and by giving to maritime commerce an impulse that enriched, beyond all previous experience, the free cities of Flanders and Italy, strengthened the central points of society, and introduced unity into variety and dispersion. The crusaders, moreover, returning from their travels with minds enlarged and liberalized by intercourse with foreign nations, by acquaintance with new modes of life, and by their experience of strange fortunes, caused the introduction of a freedom of thought, before unknown in Europe. Thus, by promoting personal independence, and the centralization of society, did the crusades prepare the way for the triumph of the fourth element of European civilization,-the idea of absolute power derived from the Roman empire.

But before noticing the progress of this fourth element, we must first mention some unsuccessful endeavors to unite the separate portions of society into one nation, without destroying, however, their distinctive character and privileges. In the thirteenth century, a fruitless attempt was made by the theocracy to subjugate the laity of Europe, and bring all other forms of social organization into subjection to the ecclesiastical. Between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries, the Italian republics several times undertook the work of general organization; but in the end, the democratic principle, instead of taking possession of the entire social state, was itself driven for refuge into the walled towns of the Hanseatic league, and within the mountain ramparts of Switzerland. Attempts to bring under one and the same law the conflicting forces of the feudal nobility, the free cities, the monarchs and the clergy, were also made by the States-general of France, the Cortes of Spain and Portugal, the States of Germany, and the Parliament of England. And though every where unsuccessful, except in England, these endeavors subserved, notwithstanding, no unimportant purpose, in making protestation, from time to time, against political servitude, and also proclamation of some of the great principles of social freedom.

Then at length came the turn of monarchy to act its part on the stage; and, to state its effects on the progress of civilization in a single word, it fused the naturally repulsive powers, by which society had been so long kept, to a greater or less degree, in a state of disorganization, into two single forces, the government and the nation; thereby giving to society the form under which it continues to exist in Europe,

even to the present day. Founded in the fifteenth, the dominion of general interests and universal ideas was fully established in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The nationality of France began to be formed, in her struggles to maintain the integrity of the French territory against the invasion of the English. In England, the nobility being greatly weakened by the wars of the two Roses, and the people considerably impoverished by the payment of taxes for the support of the hostilities against France, there was no power in the state to hinder the Tudors from completing the triumph of royalty. Similar was the course of things in Germany and Spain; while in Italy, the spirit of republicanism having been extinguished, supreme power became concentrated in the hands of one or more families. The original elements of European society, having worked their way through the changes of ten hundred years, at length reached their predestined point of union, and began to show the results of their development in national governments and consolidated nations. The stage of events is now no longer occupied, except with great wars, great revolutions, great discoveries and great men. We have come to the times of Francis I, Charles V, and Henry VIII; of the revolution in the United Provinces, the uprise into importance of Sweden and Prussia, and the accession of Louis XIV; of the outbreak of the Protestant reformation, of the English grand rebellion, and of the thirty years' war in eastern Europe.

But amid a large number of events, all influencing, more or less, the progress of civilization, we confine our attention to three great revolutions, one religious, one political, and one intellectual, which now appear on the theatre of European history; and briefly inquire what were the effects produced by them on the progress of modern civilization. The Protestant reformation,-that great insurrection of human reason. against ecclesiastical domination,-produced an extension of freedom of thought and intellectual activity over the whole. civilized portion of northern Europe. Moreover, bringing religion out of the monastery and the church, the reformation introduced it into the midst of common life; and at the same time, preventing the clergy from intermeddling in politics, restored the independence of the temporal power. The religious revolution, securing freedom of opinion, was speedily followed by a civil revolution, extending liberty of action.

The human mind, set free by the reformation, gave birth in England to the grand rebellion, which was the triumph of liberal opinions over that absolute power in the temporal order, which had been built up from the ruins of ancient feudal and municipal liberty. To this great political movement, together with the succeeding revolution of 1688, is the world indebted, for the completion of the noble fabric of the English constitution,—a system of government combining all the elements of modern civilization, and one in which the conflicting principles of monarchy, aristocracy and democracy were all strongly represented, and harmoniously bound up together. Finally, Germany having originated the great religious reformation, and England the great civil reform, it was reserved for France to accomplish the grand intellectual revolution of modern times. Free inquiry, though it had reigned in England in the seventeenth century, went forth from France in the eighteenth, to make the conquest of Europe. Human reason, displaying an unprecedented boldness, undertook the task of reforming all things,-institutions, opinions, manners, and even man himself. This spiritual power, however, in becoming absolute, became likewise corrupt; and in the end came to entertain a most unwise and ill-founded aversion to all existing opinions and institutions, and was led into delusion, error and tyranny. But it rendered the eighteenth century one of the grandest epochs in the history of the world; and gave rise, in the nineteenth, to the French civil revolution,-the greatest event of modern times.

Such, though briefly stated, is the able and convincing illustration, furnished by the history of M. Guizot, of the great doctrine of a progressive civilization of the human race.

And now, from the summit of our argument, however imperfect, we can look back with no small degree of satisfaction, upon the long and painful struggle of humanity through all the past. Slowly, though surely, has civilization been advancing from primeval barbarism, through good and evil, by war as well as by peace, by the fall of one nation, no less than the rise of another, by revolutions in church and state, though achieved not without blood. As man, born in the immaturity of infancy, has to develop himself by successive struggles with foes within and without, so has society progressed from its cradle, amid constant conflicts between the

opposing principle of Ormusd and Ahriman. Very rare are the instances in which the vigor of youthful principles has been worsted, in the struggle with the imbecility of ancient and degenerate institutions; and in no case has the future failed ultimately to prevail, and compel the past to pass away. The forward steps of fate could not be arrested by the patriotism of Brutus, or the tears of Antoinette, any more than by the cruelty of Herod, the conservatism of Lord North, or the pusillanimity of other men. Demosthenes pleaded the cause of the past against Philip, who fought for the future, and failed; Cicero likewise did against Cæsar, and failed; Burke against the Napoleon of the future, and failed in like manner.

We both justify and revere the past, however. We admire its beautiful sentiments. We honor many of its divine institutions, which posterity will not willingly let die. We deem many of its principles more true and good than some of the opinions now-a-days paraded about as the latest discoveries. And while there is so little reverence for antiquity in the community, we should be most unwilling to say aught that might make it less; for reverence is a virtue, which, while removing us from the nature of the depraved, approximates us to that of the seraph, who, as he bowed before the throne of the Eternal, poised on shining wings, "with twain did cover his face, and with twain his feet." We dwell with delight on those ancient times, when the client followed his patron to the forum, and the young warrior, his guardian to the field. We love to remember, that Cicero was once the attendant of Scævola, that Agricola was the tent companion of Suetonius, and that Xenophon saved the life of him in battle to whose lessons he listened in the academy. We feel proud, too, when bowing lowest before the noble creations of the pencil and the chisel of former days, as well as before the noble masters of art themselves, who look down upon us from their canvass, and stand breathing in their own marble. Nor would we deny to the imagination and to sentiment the beautiful stories of old tradition, or the golden days fabled by early bards, or the happy state of incontaminate nature, depicted on the pages of the romanticists. Nevertheless, to the reason, it is not equally true that omne ignotum pro magnifico est. The enlightened, philosophic mind cannot believe that the end of things was in the beginning, nor give its assent to the somewhat popular doctrine of progressing

backwards,―lest, in the end, it should be compelled to credit whatever a Manetho may have asserted respecting the splendors of the Egyptian monarchy one hundred thousand years before the birth of Christ. Let Asia repose amid the poppies with which antiquity has decked her couch: the eye of America dwells not only upon the beautiful and richly variegated landscape of the past, but, ever turned on the empty space of futurity, beams keen with ardor and with hope.

ARTICLE V.

HISTORY OF THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.

History of the Westminster Assembly of Divines. By Wм. HETHERINGton. New York. Mark Newman. 1843.

pp. 311. 12mo.

THE title of the Westminster Assembly is associated, in the minds of great numbers of persons religiously educated, both in America and Britain, with the most hallowed memories of their earlier years. With the name of their Catechism, rises up the image of pious parents and of home instruction; the recollection of a period of doctrinal knowledge, Christian stability and holy living. Almost involuntarily, the scenes once witnessed in many a happy family come back upon us, accompanied by a feeling of chastened melancholy, as we reflect that they are past; of gratitude for the means, still within our reach, of becoming wise unto salvation, and of training our children to be pillars in the church. Not many years ago, as the twilight hours of the Sabbath drew on, many were the houses in this country, in which the parents, with affectionate and solemn air, gathered around them their little flock of children and dependents. Soberness and benignity marked the bearing of the parents, casting a shade of reverent awe over the life and gaiety of childhood, and bidding the tide of outbreaking sportiveness retire to its proper bounds. The Lord's day must be sanctified, because God