the interpreters, and revelation, conscience, | sioned; with a voice weak and unmusical, and history, the records. It was that sci- and to whom no muse was propitious. His ence which explains the internal connexion habits, and his very theory of composition, of this world's history; in which law and were such as seemed to promise empty ethics and politics have their common ba- pews and listless auditors; for every dissis; which alone imparts to poetry and art course was originally constructed (to use their loftier character; without which the his own phrase) as a "skeleton," with all knowledge of mind and of mental opera- the hard processes and the fine articulations is an empty boast, and even the sever- tions as prominent as his logical anatomy er problems of the world's material econo- could render them-the bony dialectic bemy are insoluble. It was that science for ing then clothed with the fibrous and musthe diffusion of which the halls and colleges cular rhetoric, in such manner as the medof that learned university had been almost itations of the preceding or the impulses of exclusively founded-the only science which the passing hour might suggest. Such was Cambridge neglected, and which Charles his faith in this new art of oratory, that, Simeon taught. And yet the teacher was in a collection entitled" Hora Homileticæ," neither philosopher, historian, poet, artist, he gave to the world many hundred of lawyer, politician, nor physcologist. He these preparations, to be afterwards arwas simply a devout and believing man, rayed by other preachers in such fleshy inwho, in the language of Bunyan, dwelt far teguments as might best cover their ghastfrom the damp shadows of Doubting Cas-liness. Deplorable as the operation must tle,' amidst the sunshine of those everlast- have been in other hands than those of the ing hills whence stout Mr. Great heart and brave Mr. Hopeful, in days of yore, surveyed the boundless prospect, and inhaled the fresh breezes which welcomed them at the close of their pilgrimage. Thither their modern follower conducted his pilgrims by a way which Mr. Worldly-wisdom could never find, and which Mr. Self-confidence despised when it was pointed out to him.

inventor, he well knew how to make his dry bones live. They restrained the otherwise undisciplined ardor of his feelings, and corrected the tendency of that vital heat to disperse all solidity, and to dissolve all coherence, of thought. His argumentation might occasionally irritate the understanding, his illustrations wound the taste, and his discourses provoke the smiles of his audience. But when, as was his In the Church of the Holy Trinity at wont, he insisted on fundamental truths, Cambridge, every Sunday during more or enforced the great duties of life, or dethan half a century witnessed the gathering tected the treacheries of the heart, or traced of a crowd which hung on the lips of the the march of retributive justice, or caught preacher; as men hearken to some unex- and echoed the compassionate accents in pected intelligence of a deep but ever vary- which the Father of mercies addresses his ing interest. Faces pale with study or fur-erring children, it was a voice which penerowed by bodily labor, eyes failing with trated and subdued the very soul. It was age or yet undimmed by sorrow, were bent an eloquence which silenced criticism. It towards him with a gaze, of which (with was instinct with a contagious intensity of whatever other meaning it might be combined) fixed attention was the predominant character. Towards the close of that long period, the pulpit of St. Mary's was, occasionally, the centre of the same attraction, and with a still more impressive result. For there were critics in theology, and If the Church of England were not in critics in style and manner, and critics in bondage with her children to certain Acts gastronomy, thronging and pressing on of Parliament, she would long ere now have each other, as once on Mars' Hill, to hear had a religious order of the Simeonites; what this babbler might say; listening with and would have turned out of her catalogue the same curiosity, and adjudicating on some of her saints of equivocal character, what they had heard, in very much the and some of doubtful existence, to make same spirit. Yet he to whom this homage room for St. Charles of Cambridge. What was rendered, was a man of ungraceful ad- have Dunstan, and George of Cappadocia, dress; with features which ceased to be and Swithun the bishop, and Margaret the grotesque only when they became impas-virgin, and Crispin the martyr, done for us,

belief. It sounded as the language of one to whom the mysteries and the futurities of which he spoke had been disclosed in actual vision, and so disclosed as to have dissipated every frivolous thought, and calmed every turbid emotion.

tears and the benedictions of the poor; and with such testimonies of esteem and attachment from the learned, as Cambridge had never before rendered even to the most illustrious of her sons; and there he was laid, in that sure and certain hope on which

that they should elbow out a man who, through a long life, supplied from the resources of his own mind, to the youth of one of our universities, the theological education not otherwise to be obtained there; and who, from the resources of his own hereditary fortune, supplied the means of he enabled an almost countless multitude purchasing, in the most populous cities of to repose, amidst the wreck of this world's England, from forty to fifty advowsons, promises, and in the grasp of their last and that so the ecclesiastical patronage of those most dreaded enemy. vital organs of our commonwealth might be What is a party, political or religious, ever thenceforward exercised in favor of without a Review? A bell swinging withzealous, devout, and evangelical ministers ? out a clapper. What is any society of men, In that last ugly epithet lies all the mis- if not recruited from the rising generation? chief. He is not a Jansenist, may it A hive of neutral bees. Reviewless, Clapplease your majesty, but merely an Atheist,' ham had scarcely been known beyond her was once accepted as a sufficient excuse of own common. Youthless, her memory had a candidate for royal favor. He is not an never descended to the present age. At evangelical clergyman, but merely a Parson once wrapped into future times, and Trulliber, was an equally successful apolo- thoughtful of her own, she addressed the gy with the dispensers of fame and promo- world on the first day of each successive tion in the last age. Among them was the late Bishop Jebb, who, in his posthumous correspondence, indulges in sneers on the gospeller of Cambridge, as cold and as supercilious as if he had himself belonged to the Trulliber school of divinity; instead of being, as he was, an elegant inquirer into the curiosities of theological literature. So great a master of parallelisms and contrasts might have perceived how the splendor of his own mitre waned before that nobler episcopate to which Charles Simon had been elevated, as in primitive times, by popular acclamation. His diocess embraced almost every city of his native land, and extended to many of the remote dependencies which then, as now, she held in subjection. In every ecclesiastical section of the Empire he could point out to teachers who revered him as the guide of their youth, and the counsellor of their later years. In his frequent visitations of the churches of which he was the patron or the founder, love and honor waited on him. His infirmities disappeared or were forgotten, in the majesty of a character animated from early youth to extreme old age by such pursuits as, we are taught to believe, are most in harmony with the Divine will, and most conducive to the happiness of mankind. He had passed his long life in the midst of censors, who wanted neither the disposition nor the power to inflict signal chastisement upon any offence which could be fastened on him; but he descended to the grave unassailed by any more formidable weapons than a thick and constant flight of harmless epigrams. He descended thither amidst the

month through the columns of the Christian Observer;' and employed the pen of him on whom her hopes most fondly rested, to confer splendor and celebrity on pages not otherwise very alluring. To Mr. Macaulay was assigned the arduous post of Editor. He and his chief contributors enjoyed the advantage, permitted, alas! to how few of their tribe, of living in the same village, and meeting daily in the same walks or at the same table, and lightening, by common counsel, the cares of that feudal sovereignty. The most assiduous in doing suit and service to the Suzerain, was Henry Thornton. But he whose homage was most highly valued, and whose fealty was attested by the richest offerings, was the young, the much loved and the much lamented John Bowdler.

He was the scion of a house singularly happy in the virtues and talents of its members; and was hailed by the unanimous acclamation of the whole of that circle of which Mr. Wilberforce was the centre, as a man of genius, piety, and learning, who, in the generation by which they were to be succeeded, would prosecute their own designs with powers far superior to theirs. A zeal too ardent to be entirely discreet, which gave to the world two posthumous volumes of his essays in verse and prose, has, unintentionally, refuted such traditions as had assigned to him a place among philosophers, or poets, or divines. And yet so rare were the component parts of his character, and so just their combination, that, but for his premature death, the bright auguries of his early days could hardly have

failed of their accomplishment. His course | justified even when seemingly defeated by of life was, indeed, uneventful. A school the event; for it showed that those powers education, followed by the usual training had been destined for an early exercise in for the bar a brilliant, though brief suc- some field of service commensurate with cess, closed by an untimely death, complete the holy ardor by which he had been cona biography which has been that of multi- sumed. Of those who met around his tudes. But the interior life of John Bow-grave, such as yet live are now in the wane dler, if it could be faithfully written, would of life; nor is it probable that, in their rebe a record which none could read without reverence, and few without self-reproach.

trospect of many years, any one of them can recall a name more inseparably allied than that of John Bowdler to all that teaches the vanity of the hopes which terminate in this world, and the majesty of the hopes which extend beyond it.

To those who lived in habitual intercourse with him, it was evident that there dwelt on his mind a sense of self-dedication to some high and remote object; and that the pursuits, which are as ultimate ends to oth- And thus closes, though it be far from er men, were but as subservient means to exhausted, our chronicle of the worthies of him. So intent was he on this design, as to Clapham, of whom it may be said, as it appear incapable of fatigue, frail as were was said of those of whom the world was his bodily powers; and as to be unassaila- not worthy, 'These all died in faith.' With ble by the spirit of levity, though fertile but very few exceptions, they had all parand copious in discourse almost to a fault. taken largely of those sorrows which probe It is the testimony of one who for nearly the inmost heart, and exercise its fortitude twelve months divided with him the same to the utmost. But sweet, and not less narrow study, that during the whole of that wise than sweet, is the song in which period he was never heard to utter an idle George Herbert teaches, that when the word, nor seen to pass an idle minute. He Creator had bestowed every other gift on stood aloof from all common familiarities, his new creature man, he reserved Rest to yielding his affection to a very few, and, himself, that so the wearied heart in search to the rest, a courtesy somewhat reserved of that last highest blessing might cheerfully and stately. His friends were not seldom return to him who made it. They died in reminded how awful goodness is, as they the faith that for their descendants, at no watched his severe self-discipline, and lis-remote period, was reserved an epoch gloritened, not without some wandering wishes ous, though probably awful, beyond all forfor a lighter strain, to coloquies, didactic rather than conversational, in which he was ever soaring to heights and wrestling with problems inaccessible to themselves. But they felt and loved the moral sublimity of a devotion so pure and so devout to pur- Revolving the great dramatic action of poses the most exempt from selfishness. which this earth has been the scene, they They were exulting in prospects which it perceived that it was made up of a protractappeared irrational to distrust, and were ed conflict between light and darkness. hailing him as the future architect of plans, They saw that, on the one side, science and to be executed or conceived only by minds religion-on the other, war and superstition like his, when from the darkness which had been the great agents on this wide shrouds the counsels of the Omniscient theatre. They traced a general movement went forth a decree, designed, as it might of events towards the final triumph of good seem, at once to rebuke the presumption of over evil; but observed that this tendency mortal man, and to give him a new assur- was the result of all-controlling Providence, ance of his immortality. It rent asunder which had almost invariably employed the ties as many and as dear as ever bound to bad passions of man as the reluctant instruthis earth a soul ripe for translation to a ments of the Divine mercy-sending forth higher sphere of duty; and was obeyed a long succession of conquerors, barbarous with an acquiescence as meek and cheerful or civilized, as missionaries of woe, to preas ever acknowledged the real presence of pare the way for the heralds of peace. They fatherly love under the severer forms of parental discipline. His profound conviction of the magnitude of the trust, and the endowments confided to him, was really

mer example. It was a belief derived from the imitations, as they understood them, of the prophets of Israel; but it was also gathered from sources which to many will seem better entitled to such confidence.

saw, or thought they saw, this economy of things drawing to its close. Civilization and, in name at least, Christianity, had at length possessed the far greater and nobler

regions of the globe. Goths and Vandals |ter things, but, among the rest, in much were now the foremost among the nations. equivocal oratory, and in at least one great Even the Scythians had now become mem- effort of architecture.

bers of a vast and potent monarchy. The Midway between the Abbey of WestminArabs had again taken refuge in their des-ster and the Church of the Knights Temerts. If Genghis or Timour should reap- plars, twin columns, emulating those of Herpear, their power would be broken against cules, fling their long shadows across the the British Empire of Hindostan. The strait through which the far-resounding mightiest of warriors had triumphed and Strand pours the full current of human had fallen; as if to prove how impregnable existence into the deep recesses of Exeter had become the barriers of the European Hall. Borne on that impetuous tide, the world against such aggressions. On every mediterranean waters lift up their voice in side the same truth was proclaimed, that a ceaseless swell of exulting or pathetic demilitary subjugation was no longer to clamation. The changeful strain rises with be the purifying chastisement of Christen- the civilization of Africa, or becomes plaindom. tive over the wrongs of chimney-boys, or

here the causes corruptæ eloquentiæ! If the shades of Lucian or of Butler hover near that elevated stage, how readily must they detect the anti-types of Peregrinus or of Ralpho! Criticise, for there is no lack of extravagance. Laugh, for there is no stint of affectation. Yet refuse not to believe, that, grotesque as her aspect may occasionally be, Exeter Hall has a history, a doctrine, and a prophecy, of no common significance. Of that history, the preceding pages may afford some general intimation. The doctrine is that of an all-embracing, all-enduring charity-embracing every human interest, enduring much human infirmity.— The prophecy is a higher and more arduous theme.

But the religion of Christ was conquer-peals anathemas against the successors of ing and to conquer. Courting and exulting Peter, or in rich diapason calls on the in the light, it had made a straight alliance Protestant churches to awake and evangelwith philosophy-the only faith which could ize the world. No hard task to discover ever endure such an association. Amidst the imbecility and dotage of every other form of belief and worship, it alone flourished in perennial youth and indomitable vigor. If any thing in futurity could be certain, it was the ultimate and not very remote dominion, over the whole earth, of the faith professed by every nation which retained either wisdom to investigate, or energy to act, or wealth to negotiate, or power to interpose in the questions which most deeply affect the entire race of man. If any duty was most especially incumbent on those who exercised an influence in the national councils of England, it was that of contributing, as best they might, to speed onwards the approaching catastrophe of human affairsthe great consummation whence is to arise It is a prophetical age. We have Nominalthat new era with which creation travails ists who, from the monosyllable Church,' and is in birth, which poets have sung and educe a long line of shadowy forms, hereafter prophets foretold, and which shall justify to to arise and reign on Episcopal or patriarthe world, and perhaps to other worlds, all chal thrones-and Realists, who foresee the that Christians believe of the sacrifice sur-moral regeneration of the land by means passing thought and language, made for of union workhouses, of emigrant ships, or the deliverance and the exaltation of man- of mechanics' institutes-and Mediævals, kind. who promise the return of Astræa in the When such thoughts as these force them-persons of Bede and Bernard redivivi—and selves on the German mind, it forthwith soars Mr. Carlyle, who offers most eloquent vows towards the unapproachable, and indites for the reappearance of the heroes who are the unutterable. When the practical Eng- to set all things right-and profound interlishman is the subject of them, he betakes preters of the Apocalypse, who discover the himself to form societies, to collect sub-woes impending over England in chastisescriptions, to circulate books, to send forth ment of the impiety which moved Lord teachers, to build platforms, and to afflict Melbourne to introduce Mr. Owen to the his neighbors by an eloquence of which one is tempted to wish that it was really unutterable. Such was the effect of these bright anticipations on the Clapham mind -an effect perceptible in many much bet-hamic progenitor.

6

Queen of England. In the midst of all these predictions, Exeter Hall also prophesies. As to the events which are coming upon us, she adopts the theory of her Clap

SAINT MARC GIRARDIN'S “LECTURES
ON THE DRAMA."

From the Foreign Quarterly Review.

Cours de Littérature Dramatique: ou, de Usage des Passions dans le Drame. (On the Employment of the Passions in the Drama.) Par M. Saint Marc Girardin. Paris. 1843.

published some years ago, fell still-born
from the press.
We know of no other work
in which such varied learning is so skilfully
brought to illustrate such pregnant thoughts.
It is as full of thought as an egg is full of
meat; and this thought is profound, clear
as crystal, and suggestive of whole trains
of novel speculation. Then what a style!
clear, sparkling, epigrammatic, and felici-
tous: unceasing in its vivacity, undimmed
by a spot of affectation or obscurity. A
style such as no other German ever wrote;
and which, if Germans would but imitate,
they would enhance a hundred-fold the val-
ue of their works. A style which renders
a dull subject attractive; in this the reverse
of German writing, which generally con-
trives to make an attractive subject dull.
There are men who profess to think the
question of style a trivial one; we confess,
to us it is most important. Style is not, as
generally asserted, the mere dress of the
thought, the outward and insignificant ma-
terial, which none but coxcombs would

not dress, but form. It is the shape assum-
ed by the thought. It is the vase which
contains the thought, and if made of earth-
enware, the light of the thought will fail to
penetrate it; if made of alabaster it will
shine softly; if made of crystal it will shine
resplendently. Germans generally use the
commonest earthenware; some few alabas-
ter; Goethe and Lessing crystal.

M. SAINT MARC GIRARDIN is a philosophic statesman, a writer in the 'Journal des Débats,' and professor at the Faculté des Lettres.* The present work consists of the lectures delivered by him at the Collège de France, to crowded and enthusiastic audiences; and well did they merit their success. Mistake not, reader, M. Saint Marc Girardin for his namesake, M. Emile Girardin, who married Delphine Gay (la Muse de la Patrie), who shot Armand Carrel, who invented la presse à quarante sous,' who, born poor, has made and dissipated some millions of francs; a man of boundless audacity and of great no-compare with the form it clothes. Style is toriety, a man not without talent, but a man of very different character and calibre from the professor of the Collège de France. M. Saint Marc Girardin is an honor to the journalism of France, an honor to the literature of France. Learned without pedantry, and acute without flippancy, he possesses all the qualities which make a writer estimable. He has keen insight, sound judgment, healthy morality, varied. The Cours de Littérature Dramatique' acquirements, and an elegant style. We resembles the Laokoon' in the admirable have not read a work for some time which co-ordination of its materials, in strength of has given us such satisfaction as the 'Cours argument and clearness of exposition, and de Littérature Dramatique.' The subject in the acuteness and suggestiveness of the is interesting, the execution brilliant. It thoughts. It also owes something to the is a work which awakens all kinds of pleas- Laokoon:' but even in its obligations we ant recollections, and rouses attention to see the workings of an independent mind. some of the most beautiful passages of an- M. Saint Marc Girardin's object is to excient and modern art. It is a book emi-amine the manner in which the ancient nently suggestive. It not only gives new poets, and those of the seventeenth century, views, but suggests others in abundance; expressed the natural passions of mankind, and this, perhaps, is the most valuable such as love, parental love, love of life, quality a book can possess. In this and jealousy, honor, &c., and the manner in other respects it reminds us of the Lao-which they are expressed by the moderns. koon' of Lessing.

His book has a double aim; to point out We do not say it equals that incompara- the true, in a criticism of the ancients, and ble work; but it resembles it in the leading the false, in a criticism of the moderns. characteristics. The 'Laokoon' is a mod- The rules of good taste and sound healthy el and a masterpiece of critical writing, feeling are exemplified in the one; the exwhich surpasses every thing in its kind; cesses of caprice and falsehood are signalyet strange to say, it is comparatively un-ized in the other. This work is an invaluknown in England, and the translation, able guide to the young poet; because it He has very recently been elected a member not only lays down general principles, it of the Academy. illustrates them fully; in this respect, a

SEPTEMBER, 1844. 3