who did with men and women her relations were noble affectionate without passion intellectual without coldness the world was free to her and she lived freely in it outward came and inward conflict but that faith and self respect had early been awakened which must always lead at last to an outward serenity and an inward peace of i had always thought as an example that the upon the sex were only to those who think them so or who strive to break them she had taken a course of her own and no man stood in her way many of her acts had been unusual but excited few helped but none checked her and the many men who knew her mind and her life showed to her the confidence as to a brother gentleness as to a sister and not only refined but very coarse men approved one in whom they saw resolution and clearness or design her mind was often the leading one always effective when i talked with her upon these matters and bad said very much what i have written she replied and yet we must admit that i have been fortunate and this should not be my good father s early trust gave the first bias and the rest followed of course it is true that i have had less outward aid in after years than most women but that is of little consequence religion was early awakened in my soul a sense that what the soul is capable to ask it must attain and that though i might be aided by others i must depend on myself as the only constant friend this self dependence which was honored in me is as a fault in most women they are taught to learn their rule from without not to it from within this is the fault of man who is still vain and wishes to be more important to woman than by right he should be men have not shown this disposition towards you i said no because the position i early was enabled to take was one of self reliance and were all women as sure of their wants as i was the result would be the same the difficulty is to get them to the point where they shall naturally develop respect the question how it is to be done t once i thought that men would help on this state of things more than i do now i saw so many of them wretched in the connections they had formed in weakness and vanity they seemed so glad	37
to esteem women whenever they could but early i perceived that men never in any extreme of despair wished to be women where they admired any woman they were inclined speak of her as above her sex silently i observed this and feared it argued a rooted which for ages had been on the heart and which only an age of miracles could ever i have been treated with great sincerity and i look upon it as a most signal instance of this that an intimate friend of the other sex said in a fervent moment that i deserved in some star to be a man another used as high woman vn women est praise in speaking of a character in literature the words a manly woman it is well known that of every strong woman they say she has a masculine mind this by no means a willing want of generosity towards woman man is as generous towards her as he knows how to be wherever she has herself arisen in national or private history and nobly shone forth in any ideal of excellence men have received her not only willingly but with triumph their indeed are always in some sense they show too much surprise day life the feelings of the many are stained with vanity each wishes to be lord in a little world to be superior at least over one and he does not feel strong enough to retain a life long over a strong nature only a would rejoice in a only could conquer before he wed the queen wished rather to rest from his labors with and received the poisoned robe as a fit the tale should be interpreted to all those who seek repose with the weak but not only is man vain and fond of power but the same want of development which thus affects him morally in the intellect prevents his the destiny of woman the boy wants no woman but only a girl to play ball with him and mark his pocket handkerchief thus in s dignity of woman beautiful as the poem is there is no grave and perfect man but only a great boy to be softened and restrained by the influence of girls poets the elder brothers of their race have usually seen further but what can you expect of every day men if was not more prophetic as to what women must be r even with one foremost thought about a wife was that ihe would cook him something good the sexes should not only correspond to and appreciate one another but to one another in individual instances this happens two persons love in one another the future good which they aid one another to this is very imperfectly done as yet in the general life man has gone but little way now he is waiting to see whether woman can keep step with him but instead of vol iv n the great july calling out like a good brother you can do it if you only think so or any one can do what he tries to do he often with school boy girls cant do that girls cant play ball but let any one defy their break through and be brave and secure they the air with shouts no man is not he wants faith and love because he i not yet himself an elevated being he cries with give us a sign but if the sign appears his eyes and he offers not merely approval but homage the severe nation which taught that the happiness of the race was through the fault of a woman and showed its thought of what sort of regard man owed her by making him accuse her on the first question to his god who gave her to the as a and by the law bound her to like a even they greeted with solemn rapture all great and holy women as nay judges in and if they made eve listen to the serpent gave mary to the holy spirit in other nations it has been the same down to our day to the woman who could conquer a triumph was and not only those whose strength was recommended to the heart by association with goodness and beauty but those who were bad if they were steadfast and strong had their claims allowed in any age a an elizabeth of england a of russia makes her place good whether in a large or small circle how has a little wit a little genius always been celebrated in a woman what an intellectual triumph was that of the lonely and how heartily acknowledged she indeed met a but what the of men the most of husbands will spare from his page one of the few anecdotes of roman women the names are of thread bare the man habitually most narrow towards women will be flushed as by the worst assault on christianity if you say it has made no improvement in her condition indeed those most opposed to new acts in her favor are jealous of the reputation of those which have been done we will not speak of the enthusiasm excited by female singers for here the charm of beauty and grace but female authors even woman s women learned women if not ugly and from the italian professor s daughter who taught behind the curtain down to mrs and madame are sure of an admiring audience if they can once get a platform on which to stand but how to get this platform or how to make it of reasonably easy access is the difficulty plants of great vigor will almost always struggle into blossom despite but there should be encouragement and a free genial atmosphere for those of more timid sort fair play for each in its own kind some are like the little delicate flowers which love to hide in the dripping by	37
but in the same nation educated by time instructed by successive we find woman in as high a position as she has ever occupied and no figure that has ever arisen to greet our eyes has been received the great with more fervent reverence than that of the calls her th dame du of the church and this well expresses a serious truth and not only this holy and significant image was worshipped by the pilgrim and the favorite subject of the artist but it exercised an immediate influence on the destiny of the sex the who embraced the cross sons and husbands whole of female saints heroic of chivalry binding the emblem of faith on the heart of the best beloved and wasting the bloom of youth in separation and loneliness for the sake of duties they thought it religion to assume with innumerable forms of trace their to this one nor however imperfect may be the action in our day of the faith thus expressed and though we can scarcely think it nearer this ideal than that of india or greece was near their ideal is it in vain that the truth has been recognised that is not only a part of man bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh born that men might not be lonely but in themselves of and possessed by immortal souls this truth undoubtedly received a greater outward the belief of the church that the earthly parent of the of souls was a woman the assumption of the virgin as painted by sublime artists s hymn to the cannot have spoken to the world wholly without result yet those who had ears heard not thus the idea of woman has not failed to be often and forcibly represented so many instances throng on the mind that we must stop here lest the catalogue be swelled beyond the reader s patience neither can she complain that she has not had her share of power this in all ranks of society except the lowest has been hers to the extent that vanity could far beyond what wisdom would accept in the very lowest where man pressed by poverty sees in woman only the partner of toils and cares and cannot hope scarcely has an idea of a comfortable home he her often and is less influenced by her in all ranks those who are amiable and much they long and are kind verily they have their reward but wherever man is raised above extreme poverty or woman women al stupidity to care for the comforts of the fireside or the bloom and ornament of life woman always power enough if she choose to exert it and is usually disposed to do so in proportion to her ignorance and childish vanity with the importance of life and its purposes trained to a selfish and love of petty power she does not look beyond the pleasure of making herself felt at the moment and are shaken and commerce broken up to gratify the of a female favorite the english s wife does not vote but it is for her interest that the by the flattery france suffers no woman on her throne but her proud kiss the dust at the feet of and for such in the lighted where a would modestly aid in the closet spain up her women in the care of and allows them no book but the but the ruin follows only the more surely from the worthless favorite of a worthless queen it is not the transient breath of poetic incense that women want each can receive that a lover it is not life long sway it needs but to become a a or a good cook to be sure of that it is not money nor nor the of authority that men have appropriated to themselves if demands made in their behalf lay stress on any of these particulars those who make them have not searched deeply into the need it is for that which at once all these and them which would not be forbidden power lest there be temptation to steal and it which would not have the mind by flattery from a of esteem it is for that which is the of every being ble to receive it the freedom the religious the intelligent freedom of the universe to use its means to learn its secret as far as nature has enabled them with god alone for their guide and their judge ye cannot believe it men but the only reason why women ever assume what is more appropriate to you is because you prevent them from finding out what is fit for themselves were they free were they wise fully to develop the strength and beauty of woman they would never wish to be men or the well instructed moon flies not from her to seize on the glories of her the july partner no for she knows that one law rules one heaven contains one universe replies to them alike it is with women as with the slave er die tremble not before the free man but before the slave who has chains to break in slavery acknowledged slavery women are on a par with men each is a work tool an article of property no more in perfect freedom such as is painted in in s state in the heaven where there is no marrying nor giving in marriage each is a intelligence an soul no less und und den the child who sang this was a prophetic form expressive of the longing for a state of perfect freedom pure love she could not remain here but was to another air and it may be that the air of this earth will never be so tempered that such can bear it long but while they stay they must bear testimony to the truth they are constituted to demand that an	37
thoughts travelled elsewhere and while forming a high ideal of the companionship of minds in marriage he seems never to doubted that its must be postponed to some other stage of being almost immediately after the death of married a lady chosen for him by his friends centuries have passed since but civilized europe is still in a transition state about marriage not only in practice but in thought a great majority of societies and individuals are still doubtful whether earthly marriage is to be a union of souls or merely a contract of convenience and utility were woman established in the rights of an immortal being this could not be she would not in some countries be given away by her father with scarcely more respect for her own feelings than is shown by the indian chief who his daughter for a horse and beats her if she runs away from her new home nor in societies where her choice is left free would she be by the current of opinion that her into the belief that she must marry if it be only to find a protector and a home of her own neither would man if he the connection was of permanent importance enter upon it so lightly he would not deem it a trifle that he was to enter into the relations with another soul which if not eternal in themselves must affect his growth neither did he believe woman capable of friendship would he by rash haste lose the chance of finding a friend in the person who might probably live half a century by his side did love to his mind partake of he would not miss his chance of its revelations that he might the sooner rest from his weariness by a bright fireside and have a sweet and graceful attendant devoted to him alone were he a step higher he would not carelessly the july enter into a relation where he might not be able to do the duty of a friend as well as a protector from ill to the other party and have a being in his power for sympathy intelligence and aid that he could not give where the thought of equality has become it shows itself in four kinds the household in our country the woman looks for a smart but kind husband the man for a capable sweet tempered wife the man the house the woman it their relation is one of mutual esteem mutual dependence their talk is of their affection shows itself by practical kindness they know that life goes more smoothly and cheerfully to each for the other s aid they are grateful and content the wife praises her husband as a good the husband in return compliments her as a capital housekeeper this relation is good as far as it goes next comes a closer tie which takes the two forms either of intellectual companionship or mutual the last we suppose is to no one a pleasing subject of contemplation the parties and narrow one another they lock the gate against all the glories of the universe that they may live in a cell together to themselves they seem the only wise to all others in the gods smile as they look forward to the crisis of cure to men the woman seems an to women the man an boy the other form of intellectual companionship has become more and more frequent men engaged in public life literary men and artists have often found in their wives companions and in thought no less than in feeling and as in the course of things the intellectual development of woman has spread wider and risen higher they have not un frequently shared the same employment as in the case of and his wife who were friends in the household and the nation s read together regulated home affairs or prepared public documents together indifferently it is very pleasant in letters begun by and finished by his wife to see the harmony of mind and the difference of nature one thought but various ways of treating it woman women this is one of the best instances of a marriage of friendship it was only friendship whose basis was esteem probably neither party knew love except by name was a good man worthy to esteem and be esteemed his wife as deserving of admiration as able to do without it madame is the fairest specimen we have yet of her class as clear to discern her aim as to pursue it as s set apart from all that did not belong to her whether as woman or as mind she is an of a class to which the coming time will afford a field the matron brought by the culture of a book furnishing age to intellectual consciousness and self strength and clear were in combined with n power of deep and calm affection the page of her life is one of dignity her appeal to posterity is one against the injustice of those who committed such crimes in the name of liberty she makes it in behalf of herself and her husband i would put beside it on the shelf a little volume containing a similar appeal from the verdict of to that of mankind that of in behalf of his wife the celebrated the by most men detested mary in his view it was an appeal from the injustice of those who did such wrong in the name of virtue were this little book interesting for no other cause it would be so for the generous affection evinced under the peculiar circumstances this man had courage to love and honor this woman in the face of the world s verdict and of all that was repulsive in her own past history he believed he saw of what soul she was and that the thoughts she had struggled to act out were he loved her	37
and he defended her for the meaning and tendency of her inner life it was a good fact mary like madame commonly known as george sand in our day was a woman whose existence better proved the need of some new interpretation of woman s rights than anything she wrote such women as these rich in genius of most tender sympathies and capable of high virtue and a harmony ought not to find themselves by birth in a place so narrow that in breaking bonds they become were there as much the great room in the world for such as in s poem for they would not run their heads so wildly against it laws they find their way at last to purer air but the world will not take off the brand it has set upon them the champion of the rights of woman found in one who plead her own cause like a brother george sand wears male attire wishes to be addressed as mon perhaps if she found those who were as brothers indeed she would not care whether she were brother or sister we rejoice to see that she who expresses such a contempt for men in most of her works as shows she must have known great wrong from them in la one raised by the workings of love from the depths of savage to a moral and intellectual life it was love for a pure object for a steadfast one of those who the italian said could make the stair to heaven women like sand will speak now and cannot be silenced their characters and their eloquence alike an era when such as they shall easier learn to lead true lives but though such not such shall be the parents of it those who would reform the world must show that they do not speak in the heat of wild impulse their lives must be by passionate error they must be severe to themselves as to their and opinions it may be observed that the resolve of to be only the mistress of was that of one who saw the contract of marriage a seal of degradation wherever of this sort are seen the timid will suffer the bold protest but society is in the right to them till she has her law and she must be taught to do so by one who speaks with authority not in anger and haste if s choice of the of the rights of woman for his honored wife be a sign of a new era no less so is an article of great learning and eloquence published several years since in an english review where the writer in doing full justice to shows his bitter regret that she lives not now to love him who might have known better how to prize her love than did the these marriages these characters with all their express an onward tendency they speak of woman women of ul of energy of mind seeking clearness and freedom of a like promise are the tracts now by the european as he calls himself and his wife whatever we may think of their measures we see in them the two minds are wed by the only contract that can permanently avail of a common faith and a common purpose we might mention instances nearer home of minds partners in work and in life sharing together on equal terms public and private interests and which have not on any side that aspect of offence which the attitude of the last named persons who steer straight onward and in our life have not been obliged to run their heads against any wall but the principles which guide them might under or oppressive institutions have made them warlike or in some sense the phenomenon is different the law the same in all these cases men and women have been obliged to build their house from the very foundation if they found stone ready in the they took it otherwise they alarmed the country by pulling down old towers to get materials are all instances of marriage as intellectual companionship the parties meet mind to mind and a mutual trust is excited which can them against a million they work together for a common purpose and in all these instances with the same the pen a pleasing expression in this kind is afforded by the union in the names of the william and mary we heard named together for years supposing them to be brother and sister the equality of labors and reputation even so was more so now we find them man and in his late work on germany his wife with pride as one among the of distinguished english women and in a graceful simple manner in these instances we do not mean to imply that community of employment is an essential to union of this more than to the union of friendship harmony exists in difference no less than in likeness if only the same key note govern both parts woman the poem man the poet woman the heart man the head such divisions are only important when they are never to be ended if th great july nature is never bound down nor the voice of inspiration stifled that is enough we are pleased that women should write and speak if they feel the need of it from having something to tell but silence for a hundred years would be as well if that silence be from divine command and not from man s tradition while von rides to battle his wife is busy in the kitchen but difference of occupation does not prevent that community of life that perfect esteem with which he says whom god loves to him gives he such a wife thus his to his beloved and wife who affections and maternal wisdom has preserved a virgin mind the author this that he could not by a	37
her supposed engagement in any tribe we believe a woman who lived as if she was to the sun would be and the rays which made her youth blossom sweetly would crown her with a in age there is on this subject a nobler view than heretofore if not the noblest and we greet improvement here as much as on the subject of marriage both are fertile but time not here to explore them if larger intellectual resources begin to be deemed necessary to woman still more is a spiritual dignity in her or even the mere assumption of it listened to with respect and mother anne lee are sure of a band of of who will visit them in their lowly and wait for hours to them in their the foreign noble land and sea to hear a few words from the lips of the lowly peasant girl whom he believes especially visited by the most high very beautiful in this way was the influence of the invalid of st as described by de to this region however misunderstood and ill developed belong the phenomena of or the great july as it is now often called where the trance of the to be produced by the agency of one human being on another instead of as in her case direct from the spirit the has his sneer here as about the services of religion the churches can always be filled with wo men show me a man in one of your states and i will believe women are indeed the easy victims of or self delusion but this might not be if the intellect was developed in proportion to the other powers they would then have a and be in better yet must retain the same nervous while their physical structure is such as it is it is with just that hope that we welcome everything that to strengthen the fibre and develop the nature on more sides when the intellect and affections are in harmony when intellectual consciousness is calm and deep inspiration will not be confounded with fancy the the element in woman has not been fairly developed at any period everything might be expected from it she has far more of it than man this is commonly expressed by saying that her are more rapid and more correct but i cannot upon this here except to say that on this side is highest promise should i speak of it fully my title should be my topic the of the first or the best observed subject of in our times and who like her at was roused to ecstasy or by the touch of the laurel in such cases sneer but men learn wondrous news either from the person observed or by the thoughts caused in themselves by the observation from from his what we fain would know but to appreciate such one must be a child and here the phrase women and children may perhaps be interpreted aright that only little children shall enter into the kingdom of heaven all these motions of the time tides that a moon upon our own land the world at large is to let woman learn and manifest the of her nature than it ever was before and here is a less field and air than anywhere else woman women and it ought to be so we ought to pay for s jewels the names of nations are feminine virtue and victory are feminine to those who have a superstition as to outward signs it is not without significance that the name of the queen of our mother land should at this crisis be victoria victoria the first perhaps to us it may be given to disclose the era there outwardly women here are much better situated than men good books are allowed with more time to read them they are not so early forced into the bustle of life nor so weighed down by demands for outward success the perpetual changes incident to our society make the blood freely through the body and if not favorable at present to the grace and bloom of life they are so to activity resource and would be to reflection but for a low tendency from which the women are generally they have time to think and no traditions chain them and few compared with what must be met in other nations there is no reason why the fact of a constant revelation should be hid from them and when the mind once is awakened by that it will not be restrained by the past but fly to seek the seeds of a heavenly future their are more favorable to the inward life than those of the men woman is not addressed here more than else where she is told to be worthy to be the mother of a washington or the companion of some good man but in many many instances she has already learnt that all have the same flaw that truth and good are to be sought for themselves alone and already an ideal sweetness over many forms shines in many eyes already deep questions arc put by young girls on the great theme what shall i do to inherit eternal life men are very courteous to them they praise them often check them seldom there is some chivalry in the feeling towards the ladies which gives them the best seats in the stage coach frequent admission not only to lectures of all sorts but to courts of justice halls of reform the newspaper editor would be better pleased that the lady s book were filled up ex t e great july by ladies it would then indeed be a true worthy to be presented by young men to the of their affections can gallantry go farther in this country is wherever seen the character which spoke of as i n ideal the excellent woman is she who if the	37
husband dies can be a father to the children and this if rightly read tells a great deal women who speak in public if they have a moral power such as has been felt from and that is if they speak for conscience sake to serve a cause which they hold sacred invariably subdue the prejudices of their hearers and excite an interest to the aversion with which it had been the purpose to regard them a passage in a private letter so happily this that i take the liberty to make use of it though there is not opportunity to ask leave either of the writer or owner of the letter i think they will pardon me when they see it in print it is so good that as many as possible should have the benefit of it in the town house of the scene was not to see that woman true to humanity and her own nature a centre of rude eyes and tongues even gentlemen feeling to make part of a species of mob around a female out of her sphere as she took her seat in the desk amid the great noise and in the throng full like a wave of something to i saw her humanity in a gentleness and tenderly open to the sphere around her and had she not been supported by the power of the will of and principle she would have failed it led her to prayer which in woman especially is sensibility and will going to the side of god and looking up to him and humanity was poured out in she acted like a gentle hero with her mild decision and womanly calmness ah heroism is mild and quiet and gentle for it is life and possession and and firmness show a want of she is as earnest fresh and simple as when she first entered the i think she did much good more than the men in her place could do for woman feels more as being and this brings the subject more into home relations men speak through and mostly from intellect and this addresses itself in others which and is woman women not easily shall we find elsewhere or before this time any written observations the same subject so delicate and profound the late dr whose enlarged and tender and religious nature shared every onward impulse of his time though his thoughts followed bis wishes with a caution which belonged to his habits and temperament was greatly interested in these expectations for women his own treatment of them was absolutely thoroughly religious he regarded them as souls each of which had a des tiny of its own to other minds and whose leading it must follow guided by the light of a private conscience he had sentiment delicacy kindness taste but they were all pervaded and ruled by this one thought that all beings had souls and must their own inheritance thus all beings were treated by him with an equal and sweet though solemn courtesy the young and unknown the woman and the child all felt themselves regarded with an infinite expectation from which there was no reaction to vulgar prejudice he demanded of all he met to use his favorite phrase great truths his memory every way dear and reverend is by many especially cherished for this intercourse of unbroken re at one time when the progress of through this country s appearance in public and the visit of mrs had turned his thoughts to this subject he expressed high hopes as to what the coming era would bring to woman he had been much pleased with the dignified courage of mrs in taking up the defence of her sex in a way from which women usually shrink because if they express themselves on such subjects with sufficient force and clearness to do any good they are exposed to whose vulgarity makes them painful in intercourse with such a woman he had shared her at the base injustice in many respects and in many regions done to the sex and been led to think of it far more than ever before he seemed to think that he might some time write upon the subject that his aid is withdrawn from the cause is a subject of great for on this question as on others he would have known how to sum up the evidence and take in the vol it no i the great noblest spirit middle ground he always a platform on which opposing parties could stand and look at one another under the influence of his and enlightened two younger men both have uttered noble for woman all whose thoughts tended towards the establishment of the reign of love and peace thought that the inevitable means of this would be an increased given to the idea of woman had he lived longer to see the growth of the peace party the in life and medical practice which seek to substitute r for wine and pulse for food he would have been confirmed in his view of the way in which the desired changes are to be effected in this connection i must mention who like all men of genius shared the feminine development and unlike many knew it his life was one of the first in the present reform growth he too blood and heat and by his system and his song tended to a plant like gentleness in the development of energy in harmony with this his ideas of marriage were lofty and of course no less so of woman her nature and destiny for woman if by a sympathy as to outward condition she is led to aid the of the slave must no less so by inward tendency to favor measures which promise to bring the world more thoroughly and deeply into harmony with her nature when the lamb takes place of the lion as the emblem of	37
nations both women and men will be as children of one spirit perpetual of the word and thereof not hearers only a writer in a late number of the new york in two articles headed has uttered a still more word than any we have named he views woman truly from the soul and not from society and the depth and leading of his thoughts is remarkable he views the feminine nature as a of the vehement elements and this has often been hinted elsewhere but what he expresses most forcibly is the the inspiring and inspired of her being had i room to dwell upon this to ic i could not say women anything so precise so near the heart of the matter as may be found in that article but as it is i can only indicate not declare my view there are two aspects of woman s nature expressed by the as muse and it is the former to which the writer in the looks it is the latter which has in mind when he says with a placid brow which woman ne er should keep thy vow the especial genius of woman i believe to be in movement in function spiritual in tendency she is great not so easily in or re creation as in an instinctive of causes and a simple breathing out of what she receives that has the of life rather than the selecting or of art more native to her is it to be the living model of the artist than to set apart from herself any one form in reality more native to inspire and receive the poem than to create it in so far as soul is in her completely developed all soul is the same but as far as it is modified in her as woman it flows it breathes it sings rather than soil or work and that which is especially feminine in blossom the face of earth and like air and water all this seeming solid globe daily and its life such may be the especially feminine element spoken of as but it is no more the order of nature that it should be pure in any form than that the masculine energy should exist with it in any form male and female represent the two sides of the great radical but in fact they are perpetually passing into one another to solid solid rushes to there is no wholly masculine man no purely feminine woman history at the attempts of to bind great original laws by the forms which flow from them they make a rule they say from observation what can and cannot be in vain nature exceptions to every rule she sends women to battle and sets spinning she women to bear immense burdens cold and frost she the man who feels maternal love to his infant like a mother of late she plays still t e great jn j not only she but organs of a necessary end she people to read with the top of the head and see with the pit of the stomach presently she will make a female and a male man of the feminine in the woman of the masculine as let us be wise and not the soul let her work as she will let us have one energy one incessant revelation let it take what form it will and let us not bind it by the past to man or woman black or white jove sprang from from jove so let it be if it has been the tendency of the past remarks to call woman rather to the side if i unlike the more generous writer have spoken from society no less than the soul let it be it is love that has caused this love for many souls that might be freed could the idea of religious self dependence be established in them could the habit of dependence on others be broken up every relation every of nature is precious but only to the soul which is poised upon itself and to whom no loss no change can bring dull discord for it is in harmony with the central soul if any individual live too much in relations so that be becomes a stranger to the resources of his own nature he falls after a while into a distraction or from which he can only be cured by a time of which gives the fountains time to rise up with a society it is the same many minds deprived of the or instinctive means of passing a cheerful existence must find help in self impulse or perish it is therefore that while any elevation in the view of union is to be hailed with joy we shall not decline as the great fact of the time it is one from which no vow no arrangement can at present save a thinking mind for now the are pausing on their oars they wait a change before they can pull together all to illustrate the thought of a wise contemporary union is only possible to those who are to be fit for relations in time souls whether of man or woman must be able to do without them in the spirit woman v women s it is therefore that i would have woman lay aside all thought such as she habitually of being taught and led by men i would have her like the indian girl herself to the sun the sun of truth and go no where if his beams did not make clear the path i would have her free from compromise from from helplessness because i would have her good enough and strong enough to love one and all beings from the fulness not the poverty of being men as at present instructed will not help this work because they also are under the slavery of habit i have seen with	37
plague of school and the dull routine of a little my fir voyage my bosom of this perilous stuff i came home a and a wiser lad but i had to for another voyage and sailed the sea twenty six long years at the end i came back to the little an ancient with no property but the clothes on my back some about my travels gray hair and a to burden my family and look after my do what you like only be careful to go to sea with a i rarely give advice but i can recommend you never to do anything without seeing where your path goes and if you can keep the old road you will find the beaten track pleasanter on the whole and if the scenery is tame the accommodation is good at the your friend hope made me laugh as i say by his cool to your mother s tenderness he has an old head on young shoulders he told me was thrown into an agreeable excitement by your disappearance mrs was in consternation to lose so quiet a with such a small appetite and the good soul really feared that the hard fare of the university must have driven you desperate a few of the young ladies have manifested some sympathy and set you down as a rejected pray your mother s distressed heart by writing her we are in a here i have had a notion i would get a lawyer s advice perhaps we could take you with a but it is a good way to send a s and it would be a blank business to have a non est returned your mother me to engage youth of the and the painter july a vehicle and drive down myself your sister suggests we bribe you to come back by the offer of a study and pens a library and permission to pass a week in seclusion what we shall resolve say in the time i puff my pipe at my leisure in the garret and read some old french plays i bought at a book stall your uncle james hope to edward i acknowledge what you say of outline is partly true my dear but i think you have drawn too hasty a conclusion we must in art make a beginning to leap from the outset to the end cannot produce any work above that of a it is the fault of our time to escape to mar by haste and to suggest rather than perfect i am to hear you remark you wish the poet s power belonged to you for i have always thought you were born to write verse i console myself by reflecting that every true poet has felt this deficiency at the outset and my was the result of the same want of maturity i find everywhere for how could i require you just beginning to write to produce anything sublime i want courage to assert my right to the pencil as much as you do to the pen i believe our age is not only that of but of we are neither willing to nor confide we finish in haste and read our failure of necessity when i consider how the masters who have stamped eternal foot prints in the sands of time spent years in writing characters which were instantly washed out resolve to sit in love and admiration and value my formed as some tendency towards real beauty as the to the bible of art my outlines in this light are worth preserving and i grieve that i was not possessed of this patience years ago for it would have led me to keep my first sketches and i might now see such a change for the better make golden my of the poet and the painter aspirations so much do we learn in and so unfortunate it seems to grow old early and this holiday floor where in games we harvest deep experience i have been long laboring at outlines yet feel i have accomplished little compared with what i might other pursuits have so my time i have not yielded to your earnest request to dwell only in art to abandon these college studies in short to identify my whole external existence with the beautiful i prize the unselfish enthusiasm that leads you to desire for your friend only the happiest results for your sake i should love to yield myself entirely to the radiant sunlight of picture and dispense with the cold economy of the world what will you think if i confess i have not that confidence me to say entirely that i can produce anything to warrant me in following an artist s life an irresistible impulse draws me to landscape i take my pencil but the scenes do not flow warm and living in a measure i satisfy myself yet not to that extent i desire you will send the lesson i have just read on haste and the necessity of taking degrees in art step by step alas i find i can read lessons to everybody better than practise them it would not avail to be an amateur i must be all or nothing and in fully feeling this i found my right to come a painter he who truly to the has the consolation of knowing he can make no failure yet to ass life in stepping from one stone to another would not be sufficient excuse for what other avenues i may have to knowledge i am an man all i hear all i see all i do is but the faint uncertain dawn of what i am equal to and it would be a sensation profoundly satisfactory did i seize what jewels are strewn by the way but i seem to be carried forward with such rapidity that i cannot stoop to seize even these i am possessed	37
to be tinged with occasional shade from the recollection of his past as we strolled on i was charmed with the quick eyes he had for every object nothing escaped neither cloud flower tree bird nor insect and i was glad to find he valued masses and where the landscape opened he traced a good a wide distance and a which struck a group of trees in the middle brought out a winding brook a small golden valley and an elm tree with a cottage under it and connected these domestic with a group of gray clouds he looked at me as if this picture did not satisfy him but had formed a better in his mind which he did not show when i spoke to him of books i found he had read ft number yet on his quoting some poetry discovered he did not give it correctly though he added words which made it better and seemed musing whether he had read the right line he selected some half dozen books out of all he had read as the and substance of books and placed them on his shelves as silent specimens ot what had been done which held in them no obligation for him to read i spoke of the old masters and the greek and found he loved painting best but did not prefer any special artist i spoke with him also of philosophers and found he had read them rather in his imagination than in fact and formed figures of the past men as well as without having really t ken much notice of their works in the midst of very serious he called me off to point to some tree waving by the wall s side or plant at our feet and i saw he was firmly fixed in nature rather than art pray send me another letter from your mill before long and if you write any verses some copies and if i find a chance i will send some of my late outlines ever yours hope from the the or to be a of the of the different being fifteen in number of whom or was the and ending with the fifth who lived in the time of contemporary with the emperor in attention was first called to this book by sir william jones in the second volume of the and the book was afterwards translated from the by mr governor of and by bin a and published at in let us take refuge with from evil thoughts which and us o creator of the essence of and stays o thou who down benefits o thou who the heart and soul o of forms and shadows o light of lights thou art the first for there is no prior to thee thou art the last for there is no to thee o worthy to be deliver us from the bonds of matter rescue us from the of dark aad evil matter intelligence is a drop from among the drops of the ocean of thy place of souls the soul is a flame from among the flames of the fire of thy residence of is hid by excess of light he is lord of his wishes not subject to and the great is small and the tall short and the broad narrow and the deep is as a ford unto him who the shadow to fall the that the blood to boil in the circle of thy sphere which is without rent which neither a new shape nor off an old one nor a straight course thou art exalted o our lord from thee is praise and to thee is praise thy world of forms the city of bodies the place of created things is long and broad and deep thou art the of desires the eyes of purity saw thee by the lustre of thy substance dark and astounded is he who hath seen thee by the efforts of the intellect the prophet every prophet whom i send forth to religion not to root it up thou wilt be asked by what dost thou know god say by what on the heart for could that be proved false souls would be utterly helpless there is in thy soul a certain knowledge which if thou display it to mankind they will tremble like a branch agitated by a strong wind say unto mankind look not on the with this eye ask for another eye the ask what use is there for a prophet in this world a prophet is necessary on this account that men are connected with each other in the concerns of life therefore rules and laws are indispensable that all may act in concert that there may be no injustice in giving or taking or but that the order of the world may endure and it is necessary that these rules should proceed that all men may obey them for this high task a prophet must be raised up how can we know that a prophet is really called to his office by his knowing that which others do not know and by his giving you information regarding your own heart and by bis not being puzzled by any question that is asked and by this that another cannot do what he o son of thee have i selected for prophecy revive the religion of the prophet of the great and worship in this sort that he may lend thee his aid i pray of o father lord that thou ask by the splendor of thy soul from thy father and lord thy prime cause and lover and of all the free and blazing lights that possess intelligence that they would ask of their father and lord the most approved wish that can be asked of the of all to make me one of those who approach the band of his lights and the secrets of his essence and	37
to pour light on the band of light and splendor and to and to them and us while the world and to all eternity the first speaks to the my light is on thy countenance my word is on thy tongue me thou thou me thou est me thou me thou what thou that i say and thy acts are my acts and i speak by thy tongue and thou to me though mortals imagine that thou to them i am never out of thy heart and i am contained in nothing but in thy heart and i am nearer unto thee than thou art unto thy soul me in the name of o i will call thee aloft and make thee my companion the lower world is not thy place many times daily thou from thy body and unto me now thou art not satisfied with coming unto me from time to time and longest to abide continually nigh unto i too am not satisfied with thy absence although thou art with me and i with thee still thou and i desire that thou be still with me therefore will i release thee from thy body and make thee sit in my company the heavens the first time that i was called to the world above die heavens and stars said unto me o we have bound up our in the service of and never withdrawn from it because he is worthy of praise and we are filled with astonishment how mankind can so wide from the commands of god whatever is on earth is the resemblance and shadow of something that is in the sphere while that thing in good condition it is well also with its shadow when that thing far from its shadow life to a distance again that july light is the shadow of something more than itself and so on up to me who am the light of lights look therefore to who the shadow to fall morals purity is of two kinds real and formal the real in not binding the heart to evil and the formal in away what appears evil to the view true self knowledge is knowledge of god life is affected by two evils lust and anger restrain them within the proper mean till man can attain this self control he cannot become a celestial the perfect unity in and in unity the roads tending to god are more in number than the of created beings op writing the spider said wherein the superior excellence of man the sage said men understand and charms and magic arts animals do not the spider answered animals exceed men in these respects if thou not that crawling things and insects build and square houses without wood or brick behold my work how without loom i fine cloth replied man can write and express his thoughts on paper which animals cannot the spider said animals do not transfer the secrets of from a living heart to a lifeless body hung down his head from shame spring with what a still air the spring comes stealing up the way like some young maiden fair too modest for the light of day ben ben bt hunt ben may his tribe increase awoke one night from a deep dream of peace and saw within the moonlight in the room making it rich and like a lily in bloom an angel writing in a book of gold exceeding peace had made ben bold and to the presence in the room he said what thou the vision raised its head and with a look made all of sweet accord answered the names of those who love the lord and is mine one said nay not so replied the angel spoke more low but still and said i pray thee then write me as one who loves his fellow men the angel wrote and vanished the next night he came again with a great light and showed their names whom love of god had and lo ben s name led all the rest the song of birds in spring they breathe the feeling of thy happy soul intricate spring i too active for a word they come from regions distant as the pole thou art their of the bird the earth the earth by william e mt highway is air mj are the sleepless stars and men mj giant arms my arms and free from i rest forever on my way rolling around the happy sun my children love the sunny day but noon and night to me are one my heart hath like their own i am their mother and my veins though built of the enduring stone thrill as do theirs with pains the forests and the mountains high the foaming ocean and its springs the plains o pleasant company my voice through all your rings ye are so cheerful in your minds content to smile content to share my being in your silence finds the echo of my ain no leaf may fall no roll no drop of water lose the road the issues of the general soul are in their round abode social tendencies social tendencies ths iv m humane how a sound is this heard along the shore unlike either the last of a recent storm or the swell of a coming gale its indications be read by experience in irregular intervals the new waves curl crisp and over the shell strewn beach with an unusual although no fresh breeze is sensible above the surface of the waters the oldest time worn echo the sound and even their inmost recesses seem sensible of the of some event which may destroy their venerable forms forever and them to common earth it is as the apprehension of an earthquake against which no contrivance can prevail and which no skill can the ancient they who seem to be as as the waters stand mute	37
their boats and are drifted to and fro by the influence of the unseen power which they have not the courage to resist or deem it as impossible to oppose as the south western gale in its highest fury yet the world above is serene no cloud the sky and the perpetual sun shines on in steady splendor in a murmuring prophet note this new impulse is principally indicated may we on the origin operation and probable of this new movement in the human ocean we may divine the interpretation of the omen certain it is that the political chiefs of the earth no longer execute that function for which their was created the monarch and his prime minister are now but the and his at a where the government really rests in the hands of the majority the governor has ceased to rule he is there only to hear resolutions and to count the the old begins to be realized and each one now is king in his turn happy fact that humanity is so much nearer mankind and is escaping from the leading strings self imposed in the nursery vol iv no i social tendencies july the depths from which the surface movements spring are as various as their outward appearances and their are as separate and distinct as the strange and broken which indicate them some minds moved as by personal irritation at a particular vice in existing institutions will be invited to apply every energy to its or souls under the most favorable circumstances have some com to utter by no means are the objects generally aimed at by the great mass of men to be deemed worthy of real human effort yet there is a number almost de serving the a multitude who ben moved from a greater depth than ordinary manifest a purpose which may with less to the charge of be human shall go about seeking these may without much difficulty discover them though they are hidden from the external observer s eye heretofore mingled in the stream of professed until they found such a course could not lead to their satisfaction they stand aloof from troubled waters they now declare they are impelled by an inspiration to up a new social existence such as history records not such as experience does not manifest these consist not of or rebellious souls who from a nature attack whatever in existence may stand in their way nor of such as from an appetite hunger for new food nor of disappointed or disgusted whose has been worn away by excess in low delights but they appear to consist of the loving the peaceful the calm the considerate the youthful seeking an external state to the spirit within they propose not a for nor of moral to add by refined idleness to a debt already too large nor a house to accommodate disease nor an house to create poverty there seems now born into the world a spirit an infant race craving nourishment of a higher kind than was heretofore asked for unto us children are given who cannot the old world s nor be clothed in the old world s garments here and there in places distant and obscure but becoming less distant and better known are heard the cries social tendencies of this infant voice feeble it has yet been and deemed foreign but there is not wanting a maternal ear which being open to the slightest sound from real humanity these faint this though itself unable to enjoy the new ct and the new food may provide them for the young and new born who may unite in sufficient numbers for the perfect accomplishment of the new life such are some of the characteristics of the latest idea of human progress between it and the mind whose notions of are satisfied by a repair of the guide post stand almost all the human family the thought the wish the hope for something better is all but universal the question rather is which is the good than whether there is a good yet to be attained it is the certainty of a better morrow which makes to day s ills tolerable assuredly the world sufficiently in evil to arouse in the an ardent desire to secure some not a few are still so in opposition to progress that their entire existence is a they stretch far beyond all rational and must rather be called than no less their own individual than the common good in all save these all are in one common sentiment the improvement of man and his conditions the is now a both and practically however strongly in feeling he may be to changes the notion that no is possible either in mode or principle is confined to the who are glad to hide their morbid peculiarity in the bosom of which thus generously a it should reject is the in the moral of which makes the grade in the degrees and is by the boiling point only the cold and hot extremes are the genial temperature lies between the two points of and and this is where a providence the moral sphere the propriety of in the administration of the established institutions a reform social july in small is suited to its taste there are certain popular principles or rather a vague sayings which have for a long series of years repeated them to some extent in the class of thus and economy are familiar terms even in royal speeches and although they are employed to cover actual waste and extravagance the admission that honesty and truth should govern mankind is a point gained this slow and acknowledgment that something must be to the youthful spirit that the boys must have it is cheering when we know how the better is allowed a place were mankind to be it is pretty certain that a very large majority would be found in	37
advance of this position notwithstanding it is so long kept in it of this we have the strongest assurance in the fact that the are violently opposed to a counting of in that manner did they feel assured that the majority is with them they would instantly appeal to man but the mode of reckoning is fastened upon another principle instead of man by virtue or talent or skill he is valued according to certain results which may sometimes grow out of these but which in fact may and more frequently do grow out of vice or or fraud man is weighed by property the state doctors like those who study medicine judge of humanity by its or wait until itself is they are only clear after a post examination when the man bodily is destroyed by a of food and the man moral by a of wealth the doctors can admit him to their and give a good account of him but the age demands a consideration of men and daily the living are growing more and more uneasy under the old dead ui ed by no better principle than the pressure from without the of political power slowly and some of the ground which might in times from the of love but no new principle is recognised a few more are admitted into the circle but there is not sufficient courage to act universally and cast aside all the is still ruler by virtue of election laws are tendencies are poor laws are black slavery is softened down to white slavery is refined by a poetic or rendered more tolerable by music this mending and or cutting into pattern to suit the demands of the market promises ages of employment for moderate it is not probable scarcely possible that if the pro of social man is thus dependent much good will be attained during the next five or ten centuries perceiving which fact some men are desirous to move on a little faster and more steadily than the ever varying winds will carry the state vessel to the desired haven they are disposed to render all new discoveries available for universal ends as well as for particular advantage and hence propose to lay on a degree of steam power to carry us over the ocean call for changes and invite new experiments they are deemed by the old captains the most dangerous part of the crew though acknowledged to be amongst the most useful working sailors hence in old and in new england has birth this is essentially a new form including some new not a reform in that definite sense which a going back to ancient forms of ancient materials or ho reform means simply a restoration to the primitive out ward condition in which institutions originally stood but this is an idea as clearly impossible of as to restore to animal life the men who some centuries back established such institutions reform therefore is necessarily proposed because men see plainly that it is not any outward state of things beautifully adapted perhaps to some remote period that can be found suitable for them at this day changes then are needed as well as purity in administration and in practice and from what point shall these changes date according to what standard shall they be set up the principles for the construction of such new institutions are not to be sought in any hitherto known mode for they are new they profess to be new the standard then is that which is the to new measures to all new measures for all have the same that is to say the spirit of truth in the human soul men may respecting the interpretation of this spirit but they will differ kindly and social tendencies july graciously when they it happens because one party at least is not perhaps both parties are not really appealing to this standard the universal spirit has many modes but they all the selfish spirit takes a multitude of forms the contest grows hot when the bold in the of his purpose and justified by pure convictions stands forth beyond the limits which to permit such an action is like the soul attempting to attain to ends beyond the body s capacity the body the existence any attempts to proceed faster or farther than its accustomed pace and destination and down the moving mind as much as it can to its own limits this action is doubtless in to a law established for the good of both so with the which progress from the unwilling and nature embodied in the interests of the world is the lowest phase of reform which has any claims to an position though not without a large deference to established modes and existing current thought yet has some positive and primitive to make its best principles are drawn from the same fountain whence all principles flow the has traced backwards and to the origin of the institutions which the will his last drop of blood to defend and the same reality which both the maintenance of the throne and the altar in england in the year is with and order in island in for each being interpreted to its meaning protect my wealth and ease the same reality thus is ever varying its sign and half a century may probably suffice to convert liberty and equality to the same end traced still deeper the investigation lands us at a point even more comprehensive of parties and as well as design nothing more than the largest possible income from the of their capital skill and labor in relation to selfishness it is merely as a domestic strife both parties equally desire the greatest good of the greatest number or the happiness of the whole the said whole being neither more nor less than each man s self social tendencies a better aim for each man in his earthly career could	37
not be devised as happiness is by goodness alone goodness in each man being secured the goodness and happiness of all are secured men differ only about the mode of it through all time and in all places this has been the debate from pot house gossip to dispute this is the burden of the song doubts changes each man and each for they firmly believe the truth lies somewhere about though they have it not the thought rarely occurs that the truth is not thus amongst them and he would be universally a fellow who should venture to hint as much ver since the invention of civilized society the result has been found so unhappy and so inadequate to the that there has been a constant aim to it even now after so much labor we seem as distant a ever from the desirable condition in a state of the man gives up but a very small portion of himself he looks little to others for support he is self he runs not to the baker for bread to the butcher for flesh to the teacher for grammar but and and speaks for himself it is true lie some of the misfortunes of civilization and occasionally in his weakness carries to the doctor and priest but the essential quality in is that integrity of development which keeps man away from a dependence on other individuals and while it his supplies also limits his to a more natural and rational amount on the other hand the very and heart of civilization is mutual dependence which in action comes out in the representative form everything every person is no one lives out his own life but lives for all this is the great merit and boast of civilization this too is its misfortune and its loss by its this short coming in happiness is attributed not to the inherent nature of civilization but to its imperfect working out upon which the recommendation is to more and more anxiety upon the attempt which anxiety having to be before society is as much in happiness as previous to this additional the moral estate of the people becomes as hopeless as their pecuniary estate where national debts are multiplied in the attempt to obtain relief from present difficulties social tendencies july of this idea are found in every department of civilized life the farmer applies fresh quantities of foul animal to force heavier crops from his exhausted fields which when consumed a host of diseases as foul as the to which they are responsible the attracted by pays dearly in his doctor s bill but in ignorance of nature s laws which he has so entirely abandoned he fails to connect cause and effect and his error to repeat his pain faith in man would indeed appear to be no scarce on earth every one looks abroad to every other one no one looks within to himself a universal representative life in which the represents the conscience the judge the gravity the priest the piety the doctor the learning the the skill of the community and no one person needs be conscientious grave pious learned and skilful out of this grow those monstrous and dreadful conditions which large cities the very of civilized life without exception exhibit exalted intellect on the part of a few which at the expense frequently of moral and physical life national renown with extreme ignorance of all that really concerns them on the part of the masses a few intense spots of wealth learning or heroism amongst an endless range of poverty ignorance and degradation accumulated apparently for no higher end than the employment of the three opposite h ties this faith begins in some quiet and serene corners to and it will soon be exhausted when eyes are opened to perceive that the imagined perfection of the scheme of civilization does in fact not belong to it the idea of representation could not be more fully and purely carried out than it is in north america in some of the states if not in all the majority is correctly and entirely represented the majority rules in a direct manner and although on minor points parties are more nicely balanced yet in the wider range of every day life this majority is a very large portion yet to say that the people are happy that they are a well developed race that they manifest an existence as near the perfect as their representative system the perfect would be a series of which their complaints their habits their very countenances loudly social in the perfection of the representative system in the of civilization is its accomplished like other fruits those of this tree will be shed by the spirit in beneficent nature fresh leaves shall ate and new blossoms be put forth for the healing of the nations how small does this parade of l and this march of science and this increase of wealth appear by the comparison with the of man s purpose and destiny not more ridiculous would be ancient in a modern battle field or royal robes and in republican than these same newspaper reported republican are in the presence of real humanity court the personal disposal of the of whole nations according to individual caprice are chances for humanity scarcely if at all more strange and alien to the true end than its amusement by renown union or society the of the throne in europe the judge s powdered wig the door keeper s gold hat with all antique regards and time honored are as to the heart and perhaps not more outrageous to man s real needs than the fancied security of perfection and representative we see the folly in the old but are not quick enough to perceive it in the new because the music and the incense and the wax candles are no longer used men deem th y have	37
escaped all errors but the triumph of is not always the victory of reason the misfortunes of a church can fall upon a people assembled in the hall where music or sweet or by day never appear we need not marvel therefore at the which not only rings throughout europe but is heard even here in the expanse of north america the free the youthful the hopeful nation of the world the americans are like a troop of boys escaped from school to the woods for a day or two who only remember the ways and modes of the old and have not yet had time to develop an original course of action for themselves but it will come out of them and the old shall be ashamed that he kept the boys so long in it no i social tendencies july fear and and he will to an trace with the more and broken spirited boys who still submit to the old school discipline at home love of ease shall at least secure some in the mean time through the great instrument of teaching experience we ascertain the true value of these pursuits and objects for the free of which we ventured our all to escape from the old mankind may undoubtedly be much slower and more to learn than to enjoy but than s stream should we have been in failing to discover the rocky spots and barren in the new land th of government for which the boys ta the woods is found a by the best of men they who have really into manhood in the newly acquired freedom are desirous of keeping out of this amusement as a sport for children only this is a grand secret a sacred revelation for both those who have gone ahead and those who stay behind no man who is qualified to be a political leader aod by some day finds himself placed in that position but is anxious to declare how hollow and corrupt is that fruit which to the eye appears so plump and ruddy the ease with which mankind are governed or as he would say is a soul sickening contemplation to such a person on into the facts he instantly becomes of his false ambition and the real of political greatness these things are sources of vanity and of vexed spirit now as they ever were heroism exhibited in this manner becomes renowned more by the degradation of the mass than by any extraordinary elevation of the individual if there were no masses of crime the would excite little attention to his if there were no pecuniary the treasury secretary would only be an many are the men daily called upon for more ability in private life than we demand of public men the teacher of a large school or a busy shop keeper must honor larger for patience and calculation than the of government who are withdrawn from their own duties d social by the attractions of popular gossip and importance of office during the latter days of ancient rome the imperial dignity was by the highest to whom the bands passed it in quick succession but ruling minds were never among the so is it in our time the temporary and apparent dominion of men is at a market price but no mind can consent to pay it for it is as certain now as of old that the bands will every which is not sufficiently to their purposes as of old they the body office can be gained in only bound hand and foot is the common expression of the victims themselves who with a zeal worthy a nobler cause suffer their better nature to be sacrificed on the vain cross of public political life a state of things thus of all true greatness is necessarily equivalent to an barrier against real manhood the dove finds little that is congenial to its nature in that heap which the into day the best men are thus the first to be convinced that the present order of existence is not so much to be as as that it is essentially an error a magnificent error possibly but no less an error a mistake which no of the system can but rather must render its inherent more obvious attempted perfection thus becomes a for men who have resolved upon any course as true are not wont to be convinced of its delusion until they have run to the end of it while therefore the man cheers onward ev ry projected reform he is not to be assailed as because he has no hope in old institutions as the ultimate in human earthly existence the parent who is quite conscious that youth leads to manhood may nevertheless supply his boy with the toys he asks for and the world still in its youth is merely crying for toy after toy in succession to its age and the more freely and quickly the world is indulged the more fully and speedily will it be convinced of their there seems to be no other mode of progress for a race so deeply in ill as the present stock of humanity if our being dated from wisdom and love so much effort to bring us back again to those qualities would not be required social for fifteen hundred years western civilization with the of christianity has been struggling to perfection an ideal perfection of its own and at the of that period the is more complete that we have little towards the true end beyond men of pagan civilization or an enthusiastic a pressure upward to a higher and purer life is an instinct in the human hope is the truly youthful spirit the characteristic nature which the specimens amongst the human mass it is the sacred fire which on the altar of human clay the remembrance and the of heaven caught by the first sparks which appear	37
and stable centre upon the turbulent and dazzling makes the soul forever sad and sick science still as the of human man appears to have engaged ence as a special in the court of conscience to the consequences of his conduct hired vol iv no i ii social tendencies tion is deemed cheaper than self repentance to know every wise saw and moral sentiment that ever were uttered is not nearer to a of them in the man who remembers them than in the paper on which they are written all this fact knowledge or report of fact knowledge of which the world is so full seems barren of the desired consequences we know how may millions of miles lie between and the sun and how many thousand seconds light is travelling from the fixed stars to our little planet but are wandering much as ever from the road to happiness and are as as the ignorant to enter by its only gate science may be applied to inadequate objects true we may or ridicule when we say the will never spy out bliss for us through his nor the cotton mill spin happiness with its million yards of so analysis and step forward into a new sphere and venture to elaborate a science of society amongst the recent offspring of the scientific nature are political economy and human association the right divine of kings has through the right divine of descended to the crowned heads of factory owners and the doctrine is now the right divine of cotton lords hereditary subdued by blood aristocracy to be in its turn by in all of which the are equally neglected the wealth is swallowed up by individual and individual misery magnificence of idea and of execution have not however been wanting in the recent modes any more than in the ancient the of merchant princes are by of busy industry and the is surpassed by the fairy like gliding of the mail train which only needs the of remote time and the glance of genius to render as poetic as its these extensive schemes for the increase of wealth these for the of individual happiness could not long exist without suggesting to the benevolent mind ideas of the like nature for the good thus the science of society no longer left as of old to individual private enterprise has been projected into the grand the public the of tendencies these several plans have been some time before the world for one or two there are now practical operations commenced various doctrines of human nature are mixed up with these practical schemes and pleasant withal it is to the moral to be confirmed in his a of considering first the man and the plans to see that all parties are necessarily brought back again who venture to reverse this mode amongst the many schemes for by means of joint stock companies it has been submitted to that greater security and a larger return await their in schemes for the of human beings than they can obtain in any other kind of risk capital is however slow in and as yet only a few small associations have been formed with this object in addition to the efforts of one or two persons who have boldly ventured to at in the south of france mr arthur young formerly an merchant has laid out for an estate of thirteen hundred acres and more for stock in hand on which a is formed the is represented as very magnificent and the whole buildings and court yards cover thirteen acres mr young shares on conditions to either resident or not the basis of is having relation to of capital and labor the latter enjoying the larger return the first receiving the smallest it need scarcely be observed that arthur young is a of charles it does not appear that any other such plan of association is in operation or even projected in the continental countries of europe the various old religious foundations may probably supply some of the conditions provided in such institutions c in england however where the or the is the highest refuge which society offers to labor or virtuous skill in age or youth the subject of social science has been regarded with the deepest attention a nation almost engaged in with poverty and having strong desires for ease catches at whatever may present the smallest hope for a from ill toil no wonder there social tendencies july fore that the british have heard a response in favor of thoughts so comprehensive as to promise relief from every legal and evil in the multitude of inventions which ground the people down one was which proposed to them from the mill stone however noble may have been the contemplated design it was accepted as means of increasing the supply of bread and of the consciousness of blame hope and consolation for body and mind therefore met a reception in idea much greater than in practice and as the poverty to be was too excessive to help itself nothing has been done of a permanent character until very recently at in estates to about one thousand acres held principally on long have been appropriated by some wealthy individuals in tion with a widely spread list of smaller to the carrying out of the idea which has adopted especially the term social the principles are mainly in morals that the character of man is made not by him but for him and in economy that of a community of goods in what way or to what extent these principles will work out with human materials and educated as all have more or less been on the opposite doctrines and practice future reports must show time has not yet permitted the site experience the buildings erected are furnished on the most and even luxurious for the reception of about two hundred persons but ab ft	37
ture which the profitable action of the materials an of about the pecuniary capital of this adventure upon this attempt innumerable eyes are fixed as upon the day star of hope should it rise countless hearts will be which in the dim uncertain twilight so much as venture to announce their sympathy also contemplate its possible success with terror as the of all that is sacred and comfortable not alone however the toil worn ill is an anxious spectator of this scene but even the successful disgusted with the processes to wealth as well as dissatisfied in its possession hopes to his offspring from such courses social although from the defects of inexperienced leaders followers and circumstances excuses may be afforded to these two distinct yet they must develop in their respective some of the effects of acting upon the two principles of community of property and of individuality of re it is quite possible that the two vessels thus started at the same time may ultimately land their in the same country but to know the difference in the will repay the cost of the they will at least illustrate the laws of human organization if ihey do not determine the law of human nature the moral principles of the french and the english experiment are however more asunder than their the english has entirely a material basis and though sympathetic and religious sentiments are they are only introduced as ornaments to please the eye and are not mingled with the bread as parts of diet the french the material and the spiritual and enters from the first into all questions touching the feelings sympathies and views of individuals one sets out with the idea that al though human beings are now varied they may all be made of uniformly good character by favorable with such slight differences in organization as shall not the general truth he other no of character as essential to success but seeks to provide attractive occupation for all dispositions and tastes and rather its hopes upon variety than upon the therefore seems to be a more comprehensive view of humanity than the community both are perhaps equally wanting in respect to the inmost life for the development of which the human egg is laid but mentally considered only that is without relation to practical operations one appears to be the shell alone and the other the and shell the poetry in life the soul of things the spirit in the soul the warmth in the light in what human association shall we find this the element in the religious associations of the old world or the new in the the the the new england the joint stock social july man cannot have a heart or not at the good will and pleasure of philosophers how benevolent they may be nor can he set it aside at his own convenience he has it always and it is something more than a mere machine it is even more than a possession it is himself man as a heart s a nature more than an intelligence is a riddle ye by intellectual philosophers these profess to discourse of the understanding while they deny that any reality whatever stands under the intellectual or powers fortunately however there is also a nature which must know and feel all things as whole as one and provision for this nature must be part of the common stock but as far as we can judge by an inspection of the there is rarely any store laid in v with the wishes for the success of any programme having for aim the of man or his conditions we still can entertain but faint hopes where we perceive the scheme rather than man is placed first in importance that there is to be a gradual of society a vast progress for mankind cannot be doubtful to the steady observer a sufficient arc is known to prove the fact of a but that cannot be calculated by the moral who are not beings it is a calculation too which cannot be put beforehand into books and systems but must be realized day by day from the centre itself as are the motions and of social have yet some of their wit and their objections but they are rather confirmed than converted by never realized and which at the same time serve rather to disappoint than to encourage the faithful various smaller associations in england and america might be spoken of as either in existence or proposed but for all those which are not bound down by it may be remarked that they are yet in so a state that their immediate or even the members themselves can scarcely pronounce on the of any one principle for material results the period is too short for mental order the elements too for spiritual growth the subject too little b be c l a song of death a song op death death is here and death is there but the shattered shaft and dome emblem of a stern despair mark that utter sorrow where faith yet wants a home yonder with the blue lid closed o er eyes whose light is o er like twin angels that forbid beauty to be though they come no more so he sleeps the day is fair summer breezes come and go with his curling hair and no wail of sorrow bear on their sunny flow give the flower unto the earth but salt tears will its bloom all that in him was of worth let it find in thee new birth not a tomb bury him at morning time when the dew is on the grass then the fox bells ring a as out some warmer morning breezes pa notes from the journal of a scholar notes from the journal of a scholar no il writing of journals i cannot pinch the and shut him into a the life	37
that i live is a various wide lying life the spirit of the creature is not to be expressed in sentences of a journal but lives and leaps along the road of human now with now now now it is not the pieces it is the forming whole i study if i chose to press flowers of conversation like a in my book and keep them to entertain me in a winter s day when no such flowers bloom i might such flowers i find and pluck none fairer sweeter but i wear them in my heart they go to perfume and the imagination a garden where they drop their seed and spring after s and dead leaves have covered and the ground nature may i do not know but one of the ancient will some day overtake me and i shall shoot into a tree or flow in a stream i do so lose my human nature and join myself to that which is without a few days ago i spent the afternoon in the warm hollows of the robin the blue d a moist with green uniform and gold eye were my companions rather than w with whom i went for we wide apart i found the just urging through moss and leaves its little ear of and now a glass of water is on my shelf wherein are met drinking together and the fair and crimson with other green white and pink friends from the fields we are so near to nature and yet so far glorious kind moon and stars that beam love air that sweeps and sings through the chambers of heaven flowers beautiful and sweet you have your life and i mine and a different from the journal a scholar one i cannot wholly possess you we draw near to each other perhaps a delicate and kiss is breathed towards you but you live on in state and i am everywhere from an embrace that shall mix our natures july verily your seal and and the are your only comfortable when the stands at in the shade a little has flourished two in the of a building on and nodded kindly to me each day but i doubt the zeal of this will burn up its roots fields grow yellow to the harvest the autumn flowers are the industrious globe to finish its year i like to tell at the top of my page what s o clock it is pleasant to be folded in the arms of a celestial order and the course of seasons days and years is like a rocking motion which our tumultuous thoughts almost autumn the say and publish along half the horizon and lam glad if oaks have spiritual creatures whose being is linked with the life of the tree i do not know but there is a like sympathy between my nature and the seasons in spring there leaps up a of love and hope and animal in summer i suffer a repose in autumn a broad clear spirit is mine which if it partake of a scorn is perhaps the stronger armed to endure the labor and pain of living l autumn is the afternoon of the year but there are those whom the afternoon pleases more than the fresh autumn is the wherein the genius of nature less high than in her summer yet the season like the poem hath those who set its beauty s praise above its brilliant sister i feel so much stronger as the sun goes ofi the back side of the world that o er the ruins of the year i savage the days go and come and go here from my window towards the east i shall presently at length large my shining of many a winter god be thanked who set the stars in the sky planted their bright watch along the infinite deep and ordained such fine intelligence us and them yea god vol iv no i notes from the journal of a be thanked for all in nature that is the symbol of and peace i have spent my sunday in god s first temples the wind was choir and organ now singing its now whispering its for bible and i had the grand page of nature and many a holy verse i read from off the brown and the trees but my sermon came to me from the distant hills and the blue heaven on which was traced their they preached strength and a serene trust i found me a sunny sheltered chapel framed of the living rock and there i prayed as i could it was high holiday in the fields old mother earth said she had ceased from her labors and no more for one while was she to pour her life giving to be sucked up through all the of this lavish vegetation the woods too said we have done we will rest we have fetched and carried up and down our old trunks the sap that fed these frivolous leaves that now drop from at the scent of a cold breeze off off you we will battle it alone with winter the leaning of the and the golden rod and the red that had climbed over the walls and the trees to show its pomp of and the dead stems of hundreds of little each holding up its or of seed all said we have done we will rest we have borne each after his kind son of man who hast come hither to look at us do thou too bear thy fruit then too around thee shall it hang ornaments and thou too shalt rest while over thee the sky shall be blue the sun shall be bright truth let us not our to circumstance if we act so because we are so	37
if we sin from strong bias of temper and constitution at least we have in ourselves the measure and the of our but if they who are around us sway us if we think ourselves incapable of resisting the by which fathers and mothers and a host of expectations and duties so called seek to bind us into what helpless discord shall we not fall do you remember in the nights the princes who climbed the hill to bring away the singing tree how notes from the journal of a scholar the pebbles and the princes looked round and became pebbles themselves i hate whatever is in states of mind as well as in action the moment i say to myself i ought to feel thus and so life loses its sweetness the soul her vigor and truth i can only recover my genuine self by stopping short from every effort to shape my thought after a form and giving it boundless freedom and horizon then after more or less protracted as the mind has been more or less forcibly pushed from its place i fall again into my and recognise myself and find with gratitude that something there is in the spirit which changes not neither is weary but ever returns into itself and of the eternity of god do not let persons and things come too near you these should be the soul should sit island like a pure cool strait should keep the external world at its distance only in the character of messengers charged with a mission unto us from the everlasting and true should we receive what us or them who stand near us this is the root of my dislike to laughter and nervous hands and manners they imply too close a neighborhood of sensible objects even love is more exquisitely sweet when it with the full consent of the will souls not lightly moved which do not take the print of common and life changes with us we have perhaps no worse enemy to combat than a bad of first love and first hope a like of the cloak about us as if we had a right to be hurt at the course which the world takes and were on cool terms with god self and society it is a miserable of nature to be shut up within the circle of a few personal relations and to fret and whenever a claim is made on us from god s wide world without if we are impatient of the dependence of man on man and grudge to take hold of hands in the ring the spirit in us is either evil or in if to need least is to god so also is it to impart most there is no in any philosophy short of that of unlimited manhood july as no man but is wholly made up of the of god and the creatures of god so there is who can reasonably deny himself to the calls which in the economy of the world he was provided with the means of satisfying the true check of this principle is to be found in another general law that each is to serve his fellow men in that way he can best the olive is not bound to leave yielding its fruit and go reign over the trees neither is the the artist or the the poet to quit his work that he may do the errands of or second the of manhood dear noble soul thy lot thou for like a god toiling in earthly slavery thy sad fate with a joyous bravery each darker day a smile thou no grief can touch thy sweet and spiritual smile no pain is keen enough that it has power over thy love that all the while upon the cold earth its heavenly bower and thus with thee bright angels make their dwelling bringing thee stores of strength when no man the ocean stream god s heart ever swelling that forth through each least thing in nature in thee o truest hero deeper with joy i and many souls beside feel a new life in the celestial tide c d gifts gifts now that christmas and new year are at a safe distance and one can speak without suspicion of personality i have a word to say of gifts it is said that the world is in a state of that the world owes the world more than the world can pay and ought to go into and be sold i do not think this general which in some sort all the population the reason of the difficulty or oftener experienced in since it is always so pleasant to be generous but very to pay debts but the obstacle lies in the difficulty of choosing if at any time it comes to me with force that a present is due from me to somebody i am puzzled what to give until the opportunity is gone flowers and fruits are always fit presents flowers because they are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty all the of the world and fruits because they are the flower of and at once admit of fantastic being attached to them if a man should send to me to come a hundred miles to visit him and should set before me a basket of fine summer fruit i should think there was some proportion between the labor and the reward for common gifts necessity makes and beauty every day and one is thankful when an imperative leaves him no since if the man at the door have no shoes you have not to think whether you could procure him a paint box and as it is always pleasing to see a man eat bread or drink water in the house or out of doors so it is always a great satisfaction to supply these first wants necessity	37
does everything well also i have heard a friend say that the rule for a gift was to convey to some person that which properly belonged to their character and was easily associated with them in thought but our tokens of compliment and love are for the most part barbarous and jewels are not gifts but apologies for gifts the only gift is a portion of thou must for me therefore the poet brings his poem the shepherd his lamb the farmer corn the a stone the painter his picture the girl a handkerchief of her own sewing this is right and we feel a profound pleasure for it re july stores society in so far to its basis when a man s biography is conveyed in his gift and every man s wealth is an index of his merit but it is a cold lifeless business when you go to the shops to buy me something which does not represent your life and talent to me but a s this is fit for kings and rich men who represent kings and a false state of property to make presents of gold and silver as a kind of sin offering payment of tribute but this matter of gifts is delicate and requires careful sailing er rude boats it is not the office of a man to receive gifts how dare you give them we ask to be self sustained nothing less we hate to receive a gift we hate the hand that us we can receive anything from love for that is a way of receiving it from ourselves but not from any one who to bestow we hate the animal food which we eat because there seems something of degrading dependence in living by it brother if jove to thee a present make take heed that from his hands thou nothing take we ask all nothing less than all will content us we quarrel with society and as we think if it do not give us love also love and reverence and troops of friends who is up so high as to receive a gift well we are either glad or sorry at a gift and both emotions are coming some violence i think is done some degradation borne when i rejoice or grieve at a gift i am sorry when my independence is invaded or when a gift comes from such as do not know my spirit and so the act is not supported and if the gift pleases me then i should be ashamed that the should read my heart and see that i love his and not him the gift to be true must be the flowing of the unto me correspondent to my flowing unto him when the waters are at level then my goods pass to him and his to me all his are mine all mine his i say to him how can you give me this pot of oil or this of wine when all your oil and wine is mine which belief of mine this gift of yours seems to deny hence the fitness of beautiful not useful things for gifts this giving is flat and there gifts fore when the is ungrateful as all hate all not at all considering the value of the gift but looking back to the greater store it was taken from i rather with the than with the anger of my lord for the expectation of gratitude is mean and is continually punished by total and truly considered it is a great happiness to get off without injury and heart burning from one who has had the ill luck to be served by you it is very business this of being served and the naturally wishes to give you a slap a golden t for these gentlemen is that which i so admire in the who never thanks and who says do not flatter your but the reason of these i take to be that there is no between a man and any gift you cannot give any thing to a person after you have served him he at once puts you in debt by his the service a man renders his friend is trivial and selfish compared with the service he knows his stood in readiness to yield him alike before be had begun to serve his friend and now also compared with that great good will i bear my friend the benefit it is in my power to render him seems small besides our action on each other good as well as evil is so random and remote we can seldom hear the of any person who would thank us for a benefit without some shame and humiliation for we feel that it was not t but we can seldom strike a direct stroke but must be content with an one i mean we seldom have the satisfaction of yielding a direct benefit which is directly received but all around without knowing it and receives with wonder the thanks of people i like to see that we cannot be bought and sold the best of hospitality arid of generosity is also not in the will but in fate i find that i am not much to you you do not need me you do not feel me then am i thrust out of doors though you me house and lands no services are of any value but likeness only when i have attempted to join myself to others by services it proved an intellectual trick no more they eat your service like apples and leave you out but love them and they feel you and delight in you all the time past and f past and present here is s new poem his of english woes to follow his poem on france entitled the history of the french revolution in its first aspect it is a political tract and since since milton we	37
have had nothing to compare with it it honestly with the facts lying before all men groups and them with a master s mind and with a heart full of manly tenderness offers his best counsel to his brothers obviously it is the book of a powerful and accomplished who has looked with naked eyes at the dreadful political signs in england for the last few years has conversed much on these topics with such wise men of all ranks and parties as are drawn to a scholar s house until such daily and nightly meditation has grown into a great if not a system of thoughts and the topic of english politics becomes the best vehicle for the expression of his recent thinking recommended to him by the desire to give some counsels and to strip the worst of their it is a brave and just book and not a semblance no new truth say the critics on all sides is it so truth is very old but the merit of is not to invent but to dispose objects in their right places and he is the commander who is always in the mount whose eye not only sees details but throws crowds of details into their right arrangement and a larger and than any other the book makes great approaches to true contemporary history a very rare success and firmly holds up to daylight the still in the english and european system it is such an appeal to the conscience and honor of england as cannot be forgotten or be feigned to be forgotten it has the merit which belongs to every honest book that it was self examining before it was eloquent and so all other men and as the country people say of good preaching comes down into every every reader shall carry away something the scholar shall read and write the past and present by thomas boston charles c little and james brown past and present and shall toil with new resolution nor forget the book when they resume their labor though no and more than most philosophers a in political systems mr very fairly finds the calamity of the times not in bad bills of parliament nor the remedy in good bills but the vice in false and superficial aims of the people and the remedy in honesty and insight like every work of genius its great value is in telling such simple truths as we recall the topics we are struck with the force given to the plain truths the picture of the english nation all sitting enchanted the poor enchanted so that they cannot work the rich enchanted so that they cannot enjoy and are rich in vain the exposure of the progress of fraud into all arts and social the the must have a greater share in his that the principle of shall be ad into all of mutual service that the state shall provide at least school master s education for all the citizens the to the workman that he shall respect the work and not the wages to the scholar that he shall be there for light to the idle that no man shall sit idle the picture of the true governor who is not there to expect reason and of others he is there to give them of his own reason and and the assumption throughout the book that a new chivalry and nobility namely the of labor is the old these things strike us with a force which reminds us of the morals of the oriental or early greek masters and of no modern book truly in these things there is great reward it is not by sitting still at a grand distance and calling the human race that men are to be helped nor by helping the after their own foolish fashion but by doing the particular work we were born to do let no man think himself because he does a generous action and the but let him see whether he so holds his property that a benefit goes from it to all a man s diet should be what is simplest and to be had because it is so private a good his house should be better because that is for the use of hundreds perhaps of thousands and is the property of tho traveller but his speech is a perpetual and public vol iv no i past and present july instrument let that always side with the race and yield neither a lie nor a sneer his manners let them be and so that no or shall have taught anything better in or stone and his acts should be representative of the human race as one who makes them rich in his having and in his want it requires great courage in a man of letters to handle the contemporary practical questions not because he then has all men for his rivals but because of the infinite of the problem and the waste of strength in gathering fruits the task is the poet knows well that a little time will do more than the most genius time the loud noise of opinions sinks the small raises the great so that the true without effort and in perfect harmony to all eyes but the truth of the present hour except in particulars and single relations is each man can very well know his own part of duty if he will but to bring out the truth for beauty and as literature the powers of art the most elaborate history of to day will have the look in the next generation the historian of to day is yet three ages off the poet cannot descend into the present without injury to his gifts hence that necessity of which genius has always he must stand on his glass if he would keep his but when the political aspects are so that the sympathies	37
of the man the habits of the poet a higher than literary inspiration may him it is a costly proof of character that the most renowned scholar of england should take his reputation in his hand and should descend into the ring and he has added to his love whatever honor his opinions may to for this departure from the vows of the scholar and his eternal duties to this charity we have at least this gain ih f t h r is a message which those to whom it was addressed cannot choose but hear though they die they must listen it is plain that whether by hope or by fear r or were it only by delight in this of brilliant images all the great classes of english society must read even those whose existence it poor queen victoria poor sir robert poor and past and present poor and lords there is no help in place or pride or in looking another way a grain of wit is more penetrating than the lightning of the night which no curtains or shutters will keep out here is a book which will be read no thanks to anybody but itself what pains what hopes what vows shall come of the reading here is a book as full of treason as an egg is full of meat and every and worship and high form and ceremony of english tossed like a into the air and kept in the air with merciless and and yet not a word is by the wit has all official zeal and yet these dire jokes these cunning this flaming sword of waved high in air the whole horizon and shows to the eyes of the universe every wound it worst of all for the party attacked it them beforehand of all sympathy by the plea of poetic and humane and the reader with the conviction that the himself has the truest love for everything old and excellent in english land and institutions and a genuine respect for the basis of truth in those whom he we are at some loss how to state what strikes us as the fault of this remarkable b for the variety and excellence of the talent displayed in it is pretty sure to leave all special criticism in the wrong and we may easily fail in expressing the general objection which we feel it appears to us as a certain in the picture caused by the of the of the painter in this work as in his former labors mr reminds us of a sick giant his are expressed with so much force of constitution that his fancies a re more attractive and more than the of men but the habitual exaggeration of the tone whilst it it is felt to be so much from the of the picture it is not serene sunshine but everything is seen in lurid every object to the very mountains and stars almost under the of this wonderful and instead of the common earth and sky we have a martin s creation or judgment day a crisis has always arrived which requires a ex one can hardly credit whilst past and present july under the spell of this that the world always had the same look to foregoing ages as to us as of a failed world just its old withered forces to begin again and try to jo a little business it was perhaps inseparable from the attempt to write a book of wit and imagination on english politics that a certain local emphasis and of effect such as is the vice of preaching should appear producing on the reader a feeling of forlorn ness by the excess of value attributed to circumstances but the splendor of wit cannot the calm daylight which always shows every individual man in balance with his age and able to work out his own salvation from all the follies of that and no such glaring or in that or this each age has its own follies as its majority is made up of foolish young people its appear no to itself and if you should ask the contemporary he would tell you with pride or with regret according as he was practical or poetic that it had none but after a short time down go its follies and weakness and the memory of them its virtues alone remain and its the poetic form of a beautiful superstition as the of our sight clothes the objects in the horizon with mist and color the revelation of reason is this of the of the fact of humanity under all its aspects that to the it always to the daring it opens great avenues the are venerable to us because distance has destroyed what was trivial as the sun and stars affect us only because we cannot reach to their smoke and and say is that all and yet the gravity of the times the manifold and increasing dangers of the english state may easily excuse some over of the picture and we at this distance are not so far removed from any of the specific evils and are deeply in too many not to share the gloom and thank the love and the courage f the this book is full of humanity and nothing is more excellent in this as in all mr s works than the attitude of the writer he has the dignity of a man of letters who knows what belongs to him and never from his sphere a of the great line of scholars and their office in the highest credit and honor if the good heaven past and present have any word to impart to this unworthy generation here is one qualified and clothed for its occasion one excellence he in an age of and of criticism that he never suffers the eye of his wonder to close let who	37
will be the of trifles he cannot keep his eye off from that gracious infinite which us as a literary artist he has great merits beginning with the main one that he never one dull line how well read l iii iii i how what thousand arts in ms one art of writing with his expedient for expressing those opinions which he but will not by one of his men of straw from the cell and the respectable or or or picturesque traveller says what is put into his mouth and that morbid temperament has given his a somewhat character a luxury to many imaginative and learned persons like a south wind with its and rapid chasing of lights and over the landscape and yet its to multitudes of reluctant lovers makes us often wish some concession were possible on the part of the yet it must not be forgotten that in all his fun of or playing of tunes with a like some renowned in all this glad and needful of his spirits he does yet ever and anon as if catching the glance of one wise man in the crowd quit his key and lance at him in clear level tone the very word and then with new glee returns to his game he is like a lover or an who up his message in a which is nonsense to the but salvation to the ear for which it is meant he does not the question but gives sincerity where it is due one word more respecting this remarkable style we have in literature few of magnificence is the purple ancient and bacon and milton the of the richest strains sometimes reaches to that fulness though deficient in depth car in his strange half m y thej the cloth of gold and shown a vigor an wealth of resource which has no rival in the of these times the champion of england is the first of the modern system with its of and present july details into style we have been very fast building london and paris and now planting new england and india new holland and and it has not appeared in literature there has been no and in books s style is the first of all this wealth and labor with which the world has gone with child so long london and europe corn with trade nobility and east and west indies for and america with the rocky hills in the horizon have never before been conquered in literature this is the first invasion and conquest how like an air or bird of jove does he seem to float over the continent and stooping here and there on a fact as a symbol which was never a symbol before this is the first experiment and something of and haste must be to so great an it will be done again and again but fortunate is he who did it first though never so giant like and this character his wit and his imagination we had anything in literature so like as the laughter of he shakes with his mountain mirth it is like the laughter of the in the horizon these jokes shake down parliament house and castle temple and tower and the future shall echo the dangerous the other particular of magnificence is in his is a poet who is altogether too in his frame and habit to submit to the limits of yet he is full of not only in the perpetual melody of his periods but in the burdens and grand returns of his sense and music whatever thought or motto has once appeared to him with meaning becomes an omen to him and is sure to return with deeper tones and import now as promise now as threat now as confirmation in gigantic as if the hills the horizon and the next ages returned the sound an old man an old man heavy and drooping by himself stooping half of his body left of all his mind positive forgotten yet he still the ground though his makes no sound thin fingers are weak and elbows a peak he talks to himself c f what he remembers over spent embers past dreams backwards alone of time the bone too simple for folly too wise for content i ot brave melancholy or eminent hat and loose breeches and gaping with old coin found a curious but how he in the sun and spoils what he s done c to july to thee dear friend a brother not with but truths which not but to light which the morning s eye i have come from the spring woods from the fragrant listen what the tree and murmuring waters if with love thy heart has burned if thy love is hide thy grief within thy breast though it tear thee for when love has once departed from the eyes of the and one by one has torn off quite the of purple light though thou the loveliest form the soul had ever thou shalt seem in each reply a to his altered eye thy seem too bold thy praying will seem to though thou kept the road yet thou far and broad but thou shalt do as do the gods in their periods for of this be thou assured though thou forget the gods secured forget never their command but make the of this land as they lead so follow all ever have done ever shall to warning to the blind and deaf t is written on the iron leaf who drinks of cup downward and not up therefore who loves of gods or men shall not by the same be loved again hi s sweetheart s falls in torn a degree but when a god is once by beauty of a mortal child and by her radiant youth delighted he is	37
not but his love shall never be and thus the wise immortal it is hit study and delight to bless that creature day and night from all evils to defend her in her lap to pour all splendor to earth for riches rare and fetch her stars to deck her hair he music with her thoughts and her with heavenly doubts all grace all good his great heart knows in love the king saying earth sea air this monument of my despair build i to the all good all fair not for a private good but i from my scorned as none was scorned adorn her as was none adorned i make this maiden an to nature through her ample whereby to model races forms and fairer faces to carry man to new degrees of power and of vol it ho i the journey july these presents be the which i for my release see to o universe thou art better and not worse and the god given all is freed forever from his the journey a softness in the air that clasped the gentle hand of spring and yet no s voice did sing and all was perfect silence there unless the soft light foliage waved those boughs were clothed in shining green through which ne er angry and sunlight shone between beneath an oak a lay upon the green was his bed and rich bound the gray the silver laurel round his head a picture he of calm repose a monument of life too placid for the fear of woes too grateful to be worn by strife i should have passed he bade me stay and these words did say o curtain of the tender spring thy graces to my old eyes bring the recollection of those years when sweet are shed our early tears those days of sunny april weather and glad with everything when youth and age go linked together like sisters twain and down paths in ancient woods the of such art and notes on art and architecture note a few sheets have fallen into our bands which contain i sense on the subject of architecture that we shall not be method from them to our readers in the they will come to the eye of some person proposing to build a house church in time to save a new edifice from some of the faults which make our domestic and what we call our architecture insignificant art there are three periods of art first when the thought is in advance of the execution second when the expression is adequate to the thought and third when the expression is in advance of the thought the first is the age oc the and the second of and the third is the only one we know by experience how interesting are those early works where art is only just able to shadow forth dimly the thought the master was with they seem to suggest the because of their imperfect utterance true art is an expression of humanity and like all other expressions when it is finished it cannot be repeated it is therefore childish to lament the absence of good painters we should lament the absence of great thoughts for it is the thought that makes the painters art is the of a century plant through hundreds of years the idea grows onward in the minds of men and when it is ripe the man appears destined to gather it it was not who painted but italy greece and all antiquity painting by his hand and when that thought was uttered the flowers dropped the in the architecture of the middle ages and and have in their art unfolded its wondrous leaves in this belief may we find consolation when all around us looks so cheerless the noble plant whose blossoms we would so fain see must have its root must have its slow growing massive leaves must have its cold and spring green growth of the stalk that it may in summer art and architecture u jt bring forth its flowers shall we not then honor root leaves flower stalk nay shall we that we must perhaps by our destiny be one of these since these are part of the flower and the flower of them the flower is the sum of their united force and beauty the artist who is fast in this pure belief is beyond the reach of disappointment and failure if he truly loves art he knows that he is bearing on his shoulders one stone for that stately future edifice not the perhaps but a necessary stone and silently and faithfully he works as he may his talent not looking to outward success but to inward satisfaction such a man knows that to advance the edifice at which he labors are needed not gorgeous apparent but severity truth what would da have done had some devil tempted him to work out effects instead of painting from his heart these men who laid the foundation of the great italian art were religious men men fearing god and seeing his hand at work even in the mixing of their colors men who painted on their knees such too were the of the great german such the such men have laid the foundations of greatness everywhere what architecture must a nation situated as we are adopt it has do architecture it is not therefore a matter of religion with us but a matter of taste we may and must have all the of the world but we may them all by an attention to truth and a contempt of nay is not our position if we will use our advantages properly the more fortunate inasmuch as we are not by the force of circumstance or example bound to be or to build in this or that particular way but all ways are before us to	37
proper proportion he would produce a specimen of national church architecture the spire would seem to be in better taste than the square tower partly because of the associations but also because its form is agreeable to a in which we shall long see in this country the artist may employ ail his taste and imagination in always entirely subordinate of these main parts taking care that his are in keeping with the uses of building how beside the simplicity of such a building is the pretence of a front not that the native product shows so art and july much genius in the invention but that it has a sacred association in our eyes which the other has not in the same way that the literature of the ancient world for so long a time the authors of a modern date does the ancient architecture and dwarf our they dare not invent for themselves for their inventions would seem so beside the great works to which the world would compare them it is cheaper for them and more satisfactory to their customers to borrow a form that all the world has admitted to be beautiful and almost inevitably it by putting it to a wrong use n no one longer doubts that the nature around us is the nature from which drew inspiration and it is the spirit and not the forms of ancient art that make its productions almost divine scarcely in architecture do we see the first faint light of such a dawn yet it depends upon ourselves that ours shall be that glory an intense thirst for the beautiful exists among us it only requires a direction it is idle for us to complain of the want of models the want of instruction england has wealth of these beyond count yet nowadays no more than we it must come from ourselves from reflection from the study of nature materials rightly employed grow more beautiful with age in pure architecture everything is to be rejected that will grow less beautiful with age for this end it is sufficient that every material should be employed with an eye to its peculiar properties this rule if strictly followed would indeed do away with several materials the of which has rendered their use almost universal but which deserve no place in the severe and simple architecture which should distinguish our churches let it not be our reproach that we are a nation of and plaster and temporary let our joints and beams be made beautiful not hidden let our wood work show the grain of the wood for ornament not hide it under paint suppose one of our churches were to be left alone for fifty years when we enter how would it be the plaster dropping away showing the like ribs beneath the paint dingy and reminding us of nothing but the tomb but the interior of the art and architecture church would still be beautiful in age and fragments of carved oak be at its weight in silver architecture is a tendency to organization nature matter and it with individual life man it for his own ends but it has no life but so far as he has been able to it with his own now in natural as the tree or animal we see no part that has not a meaning and use and each part of that material which answers to its end this also is a law of architecture the ancient architecture is entitled to that great praise of producing on the mind an effect of unity it has been too often the of modern architecture that what one man designed his successor changed so that to the most eye the are constantly apparent till we are almost ready to say in despair there is no good architecture but in the mind of the artist it cannot be doubted that either or m alone would have made a far finer building than the actual st the modern certainly attempted more difficult things than the ancient the greek had not to invent the form of his edifice nature and custom had done that for him he was only to see that all his details were in due proportion there was not so much room for bad taste but the church of the had the whole dome of the heavens to exhibit his in monuments in regard to monuments it may be laid down as a rule that all sentimental monuments are bad and all of every sort as a broken column a mother weeping over her child a watchful dog c they strike at first but the mind to death of them the moment they are repeated to my mind a monument should be an structure including any admitted form of or of any style of architecture which should be only striking by the simplicity and purity of its form its may be infinitely rich but always entirely sub vol iv no i art and july so that at a distance the effect shall always be of simplicity and repose a simple might be wrought by a might contain the most exquisite and still never lose its character of a simple our monuments are all in the open air consequently those that with all their splendor have so severely religious an air are denied us i prefer upon a tomb figures of a vague character what are called figures these when noble in their form and expression produce an effect to architecture suggestive whereas all figures of a fixed character hopes c irresistibly put their own character forward and give the intellect an occupation where we should awaken only feelings it is as if we should introduce descriptive music into a a monument should never tell you what to think or feel but only suggest feeling the renowned monument of di by is an illustration the feeling of repose not of	37
forgetfulness but of deepest thought which it is so complete that the almost forgets himself to stone and it seems like an intrusion to ask what the figures mean we feel that they mean all things the style and spirit of the architecture is so pure that when an it he must carry it out as far as the details are concerned nothing can with propriety be added to or taken from them they are things fixed if a man uses the we demand a pure greek and everybody knows what it ought to be to these details in greek spirit to modern needs this is what classic architecture has in modern times to do the who have accomplished this feat in a satisfactory manner in modern times are so few that one may number them on his fingers and scarce need his left hand to do this a man must be a greek and more than a greek he has to live in the past and present at the same time he must be independent of his time and yet able to enter fully into it the and the architecture on the other hand make no such all but impossible demands or at least did not at the time in which they flourished though it is no less hard for us to enter into their spirit than into the the perhaps even harder since the principle of the is complex and the ideas which controlled both it and the have told their errand and have past away from the world the being conceived in a more universal spirit to absolute perfection has in it the principle of life it has been the parent of the others and yet green and strong while its offspring have passed into it would be well for us once for all to abandon the attempt to hither the architecture the noble trees yet stand in the old world but their seeds are decayed the that we by this name can only excite a sigh or a smile at its utter want of harmony and use a few fine churches we may have like church in new york but they can be only to foreign works there is nothing new to be done in architecture its infinite as they seem are in fact limited and are exhausted not so with the it is not indeed to be expected that we shall make more perfect specimens than were made two thousand years ago but we may those in endless new this is what and did and new and would always find room the a green and cloud of the folds in soft above the where deeper pines high over arch and the heavy stooping shade there yellow spring in show and golden rods in secret clusters blow there fill the helpless air and chattering black birds hold their gossip by and near i saw the tender maiden hair with the fine breeze born white the though undisturbed by human art has richer treasures than the busy voyage to voyage to i left boston or rather wharf on friday the th of march in the olive m bound for there was a fine strong breeze in the afternoon on which we sailed and when we began to cast off the swung round by the stern see and straining on her apparently very impatient to be under way and we were soon going down the bay at the rate of six or seven knots an hour always and i suppose it is the same with you and most people have some little scrap or other running silently through my head whenever i am at all excited and as we sailed rapidly down the bay passing object after object i began with the ancient the ship was cheered the harbor cleared merrily did we drop below the below the hill below the top c die but directly nearly all having disappeared except the hill monument these fragments gave way to s let it rise to meet the sun in his coming c let it be the last object on which the eye of the shall linger c c but had not time to see whether or not the facts of the case would bear out the wishes of the orator before these scraps gave place in their turn to others of a different character among which were certain from don s sea voyage about the c and this from king began sick oh sick aside or else i ne er trust poison i took but little notice of what was going on during the first three days of the voyage i recollect on the third night out there was much noise on deck the captain and crew being up nearly all the time and a strong wind blowing which caused the to labor so much that i was obliged to hold on to the side of my berth but i made no inquiry supposing that although it seemed very rough to me it was a matter of ordinary at sea they told voyage to me in the morning that it had been blowing a severe gale and that we had been to under a top sail and i then learnt for the first time that to lay to means to take in all sail except enough to steady the vessel turn her head as near to the wind as possible and then let her drift backwards on the fourth though the sea ran rather high the weather was fine and i crawled out on deck as i was lying on the trying to read i heard the captain the man at the for shipping without understanding seaman s duty where did you come from asked the captain from g near sir was the answer i looked round at the sailor he was a good looking young man of about eighteen or twenty i thought	37
an instant and naturally enough for the same sea which stove in the cabin and which had struck us the not being able to the sea in without any sail had split the mast carried away the stern boat the boom and and one whole quarter of the even with the deck breaking off or tearing out the the sea was still making a clean breast as they say over the forward and amid ships and two men the cook and another who were all i could see were clinging to the to prevent being washed overboard i then by mere instinct for i knew it would be in vain should the vessel sink cast about for some means of saving myself i dropped off my shoes threw my handkerchief round my neck and shut my knife on it and looked to an empty with some attached to it which still remained voyage to july near the stern all this occupied but a moment just then i saw a bloody face rise out of the foam close along side where the and had all been broken away and then sink again it was the mate and he caught a rope which was hanging overboard and the captain and two men who had now recovered themselves having all been knocked down drew him on board my attention was next drawn to the boy who stood a few feet to the right of me on the other quarter and pointing out over the stern i concluded from his manner that somebody else was overboard and thought i could distinguish above the roaring of the storm the name of the italian sailor but i saw he was on deck in his fright the boy had got the wrong name it was poor l i just caught a glimpse of him floating out several rods as he balanced for a moment on the crest of a wave throwing up his arms i suppose with the vain hope that we should thus be drawn to his assistance when a sea broke over him and he sunk the storm still continued to rage as fiercely as ever the waves though high and huge masses of water still did not appear to be quite so high as i saw them two days afterward when there was very little wind for they were now apparently pressed down and b the mighty power of the wind which them cut off and knocked into spray their as soon as they rose above a certain height their force and speed were wonderful that most disastrous one which we over our crooked when it struck the deck a beam which the deck over the cabin of inches by in clean across its lower face knocking off and in pieces its how far in the extends i cannot say but it is sensibly sprung and i presume will have to be taken out and for the wind it was one steady roar no one could hear you speak clearly unless your mouth was close to his ear and i found it very difficult to look towards it and breathe there were none of those of rise and fall which we have on land it did not change a note three times during the storm but continued to roar on hour after hour with the same terrible monotony like the sound of a great or a furnace a thousand times voyage to our main purpose now was to keep the water out of the and the mate bruised as he was as soon as he was fairly on deck was the first to call out for spare sails to nail over the left by the and companion way when he came to the companion where i stood i with myself a moment whether to go below and be nailed down or to stay on deck but i reflected that i was too weak to do any good there that i should be soon chilled for i was and be in great danger of being swept overboard so with many i went below and heard them nail down the over my head i sat under it however with my knife ready to cut my way out should tlie cabin begin to fill the captain now lashed down the for he had been much bruised and could steer no longer and let the lie in the of the sea drifting at random the men were ordered to the for on sounding there was found to be four feet of water in the hold a little before sunset the captain making an opening in the small after came below looking the picture of de that it was all up with us for the men not gain on the and there were no signs of in the storm he appeared rather sullen or at least not inclined to talk but directly turned in and seemed to be employed in prayer partly aloud and partly to himself i now went and sat on the under the small after where we but little water and remained there all the earlier part of the night the mate and men though nearly worn out still continued on deck by turns at the pump i was enough my feelings were far more uncomfortable than when i was on deck for now being no longer able to see our danger my fears or imagination had it all their own way any unusual noise on deck seemed the note of some closing disaster and every shout from the sailors as it pierced through the roar of the storm sunk into my heart like the final cry of despair and not only this but i found it very difficult to myself of the feeling of personality in the storm the idea was urging itself upon me continually that some enormous and malignant power which i more than once heathen like found myself half must	37
be beneath the ocean heaving up these great masses of vol iv no i voyage to water for our special destruction and then again when i remembered looking off to sea the waves seemed an pack of great giant hell hounds on by the winds bounding and howling on towards us with the bitter fixed tearing us in pieces this was one of my disagreeable thoughts as sat up in the cabin and there was another thing troubled me i must confess at the risk of losing your good opinion that the praying of the captain afforded me anything but con it looked so like giving up the ship and was such a plain intimation that all hope of being saved by earthly aid was at an end that i could not but feel discouraged by it like on his return from russia to compare small things to large he seemed to have a dread of hearing details and apparently wished to abstract his mind from what was going on around him and taking it for granted that we should be all lost set very about what he considered the necessary process for saving his own soul i do not intend to sneer at him for praying to pray in times of great danger is as as to breathe at such times all men whether christians or pray instinctively though for the most part by and in silence i only mean to say that the master of a vessel should be the last man aboard to show by any change of manner a falling off in confidence but our captain was an old man of a and though not cowardly was weighed down by a perfect mare of superstition and i found afterwards had a that this would be his last voyage at about ten or eleven o clock at night one of the men came to the and asked for bread they had had nothing to eat all day i about below for our lamps were lost till i found some bread and having handed it up before the was closed took a look out on deck the moon at that moment for it was for the most part a dry storm was shining full and clear the same sea was raging and the same wind roaring just as they were seven hours previous and our forlorn shattered was still it out with them alone upon the ocean i do remember it now for a scene of awful beauty and but so far as i recollect i only felt at the time that it was awful i have heard of men who could forget imminent danger in voyage to their admiration of the sublime and of a painter who lashed himself to the mast that he might draw the sea in a terrible storm i take this to be chiefly at any rate for myself i was sick and weak it was cold my clothes were wet i was and doubled up with the fear of death was pressing heavily upon me and i confess the artist feeling did not so prevail over the man i went below and for the purpose of getting warm for sleep was out of the question i took to my berth i first piled into it all the wet clothes i could find for we had no other and then tried to pull off my coat but it was so wet and the rolled so much that after it down the back and tearing one sleeve nearly out i gave it up and got in with all my clothes on between the straw bed and the both of which were thoroughly and in less than an hour i found myself in a sort of steam bath of very comfortable temperature about every quarter of an during the night heard the man on the watch give a cry of warning to those at the followed by the tumbling of a heavy sea on deck and then a of the vessel which it took all my holding on to keep from throwing me out of my berth then the water streamed down through the to increase the quantity in the hold bearing with it or some matter which left ghastly streaks of light on the or rather looked like pale liquid fire down the bulk head our great danger was that in on account of these heavy seas the would throw her out or as the mate afterwards expressed it shake the sticks out of herself and was all night to hear them fall every time we a sea my mind however was not exclusively occupied by these fearful details nor as i have remarked before by the dreaded catastrophe at times some scrap or other such as backward and forward half her length with a short uneasy motion would suddenly come into my head and in a moment i was striving like a boy at school to the succeeding lines that of containing et es joseph the french painter of sea scenes voyage to july of which i could remember at first only this one line haunted me thus for a long time my memory seemed to take it up on her own account with the obstinate determination to conquer it and was succeeding better than i am able to do at this moment when another great sea and a of the put it to flight at another time i myself very busy with the ballad of which the following is a three merry men and three merry men and three merry men are we i on the sea and thou on the land and jack on the gallows tree it soon struck me was very ridiculous and to be thinking of old situated as i was but a moment after there it was again through my mind to a merry tune i on the sea and thou on the	37
approach of death at this time too i had perhaps a moment than any before it was occasioned by seeing in my trunk certain little matters which reminded me of friends and once before when that great sea struck us which i have mentioned some pages back a momentary thought of my mother came over me as i said to myself and so i am to be the t to go of the eight but in general neither emotions of this kind nor regret at leaving the world nor remorse of conscience nor thoughts of a future state nor to yet prayer except by suppressed at some critical instant occupied my mind any considerable part of the time i have no doubt thi t the most of the captain s praying was mechanical that is partially so just as were my mental of poetry and that both mainly served for occupation to the mind the dreaded moment of dissolution the last awful plunge was doubtless the main question with both but this was qualified and softened down and at times almost withdrawn from view or the mind most kindly away from the contemplation of it as i have before endeavored to explain i tell you these things out of simple honesty and if you will allow me to say so as a philosopher for my experience in some degree the ideas which i had received from whatever source of the state of a man s mind situated as we were on this occasion and i see no good reason why such when honestly made should be as i believe they are considered at about one o clock in the afternoon it became evident the wind was somewhat on the decline it still continued to blow a gale but by comparing one hour with another we could discover a sensible the men too encouraged by peter s example all worked on vigorously and a little before sunset reported that they were gaining on the water in the hold the appalling sense of pressing and immediate danger was now gone and i went to bed and slept soundly iii the morning when looked on deck i found a signal of distress that is our with the union down flying in the main the wind was blowing not a gale but strongly from the north west and the sea though by no means so violent still ran as high as the day previous the men bad at length got the free but could only keep her so by constant the captain now called a consultation about leaving the vessel he first came to me but i declined giving an opinion on account of the mate was still asleep and he now called the men aft and made the proposition to them they all seemed to look to peter to answer for them and peter said at once that we must not give up the we had our and one mast sound and sails and men enough left to get her in somewhere unless there should come on another voyage to july gale and we must therefore stay by her in this opinion all seemed to this morning a raw ham was cut up and served out to the men of which they all eat some with and some without i tried a little of it but soon gave it up and contented myself with bread and water at a little after noon the wind fell down nearly to a calm but the sea appeared to be higher even than i had yet seen it it was no longer at all violent but the waves their rage being spent were tumbling slowly and loosely about perfectly harmless like huge beasts at play the was continually in a hollow surrounded by hills of water apparently from twenty to twenty five feet high and from three to five rods in length from base to summit one of which she seemed constantly on the point of going up and as this spread out and sunk down under her bows it was succeeded by another so that for a time we could only see a few rods in any direction in an hour or so however it began to cloud up and blow more fresh and then almost in an instant the face of the water was changed the waves were now increased in number and activity but diminished in size and we had our sea view again just about sunset the captain and i being below one of the hands forward cried out sails and the boy ran aft and repeated it down the way we both hurried on deck and saw the sail which the captain said was a british bearing down to us about a mile off i never be fore had a clear idea of the of a ship to the ocean she up and down on the water as light as an her flourished about in the air and then whipped over on one side until her yards nearly dipped and then giving a plunge forward she resumed her in short she seemed to defy all the powers of the sea to take her off her legs and reminded me of nothing so much as of one of those little cork images with lead in its feet which at school we used to call a witch and like a witch on a wild horse she made as she came near a broad sweep out and danced clear round us in order to get near enough to speak and at the same time avoid coming in contact with us just as her came to bear on ours the second time her captain brought his trumpet to his mouth what s your name he out olive m voyage to boston shouted our captain putting his hand to his mouth for he had lost his trumpet what s the matter with you we ve been tore	37
all to pieces in a gale what do you want with we want to be taken off then wear round to the northward and keep in our wake till we can board you what s your said our captain but before the british captain could as certain an answer the vessels were too far apart for a voice from either to be heard but he marked it down with chalk on a large board and held it up and then went on his way the was and something we were therefore four or five degrees to the eastward of our course the captain explained his having requested to be taken off by saying that he merely wished to induce the british to lay by till morning in order to furnish us with means for repair the next day was fine the first really fine day which we had seen since coming to sea all hands were now busy in getting the into sailing order and the captain thought of taking her into but at noon on taking the sun he found we were considerably to the north east of that island and in latitude about d we therefore shaped our course for our port of destination in towards night we spoke another british the of a small port in who supplied us with nails and c for and also cooking and that evening we had cooked food the first we had seen for six days we were all well now but the mate he was still very sick from the injuries he had received when he went overboard when he first awoke out of his long sleep i was the only person below he turned wildly about for a moment being from having drank salt water and then sang out on deck there and ordered me aloft to do something apparently taking me for a sailor and as it a very poor one for he directly added no you can t do it and then giving me a hard contemptuous look what for did you come to sea for you bloody sheep to mind de cabin we bathed and him as well as we could but he was in a very miserable plight until he obtained aid at after this the weather continued fine for the remainder vol iv no i voyage to of the passage and we had only the ordinary incidents of a sea voyage i was most of the time on deck perhaps there is no situation in which one can read with more ad and tranquillity than at sea ia fine weather the motion of the vessel gives you just that slight physical exercise which every one desires when reading sometimes i watched the stormy or mother s chickens wondering where they would go to they would follow on our wake for hours with a scarcely audible touching every where as carefully as dr johnson used to the posts between temple bar and st john s gate sometimes a school of would plunge along across our bow or a flock of flying fish start up or a come slowly round the vessel with his fin out of the water seeking what he might and once or twice i saw a huge black fish a species of whale throw his whole enormous bulk out of the water at some distance from the vessel and then come down with a plunge all these are which highly interest a passenger on his first voyage the flying fish has less strength of wing than i had supposed they rose out of the water like birds in flocks apparently disturbed by the approach of the vessel and fluttering along from three to five feet above the surface for five or six rods struck into a wave and disappeared one of them flew on deck it was about five inches long and of a bright silver color its wings were merely longer and larger than are found on other fishes of the same size i with the poor thing for he reminded me of rather a large class of young men of the present day of which perhaps i am one who are neither entirely men of the world nor men of books but just enough of each to spoil them for either we cannot swim well enough to escape much less to with the and dog fish and when we take to the air we show too little power of wing to pass for respectable birds and therefore we on through a life of very doubtful comfort and security like this poor fish i was for returning him to the water after examination but the cook claimed him as his property poor soul the cook himself is now food for fishes i occasionally assisted the mate in writing up his log voyage to particularly that part of it relating to our disaster as it was necessary that this portion of it should be full and accurate on account of one morning as we were busy at this work i writing to the mate s the captain interrupted us with some warmth and addressing the mate that s not the way to make out a log says he if you nick nick nick things along in in that way one after another the long boat in the morning and the at noon the will never believe they were lost by the act of god a phrase in old on bills of now i believe you should take the sails boats boom mast companion way and and em all in together with a slap and then said he with increasing earnestness the can t deny but that it was the act of god i had the impression before sailing that the superstition of was a good deal on the	37
decline at least among masters and this no doubt is the case to some extent but it was not so with our captain ever since the storm i had been determined whenever opportunity should offer to have some conversation with peter the captain told me he had sailed with him two voyages before the present and that he was one of the best and most men he ever knew both at sea and in port he was certainly a favorite with all on board not only on account of his conduct during the storm but from his quiet good natured and obliging manners afterwards the boy took to him as to a father one sunday as he was leaning over the bows smoking by himself i went forward and drew him into talk of his previous life he was about twenty seven though he looked thirty five and was born near at a very tender age i think nine he was pressed into the naval service from which at about fifteen he ran away and joined the merchant service and sailed from various ports in till past at length he at on board a dutch bound for intending to sail out of the united states because he had heard wages were better there at his captain refused to discharge him and therefore leaving his clothes and wages the price at which a sailor usually one country voyage to july for another he ran away into the country away up into de country into de bush more as fifty or forty miles said he glancing up as if he expected to find me looking somewhat surprised where he remained until his captain had sailed since this time which is five or six years he has sailed out of the united states but his sixteen or eighteen dollars per month here he finds no better than his seven or eight in the higher prices of board and clothing in this country making all the he wanted to make money enough to buy a farm just a farm and then go home where five years ago he had a mother and two sisters living he had once laid up more as a couple hundred dollars but one day about two years ago in going into on board the of boston he fell from the main yard and broke his neck he said putting his hand on his collar bone and when he came to his senses he found himself in the hospital his chest was by his bed with the key in it but his money and best clothes were gone the had sailed since then he has saved a little more money but not so much i felt very much at the time as if i should have liked to ship peter off to to his mother and sisters with money enough to buy his little farm but it is very easy for people who have never made any money to be liberal in theory and even in fact whenever they possess any little means but the truth is we never have had the nursing of a heap of dollars we have never watched its growth from infancy upwards with anxious brooding care and of course know nothing of the strong parental attachment which almost necessarily arises from this process we are therefore not well prepared to appreciate the sense of deep shown by many business men who have had such experience nor even the reluctance of tolerably good men whenever any other than a legitimate business occasion or a public charity calls on them to part with the money which they have learned to love not wisely perhaps but too well i shall however represent the case to the owner and if as says he will do peter any honor so if not let him save the next himself but i have reason to believe that this this self u voyage to devotion as a matter of coarse is a thing of no uncommon occurrence at sea why therefore says the owner should i pay for that which is mine by right it is like a fair wind it is putting a market value on that which has heretofore been a free privilege of the merchant which is against the of trade and must not be besides says the moral is it not a pity to spoil this by placing a pecuniary value upon it the moment you offer to pay it liberally it to con it touches money and as in the case of charming away diseases the peculiar virtue ceases at once and not only this says the seaman s friend if he would only always live at one of our homes when in port and be happy in our way instead of bis own something might be done but the captain tells us he has no sense of his fallen condition but swore even during the storm poor peter i suspect he must still labor on as heretofore at his in which he appears to be not unhappy saving the lives and property of rich men and thinking nothing of it and little thought of himself until he arrives at something past the middle age when his iron frame shall at length yield to hardship and exposure and at some chance port where he shall have broken down he finds his way to the hospital and thence to the or which perhaps will be quite as well until on some stormy passage in which his craft shall be driven to still greater extremity than ours has been he shall after one more hard manly struggle yield up his life to the ocean on which he has passed the most of his days one or the other of these results i have little doubt peter will come in the mean time let this be	37
our consolation that the elements which go to form true of character can never be lost we are sorry to omit notices which we had prepared of thoughts on spiritual subjects translated from of the doctrine of life by william b s musical times and of a on the human soul by l s which are crowded out by the unexpected length of our printed articles j record of the months y record of the months poems by john boston johnson these poems are much the most of all the pieces we have met with on the subject indeed it is strange how little poetry this old outrage of negro slavery has produced s lines in the task are still the best we have mr has a good deal of talent and writes very spirited verses full of point he has no continuous meaning which him to write a long and equal poem but every poem is a series of detached some better some worse his taste is not always correct and from the flight he shall suddenly alight in very low places neither is the motive of the poem ever very high so that they seem to be rather than or but for political satire we think the word from a very strong and the the best piece of poetical indignation in america and other poems by william garrison boston mr garrison has won his palms in quite other fields than those of the muse and he is far more likely to be the subject than the author of good poems he is rich enough in the earnestness and the success of his character to be patient with the very rapid withering of the poetic he has snatched in passing yet though this volume contains little poetry both the subjects and the sentiments will everywhere command respect that piece in the volume which pleased us most was the address to his first born child america an and other poems by n w coffin boston s g our shakes his head very doubtfully at this and only says an nowadays needs to be admirable to carry sail at all mr s and at the are the only american that we have in reading if we dare still remember them yet he adds the good verses run like golden through the dark forests of toil rippling and musical and the heavy banks till they fall in and are borne away thirty five pieces follow the the of which everything is neat pretty harmonious the sentiment pleasing if not inspired if the poet have nothing else he has a good ear poems by william boston we have already expressed our faith in mr s genius which in some of the finest and traits of the poet is without a rival in this country this little volume has already become a sign of great hope and encouragement to the lovers of the muse the refinement the sincerity of his mind not less than the originality and delicacy of the are not merits to be suddenly apprehended but are sure to find a cordial appreciation yet we would willingly invite any lover of poetry to read the earth spirit reverence the lover s song death and the poet s hope the h family the president s daughters by boston james co the has filled all sitting rooms with her fame one of our best friends writes us of the president s daughters that it is a good piece much better than the h family not so well as the neighbours miss is a right minded woman from whom a good novel may yet be expected intelligence we have received a communication from messrs and lane dated from their farm in from which we make the following extract we have made an with the proprietor of an estate of about a hundred acres which this tract from human for picturesque beauty both in the near and the distant landscape the spot has few rivals a semi circle of hills stretches from south to west among which the and are conspicuous the through which flows a to the is esteemed for its and ease of cultivation is adorned with groves of nut trees and pines and watered by small streams distant not thirty miles from the metropolis of new england this reserve lies in a serene and no public it but it is entered by a private road the nearest hamlet is that of a field s walk of twenty minutes and the village of is reached by and roads of nearly three miles here we our effort to a family in harmony with the primitive instincts in man the present buildings being ill placed and as well as inconvenient are to be temporarily used until suitable and buildings in harmony with the natural scene can be completed an excellent site offers itself on the skirts of the nearest wood affording shade and shelter and commanding a view of the lands of the estate nearly all of which are capable of july culture it is intended to adorn the pastures with and to the labor of the plough and cattle by the and the our planting and other works both without and within doors are already in active progress the present family numbers ten individuals five being children of the ordinary farming is not our object fruit grain pulse garden plants and and other vegetable for food and domestic uses receiving attention afford at once ample manual occupation and supplies for the bodily needs consecrated to human freedom the land the sober culture of devout men beginning with small pecuniary means this enterprise must be rooted in a reliance on the of an ever providence whose vital being secured by this union with fields and persons the cares and injuries of a life of gain are avoided the inner nature of every member of the family is at no time neglected a	37
constant leaning on the living spirit within the should every talent to holy uses the the choice library of which a partial catalogue was given in dial no xii is accessible to all who are desirous of these records of piety and wisdom our plan all such and habits as evidently to the and of the inmates pledged to the spirit alone the can anticipate no hasty or numerous accession to their numbers the kingdom of peace is entered only through the gates of self denial and and felicity is the test and the reward of obedience to the law of love june to are greatly indebted to several friends for the most part for literary and not less indebted in those cases m which we have not found the pieces sufficiently adapted to our purpose to print them the dial has been almost as much a journal of friendship as of literature and morals and its have felt the offer of any literary aid as a token of personal kindness had it been practicable we should gladly have obeyed the wish to make a special acknowledgment of each paper that has been confided to us explaining in each instance the reason for it we wish to say to our that printed or these papers are welcome and useful to us if only as they or our own opinions and give us insight into the thinking of others in the last quarter we have received several papers some of which after some hesitation ve decide not to print one of these is a translation which without comparing it with the original seems to us excellent of s on s and that it may not through our fail to be read we shall leave the ms for a time with our subject to the order of the writer we have also received from a z a poetical translation from from a c l a a paper on the spirit of from a friend at by field a poetical fragment the ship from our correspondent c at new a poem called the two from r p r some from j a s lady a the dial vol iv october no ii on the origin op christianity the present aspect of the world of is highly interesting to a philosophic on a new formation seems to be taking place in the great of speculation doctrines which have come down to us bearded with venerable antiquity conclusions that have passed through centuries of doubt and and confident and timid conjectures at last by success to assume command over youth and experienced wisdom all of these meet with a reception in our time a little from what they have received in days of there was a time when the spirit of freedom dared not enter the domain of the priest uttered the he that is damned and fled away next men what they dared not say the descendants of might be hanged or burned but the children of and continued to flourish could be got rid of but could not be hanged and as for reasoning with such men it were as well to reason with a cloud or to with and they defied equally argument and now a different day has come and grave men venture in their own name and with no to doctrines ancient and time honored and ask them their right to be it is curious to see how this spirit an inquiry concerning the origin of christianity by charles c second edition london sold by t vol iv no ii on the origin of christianity appears in all countries distinguished by liberal culture at the same time and often under circumstances which prove that hearty have come to the same result we see this in new england in old england france and germany matters long ago and pronounced complete are brought up again to the furnace and the old questions are asked over anew when the old answer did not the case others come up each century anew some tell us the was a mistake that we have too much religious knowledge exclaiming at sunrise as the jews in exile would god it were night they see the religious world lies weak and low with sick as job with complicated distress that the consecrated are confounded and have no counsel but that of job s friends they look back to the hour of past darkness and say we remember the flesh which we did eat in egypt freely the and the and the and the and the let us return thither the gods of egypt were true gods they baked us bread and they thought for us let us put on the and the and the and the and the and the bands of our fathers and let us kneel as they knelt and repeat their prayers and their and their vows and we shall be as gods others think the past was all wrong the present all bad we are to prepare for the future by forgetting all that has been learned in six thousand years of toil experience say they lies history is a a fact is a falsehood nothing is so doubtful as what men are certain of the world is sick but the cure is easy marriage and will perish property and will die out with no struggle the laws destroy the hang the judges crime shall end shut up the schools the sabbath burn the bible and pluck down the churches ail men will instantly become wise as and holy as francis of cold and famine shall be no more if you will go naked and leave the earth come up to us ye sons of men and we will teach you the way of life now between these two parties which we have but little are all sorts of and opinions on the origin of christianity fighting with	37
din men of one idea which they call the universe of vast thought at least of vast counsel a philosopher chasing his own shadow and clutching as if it were the very substance or even the idea a poet who would reform the world with and men here and there who apply right reasons to facts and all these acting with freedom never known before no wonder there is some little confusion in the world we have often thought if there were what the called a soul of the world it must have a hard time of it but out of what seems to eyes the all father surely wins the result of universal harmony ah nature s difference makes all nature s peace but to return from our wanderings there is one point in discussion of great interest at the present day that is the history of the new testament or the history of christ for the two are most intimately connected though not essentially so for it is plain was the same before as after the new testament was written the new testament has never since the second century been so freely examined and upon as now the several important works relative to this subject which have recently appeared in france germany and england are curious signs of the times if we compare these as a whole with former works on the same theme we see they are written in a new method and in a new spirit written with freedom and and without and some writers we believe still contend that every word in the new testament and old testament is to be regarded as the word of god divine given to mankind others attempt though to separate christianity from its documents so they deny that it is to stand or fall with the inspiration of the old testament then they attempt to the new testament by from it as far as possible all that is most hostile to reason thus some in high place do not hesitate to say that stories run through the new testament that paul sometimes reasons ill that the early were deceived in the works of and on the origin of the world was soon to end in their time that even in the there are things which cannot be that the conscientious christian is not bound to believe that the angels who announced the miraculous birth of had hebrew or names or that they sung passages out of the version of the old testament and as they sung some grave men in new england of in the faith teach that the angel who delivered peter from the prison was a man with a bag of money to bribe the some too while they hold fast to each of the text of the new testament allow themselves good latitude in explaining the old testament and teach that moses wrote no part of it that its miracles are false its but good poetry and its were but pious and noble minded men who had no more of miraculous inspiration than and and these they make from love of truth and out of regard to the letter of the new testament for they are willing to save the most valuable by losing the inferior part the questions about the origin of the christian records about the origin and history of christ we think are not religious nor even questions they are interesting subjects of inquiry and belong to the department of human subjects of great interest but not of the same vital moment with the inquiry about god the soul religion immortality and life we rejoice exceedingly in the attention now bestowed upon these and have no doubt it y produce much good for the present and the future the work of mr is a remarkable phenomenon in english appearing contemporary with the strong movement of the more spiritual part of the established church the author like and and other great names in is not a clergyman he is we are told a merchant of london who has found time to make the requisite into ancient and modern writers and produce this new and valuable on the origin of christianity the first edition was published in he says the that there is a mixture of truth and fable in the has been admitted by an the origin of christianity many critics bearing the christian name the same method of free investigation which led and to throw doubt upon the truth of the opening chapters of and may allow other to make further from the gospel history the author began his own inquiry in the belief that the miraculous facts supposed to lie at the foundation of christianity could not be shaken he aimed to get at the truth thus avoiding the error of the who starts with the fixed idea that the new testament is ins and of the who for faults rather than the truth he wishes his book to be considered as employed in the real service of christianity rather than an attack upon it his aim is simply to investigate the origin of the religion by speculation on the consequences the work is divided into eighteen chapters on the following subjects historical sketch from the to the death of and thence to the end of the first century the date and of the of mark and john examination of the accounts of the and and on the other miracles in the four and those in the acts of the general objections to the miracles of and the evidence to the miracles by the writings on the the parts of supposed to relate to christianity on the book of daniel whether foretold his own death and on the character views and doctrine of comparison of the of with writings concluding reflections a brief is added treats more some points touched upon in the text we will	37
give an analysis of the more important portions of the book he shows the gradual growth of the idea among the jews and the romantic form it assumed in the time of their restoration from he gives from and an account of the this has been done already by some mr in his highly valuable the evidences of the of the boston thinks the following passages highly doubtful i ii mark john v vii viii on the origin of christianity the third philosophical of the jews as is in all hands we will only refer to his works but will give the extract from describing the and are not of honorable and good men but are occupied by numbers not compared even with the very nation of the jews these exceeding four thousand are called which name though not in my opinion formed by strict in greek to the word holy for they have attained the highest in the worship of god and that not by sacrificing animals but by purity of heart they live principally in villages some cultivate the ground others pursue the arts of peace and such as are to themselves without injury to their neighbors they are the only people who though destitute of money and possessions themselves as rich riches to consist in and contentment among them no one arrows or weapons of war they decline trade commerce and as to nor have they any slaves among them but all are free and all in their turn administer to others they condemn the owners of slaves as who the principles of justice and equality as to learning they leave that branch of it which is called logic as not necessary to the acquisition of virtue to fierce about words and cultivate natural philosophy only so far as respects the existence of god and the creation of the universe other parts of natural knowledge they give up to vain and subtle as really surpassing the powers of man but moral philosophy they eagerly study to the established laws of their country the excellence of which the human mind can hardly comprehend without the inspiration of god these laws they study at all times but more especially on the regarding the seventh day as holy they on it from all other works and in those sacred places which are called arranging themselves according to their age the younger below his senior with a grave becoming and attentive then one of them taking the reads a portion of it the obscure parts of which are explained by another more skilful person for most of the they interpret in that sense which they have copied from the and the subjects of instruction are piety domestic and political economy the knowledge of things really good bad and indifferent what ii ch xviii an the origin of objects ought to be pursued and what to be avoided in discussing these topics the ends which they have in view and to which they refer as so many rules to guide them are the love of god the love of virtue and the love of man of their love to god they give innumerable proofs by leading a life of continued purity by oaths and by regarding him as the author of every good and the cause of no evil they their attachment to virtue by their freedom from from ambition from pleasure by their and patience by their simplicity and contentment by their humility their regard to the laws and other similar virtues their love to man is evinced by their their and their li of which it is not improper to give a short account though no language can describe it in the first place there exists among them no house however private which is not open to the reception of all the rest and not only the members of the same society under the same domestic roof but even strangers of the same persuasion have free admission to join them there is but one treasure whence all derive and not only their provisions but their clothes are common such mode of living under the same roof and of at the same table cannot in fact be proved to have been adopted by any other description of men the sick are not despised or neglected but live in ease and receiving from the treasury whatever their disorder or their require the aged too among them are loved and attended as parents by affectionate children and a thousand hands and hearts their tottering years with comforts of every kind such are the of virtue which philosophy without the parade of produces proposing as the end of their institutions the performance of those actions which destroy slavery and render freedom invincible this effect is evinced by the many powerful men who rise against the in their own country in consequence of from them in principles and sentiments some of these being eager to the of beasts omit no measure that may gratify their cruelty and they cease not to sacrifice whole flocks of those within their power or like to tear their limbs in pieces until themselves are brought to that justice which the affairs of men yet not one of these furious has been able to any accusation against this band of holy men on the other hand all men by their integrity and honor unite with them as those who truly enjoy the freedom and independence of nature admiring their communion and on the origin of christianity which language cannot describe and which is the pledge of a perfect and happy life of the and nothing need now be said he gives an account of what calls a fourth philosophic of which the was the author and adds it appears very clear that the most feature of the new of was the revival in a more emphatic manner of the ancient expectation of a kingdom of god or of	37
was the work of some one who became a member of the church before the war and who collected the relics of the acts and sayings of reported by the introducing some traditions which he found elsewhere and filling up from his own invention his aim was probably to do honor to and the common cause to strengthen the church under the trying circumstances of the times and to be the author of a work which should be generally acceptable to his brethren that such a man should not always to strict truth seems quite consistent with human nature since in the subsequent times and in the christian church we find pious men and sincere allowing themselves to countenance palpable p the second gospel is ascribed to mark the companion of peter for its we have the testimony of of see the recent literature on the subject of the language and author of the first gospel in der in n t an the origin of y and others but these authorities do not decide that peter or knew what mark wrote he copied from in part and adds other historical details but these relics of reality with some matter he to have had access to one of the channels of original information not very far from its source but he is often unconscious of the nature of what be records for he saw things through the medium of his time and place and not in their original light he has lost sight of the semi political bearing of the scheme the kingdom of god with the spread of the gospel to soften the severe that appears in into a shape more fitting for readers he attempts to by repeating the amazement of the of his miracles the great numbers attracted by him the confession of the devils and the greater part of the most eloquent and in he becomes a kind of on the first gospel and we see that an intimate friend of peter some of the most striking passages of the miraculous birth and temptation of christ peter s casting himself into the sea the promise of the keys and the miracle of the fish with money in its mouth he also the dream of s wife as well as the other five dreams of the of the saints and the earthquake it is difficult to avoid concluding that he omitted these things because he did not believe them he found that they were not by peter or by any traditions of and determined that his work should not be with so much total and pure ornamental fiction it is impossible to regard mark s of these passages otherwise than as a condemnation of in later times when the means of the truth of each story had diminished and the whole four came to be believed in a mass as resting upon the same authority divine inspiration these same questionable passages have been favorite ones with christians as proving most strikingly the miraculous character of p see i compare iii with x vi with id he of which related chiefly to the origin of christianity taken by itself the second is less intelligible than the first gospel but with that and it not only throws light on the attempt of but marks the grade in the under which his afterwards viewed him made use of both his but has many stories and of his own which he selected from popular tradition or previous writers he sometimes with and mark but sometimes from them for in his time they were not received with the same deference as now his order is confused and probably in some instances he did not know the meaning of what he repeated he does not and to suit his own times the he the visits of to and mary the scenes at the temple the appearance of the angels to the and of to the two at indicate a more refined imagination than the tales of joseph and the angel and the the which he adds the lost sheep the prodigal son the good and the rich man are equal to any in the but we find also in him the and doctrines of the more does not say he had his facts from to take all the three together it appears that they were written a considerable time after the events they relate it is probable though not certain that the writers learned some parts from or but it is uncertain which the parts are and it is probable they are largely mingled with second hand and traditions there is strong probability that the portions of the three histories contain a tolerably correct outline of the chief events of christ s life but some errors might find their way into all three by the mistakes or inventions of the first writers or the traditions on which they all depended so in the three after making every allowance for probable veritable and fiction there still seems to remain so much of reality that the attempt of to assume the his public preaching in and and his might be considered from the testimony of these three alone as facts deserving a place in history which on the origin of is strongly supported by other writings and subsequent events the fourth gospel he thinks was written about a c this is of a very different character christ s are long without the kingdom of heaven is nearly lost sight of the fall of never alluded to several new subjects are introduced the of the in christ his coming down from heaven and the promise of the or holy spirit mr thinks it probable that john did not put the detached parts of the book together himself and adds that it is difficult to determine whether the or did not add the last chapter and improve upon	37
the s words elsewhere the circumstances of the place and time explain the difference in the subjects treated of in this and the former this gospel appears accordingly to be the attempt of a but zealous of to his of the philosophy upon the original faith of the the divine wisdom or or light proceeding from god of which so much had been said in the school he tells us became a man or flesh in the person of dwelt for a time on earth and ascended up where he was before and where he had been from the beginning into the bosom of the father consequently this gospel shows throughout a double or object first to prove that is the christ which was common to all the and secondly that the christ is the son of god or which descended from heaven to give light to men p to endeavor to reconcile john with his on the that all four wrote invariably true and correct history is evidently hopeless the are so far important ns to lead us inevitably to infer that in some of them and probably in all four there is a large measure of that which proceeds from imperfect knowledge forgetful ness or neglect in the case of john they are to such an extent as to show that neither he nor his paid much regard to the of his or used them as a guide in forming a new one an indeed could not be expected to frame his so as to agree with the works of previous if he known them but a disregard of them allowing of manifest either that those works were but little known in his church or that they had not yet become standards of authority p on the origin of christianity in ch vii he the accounts of the and of christ with n ingenuity patience and as it seems to us and comes to the conclusion we have already stated perhaps it is the most valuable chapter in the whole we shall attempt no analysis of it from the valuable chapters on miracles we will quote the following john alone relates the raising of which if his were true was the most splendid and public of all the miracles for according to him it was done before friends and enemies without any of the usual to tell of it many came to see at the supper at and the people bare record of it when entered publicly into but notwithstanding all this neither mark nor appears to have had any knowledge of the affair p the story of seems again to be forced upon the attention of the first three when they relate the entry of into and the conduct of the multitude for john says that the people then bare record of his having raised but here also they make not the slightest allusion to it it is impossible to conceive any plausible reason for this concealment when the same three appear so willing to relate all the miracles they were acquainted and actually relate some which were said to be done in secret that they had all forgotten this miracle so completely that it did not once occur to them whilst relating the connected circumstances cannot be imagined and if any miracle deserved a preference in the eyes of disposed to do honor to christ or even to give a faithful account of him it was this the acts and nowhere allude to this story although it would have afforded paul a very good instance of the of the body xv the first mention therefore of the most public and decisive of the miracles appears in a writing published at sixty years afterwards most of the miracles attributed to christ are of the same kind the removal of natural if on opening the book which records his claims as a divine messenger we were to find instead of these stories of such of the causes of blindness fever and and to mankind to from the courses which lead to such evils the book would carry with it an evidence increasing vol iv no ii on the origin of christianity with the lapse of ages since the possession of such knowledge by a person in the age country and circumstances of christ would be as miraculous as any of the works referred to and all readers on finding that the results of the most advanced stages of human knowledge had been anticipated by the peasant of must themselves exclaim whence had this man this knowledge having never learned and we know that thou art a teacher sent by god for no man could have this wisdom unless god were with him p chapters xii and xiv on the are essays which we shall pass over as similar views have long since been openly and publicly taught by some learned men in this century we will however give the following there are few nations whose early literature does not contain and pretended accomplishments of but and lost their credit even in ancient times the supposed still play a conspicuous part in the religion of the day yet on comparing them closely history accomplishment and failure alternate to such an extent that one important resemblance to their heathen kindred becomes palpable their credit can only be maintained by preserving their testament the of the old in the two most conspicuous features of prophecy there could not be a more decided failure a triumphant of david was promised and a carpenter s son was was to be exalted and was nor were the christian more fortunate the son of man was to appear again before that generation passed away and he has not yet appeared the contains many allusions to the affairs of rome and in the sixth book the shade of shows himself well acquainted with roman history up to the time	37
of but attempts to nothing beyond it from passages of this kind the common reader would have inferred the time of the writer to be about or after that date but suppose that had concealed his name and date and that some religious interest were attached to the belief in the divine inspiration of his writings it would then be taken for granted that the author lived at the beginning not the end of the prophecy and the whole poem might by the system be easily converted into a type if the were a see christian for vol p see also vol t p on the origin of christianity catholic the of the hero might the small of the roman see on the same plains of his pious of the queen being exactly the type of rome s separation by divine decree from its mistress the of tu was fully as peter s pence could bear witness proved to be true how exactly fulfilled in the person of the emperor henry iv and in the shown by vii towards napoleon who was or ought to have been his subject certainly a who might be inclined thus lo turn to account would find less labor than has been encountered by with the book of daniel for the sake ef the pope with the man of sin mr thinks naturally foresaw that he must fall a martyr to his convictions but by no means uttered such distinct of his death and as the put into his mouth if he had done so we could not explain the surprise of the and their to believe the which john explains by saying they knew not the that he must rise again from the dead the chapter on the character views and doctrine of christ is to us more repulsive than any other in the book he considers to have been an who believed himself the predicted king of the jews a expecting to restore the kingdom to by means of a popular and everlasting life to such as houses and lands for his sake how any one can come to this conclusion we cannot readily discern true he calls himself the son of god but does he make that claim for none but himself true he preached the kingdom of god but is it so certain that kingdom was political did he not all chance of personal forbid the love of power bless the meek the peaceful the suffering but we shall not now enter into an argument on this point mr also makes him a who taught that religion consisted in the internal purity of the thoughts and the practice of morality he thinks however that he did not design to depart from the law of moses and would not in on the origin of this matter have gone so far as paul but he that up the law and in love to god and man is hardly with again he adds was a moral and religious teacher here he finds the of christ s character his are marked by their spirit the belief in immortality which he found taught by the great stress he lays on the rare and virtues of humility and resignation he thinks that the character of christ was not without its defects but adds in closing the chapter enough is seen of christ to leave the impression of a real and strongly marked character and the which is e i around it the exercise of the imagination in a manner both pleasing and useful the of the image allows it to become the gathering centre for all those highly exalted ideas of excellence which a more closely defined might have prevented from resting upon it to the powers attributed to him by his early followers later admirers are at liberty to add all the qualities of mind and character which can delight and attract in a human being to awaken men to the perception of moral beauty is the first step towards them to attain it but the contemplation of abstract qualities is difficult some real or form is involuntarily sought as a for the excellence which the holds to view whilst no human character in the history of the world can be brought to mind which in proportion as it could be closely examined did not present some defects it for being the emblem of moral perfection we can rest with least check or sense of on the imperfectly known character of of if a representative be sought of human virtue enough is still seen of his benevolent doctrine attractive character and elevated designs to direct our eyes to the prophet and martyr of p the last chapter entitled concluding reflections is one of great beauty and richness both of thought and sentiment whatever be the spirit with which the four be approached it is impossible to rise from the attentive perusal of them without a strong reverence for christ even the disposition to and ridicule is forced to retire before the majestic simplicity of the prophet of unlike moses or he owes no part of the lustre which him to his acquisition of power his is the which mankind in proportion to their mental advancement are an the of least disposed to resist that of moral and intellectual greatness besides his cruel fate men s affections on his behalf and gives him an additional hold upon their a noble minded and sage by priests and brutal soldiers is a spectacle which forces men to gaze in pity and admiration the from such a source come with an authority which no human laws could give and is more powerful on the cross of than he would have been on the throne of the virtue wisdom and sufferings of then will se cure to him a powerful influence over men so long as they continue to be moral intellectual and beings and as the	37
tendency of human is towards the increase of these qualities it may be presumed that the empire of christianity considered simply as the influence of the life character and doctrine of christ over the human mind will never cease when a higher is claimed for christ that of a messenger from god by a supernatural birth miraculous works a and an we may reasonably expect equal of evidence but how stands the case the four on these points are not confirmed by testimony out of the church with each other and contain relations contrary to the order of things the evidence on these points is reduced to the authority of these themselves in them at least the most candid mind may require strong proofs of and but again what is the case they are productions their is far from certain they were written from forty to seventy years af er the events which they profess to record the writers do not explain how they came by their information two of them appear to have copied from the first all the four contain notable and manifest they contain statements at with histories of acknowledged authority some of them relate wonders which even many christians are obliged to reject as and in general they present no character by which we can distinguish their tales of miracles from the which every church has found some ready to for on its behalf the miraculous birth works and of christ being thus surrendered to be amongst the of an obscure age what remains of christianity and what is there in the life and doctrine of that they should still claim the attention and respect of mankind in remote ages this christianity forms a striking passage in the history of human nature and appears as one of the most an the origin of christianity prominent of the means employed in its improvement it no longer of a special divine origin but shares in that the attributes to the world and the whole order of its events it has presented to the world a system of moral it has led forth the principles of humanity and benevolence from the recesses of the schools and groves and compelled them to take an active part in the of life it has the moral and religious sentiments into a more definite and influential form than had before existed and thereby constituted an engine which has worked powerfully towards and the world moreover christianity has given to the sublime doctrines of man s relationship to the deity and of a future state the former was a leading feature of and the latter of christianity has invested them with the authority of established principles and thereby contributed much to the moral elevation of mankind christianity itself proceeded from a nation in deep out of the of issued the cry for immortality may we not regard all earthly as intended to suggest christianity to each and to whisper that there must be a father in heaven and of the blessed we see at present the of another of these the of the belief in miraculous revelations and the gradual advance of a system of natural religion of which we cannot yet the whole creed but of which we may already perceive two essential features the recognition of a god and that of an inherent moral nature in man as the clearing away of the piles of the old law made way for the structure of faith in christ so will the release from the exclusive authority of written enable men to hear more distinctly the voice of the moral nature within them will be succeeded by christianity and each change appear the transition to a more perfect law of liberty let not then the mind which is compelled to its belief in miraculous revelations deem itself bound to throw aside at the same time all its most cherished associations its generous emotions and high may still find an occasion for exercise in the review of the interesting incidents which have forever consecrated the plains of but it may also find pleasure in the thought that for this exercise no single spot of earth and no one page of its history the exclusive theme whatever may gather from the lapse of time and the obscurity of records about the events of a distant age these of the mind itself remain and always will re on the origin of main in full freshness and beauty other will excite the glow of patriotism other exhibit the affections of home and other minds of benevolence and energy seek to hasten the approach of the kingdom of man s perfection nor can ever be wanting the of the physical and of the moral world the book of the universe here the page is open and the language intelligible to all men no have been able to or its it stands before us in the same as when first written the simplest understanding can enter with delight into criticism upon it the volume does not close leaving us to thirst for more but another and another still meets the inquisitive eye each signed with the author s own hand and bearing characters of divine inspiration unable at present to comprehend the whole we can still feel the privilege of looking into it at pleasure of knowing a part and of attempting the opening of further leaves and if after its highest efforts the mind be compelled to sink down acknowledging its inability in some parts to satisfy itself with any clear conclusion it may serene at least persuaded that god will not cause any soul to fare the worse for not knowing what he has given it no means to know enough is understood to enable us to see in the universe itself a son which tells us of a father and in all the natural beauty and moral excellence which meet us in	37
the world an ever present which the grace and truth of its invisible source enough is understood to convince us that to have a place on this beautiful planet on almost any terms is an unspeakable privilege that virtue produces the highest happiness whether for this or another world and that there does exist an mysterious intelligence which as it appears to ma ni its energy in arrangements for the general welfare of the creation must a provision for all the real interests of man from all our occasional excursions into the of the unseen world and from all our efforts to reach upwards to the hidden things of god both reason and piety bid us return to our accustomed corner of earth to use and enjoy fully our present lot and to repose upon the higher wisdom in whose disposal we stand whilst indulging the thought that a time is appointed when the of the heart and of the intellect will be satisfied and the of our own and the world s existence be solved there are several things in this book to which we cannot assent some things we should regard as errors but when the whole work is examined a very high praise must needs be granted to it whether we agree or with on the origin of christianity the writer it is marked by faithful good sense and a love of truth to a degree almost in works nothing is nothing forced it is free from and we see in it neither the scorn of the nor the heartless of the it is cool manly and tranquil sometimes the author rises to a touching pathos and real eloquence love of man and reverence for man s maker are conspicuous in its pages and we thank him heartily for the service he has done the christian world by the publication of a book so serene and manly but what is to be the effect of such in this sickly nineteenth century some men appear to heed not the signs of the times nor to notice that the waters of are getting troubled in all corners of the world one effect is obvious some will human reason al together and go back as far as possible into the darkness seeking to find the kingdom of heaven in the past it is not easy to understand all of the numerous of men who take that course but is the matter to end in the publication of their books in the movements of some timid or men of some pious men d some they know little of the past who will hazard such a conjecture four centuries ago it was that the latin version of the bible was divine and the word of god how many men in europe now think it so in the century men that the hebrew points were ancient and divine that the version of the old testament was made by miraculous help from on high but the points and the version have gone to their proper place now some men will contend that the miraculous part of the history of of is not worthy of belief that the christ so far as we can learn was a man born as we all are tried and tempted like the rest of us man s brother not his master that his inspiration was only supernatural in the sense that all truth is of god that the bible is divine so far as true but no farther and has no more right to bind and to loose than any other collection of books equally good new questions will be asked and will get answered it is not many years since and the real presence were on christian j subjects of great dispute but they have gone their way and the windy war they once provoked seems as foolish to os who happily live some thousands of miles from oxford as our and will appear in the next century no doubt in a hundred years the work of mr that of dr and many others of our day will be turned over with a smile at the folly of an age when such books were needed when christians would not believe a necessary and everlasting truth unless it were accompanied and for by a and event which they presumed to call a miracle well they might smile but such as live in our day can scarcely see the ludicrous features of the matter it is said to be dangerous to be wise before one s time and truly it is scarcely to be merry before it we cannot dismiss this work of mr without mentioning another from his pen which forms a sort of to the first we mean his christian a work of singular beauty and worth we will content ourselves with a few with no hostility then towards christ and may the his faith in miracles and prophecy and without may he be willing that the train of associations which christianity possesses with the history the literature the poetry the moral and religious feelings of man kind should long contribute their powerful influences in behalf of the cause of human improvement let all of man kind continue to look to as their in this great cause and recognize a kindred mind in the who preached lessons of wisdom and benevolence in an early age of the world and fell a sacrifice to the noble idea of introducing a kingdom of heaven upon earth let the good still be as the example of humanity the supper be remembered as the farewell of to his friends and god be worshipped under the character which he attributed to bim the father in heaven let painting and music still find solemn in the realities and relating to let and still take their names from the events of his life our time be dated from his birth and	37
in that high region which it was seeking but drag it down into an earthly atmosphere of low trifling thoughts petty local interests and individual or national this the book to which nature itself was only the preface which the creator of sun and skies has thought it worth while to by special messages and neither its histories nor poems satisfy my want the spirit of adoration seems to be by long perusal of this volume excluded from the great temple of the universe and compressed into the holy ark of or into an upper chamber at can this book really be the highest field of human study and thought there must be some mistake rejoice and set thy mind free there has been a great mistake the book as well as was injured by the false pretensions set up on its behalf and the workings of the human mind in remote ages in themselves deeply interesting rendered ridiculous by being into of the divine cease to weary in following through the desert and in pondering each supposed sentence of and neither moses nor samuel nor nor nor paul nor john can speak more of god than they themselves have learned from the sources which he has placed within the reach of all nature and man s own mind but look up and around and say if man may not be well satisfied with these and if in and the in the green earth and its copious productions and especially in the human mind itself manifested in art science poetry and action god has not provided eloquent and intelligible to made virtue the chief for of the kingdom of heaven to love god and one s neighbor was to be not far from the kingdom of god and he laid particular stress on virtues of the meek and benevolent kind blessed are the for they shall inherit the earth blessed are the for they shall be called the children of god blessed are they which are persecuted for sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven those who in spirit are like little children rather than the for greatness are a day with the fit for the kingdom of god by this shall all men know that ye are my if ye have love to one another love your enemies in all this strikingly with the most advanced morality of ihe present age which admits that the of these dispositions is the most essential requisite to the improvement of the world p p a day with the between two and three miles northward of the centre in the of the traveller a rustic guide board on which is inscribed to the village uncouth name for any association of serious people seriously to adopt yet we never hear them called otherwise the we all know themselves the society of friends but these people seem to have no other besides this grotesque one thus placed at the road s head possibly however the town erected the board and they did not the popular and current of themselves at about half a mile up this road we arrive at three or four houses of no very attractive exterior with a large stone barn having very much the appearance of a prison which for the animals contained therein probably it is at this station which is the village for such persons as propose to join the family the visitor is met by some of the brethren amongst whom will be found one of superior intelligence who in good temper answers questions to which he has probably responded some hundreds of times before most likely the conversation turns upon the subject of self denial and thence naturally to their especial instance of it that is to say from marriage of him you may learn that the number in the family is about two hundred persons of whom only thirty eight are under sixteen years of age and not one is younger than four that they did not settle here from any choice of this rough and domain of about fifteen hundred acres but because their founder ann lee received from the persons a day with the who resided here during her brief earthly that cordial support and sympathy which frequently the career of the pious passing this group of buildings on a turn of the road to the left hand over a broad of rock a street of houses is presented to the view some of these buildings are small and old some are large and new many active are in the fields and gardens and improvements are carried on with vigor but there is much to be done by reason of the original of this spot in order to bring the external appearances to a like elevation with that which common report has assigned to other stations the and gardens are the most striking achievements and this family trades in seeds no formal introduction is required on the contrary there is a general disposition on the part of both the more intelligent men and women to enter into free conversation at once upon their practice of self sacrifice on the subject of from outward marriage they are as lively and energetic as recent it so in their hearts that they have always a stirring topic whereon to speak and an object for which to act so far from being lifeless or indifferent about other persons they seem to be fully aware that unless fresh comers are gathered in from the world at large their family must decline gradually to total there is therefore great manifested in laying their arguments before sincere although they are not so zealous as to send forth especial missionary brethren words alone they may perhaps consider would be fruitless while in with a life fully them they become almost irresistible the family being thus sustained by the addition of convinced minds and not by the of	37
habits there will probably be ever found a degree of animation and zeal unknown amongst other religious orders our business being the purchase of a few seeds and the gardener being occupied out of doors the trading agent attended us to the store and supplied the articles with an activity and business intelligence which prove him qualified to conduct any such transactions they may have with the old world their trade he informed us generally a day the to the large sum of ten thousand dollars a year for persons of simple habits desirous of relief from circumstances morally this is far too great an in money affairs but it seems to grow out of their peculiar position and the want of true simplicity in many particulars their estate does not at present produce a full sup of bread corn most of the members except the children flesh meat much milk is used and the aged amongst them still drink tea or coffee and the like for these reasons some of their produce has to be exchanged which occasions considerable traffic to provide for their wants they also are extensive of various clothing and other and have to buy raw material to work upon as well as to sell the goods when finished these proceedings require more extensive of money and more frequent intercourse with the world than seems with a serene life yet their life is serene the repose quiet and cleanliness throughout the establishment are indeed as remarkable as attractive as a retreat for the thoughtful or poetic mind it seems most desirable you could there walk conscious of feelings as as those which the bosom of the when he enters the ancient cathedral nor is the superstition there nor the outward devotion which results from the artistic effects of architecture painting music and the rest of these they can boast none as they have built several spacious houses for themselves their idea has necessarily been expressed by an architecture of some character yet wanting in most or all of those which distinguish erected by other the building last erected is large and plain it has the appearance of a school house or church however it is divided into separate apartments and is of several stories in the middle with rooms on each side keep the whole well light and the stairs and most of the floors being covered with a carpet the foot tread is at this house visitors are received and entertained and if they remain during a meal time here take their the being reported too small to permit even all the inmates to eat together the internal of the new a day the house are of the most comfortable kind window spring blinds c are of the best and most convenient for endurance the is not painted but slightly so that it can be cleaned with facility and the only objection seems to be the use of close instead of open fire places the furniture is not home made but is wrought mostly in a more ancient fashion still common to the country and much m re cheap than elegant or luxurious here we enjoyed an animated conversation with several of the brethren and sisters or as they would say men and women they are faithful to the of aye and nay in their replies and are as new and fresh in mind as we may suppose the society of friends were within sixty years of their founder s time it appears that in consequence of the number oc visitors who came to their weekly worship with other than feelings they have ceased to permit any chance of interruption so that we had no evidences of their peculiar religious modes and forms but their books of which we purchased copies show that they advocate dancing as a religious exercise claiming for it the same virtues and station which are by most churches to singing their of its propriety strongly them in the practice though they admit that what was originally an involuntary emotion is now repeated as a voluntary duty the book they have published is entitled a summary view of the church or united society of commonly called the rise progress and practical order of the society printed at in this work in the first place their legitimate title and secondly the origin and progress of the society under the of ann lee who was born at in england in the year arrived in america in and collected the first family in at new near in the state of new york notwithstanding the difficult passage they had to steer during the war so as to avoid the of and subsequently the still more effect of their doctrine and lives the of in all the of the union is considered now to be over six thousand a day with the their system is strictly at the same time they are not mere they say that nothing but the real and abiding presence of by the of his spirit ever did or ever could save one such as reject christ and take their own wisdom for their guide never were nor ever can be saved and in no better situation are they who profess faith in an absent who believe that christ was once upon earth but is now departed to some remote and unknown heaven where it is impossible for the weak of mortals to reach him they look upon ann lee as the female principle or nature to christ who was the male and that she the second vent of which this church the progress as christ did not marry neither will true who really take up the cross and follow him the number of scripture in favor of a life quoted in this book is much greater as well as much more decisive than ordinary readers suppose and we do not hesitate to say they have strong authority on their side at	37
they have not already attained the solution of a scientific and self sustained ufe it was a notable saying of their mother ann put your hands to work and give your hearts to god here is no provision made for the disposal of the intellect yet they are neither void of common sense nor of refinement their simplicity has not descended to rigid forms nor to for economy they have adopted one fashion in the cut of their garments though at first glance it is scarcely the men do not the ordinary of life they are not afraid of nodding their heads to familiar acquaintances or of bending their bodies to receive the stranger this in behavior is to their recognition of one principle which in parties is as rare as it is beautiful that is to say the principle of progress from what has been quoted above regarding the eternal presence of christ as the living spirit we are prepared for this result but then what is there which has not put forth in its origin a similar declaration and how soon it has fallen to a verbal when the were no older as a than the now are they too were an animated lively party by the time the are as aged they may be as and but from the essential nature and constitution of the society we have higher hopes in fact it seems scarcely possible that a church which if it continue in existence at all must be kept together by the addition of new and convinced members should ever fall into the melancholy mood which so many parties who at their outset most proclaimed the spirit s work in them the union of the two sexes in government in influence in religion in is an achievement of renown than many works of greater the extent of its operation and its important consequences are yet but faintly it is also worthy of remark that this most successful experiment of associate life and community of property was founded by a woman ann lee seems to have had in her mind the true idea of a holy family that of representing through the simplest do labors the most exalted spiritual sentiments in a day the speaking to a spiritual sister she gave the following counsel be faithful to keep the gospel be neat and industrious keep your family s clothes clean and decent see that your house is kept clean and your prepared in good order that when the brethren come home from hard work they can bless you and eat food with without murmuring and be able to worship god in the beauty of watch and be careful don t speak harshly nor cast reflections upon them but let your words be few and with grace p and h r brother though he had been bred in the rough school of the royal oxford was so and by her spirit that he was wont to the for walking about in a careless manner as if regardless of the divine presence and would say to them in your intercourse you should salute or pass each other like angels like the roman catholic church this people requires of any one joining the family that he or she should all property to the divine service but there is no for the bringing in of any wealth and not many persons rich in this world s goods have joined them although they have a their family is evidently no place for those who are merely on the of association unless the heart and hands are given up a true union is impossible and where those are really and sincerely devoted wealth cannot be retained the soul determined to a holy life as soon as convinced of the of the associates does not wait to count nor does it for a possible the world as yet but the domestic and humane virtues of this people and we feel that in a record of attempts for the of a better life their designs and should not be omitted especially as during their first half century a remarkable success has been theirs a further proof that whatsoever is sown in piety must under the sun of divine grace to an abundant harvest c l of the and the the youth of the poet and the painter from p or number letter v to edward mt no letter from you yet although you have now been a fortnight at this is too cruel so far as i am i am willing to have you in the country and away from college but for mother s sake you should write her a full account of yourself she and over your abrupt departure as if you were ruined for life and seems to think you can never your lost standing in your class you know she had set her heart on your success and this frightful dissolution of your bands has created a perfect dismay in her tender heart if you will only write her a full account of it how it all took place she will i doubt not become perfectly satisfied and you will regain your place in her affection who do you think has visited us to our evident consternation as i fear but the illustrious head of college the majestic president of all persons he is the chief and the extreme self of the man put me out of patience with him in five minutes he held a conversation with mother about you which will report for your benefit as nearly as i can madam said the president i hope your health is good we have had very hot weather this season and the boys returned to their tasks without much spirit have you received any intelligence from your son edward since he saw fit to leave his duties we heard from him she replied through his friend mr hope i hope he	37
did not remark in that letter said the majestic that any too difficult tasks had been imposed upon him by the several in college we treat all the boys alike the utmost in our system and it is impossible that should of the and the painter have been with i am surprised he should have left us and i am to say by the board of control that even now if he chooses to return immediately he will be permitted to again unite himself with his class this privilege has been to him for your sake madam no less than his own i shall feel it my duty to correspond with on this subject and bowing very gravely this majestic gentleman stalked slowly out of the parlor poor mother was nearly frightened to death by this visit of the and i fear it will hold as long in her memory as the visit of my gracious prince to mrs in the novel since you left we have had a little party as usual at this time but it went off poorly however as mother over your absence so severely and she you know is the life of all parties your friend hope came out of whom i can make nothing except as being your friend seemed in capital spirits and whenever he talked with mother about you smiled with more than his usual brilliancy pray write us at once your affectionate letter vi edward to james hope i am yet on the river and love to float on the sparkling waters but i feel sad and cold this sunny day it is too solitary i believe yet much better than the dull noise of the city and the stupid form at college nature can never be enough yet how much better than the society of most men i run away to the forest as if i was pursued by a demon to avoid the fellowship of these kind hearted people yet know not why i suppose we were not born in the same planet and colored blood runs in our veins what a mistake that we are all brothers in this world and how rarely we find a true brother s or even a cousin s friendly eye fixed on us youth of the poet aud the painter to day has been pure golden sunshine since morning and how the day god played with the trunks of the trees as if the forest were one great harp in the morning as i sat among golden rods under the shade of a pine where on every side these sunny flowers grew it seemed as if the sunlight had become so thickly knotted and with the roots and stems of the plants and that it could not escape but must remain and shine forever yet the pine tree s shadow at sunset and before fell long across the place and the gay light had fled like the few bright days of life which fly so rapid by the old tell us we are young and can know nothing of life to me it seems i have lived centuries out of which i can reckon on my fingers the days of pleasure when my heart beat high i fancy there is a race of men born to know only the loss of life by its joys to live by single days and to pass their time for the most part in shadowy where there is neither darkness nor light but perpetual mist i am one of these and though i love nature the river the forest the clouds she is only a phantom like myself and passes slowly an mystery like my own consciousness which shows through a want of perfect knowledge i see myself only as what i do not know and others as some reflection of this ignorance an among other slowly drifting from the frozen pole of birth to the frozen pole of death through a sunny sea i feel that within lies a heap of perpetual snow encircled by a fair ring of grass and flowers over which the sun plays yet this central cold never to their roots but shines mild and graceful though never warm can i ever become warm in this snowy peak i should be for there alone does it seem that the air of my life is clear i should be resigned to this penance would society leave me to myself but in addition to this pressure of inward ice i am doomed to perpetual conflict with those around and i have not only my individual part to play but to act in do beside at the earnest request of a mother who if too has a real love for me though of my character she understands no one part i went to the college in hope to concealed behind stupid while in the house and leave them to stand and smile grim defiance in j youth of the poet and the painter the face of the while away i resolved to devote so much time to one or two languages as would keep up the appearance of study for my mother s sake and for the rest to wander in the fields if i could find any in the mean village of in doing so i felt i was acting so far for my mother without making the life too wretched to bear i came out of the of my little chamber at home where at least all was in keeping where i had memories of many a walk my favorite books and a few pictures into the barren interior of the staring brick edifice at i some two or three lessons tolerably i believe although i felt it was useless work and went i think to five prayers but the latter i very soon gave over for i could submit no longer to the dull voice of the college minister grinding	37
my opinion as to what you can do for him in his present situation i am not sure that i can offer you one suggestion on the subject which will clear your mind of doubt or render your duty as a friend easy it is not unknown to you that i have long regarded edward from his connection with you as one of my of ths poet and the painter friends and the various conversations we have held upon him make me feel though i have never seen him as if i was an old acquaintance he is one of a class of young persons who have lately sprung into existence as distinct from the youth of the last generation as from the children of the new birth of the century whose places have not been found this for what is natural and this for is exhibited as the popular idea yet inaccessible to the class in which he was born and which is the last to feel the influences of reform but not in our day will this new idea of civilization complete itself and hence these unconscious will be the last to discover their true position they cannot unite themselves with or associations for the centre of their creed consists in the of and they wander solitary and alone the true of this nineteenth century the youth of our age will be the manhood of the next and though edward will not become a man of the world so deep are his peculiarities the great number of those who profess a like belief with him in later life the ideal tendencies of their early years the vein in them was not a central one which ran to the core of their existence i with what you say of edward s family and especially of his mother educated as she was to say nothing of her original character i fear she cannot stand in the right place to see him as he is she feels sensitive about each new step he takes without how impossible it is for him to run astray in the vices and follies which followed the want of occupation in the young men she was brought up with and asks anxiously of his every movement how will the world regard this forgetting how the world is of her son s your desire that i should write her on the subject with her previous knowledge of my character i cannot to for though i am older than you and better known she would have more confidence in what you might furnish if you write i would not insist on edward s youth or advance the old common places that years will bring discretion and experience open closed eyes as i know you would if you happened to be struck with the folly of the youth of the poet and the painter opinion would calmly ask her to wait for a season and not her judgment and dwell upon the exquisite delicacy of her son s character which i do not believe either she or her daughter appreciate you inquire do you think a poet or simply a lover of verse who writes by force of imitation what the world generally calls a poet i believe he will never be that is to carefully prepare a good many dull verses print them on the paper with notes of introduction and engage a favorable critic to make them a pretty review whether he anything i consider doubtful but from the poem you showed me i judge the production of verse is natural to him and that by abundant encouragement from his friends he may be led to write with more attention to critical rules though for some years he will pay the least possible respect to measure and formal art he will have a favorable beginning for a poet and his verse become the product of necessity and nature am glad he to so much privacy for this port literature has long had a charm for me which i cannot value too greatly i would do my best to inspire him with a belief in his powers though should make a very gradual approach to any formal criticism of what he may send above all i would leave his life to himself how many years i required to the which the stern education of my youth knotted about my faculties and in fact what day passes in which i do not violent war with the legends of boyhood how much more for such a person as edward who has scarcely any control over himself to become free should he once fall into the of custom i hope he will remain at as it pleases him for i long to hear some one brought up in nature soon enough time will hammer his chains of practice if they are not already m o letter richard to edward mt ned thou art no more to be come at than the south shore under a north and i have abandoned all hope of y of the poet and the painter seeing your face again i have been by your acquaintances both male and female excepting your friend hope to communicate with you at in person and so beard the lion in his den to say nothing of the of which i have had several horrible lately i hold any intrusion into your solitude a paltry business i am willing to let you alone and would not write you a letter for a was i not the only medium of communication between the main land and your island you have played us a snug trick and at a college of your own i heard a piece of your letter to hope which forced the water out of my eyes as if they had been your magnificent explosion of the college as if it was a and very wet at that in	37
these old plays i am reading and if i was not a tolerable hand at laughing these many years i had become one at reading that the president took an oath on the four that you were mad as a march hare the board of control washed their hands of you at once and you are now no more a member of than of being free of college consider within yourself what line of business you mean to pursue and send us word your mother s heart is nearly broken if that affords you any satisfaction while your sister thinks you a cold hearted villain just good enough for the state s prison or the lunatic hospital these agreeable conclusions to which i have arrived from actual inspection i fear will throw a fog over your passage and perhaps induce you to put your hard up and run for some other one thing consider settled you cannot go back to college for they are all your mortal enemies there except hope and he is a i am by your mother as your oldest male relative to inform you that you can if you choose return to and enter the office of lawyer to study law i advised with yesterday he is a dry spare looking creature with more laws in his head than in a wheat he sits at an angle of forty five degrees and lives on apples and sour milk in his office you will be expected to hold a law book between your face and the fire in winter and in the summer j youth of the poet and the painter try to k your temperature low by drinking water and playing the in his premises are two other young gentlemen law who look plump and appear very cheerful i cannot form an opinion as to your fitness for the law as a profession but will inform you what is expected of a lawyer and then you will be able to judge for yourself i was once engaged in a protracted law suit which lasted three years and then died of consumption its lungs the lawyers having absorbed the whole substance if you are a lawyer you must be able to eat two dinners every day one with your and the other with the bar to purchase a dozen volumes bound in law calf and full of law or as it is sometimes called mutton head in the morning you enter your office at half past eight read the paper till nine and then if you feel able walk as far as the court house there you are provided with a seat by the and cold water by the you next stare at the court consisting of one or more judges twelve a criminal or civil case four tables and a lot of you next begin to make motions which consists in getting a case put off or put on as you happen to feel and run your eye over the which is kept at the clerk s table in a for the accommodation of the county and the clerk s family if it is your case which comes on you open your eyes wide talk a great deal about nothing and dine with the bar occasionally you will feel sleepy after dinner but awake yourself by smoking a cigar or driving into the country this my dear ned is the general life of lawyers so far as i have been able to learn into which you can be if you will only say so your mother is equally willing you should study medicine with doctor whom i have also consulted of the two i should prefer to become a doctor in this case you enter the medical college and attend three courses of lectures and pass one examination medicine seems to be a delicious occupation you have great privileges at the room where you will find a greasy in a red jacket cutting up the of a frenchman who died at the poor house of starvation and as nobody would bury him took shelter here in the pleasant society of the students you will be in ad youth of the poet and the painter allowed to visit the public hospital every other day and become acquainted with all the who to be killed by the doctors to death in the streets by the city authorities these form an interesting class of men and their diseases are so exceedingly compound that if they cannot die of one complaint they can certainly of some other besides this there is doctor private practice who all the old women and produces highly conditions by artificial methods for the sole benefit of science and his students the medical books are all written in what we sailors call latin and are far more entertaining than if they were composed in common english besides nobody can read them except doctors as a physician you will not only be compelled to work all day but frequently be called up at night to visit a old infant who eat an apple in the morning and has the besides living two miles in a straight line from your office and when you its parent will inform you that she it will do pretty well without any and that she only wanted you to come and look at it this my dear boy is a delicious manner of passing your earthly existence and has claims on your attention which i fear will prove irresistible there is still left to you if you choose it to become a merchant in which condition many of the most respectable citizens of pass their lives the great art in being a merchant is to look wise and ride in a carriage to build a large house and invite your friends to dinner at first very true you must learn to and write letters but this will not detain you	37
long the great thing is to look wise and ride in a carriage i my dear ned have always been accounted a since i came home from my last voyage mounted a wig and smoked a pipe and i believe myself that i am more than half as to what you really mean to do will not venture one word of advice for i have been to sea all my days and can tell nothing about what trades suit the land best only if you begin to do anything stick to it like a and never desert the ship as long as you can keep a rag dry set your handle your and make straight to some point by the of the passage do nt about like a box without a tie of the poet and the painter your mother ib willing to set off what property belongs to you and let you have the whole control now and forever if you choose but i advise you to leave it where it is for it will burn like as not in your pockets i have seen more of your friend hope and i maintain what i said the fellow is a whether he knows it or not a good boy though and i am glad he takes so much interest in you the thing in this life is a true friend interest ties us mostly together and our chains are made of bank bills the golden of love unite very few your uncle dick letter ix edward to james hope how much more we see of nature in some moods than in others it seems i could be for an instant content in the sunny beauty of the calm autumn day i cannot blame my constitution that its sympathy so often but i mourn i am cold and indifferent to the common customs and occupations of men if each man has been with the gift of doing some one thing better than another how happens it i discover no pursuit which seems my destiny at times i think i must be a poet and am armed with a strong resolve to compose some verses which shall utter the music of my thoughts the come the essence is wanting and what i meant for song has only its form i am desirous to be as humble as a child if i am granted any success how proud i shall feel i never ask for a greater blessing i have this ardent desire after verse if i begin to write i can think of nothing else either when walking or in the house some spirit the else empty chambers of my mind and leads me after this oyer the bare fields of existence and me to its thirst at the sweet spring of poetry when i write see what poor success i meet ol iv no ii youth the poet and the painter i feel more than before was it once thus with the masters of song i should be glad had they left the record of their experience in their mighty for i might then be better prepared to fail there remains only their beautiful success and it is impossible to believe they faded beneath these disappointments under which i lie cold and sorrowful i read the sublime strains dejected by my feeble trial to follow their daring footsteps and have concluded many times that i cannot be a poet again the desire comes again i long to sing and add a new thorn to my pillow in my failure you cannot think how singular it is you should say i was born a poet your keen eyes that usually search every secret have been blinded by love you do not see with the of a stranger of what in another yon call trifling with the muse you think because i send it poetry i lately wrote some verse which i send you as i do not feel like writing more to day a autumn a varied wreath the autumn of odd grey days and sunny weather and gay flowers and withered leaves along my lonely path together i see the golden rod shine bright as sun showers at the birth of day a golden of yellow light that the day god s splendid ray the s violet rays divide the bank with many stars for me and in tints is as moonlight across the sea i see the woods prepare to shed their once more and distant elm trees spot the air with yellow pictures softly o er youth of the poet and the painter i saw an ash burn scarlet red beneath a pine s perpetual green and sighing hung their head protected by a screen yet light the willow above the river s shining face and sheds its rain of hurried notes with a swift shower s harmonious grace the of the cardinal with their crimson drops the stream as spots of blood the banquet hall in some young knight s romantic dream no more the water lily s pride in milk white circles content no more the blue weed s clusters ride and mock the heaven s element how from in the river s thought the spirit of the leaf that falls it s heaven in this calm bosom wrought as mine among those crimson walls from the dry bough it to greet its shadow in the placid river so might i my companion meet nor the countless worlds forever autumn thy wreath and mine are with the same colors for to me a richer sky than all is lent while my dream like company our skies glow purple but the wind sobs through green trees and bright grass to day shines fair and behind the times that into winter pass so fair we seem so cold we are so fast we hasten to decay through our night many a star that still shall claim	37
its sunny day social social tendencies ths divine society from dial for july our are not enough or rather reform throughout all forms and all will never reach to the life which is in the organ and that most needs reform change the present social order altogether and introduce forms entirely new let the organs of exhibition and for social man be newly created still man himself who is the being in the remains unchanged he is thereby made no better and it is his which is the one desirable end whereas if he were elevated the organization and form of society would necessarily be also elevated were man drawn to the centre all his motions would be harmonious few truths are now more obvious than that themselves need to be so will it be visible with regard to experiments they cannot be better than the men and women who make them upon whom after all other the work of reform has to be commenced it is not then by means of a vision seen from his present state that man can project a life but by living up strictly to day to his deepest convictions of there may be opened to him new and deeper consciousness to morrow thus not from day to day will he project new schemes but from day to day he lives new life and in this faith both the and the hopeful may find a common ground for union this seems to be the obstacle this is the thread which it is so difficult to wind up a golden thread too hanging down from heaven to earth preserving unbroken man s celestial relation man appears to progress by a certain law in which time is not an essential element he may be as long as he will before he takes a second step but he can never attain to the third until the second is complete social infancy has no fixed period but youth must come next and manhood afterwards let the boy be ever so old in years yet as long as his delight rests in playing at and other childish pursuits social tendencies be as an oar social youth stays too long playing at commerce in the market his commercial have rolled into all places and things foul and clean from heaps of human flesh to linen and silk and his fingers are yet though none of our may yet have alighted on it there is undoubtedly somewhere the true avenue to human happiness the idea of a true life is almost a universal and by that the present life is false admitted to be possibly in order when contemplated as a whole from beginning to end yet by the pain we experience we know it to be but the order of disorder invisible as are pain and pleasure of their reality none can doubt and such known edge should suggest that deeper realities are also in the and spirit world amongst such realities this of a true life may there be learnt in no other quarter may it successfully be sought whence man receives the of true life thence he should seek the knowledge of what it is they who have received this information from men by tradition will naturally look to men for the solution and to scientific as the means but they who have the higher authority of a nature for it in themselves will look in the same direction for further advice to such the question now remaining is rather that one only what are the to the of true for they no longer doubt that there is a true earthly life to be realized with their the of the of circumstances may that the great and prevailing to heroic and virtuous existence lie in the very many conditions by which humanity is surrounded but the really courageous heart takes a different view and looking as well as deeply at the facts is free to admit that the great difficulties do not reside in tho or neither in the world of actual life nor in that of opinion but in the being itself human is a self ct to an escape from d human is necessary the to holy life is to be found in the will itself men are not yet disposed for it they are not yet willing in their self active and social tendencies deep and all as it is there is no room for the universal will and impulse to enter to which the philosopher replies to the effect that man makes not his own will or disposition but that it is made for him by circumstances not to wander too deeply into the question of free will nor to assume more than may without prejudice be we may confine the assertion to these limits that so far as man knows what is true and good and is at liberty to act up to his knowledge he does not do so there is not a resignation to the absolute true so far as it is revealed there is not a nor perhaps a man at this moment acting fully up to their knowledge and perception of right and that not because of any influence in the circumstances but from a lack of courage or self denial or self resolution of which there is at the best and moments an entire consciousness each one the inmost truth has to say it is in myself that the principal lies the is in myself or rather is myself something in the nature of a sacrifice a giving up a to take is needful on my part and no outward influence prevents my this which my heart and my head my feelings and my rational powers alike to be the first great needful step in human either this principle is denied or it is admitted if denied on account of the of circumstances then men must be	37
left to suffer and complain until the circumstances shall be changed by some other circumstances which are to be of circumstances in some manner yet hidden but if the principle of man s or heaven derived influence be admitted then we say the point is clear and every one has to it rests with me to let the world be i have a revelation of the good and true which is not yet realized so far as i am capable of it to practice and i am not justified in looking abroad for reasons for my when i am sensible that the is in my own will in myself in the very identity and individuality of my own existence next to the which a man in his own inmost existence may be those moral which grow out of his own the opinions thoughts modes of reasoning which form as it were the social tendencies store of his have been all collected or formed by that will or which is his grand misfortune they accord with it they are almost one with it in case how ever of a of will or of a semi which is a disposition to good these mental stores are seen to be prejudices conjectures and habits difficult to be overcome these form the glass through which we doubly see all other men and all created things such is the condition of m n says that a great part of a philosopher s life must necessarily be spent not in the scope of his knowledge but in the errors of the crowd and the pretended wisdom of the schools these may be called on the outside of the soul and amongst these may also be those and passions whose indulgence takes place through the body for they do not as is sometimes assumed belong to the body the attractions of eating and drinking and other are not attributed to our physical nature is a vice of the soul which is only manifested not originated in the body it is sometimes embodied in heaps of gold and silver at other times in popular applause or private ease at others in and at others in wife and children these are but its modes of life the passion itself is in the soul and it but goes forth and through the of the senses such are amongst the most potent obstacles to present progress it is not difficult to obtain mental assent to beautiful doctrines or speculations which demand no practical change in habits or of personal indulgence but whenever it is proposed in the smallest degree to which hinder the soul s clearness and really prevent progress in goodness the intellectual powers become suddenly active and energies are exhibited which by their self origin put to flight the notion that man is always mentally ruled by mental circumstances for an original intellect of comparatively surprising suddenly springs up it is not until these formidable within doors are subdued that we need look abroad for any reasons to account for the non of our convictions of true life these have however been so frequently exposed and so diligently assailed that there social little occasion to dwell further on them they have their origin in the same source where as our individual are accumulated every opinion and principle right or wrong commenced in an individual mind and the acceptance of these we call church and state according as they relate to sacred or to affairs the prejudices of art science taste and profession are not small yet they may all more or less be escaped until they take the nature upon them and become part and parcel of church or state so long as they remain by either of these their nature remains in a semi condition and the strong minded individual may their but as soon as warm spontaneous thoughts are chilled into the stream which would our progress is frozen into an barrier the clearness with which men see that the present state of human is incapable of furnishing to them the desirable results for which they live is the indication in the moral horizon no noisy no exciting writer is needful to the production of this state of mind even those who most brilliantly on what is deemed the prosperous side of social arrangements are ready to admit their for permanent good life at the heart appears to be a engagement in a process which has no termination a preparation for which there is no post a perpetual circulation of and machinery which do no work beyond moving themselves a hunting in which nothing is caught a shaft without an aim a pursuit without a goal these are the feelings and views in considerate and next follow speculations for the future led or rather by the rule of experience men have in vision beheld a public social state in which every family being developed every want satisfied every tendency elevated existence should become as of bliss as now it id of woe competition punishment private property being banished there would remain pleasure freedom common property and a of every evil would but on examination it must be concluded either that such plans do not proceed far enough or that they are projected in a wrong direction they social tendencies seem to be made too dependent on extensive scientific arrangements into which we do not glide in an almost manner as the growth of bodies proceeds but there is a strained effort to a result more to the of a dead granite building than the perfection of a living being the future state of man will not be any one that is although scientific may have some influence and so far as they are from the law of life in man they must influence but in action men proceed as they do human society is in fact an art and not a science it is to treat it	37
exclusively in a scientific manner the science of society is a phrase and an expression of feeling which must be by that of the art of society which too the all of science which is needful but in a subordinate manner only the social art is the engagement of the true artist and as the artist instinctively proceeds to utter himself through such materials as he finds lying about whether they be rough or refined so the social artist by the like instinct the law of his being in new life through whatever social or human materials may be present both work instinctively the law of criticism is to be developed from their works and their works cannot be constructed according to a prescribed critical so far as this artist spirit is born there is an actual effort to it in some work the artist spirit always from the of science to obey which would indeed seem to be like a submission of the painter s design to the colors and society attempted wholly on scientific principles without the central artistic nature would be found as as the opposite attempt of producing an outward work or object of art without the aid of science it is in the marriage of the two that the offspring of an outward social existence is possible as to painters poets and so there is a perpetually new revelation to the social artist but it comes not through science science lies on the other side and it is from the social artistic nature through science as a means that the revelation is to be made manifest this art like all others is and the progress of science originally an issue from it yet vol iv no ii social tendencies it the music art developed musical instruments and scientific improvements l an aid in return to the artist in his expressions these are the relative positions of art and science and if arranged associations have not yet met with that cordial response which their benevolent anticipated they should be reminded that this is necessarily fatal without the feminine principle without piety without poetry without art as the origin the idea no project seems worthy of the time and thought required in the attempt to realize it society is worthy in the degree in which art in this sense rules in it because there is no poetry no warmth now in it is the soul moved to a change the of served long to sustain the succeeding and but stores being all exhausted and science having swept up every scrap of chivalry to be converted into bread the skill of political being now worn to its last remnant some change is demanded to the soul now it is very that man in this state will take up that which lies nearest to his hand he appears incapable of much so that a bold conduct on the part of scientific may a support they do not claim such a course would merely amount to another chapter in the present order of disorder a on the outside and would not be very productive of either good or harm we shall in that case simply have to return or rather we shall still have to discover the right course again man will adopt that which next is offered and unless that is in harmony with his true progress the result is again disappointment there are however always two roads lying equally near to his feet one is really out of his way but the other is the true way but is at the outset repulsive hitherto he has travelled out of his way or the outer way and has not really taken up that pursuit which lay next him he still looks abroad for that which he can find only at home he seeks in science that which dwells alone in art really that which stands next to a man to do is to live up this day this hour to the best of which be is sensible this is an inner road which it is hard to travel but the principle is that social tendencies which all have and which they who most diligently pursue are charged with how mistaken men are as to the cause of their or how they are to admit it is evident in the great variety of subjects to which human misery has been attributed hereditary hereditary aristocracy a law established church corrupt national machinery education ignorance over production over population excessive commercial enterprise and various other facts have been suggested to account for the discontented condition of man it only needs a survey to see that in tries where most of these are unknown ness does not yet attend man a survey of the old or eastern continent of the globe shows almost no nations ex from most of these forms of ill and from the rest the greater part of the new continent is it is not to be denied that more or less of physical misery as these forms of evil more or less prevail but the seems to depend little on these causes when the english escaped from the dark and dismal miseries of the town of his birth to the american swamp he no more left behind him the origin of than he did his mother tongue and we must not be surprised to find his descendants to one as well as to the other misery they inherit as a generation language they learn to by education but the of both is equally certain and from the same source this fact is we trust becoming too well known to permit many more classes of or to be seriously proposed or relied on by mankind it ought to be well understood that to rely so much on external plans which are to be worked by others is the most and treatment conceivable of that original impulse which is	37
the basis of our desires these persons and these plans become the great their operation is that of throwing a tub to the whale minds which left alone would become intense in purpose clear in thought and strong in action have been induced to lean on which will let them down into the mire as soon as the weight is really placed on them tbey break echoes of the great sounds of political economy social which but a few years ago promised to man have not all died away at this were to be wrought machines to support men in every yet how soon these fires are cold and the silent my as a science has been as little of good as party politics so do all short sighted schemes wear out and we have to return to the primitive which moves us were this the universal course there would be no want of outward in fact this is the only sound mode for its outward union is not brought about by calling for it but by the like spirit working in all men we have now to see whether the present appetite is really one in all the individuals which is partly to be known by the sort of food it we have to ascertain whether the new spirit is an from the universal basis and if it to one social order viewed and as a whole there is much that is cheering in the moral prospect a deeper sense a purer tint seems spread over all moral thought wit has possibly run almost to the end of its barren career and must await the coming up of affection in the general demand throughout the world for government we remark one of the workings of the youth ail spirit it is not by an accident it is not by local association that men have become thus like minded sympathy comes not by the rubbing together of corrupt human frames unity in mind is not by the of bodies we may no longer fancy that men are urged as of old to a demand for political privileges by local or temporary of bread we can no longer believe that the issues only from an empty stomach though in it requires a deeper bolder tone i he now seeks rather by the organization of imposing numbers than the array of physical instruments to attain his end his argument now is of minds not the best dry he is no in force by bodies or at least his idea of physical power is changed from that of muscular energy to that of mind as the this is at length brought in as the element m the new political compound and is the heart in the modern tyrant public opinion a heart which joined with an head and an unbroken social tendencies body would be but integrity the body never had and never can have integrity is not constituted of an gate collection and this is the highest idea occurs to the mind of the political this is the very infancy of central thought the notion of unity the development of but one leaf more in the human bud the of this object and effects a throwing the mind more on itself when the idea of universal education is next vividly entertained hence over h o f nd into t as soon as it ip that wise and liberal government is only possible with wise and liberal citizens the effort is to make them so no at least no benevolent can have missed of the idea of universal education the of all mankind from the degradation of ignorance is the aim of every true scholar the student who labors incessantly in his closet apparently for himself only is working for the entire human race whether he knows it or not and ultimately he this fact with exceeding joy the joy of human by pure mental means is unknown to the political who is only tolerable in the of social thought even the in schemes of education though with a different motive for he the effects of literature and gentle pursuits and on them to tame the public spirit and spare him a little longer the position wherein he stands there is a stage in human development where the of politics and the short coming of education are rendered manifest at this stage a deeper work is demanded political reform political reform and men are no better and no happier education proceeds and with it and and insane are multiplied churches compass sea and land to make one and the result is as of old the consciousness of such results frequently drives men back to individual in his fruitless reliance the turns in contemplation of perverse humanity the sinks into the book the literary critic or the the becomes a social tendencies some qualified to act a leading part are neither nor visionary nor under any want of outward success they are real and faithful but they are not found on every hill side nor in every study nor in every factory in courts and we seek them not with or or in hand they are to be found full of youth and and hope of what they really stand in need many such are yet unaware i heir immediate object is nearly as obscure as the deep moving impulse collected united they would be as a city seated on a hill while dispersed they are unknown to each other and are by the dark mass of the world by which they arc either to be wholly hid from light or suffered to rise in splendor equally fatal to all good these are willing they shrink not from physical nor from mental duties they desire not to avoid the outward in making a provision for the inward life the lower necessities they joyfully submit to for the happiness of the higher freedom	37
the well working of true family as of true individual life yet it is the fashion to condemn the one as the origin of social ill and to pity the other as the victim public life a serious error on its own principles when it individuals or rather individual man only without admitting female influences to a like extent society is male not family not humane the of the family has only been talked about while really it never has been the of the family has not so much as been contemplated church state commerce wealth wit command to the external forms of some of these all family claims and although as an idea it has been mentally entertained and as a fact has had its influence yet the position which to the family duly belongs has never been in this the church and state should live in this alone should they be exhibited in outward form living form on no other basis can living forms depend neither church nor state nor commerce can produce one living human being they are but dead animated by so much of life as into them from the family origin commerce should consist in the of affection the state is the family in this all questions of law of government of justice should be discussed and determined the church is nowhere if not in the holy family its prayers its its praises are continually repeated the for permitting what may be called the female element in society to grow up in its due proportion has recently more and more upon the mind woman and her rights duties and position is the theme for many pens in almost all cases whether of male or female authority the mistake seems to exist that whatever advance woman may make in the social sphere is to take place by reason of a concession granted by man this is clear vol iv no ii social tendencies ly so large a vice in the premises that the consequences must be vicious too it must not be so man may indeed cease to hinder woman s just life but with no other sentiment than that until now he has been in error he has done too much and he must now do that the right may be in many other ways also we may catch glimpses of a coming as much broader in outward character than the present a it is deeper in spirit origin that origin really may be one but in the apparent world it works step by step first one round of the ladder is mounted and then another is attained leading unto a third we have only to be certain that we do go upwards and are not merely shifting our feet and coming back continually to the same level clearly this is too much the case or rather it has been let us hope the world is wiser now and there is so much the greater promise inasmuch as for the of both man and his conditions the greater part of the achievement consists in that easy process of ceasing to do the honest man shall i go into trade and the prompt response is no the says shall i benefit men as a and common sense replies you cannot man by degrading yourself the pious mind would find in a church the sphere which conscience tells him the how much of that which exists must the new man cease to touch neither wealth nor public life nor church as at present known presents an attraction to him which he dare accept cleanliness of hand of head of heart are not found with things as the laws against or slave they are to him he touches them not they touch not him unless indeed as affording ground for false accusation of which no small share him in this sense of living out of the present order the man may be said to it and daily are the ranks of such men it is the legitimate order of human progress in this manner to effect its purpose he who from the and need not be so unwise as to strike his against the building active is not the function of the true man but his of use causes by gone customs to fall off like tattered garments social tendencies practically the steps will be gained somewhat after this manner more and more will daily be from the old crowd and swell the orderly of the new but let it not be forgotten that the family relations cannot be lightly or treated not in public halls but around the hearth stone it ever has happened that improvement has been first discussed not in the noisy bustle of life where they are preached but in the quiet recesses of home all high dignified and heroic actions have their origin in the family the last the noblest the secret lies hid perhaps it is true that in this man s fall originated and in it is but and that fact should at least not if it does not confirm the that in the family are to be sown the permanent seeds of new life man s feelings are of home origin even the most ambitious will confess this catch the busy on whose pen the public waits its miserable newspaper wit or for its political instructions and he will own he hopes by his labors to make his family happy speak in private with the orator and he will admit that between the shallow pretensions of his cause and the necessary to keep up his frame he is a ruined being of the wealth we need make no inquiry his only pretence for is the protection of his family from his own morally disastrous process these pursuits are so foreign to the legitimate purpose of life that devotion to them is social and domestic death and as far as	37
permanent good is concerned the world has to be ever begun anew the public sentiment which now war and slave trading and hanging of men must extend its condemnation to the and of and and which more certainly the of human happiness these institutions are equally fatal to the reign of the human family and the highest purest human affections on earth while the is in the hands of an artificial and father called king or governor or president it cannot be with the true parent all dominion has to cease before the lawful empire can be commenced to this as we there is a strong tendency notwithstanding the great activity into the social present order there is little faith anywhere in its estates fame may almost be calculated at so many years purchase but there is not yet so clearly presented as some minds desire that unity on which a new faith is to be built here lies the difficulty in the new movement men cannot give up the old rites and x of the church until they are sensible of the ever present god within their own hearts men cannot abandon courts of law and state until they are fully conscious of the of eternal justice and divine law in themselves men cannot give up the pursuit of wealth until they are quite convinced that they are themselves the true riches of the earth it is not on the exchange it is not in the public assembly it is not in the formal church that men will become aware of these deep truths hence the quivering anxiety to draw them to the meeting and the the great opponent of death as the great friend to life is privacy quiet serenity vigor of soul originality of thought are fatal to a system which lives by noise bustle and imitation sacred is the family and supreme it should be also every home act should be as sacred as the emotions in the soul a perpetual sabbath every humane action is a every human effort a work of art having for object its own construction this is the great end in creation but humanity can only work in this order when connected purely with the creating spirit until then all is disorder chaos all that men all that their attention is only on the excuse of its to the of home a which is pretended to be by the very processes which its so that really it is not men are asking why this illusion should be prolonged and as no satisfactory response is heard they ask it more and more earnestly their earnestness is the omen of its c l chinese four books in art note since we printed a few from dr s translation of the of we have received a copy of the chinese classical work commonly called the four books translated and illustrated with notes by the late rev david principal of the chinese college printed at the mission press this translation which seems to have been undertaken and performed as an exercise in learning the language is the most valuable contribution we have yet seen from the chinese literature that part of the work which is new is the of in two books the and which is the production of or who flourished about a hundred years after the are chiefly taken from these books all things are contained complete in ourselves there is no greater joy than to turn round on ourselves and become perfect the human figure and color possess a divine nature but it is only the sage who can fulfil what his figure promises the superior s nature consists in this that benevolence justice propriety and wisdom have their root in his heart and are exhibited in his countenance they shine forth in his face and go through to his back they are manifested in his four members wherever the superior man passes takes place the divine spirit which he above and below flows on equal in extent and influence with heaven and earth says the errors of the superior man are like the of the sun and moon his errors all men see and his all men look for says there is not anything but is accord with and keep to what is right hence he who understands the will not stand under a falling wan he who dies in performing his duty to the utmost of bis power with the of heaven but he who dies for his crimes not with the divine de there is a proper rule by which we should seek and whether we obtain what we seek or not depends on the divine decree put men to death by the principles which have for their object the preservation of life and they will not the scholar son of the king of asked what the business of the scholar consists in replied in his mind and inclination what do you mean by the mind it consists merely in being benevolent and just where is the scholar s abode in benevolence where is his road justice to dwell in benevolence and walk in justice is the whole business of a great man benevolence is man s heart and justice is man s path if a man lose his fowls or his dogs he knows how to seek them there are those who lose their hearts and know not how to seek them the duty of the student is no other than to seek his lost heart he who his whole mind will know his nature he who knows his nature knows heaven it were better to be without books than to believe all that they record the sincerity is the or way of heaven to aim at it is the way of man from inherent sincerity to have perfect intelligence is to be a sage by nature to attain sincerity by means of intelligence is to be such	37
by study where there is sincerity there be intelligence where intelligence is it must lead to sincerity he who heaven has none to whom he can pray said to be benevolent is man when man and benevolence are united they are called to be full of sincerity is called beauty to be so full of sincerity that it shines forth in the external conduct is called greatness when this greatness others it is called or which is above comprehension is called divine perfection or sincerity is the way of heaven and to wish for perfection is the duty of a man it has never been the case that he who possessed genuine virtue in the highest degree could not influence others nor has it ever been the case that he who was not in the highest degree sincere could influence others there is a divine nobility and a human nobility benevolence justice fidelity and truth and to delight in virtue without weariness constitute divine nobility to be a prince a prime minister or a great of state constitute human nobility the adorned divine nobility and human nobility followed it the men of the present day cultivate divine nobility in order that they may obtain human nobility and when they once get human nobility they throw away divine nobility this is the height of delusion and must end in the loss of both of is not far removed from man if men suppose that it lies in something remote then what they think of is not the says cut handles this means of doing it is not remote you have only to take hold of one handle and use it to cut another yet if you look at it it will appear distant hence the superior man man that is what is in man to reform man when loo heard anything that he had not yet fully practised he was afraid of hearing anything else the governor of asked respecting government con replied make glad those who are near and those who are at a distance will come the failing of men is that they neglect their own field and dress that of others they require much of others but little of themselves war said from this time and ever after i know the heavy consequences of killing a man s parents if you kill a man s elder brother he will kill your elder brother hence although you do not yourself kill them you do nearly the same thing when man says i know well how to draw up an army i am skilled in fighting he is a great criminal politics asked respecting government replied government is ke was harassed by robbers and consulted on the subject said if you sir were not the people would not rob even though you should hire them to do it said e s eye would not look on a bad color nor would his ear listen to a bad sound unless a prince were of his own stamp he would not serve him and unless people were of his own stamp he would not employ them in times of good government he went into office and in times of confusion and bad government he retired where government prevailed or where people lived he could not bear to dwell he thought that to live with low men was as bad as to sit in the mud with his court robes and cap in the time of he dwelt on the banks of the north watching till the empire should be brought to peace and order hence when the fame of is heard of the stupid become intelligent and the weak determined said what of serving a prince not of one s own stamp what of ruling a people which are not to your mind in times of good government he went into office and so did he in times of disorder he said heaven has given life to this people and sent those who are first enlightened to those who are last and has sent those who are first aroused to arouse those who are last i am one of heaven s people who am first aroused i will take these doctrines and arouse this people he thought that if there was a single man or woman in the who was not by the doctrines of and that he was guilty of pushing them into a ditch he took the heavy responsibility of the on himself was not ashamed of serving a dirty prince nor did he refuse an inferior office he did not conceal the virtuous and acted according to his principles although he lost his place he grumbled not in poverty he not he lived in harmony with men of little worth and could not bear to abandon them he said you are you and i am i although you sit by my side with your body naked how can you me hence when the fame of is heard of the mean man becomes liberal and the becomes generous virtue asked what is perfect virtue said what you do not wish others to do to you do not to them ma asked what perfect virtue replied it is to find it difficult to speak to find it difficult to speak is that perfect virtue rejoined what is difficult to practise must it not be difficult to speak says virtue runs than the royal carry the she king says heaven created all men having their duties and the means or rules of performing them it is the natural and constant disposition of men to love beautiful virtue says that he who wrote this knew right principles exclaimed is virtue far off i only wish for virtue and virtue comes said i have not seen any one who loves virtue as we love beauty says the superior man is not a machine which is fit for one thing only	37
asked who is a superior man replied he who first his words and then speaks accordingly the principles of great men the whole universe above and below the principles of the superior man commence with the duties of common men and women but in their highest extent they the universe said permit me to tell you what is knowledge what you are acquainted with consider that you know it what you do not understand consider that you do not know it this is knowledge exclaimed how vast the influence of the spirits or gods if you look for them you cannot see them if you listen you cannot hear them they vol iv no ii all and are what things cannot be separated from when they cause mankind to fast and dress themselves everything appears full of them they seem to be at once above and on the right and on the the says the descent of the gods cannot be comprehended with what reverence should we conduct ourselves indeed that which is least is clearly displayed they cannot be concealed slowly along the crowded street i go marking with look each s face seeking and not in vain in each to trace that soul whereof he is the show for here still move by many eyes unseen the blessed gods that kept through every guise these lofty forms serene declare the all holding life hath never slept but known each thrill that in man s heart hath been and every tear that his sad eyes have wept alas for us the heavenly we greet them still as most unwelcome guests answering their smile with hateful looks their sacred speech with foolish bitter but oh what is it to imperial jove that this poor world refuses all his love c a d a winter walk the wind has gently murmured through the blinds or puffed with against the windows and occasionally sighed like a summer lifting the leaves along the night the meadow mouse has slept in his snug gallery in the sod the owl has sat in a hollow tree in the depth of the swamp the rabbit the and the fox have all been the watch dog has lain quiet on the hearth and the cattle have stood silent in their the earth itself has slept as it were its first not its last sleep save when some street sign or wood house door has faintly upon its cheering forlorn nature at her midnight work the only sound awake and us of a remote inward warmth a divine cheer and fellowship where gods are met together but where it is very bleak for men to stand but while the earth has all the air has been alive with descending as if some northern reigned her silvery grain over all the fields we sleep and at length awake to the still reality of a winter morning the snow lies warm as cotton or down upon the window sill the and panes admit a dim and private light which the snug cheer within the stillness of the morning is impressive the floor under our feet as we move toward the window to look abroad through some clear space over the fields we see the roofs stand under their snow burden from the and fences hang of snow and in the yard stand covering some concealed core the trees and shrubs rear white arms to the sky on every side and where were walls and fences we see fantastic forms stretching in across the dusky landscape as if nature had strewn her fresh designs over the fields by night as models for man s art silently we the door letting the drift fall in and step abroad to face the cutting air already the stars have lost some of their sparkle and a dull leaden mist skirts the horizon a lurid brazen light in the east the approach of day while the western landscape is s a winter walk dim and still and clothed in a sombre light like the shadowy they are infernal sounds only that you hear the of the barking of dogs the of wood the of all seem to come from s barn yard and beyond the not for any melancholy they suggest but their twilight bustle is too solemn and mysterious for earth the recent tracks of the fox or in the yard remind us that each hour of the night is crowded with events and the nature is still working and making tracks in the snow opening the gate we tread briskly along the lone country road the dry and snow under our feet or aroused by the sharp clear of the wood just starting for the distant market from the early farmer s door where it has lain the summer long dreaming amid the and for through the and powdered windows we see the farmer s early candle like a star a lonely beam as if some severe virtue were at its there and one by one the begin to ascend from the chimneys amidst the trees and the smoke curls up from some deep the air exploring in the dawn and making slow acquaintance with the now upon its course in with itself with as uncertain purpose and slow deed as its half master by the hearth whose mind still and thoughts have not yet swept into the onward current of the new day and now it streams afar the while the goes with step direct and mind intent to swing the early axe first in the dusky dawn he sends abroad his early his smoke the earliest latest pilgrim from the roof to feel the frosty air inform the day and while he still beside the hearth nor courage to the door it has gone down the with the light wind and o er the plain its wreath draped the tree tops upon the hill and	37
warmed the of the early bird a walk and now perchance high in the air has sight of the day o er the earth s edge and its master s eye at his low door as some cloud in the upper sky we hear the sound of wood at the farmers doors far over the frozen earth the of the house dog and the distant of the cock the thin and frosty air only the finer of sound to our ears with short and sweet as the waves on the purest and in which gross sink to the bottom they come clear and bell like and from a greater distance in the horizon as if there were fewer than in summer to make them faint and ragged the ground is like wood and even the ordinary rural sounds are melodious and the of the ice on the trees is sweet and liquid there is the least possible moisture in the atmosphere all being dried up or and it is of such extreme and that it becomes a source of delight the withdrawn and tense sky seems like the of a cathedral and the polished air as if there were of ice floating in it those who have resided in tell us that when it the sea like burning turf land and a fog or mist arises called frost smoke which cutting smoke frequently raises on the face and hands and is very to the health but this pure cold is an to the lungs and not so much a frozen mist as a mid summer haze refined and by cold the sun at length rises through the distant woods as if with the faint swinging sound of melting the air with his beams and with such rapid steps the morning travels that already his rays are the distant western mountains we step hastily along through the snow warmed by an inward heat enjoying an indian summer still in the increased glow of thought and feeling probably if our lives were more to nature we should not need to defend ourselves against her beats and but find her our constant nurse and a friend as do plants and if our bodies were fed with pure and simple elements and not with a and diet they would afford no more pasture for cold than a but like the trees which find even winter genial to their the wonderful purity of nature at this season is a most pleasing fact every decayed stump and moss grown stone and rail and the dead leaves of autumn are concealed by a clean of snow in the bare fields and woods see what virtue in the and places the warmest still maintain a foot hold a cold and searching wind drives away all and nothing can withstand it but what has a virtue in it and accordingly whatever we meet with in cold and bleak places as the tops of mountains we respect for a sort of sturdy innocence a all things beside seem to be called in for shelter and what stays out must be part of the original frame of the universe and of such as god himself it is to breathe the air its greater and purity are visible to the eye and we would fain stay out long and late that the may sigh through us too as through the trees and fit us for the winter as if we hoped so to borrow some pure and steadfast virtue which will stead us in all seasons at length we have reached the edge of the woods and shut out the town we enter within their covert as we go under the roof of a cottage and cross its threshold all and up with snow they are glad and warm still and as genial and cheery in winter as in summer as we stand in the midst of the pines in the flickering and light which but little way into their we wonder if the towns have ever heard their simple story it seems to us that no traveller has ever them and notwithstanding the wonders which science is elsewhere revealing every day who would not like to hear their annals our humble villages in the plain are their contribution we borrow from the forest the boards which shelter and the sticks which warm us how important is their to the winter that portion of the summer which does not fade the permanent year the j a winter walk grass thus simply and with little expense of is the surface of the earth what would human life be without forests those natural cities from the tops of mountains they appear like smooth shaven lanes yet whither shall we walk but in this taller grass there is a fire in nature which never goes out and which no cold can chill it finally the great snow and in january or july is only buried under a thicker or thinner covering in the day it flows somewhere and the snow around every tree this field of winter which late in the fall and now speedily the snow is where the fire is very covered we feel warmed by it in the winter warmth stands for all virtue and we resort in thought to a with its bare stones shining in the sun and to warm springs in the woods with as much eagerness as and the steam which rises from and pools is as dear and domestic as that of our own kettle what fire could ever equal the sunshine of a winter s day when the meadow come out by the and the in the of the wood the warmth comes directly from the sun and is not from the earth as in summer and when we feel his beams on our back as we are treading some snowy we are grateful as for a special kindness and bless the sun which has	37
followed us into that by place this fire has its altar in each man s breast for in the day and on the hill the a warmer fire within the folds of his cloak than is kindled on any hearth a healthy man indeed is the of the seasons and in winter summer is in bis heart there is the south thither have all birds and insects and around the warm springs in his breast are gathered the robin and the lark in this covered with bushes of a year s growth see how the silvery dust lies on every leaf and deposited in such infinite and luxurious forms as by their very variety for the absence of color observe the tiny tracks of around every stem and the tracks of the rabbit a pure elastic heaven hangs over all as if the of the summer sky a winter refined and shrunk by the winter s cold had been from the heavens upon the earth nature confound her summer distinction at this season the heavens seem to be nearer the earth the elements are less reserved and distinct water turns to ice rain to snow the day is but a night the winter is an summer how much more living is the life that is in nature the life which still the nights and from amidst fields and woods covered with frost and snow sees the sun rise the pour forth their brown inhabitants the grey and rabbit are brisk and playful in the remote even on the morning of the cold friday here is our and and for our and dog indians and are there not the ice and the fox and still in the midst of the day we may trace the summer to its and with some contemporary life stretched over the in the midst of the frost bound meadows we may observe the cottages of the worms the of the their small built around themselves composed of flags sticks grass and withered leaves shells and pebbles in form and color like the which the bottom now drifting along over the bottom now whirling in tiny and dashing down steep falls or sweeping rapidly along with the current or else swaying to and fro at the end of some grass blade or root anon they will leave their sunken and crawling up the stems of plants or floating on tbe surface like or perfect insects henceforth flutter over the surface of the water or sacrifice their short lives in the flame of our candles at evening down yonder little the shrubs are drooping under their burden and the red contrast with the white ground here are the marks of a feet which have already been abroad the sun rises as proudly over such a as over the valley of the or the a winter walk and it seem the residence of a pure and self such as they never witnessed which never knew defeat nor fear here reign the simplicity and purity of a primitive age and a health and hope remote from towns aud cities standing quite alone far in the forest while the wind is shaking down snow from the trees and leaving the only human tracks behind us we find our reflections of a richer variety than the life of cities the and nut are more inspiring society than the and philosophers and we shall return to these last as to more vulgar companions in this lonely with its brook the slopes its ice and of all hues where the and stand up on either side aud tbe rush and wild oa ts iu the itself our lives are more serene and worthy to contemplate as the day advances the heat of the sun is reflected by the and we hear a faint but sweet music where flows the released from its and the are melting on the trees and the nut and are heard and seen the south wind the snow at noon aud the bare ground appears with its withered grass aud leaves and we are by the perfume which from it as by the scent of strong let us go this deserted s hut and see how he has passed the long winter nights and the short and stormy days for here man has lived under this south hill side and it seems a civilized and public spot we have such associations as when the traveller stands by the ruins of or singing birds and flowers perchance have begun to appear here for flowers as well as weeds follow in the footsteps of man these whispered over his head these logs were his fuel and these pitch pine roots kindled his fire yonder foaming iu the hollow whose thin and airy still as busily as ever though he is far off now was his well these boughs aud the straw upon this raised platform were his bed and this broken dish held his drink but he has not been here this season for the built their nest upon this shelf last summer i find some embers left as if he had vol iv no ii a winter walk bin just gone out where he baked his pot of beans and while at evening he smoked his pipe whose bowl lies in the ashes with his only companion if perchance he had any about the depth of the snow on the morrow already falling fast and thick without or disputed whether the last sound was the of an owl or the of a bough or imagination only and through this broad chimney throat in the late winter evening ere he stretched himself upon the straw he looked np to learn the progress of the storm and seeing the bright stars of s chair shining brightly down upon him fell asleep see how many traces from which we may learn the s history from this stump we may guess the of	37
the mouse the meadow hay the summer still is nigh and underneath as that same meadow mouse doth lie snug in the last year s heath and if perchance the a faint note anon the snow is summer s which she herself put on fair blossoms deck the cheerful trees and dazzling fruits depend the north wind sighs a summer breeze the tp glad tidings unto me the while i stand all ear of a serene eternity which need not winter fear out on the silent pond straightway the restless ice doth crack and pond merry play amid the rack eager i hasten to the as if i heard brave news how nature held high festival which it were hard to lose i with my neighbor ice and as each new crack in a across the lake one with the in the ground and on the hearth the rare domestic sound along the forest path before night we will take a journey on along the course of this river as full of novelty to a winter walk one who sits by the cottage fire all the winter s day as if it were over the ice with captain or following the winding of the stream now flowing amid hills now spreading out into fair meadows and forming a and where the pine and the river flows in the rear of the towns and we see all things from a new and side the fields and gardens come down to it with a frankness and freedom from which they do not wear on the highway it is the outside and edge of the earth our eyes are not offended by violent the last rail of the farmer s fence is some sway ing willow bough which still preserves its freshness and here at length all fences stop and we no longer cross any road we may go far up within the country now by the most retired and level road never climbing a hill but by broad ascending to the meadows it is a beautiful illustration of the law of obedience the flow of a river the path for a sick man a highway down which an cup may float secure with its freight its slight occasional falls whose would not the landscape are celebrated by mist and spray and attract the traveller from far and near from the remote its current him by broad and easy steps or by one gentle inclined plain to the sea thus by an early and constant yielding to the of the ground it itself the easiest passage no dominion of nature is quite closed to man at all times and now we draw near to the empire of the fishes our feet glide swiftly over depths where in summer our line tempted the and perch and where the stately in the long formed by the the deep impenetrable marsh where the and is made to our swift shoes as if a thousand had been made into it with one impulse we are carried to the cabin of the that earliest and see him dart away under the transparent ice like a fish to his hole in the bank and we glide rapidly over meadows where lately the his through beds of frozen mixed with meadow grass we near to where the the and a winter walk s the hung their nests over the water and the from the on the swamp how many gay now following the sun have from this nest of silver and down on the swamp s outer edge was hung the village where no foot penetrated in this hollow tree the reared her brood and slid away each day to in yonder in winter nature is a cabinet of full of dried specimens in their natural order and position the meadows and forests are a the leaves and stand perfectly pressed by the air without screw or and the bird s nests are not hung on an artificial but where they them we go about dry shod to inspect the summer s in the rank swamp and see what a growth have got the the and the to how many warm and and showers see what strides their boughs took in the luxuriant summer and anon these will carry them onward and upward another span into the heavens occasionally we through fields of snow under whose depths the river is lost for many rods to appear again to the right or left where we least expected still holding on its way underneath with a faint sound as if like the bear and it too had and we had followed its faint summer trail to where it itself in snow and ice at first we should have thought that rivers would be empty and dry in mid winter or else frozen solid till the spring them but their volume is not diminished even for only a superficial cold bridges their surface the thousand springs which feed the lakes and streams are flowing still the issues of a few surface springs only are closed and they go to swell the deep nature s wells are below the frost the summer are not filled with nor does the his thirst with that alone the streams are swollen when the snow in the spring because nature s work has been delayed the water being turned into ice and snow whose are less smooth and round and do not find their level so soon a walk far over the ice between the woods and snow clad hills stands the bis lines set in some retired like a with his arms thrust into the of bis with dull snowy thoughts himself a fish separated a few inches from his race dumb erect and made to be enveloped in clouds and like the on shore in these wild scenes men stand about in the scenery or move deliberately and heavily having sacrificed the and vivacity of	37
towns to the dumb of nature he does not make the scenery less wild more than the and but stands there as a part of it as the natives are represented in the voyages of early at sound and on the north west coast with their about them before they were tempted to by a scrap of iron he belongs to the natural family of man and is planted deeper in nature and has more root than the inhabitants of towns go to him ask what luck and you will learn that he too is a of the unseen hear with what sincere deference and waving gesture in his tone he speaks of the lake which he has never seen his primitive and ideal race of he is connected with the shore still as by a fish line and yet remembers the season when he took fish through the ice on the pond while the peas were up in his garden at home but now while we have the clouds have gathered again and a few straggling snow are beginning to descend faster and faster they fall shutting out the distant objects from sight the snow falls on every wood and field and no is forgotten by the river and the pond on the hill and in the valley are confined to their and the birds sit upon their this peaceful hour there is not so much sound as in fair weather but silently and gradually every slope and the grey walls and fences and the polished ice and the leaves which were not buried before are concealed and the tracks of men and beasts are lost with so little effort does nature her rule and blot out the traces of men hear how has described the same the snow fall thick and fast on a winter s day the winds are and the snow falls a walk incessant covering the top of the mountains and the hills and the plains where the tree grows and the cultivated fields and they are falling by the and shores of the foaming sea but are silently dissolved by the waves the snow all things and them deeper on the bosom of nature as in the slow summer vegetation up to the of the temple and the of the castle and helps her to prevail over art the surly night wind through the wood and us to our steps while the sun goes down behind the storm and birds seek their and cattle their drooping the ox stands covered o er with snow and demands the fruit of all his toil though winter is represented in the as an old man facing the wind and and drawing his cloak about him we rather think of him as a merry wood and warm blooded youth as as summer the grandeur of the storm keeps up the spirits of the traveller it does not trifle with us but has a sweet earnestness in winter we lead a more inward life our hearts are warm and merry like cottages under whose windows and doors are half concealed but from whose chimneys the smoke cheerfully the increase the sense of comfort which the house and in the days we are content to sit over the hearth and see the sky through the chimney top enjoying the quiet and serene life that may be had in a warm corner by the chimney side or feeling our pulse by listening to the low of cattle in the street or the sound of the in distant all the long afternoon no doubt a skilful physician could determine our health by observing how these simple and natural sounds us we enjoy now not an oriental but a leisure around warm and fire places and watch the shadow of in the sometimes our fate grows too homely and familiarly serious ever to be cured consider how for three months the human destiny is wrapped in the good hebrew vol iv no ii the three revelation ri of li i cheerful snow is there no religion for the we know of no scripture which records the pure of the gods on new england winter night their praises have been sung only their wrath the best scripture after all records but a meagre faith its saints live reserved and austere let a brave devout man spend the year in the woods of or and see if the hebrew of his condition from in of winter to the breaking up of the ice now the long winter evening around the farmer s hearth when the thoughts of the travel far abroad and men are by nature and necessity charitable and liberal to all creatures now is the happy resistance to cold when the farmer his reward and thinks of his for winter and through the glittering panes sees with the mansion of the northern bear for now the storm is over the full ethereal round infinite worlds to the view shines out intensely keen and all one cope of glitter from pole to pole h d t the three dimensions room for the l then first they and into the ample sky room i room cried the new mankind and took the oath of liberty room room i willed the mind and found it in variety j voyage to voyage to from dial for july the which exercises by far the greatest influence over the colored population and especially the as the plantation have been called since their is the the people of this are much the numerous of christians on the island and their the cause of the laboring with great zeal the largest congregation in is under the charge of mr a preacher whose place of worship is a little way out of town on the road according to the his church numbers more than i set out with the purpose of attending there one afternoon but a heavy shower of	37
rain delayed me on the way and i did not arrive until just as the meeting was breaking up as the multitude began to spread out on the green before the house and more slowly by groups in different directions i thought as i looked around on them myself the only white man that i had never before seen happiness so strongly expressed i do not know how much the delightful air just cooled by the shower or their religious exercises may have influenced their feelings but joy was beaming on every countenance both young and old their smiles and and kind friendly words to each other seemed to me of the most sincerity and i could not but say to myself these are a people strongly disposed to be happy it may sound like extravagance but when i think back on the many groups of joyous which i saw in i am always reminded of s beautiful tion of the uniform happiness ofi life of mere innocent animal existence as compared with the sad results to which the various of our powers reduce too many of our own species the black birds in the summer trees the lark upon the hill let loose their when they please are quiet when they will voyage to with nature do they never a useless strife they see a happy youth and their old age is beautiful and free but we are pressed by heavy laws and ofl when glad no more we wear a face of joy because we have been glad of that there is sorrow and suffering enough among them however and some individual cases too which may be traced directly to there is no doubt the old self constituted porter of the ice yard was an instance of this the building occupied as the ice house had been formerly and until within two or three years the dwelling of a mr a merchant to whom the porter had ed on the day of this old man had been set free among the rest but from having no relatives or from local attachment or some other cause i was unable to learn its nature he appeared to look for no other home than the ice yard he was very old and his speech was utterly gone one eye was and the other shrunk and faded his limbs so that he always walked by the fence and i never saw him two rods from the gate which he however always seemed to make a point of opening in the morning and closing at night he slept on the narrow stair case leading to the agent s rooms with nothing under him but the mat his feet hanging down the steps and the only evidence i observed in him of direct and active or any other than a sort of mechanical intelligence was that he always gave a hem as a warning for me not to tread on him as i passed up and down the stairs at night mr s family used generally to send him his food but sometimes they neglected it and then he would get outside the gate and beg of the fruit and cake women or else wait till the agent returned to dinner when he would crawl up into the room and stand leaning against the wall until something was given him to eat i tried once or twice to talk with him but it was utterly useless besides the loss of sight and speech and the use of his limbs he had other marks of great age his muscles for his very scanty clothing was all in rags were entirely away and his j voyage to nails had grown almost literally like bird s claws to use a quaint quotation he looked as if death had forgotten to strike him and ought in mercy to be reminded of the clergy or as they are generally called have done much permanent good in and much too that no doubt might be proved to be present evil their influence on the moral and intellectual condition of the colored people through sunday and other schools and preaching has beyond all question been most that sometime pleasant vice of the which has long since become the whip to him is now greatly on tlie chiefly through their exertions they have it is true like pope when he enforced the of the english clergy found it much easier to prevent and than to break up old these are no longer so numerous nor so openly and formed as they were a very few years ago but they are by no means while the was cargo i saw a neatly dressed and agreeable but rather pensive looking young brown woman enter the ice yard with an infant in her arms and address some inquiry to the agent in a suppressed but anxious tone which he answered by a shake of the head when she turned and went away with a disappointed air the agent said this was a young woman who had lived with a friend of his which friend an american had been in business a year or two in but some five or six months before our arrival he had returned to the united states the young woman was ignorant of the fact that it was not his intention when he left ever to return to and so whenever there was an arrival from any of our northern cities she was sure to call on the agent with whom the person in question had had some business hoping to receive tidings of him poor soul our had brought the tidings of his death but this news the agent said he could not find in his heart to tell her i saw her once afterwards she had the the first sunday school in was at in by the rev mr a missionary voyage to same little child in	37
her arms and the same sad but patient look wrong and misery such ob this the have done much to suppress and prevent it is said too that they have done much to promote genuine marriage among the plantation but they are accused on the other hand and no doubt justly of stirring up and the unhappy which at present exist between the and they are hated and by the property generally and i scarcely took up a newspaper while i was in which did not contain something concerning the of the the truth is i suspect these are not what are called enlightened men most very zealous people they are unable to see but one side of a question they have adopted a certain cause in which all their powers bad as well as good are and in directly at their main purpose which they know to be good they do some evil sir charles t the present governor of felt obliged to notice them particularly in his despatch last october to the of the then secretary of affairs he allowed them all due credit for their exertions on behalf of the colored population previous to the and for their to promote the moral and intellectual welfare of this race since that event but he regretted exceedingly that they had felt themselves called on to assume the position which they had done no doubt with the best intentions relative to the and he concluded however by saying that he still believed that the good they had done the colony far the evil ever since the publication of this despatch the have been the governor s most bitter enemies they him as an a a traitor to the cause of liberty and what not it was even proposed by some of the brethren while i was in that a of fifty pounds which the rev mr kingdom had received from the governor to assist in the of a chapel should be returned the governor from all i could learn with at one of their meetings r resolution was passed the queen for his voyage to regard to him is a man of superior talents and an enlightened and impartial he has served in india and i judge from a passage in an article of a late number of the review which i suppose to have been written by who is good authority on all indian affairs that he has served with much honor to himself and his country if says the above writer we now see men like and after leading victorious armies after making and kings return proud of their honorable poverty c c and in the reading room at i picked up an east indian newspaper on the corner of which near the was this standing testimony to his merit sir achieved the freedom of the indian press i intended to have some from the despatch and also from the governor s speech on the assembly which would have afforded you a brief and clear view of the present difficulties in but lost the papers containing them at with regard to these difficulties i will first run over a few preliminary facts in order to them to your memory and then proceed to give you a brief and necessarily imperfect account of them but which in all its main features i believe is correct contains according to the latest about inhabitants these only are pure before the of slavery the free colored people were estimated at if these are correct the entire colored population is to the white as eleven to one nearly the civil of the free colored people were removed in since which time all offices have been open to them slavery was and system established in this was to continue with regard to the plantation slaves or as they are called until the first of august the non or house servants c were to be two years sooner being considered better pre april art s life of lord t the number of slaves in amounted to no has ever been taken of the other classes and i found no one who was able to give any idea of what proportion of the whole were voyage to for than the but as the time drew near for the ot the former class the agitation became so great among the both in england and that parliament passed an act by a small majority with the additional two years of contemplated for the field slaves ministers however being determined that the or responsibility of the measure should not rest on the administration all their force on the next day and obtained its but immediately sent a despatch to sir smith then governor of that unless the assembly should adopt the above government would not be for the consequences the island government therefore with great reluctance and impelled only by the strong force of public opinion passed an act establishing full freedom and equality throughout the island to go into effect on the first of august since this time numerous difficulties have arisen between the and in relation to rent wages on time and amount of labor in the summer of sir smith having become very with the landed on account of partiality real or supposed to the interests of the and their the was permitted to resign he was succeeded by the present governor who shortly after his arrival made a tour of observation through the island in order to make himself thoroughly informed as to the nature of these difficulties the governor in the despatch mentioned above consequent to this tour sums up all their difficulties in a want of labor which arises from the want of a sufficient laboring population and the on the part of the peasant of obtaining a comfortable without laboring for the he the of the best in the world by two or three days labor he says they	37
can provide for the wants of a week the when slaves cultivated certain spots on the plantation which they called their own as provision grounds the it it from the confusion of and of pay ment to state what are the daily wages of a plantation perhaps for small and large from j i per day voyage to now charge them rent for these this the do not understand as they have not been used to it and they are unwilling to pay the rent again there are certain kinds of labor which they are to attend to as being less agreeable or profitable than others now the interests of the require not only that every department of his business should be alike well attended to but they require also continuous labor as the neglect only of a very few days may be the ruin of a whole crop either of sugar or coffee in order to secure these objects the offers to the rent provided the will give him continuous labor and in such as he the shall this arrangement does not in general succeed the in many instances after working a time thinks he can do better elsewhere or he wishes to do something for himself or he meets as he thinks with wrong treatment or he has supplied his immediate necessities and he therefore and the then comes the demand for rent and sometimes too in order to get rid of the to make room for a better the demands rent the special magistrate generally the against and of course makes such a decision as the who being unable to carry either of these points has in some instances resorted to violence he has cut down the trees on the s provision grounds his hut and destroyed his fences to be sure the property so destroyed is the s but the very naturally considers it not the less a personal injury to himself and by firing out houses stealing sheep or in some other way it is easy to see in all this the characteristic defects of each race brought strongly into play the and of the no doubt might be much corrected by proper management and kindness and forbearance but these the has never learned to show i do not mean to say that i understood this state of things to be universal many of the estates where judicious management is exercised are well cultivated and many of the are industrious and work in order to lay up money but trouble enough of this kind exists to affect seriously the general property of the island it is evident vol iv no ii voyage to says the governor that rent is now regulated on the solely with a view to the of labor and he that should be granted or small of land sold to the negro in order to relieve him from the necessity of holding land from which he may be removed this the are unwilling to do as they contend that it would place themselves still more in the power of the and many of them are desirous of the rent and ground system altogether and to wholly in wages but the negro objects again that this arrangement would give the too much power as in this case the former would be obliged to purchase the necessaries of life entirely of the latter besides the have strong local all these difficulties are said to be increased by the spiritual of the the they call agitation meetings through the country and talk to the of liberty and equality and the tyranny of their white they persuade to leave such as have become to them and join other who have not incurred their displeasure some i know not how many are said to have retired into the more parts of the island in short no arrangement appears to have been thus far by which the generally have been able to secure their crops as formerly many of the cane fields have run up to weeds and the rats and destroy the produce and the coffee on the grounds for want of gathering the natural consequence of this waste is a great falling off in the of the island as compared with previous years i was shown a return of copied from the journals of the assembly from to the highest sugar always by far the most important was i think for quote from memory in it amounted in round numbers to the smallest amount during these years was in its amount in round numbers in the year of the the of this article had declined to and at the close of the year the amount produced and in the course of while i was in the island was allowed universally to be less than voyage to i copy from a newspaper now before me the following statement in a message to the assembly of the deficiency of crops in as compared with those of of sugar rum coffee bags i was informed that during the last three years the seasons have been favorable and that there had been neither nor in the time this deficiency in the therefore can be referred to no adequate cause but the want of labor in the mean time things are fast growing worse one entire year of neglect it is said will destroy a coffee plantation and when the coffee plant is once out of the soil it cannot easily be re established in the same soil even though that soil has not been exhausted by long continual culture it is also said to require from three to six years of labor in a new soil before the coffee begins to make returns the same remarks apply in some degree though not to the same extent to other branches of culture when any grounds are neglected they will run up to weeds	37
and bushes and thus one bad year the way for another still worse many estates are said to be partially and others wholly thrown out of cultivation and many more unless immediate remedy be found will go the same way since my return i have heard but little about the little however which i have heard has come through the occasionally reported speeches of and in these there appears to be an evident feeling that it is incumbent on all friends of to account for the declining prosperity of the island in some other way than by referring it to a want of labor they suggest that the seasons have really been less favorable than the and merchants assert they talk of the disturbed state of the island the island paper was at six per cent and of the commercial arising from the political difficulties and consequent of trade on the south american continent of these on the i know but little but they point triumphantly to the rise of landed property as dis voyage io proving completely all the complaining of the and merchant and as most decisive evidence of agricultural prosperity with regard to this latter i in particularly of a merchant of much experience in the of the island he said it was partially true that landed property had risen in some parts of because it had fallen in others that while the home mar was kept closed to foreign the smaller the quantity produced in the higher its value and that its diminished production on some estates and the ruin and of others increased the value of those which were more prosperous or in full operation this seems reasonable and i believe it is true but the appear to think it absolutely essential to tlie success of their cause to show that is sure to promote the pecuniary interest of the they feel bound to paint every thing rose color they wish to that the atmosphere can be by perfectly harmless lightning and that a great revolution can take place in a community and a great evil be from it and yet nobody not even he who has been feeding fat on the old system of be disturbed in his pleasures or money making they even the force of their own theory which the and tendencies of a state of slavery by attempting to make out a case of general industry and of purpose for the recently now this resort to is the system of peculiar to the mere always the natural enemy of the of simple rights and the old rule of fighting the enemy with his own weapons however good in vulgar political and physical warfare seems to me utterly unworthy of men who are fighting the battles of truth they forget that the truth is mighty and apparently fear that it will not have enough for practical purposes unless it be mixed with earth they ought to take higher ground if they would expect the truth which they offer to promote health when taken into the moral circulation they must present it pure and not with let them fairly let them having full faith in its influence and throw out into the atmosphere the whole truth of this matter so that voyage to all who breathe may receive it and by this simple process as sure as the young grow up to take the places of tlie old who die just so sure shall they find a new and vi public opinion spring up which shell be their only efficient and when the young is once grown he will pierce through all these of political and move on straight to his object these deep these wise men each thinking politics a science in which himself is perfect with their plans for saving the country and their and curious political machinery for carrying or any great measure according as it may or oppose the interests of a party what are they when public opinion once begins to and passes one of her short simple we have just seen how this great moral force out of the hands of the two good years of slavery secured to them by act of parliament for myself i cannot resist the conviction that the present landed of will never again know prosperity i think it has received its death blow and that a far more genuine prosperity than the island has ever yet known will arise from its ruins in the mean time the are looking about for something with which to sustain their declining interests and for this purpose the assembly passed on the th of april the act this act for the raising of sterling per for three years to be expended in foreign a of f has been sent to england by the way of the united states to promote the success of the scheme he appointed agents of at new york philadelphia and whose duty it should be to induce suitable individuals one third at least to be females to go out to as the government is to pay the expenses of and the support of the for one year after arrival provided he will work on the are to sign an obligation ai mr of the a few years ago he wrote a stout volume in defence of slavery t the seat of government is spanish town the old st de la of the it is about thirteen miles from voyage to the time of for the of expenses and passage money if on their arrival they shall refuse to complete or into the proposals shown them ht the same time were also to be established in all the home in and africa the members of the assembly who are mostly appear to have great confidence in the of the plan the act was passed by a large majority they also look with much confidence for the assent	37
of the home government england said mr a prominent member for more than a century the of into the island as slaves why should she not encourage it now when all the blessings of freedom are secured to them the and english oppose the act on the ground that the have already enough if they will but use and pay them well and they assert that the wish to import this foreign laboring population merely with a view to control the price of labor and thus bring down the once more to the condition of slaves the merchants appear to have but little faith in the project they acknowledge however that it is a forlorn hope and if this does not succeed that nothing else will say they are not able to come into this climate and go at once to severe field labor the of the united states i think will prove but a feeble resource their strong local will be an it may not be very to induce a portion of the idle colored population of our cities to but i suspect they would prove very field africa seemed to be considered the main resource but i was unable to ascertain what was to be their mode of operation on the coast what may be the for obtaining through and their other colonies i do not know but except through these their only resource in africa must be with native chiefs and this method it appears to me cannot but possess some of the features of the slave trade but on this subject i am not well informed my impression is that the plan cannot succeed it is based on a false principle the genuine motives for are a love of power gain or liberty or the strong hope of in some way very materially improving one s condition and in voyage to these motives the project is deficient it is an which for its main result not the good of the but that of the and i am of opinion that none but a body of slave like the assembly could ever have come deliberately to the conclusion that men of sufficient energy to do them good service could be induced to leave their native country with the prospect and indeed under the express agreement of remaining for a term of years in the condition of at the wages of fifty cents per day the governor in the measure but according to his despatch before referred to he considers time the only remedy for the but for this the system of cannot wait should the proposed of duties on sugar take place in england for which the english people are its taken in connection with the regularly increasing supply of sugar and the favorable prospects for east india sugar must be very disastrous to the interests of the the prices of sugar in i found to be i er cent higher than those in boston for the same qualities when i left the latter place these high prices are owing to the duties in england on all foreign the british government thus the interests of her west india or rather those of the landed who make common cause with the corn law against competition and she does this at the expense of the great body of the people and greatly to their discontent by an of the sugar duties the british market would be thrown open to and which from the nature of their soil cheaper mode of building and the abundance of slave labor which they have at command are able to furnish sugar at a much lower price than can furnish it the trade of in this article therefore is now merely kept alive by artificial sugar is the main product of the island and should this of the duties be removed it is believed that the trade of the colony will go down with a crash i suppose the governor is right and that there is no remedy but time but this will be no remedy for the present race of they must suffer just as in all voyage to those must always who have been the greatest advantage from the previously existing state of things among disinterested persons who have given the subject their attention i suspect there is little doubt but that the is destined to be the dominant race of this island or rather that in no very long time it will be the only race in amount of native qualities these people are the best of the island the men are fine looking and more muscular than the and the women the brown and yellow varieties are much more beautiful and than those of purely english origin these physical which they inherit from their black ancestors with the european intellect which they have received from their white contribute to give them a force of character equal at least to that of the english in short appears to be to the negro a sort of process by which the more soft and feeble qualities of his nature are carried off to give place to those of more refinement and force it is still not unusual in the northern states to hear color spoken of as by nature as a barrier to intercourse between the white and black race and to hear represented as an outrage that it is an outrage against northern prejudice there is no doubt i confess myself one of those who do not like to touch the skin of a negro but when any of the laws of nature are outraged in this respect i believe she generally marks down her resentment by some or in the result now the result of between the and is the manifest improvement of ihe negro race this improvement is shown in many ways and particularly in the superior business of the race over the the agency of this	37
race in has been by no means contemptible in the cause of these people were the enemy within the camp of slavery during the long course of years that the were it from without so far as i can learn it was not the pure but the and brown men such men as and the present of the morning journal who organized those and kept up that system voyage to of which in the tion of all the civil of the free colored population of in was one of the chief of those in he was turned out of a large commercial house in in which he was a clerk on the ground that he was a leading he then commenced the publication of a newspaper and for an agitation article published in this he was charged with high treason and tried for his life but his newspaper however was suppressed he now issued a circular to the extent of the formed among the colored people and threatening that unless all civil were at once removed from the free colored population they would proclaim immediate freedom to their own slaves and shout until the streets of should run with blood the assembly shortly after this removed the mr has now grown rather respectable and the name of his paper has been recently changed from the to the morning journal he is at present a member of the assembly and in his seat and in his paper the leading measures for the relief of the particularly the act men who can make themselves felt as mr has done it is impossible to despise such men have done much towards breaking down the pride of caste in i say pride of caste for that personal to color so strong in new england is unknown to the people of the west indies a few days after my arrival from i met a young man from whom i understood to be the son of a he had been in new england about a year after remarking to me that the colored population of that colony had been fast rising m wealth and respectability since the that prejudice against color was declining and that many white merchants and clerks excluded from the first class of the colony the and officials were with the more wealthy colored people the young man confessed with some appearance of shame and regret that his own prejudice against color had become altogether loo weak sometime before his departure from and i thank god he gravely proceeded for my visit to new england it has enabled me to the vol iv no s voyage to northern prejudice against color which i think will be of great service to me on my return i recollect calls hostess quickly a thing to thank god on and there are no doubt other instances on record of persons who have been thankful for small but whether our new england prejudice against color ought to be regarded as a blessing or not the west indians generally will hardly be able to obtain it like this young man by a protracted residence amongst us and unless the professors at cambridge by a union of talent shall discover some process by which it can be into moral ice in order that it may be turned as in this case it no doubt would be into an article of trade i see not how they are to be supplied in the mean time pride of caste is rapidly melting away in and colored people dine at the same table and sit in the same their children mingle together at school the professional men plead at the same bar and meet at the same bedside they together and last but not least marriage between and colored people heretofore confined to the jews of the island who are much despised by the other is now beginning to the ranks of the better class the week before our arrival a worthy young white man the son of a highly respectable merchant of married a colored girl and the circumstance excited but little remark in the place this rapid destruction of caste could not have taken place unless the balance of moral power had begun to turn in favor of the colored race were they comparatively few and feeble no force while there is pride in man could effect such a change but the colored people of are said to possess an advantage in point of numbers of ten to one f over the their best people are in native powers equal to the best of the they are rapidly acquiring a great accession to their moral force through the public schools they are gaining wealth in business they are beginning to occupy places of trust and profit the more a young man whom i understood to be something lighter than was admitted to the bar a few months ago t according to mr they are to voyage to ambitious even or the are beginning to buy of land thrown out of cultivation thus breaking up estates into small and as the peasant can live without the as the produce is likely still to and the market to decline from competition and the consequently to become still poorer than he is this state of things is likely to continue not only this they have a large interior tract of land to fall back on the same which for more than a century sheltered the but which they as freedom gives them strength will make a far more permanent retreat by cultivation they have scattered throughout the land such men as hill and men of sufficient practical ability and a burning jealousy of their rights they have obtained political equality and they will not rest until all the ancient and are swept away from the island nothing short of in a great	37
of moral force can preserve the arrangement in society of caste over caste like distinct of matter in a country as free as now is the elements of population must run into a mass and combine not but according to their natural and the rulers and the ruled must be of the same material while this change is going on it is almost a matter of course that there should be a decline of commercial prosperity the evil disease which has just been must necessarily be followed by a temporary of strength before full health returns but when the confusion consequent to great change shall cease and when all the white blood of the island shall be absorbed then for the first time since her discovery shall possess a population worthy of herself it will not be a population of races and imperfect organs one race furnishing the head and the other the hand one with the capacity to acquire and the other to enjoy the good things of life one and the other fearing and each other s best qualities by a forced and contact but the two races by shall not only throw off or the injurious effects of this one third part of the island has never been under cultivation much of this land formerly planted has become the mother s grief contact bat also supply each other s characteristic and present in combination qualities both moral and physical far better adapted to the climate than either possessed separately we know not how far the adverse influence of climate may be by a thorough union of races such as this it seems however but fair to conclude that they will then form a community somewhat inferior perhaps in enterprise and force of character to the people of the northern temperate but certainly not in moral and social qualities and when their character shall be perfectly established and all their energies developed by freedom it may not be unreasonable to hope that in a union of practical moral and intellectual powers these will every other people of the the mother s grief stand within my garden fair where flowers in joyous beauty spring their fragrance in the air the birds sweetly sing and in that spot a lonely mound spread o er with heavily my infant sleeps within the ground nor may the garden see the wind sighs sadly and the sun shines down to weary eyes that buried form the truest one the rest its sweep ho sweep ho sweep ho i sweep ho i he on through and snow tired and hungry both is he and he black his ra s and skin but the child is fair w sweep ho sweep ho he on through and snow ice and cold are better far than his master s curses are mother of this ill used one thou see thy little son sweep ho sweep ho he on through and snow at the great man s door be which the maid now let in with laugh and in his eye there stands a tear he is young but soon will know how to bear both word and blow sweep ho sweep ho in the chimney and snow gladly should his task be done were t the last beneath the sun faithfully it now shall be but soon spent down he round as in a dream very strange but true things seem led by a fantastic power which sets by the present hour he to a little bed pillows there his aching head falls into a sudden sleep like his childhood s sweet and deep but poor thing he does not know here he lay long years ago the sail the sail a sky a sun that brightly shone on rippling waves a wind that swiftly bore as on some s we had flown our little vessel from the sandy shore so quietly that as we sailed before the wind all motionless we seemed to be as if with outstretched wing we hovered o er the water like high sailing hawk we see so poised we know not if the clouds do move or he so glided from our view the rapid scene of sandy beach of scattered town and hill with many a barren spot or pleasant green where one might lie and dream and rocks so and lonely that their presence seemed to fill the air with knowledge that they there did lie sleeping in such repose it seemed that till that moment they had never felt the eye so full upon them look of the sky now whether from the rocks and hills and sea their spirit were in our own or ours diffused o er all things seemed to be their spirit breathing with a deeper tone reflecting back the light that on them shone or if in sympathy there dwelt one soul all may not be known but as these scenes into our souls did melt we seemed like silent rocks and they like things that felt our winged vessel parted the still sea and we fled still in central space and there was certain heaven wherever we were running time like our and those dim sails which eyes could trace around the horizon s edge seemed not so as ours which bv the universal grace had privilege at the heart of heaven to rest for so those ships and clouds and son confessed e comic the comic it is a nail of pain and pleasure said which the body to the mind the way of life is a line between the regions of tragedy and comedy i find few books so entertaining as the wistful human history written out in the faces of any collection of men at church or court house the silent assembly thus talks very loud the sailor carries on his face the tan of and the record of rough weather the old	37
farmer of stone walls rough the meadows and the new barn the doctor s head is a fragrant of virtues the carpenter still measures feet and inches with his eye and the landlord in motionless what good glimmer on the merchant s aspect and if beauty softness and faith in female forms have their own influence vices even in slight degree are thought to improve the expression malice and scorn add to beauty you shall see eyes set too near and limited faces faces of one marked and invariable character how the busy fancy into their biography and relations they but must tire compared with universal faces countenances of a general human type which less they look less safe in such groups the observer does not think of heroes and in the meeting the eye reads the plain prose of life timidity caution appetite ignorance old houses stationary faculties round to use the country phrase in paltry from january to december these are the of comedy and farce and a taste for fun is all but universal in our species which is the only in nature the rocks the plants the beasts the birds neither do anything ridiculous nor betray a perception of anything absurd done in their presence and as the lower nature does not jest neither does the highest the reason its yea and nay but never with degrees or and it is in comparing with essential or that laughter begins s definition of the ridiculous is what is out the comic of time and place without danger if there be pain and danger it becomes tragic if not comic i confess this definition though by an admirable does not satisfy me does not say all we know the essence of all jokes of all comedy seems to be a non performance of what is pretended to be performed at the same time that one is giving loud of performance the of the intellect the expectation the break of in the intellect is what we call comedy and it itself physically in the pleasant we call laughter with the trifling exception of the of a few beasts and birds there is no seeming no in nature until the appearance of man unconscious creatures do the whole will of wisdom an oak or a chestnut no function it cannot execute or if there be phenomena in which we call the is also a function of nature and to the intellect the like completeness with the farther function to which in circumstances it had attained the same thing holds true of the animals their activity is marked by good sense but man through his access to reason is capable of the perception of a whole and a part reason is the whole and whatsoever is not that is a part the whole of nature is agreeable to the whole of thought or to the reason but separate any part of nature and attempt to look at it as a whole by itself and the feeling of the ridiculous begins the perpetual game of humor is to look with considerate good nature at every object in existence aloof j as a man might look at a mouse comparing it with the eternal whole enjoying the figure which each self satisfied particular creature cuts in the all and it with a separate any object as a particular bodily man a horse a flour barrel an umbrella from the connection of things and contemplate it alone standing there in absolute nature it becomes at once comic no useful no respectable qualities can rescue it from the ludicrous in virtue of man s access to reason or the whole the human form is a pledge of suggests to our imagination the perfection of truth or goodness and by contrast any or we have a tke comic mary association between and this form but the facts that when actual men enter do not make good this anticipation a which is at once detected by the intellect and the outward sign is the muscular irritation of laughter reason does not joke and men of reason do not a prophet in whom the moral sentiment or a philosopher in whom the love of truth these do not joke but they bring the standard the ideal whole exposing all actual defect and hence the best of all jokes is the sympathetic contemplation of things by the understanding from the philosopher s point of view there is no joke so true and deep in actual life as when some pure goes up and down among the institutions of society attended by a man who knows the world and who with the philosopher s scrutiny also with the confusion and indignation of the detected ing institutions his perception of his eye perpetually from the rule to the crooked lying fact makes the eyes run over with laughter this is the radical joke of life and then of literature the presence of the ideal of right and of truth in all action makes the yawning of practice to the conscience tragic to the interest but droll to the intellect the activity of our sympathies may for a time hinder our i the fact and so mirth from it but all all vices seen at sufficient distance seen from the point where our moral sympathies do not interfere become ludicrous the comedy is in the intellect s perception of and whilst the presence of the ideal the difference the comedy is whenever that ideal is embodied visibly in a man thus in is a character of the comedy giving himself to his senses coolly the reason whilst he its name pretending to patriotism and to parental virtues not with any intent to deceive but only to make the fun i by enjoying the confusion reason and the of reason in other words the rank he is calling by its name prince stands by as the acute understanding who sees the right and	37
with it and in the of youth feels also the vol iv no ii the comic full attractions of pleasure and is thus eminently qualified to enjoy the joke at the same time he is to that degree under the reason that it does not amuse him as much as it another spectator if the essence of the comic be the contrast in the intellect between the idea and the false performance there is good reason why we should be affected by the exposure we have no deeper interest than our integrity and that we should be made aware by joke and by stroke of any lie that we entertain besides a perception of the comic seems to be a balance wheel in our structure it appears to be an essential element in a fine character wherever the intellect is it will be found we feel the absence of it as a defect in the noblest and most soul it the man cuts down all bridges between him and other men the perception of the comic is a tie of sympathy with other men is a pledge of and is a protection from those perverse tendencies and gloomy into which fine sometimes lose themselves a man alive to the ludicrous is still if that sense is lost his fellow men can do little for him it is true the sensibility to the ludicrous may run into excess men their perception of and a latent lie by the peculiar of laughter so painfully susceptible are some men to these impressions that if a man of wit come into the room where they are it seems to take them out of themselves with violent of the face and sides and of the throat how often and with what compassion we have seen such a person receiving like a willing martyr the whispers into his ear of a man of wit the victim who has just received the discharge if in a solemn company has the air very much of a stout vessel which has just a heavy sea and though it does not split it the poor bark is for the moment staggered the peace of society and the decorum of tables seem to require that next to a notable wit should always be posted a bolt upright man able to stand without movement of muscle whole of this greek fire it is a true shaft of and the universe unless it encounter a mystic or a soul and goes everywhere e comic and by smiles and greetings makes its own welcome and all distinctions no dignity no learning no force of character can make any stand against good wiu it is like ice on which no beauty of form no majesty of carriage can plead any they must walk according to the laws of ice or down they must go dignity and all dost thou think because thou art virtuous there shall be no more cakes and ale very happily expresses the value of the jest as a legitimate weapon of the philosopher men cannot exercise their unless they speak but their philosophy even whilst they are silent or jest merrily for as it is the highest degree of injustice not to be just and yet seem so so it is the top of wisdom to yet not appear to do it and in mirth to do the same with those that are serious and seem in earnest for as in the though of iron weapons and wounded their with the boughs of trees whidi they carried thus the very and merry talk of true philosophers move those that are not altogether insensible and unusually reform in all the parts of life the occasion of laughter is some seeming some keeping of the word to the ear and eye whilst it is broken to the soul thus as the religious sentiment is the most vital and sublime of all our sentiments and capable of the most prodigious effects so is it to our whole nature when in the absence of the sentiment the act or word or officer to stand in its stead to the sympathies this is shocking and occasions grief but to the intellect the lack of the sentiment gives pain it incessantly the sublime idea with the nothing which to be it and the sense of the is comedy and as the religious sentiment is the most real and earnest thing in nature being a mere rapture and when it appears all other considerations the this is the greatest lie therefore the oldest of literature is the ridicule of false religion this is the joke of jokes in religion the sentiment is all the indifferent but tlie of men them when the sentiment sleeps to imitate that thing it did it goes through the only the will th comic makes the mistake of the wig for the head the clothes for the man the older the mistake and the more own the particular form is the more to the intellect there is excellent humor in the part taken by captain john smith the of new england when the society in london who had contributed their means to convert the savages hoping doubtless to see tiie black roaring and of that day converted into church and at the least the with frequent out of england respecting the of the indians and of the smith in his perplexity how to satisfy the london churches sent ont a party caught an indian and despatched him home in the first to london telling the society they might convert one themselves the satire reaches its climax when the actual church is in direct contradiction to the of the religious sentiment as in the famous account of our politics in our brethren of new england use choice to excuse and hang the in their stead of whom the churches have less need as lately it happened in a town where lived a and	37
not in poor pictures the limbs and trunk the face so among the women in the street you shall see one whose bonnet and dress are one thing and the lady herself quite another wearing withal an expression of meek submission to her bonnet and dress and another whose dress and the expression of her form more food for the comic is afforded whenever the personal appearance the face form and manners are subjects of thought with the man himself no fashion is the best fashion for those matters which will take care of themselves this is the butt of those jokes of the paris drawing rooms which napoleon reckoned so formidable and which are in the french a lady of high rank but of lean figure had given the the of le in allusion to her tall figure as well as to her republican opinions the by calling madame the of the la chaise a compliment to her skeleton which did not foil to lord c said the of oh he is a perfect comb all teeth and back the have a pleasant story of which relates to the same particulars was an ugly man he had a blind eye and a lame foot one day when was with him scratched his head since the hour of the was come and commanded that the should be called whilst he was shaven the gave him as usual a looking glass in his hand saw himself in the mirror and found his face quite too ugly therefore he began to weep also set himself to weep and so they wept for two hours on this some began to comfort and entertained tu comic him with strange stories in order to make him all about it ceased weeping but ed but began now first to weep and in good earnest at last said to i i have looked in the mirror and seen myself ugly grieved because although i am and have also much wealth and many wives yet still i am so ugly therefore have i wept but thou why thou without ceasing answered if thou hast only seen thy face once and at once seeing hast not been able to contain but hast wept what should we do we who see thy face every day and night if we weep not who should weep therefore have i wept almost split his sides with laughing politics also the same mark for satire what is nobler than the sentiment of patriotism which would find brothers in a whole nation but when this enthusiasm is perceived to end in the very intelligible of trade so much for so much the intellect feels again the half man or what is than that we should and carry a principle against all opposition but when the men appear who ask our as representatives of this ideal we are sadly out of countenance but there is no end to this analysis we do nothing that is not whenever we quit our spontaneous sentiment all our plans houses poems if compared with the wisdom and love which man represents are equally imperfect and ridiculous but we cannot afford to part with any advantages we must learn by laughter as well as by tears and terrors explore the whole of nature the farce and in the yard below as well as the lessons of poets and philosophers upstairs in the hall and get the rest and refreshment of the shaking of the sides but the comic also has its own speedy limits mirth quickly becomes and the man would soon die of as some persons have been to death the same the and the of the joke when was with laughter a patient waited on a physician in that city to o some remedy for excessive melancholy which was rapidly his life the physician endeavored to cheer his spirits and advised him to go to the theatre and see he replied i am to beauty to beauty who gave thee o beauty the keys of this breast to thee who betrayed me to be ruined or say when in ages thee knew i of old or what was the service for which i was sold when first my eyes saw thee i found me thy by drawings sweet tyrant of all love drinks at thy banquet thirst thou intimate stranger thou latest and first i lavish lavish nigh persuading gods to guest of million painted forms which in turn thy glory the leaf the bark the s cup the rain drop s arc the shining of the pond thou with a bond in thy momentary play would nature to repay ah i what it to hide or to whom the infinite one hath granted his throne the heaven high over is the deep s lover vol iv no ii the and sea informed by thee before me run and draw me on yet fly me still as fate refuses to me the heart fate for me chooses is it that my soul was mingled from the generous whole sea valleys and the deep of skies furnished several supplies and the sands whereof i m made draw me to them self betrayed i turn the which hold the grand designs of of and s lines i hear the lofty of the masters of the shell who heard the music and the numbers well who sung divine ideas below which always find us young and always keep us so oft in streets or places i detect far wandered graces which from wide astray in lowly homes have lost their way thee gliding through the sea of form as the lightning through the storm somewhat not to be possessed somewhat not to be no feet so fleet could ever find no perfect form could ever bind thou eternal fugitive hovering over all that live quick and skilful to inspire tan funeral sweet extravagant desire space and lily bell	37
filling with thy wilt not give the lips to taste of the which thou hast all that s good and great with thee stands in deep conspiracy thou hast the dark and lonely to report thy features only and the cold and purple morning itself with thoughts of thee the leafy the city equal of thine art e en the flowing air thou hast touched for my despair and if i into dreams again i meet the ardent beams of things i i dare not die in being s past ear and eye lest there i find the same and be the game of fate forever dread power but dear if god thou be me quite or give to me s funeral the summer moonlight lingered there thy gently brow to see for art in thee had softened care as night s mild beams the dying tree that smile was on thy face the fair forgetfulness of fame the deep concealment of that grace thy tender being s only aim th the to the muse whither hast then faded no more by or spring or tree whither f have i thy love come back and speak to me shine thou star of destiny o simple plains and quiet woods your silence asks no poet s strains for ye are verse like your leaf like paths the sweet the muse but in pains yet shines above the star heaven s great fame and the dome like sky nor should i make my nature tame lest distant days shall hide my name thou in these shades the light that piled the rugged height of leaves thou rob st with artificial night these so deep he who believes the muse not or and let the deep sea toss the shore thy infinite heart no motion hath let lightning dance and thunder roar and dark remembrance crowd thy path thy spirit needs some wider wrath that verse the living fate within shall truly find its tone to save its goal to win demands no voice no grave they sing enough who life blood have song o placid springs which murmur through the silken grass so glistening are fed your veins with silent dew so that ye onward sing for in the middle earth ye cling o woods your birds kind song how had you that so virtuous lay among you let me linger long and seek the dim lit way and listen to your light wind s play and thou the essence of the flowers my bride my joy my own dear wife who melted in thine eyes those hours those hours with sunlight richly art thou a song of earnest life t william tell s song the mountain leap and the stem wild pine fast and the piercing keep their chains for the vast i have built up my heart with a stony wall i have frozen my will for a tyrant s fall as the from the high cliff leaps and is ground to fine dust below as the dreaded and the valleys in woe so tyranny sinks my mountain heart so slavery falls by my quivering dart a letter a letter as we are very liable in common with the letter writing world to fall in our correspondence and a little more liable because in consequence of our function we receive more than our individual share we have thought that we might clear our account by writing a catholic letter to all and several who have honored us in verse or prose with their confidence and expressed a curiosity to know our opinion we shall be compelled to dispose very rapidly of quite miscellaneous topics and first in regard to the writer who has given us his speculations on rail roads and air roads our correspondent shall have his own way to the rail way we must say like the courageous lord mayor at his first hunting when told the hare was coming let it come in heaven s name i am not afraid on u very unlocked for political and social effects of the iron road are fast appearing it will require an of the police of the old world when a rail road train shoots through europe every day from to from to it cannot stop every twenty or miles at a german for examination of property and but when our correspondent proceeds to flying machines we have no longer the smallest light of information and experience and must speak on a grounds shortly then we think the population is not yet quite fit for them and therefore there will be none our friend suggests so many from out of the high air to and lone houses and also to other high and the total of the present system of defence that we have not the heart to break the sleep of the good public by the repetition of these details when children come into the library we put the and the watch on the high shelf until they be a little older and nature has set the sun and moon in plain sight and use but laid them on the high shelf where her boys may not in some mad saturday pull them down or burn their fingers the sea and the iron road are safer toys for such people we are not yet ripe to be birds in the next place to letters on and the prospects of culture and the of the cultivated class what answer excellent reasons have been shown us why the writers obviously persons of sincerity and of elegance should be dissatisfied with the life they lead and with their company they have exhausted all its benefit and will not bear it much j a longer excellent reasons they have shown why something better should be tried they want a friend to whom they can speak and from whom they may hear now and then a ble word they	37
are willing to work so it be with friends they do not entertain anything absurd or even difficult they do not wish to force society into hated nor to break with society they do not wish a or any large expenditure or association but simply a of chosen people by the slightest possible concert in through four or five years they think that a neighborhood might be formed of friends who would provoke each other to the best activity they believe that this society would fill up the terrific chasm of and would give their genius that inspiration which it seems to wait in vain but the selfishness one of the writers says what shall my and do without me and desires to be distinctly understood not to propose the indian mode of giving relatives as much of the mud of holy as they can swallow and more but to begin the enterprise of by all and in one delightful village by themselves so heedless is our correspondent of putting all the into one pan and all the into another another objection seems to have occurred to a subtle but ardent advocate is it he writes a too great and with life with life which is better accepted than calculated perhaps so but let us not be too curiously good the is a practical the yankee is not we do a good many selfish things every day among them all let us do one thing of enlightened selfishness it were fit to forbid concert and calculation in this particular if that were our system if we were up to the mark of self denial and faith in our general activity but to be prudent in all the particulars of life and in this one thing alone prudent to secure to ourselves an injurious society temptations to folly and despair degrading examples and enemies and only when it is proposed to provide ourselves with guides examples lovers we shall hardly trust ourselves to reply to arguments by which we would too gladly be persuaded the more discontent the better we like it it is not for nothing we assure ourselves that our people are busied with these projects of a better social state and that sincere persons of all parties are demanding somewhat vital and poetic of our society how fantastic and the theory has hitherto seemed how shrinking from the examination of men let us not lose the warning of that most significant a letter dream how joyfully we have felt the of larger natures which despised our aims and pursuits conscious that a voice out of heaven spoke to us in that scorn but it would be unjust not to remind our younger friends that whilst this has always made its mark in the lives of men of thought in vigorous individuals it does not remain a detached object but is satisfied along with the of other aims to live solitary and is painful painful in proportion to one s consciousness of and equality to the offices of friendship but we are never quite forsaken by the divine providence the man after twenty years that he stood in a circle of friends who will then show like a e held by some tie but we are impatient of the tedious of destiny and a little and would venture something to them one thing is plain that discontent and the luxury of tears will bring nothing to pass regrets and castles and villages are not a very self helping class of productions but are the voices of especially to one we must say that there is no chance for the village every one of the villagers has committed his several blunder his genius was good his stars but he was a and though the force in every man may be relied on infinitely it must be relied on before it will exert itself as long as he sleeps in the shade of the present error the nature does not betray its resources whilst he dwells in the old sin he will pay the old fine more letters we have on the subject of the position of young men which accord well enough with what we see and hear there is an american disease a of the active which falls on young men in this country as soon as they have finished their college education which them of manly aims and them of animal spirits so that the noblest youths are in a few years converted into pale to the temple of they are in the state of the young when that mighty prophet addressed them and said behold the signs of evil days are come there is now no longer any right course of action nor any self devotion among the as soon as they have arrived at this term there are no to satisfy them they are educated above the work of their times and country and disdain it many of the more acute minds pass into a lofty criticism of these things which only their sensibility to the evil and the feeling of hostility between them and the citizens at large from this cause companies of the best educated young men in the atlantic states every week take their departure for europe for no business that they have a later in that but simply because they shall so be hid from the eyes of their countrymen and agreeably entertained for one or two years with some lurking hope no doubt that something may turn up to give them a decided direction it is easy to see that this is only a of their proper work with the additional disadvantage of a two years add that this class is rapidly increasing by the of the active class who whilst they regard these young with suspicion and dislike their own children in the same courses and use all possible to secure to them the same result certainly	37
we are not insensible to this calamity as described by the or witnessed by ourselves it is not quite new and peculiar though we should not know where to find in literature any record of so much such apprehension without talent so much power without equal as our young men pretend to yet in s account of s we were not a little struck with the following of the despair of germany whose tone is still so familiar that we were somewhat to find that it was written in then came i to the i cannot conceive of a people more than the you shall see but no man priests but no man but no man is it not like some where hands and arms and all members lie scattered about whilst the life blood runs away into the sand let every man mind his own you say and i say the same only let hun mind it with all his heart and not with this cold study literally to appear that which he passes for hut in good earnest and in all love let him be that which he is then there is a soul in his deed and is he driven into a circumstance where the spirit must not live let him thrust it from him with scorn and learn to dig and plough there is nothing holy which is not which is not degraded to a mean end among this people it is to see your poet your artist and all who still genius who love and foster the beautiful the good they live in uie world as strangers in their own they are like the patient whilst he sat in tlie guise of a beggar at his own door whilst shouted in the hall and ask who brought the here full of love talent and hope spring up of the muse among the come seven years later and they about like ghosts cold and silent are like it soil which an enemy has sown with poison that it will not bear a blade of grass on earth all is imperfect is the old proverb of the german aye but if one should to these that with them all is imperfect only because they leave nothing pure which they do not nothing holy which they do not with their hands that with them nothing because the nature which is the root of der der p s vol iv no ii all do not i that them truly is and aod full of which power and manly action into and love and brotherhood into towns and where a people honors in its artists there breathes like an atmosphere a universal to the shy sensibility opens which all hearts pious and great and it adds fire to heroes the of all men is with such a and there will the bat wh re the divine and the artist ia the of life ia and every other planet ia better than the earth men folly and a gross mind with it comes with disaster with the of the tongue and with the anxiety for a the blessing of every year a curse and all the gods depart the between the money getting and the class must be fr y admitted and perhaps is the more violent that whilst our work is imposed by the soil and the sea our culture is the tradition of europe but we cannot the desperation of ow least of all should we think a of the intellect a calamity a new the smallest new activity given to the power is a victory to the living universe from chaos and old night and bought by any of and false social position the balance of mind and body will itself fast enough is the real in all the cases we have ever seen where people supposed to suffer from too much wit of as men said firom a blade too sharp for the it turned out that they had not wit enough it may easily happen that we are grown very idle and must go to work and that the times must he worse before they are better it is very certain that speculation is no for life what we would know we do as if any taste or imagination could take the place of fidelity the old duty is the old god and we may come to this by the teaching a friend of ours went five years ago to to buy a farm for his son though there were crowds of in the roads the was open on both sides and long intervals between and houses now after five he has just been to visit the young farmer and see how he and reports that a miracle has been wrought from to the land is in and over almost like new england itself and the of cultivation everywhere abound a result not so much owing to the natural increase of population as to the hard times which driving men out of cities and trade fore ed them to take off their coats and go to work on the land which has rewarded them not only with wheat but with habits of labor the of our commerce have a utter not yet been pushed to the pf and total want of work and reflection en the five character of american life o di c are like which never will obtain any sympathy if there is a in the or an patch in the garden to mention the er absurdity of a youth of noble aims who can find no field for his energies whilst the colossal wrongs of the indian of the negro of the remain and the religious civil and forms of the country are and offensive we must refer our back to themselves believing that every man knows in his heart the cure for the disease he so as far as our	37
have entangled their private with the cause of american literature we counsel them to themselves as fast as possible in and elsewhere there is much inquiry for that great american literature what can have become of the least said is best a literature is no man s private concern but a and result is the affair of a power which works by a of and force to behold the race never dying the individual never spared and every trait of beauty purchased by of private tragedy the in the wild gardens of nature is never many of the best must die of consumption many of despair and many be stupid and insane before the one great and fortunate life which they each predicted can shoot up into a and beneficent existence but passing tp a letter which is a generous and a just tribute to von we have it in power to furnish our correspondent and all readers with a sketch though plainly from np very friendly hand of tbe work of that lady who in the silence of and to hold a of genius io germany at last has the long expected of the here appeared it is true her name is not more is the this book to the king also the but partly because her genius shines so put of every line v because this work so directly to her earlier writings appears only as an of them none can doubt who the author is we know not how we should to the reader this most original work or we should say the von her eccentric under the person pf s mother the we the extract from the of the or september a letter whilst she is still a child who sits upon the shawl at the foot of the and devoutly to the mother of the great poet moreover does not conceal that she solely or at any rate principally her views from the and in fact it could not be otherwise since we come to hear the wisdom which makes a strange enough figure in the mouth of s mother if we mistake not the intimate intercourse with is also an essential impulse for von and we must not therefore wonder if the loses her way in pure philosophical wherein she herself of the known phrases of the school it is true she quickly herself again clothes her in poetical garb bravely to the visions or and this happens becomes a her in expressions and off in her cf sketches for the most part the whole dress seems only assumed in order to make the matter which is in the last degree radical less injurious as to the object of these sayings and reported from memory of the since she leads the conversation throughout our sketch must be short it is freedom which the truest being of man man should be free from all traditions from all since every holding on somewhat is spiritual the god s impulse to truth is the only right belief man himself should handle and prove since whoever on a matter has always a better right to truths than who lets himself be on the cheek by an of faith by sin she understands that which from the soul since every and the becoming of the soul in general art and science have only the destination to make free what is bound but the human spirit can rule all and in that sense man is god only we are not arrived so far as to describe the true pure man in us if in the department of religion this principle leads to the overthrow of the whole historical so in the political world it leads to the ruin of all our actual therefore she wishes for a strong as napoleon promised for a time to be who however already in when these conversations are ascribed to the had shown that instead of a world s he would be a world s makes variations on the verse and wake an a hero awake and in this sense is also her to read it were noble if a stronger one should come who in more beautiful moderation in clearness of soul and freedom of thought should plant the tree of where remains the if it is not the a letter of humanity that is the principle in her system the state has the same will the same conscience for good and evil as the christ yet it itself away into of civil officers against one another the is the own the proof that ity as man has against humanity the old state s doctors who excite it to a will are also its disease but they who do not agree in this will and cannot struggle through relations are the against whom the state so long as it knows not how to bring their sound strength into harmony and precisely to those must it itself since they are its and restoration whilst the others who to it make it more sunken and if it be objected that this her truth is only a poetic dream which in the actual world has no place she answers even were the truth a dream it is not therefore to be denied let us our genius to this dream let us form an ideal paradise which the spiritual of nature requires at our hands is the whole fabric of state she asks only a worse arranged hospital where the selfish ot the ambitious would fasten on the poor human race the foolish fantastic of their for beneficent and with it the political economy so destitute of all genius to bind the useful with the beautiful on which these state s doctors themselves so much and so with their exhibit as a pattern to us a wretched picture of ignorance of selfishness and of when i come on that i feel my veins swell with	37
wrath if i come on the nature or how should i call this of yea justly i no with these men armed in mail against every poetic truth we must not the great fools conspiracy of that with mock reasoning its states conduct before which certainly the revelation of the ideal into a poetic dream region but whilst the existing state in itself is merely whilst the against this state is not with its with its directions and tendencies so is the ever uie of the state itself in general must the state draw up to itself at least the lowest and not let it sink in mire and lets the make the proposal instead of shutting up the in to instruct him in the as from his native energies from his unbroken powers great performances might be looked for but in order also to show practically the truth of her that the present state does not fulfil its duties especially to the poorest class at the close of the book are inserted experiences of a young in this person visited the so called which compose a colony of poverty there new books he went into many chambers listened to the history of the life still to the history of the day of the inhabitants informed himself of their merit and their wants and comes to the the hard reproaches which were made against the of the poor appear unhappily only too well founded we have hastily with a few literal the contents of this remarkable book of this remarkable woman and there remains no space further to elaborate judgment the which the von and must founder against the which as opposed to her imagination she holds for absolute nothing so reality with her always itself to whilst these dreams are to her e only reality in our opinion an energetic thorough experiment for the of her ideas would plunge us in a deeper misery than we at present have to new books in france and america the is a very entertaining book drawn from excellent sources rich in its topics describing many admirable persons and events and supplies an old defect in our popular literature the editor s part is performed with great and conscience yet amidst this of all the and beauties and of france what has the greatest in france at that period michael de done or left undone that his name should be quite omitted the spanish student a in acts by h w a pleasing tale but shall speak for us out of la you must know that as to this name of few are they who deserve lit and i am no but only a lover of so that i have no need to beg or borrow the verses of others the verses i gave you the other day are mine and those of to day as well but for all that i am no poet neither is it my prayer to be so is it then so bad a thing to be a poet asked not bad replied page but to be a poet and else i do not hold to be very good for poetry should be like a precious jewel whose owner does not put it on every day nor it to the world at every step but only when it is and when there ia a reason for showing it poetry is a most lovely modest and discreet spirited but yet retiring and ever holding itself within the rule of honor she is the friend of solitude she finds in the fountains her delight in the fields her in the trees and flowers enjoyment and repose and she charms and in all that approach dream of a day and other poems by james o new haven mr printed his last book of poems sixteen years ago and every boy learned to his hill since which time he us his studies have been for the most part very adverse to poetic yet here we have specimens of no less than one hundred and fifty different forms of such thorough in the poetical art is without example or approach ia country and deserves all honor we have of four of the leading classes of ancient measures the and to say nothing of measures now never known out of then come songs for national airs formed on the of the music including german russian and and but unhappily this diligence is not without its dangers it has prejudiced the power and made that art which was a rage neatness or at any rate the absence of these poems our bard has not quite so much fire as we had looked for grows warm but does not those sixteen years of adverse studies have had their effect on who now soundly and resolutely on but rash motions and never runs away with us the old critics of england were hardly to their of and than our american magazines to the of and a gentle truly all of the established religion having the good of their country and their species at heart has not written anything quite as good on the whole as his two fast associates but them both in labor in his skill and in his he is the most of the american poets has a superb propriety of feeling has plainly always been in good society but his sweet pipe only pastoral music has the most new books religion more more reference more of england whilst mr is an upright free spoken man very much of a hates cant and does his best we notice in london a new edition of s of the of illustrated with wood les says would have made a great poet if has not shown himself to be one for his is not so properly a translation as the stories of and we trust this new edition will find its way	37

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