to desire the spirit which is immortal, and not the temporal blessings which, if again granted, might again be as speedily taken away; in short, to be content with the discharge of the duties which God requires; and as for the enjoyments which seem in harmony with their fulfilment, the institutions and manners which history may record as having once existed, or which at all events Poetry may delight to sing, and Fancy paint with her romantic charms; as for these, and for whatever else is beyond the little confined sphere of our own immediate influence, in submissive silence, and in the spirit of love, we shall be willing to resign them, enabled to soothe our imagination and to warm our piety with the thoughts that end in perfect truth and justice, and with the sweet desire, "de laiser faire celui qui fait tout." Nay, if a contemplative observer should be tempted to dwell upon these wonders of the Divine government, he can proceed farther, and be able to assure himself that in these very circumstances of the world there is no end of the riches, of the wisdom, and of the goodness of God. Assuredly, he is not able to call any decree of Heaven vain.

.

'Opa, opā raur' deì

Χρονος. ἑλεῖ μὲν ἕτερα,

Τὰ δὲ παρ ἆμαρ αὖθις αύξων ἄνω.

"I have heard stories of the breeze that sets in when day-light is about to close, and how constant

h Soph. Ed. Col. 1448.

it is, and how refreshing

i "

Even when night has

drawn over men her sable mantle, how good is it to

be for some time on the mountains and alone!

When after long obscurity,

At length a pleasant instantaneous gleam
Startles the pensive traveller as he treads
His lonesome path, with unobserving eye

Bent earthwards; he looks up-the clouds are split
Asunder, and above his head he sees

The clear moon, and the glory of the heavens.
There, in a black blue vault she sails along,
Followed by multitudes of stars, that, small

And sharp, and bright, along the dark abyss
Drive as she drives ;-how fast they wheel away,
Yet vanish not!-the wind is in the tree,

But they are silent;-still they roll along,
Immeasurably distant.

And so it is in the phenomena of the moral world. If, then, the divine philosophy that he loves, has retreated from the scorn, or insults, or outrages of men, if it hath been removed, even suffering violence, from the apprehension of the multitude, and hath departed to exist but for the few by whom it is reverenced, it then approaches him under a still more sublime character, retaining all its former excellence, and yet invested with an additional charm to excite the heart, and an additional force to secure its own continuance on earth, and to perfect its operation in the heart of each man: for all the roman

i Landor.

k Wordsworth.

tic and chivalrous sentiments of nature are then interested in its favour, it becomes peculiarly the tone and spirit of knightly and meditative men, those who are susceptible of lofty thoughts and profound emotion, of those who feel that there is nothing in the visible world that can satisfy the soul of man, of those who love to hear of scenes like

.....the vale where wild Arunca pours

Its wintry torrents; and the happier site
Of old Coimbra, whose ruined towers
Bore record of the fierce Alani's wrath'."

of those who prefer sometimes the darkness and silence of a cloister or a castle court, to the splendour and excitements of a city; who can find a certain pleasure in the melancholy sound of the wind and the waves as they roll against some northern strand; who love to stray though wilds dear to the timid night-heron, and forests that seem pathless; and who feel that even their secluded depths can utter knowledge; who can withdraw beyond the power of the senses, and take refuge in the past, the distant, or the future.

"For peace is nigh

Where Wisdom's voice has found a listening heart.
Amid the howl of more than wintry storms,

The Halcyon hears the voice of vernal hours

Already on the wing"!"

1 Roderick.

m Cary's Dante, Purg. c. xxviii.

It gains also an additional force to perfect its operation; for it is freed from a dangerous ally, and a pernicious influence. I am not one of those who hold that the conversion of Constantine was fatal in its results to the interests of the church. Still there are dark hours in the life of man when he is tempted to believe that whatever the world touches is in some degree polluted. At all times he must be persuaded that there is a danger attending its friendship, its munificent offers, its honours, its privileges; she proposes, she presses them for acceptance. It may be the office of love not to turn away in refusal. She ungenerously, or proudly or cruelly withdraws them? It is well; the trial is at an end, and there is wanting little but the crown for the conqueror.

ST. GREGORY of Tours, in the first part of his history, professes his desire to make known his faith, saying, "Ut qui legerit me non dubitet esse Catholicum." An instance which would very much surprise many readers at this day, for "the men who now set up for philosophers," as Berkeley says", "are

"Minute Phil. vii.

resolved not to express themselves decidedly on questions of religion, that they may appear learned and profound. When a reader is at a loss to determine whether his author be atheist or deist or polytheist, stoic or Epicurean, sceptic or dogmatist, infidel or enthusiast, in jest or in earnest, he concludes him without hesitation to be enigmatical and profound. In fact, it is true of the most admired writers of the age, that no man alive can tell what to make of them, or what they would be at." This is however opposed, not only to the discharge of a religious duty, but also to the candour and firmness of a manly character. When Charles I. advised Sir Arthur Aston to have so much discretion in his carriage that there might be no notice taken of the exercise of his religion, the governor replied not in the language of men who regard religion as of secondary importance to the favour of their master, or the decree of an assembly, or the ravings of the wretched vulgar, but with the true spirit of an English gentleman, "that he never had dissembled his religion, nor ever would." But then, on the other hand, it is not to be inferred from this that sincerity and firmness require that religion should be made a faction. great part of their religion," says Lord Clarendon, "of the Scottish nation consisted in an entire detestation of Popery, in believing the Pope to be antichrist, and hating perfectly the persons of all Papists."-" Too many of us," says Bishop Taylor, "account good works to be Popery; while we hear it preached, in every pulpit, that they who preach good works think

"A