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its author and exemplar that he is to us an object of so much interest. William Cowper was the pure fresh fountainhead of our strictly English modern literature. Side by side with the latter, to change our former illustration, a foreign element is flowing, and he shall be the true speaker and benefactor of our day, in whose intellect the currents shall meet, not in hostile, but amicable, confluence.

Times make men. Yes. It is most true; but then it is equally true that men under God medicate the times, give them voice, say the thing which in their dumb tumult they would say, but cannot. England is waiting for utterance. If our author fail in his high vocation, another we trust shall be given us; but in the event of his short-coming, what damage may not be produced; while, further, there are those who cannot, without sorrow, realize the possibility of a literature, apparently so full of promise, turning out at best to be a well without water, or dashing to and fro for a season, as a planet which has lost its orbit and affinities, before it is quenched and wrecked in the blackness of darkness.

CRITICAL NOTICES.

A Voice from the Sanctuary on the Missionary Enterprise, being a Series of Discourses delivered in America, before the Protestant Episcopal Board of Foreign Missions, the American Board of Foreign Missions, &c. &c. &c. By the most eminent Divines of the Country, belonging to various Denominations. With an Introduction by James MONTGOMERY, Esq. London: Hamilton, Adams & Co. 1845.

Seldom has a volume of such varied matter, executed by such a multitude of writers, attained the unity of sentiment, and afforded the delight which this has done. It is like the jewels of a well arranged cabinet, or rather like the gem on the bosom of Aaron, all its precious stones fitly set together, each in its proper position, and each emitting its own peculiar radiance. Zebulun at his haven of the sea, and Asher with his royal dainties, each stand in their own place. The beard of the high priest, with its droppings of fragrant ointment, overshadows them all, and the incense of his right hand ascends to the seat of mercy and of power, on behalf of them all. Though it be one family, it is many tribes that the breast-plate represents; and though the necessities of each tribe may be in some respects peculiar, there is power in the great High Priest to present, and to satisfy them all.

Some of these sermons, that of David Abeel, missionary to China, for example, regard the work of evangelising the world as advancing and increasing the piety and energy of the churches at home. Some respect the difficulties and hinderances to the spread of truth, as the venerable

Beecher in his noble discourse on the resources of the adversary, and means of their destruction-some delineate the purifying power of affliction on the soldier in the heat of the conflict, as Frederick Thomson, the faithful messenger in Borneo-some contemplate the rapid changes at work in the world, as happy indications of the approaching day of Christ's final triumph, like Leonard Bacon-some, with Rufus Anderson, break out from deep contemplation, with the joyful exclamation, 'who can believe that a world embraced within the range of the influence of Christ's atoning blood, is always to remain covered with the ruins of the fall' -some may speak mournfully, and even despairingly, when they consider the worldliness and apathy of the church, for the church is God's missionary society, established on this the revolted province of His dominions.

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The various authors consider different sides of the prism, but their colours glow and blend in lovely unison. They strike different chords of the harp, but the harmony is delightful. The mind contemplates with willingness the list of works laid out before the church by Daniel Clark, when he says, they must fill the world with Bibles, reading in every language under heaven, the lessons of mercy to the tribes that sit in darkness. Their wealth must sustain the tract cause, and rain down the leaves of the tree of life upon the sickly and perishing nations. They must furnish to the ignorant and the poor the Sabbath school and the Bible class,' &c. &c., till we joyfully join in his ejaculation, Ride on, blessed Lord Jesus, and assess thy church to the full amount of all the promises, and buy thee a kingdom with it; and reign thou over us and our house for ever.'

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These are the human parts of the work, that which can be accomplished without much spirituality, prayerfulness, or mental discipline; but the venerable Beecher grapples with a more difficult subject, and treats of the resources of the adversary in frustrating the extension and reign of truth, with the experience of a veteran in the field, and with the tranquil faith of one who knows, that He whose name is King of kings and Lord of lords, will accomplish his work in his time. Among the things. to be subdued in the church, before she can prosper in extending the knowledge of salvation, he mentions the jealousies of Christians, who are united substantially in their views of evangelical doctrine and religion, and who are divided only by localities, rites and forms. The amalgamation of denomination is not required. The division of labour may greatly augment its amount, and the provocation to love and to good works may be real and salutary, and still be conducted without invidious collision. Like the tribes of Israel, we may all encamp about the tabernacle of God, each under his own standard; and when the ark advances, may all move onward, terrible only to the powers of darkness. And if the enemies of righteousness are not sufficient to rebuke our selfishness, and force us into a coalition of love and of good works, then verily it may be expected, and even be hoped, that God by the fire of persecution, will purge away our dross, and take away our tin," until we shall love him and his cause and one another, with a pure heart fervently. P. 346. Coincident with Dr Beecher's view in the above extract, is the opinion

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stated by Mr Montgomery in the introduction, and we accept their observations as evincing the true catholic spirit of both. No conceivable union of all sections of the church here,' says Mr Montgomery, however wisely planned, ably supported, liberally endowed, and zealously affected in the one good cause, could have done so much toward the teaching of all nations in the way of salvation, as has been actually done during the last 50 or 60 years by the Episcopal, Presbyterian, Baptist, Independent, Wesleyan, and Moravian Missionary Societies. Of the labours and fruits of these distinct agencies, it may be said that the pure gospel has been more extensively and effectually preached, by the messengers of their respective churches in Pagan lands, than had been done by all the denominations of nominal Christendom, through 1500 years preceding. And it is remarkable that from the time when the missionary spirit was poured forth from on high upon our fathers, towards the close of the last century, first one society then another, without previous concert or mutual understanding among the originators, was formed for effecting their several distinct purposes.' P. 12.

All this has been of the Lord. If one denomination had attempted to sustain the weighty charge of sending the gospel to every creature, it must have administered affairs to an extent of a mighty empire, and with equal temporal authority. Human pride, and human domination, would have been speedily tempted to make a papacy of such a power.

The Nature of the Scholar, and its Manifestations. By JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE. Translated from the German with a Memoir of the Author. By W. SMITH. (Catholic Series.) London: Chapman. 1845.

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The word “Catholic" prefixed to this series of works may mislead some; nor do we think it either happily chosen or fairly applied. Catholic is used here as excluding all the peculiarities or essentials of Christianity. It might more properly be called the Unitarian or Socinian series, were it not that there is nothing controversial upon any the points of the Socinian controversy. But the works published, such as those of Emerson, Channing, &c., as well as of the German philosophers, are the works of men who look upon Christ simply as a philosopher or reformer. Even the title-pages of the works are enough to show us the drift of the series. They are embellished with a portrait of Christ! The blasphemy is written on the very forehead of the series.

In regard to such men as Fichte, Richter, Schiller, Novalis, we must say that we revolt much less from them and their writings than from Emerson, Channing, Martineau, &c. There is less that is offensive and profane about them. We can read them as we would Plato or Seneca. Into the character or philosophy of Fichte, we cannot here enter. We prefer to give Carlyle's sketch of him, from which, however, it may be necessary for the reader to make some abatement:

"Fichte, the German philosopher, delivered, some forty years ago, as Jena, a highly remarkable course of lectures on this subject: 'Ñeber das Wesen des Gelehrten (on the Nature of the Literary Man). Fichte,

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in conformity with the transcendental philosophy, of which he was a distinguished teacher, declares, first: That all things which we see or work with in this earth, especially we ourselves and all persons, are as a kind of vesture or sensuous appearance: that under all there lies, as the essence of them, what he calls the 'Divine Idea of the World;' this is the reality which lies at the bottom of all appearance.' To the mass of men, no such Divine idea is recognisable in the world; they live, merely, says Fichte, among the superficialities, practicalities, and shows of the world, not dreaming that there is anything Divine under them. But the man of letters is sent hither specially that he may discern for himself, and make manifest itself in a new dialect; and he is there for the purpose of doing that. Such is Fichte's phraseology, with which we need not quarrel. It is his way of naming what I here, by other words, am striving imperfectly to name; what there is at present no name for; the unspeakable Divine significance, full of splendour, of wonder and terror, that lies in the being of every man, of every thing-the presence of the God who made every man and thing.

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"Fichte calls the man of letters, therefore, a prophet, or, as he prefers to phrase it, a priest, continually unfolding the god-like to men. Men of letters are a perpetual priesthood, from age to age, teaching all men that a God is still present in their life; that all appearance,' whatsoever we see in the world, is but as a vesture of the Divine Idea of the World,' for that which lies at the bottom of appearance.' In the true literary man, there is thus ever, acknowledged or not by the world, a sacredness. He is the light of the world; the world's priest,-guiding it, like a sacred pillar of fire, in its dark pilgrimage through the waste of time. Fichte discriminates with sharp zeal the true literary man, what we here call the hero as man of letters, from multitudes of false un-heroic. Fichte even calls him elsewhere a 'nonentity,' and has in short no mercy for him, no wish that he should continue happy among us! This is Fichte's notion of the man of letters."Heroes and Hero-worship.

"From this bold and lofty principle, the duties of the literary man are deduced with scientific precision, and stated, in all their sacredness and grandeur, with an austere brevity more impressive than any rhetoric. Fichte's metaphysical theory may be called in question, and readily enough misapprehended; but the sublime stoicism of his sentiments will find some response in many a heart.

"But above all, the mysticism of Fichte might astonish us. The cold, colossal, adamantine spirit, standing erect and clear, like a Cato-major among degenerate men; fit to have been the teacher of the Stoa, and to have discoursed of beauty and virtue in the groves of academe! Our reader has seen some words of Fichte: are these like words of a mystic? We state Fichte's character as it is known and admitted by men of all parties among the Germans, when we say that so robust an intellect, a soul so calm, so lofty, massive, and immoveable, has not mingled in philosophical discussion since the time of Luther. We figure his motionless look, had he heard this charge of mysticism! For the man rises before us, amid contradiction and debate, like a granite mountain amid clouds and wind. Ridicule, of the best that could be commanded, has been al ready tried against him; but it could not avail. What was the wit of a

VOL. XIX. NO. II.

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thousand wits to him? The cry of a thousand choughs assaulting that old cliff of granite; seen from the summit, these, as they winged the midway air, showed scarce so gross as beetles, and their cry was seldom even audible. Fichte's opinions may be true or false, but his character as a thinker can be slightly valued only by such as know it ill; and as a man, approved by action and suffering, in his life and in his death, he ranks with a class of men who were common only in better ages than ours."-State of German Literature.

Incidents of the Apostolic Age in Britain. London: Pickering. 1844.

When did Christianity enter Britain? Some time during the lives of the Apostles is the almost unanimous answer of historians. The year that the glad tidings reached it; the messenger by whom they came ; the places in which they took root first:-these are matters not easily settled. Tradition says much, history very little about these things. The veil of eighteen centuries is over them, and it is too late now to get it removed or pierce beyond it.-Yet something is known of the early promulgation of the gospel in our island; and that something how intensely interesting!

The author of the volume before us has gleaned in this ancient field with much success. These gleanings are thrown into the form of a tale full of interest and told with a power of conception and language that belongs to few minds. Indeed the style itself would be enough to recommend the work. Its beauty and vigour are of the very highest order, confirming the report that the author is no other than Isaac Taylor himself.

We should have liked a fuller statement of the gospel whose introduc tion into Britain is here handled. "The Stranger" speaks well, and we are spell-bound with his apostolic aspects; yet we could not help wishing that there had been put into his lips a fuller statement of the glad tidings which he is represented as announcing. King Coel is admirably drawn; so is Iva his daughter; so are the merciless Druids; so are the Roman generals; indeed the whole story being so thoroughly British, goes to one's heart, and makes us feel delighted with everything.

We don't very well understand what the author means by eulogizing so highly alms-deeds, fastings, confession of sins to one another. That these are right, we doubt not. But introduced broadly, and strongly, and without a full declaration of the gospel by their side, they startle us a little. We have no doubt that the church of Christ is in great danger of neglecting these duties, and in her dread of Tractarianism overlooking all "crucifying of the flesh with its affections and lusts." And if this is all that the writer means, he has us entirely on his side.

Saint Oldooman; a Myth of the Nineteenth Century. London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. 1845.

In Saint Oldooman of Littlebitmore we think we can detect Mr New man of Littlemore, and in the sketch of the Oldoomanites here given in words taken from Newman's Lives of English Saints we have

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