the only end of life, which is not also a mean. The timid, shiftless, inefficient student, whose life is given to books and thought, very likely has never dreamed that in shrinking from every form of active business, he commits sin. He has not considered that courage, energy, decision are qualities of a divine nature; so divine that their presence makes even Satan godlike, and that if he would aim at the perfection of his Father, he must gain these things. It is very hard for him to realize that the tradesman plodding in search of money, and the mechanic toiling for his bread, may be doing more wisely and rising heaven-ward more rapidly, than he with his Arabic, his Astronomy, his Theology even. Neither does the merchant easily realize these truths; he does not often recognise the dignity of his calling, its power, or its responsibility. He is too apt to go forward with his eyes fixed on the will-o'wisps of the earth, fortune, influence on 'change, momentary power, rather than with them raised to the Star of Bethlehem, which can alone lead him aright; and so he sinks into rank worldliness, wild speculation, and loses even the power of seeing heaven and its ever-burning fires.

It is needless to hint how vast would be the change, if those views of life and business, which we have referred to, were held and acted upon by even a respectable minority of prominent men. Few seek wealth as giving physical enjoyments; as it has been expressed, few would toil for a fortune, or have the care of a fortune when gained, for the board and lodging it would give them; it is the love of influence, the thirst for power, excercised or acknowledged, that causes the struggle for money; it is one of the many forms taken by the universal instinct that marks man, the instinct for preeminence of will, for power; the instinct to become like to the Almighty. This instinct, this longing, lies at the root of all hopes, plans, and labors that look to a future, either on earth, or beyond; in the ambition of a Napoleon and Wolsey, it works blindly and toward a wrong point, and finds not what it seeks; in the love of fame that urges on a Byron or Bulwer, it is the same instinct with its face still earthward, seeking in notoriety the evidence of power, and finding it, when gained, worthless; and it is this misled instinct that makes the mass thirst for wealth, which, like every other false object of its pursuit, is found false as soon as possessed. But were this instinct guided aright, and made, as it may be, the spring of high aims, pure

actions, and a Christian life; were it directed to seek the only power that can satisfy it, moral power, the power of faith, hope, purity, and love, how would the whole world change! That which now spurs men on to gain the empty influence of political place or popularity, which to-day is, and to-morrow is gone, would then prompt every effort to reach that perfection which should enable us to rule worlds, or systems of worlds, and that not for a year or a life, but for ages, for an eternity, growing ever more Godlike, and therefore ever more mighty.

To become thus Godlike is the ambition of the Christian. That thirst, which is not quenched by knowledge, or political influence, or intellectual superiority, or the might of gold — yields to the well of water of which Jesus spoke to the woman of Samaria, which "springeth up into everlasting life." To him that sees and feels all this to him that lives for a future of endless moral and intellectual growth-to the Christian -a life of active business is of infinite value. Too often those, who in other points are best fitted to go forward toward perfection, are wanting in those powers of action, combination, presence of mind, and concentration of energies, which mark all those mere mortals who nearest approach perfectionHoward, Washington, Jay, Oberlin, and many of the Jesuit missionaries. Take from these men the qualities to which we have referred, and there would be left but fragments of what they were- pieces of men. And in our great Exemplar, who can fail to see that these powers were all present, though ever under the guidance of higher principles and unimaginable wisdom? Too often we forget this; in his love, kindness, gentleness, and humility, we lose sight of that calm decision and efficiency, which went straight on through contempt, hatred, disregard, persecution, and death, ever adopting, and unweariedly pursuing means fitted to bring about the end in view; and so we forget the importance of these qualities to the Christian character, and despise and shun those lines of life which best develope them.

We have spoken of the moral importance and dignity of a business life in one point of view only; but there are many others. The visible antagonism of worldly and spiritual pursuits is a great safeguard against that worst form of self-deception, which is so common among men whose profession is of a less earthy outside than business; that self-deception which

makes them think they serve God, when it is Mammon or Lucifer that they, in truth, bow to; that self-deception which inspires many a clergyman in his ear-taking harangue, which wakes many a moralist to his fame-seeking toil, and leads thousands to acts of charity "that they may have glory of men." The active man of the world, whose occupations are all dragging him earth-ward, may and must, if he think, be led the more strongly to struggle heaven-ward; though he must, perforce, turn his eyes from the sky, the very dust may, if he will, become a mirror in which to see his home and his father; he may, if he will, command that the stones be made bread, such is the miraculous power of spiritual energy.

But we need not detail those powers to which an active life gives scope and exercise, nor dwell on the too common selfishness and pettishness of those otherwise noble spirits that dwell too much alone. The difficulty is not that men are unable to see the spiritual education given by a business life, but they are unapt to look at that life as connected, naturally, with spiritual matters at all; whereas, to us, a full perception of this connexion is the ground of morals as applied to the mass of men. It is not true that the student only can have it ever before him, that time and earth are but perishable planks on which we float to the firm land. Every man may make this truth his guide in life. The merchant may as certainly look forward to futurity, and act upon a faith therein, as base his operations of to-day upon the probable markets of a year hence. But even those that see clearly the value and purpose of the lives, which so many lead, do not realize that they are as much bound to pursue the spiritual ends of their mission and devote themselves thereto, as the minister is bound to toil in his vocation. When the professed servant of God swerves from the path, a world cry "shame"; but does his profession add any real force to the high duties imposed on him at birth, or is its only purpose to show his sense of those duties? And we are all called to do God service as truly and as unceasingly as he is, and if we fail, our shame and our fall is as great as his. The merchant that gives all his thoughts to gathering wealth and influence; the lawyer or physician that seeks but worldly standing; the statesman who looks not beyond political economy, the present age, and the interests of time, all not only err, but, if they recognise the truths taught by Jesus, are as impious and shameless as the ordained preacher that

steeps his body in sensuality, or his soul in selfishness. Were this felt, many a bold heart would grow sick with horror; for thousands, who shudder at the thought of rank worldliness or vice in the open professor of Christianity, never dream that they, in so far as they see and do not come up to the standard of Jesus, are, in the eye of God, as sacrilegious as the forsworn priest. They have a vague idea that the service of God may be, or not be, assumed, like that of an earthly king, and shun the sacrament, and sometimes prayer itself, lest it be interpreted into taking the oath of allegiance. They do not see that every man is born the servant of Christ, and is bound to obey all that he knows of his Lord's law, whether he will or not; that he may as well hope to escape the law of gravitation by failing to acknowledge it.

After expressing such views of the purposes of a business life, and the obligations to keep those purposes in view, we need say nothing more of speculation, as we have defined it, nor use any argument to prove that thousands are engaged in transactions which exert all or many of the worst spiritual effects of speculation, though not so called by the world. The sudden accumulation of wealth by any means is apt to bring about at least one great evil, the subjection of all other passions and pursuits to the worship of Mammon. He that gains sudden wealth has Aladdin's lamp put into his hand, and it must be a strong spirit that the Genii will serve, and ask no service in return.

To him that has used business as one mean of spiritual exercise, times like the present are not what they are to others; he has disarmed misfortune. Over his ships and his goods he had no certain rule, and feeling that, he ruled what was wholly within his grasp, and the only thing that was so― his own heart. Behold the end! while others have failed, he has succeeded; the storm, or the earthquake, or political revolution has swept the wealth of all away, but that for which he labored, no storm nor government can touch; his mean is lost, his end is attained. Every great commercial earthquake shows us a few such men. One such is worth a library of writings toward proving to the souls, not the intellects, of men, that great truth, that life need not be a shadow, nor any pursuit a shadow; "for every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened."

J. H. P.

ART. IV.-1. The Prose Works of CHARLES LAMB, in three volumes, 12mo. London Edward Moxon, Dover Street, 1836.

2. The Letters of Charles Lamb, with a Sketch of his Life, by THOMAS NOON TALFOURD, one of his Executors. In two volumes, 12mo. London Edward Moxon, Dover Street, 1837.

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SOME years ago we took up a volume of Elia, and, having glanced over a page or two, laid it down with a mental ejaculation at the artificial taste of the times. We recollect thinking (the truth will out to our shame) that, in the article of wit, our American periodicals had furnished as good and even better. And so we went on our way, light of heart," indifferent and contemptuous towards Charles Lamb, only compassionating his admirers as they now and then crossed our path. But Hazlitt's "Spirit of the Age" brought us light and a better mind. In that brilliant work we found the author of Elia represented as so unquestionable a classic, his claims to an enduring fame were so set down as beyond all controversy, that grace was given us and opportunity to revise our impressions. It is hardly necessary to say, a becoming change was wrought in us.

We should reluct at this confession, had not the shame of our early judgment vanished in thankfulness for the rich enjoyment the writings of Charles Lamb have brought us acquainted with. We are indebted to him for a new sense of the pleasures of reading. He has made us doubt sometimes whether we ever really read before. Certain it is that we should but dimly understand the regret he expresses at the prospect of exchanging hereafter "this familiar process of reading for some awkward experiment of intuition," were it not for his own delightful works.

We make our confession the more readily because we know that others, and persons of undisputed taste, will own to a like experience. And our case may edify. What Hazlitt did for us, perhaps, through a bountiful providence, we may do for some other. When we fail to be pleased or instructed, it is not to be questioned that matter of objection exists somewhere. But it is a question to be asked whether the fault be not in ourselves. "It is not always the dark place that hinders, but sometimes the dim eye."