now advanced in life shall have retired from the field, or become apparently inefficient through the waning of their strength in the latter stages of their race. Let the young friends of the Redeemer, in the ministry and in the church, gird themselves for the work which is soon to be devolved upon them. We live at an interesting and eventful crisis. American christians occupy a high vantage ground, such as has seldom if ever been occupied by christians in any land before. Theirs is a noble inheritance; theirs is a most animating prospect; theirs a post of distinguished honor and of appalling responsibility. Christianity, in this land of light and freedom, is to decide the future destiny of the world; and, preeminently the christian pulpit, in this land of light and freedom, is to tell us (as the means to an end,) what that destiny shall be. If the ministry of the gospel is weak or corrupt, the spirit of christianity in all the churches will feel it, and will wither and die, and the public weal of the nation and the world will sink and go down with it. But if a well trained and faithful ministry, intent only on their own appropriate work of saving souls, shall continue to fill the pulpits of our land, the whole church will feel it; and the nation and the world will gather increasing purity, and peace, and hope, from it, and the lamp of salvation (which is the word of God,) will speedily go forth, "out of Zion the perfection of beauty," to visit all lands with its benign and cheering influence. Who then among the young men in our churches; who in our colleges and schools of the prophets; who among the recently commissioned heralds of salvation already in the ministry, will come to the work of proclaiming God's truth to men, in the spirit of their great Master, studying diligently his example, and showing themselves to be workmen that need not be ashamed! To such the call of the church, (which we would attempt to second in these pages,) is loud and imperative. May it meet with a ready response in many hearts! God Almighty! guide the efforts of thy people, and crown them with thy blessing!

ART. VI.-INJURIOUS EFFECTS OF POPULAR WORKS ON HEALTH.

The Philosophy of Living; or the way to enjoy Life and its Comforts" A man's own observation, what he finds good of, and what he finds hurt of, is the best physic to preserve health." Bacon-BY CALEB TICKNOR, A. M., M. D. NewYork: Harper & Brothers. 1836. (No. 77, Family Library.)

THE PHILOSOPHY of living! What does Dr. Ticknor mean by giving such a title to such a book as this? Does he not know the signification of language, or does he affect quaintness? or would he vulgarize a word which others of better taste respect, and do not like to see degraded? Does he not know, that philosophy deals with principles and principles only, while his book has to do

with matters of fact alone, and facts too of the most common, every-day kind? We are sick of this everlasting quackery in titles. Dr. Ticknor writes like a man of sense, but he does not (and probably cannot) write philosophy, and he knows it. In employing this word, then, as a title to such cogitations as his, on such vulgar topics as eating and nursing, cooking and corsets, the doctor has been guilty of a very gross libel. He has forced a union of things which nature never intended, and which unperverted minds regard with horror. Let this rebuke serve to deter him from the repetition of a most audacious act; and may it prove a useful warning to others who may meditate a similar offense against propriety!

The following extract from Dr. Ticknor's preface will acquaint the reader with the writer's reasons for taking upon himself, in this instance, the responsibilities of authorship:

The author can assign no other cause for preparing this volume, than the presence and universal prevalence in this country of a malady,-an epidemic, the like of which was never before witnessed, sparing neither age, sex nor condition, and being followed by the most unhappy consequences. If the reader ask the name of this disease, he may be told, that it is a sort of mania, fanaticism, or ultraism; if he ask where and in what it may be seen, he may be answered, in all places and in all things. It is seen in most of the charitable and benevolent operations of the day; in religious zeal, political warfare, morality, and immorality; in most of the domestic concerns of life, and, in fact, in all the particulars and minutia of living, moving and being. There seems a remarkable propensity in us Americans to run into unwarrantable extravagances; whatever scheme is adopted or whatever plan devised, whether for good or evil, [it] is carried to an extreme. To one who contemplates the present condition of our country with calmness and deliberation, every thing would seem to be upside down, or in a state of the most perfect confusion. He would see men running into the opposite extremes on all subjects, and man warring to the death with his brother or neighbor on some trivial question, while they are no better agreed on matters of the greatest moment. To judge of men by their actions, one would suppose, that a great proportion were mad, and that the world was one immense madhouse. Retrenchment and self-mortification seem to be the order of the day, in relation to food and drink; there being no virtue, on the principle of radicalism, which does not consist in going counter to the appetites and instincts of nature. "Let us be temperate in our meats and drinks,"" says one," and use the the world as not abusing it.'" 'No," says another, "but let us rather eat no meat while the world stands, and as to drink, let that be cold water." Such sentiments have been put forth on the subject of diet, and such ultra measures urged, that the very injury is caused which is attempted to be avoided,-to wit, ill health and consequent unhappiness. pp. iii. iv.

Now that Dr. Ticknor is correct when he supposes the present to be an age of extravagance,-of fanaticism, if he please,we think no temperate, sober-minded man can well doubt. A consideration of the various circumstances which have led to this extravagance would lead us aside from our present object; but what may be called its proximate or immediate cause, as it lies in the human mind, may be found in one single fact,-to wit, undue and unnatural excitement,-excitement amounting to a passion. This excitement is apparent in every thing; in all the great movements and measures of the age. Without it, the progress of extravagance would cease. Without a certain degree of heat of mind, or intensity of feeling, which it is never safe to indulge or encourage, the fires of fanaticism would go out. Every one knows the effect of strong feeling in distorting the perceptions and overthrowing the judgment. It is when under the influence of deep emotion, that men are led blindfold and headlong by passion; and whether this passion is hallowed by the name of philanthropy and religion or not, the result is the same, to wit, extravagance-fanaticism. Every one who has felt it, knows the effect of powerful excitement in destroying the judging faculty; and when this faculty is gone, we defy human power to control the movements of the soul. As well might it bind the planets to their orbits, when deprived of the all-pervading and all-controlling influence of the sun. Let any emotion but take captive the soul, and man is not, for the time, a rational being. He does not perceive, judge, or feel like one in the full possession of his faculties. His convictions do not come through the medium of the understanding. He thinks just as prejudice or present feeling may incline him. He is rather the creature of instinct and habit than intellect. The world is familiar with the important truth under consideration, the palsying influence of deep emotion on the powers of the understanding; and though it is not acquainted with its philosophy, it knows well how to turn it to account, when some favorite end is to be obtained and human instrumentality employed. What demagogue, or agitator, or zealot in philanthropy or religion, does not know the virtue which lies in excitement,-in appeals made to the feelings and sympathies of the community, in molding and directing, in blinding or maddening the minds of men? Is a point to be carried? Is a cause, whether of virtue or vice, to be commended to public esteem, and is the current of opinion such as to oppose an obstacle to its favorable reception? Immediately an excitement must be raised. The advocates and "martyrs," (if need be,) of the cause to be recommended, commence their labors of love by a play on human sympathy, passion and infirmity. They do not even hesitate to make use (perhaps unconsciously,) of the arts of exaggeration and special pleading, assisted by the no less powerful VOL. VIII.

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agency of dramatic and pictorial representations, in order to give heat and flexibility to the mind. It is when in this heated and malleable state, that the mind is best fitted to be molded, to be wrought into such shapes and to receive such impressions as shall suit the pleasure of the sovereign artist, he who attends the forge and feeds the fires. It is when the winds are up and the tempest rages, when the reason is overshadowed and the soul elevated and flaming with passion; it is then, that the presiding spirit of the storm he who knows how to direct as well as convulse the elements can best display the consummate skill and the form-giving power of a master. It is then, that the great magician is in his element, and regards his ends most within his reach. It is at the time, when feeling has the ascendency of intellect, that reason or established habits offers the feeblest opposition to extravagance. It is then, that a man will do all sorts of monstrous things, which he may be sorry for in a cooler and more reflecting hour, if fortunately such an hour ever comes.

It will not be thought, it is hoped, that we mean to denounce all excitement as dangerous. There is a certain degree of it which is safe, and which contributes much to heighten the sensibilities, quicken the perceptions, to give depth and effect to moral impressions; and which is almost essential to make one feel the force of moral obligation and religious duty. But there is a certain other degree which is not safe; that which renders a man purely a creature of impulse and feeling; for, though, under such circumstances, the mind is just in the state to give the freest admission to virtuous impressions, yet, it is also in a fit state to give the like admission to vicious and all other impressions,—to become fierce with zeal and to run wild with fanaticism. In such a case, the mind is, as it were, in a state of fusion, ready to take any form or to be poured out in any direction. All the avenues which lead to it are laid open, and the freest entrance allowed to whatever can influence the judgment, move the heart or control the conduct; yet, as all convictions, under such circumstances, come not through the understanding, but by the shorter route of sympathy, prejudice and passion, they cannot be depended upon when reason, the rightful judge in matters of faith discovers, that it has not been consulted, that it has been hoodwinked and deceived, while feeling, blind if not misguided feeling, has had the direction. It should never be forgotten by those who are most interested to know,those who would have the world red-hot like themselves in whatever they do, that this kind of excitement which distorts the perceptions and blinds the reason, is a sword which cuts both ways.

The manner in which Dr. Ticknor has acquitted himself as an author, seems to have been tolerably satisfactory to "a number of literary and scientific gentlemen," to whom "his manuscript was

submitted;" at least, so says the publishers' advertisement. As for ourselves, we can hardly say as much. In point of literary execution, we do not estimate the work very highly. It displays much bad taste. The writer's endeavors to be witty are incessant, but rarely successful. We can assure him that he has not the bump of "wit," a fact which he evidently does not know. We can say positively, (doubtless to the author's unutterable confusion,) that there is nothing so ludicrous in the book, as the writer's awkward attempts to be witty. Though there are in this volume many thing which are exceptionable, and even some which a man of refined taste would call execrable;* yet at the same time, we are free to say, that it contains many judicious and sensible remarks, and far less,which is decidedly objectionable, in matters of opinion and practice, than any other exclusively popular work of the kind with which we are acquainted. The writer shows himself the decided enemy of ultraism, at least in some of its more popular forms. He speaks indignantly of certain itinerant lecturers and bookmakers, who would make health, and happiness, and virtue consist in the mortification of every animal desire, and in running counter to all the dictates of nature. He has no confidence in the "Graham-bread" system, the vegetable-diet system, and that system of starvation by rule, which has, of late, been urged upon the public with such officious and misplaced zeal, by certain scheming and dreaming enthusiasts and smatterers in "the science of life." But more of this anon.

We have a word or two to say, as to the utility of popular works on health addressed to invalids. Many observing and judicious men, from their habits and station in life well qualified to judge, have an entire disbelief in their usefulness, nay, a firm conviction of their injurious effects. We are ready to confess, that we are somewhat of the same mind. Certain we are, that the general order of books and periodicals of the kind alluded to, and with which the public has of late been supplied to surfeiting, have done extensive injury; far more injury, we verily believe, than good. This injury has been produced in two ways: First, as an operation on the mind, by fixing the attention too exclusively on the health and the organic operations, and by occasioning a kind of feverish anxiety about what we may eat, and drink, and wear, and

The following passage certainly deserves this epithet:-" However much artificial drinks may be prized, however much extolled, and however much their devotees may bend or wallow in devotion, few, under any circumstances, are capable of quenching thirst." p. 88. The italics are not ours. We have looked into what professes to be a second edition of Dr. Ticknor's work,-in which the preface says, "the language is occasionally changed, and some expressions are modified," and "some corrections" made,-hoping to find the "language occasionally changed" in this extract; but the original, in all its originality, is pre

served.