celebrated Unitarian divines who has extorted from the more liberal members of all'orthodox' denominations the praise of being a defender of the faith. "In the course of my two visits to the United States, I enjoyed opportunities of hearing sermons preached by many of the most eminent Unitarians,— among them were Channing, Henry Ware, Dewey, Bellows, Putnam, and Gannet, and was much struck, not only with their good sense and erudition, but with the fervour of their eloquence. I had been given to understand that I should find a want of warmth in their discourses, that they were too cold and philosophical, and wanting in devotional feeling; but, on the contrary, they were many of them most impresssive, full of earnestness and zeal, as well as of original views and instruction. One of the chief characteristics was the rare allusion made to the Old Testament, or to controverted points of doctrine, or to the mysteries of the Christian religion, and the frequency with which they dwelt on the moral precepts and practical lessons of the Gospels, especially the preaching of Christ himself. Occasional exhortations to the faithful, cheerfully to endure obloquy for the sake of truth, and to pay no court to popularity, an undue craving for which was, they said, the bane of a democracy, convinced me how much the idea of their standing in a hostile position to a large numerical majority of the community was present to their minds. On some occasions, however, reference was naturally made to doctrinal points, particularly to the humanity of Christ, his kindred nature, and its distinctness from that of the eternal, omnipotent, and incorporeal Spirit which framed the universe; but chiefly on occasions when the orator was desirous of awakening in the hearts of his hearers emotions of tenderness, pity, gratitude, and love, by dwelling on the bodily sufferings of the Redeemer on the cross. More than once have I seen these appeals produce so deep a sensation, as to move a highly educated audience to tears; and I came away assured that they who imagine this form of Christianity to be essentially cold, lifeless, and incapable of reaching the heart, or of powerfully influencing the conduct of men, can never have enjoyed opportunities of listening to their most gifted preachers, or had a large personal intercourse with the members of the sect."-I. 173-176. Under the head of Progress in Religion, we have in Chapter XII. an extract from Pastor Robinson's celebrated Address to the Pilgrim Fathers at Leyden. Sir Charles Lyell then describes the provision that is made in America for those variations of creed which Time is perpetually introducing. Happily, there was no need in the United States for an Act of Congress, similar to the Dissenters' Chapels Act, limiting the power of the dead over the living. "The precepts inculcated by Pastor Robinson were delivered to a body of men whose form of ecclesiastical polity was very peculiar; who held that each congregation, each separate society of fellow-worshippers, constituted within themselves a perfect and independent church, whose duty it was to compose for itself and modify at pleasure its rules of scriptural interpretation. In conformity with these ideas, the common law of New England had ruled, that the majority of the pew-holders in each church should retain their property in a meeting-house, and any endowment belonging to it, whatever new opinions they might, in the course of time, choose to adopt. In other words, if, in the lapse of ages, they should deviate from the original standard of faith, they should not suffer the usual penalties of dissent, by being dispossessed of the edifice in which they were accustomed to worship, or of any endowments given or bequeathed for a school-house or the support of a pastor, but should continue to hold them; the minority, who still held fast to the original tenets of the sect, having to seek a new place of worship, but being allowed to dispose of their pews, as of every other freehold, if purchasers could be found." I. 211, 212. Of Dr. Channing mention is made by Sir Charles Lyell in both series of Travels. "Oct. 29.-Went to Cambridge to visit the cemetery of Mount Auburn, where a large extent of wild, unreclaimed, hilly ground, covered with oak and pine, has been enclosed for a public burial-place. From the highest eminence there is a fine view of the surrounding country. Since I was here in 1842, a chapel has been erected of granite, in the Gothic style, and in good taste, with painted glass from Edinburgh in the windows, and a handsome entrance gate. The chapel is to serve as a Westminster Abbey, Pantheon, or Walhalla, to contain statues, busts, and monuments of distinguished men. A cenotaph has been placed in the grounds in honour of Dr. Channing, with an inscription written by a friend in a plain, unambitious style, such as Channing himself would have wished. I rejoice to hear that as his funeral procession was passing through the streets of Boston, the bell of the Roman Catholic chapel was tolled among the rest, and I recollected with pleasure the conversations I had had with him in 1841. They who witnessed the impulse given by him to the cause of popular education, the increasing liberality of sentiment in New England on matters of religion, and the great popularity of his works, might desire to inscribe on his tomb 'E'en in his ashes lived their wonted fires.'"-—I. 171, 172. In another passage Sir Charles Lyell alludes to a defect in Channing, which we do not remember to have seen previously dwelt upon. "It is remarkable that a writer of such genius and so enlarged a mind as Channing, who was always aiming to furnish the multitude with sources of improvement and recreation, should have dwelt so little on the important part which natural history and the physical sciences might play, if once the tastes of the million were turned to their study and cultivation. From several passages in his works, it is evident that he had never been imbued with the slightest knowledge or feeling for such pursuits; and this is apparent even in his splendid essay on Milton, one of the most profound, brilliant, and philosophical dissertations in the English language. Dr. Johnson, while he had paid a just homage to the transcendent genius of the great poet and the charms of his verse, had allowed his party feelings and bigotry to blind him to all that was pure and exalted in Milton's character. Channing, in his vindication, pointed out how Johnson, with all his strength of thought and reverence for virtue and religion, his vigorous logic and practical wisdom, wanted enthusiasm and lofty sentiment. Hence, his passions engaged him in the unworthy task of obscuring the brighter glory of one of the best and most virtuous of men. But the American champion of the illustrious bard fails to remark that Milton was also two centuries in advance of the age in which he lived, in his appreciation of the share which the study of nature ought to hold in the training of the youthful mind."-I. 202, 203. "No modern writer was more free from fear of inquiry, more anxious to teach the millions to think and reason for themselves, no one ever looked forward more enthusiastically to the future growth and development of the human mind than Channing. If his own education had not been cast in an antique mould, he would have held up Milton as a model for imitation, not only for his love of classical lore and poetry, but for his wish to cultivate a knowledge of the works of nature."-I. 205. At Portland, in Maine, Sir Charles Lyell fell in with Unitarians. "Portland, with 15,000 inhabitants, is the principal city of Maine; gay and cheerful, with neat white houses, shaded by avenues of trees on each side of the wide streets, the bright sunny air unsullied, as usual in New England, by coal smoke. There are churches here of every religious denomination: Congregationalists, Baptists, Methodists, Free-will Baptists, Universalists, Unita rians, Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, and Quakers, all living harmoniously together. The late Governor of the State was a Unitarian; and, as if to prove the perfect toleration of churches the most opposed to each other, they have recently had a Roman Catholic Governor. "On Sunday we accompanied the family of a lawyer, to whom we had brought letters, to a Unitarian church. There was nothing doctrinal in the sermon, and, among other indications of the altered and softened feelings of the sects which have sprung from the old Puritan stock, I remarked a gilt cross placed over the altar. The officiating minister told me that this step had been taken with the consent of the congregation, though not without the opposition of some of his elders. The early Puritans regarded this symbol as they did pictures and images, as the badges of superstition, the relics of the idolatrous religion so lately renounced by them; and it is curious to read, in the annals of the first colonists at Salem, how, in 1634, the followers of Roger Williams, the Brownist, went so far as to cut that 'popish emblem,' the red cross, out of the royal standard, as one which the train bands ought no longer to follow."-I. 48, 49. In Chapter XII., to which we have already more than once alluded, we find some excellent observations on the evidence for the spuriousness of the text of the Three Heavenly Witnesses. We quote them with great satisfaction, and point to them as a proof that, notwithstanding the assertions to the contrary by writers under the influence of a morbid theological ennui, biblical criticism and the Unitarian controversy have yet some attractions to men of sense and learning. "The extent to which, in Protestant countries, and where there is a free press, opinions universally entertained by the higher classes, may circulate among them in print and may yet remain a sealed book to the million as completely as if they were still in sacerdotal keeping, is such as no one antecedently to experience would have believed possible. The discoveries alluded to are by no means confined to the domain of physical science. I may cite as one remarkable example the detection of the spurious nature of the celebrated verse in the First Epistle of John, chap. v. verse 7, commonly called 'the Three Heavenly Witnesses.' Luther, in the last edition which he published of the Bible, had expunged this passage as spurious; but, shortly after his death, it was restored by his followers, in deference to popular prepossessions and Trinitarian opinions. Erasmus omitted it in his editions of the New Testament in the years 1516 and 1519; and after it had been excluded by several other eminent critics, Sir Isaac Newton wrote his celebrated dissertation on the subject between the years 1690 and 1700, strengthening the arguments previously adduced against the genuineness of the verse. Finally, Porson published, in 1788 and 1790, his famous letters, by which the question was for ever set at rest. It was admitted that in all the Greek MSS. of the highest antiquity, the disputed passages were wanting, and Porson enumerated a long list of Greek and Latin authors, including the names of many fathers of the Church, who, in their controversies with Arians and Socinians, had not availed themselves of the text in question, although they had cited some of the verses which immediately precede and follow, which lend a comparatively feeble support to their argument. "All who took the lead against the genuineness of the passage, except Sir Isaac Newton, were Trinitarians; but doubtless felt with Porson, that 'he does the best service to truth who hinders it from being supported by falsehood.' Throughout the controversy, many eminent divines of the Anglican Church have distinguished themselves by their scholarship and candour, and it is well known by those who have of late years frequented the literary circles of Rome, that the learned Cardinal Mai was prevented, in 1838, from publishing his edition of the Codex Vaticanus, because he could not obtain leave from the late Pope (Gregory XVI.) to omit the interpolated passages, and had satisfied himself that they were wanting in all the most ancient MSS. at Rome and Paris. The Pontiff refused, because he was bound by the decrees of the Council of Trent, and of a Church pretending to infallibility, which had solemnly sanctioned the Vulgate, and the Cardinal had too much good faith to give the authority of his name to what he regarded as a forgery. In Oxford, in 1819, the verse was not admitted, by the examiners in Divinity, as Scripture warranty for the doctrine of the Trinity; yet, not only is it retained in the English Prayer-Book, in the epistle selected for the first Sunday after Easter, but the Protestant Episcopal Church in America, when finally revising their version of the English Liturgy in 1801, several years after Porson's letters had been published, did not omit the passage, although they had the pruning knife in their hand, and were lopping off several entire services, such as the Commination, Gunpowder Treason, King Charles the Martyr, the Restoration of Charles II., and last, not least, the Athanasian Creed. What is still more remarkable, Protestants of every denomination have gone on year after year distributing hundreds of thousands of Bibles, not only without striking out this repudiated verse, but without even affixing to it any mark or annotation to show the multitude that it is given up by every one who has the least pretension to scholarship and candour. 'Let Truth, stern arbitress of all, And for presumptuous wrongs atone; · Authentic words be given or none !'"-I. 221–224. There follow some excellent remarks on the impropriety and folly of concealing truth, religious or scientific, from the multitude. For the prevalence of this habit, our author censures the laity no less than the clergy. The obvious cure is the diffusion of sound knowledge in all classes. The clergy must keep up with the times; for "no educated people will ever tolerate an idle, illiterate or stationary priesthood." (P. 227.) Mention has already been made of Sir Charles Lyell's visit to the Perkins Institution, or the Asylum for the Blind, at Boston. This is the place where Laura Bridgeman, of whom all recent travellers in America have spoken with such deep interest, is receiving her education. This intelligent girl, now nineteen years of age, our readers will doubtless remember, is blind and deaf and dumb. Sight and hearing she lost when two years of age. Notwithstanding this hapless closing, apparently, of every portal of knowledge, her education has gone on, by the wonderful skill of Dr. Howe, without interruption, and all travellers who have visited her agree that she shews more than the average intelligence of girls of her own age in the possession of the five senses. "She was reading when we entered, and we were told that formerly, when so engaged and alone, she used to make with one hand the signs of all the words which she felt out with the other, just as an illiterate beginner speaks aloud each sentence as he spells it. But the process of conveying the meaning of the words to her mind is now far too rapid for such delay, and the hand not occupied in reading remains motionless. We were afterwards delighted to watch her while she was following the conversation of two other dumb children, who were using the modern single-hand alphabet. She was able to comprehend all the ideas they were exchanging, and to overhear, as it were, every word they said, by making her fingers play, with fairy lightness, over theirs, with so slight a touch, as not in the least degree to interfere with the freedom of their motions. We saw her afterwards talk with Dr. Howe, with great rapidity and animation, pointing out accurately the places on a map while he gave her a lesson in geography. She indulged her curiosity in examining my wife's dress, and taking her hand, told her which was her wedding ring, and then began to teach her the deaf and dumb alphabet. She is always aware whether it is a lady's hand she touches, and is shy towards a stranger of the other sex. As she is now in communication with no less than a hundred acquaintances, she has grown much more like other children than formerly. "We learnt from Dr. Howe that the task of carrying on her education has become more and more arduous, for she is naturally clever, and her reflective powers have unavoidably ripened much faster than the perceptive; so that at an age when other children would be satisfied to accumulate facts by the use of their eyes, her chief curiosity is directed to know the causes of things. In reading history, for example, where there is usually a continued description of wars and battles, she must be told the motives for which men slaughter each other, and is so distressed at their wickedness, that she can scarcely be induced to pursue the study."—I. 168, 169. Nothing is more surprising than the rapid growth of manufacturing towns in both Old and New England. The history of Lowell is very remarkable. When last visited by Sir Charles Lyell, it was only twenty-five years old, but had a population of 25,000 inhabitants (the number appears to have increased 5000 during the four preceding years), twenty-five churches and religious societies, one high school, eight grammar schools, and thirty primary schools, in which about 3550 children were being educated. The cotton-mills were held by companies, and the capital invested in each mill averages from 60,000l. to 80,0007. "Some of the manufacturing companies here have given notice that they will employ no one who does not attend divine worship, and whose character is not strictly moral. Most of the 9000 factory girls of this place, concerning whom so much has been written, ought not to be compared to those of England, as they only remain five or six years in this occupation, and are taken in general from a higher class in society. Bishop Potter, in his work entitled 'The School,' tells us (p. 119) that in the Boott Factory there were about 950 young women employed for five and a half years, and that only one case was known of an illegitimate birth, and then the mother was an Irish emigrant.' "I was informed by a fellow-traveller that the joint-stock companies of Lowell have a capital of more than two millions sterling invested. Such corporations', he said, are too aristocratic for our ideas, and can combine to keep down the price of wages.' But one of the managers, in reply, assured me that the competition of rival factories is great, and the work-people pass freely from one company to another, being only required to sign an agreement to give a fortnight's notice to quit. He also maintained that, on the contrary, they are truly democratic institutions, the shares being as low as 500 dollars, and often held by the operatives, as some of them were by his own domestic servants. By this system the work-people are prevented from looking on the master manufacturers as belonging to a distinct class, having different interests from their own. The holders of small shares have all the advantages of partners, but are not answerable for the debts of the establishment beyond their deposits. They can examine all the accounts annually, when there is a public statement of their affairs. "An English overseer told me that he and other foremen were receiving here, and in other New England mills, two dollars and two and a half dollars a day (88. 6d. and 10s. 6d.)."-I. 109, 110. The use of water-power and the careful consumption of smoke preserve the manufacturing towns of America from the unsightliness and |