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recording events, or speculating on their causes, when the religion of which he was a minister was passing through its agonies of trial? Dr. Robertson has found an imitator in this respect, in a late writer of great ability, Mr. Hallam. He is unquestionably a Protestant, and would wish to be considered as friendly to religion. Yet in holding the balance of a professed, philosophical historian, Christianity seems to be regarded by him, if not with suspicion, yet with studied coldness and reserve. He seems to be constantly on the watch lest her influence should bias his judgment. It is astonishing with what sang froid he can hold his critical knife in the dissection of character, while the axe of Mary and the fires of Smithfield are in sight. Yet he is a most able and, in general, impartial historian. We know nothing of his private character.

He en

Instead of proceeding any further with criticisms of this nature, we may point to a very late author, who deserves eminently the character of a christian historian. We refer to James Grahame. He has written a history of the American Colonies, from their establishment to the Revolution, in a manner which entitles him to the thanks of every citizen of the United States, and of all Christians throughout the world. This work is not interlarded, like that of Rollin, with moral reflections. There is no unseemly obtrusion of the author's pious feelings. There is no effort as though he apprehended that his faith would undermine his impartiality. He has the fundamental qualification of being able to sympathize with the early settlers of this country. ters completely into their spirit. He identifies himself with their interests. No one, who cannot do this, is fit to write their memorials. At the same time, he is not afraid to administer His religious spirit does not degenerate into that of a partizan or time-server. He maintains the dignity and authority of the historian. We perceive that he is a christian writer, than by any formal statement, or authoritative dicta. The christian reader can peruse his pages with sympathy. This sterling trait, joined with a good style, with great accuracy, and the most thorough research, renders his work the best which has The peculiar character of our people and of our institutions

censure.

appeared on our history.

makes this general subject

literature is in a forming state. Established usage, literary stand ards, antiquity, family interests, control the taste much less

one of great importance. Our national

this country than in Europe. We have no civil, nor scarcely any literary censorship. Our periodical reviews mostly confine themselves to commendation. Every man publishes what is right in his own eyes. No individual has appeared in this country with a flail like that of Dr. Johnson with a power of rebuking vicious books and depraved authors, which was not to be gainsayed, or trifled with.

The rapidity of the transmission of thought is very great. There are few post-office systems more minute in detail, more penetrating or prompt than our own. A paragraph committed to a book or a pamphlet is soon gone beyond the power of control or recal. It is poisoning the minds of hundreds west of the Mississippi, or it is vindicating among the inhabitants of Florida the rights of the oppressed. The number of readers is great. There are few among the millions of the older States, who have the organs of vision, but can peruse the paragraph charged with libel, or the paragraph inciting to noble deeds. Volney and Voltaire, Abner Kneeland and Ethan Allen are found in the woollen manufactory, in the western steam-boat, in the Schuylkill colliery. Supposing the civil restrictions upon the press in Austria were removed; it would be of little service to millions of her population.

A correct public sentiment in this country, where it exists, is not made to bear promptly on this subject. A considerable time must elapse, after a publication is issued, before the virtuous part of the community utter their voice. They are so divided by denominational, or party lines, or so engaged in politics or commerce, that they do not rise up to condemn a book, till it has diffused its poison widely through the community. Their voice may be full and unequivocal when it comes, but it is too late. Public opinion is in a highly excited condition on all subjects. The appetite, already sadly perverted and depraved, must still be plied with all possible provocatives. There is a tendency, in some quarters, to denounce every thing like sound reasoning, mature investigation, and scholar-like criticism, as heavy, metaphysical and unintelligible. Now it is very easy for publishers, authors and editors to take advantage of this feverish state of the public mind. Give, give, is the demand. Take, take, is the reply. Perhaps in no quarter of the world, is personal defamation carried on, through the press, so extensively as in this country. Even the grave religious quarterly may not always be wholly free. Books must not only be acVOL. IX. No. 25.

2

companied with flaming and licentious embellishments, but they must be seasoned with slander, and be made captivating by calumny and vituperation. From these remarks, it is very obvious that all who are connected with the press, should be men of sterling principle. Accurate knowledge, great enterprise and energy, intelligence, and general excellence of character, are not sufficient. These men ought to be worthy of filling a high place in society. Upon no individuals is the advance of mankind in knowledge and happiness more essentially depending. They should be eminently conscientious. They should have that regard to the public welfare, which will cause them to make sacrifices for its promotion. They should attach a much higher importance, than they are accustomed to do, to their profession as a part of that great array of force, which is to renovate the world. They should not adapt their publications to the demand of the community, indiscriminately, but they should determine what ought to be the public taste. That which an author preeminently needs is a foresight of the condition and needs of the community—such as Edmund Burke possessed of the results of the French revolution—so that he can control what is to be the current of public thought and action, by making the fountain sweet and healthful. The character of a national literature is frequently depending on very insignificant but still palpa

ble causes.

The intelligent and christian public have a plain and most important duty to perform in relation to this matter. They should bestow an efficient patronage on such men as are disposed to publish only useful works.

This whole subject is not regarded by the community as of that high importance, which it really possesses. A good book or periodical is one of the greatest blessings of civilized society. But we have no reason to complain that the community are deluged with worthless publications, till we have done all in our power to put into circulation such as are really valuable.

A periodical work, possessing intellectual power, written with purity of taste, and circulating among ten thousand of the leading clergymen and laymen of the United States, would have a weight of authority, and an extent of influence, which would illuminate the conscience, and arouse and direct the mind of the whole country. It would concentrate a great amount of taley and influence which is now lost. It would look abroad up the relations which we sustain to other portions of the wo

and to the duties resulting therefrom. It would not fear to suggest the deficiencies which exist in many of our systems of mental and moral philosophy-in not looking at man as he is, in building noble structures on baseless foundations. It would show to the people of this generation, that a belief in the deity and atonement of Jesus Christ is not in essential connection with a perverted taste or a feeble intellect; and that a belief in the existence of a renovating agency in the world of mind, is no more a proof of insanity, than a belief in the operations of Almighty power in the world of matter. But in order to create a christian literature, we must seize on the sources of literature. It does no good for us to complain that the current literature is antichristian or negative. The discussion of important topics, or the communication of valuable thoughts, has no beneficial effect on a large number of minds in this country, if that discussion or those thoughts are found to be associated with contracted views, or with an uncultivated taste. The question is: Shall a heavenly influence pervade all the fountains of knowledge? Shall good taste and vital religion be united? Shall our scholars be compelled to abide by the decisions of a literature founded on the truth of God?* Upon Christians and upon christian scholars, this great result is depending. They can form and cherish a literature, vigorous, pure, with its influence flowing every where. With them are lodged not simply the thoughts of the nation, but the moulds of the thoughts; not the conceptions merely, but the patterns, the archetypes of the conceptions; not simply the regulation of their own minds, but the fashioning of ten thousand minds besides. An influence can be here exerted such as Rome never comprehended; such as the scholars of Alexandria never reached. Let our scholars then come up to their great and most interesting work. Let them lift up their eyes on the fields, boundless in extent, and white already to the harvest. Let the tide of ignorance be stayed, and human nature here assume her renovated and primeval form. Let us have such a literature as shall be in unison with the better day which is coming, such as the spirits of just men made perfect might contemplate with delight.

3. Mental and Moral Science. An intelligent observer cannot but be impressed with the vaccillating opinions and militant

One or two of the above paragraphs were published by the writer, a few years since, with some modifications, in another publication

[JAN. theories which are constantly started in this department of knowledge. One writer boldly asserts that the peculiar doctrines of the gospel cannot justly be excluded from the philosophical treatise. Another writer, equally a believer in the gospel, maintains that morals and mental science stand on ground perfectly independent of revealed religion. One theory is occupied with speculations on the mysteries of the human soul; another is confined to the external phenomena; a third endeavors to sustain the character of an eclectic philosopher; a fourth multiplies the original powers of the soul; a fifth strives, by the most subtle analysis, to reduce the whole to one or two simple principles. Theory succeeds theory. The scholar has scarcely time to peruse the current volume before an ambitious rival its claims. Confused by this endless shifting of the scene, he is tempted to renounce all thought upon the subject, or else to betake himself to some old author, whose errors even have a charm which is not found in the mazes of more recent specula

tions.

presents

When such is the predicament in which this science is involved, it may be presumption in us to offer any suggestions. There are, however, certain desiderata which it may not be indecorous

for us to name.

One half the errors which prevail in relation to this subject may be traced to indefiniteness in the use of language. Two writers use the same term in different senses. The same writer, not unfrequently, attaches opposite significations to the same word in different portions of his treatise. Misconception follows. His opinions are attacked. He sends out a rejoinder. In the heat of battle, he loses his self-command, and becomes involved along with his speculations, in learned confusion. Thus what began in misapprehension of a word, ends in jarring opinion, heretical doctrine, or thoroughly alienated feeling. Now, is it wholly impracticable to effect a general, if not unanimous agreement, in respect to the use of certain words-such as idea, subject, object, subjective, objective, reason, motive and others in the vocabulary of mental science? Might not our principal periodical publications contribute something to such a result?

Again, is there not a point of view in which the essays of various philosophers may all be in conformity with truth? Not that there are no fixed principles in the science; not that erroneous or crude notions may not be broached. But are we, to a proper degree, in the habit of putting ourselves in the position

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