harmonized; and the faith of a believer takes the highest characteristics of sound reason and pure affection.

We regard the argument of Dr. Chalmers on this branch of the controversy between infidelity and Christianity as a beautiful and finished specimen of reasoning. The principles involved in the redemption of our race are shown to be great and glorious principles, and as such, capable of imparting their dignity to our humble abode. So far as the mere science of the argument is concerned, the revelations of the microscope and telescope are put side by side, and the reader is delighted to see how the one opens worlds upon worlds below us, all under divine care and direction, as the other renders us familiar with systems upon systems far above us. The scope of divine benevolence is thus profoundly and eloquently portrayed, and man is assured, even upon grounds of general knowledge, that he is the object of infinite love. We have never been so impressed with the connection between natural sublimity and revealed truth as in the study of these excellent discourses. When we contemplate Christianity amid the scenes of earthly poverty and contempt, gathering its subjects from among the despised outcasts of human society, often driven from the halls of learning and the homes of polished life, and forced to seek sympathy, where science and art are unknown, we confess, that the eye of mere sense may be offended. The literature of the world has seldom expressed its charms. The authority of the secular arm has rarely honored its claims. The fashions of refined civilization have condemned its plain and unostentatious pretensions. Looking at these outward things, we are free to admit, that, where intellect and faith are governed by pomp and show, the influence is adverse to the cultivation of piety. Such unjust and unreasonable impressions are easily annulled. The pride of circumstance is assailed on its own chosen ground. Rising above these aspects of earthly humiliation, Christianity vindicates its inherent grandeur by associating its doctrines and rewards with all that is magnificent in the visible works of creation. It enthrones itself in the upper heaven, and from the companionship of stars and suns, challenges the prompt reverence and perfect obedience of mankind. Where science has now its noblest distinctions, it erects its lofty standard and calls the world to admiration and love.

The literary merit of Dr. Chalmers' writings, so far as

the minor features of style and expression are concerned, has been a theme of frequent and severe criticism. The same objection has been urged against Milton and other eminent men in the walks of literature. It is one of those things, in which we cannot expect to see eye to eye. Varieties in intellectual organization will necessarily produce varieties in all such matters. Wherever men are natural, the form in which thought is embodied, will adjust itself to mental idiosyncrasies. A just canon of criticism therefore, seems to be, to test the correctness of the style by the peculiarities of intellect. What is appropriate to one is inappropriate to another. If the stateliness of Bolingbroke were reduced to the simplicity of Goldsmith, the intellectual strength would assuredly suffer.

If the swelling fulness of Milton were compressed into the measured elegance of Hall, it is obvious that the effect would be diminished. Chalmers observed the laws of his mind. Argument naturally assumed rhetorical drapery in all his reflections. Imagination and reason were always associated. Fervent in spirit, he was fervent in statement, description and appeal. The enthusiasm of most men was beneath his ordinary level. His mind continually glowed in the pursuit and announcement of truth. To charge such a man with bombast, is like charging Niagara with strained redundancy. If sublimity of thought and figure accompany it, the artificial expression can hardly be considered too strong and vivid. A giant in stature may well take the gait of a giant, and yet no violence be done to our taste. The style of Chalmers answered his end. It was vehement, because he was vehement. It was tenacious of a fine idea, because the idea was entitled to tenacity. It was lofty, because the man communed with elevated subjects. The dif ference between writing and speaking was not regarded, it is true, but let it be remembered, that the usual topics of the Doctor were handled to produce effect, as well as to enlighten.

Of the eloquence of that mighty mind, we need not speak at length. A pulpit-fame like his, in one of the most accomplished countries of the globe, is the attestation of his surpassing greatness. As we read in quiet hours, the numerous speeches and sermons published by him, and see the force and splendor with which the sentiments and duties of evangelical religion are presented, our hearts acknowledge the power that dwelt within him. The intellect is not

started into an examination of the secrets of his authority over us. The rigid restraints of criticism are forgotten, and we yield to an influence that addresses our consciences and feelings with too much intenseness for artificial exercises of discrimination. If occasional errors suggest themselves, we can only compare our condition to that of one, who in the animating freshness of a sea-voyage, is so engrossed with the rolling waves, as to be indifferent to the weeds that may float past him. There is a luxury in the enjoyment of such intellectual efforts. To us, mind is never so attractive, as when it summons all its faculties of perception and passion to aid the exhibition of chosen thoughts, and obliterates itself in the grandeur of its themes. We have then more to do, than to hear a man. His genius is transferred to us. We soar and triumph with him. His exaltation is our exaltation. His glory is our glory. The fellowship of mind conducts to the fellowship of truth, and in its pure and ge nial intercourse, we catch the gleamings of that serene sphere, to which the aspirations of all true hearts rejoice to ascend. If Christianity gives so much significancy to the mysteries that perplex-the sorrows that agitate-the joys that comfort our frail humanity in its present state of conflict and discipline, it may well call forth such eloquence as a few noble minds have displayed. The pathos of the cross cannot be too tenderly pictured. The awfulness of the judgment cannot be too strongly painted. The issues of eternity cannot be too vividly described. If the flowers have beauty, or the mountains, grandeur, or the sky, magnificence, or the universe, resources of imagery--better still, if the heart has deep and earnest feelings, and the eye tears, and the lips, a quivering tremulousness-let them all obey the invocation of the divine voice, and hasten to the adornment and application of such thrilling and momentous subjects.

It was in pursuits and exertions like these, that Dr. Chalmers passed the larger part of a life, which Providence permitted to be protracted for sixty-seven years. The most of his distinguished contemporaries had been gathered to the grave before him. Mackintosh, Foster, Hall, Coleridge and Southey had descended to the tomb. Important changes in church and state had occurred, and he was spared to see them. The last great act of his life, his participation in the Exodus of the Free Church of Scotland, had been performed,

and he had the inexpressible satisfaction of witnessing the divine approbation of this memorable event. Disease had not wasted him. Sorrow had not crushed his noble spirit. And yet, in the fulness of life and honor, death came and hurried him to heaven. The splendor of immortality there invests him, and from its dazzling brightness, we turn our dim eyes to the painful contrast of shadow and gloom, now resting upon the scenes of his earthly existence. L.

ART. VII. LIEBER'S POLITICAL ETHICS.

Manual of Political Ethics, designed chiefly for the use of Colleges and Students at Law. By FRANCIS LIEBER. Boston. 1838, 1839. 2 vol. 8vo.

FEW literary persons in our country have exhibited the proofs of as much industry as Prof. Lieber. He has published in the German language-a Journal during his stay in Greece, preceding Lord's Byron's campaign as a youthful Philhellene; a collection of poems (made in prison) under the name of Francis Arnold-A Letter on the Lancastrian method of Teaching-Fragments on subjects of Penology, and especially, on the Pennsylvania Penitentiary System. In the English language he has published the Encyclopædia Americana in 13 volumes-Events in Paris during the Revolution of 1830, translated from the French; Caspar Hauser, translated from the original of Anselm Fenerbach-A Translation of Beaumont and Toqueville's Penitentiary System-Constitution and Plan of Education for Gerard College-Stranger in America (English title)-Reminiscences of an intercourse with Niebuhr-Remarks on the Relation between Education and Crime-various essays and addresses, on History, Political Economy, Penal Law, International copy-right, &c.-A Dictionary of Latin Synonymes, translated from the German-Great Events described by distinguished historians, chroniclers and other writers-Essays on Labor and Property-Legal and Political Hermeneutics or Principles of Interpretation and Construction in Law and Politics-and the greater work in two volumes octavo, which we have placed at the head of this article.

"That science," says Dr. Lieber, "which treats of what is good, noble and meet, wise and right, because it is good, noble and meet, the peculiar nature of man, without which we could not have had these notions, and his consequential attributes, and the relations necessarily founded upon our knowledge of the good-that science is called Ethics or Morals."

So far as this science is applied to man in his social relations, it is called Political Ethics. "It would (says Lord Brougham) be a very pernicious error to suppose that because the evidence upon which our conclusions in moral science rest, is inferor to the proofs of mathematical or even of physical truth, therefore we cannot trust the deductions of ethical priniciples, or their application to the affairs of inen as members of political communities. The facts on which political science rests are more plain, manifest and tangible, than those which form the subject of moral philosophy in its other branches. Those facts are more obvious, they are perceptible in most cases to the senses; they are reducible to number and measure. The accumulation or diminution of public wealth,-the prosperity or suffering of the people, the progress of population,-the quiet or disturbed state of a country,-the prevalence of one portion or order of a state over the others,-the effects of a particular form of government, the chances consequent upon its altered structure;-all these are matters of distinct observation, and most of them subject to exact calculation. But these and such as these, are the facts upon which the doctrines of political science are grounded, and these doctrines are the results of reasoning upon such facts." He proceeds to say: "The mere facts themselves connected with political science, are far more important and far more interesting than those on which the other branches of moral philosophy rest. The mere history of national affairs-the narrative of those public events which take place--the changes in the conditions and fortunes of whole communities,--their relations with each other, whether in peace or war, the rise and decay of great institutions affecting the welfare of millions-the progress of a policy upon which the happiness, nay, the very existence of nations depends-the varieties in the governments under which they live-the influence of those governments upon the condition of the people-the effects which they produce upon their intercourse with other VOL. XII. NO. 24.

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