Andrews Norton, Dexter Professor of Sacred Literature in Cambridge, entitled, 'Thoughts on True and False Religion,' containing much originality and many very just, important and consolatory reflections. Dr. Channing speaks of him as one of their first scholars,' and as 'adding to learning great clearness and vigour of thought;' and this publication, as far as I am capable of judging, bears ample testimony to all this. I have also received an Address to the Massachusetts Peace Society on their Fifth Anniversary, by Hon. Josiah Quincey, and a copy for Mr. Fox, which Dr. C. has enclosed, under the idea, probably, of our being next-door neighbours. Will you be so good as to send it to him? How much do I wish to see these principles generally adopted by Unitarians, and advocated by writers in the Repository and Christian Reformer! My friends Mr. Welby and Mr. Kenrick have not yet seen these publications, having been absent at Halifax, at a meeting of ministers and Tract Society. I have not sealed the parcel for Mr. Fox, believing that my American friends would wish you to see it. I am, with compliments to Mrs. Aspland, dear Sir, your sincere friend, C. CAPPE."

"York, May 29, 1821.

"Dear Sir,-As my neighbour Mr. J. Wilson is going to London, and kindly offers to take a letter or small parcel for me, I avail myself of the opportunity to congratulate you on seeing your name among the number of speakers at Freemasons' Hall on the British and Foreign School Society, and that you proposed four motions which were seconded and carried. The philanthropic Gazette, in which I saw this account, does not mention what was their purport, but I hope we shall be favoured with these particulars in the Repository or Christian Reformer of this month. I feel the greatest solicitude that Unitarians, who believe that holiness of life and devotedness to the will of God to visit the widow and fatherless in their affliction, and to keep themselves unspotted from the world'-is of the very essence of the gospel, should come prominently forward in every good word and work,-in advocating Bible Societies, British and Foreign School Societies, Religious Tract Societies, and I would add, Peace Societies, &c., of which it is our peculiar privilege at this day not merely to have seen the commencement, but to have witnessed their considerable progress. As I am unable to take an active part, but would gladly contribute the aged widow's mite, I am preparing a little work for the Tract Societies, consisting of the reflections formerly added to the Life of Christ, &c., referring to the respective narratives to which they relate as given in the Gospels themselves, by which means I hope it may be afforded sufficiently low to circulate more generally (if it should be approved) than the larger work. I will send you and Mr. Rutt and Mr. Eaton, &c., each a copy when it is completed, as I hope it will be in the course of the summer, for your approbation. I am very glad to hear that my friend Captain Thrush has consented to publish his little work. He is really an extraordinary and most exemplary character, and, what makes it most remarkable, I believe he was not personally acquainted with a single Unitarian till, by what is called accident, he met with our friend Mr. W. at Redcar. I hope Mr. Eaton is perfectly recovered: have the goodness to remember me kindly to him. I hope you received a small packet from me containing Bishop Burnet's Letter to Charles the Second, for whose happy restoration our city bells are at this moment ringing most joyfully!-With best compliments to Mrs. Aspland, I remain your truly obliged C. CAPPE."

Rev. Thomas Belsham to Rev. Robert Aspland.

"Essex Street, July 12, 1822. "My dear Sir,-Your son Theophilus gave us great pleasure on Sunday by reporting that you were so well, you intended to preach on the Sunday following. But Dr. Pett rather damped our satisfaction by telling us that you were indeed mending, but that he should not allow you to officiate at present. May you, my dear Sir, speedily be restored to health, and see many, many years

of usefulness and comfort! I have, as you have heard, been laid aside for three Lord's-days by the loss of my voice, which I began to apprehend that I should never recover. But this would have been nothing, for it is time for me to withdraw from the field. Not so with respect to yourself and Mr. Fox: for such distinguished luminaries to be removed out of their place in the midst of life and usefulness, and when there are no successors to occupy their stations, would indeed be an awful visitation, which may God long avert!—for, indeed, it is not easy to conceive how a greater calamity can befal the Unitarian churches. But the cause is of God, and to him we may safely leave the protection of its advocates and heralds. He will never forsake either it or them. "I cannot be sufficiently thankful that my health has been spared to finish my great and arduous but pleasing task. If I could have foreseen what I had to perform in the way of correcting, transcribing, re-composing and adding, no consideration on earth would have induced me to have undertaken the work. I should have thought it insanity. Thank God, I have finished it, to the best of my ability. But I should have been most thoroughly ashamed had it gone forth into the world in the crude, imperfect state in which it existed when I first consented to its publication. I may now cheerfully chant my nunc dimittis.

“You were down in my list for a copy of the octavo edition, but Mr. Wainewright informs me that he is sending you a copy of the quarto. I hope, therefore, that you will not think it a slight if I do not request your acceptance of another copy, as I shall avail myself of the circumstance to give a copy to some other of our brethren who may chance to want one and to whom it may be useful.

"I have lately heard from William Roberts, and wish I had an opportunity of shewing you the letter. He has lost his kind master, Mr. Harington; and now, at the age of fifty-four, broken in constitution, with a wife and six children, he has retired to a cottage which he has at Pursewaukum, near the chapel, to end his days in poverty and dependence. To add to his misfortunes, his eldest son, a boy of fourteen, has been turned out of the English school at Mersulipatan, where he was boarded, clothed and educated, because some Unitarian tracts which his father had given him were found in his possession. In this way, a Unitarian Christian is denied a privilege which is readily granted to Mahometans and Pagans!

"Would it not be advisable to form a Committee for the affairs of Madras alone, the object of which should be to secure an annuity to Roberts and to support the Unitarian congregation at Pursewaukum ?-the proceedings of which Committee should be published in your Repository.

"With my best compliments to Mrs. Aspland and your whole family, I remain, dear Sir, most sincerely yours,

Mrs. Mary Hughes to Rev. Robert Aspland.

T. BELSHAM."

"Oct. 7, 1823.

"I seem to have heard very little from you, or concerning you and yours, for a long time past. My declining health rendered me anxious to get a small and probably a fast composition for the Christian Tract Society finished, that the labour already bestowed might not be quite thrown away; and as I have time and ability to do very little, that little occupied many days, and now I do not feel satisfied that it will be worth printing without some revisal; and my head being at this time pretty much immersed in clouds, I resolve to let it lie for two or three weeks, after which I shall perhaps be better able to judge of its merits and demerits: and should it want much mending, I fear I shall commit it to the flames rather than undertake it,-not, however, from idle

This was "An Address to the Teachers in Sunday-schools." It proved the last of the valuable series of tracts, nineteen in number, contributed to the Christian Tract Society. Her pure and benevolent life closed at Bristol, Dec. 14, 1824.

ness, but from a feeling of disability. Yet if you were to call upon me in a morning, or even spend an evening here, you would not perceive that any thing was the matter; for while my mind is excited, though far from being at ease, I converse exactly as usual. I am thankful for the ability to do this, and I do not think these exertions are hurtful to me.

"I laid this sheet aside to write a note to Miss Acland on a subject that you know lies near my heart. I heard yesterday that Mr. Clarkson was soon expected here, and I thought she might probably have an opportunity of conversing with him; in which case, I wished her to press him on the subject of having his most admirable pamphlet, published in two numbers of the Inquirer, on Freeing the Negroes, freely sold. I had just finished this, when Mr. Maurice came in, and I of course told him what I had been doing,-when he electrified me with saying, 'I have this moment parted with Mr. Clarkson: he is gone across the Square to Mr. Biddulph's, and will be at your door in a few minutes!' When Mr. M. had looked over my note, he said, 'Perhaps you would like to see him and prefer your own request.' You will not doubt that I eagerly caught at the proposal. He soon after rang our door-bell, and I had the delight of seeing him enter, of shaking hands, and for nearly half an hour conversing, with the second man of the present day (for I must hold our great Indian Reformer as the first)—a happiness which I could not have hoped for; but Mr. M., knowing my ardour in the cause, thought I had a claim upon it, and gave me that great indulgence. It was a real pleasure, for we instantly fell into most interesting conversation, and Mr. M. so contrived that C. spoke almost the whole time; and I had the satisfaction of finding that what I so earnestly wished with respect to the pamphlet was already resolved upon. I could have almost found in my heart to be angry with Mr. M. for actually rising from his seat and reminding Mr. C. that he had three letters to write, and other calls to make, before dinner. Even after this he continued to sit, and to give us more information for a minute or two, and every minute was a gain to me. To see before me and freely converse with a man in whose career of noble exertions I had taken so warm an interest years ago, in the days of my greatest enthusiasm! To do myself justice, I must say that, in all worthy causes, I am far from feeling any abatement of that enthusiasm. Small matters which in earlier life would have hurt or offended me, seem now as nothing-they do not occupy a second thought; but where right and wrong is concerned, either in principle or practice, my perceptions appear to myself to become more clear and my feelings more acute than formerly. This does not always add to my present happiness, but it spurs me on to all the exertions that are within my narrow reach.

"Oct. 8.-Mr. Clarkson had to hurry to Bath yesterday evening, and he returns here to a meeting this morning. I hope his influence will make a considerable impression, and that a petition of much more importance than the last will be in readiness for the next session of Parliament. Mr. Maurice told us that he has already travelled 1700 miles on the business! What a providence (I must term it) it is that on this new and grand effort being made, so many years after the first, that this great apostle in the cause should still have health and faculties equal to beginning another contest, which I fear will be nearly as arduous as the first! I trust he is to see a glorious victory achieved; and he may then depart not only in peace, but cheered with joyful anticipations of a rich reward, when he shall hereafter meet the thousands and tens of thousands who will rise up and call him blessed.

"I was most agreeably surprised when I gazed upon his fine intelligent and benevolent countenance; for our friend Mr. P * many years ago, when I expressed a strong desire to see him, said, 'O, you would be disappointed in his appearance: he is a fat, commonplace-looking man.' How he could ever have thought so, seems wonderful."

CRITICAL NOTICES.

The Age and Christianity. By Robert Vaughan, D.D. Pp. 323. LondonJackson and Walford.

THE present age is evidently working out some new problems in respect to Christianity. The time has perhaps not yet come for taking a full view of the interesting subject. We see only the beginning of the end. There are opposing elements at work, both in active operation, and according as the eye is fixed on the good or the evil, will a cheerful or a disastrous result be anticipated. To one man the signs of the times will appear all portentous of evil,Christianity, in its old and as he thinks only true forms, losing its hold of the popular mind; new and pernicious systems, which set at nought all pre-established doctrines, rising into prominence; that which mankind have hitherto treated as settled truth, now cast aside with indifference, if not with scorn, and in its place opinions which, if they have been ever intelligibly stated, have never been established by argument, professed with passionate ardour by large classes of men. Another man will see in all this commotion and confusion the dawning of hope. In the newly-awakened mental activity he perceives a process going on which must eventually lead to truth. At last the human mind is unchained; its first use of freedom may shew more of passion than wisdom; but its final state will be satisfactory. Notwithstanding the rude questioning of the evidences of Christianity, and the disposition to deny its claims to be a pure revelation of truth, the great principles which lie at its basis were never more generally recognized or carried out than in the present day. Many of the little controversies which have divided the world are disappearing. An unwonted spirit of toleration is leavening society. The powers hitherto arrayed against the benevolent spirit of the gospel of Christ are becoming weaker and weaker. Men of all parties are anxiously putting forth their strength to grasp and retain the essence of their religion. If some are for throwing down the old buttresses of faith, it must be also remembered that the enemies of Christian faith have changed their mode of attack. The change in their mode of assailing the gospel, is at least a confession that hitherto Christianity has successfully withstood their assaults. Nor even now do the assailants agree in a common plan. The weapons most relied on to-day, tomorrow will be flung aside with contempt. As infidelity now refuses to advance under the banners of Voltaire, so to-morrow will it disown Strauss.

The work of Dr. Vaughan, the title of which stands at the head of our page, will awaken in the mind of the thoughtful reader many interesting reflections. It presents many very definite, and to our minds many correct statements, mingled, however, with some things from which we entirely dissent. Its fault is its attempt to travel in a very brief space over an almost boundless field of speculation. It is too like a long article of review, and wants the thoroughness that should characterize a course of lectures on a set subject. It is most unequal in its execution. Massive thoughts and condensed results are sometimes followed by pages of mere rhetorical declamation; and where we should anticipate that the gifted author would exert his highest powers of ratiocination, there we sometimes find a diffuse amplification of a thought neither original nor profound. The links by which our author connects his several topics are often scarcely visible. We shall not, therefore, attempt to give an analysis of his work as a whole, but select a few extracts which will place the author's views and aim distinctly before our readers.

In his Preface he briefly describes his object:

"Our age, amidst its many forms of scepticism and worldliness, is ill at ease, and, in common with all preceding ages, exhibits an irrepressible yearning of the human spirit after something more settled and satisfactory than it has found. Its sense of want is going out, conspicuously enough, in search of something higher-of something more noble. My object is to demonstrate to some of these

bewildered and weary wanderers that the old path is, after all, the true one; that the new paths opened out on either hand, are harder to make way upon than the one on which we may trace the foot-prints of our sires; and that, seeing all men are compelled to be believers in some shape, it is really a much easier thing, and assuredly a much happier thing, to believe after the manner of a Christian than to believe after any other manner."

In the chapter on the Characteristics of the Age, our author thus describes the peculiarities of its scepticism:

"It is not really characteristic of our age to urge speculation, either in science or literature, to extremes. The scepticism of our time is not a scepticism which aims to proscribe belief in a God, or to thrust aside Christianity in form and name. It is rather of the sort which is disposed to look on natural religion so as to leave every man, in respect to such matters, very much to his humour. It is respectful towards Jesus, but only in so far as to place him a little in advance of Socrates. It would leave every thing of this nature in a convenient degree of unsettledness and insignificance. It is not disposed to commit any thing so troublesome or perilous as would be an attempt to uproot all principle, or to efface all sentiment of this nature. This is the sort of scepticism which, in its stronger or in its more diluted forms, has been increasing amongst us very perceptibly of late. It has little quarrel with you if you will only leave it to itself. It is quite willing to live without the least thought about you, any more than about a God, or a state after this, so it may be left to give itself untroubled to its farm or its merchandize-its science or its tastes. It is not a state of irreligion, so much as a state devoid of religion-not a state of belief of any kind, so much as a state of doubts and postponements, leaving the future to be shaped by itself."-Pp. 31, 32.

Amongst the Characteristics of the Age, Dr. Vaughan specifies contempt of the past, in which, when carried to its extremity, he sees something worse than folly. He characterizes it as "dishonest and ignoble," "a want of gratitude, no less than a want of taste."

The passionate admirers of Mr. Emerson will be startled by the view taken by our author of some of his speculations.

"One of our philosophical seers has taught, with much earnestness and iteration, that the man who would learn wisdom should aim to divorce his mind, not only from the past, but as far as possible from all other minds. He is himself a thinker; what need then that other men should think for him? All that man has been, he may be. In himself he possesses all that man has been or is. Why then look abroad for that which may be found at home? There is nothing known he may not know, nothing felt he may not feel. Why then all this concern about the mind of ancestors, or the mind of contemporaries? His own mind is all mind in epitome-the world in little-or rather in great, from its being the world which, in his case, may be subjected to the closest inspection. Strictly to this effect is the teaching of Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson.

"But surely it would be possible to teach a man a little wholesome self-reliance, without pouring forth folly upon this scale under the show of wisdom. It is pleasant, however, to startle by paradox-pleasant, it would seem, to dress up the absurd so as to cause it to pass for the profound. The most inexperienced thinker, however, must know, that self-reliance, in common with all our virtues, has its goodness, in great part, from the limits that are assigned to it. In excess it must be prolific of mischief. It may lead to discoveries, but it must also lead to disappointments. Confidence may grow into rashness, and success become parent to disaster. What was done at Austerlitz is undone at Moscow. Men may surmount difficulty until they cease to believe in the impossible. It is thus in other than military affairs, and in the smaller concerns of life even as in the greater. Hence the feverish unsettledness of modern society. New organizations, new schemes make their appearance, each in its turn being to do every thing. Novelties come in such startling succession, that the mind is kept in a state of constant expectancy, and the tendency works itself almost into an article of faith, which seems to say, that whatever is new must be true."-Pp. 51, 52.

The volume before us discloses what we have sometimes noticed as a pecu