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of development. Thus it is that opposite errors converge to a common centre. The loosest sentimentalism harmonizes with the tightest dogmatism as to its results.

"The Catholic consciousness of the universal church has gone forward in its development; one point after another has been cleared up, one principle after another brought to light; and the calm, unbiassed, heaven-aspiring mind, standing aloof from the din and passion of controversy, sees the central course through which God is guiding his ark, and falls back upon the great Catholic hopes, convictions and aspirations of the Christian mind in its upward progress, as its safest guide." "It is that element which runs through all systems alike, which all are seeking to realize, all striving more fully to express, which we must look upon as the divine teaching of Christ himself, drawn forth from Holy Scripture by the perpetual operation of Providence in human history, and the perpetual outpouring of his Spirit upon the church."†

Now we are quite ready to uphold this mode of investigation as involving an important principle of judgment; but to exalt that principle into the primary test of Christian truth, as is here done, is to turn its advantage into a great evil. It is to substitute corporate authority for individual conviction, and to concede the prescriptive claim to orthodoxy which rests on the plea of mere numbers and antiquity. The fact that nothing more than a verbal concession is contemplated in the instance before us, is only calculated to add insincerity to obsequiousness.

To prop up this method of theology, it was necessary to misrepresent the doctrine of private judgment; and accordingly that doctrine is treated as though it meant that the materials on which the judgment is formed should be drawn entirely from individual reason. No enlightened defender of the doctrine would consent to any such interpretation of it. It expresses a judgment that avails itself of the facts without, as well as of the ideas within the mind by which it is adopted. It simply advocates the right and duty of every mind to judge for itself; and if that view of it had been fairly adhered to by Mr. Morell, much that he has said on the question of Rationalism must have been withheld by him as quite inapplicable to the point in hand.

A great part of the biblical and theological criticism adopted in Mr. Morell's volume is strictly Unitarian,—so strictly that it would be easy to adduce, from well-known Unitarian works, opinions and modes of thought which exactly answer to the most prominent of the critical disquisitions with which he has favoured his readers. There are other indications besides this of a considerable yielding on his part to the influence of Unitarianism. Such being the case, we cannot refrain from observing that not one kind or generous word relating to Unitarianism or Unitarians is to be found in his book. He abstains from making acknowledgments which, in any other instance, would be thought obligatory. This we are persuaded is not, for it could not be, accidental. It is our duty to point out the circumstance; but a sense of dignity hinders us from either complaining of it or characterizing it.

The manner in which a reference to Unitarianism is avoided is sometimes rather amusing. Thus we read,-" So also, to some extent, that admirable scholar and theologian, Dr. J. P. Smith, in one of the notes to his Scriptural Testimony to the Messiah,' a note which had almost brought out the controversy fairly into this country, but that its hour

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was not yet arrived."* It is quite plain from his present work that Mr. Morell's theology differs most widely from that held by this "admirable theologian." But what, do our readers think, is the "controversy" which was "almost brought out fairly into this country"? Why, it is the controversy occasioned by a maintenance of the " principle which confines the notion of inspiration to the religious element of the Bible." Certainly Mr. Morell cannot be so ignorant as not to know that this controversy has been going on in this country for a very long series of years, having been "brought out" a great while before Dr. J. P. Smith had to do with it. The "principle" for which this “admirable theologian" is here honoured, is almost the special property of the Unitarian theologians, against whom his "Scripture Testimony" was written. If this mode of dealing with a controversy were generally followed, "its hour" would never "arrive."

As far as we recollect, there is but one direct allusion to Unitarianism throughout the volume. That, however, is of too remarkable a character to be passed over in silence. It is as follows:

"We are quite ready to render our heartfelt homage to the vigorous theological spirit of the early Puritan writers; they did their work nobly and completely, at a time, too, when it was most needed; they penetrated the mind of the country, which had been lying in the bosom of the grossest ignorance, with genuine and earnest theological ideas: but their immediate successors, instead of striving to perpetuate the religious life of those holy men, strove rather to make their scholastic system a perpetual rule of faith and a standing condition of fellowship. The consequence was, that, as this system ceased to satisfy the religious growth of the age, one point after another was relaxed, until it produced first a lifeless orthodoxy, and at last a negative Unitarianism, such as the predominance of the critical element in the domain of theology invariably superinduces."+

Unitarianism has, we know, been attributed to many strange causes; but this, we should think, was the first time it was described as the consequence of making any theological system "a perpetual rule of faith and a standing condition of fellowship." It is not only beyond dispute, but from certain circumstances peculiarly notorious, that Unitarianism, in this country, arose from a rejection of all "perpetual rules of faith and standing conditions of fellowship." This is so clear, that it can be proved by Act of Parliament. Unitarianism, with all its negations, has among us an historically-established connection with the non-creed principle advocated by Mr. Morell. It is both blamed by its enemies and boasted of by its friends as the natural result of that principle; and to attribute it to the contrary principle is an act of desperation, which as it sets all truth of statement at defiance, so it renders all serious opposition unnecessary. "My good fellow," said a practical man to a reckless theorist "My good fellow, your theory does not at all agree with facts." "So much the worse for the facts," was the philosophical reply.

In closing our remarks we wish to observe, that though we have endeavoured honestly to represent what we believe to be Mr. Morell's real opinions, we are aware that exceptions may be made to some things we have advanced, in this relation, on the ground of different admissions which may be culled from his book. We cannot, however, consider ourselves as at all responsible for such inconsistencies. We also

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acknowledge that there is much in the book which obtains our hearty approval. Many points of great importance are not only well stated and argued in it, but treated with unusual ability. In spite of all our objections, we are glad that it has appeared. It brings to the test of argument certain views of Religion and Christianity which, though rising of late in popularity, have been too loosely put forth to admit of their satisfactory examination. Their popularity has, we think, been owing in a great measure to this looseness; and we trust that this attempt to fix their philosophical character will be the means of securing a verdict against them. Mr. Morell has done for the Sentimentalists what they have not been able to do for themselves; and whether our own expectations be realized or not, the superiority of his efforts must contribute to the advancement of the cause of truth.

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THE NEMESIS OF FAITH.*

THAT is, according to the interpretation of the Oxford jesters, among the associates of the ex-Fellow of Exeter College,-Froude's faith with a vengeance. It may be more truly as well as more seriously described as a pathetic picture of the sufferings which befal those who dare, in the exercise of the perilous gift of thought, to abandon the faith of their childhood, though truth be sought with earnestness and integrity, under the impulse of benevolence, and with no want of reverence for the Supreme Being. Yet we cannot call to mind any work of pure fiction which has drawn upon its author, from diverse portions of the public press, so large a measure of coarse and violent vituperation,-a vituperation so little warranted by the demerits or even the merits of the work, that an indirect object and personal motives would be suspected, were they not apparent.†

Not only the incidents and the tragic result, but the character portrayed, ought to have protected the author against these calumnious misrepresentations; for the author, instead of adorning his hero with specious virtues, and thereby rendering him an object of sympathy

The Nemesis of Faith. By J. A. Froude, M.A., Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford.

† Among these has been the occasion which presented itself to calumniate the Council of University College, London. The Council having been requested to recommend a Head Master to a Grammar-school at Hobart's Town, in Van Diemen's Land, pursued the course uniformly followed in the election of the Professors of their own College, and, with the aid of the Academical Senate, recommended Mr. Froude on the ground of an overwhelming mass of testimonials for learning and the other requisite attainments, beyond those of every other candidate. These testimonials were sent from Oxford, which, added to his then official character in Exeter College, did not permit of a suspicion that he was exposed to the imputation arising out of the present work, then unpublished, of which no member of the Council had any foreknowledge, as we believe Mr. Froude was himself known to the Council solely by the testimonials laid before them. Yet it was, with characteristic recklessness and disregard of truth, affirmed that he was selected by the Council solely on the ground of the infidelity imputed to him, and this we have no doubt sharpened the malignity of one portion of the public press.

and admiration, has exhibited him as an object of mixed pity and contempt. But while we express our indignation at the dishonest calumnies to which the author has been exposed, we are not about to become his eulogists. The book has one flagrant and irremediable fault, which would not be cured were the merits of the better portion greater than they are. It is compounded of incongruous ingredients. To the exhibition of an intensely painful mental conflict, in letters which precede a desperate resolution to enter the Church in spite of the scepticism, the formation of which is narrated in the subsequent "confessions," he has subjoined a love-story. This and the other incidents we will dismiss briefly.

Markland Sutherland is one of a religious family, "whose minds were constructed on a common type;" but in his childhood, like Wordsworth's Skylark, he was

"True to the kindred points of heaven and home."

He combined religion with his family affections; he held the Bible in "unreasoning reverence;" and had an intense enjoyment in the Sunday religious exercises, and in the gospel narratives; though, even then, the Old Testament awakened his obscure doubts and fears. The loss of these infantine feelings he unceasingly deplores. Before he went to the university he "fell under strong Catholicising influence at home;" and, thus prepared, became at Oxford, for a time, the admirer and follower of Newman. This "great man" succeeded in alienating him from the Anglican Church, but was unable to carry him over to the Church of Rome; and becoming acquainted with the works of a 'very great man," Carlyle, he was brought at length into a condition of confirmed scepticism.

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In this state, he follows the example of Rousseau's Vicaire Savoyard; and, to gratify his father and relations, he becomes an ordained priest, in the idle hope that he may, in his state of little faith, be a useful teacher of moral truth. His actual condition is soon detected, and his kindlydisposed bishop counsels him to resign his living. To relieve his mind and restore his broken health, he proceeds to Como, where the romance of the tale commences. Here he becomes the inmate of a family, of which the husband and wife had contracted a marriege de raison. She attaches herself warmly to him, and he proposes to her an elopement; but she cannot abandon her child. That child is attacked with fever; and he, filled with remorse, sees in the attack, before it ends in death, a warning or a judgment, and resolves, whatever the issue, to see the mother no more. He parts from her, declaring that in truth he never loved her. He has no one to love, and resolves to commit suicide. The act is prevented by an incident that might be deemed miraculous, were miracles wrought in favour of the unworthy. He is induced to become a monk, for no reason that one can see, except to be exhibited in every form of inconsistency and imbecility. "Though not one intellectual difficulty had been solved, under the warm rain of penitence the old doubts melted like snow from off his soul;" he was able to comply with the rigid rules of the Church, and was received into its bosom and into the convent: yet the volume thus concludes:

"But Markham's new faith-fabric had been raised upon the clouds of sudden violent feeling, and no air-castle was ever of more unabiding growth:

doubt soon sapped it and remorse, not for what he had done, but for what he had not done; and amidst the wasted ruins of his life, where the bare bleak soil was strewed with wrecked purposes and shattered creeds, with no hope to stay him, with no fear to raise the most dreary phantom beyond the grave, he sunk down into the barren waste, and the dry sands rolled over him where he lay; and no living being was left behind him upon earth who would not mourn over the day which brought life to Markland Sutherland."

This expresses the sentiment of the supposed editor, who may more justly than the imaginary "confessor" be considered as representing the author. Now, this being the finale, the moral of the tale, it is most dishonest to represent this as a cunning and insidious work published to undermine Christianity by seducing men into the indulgence of free inquiry, in disregard of established creeds and the opinions of mankind. Equally unwarrantable is the charge of blasphemy. Not an expression can be found of irreverence towards the Supreme Being, in whom Sutherland never ceased to believe; but his vehement declamations against the clergy of the Establishment, on the ground of their secular character and Erastian spirit, of which they are accused by Newman and the Tractarians, and unsparing strictures on certain Judaic representations of God, are considered as evil-speaking of God himself. These passages have been picked out and widely circulated, with equal indiscretion and unfairness, by portions of the public press: -with indiscretion, for there the poison is unaccompanied by the antidote which the tale supplies; with unfairness, because these passages are given as if they were the firm convictions of a mind at ease, and not, as they are expressly declared to be," the working off in a sort of moral fermentation of the strong corruption with which his mind had been impregnated," and "while this fermentation was at its worst." We cannot imagine greater dishonesty than this. Misquotation is far less injurious, because it may be easily exposed.

We have read in the public prints the author's indignant remonstrance against the perpetration of this injustice; and it is but justice to him to report his own statement:

"My book is a book of pure fiction: it contains a picture of a man of weak mind who has been unhappy enough to be cast adrift from the system in which he has been brought up, under the peculiar influences of the present day. The state of his mind is not an enviable one. And an obvious moral of the story is the consequent shipwreck of the entire spiritual nature.". "I have but painted the conclusion at which the speculating intellect alone is sure to arrive. I do not mean to say that what I call the obvious moral of my book is the whole moral; or that the book has, strictly speaking, any simple moral; or that it is itself, in any sense, a moral book—perhaps not.”

This is not a high tone; nor, though it may suffice against those to whom it was addressed, will it satisfy those who on other grounds may question the wisdom of such a production. When he himself concedes that it is perhaps not a moral work, others will infer that it is most probably immoral; for when such awful topics are discussed, the result cannot be indifferent. To state freely our own opinion of the religious speculations contained in this volume, we first object to their being intermingled with a love-story: at the best, they are strong meat and not salutary diet for the ordinary novel-reader. But, above all, we object to it as a work produced too soon. One who has passed through the phases of doubt and disbelief, and who has at last happily arrived at a

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