or none, be circulated among the people." A warm and grateful tribute was then paid to the two national Societies which had been chiefly instrumental in the diffusion of the Scriptures.

The meeting was then addressed by Rev. Mr. Stow, pastor of the second Baptist church in Boston, who offered the first resolution :

Resolved, That while in the peculiar adaptation of the holy Scriptures to the necessities of man we perceive conclusive evidence of their heavenly origin, we discover also a sufficient reason why they should be furnished to every individual of the human family.

Rev. Mr. Clark of Grace church (Episcopal) in Boston, and Rev. Mr. Pierce of the Methodist Church in Boston then spoke in support of the following resolution:

Resolved, That the interest we manifest in the distribution of the Bible is a fair test of the influence we feel from its truth.

Rev. Mr. Adams of the Essex Street (Trinitarian Congregational) church in Boston supported the next resolution :-

Resolved, That the purity of the Bible affords confidence and encouragement to all who seek the purification and elevation of our race, in their efforts for its universal distribution.

Rev. Mr. Gannett, of the Federal Street (Unitarian Congregational) church in Boston offered the last resolution:

Resolved, That the Bible holds the first place among the means for the social and moral redemption of the world.

The several speakers adhered closely to the topics presented in their respective resolutions; it is unnecessary therefore to give an abstract of their remarks.

AMERICAN PEACE SOCIETY.-This Society, which after being successively established at New York and at Hartford is now fixed at Boston as the seat of its operations, celebrated its twelfth anniversary, in the Marlboro' Chapel, on Tuesday afternoon June 26. Rev. William Ladd, the President, took the chair. The Annual Report was read by Rev. G. C. Beckwith, the Secretary. It noticed the death within the last year of Mr. Edward Noyes the late Recording Secretary, and of Comte de Sellon the founder of the Peace Society of Geneva in Switzerland. The amount of funds and of publications had been rather less than on the preceding year; still a large number of pages had been issued, and the long-expected volume of Prize Essays on a Congress of Nations had appeared. The President and Secretary had been engaged through the year in active services for the Society. The cause of Peace was gaining friends and influence; the continuance of peace among the principal nations of Christendom for a quarter of a century might be ascribed in part to the efforts of this and similar Societies; and the disposition to settle national differences by the help of mediation, and the attention which was drawn to the subject of a Congress of Nations, were proofs of the good which had resulted from efforts in this cause.

Rev. Mr. Peabody of Portsmouth N. H., offered and supported the following resolution :

Resolved, That the disputes between governments sincerely disposed to jus tice may, like those between individuals, always be settled by a common umpire; and that pacific modes for the adjustment of international difficulties are now demanded by the advanced state of public opinion, and the multiplied ties and increased intercourse of nations.

Samuel E. Cowes Esq. of Portsmouth N. H., presented the next resolution:Resolved, That inasmuch as powerful nations are never deterred from aggression by intimidation, the maxim, that "the preservation of peace is best maintained by preparation for war," is entirely false, and that all such preparation tends only to provoke rather than repel that enormous evil.

Rev. Mr. Stebbins of Leominster supported the next resolution: Resolved, That the followers of Christ have all the moral power requisite, under God, to banish war from every Christian land, and are under the most solemn obligations to use without delay the means indispensable for this purpose.

Amasa Walker Esq. of Boston sustained the next resolution:

Resolved, That the sentiment called "national honour," which creates a fancied necessity for war, even when its uselessness and impolicy are admitted, is a selfish, malignant pride, equally condemned by the Gospel, philosophy, and the most refined feelings of benevolence.

Rev. Mr. Ladd illustrated by some accounts of his labours the last winter, principally at the South and in Washington, the propriety of the following resolution:

Resolved, That the continuance of peace, amidst all the recent provocations to war, not only between our own country and England, but among the leading powers of Christendom, calls for devout gratitude to the great Ruler of nations, and indicates, along with many other signs of the times, that our labours have not been in vain, and that a change has already been effected in public opinion, highly auspicious to our cause and well calculated to encourage our hopes and efforts.

The character of the several addresses is sufficiently indicated by the resolutions.

WE regret that we must stop here; but our number is full. We hope in the next number to give accounts of some other anniversaries which were celebrated in this city, and in New York, in May last. Other items of intelligence also which we have on band are excluded by want of room.

THE argument from universal belief, under some form or other, is continually appealed to. Old and young, wise and unwise, the logician and the despiser of logic, the teacher of the highest philosophy and the deepest theology and the humblest reasoners and students, all who have any thing to establish or any thing to confute, are constantly retiring to this strong vantage-ground. It is of great importance then, that we should be able to appreciate the precise value of the argument to determine when it is of weight, and when it should be set aside.

This is not so simple a matter as it may at first appear. What, for instance, shall we say to the following applications of this method of reasoning? How confidently might this belief of all mankind have been appealed to, to prove that the sun moves, while the earth is stationary! How could the possible existence of a New World have been reconciled with the universal notion in the minds of the men who lived before the discovery of our Western continent, that there was no world but that which their eyes had seen? On this ground, how undeniably true not long since, that there are demons and witches about us, besides those that we find ready at hand, walking up and down in our midst in bodies of flesh and blood, and who, one would think, might suffice. On this ground it cannot be true, as some have asserted, that the last ghost has appeared. Copernicus and Newton must have been in error.

And to come to something not quite so

notorious, it cannot be true, as Berkeley has discovered, that the eye is not capable of appreciating distances, and that our decisions with reference to the shape and position of objects can only be formed by the united operation of the eye and an experienced judgement. It is evident that we have here some misapplications of the argument, and one would therefore inquire,-by what test can we distinguish the use from the abuse?

It has sufficiently appeared from what has already been advanced, that a notion is not necessarily correct because universal. Univer sality is not a test of truth. Men may accept in this age without any dissent opinions, which their posterity will discard without any dissent. The race of men which will fill our places five hundred years hence will reject some of our cherished opinions, just as the full grown man rejects with perfect confidence the notions which in his boyish days he cherished with perfect confidence. The opinions in question will not be universal, if instead of single men we take generations, and compare their views as we do those of individuals. The most that can be derived from our rule, thus far, is a previous presumption of soundness, open to investigation, and liable to be discredited. Since then a doctrine may be universally assented to, and yet utterly, abso lutely false, we are thrown in our inquiry upon an examination of the term "belief." This element must first be analyzed, and then per haps, by the light of the truth derived from this examination, we shall be better able to perceive the force of the other element in the argument, viz. universality.

It may be remarked then, in the first place, that while with regard to certain principles and opinions the assent of one age is changed into dissent in the next, there are other principles which are always received undoubtingly by the healthy mind. Founded in the nature of the soul, and, as we must believe, in the nature of things, they can never change, and upon their stability alone we must depend in all our reasoning and acting. They are either fundamental laws of the mind, unsusceptible of proof, and the starting point from which all other proofs must set out-hence called intuitions, principles of common sense and pure reason; or, as in one or two instances, they are the deductions of the simplest logic, formed in a point of time from simple, undoubted premises. We can distrust these principles only by going counter to the dictates of our nature; in denying them we cut ourselves off from all harmonious connexion with the rest of God's

works, our destiny becomes a riddle, our action an absurdity. Once abandon our belief in these fundamental laws, and we are cast upon a boundless ocean of skepticism, and must resign ourselves to a state of hopeless, constant doubt. These ideas have retained their main essence under whatever form they have appeared. They are the ideas of a God, of Providence, of Duty, of Immortality, a belief in the trustworthiness of our faculties for the discovery of truth,-and others which we need not mention. Under some external manifestation these notions have always been cherished, and although developed in various degrees, have ever worked mightily. Absolutely speaking, these principles, these beliefs would be equally well founded, whether they were the notions of one man, or of one million of men. The foundation which is indispensable to all men, without which their life would be a dream, and their best wishes but idle hopes, is equally necessary to one man; for would not one complete skeptic be an absolute anomaly, and can we allow that an absolute anomaly might exist in the universe. Men may indeed become perverted, and lose sight entirely of their true aim and real wants, but a man who should endeavour to conform himself in all things to the supreme law of duty could never want high aspirations, nor fail in his attempt to find high truth with which to satisfy them. It is only human perversity, that, by implanting an evil heart of unbelief, renders an appeal to the argument from universality necessary. This we shall attempt to show in its place.

It will be said, that the history of mankind and the nature of things point to no universal, unchanging beliefs. This view seems to arise from confounding belief and opinion, and from neglecting to distinguish between the essence of the belief and the form in which it is manifested. In the first principles there has been stability, while in the application of these principles, that is, in opinions and in their developement, there have been imperfection and change. The great ideas which constitute the furniture of the human mind, the elements of truth imparted from the Fountain of all truth, admit of the most varied application, and by comparing them together, and adding the results of observation, we arrive at the most interesting and important conclusions. But from this source spring a great variety and a great amount of errors. Our application, our comparison, our logic in short, may be inaccurate, our observations imperfect and incomplete, and our opinions consequently, being conclusions from false or poorly