all fresh copies ordered, through the me dium of the pastor. One of my own pew. openers will secure for herself six shillings a month by the additional copies taken by my congregation, as the result of a public notice of the work from the pulpit. When I think how many hundreds of widows' hearts have been made glad by the annual profits of your valuable periodical, I must

be pardoned if I say that it should find a place in every house where the inmates are able to procure it. I know, from my own experience, that ministers may secure this, to a great extent, if they will, and I dare not suspect them of indifference to the sorrows of a widowed heart.

PASTOR.

SIR,-Allow me through the medium of your Magazine to call the attention of the public to an evil prevailing, alas! to a lamentable extent: I allude to the habitual use of ardent spirits. It is indeed high time that decisive measures were taken, as it has pleased the Almighty to visit our country with a fatal pestilence, which is pursuing us with the speed and vehemence of a whirlwind, and like an Afric blast threatens our destruction. It is useless to attempt to sketch the black catalogue of diseases arising from the practice of drinking spirits. Inquire of the juvenile delinquent and the felon what induced them to forsake the path of honesty?-of the miserable prostitute, what led her to deviate from the paths of virtue ?-and enter the condemned cell, and ask the criminal under what influence he perpetrated the horrid deed for which he was about to suffer?-and it will be found that intemperance is the cause.

I call upon the readers of these remarks

to bestir themselves, and use their best efforts to counteract an evil so fearful in its consequences and extensive in its nature. Let them, if they love their country, neighbours, families, and their God, unite in establishing Temperance Societies, which, in America, have been, and are likely to continue, so particularly successful, and there is every reason to believe will have a beneficial tendency in this country. Combined efforts are necessary to accomplish such an end; for it was by union that the dark mist of superstition, which once spread itself over Christendom, was dispelled; and the tempests of the gloomy ages, which marked the downfal of the Papal usurpation, were quelled; and the Puritans and others released themselves from spiritual bondage; and it is by union that we can hope to counteract the debasing propensity in question, while the united efforts of the public must be found irresistible. Bishop's Stortford. F. H. N.

but to bring the entire population of the poor under individual instruction. The plan proposed, which may be varied as circumstances require, is to invite all to attend the church or chapel at a convenient hour on the Sabbath afternoon, to divide them into classes of six or eight, appointing a pious teacher to each class. The alphabet or spelling to be reckoned the first class, or the estimate of the importance of the classes to be reckoned downwards-thus always placing the most experienced teacher to the most ignorant class. This, to a superficial observer,

The Society of Friends do not appear to have been backward in their contributions to several charitable institutions, particularly those for promoting the education of poor children, and in their persevering endeavours to procure the abolition of colonial slavery. Mr. Davis thinks their reasons for not joining in missionary undertakings with Christians of other denominations are not generally known; but, according to his account, they chiefly arise from the peculiar opinions of the Friends respecting the gospel ministry, which, it is a fundamental principle among them, ought to be free-and that Christian ministers should not require or accept any pecuniary reward or worldly consideration for their labours.

To meet these objections of his brethren, Mr. D., in one of his letters, has suggested to them a feasible plan of instituting missions of their own members; and though they cannot, consistently with their peculiarities, send out preachers to be paid for their services, they may send out hired teachers to instruct the savage and the heathen. By way of experiment in such a benevolent work, he recommends to his friends to form a missionary settlement in South Africa (an idea which he acknowledges to have entertained by reading Dr. Philip's interesting Researches), such as would combine civilization with moral and religious instruction. He says, he sees no reason why persons engaged in

agriculture, in trade, or commerce, may not also take an active share in improving the moral condition of the natives. He gives the preference gives the preference to South Africa on account of the greater salubrity of the climate; and wishes that the benevolent Mrs. Hannah Kilham had been led thither, instead of the unhealthy situation of Sierra Leone, where she has formed (with the aid of her friends in England) an institution for the instruction of the natives grammatically; for which purpose she has had printed, in their and our languages, a variety of suitable books. I understand that Mrs. Kilham has made three voyages to this part of Africa, and her health appears to have been providentially preserved, though she has had to contend with several attacks of fever.

I must not forget to add, that it appears by a note to Mr. D.'s first letter on missions, that certain benevolent individuals of his Society, at Liverpool, had subscribed the liberal sum of £250 towards missionary undertakings, but with an understanding that the money would be applied to objects of education and civilization.

Query. Should not the Friends at Liverpool be applied to on behalf of the infant schools in South Africa?

H. E.

Holdsworth and Ball.

In an age when a taste for light reading prevails, much is due to a writer who breaks in upon the sluggishness of human nature, and who, while he fascinates the imagination, compels a vigorous exercise of the reflective powers. It is true, indeed, that the mass of ordinary readers will not impose upon themselves the labour necessary to the comprehension of such a writer; but the few choice spirits upon whom he will act are possessed of an intellectual and moral force which must tell upon the whole community; and he who, in a legitimate way, is instru mental in augmenting that force must be regarded in the light of a benefactor to the species. Such master-minds are, indeed, placed in a sphere of tremendous responsibility; inasmuch as they are destined to give a powerful direction to the mighty current of human thought, and to mould society at large, by influencing those who are to be its conservators or destroyers. When we find writers of the first rank-men of taste and science-men capable of marching, with gigantic step, over the vast field of human inquiry-men who have no superiors and but few equals in the walks of secular literature-when we find writers of this rank exerting the full vigour of their masculine intellect in the cause of revealed truth, and consecrating all the rich stores of their genius to the interests of the cross, it is, indeed, cause of devout and grateful acknowledgment to that gracious Being who has all the resources of mind under his control. And

when we contemplate the present literary aspects of Christianity-in other words, when we compare the amount of mind enlisted on its behalf, with the amount of mind still to be found in the ranks of the enemy, we cannot hesitate for a moment in reaching the conclusion, that genius and learning, no less than goodness and morality, have embraced the religion of Jesus of Nazareth. Our youth of high intellectual promise have now no occasion, under pretext of the baldness of our Christian literature, to debase their minds by resorting to the modern classics of infidelity; for among them all, even the most bewitching, they will find none capable of fair comparison with the "Natural History of Enthusiasm," "The Advancement of Society," ""Errors in Religion," "Truths of Religion," the writings of John Foster and of Robert Hall, and the extraordinary publication now before us.

According to promise, we now proceed to offer a few remarks on that publication, although we are quite conscious of the difficulty, in a brief notice, of doing any thing like justice to a work which contains internal marks of an expenditure of thought rarely exhibited in a single volume.

The title of this work is an instance of affectation which should have been avoided by a writer of acknowledged power and originality. If it applies mystically to certain of the author's speculations, it carries with it no just or intelligible description of the volume as a whole. We shall readily, however, reconcile our minds to this instance of doubtful taste, or rather to this violation of sound sense, if the curiosity of the public mind is thereby more intensely excited. For our own part, we do not like titles of Action

applied to grave works; and had the author deigned to consult us, we should have said at once to him, call your book what it is,— A Series of Essays on certain Points of Christian Doctrine and Morality." If such a title as this had been less curious, it would have had the merit of being far more dignified and appropriate; and the author of "Natural History of Enthusiasm" could have had no just reason to fear the reception of any work of his thus denominated.

If we were asked to give a brief description of the nature and design of "Saturday Evening," we should say, in general, that it is a work evidently intended by the author to counteract existing abuses in the visible church, and to correct errors and extravagancies of various kinds, by the calm and deliberative, yet convincing, method of placing truth in striking contrast to them, thereby leaving the reader to infer, by an easy process, the nature, fitness, utility, and loveliness of truth.

The volume consists of twenty-nine separate essays, each treating of some topic of high Christian interest, though the titles in general are such as to afford, at first sight, but little clew to their immediate design. As we finished each separate essay, however, we were more reconciled to the author's choice, and in a few instances were struck with its

singular felicity. The writer is evidently fond of taking his readers by surprise; and, if they are all affected as we have been, his success will be equal to his wishes. Far be it from us to insinuate that he exhibits any of the petty artifices of an inferior mind; throughout the entire work there are to be traced marks of originality, which place him in the first rank among living authors. We must, at the same time, be forgiven if we venture to give utterance to our conviction, that his modes of thinking are somewhat too artificial, and that there is an occasional obscurity in his style, which might prompt a reasonable doubt whether his conceptions are always clearly defined to his own mind. An author is rarely justified in expressing himself, on subjects not involving abstract science, so ambiguously as to render it necessary for an intelligent reader to go over a paragraph two or three times ere he can satisfy himself that he understands it. It may, indeed, be owing to our obtuseness that we have been compelled to resort to this process again and again in reading certain portions of "Saturday Evening;" but if it be, we have at least this consolation, that many other personages, far more erudite than we can ever affect to be, have felt the same difficulty; and we do thoroughly believe, that original and splendid thoughts do not require an inverted and perplexed verbiage and construction of sentences, in order to their due exhibition. Let the writings of Robert Hall suffice as an evidence of the

correctness of this opinion, We think, too, that our author writes at times with an air of confidence bordering on authority, in cases even where none can reasonably be interposed; and that it will become all who take the requisite trouble to understand his posi tions, rather to canvass their accuracy than to receive them as axioms in moral science. We venture to make these friendly criticisms on a great work, which must carry down its author's name to posterity; a work for which we return him our heartfelt acknowledg ments; and in the perusal of which we have experienced a measure of gratification never associated with the ordinary literature of the day, and never connected with publications whose theology is not in accordance with the great lessons of inspired truth. We believe the author to be eminently Christian, and rejoice to say that the rising mind of our Christian communities can acquire no taint from the perusal of "Saturday Evening."

Among the essays which compose this volume the second, entitled, "The Expectations of Christians," is with us a great favourite. It is a splendid and convincing exhibition of the facilities which are opening' to the labours of the church, more immediately in connexion with the obvious and rapid decay of all the gigantic impostures and superstitions which have filled the earth. "The present era," observes the author, may justly be deemed the day of hope for the gospel. No such singular conjuncture of symptoms, throughout the world, has ever before invited the activity and zeal of Christians. And if the pressure of responsibility is at all times great upon them, in this behalf, it has acquired now a treble weight; inasmuch as it seems as if the antagonist powers were fast drawing off from the field. Looking out to the long and many-coloured array of ghostly domination, as it stretches its lines across plains and hills, we discern movement; but it is the stir of retreat. campments are breaking up; barriers are trampled upon; standards are furled; the clarion of dismay is sounded. This this, then, is the hour for the hosts of the Lord to snatch their weapons, and be up!"

En

If our author conceals nothing beneath the last paragraph of this chapter, akin to certain very crude and latitudinarian views expressed by him in his "New Model of Missions," we should be disposed to subscribe to it with some degree of cheerfulness; at least we can say unhesitatingly, we are ready to abandon all views and practices, in matters ecclesiastical, not derived expressly from the word of God: further than this we dare not go. "Let," says he, "the fond admirer of his own church, whatever may be its pretensions, assure himself, that the conversion of Asia, and Africa, and Europe, and America, will so raise the temperature, spiritual and moral, of the world's atmosphere, as must dissolve,