that "invincibly persuaded of the truth of christianity, he taste no personal enjoyments, can admit no rest, while it falter its course through the world." Some of the leading topics of book have strikingly reminded us of his great prototype, (as have presumed, in part at least, to consider him,) in the Nov Organon, and doubtless they were suggested by the order pursu in that work, in which the sources of prejudice which impede t progress of knowledge, were quaintly denominated idols, of whi four are enumerated, viz., idols of the tribe, of the den, of the m ket, and of the theater. Our author in the work under review h also his quaternary, viz., Fanaticism of the Scourge, of the Brand, the Banner, and of the Symbol. Of his qualifications to act t part of a Bacon, as "the miner and sapper" of religious error, that eminent man was of false philosophy, we have no doubt has already appeared; but whether he will sustain the farth character of "prophet of the arts," the holier arts, by leading ma kind more directly to the bible, in an accurate investigation of i contents, as the source of truth, remains to be demonstrated b the event. We have formerly ventured to characterize him a better fitted to pull down a system than to build up a new one This idea was suggested principally by several singular and quix otic positions in his early work on christian missions. We sha be happy to find in the subsequent promised works, that we have been mistaken, an opinion not altogether removed by the peru sal of the present volume; though, as we are ready to confess somewhat modified. But however this may be, it is a source of the purest gratification, to come in contact with a writer who shows us the profoundest secrets of our moral nature, who follows a train of original and independent investigation on topics the most interesting to human beings, and who manifests on all occasions, that while he thinks as a sage, he feels as a man and a christian. That astonishing, awful dissection of the heart,-the natural heart; --that "laying bare of the fibers of its strength," an effect of the strokes of his pen, proclaims an intellectual and spiritual adroitness on the part of this writer, which the all-wise Giver would not have bestowed, and evidently has not bestowed in vain. We cannot easily, because we would not, break away from the spell which that author fastens upon us, who reveals the secrets of our breasts, and detects the hidden springs of action. It is difficult to extricate ourselves, if we would, from a grasp that holds us by the fear, that those representations may be too literally correct, which we are interested in pronouncing doubtful or false. Add to this, our author, while he brings up from the depths of the heart, and collects from every walk of life and every haunt of philosophy, the very and identical facts on which scripture insists, is yet as indifferent to the dry details of a system as he needs to be, and is as little

fastidious in departing from set forms of theological speech, as some others are in never adopting any other. He uses the ordinary and established symbols of religious truth, as that truth is expressed in creeds, no farther than is necessary to save his readers from misapprehending him. He makes his deepest impressions by those broad dashes of his pen, which mark the line of thought as it passes through his own peculiar, creative mind. He effects his object chiefly by that moral painting, the force and solemnity of which awe and subdue the soul, as if they came from the seat of the divinity.

The close alliance of the different subjects of which he treats, renders it necessary for him to discriminate accurately between them, and to define with entire precision the meaning of terms, for the sake of the truths which he designs separately to press upon the reader's attention. Accordingly he has set up his land-marks so distinctly that they can readily be seen by every observant reader. In the minute evolution of his ideas, in the subordinate parts of his representations, he is not always so fortunate, we are told, as to be understood; whether owing to the language employed, or to the abstract nature of the thoughts, we do not here undertake to say. But in the distinctive character of his treatises, and in the outline of his plan, no one can complain, notwithstanding the delicate and complex relation of his topics, that he is confused or ambiguous. As he included in the notion of enthusiasm solely a quality of evil, so of course he includes in the proper conception of fanaticism a similar quality, only much worse, much greater in degree. Or to use his own language: "In another volume [Nat. Hist. En.] spurious and imaginative religious emotions were spoken of: our present task is to describe the various combinations of the same spurious pietism with the malign passions. After quite rejecting from our account that opprobrious sense of the word fanaticism, which the virulent caluminator of religion and of the religious assign to it, it will be found, as we believe, that the elementary idea attaching to the term in its manifold applications, is that of a fictitious fervor in religion, rendered turbulent, morose, or rancorous, by junction with some one or more of the unsocial emotions. Or if a definition as brief as possible were demanded, we should say that fanaticism is enthusiasm inflamed by hatred." The author, however, before fixing the meaning of terms, has an excellent chapter on the design of the work; and after giving us to understand his object, details in the same section the rise of the malign emotions. His subsequent course of thought may be told in few words. The alliance of the malign emotions with the imagination, and the fact that fanaticism is the offspring of enthusiasm, or the combination of the malign emotions with spurious religious excitements, form the subject of the two succeeding sections. Then follow in as many diVOL. VI.

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visions, the four varieties or classes of fanaticism already mentioned. The two concluding sections are occupied in presenting the proofs that the religion of the bible, both the old testament and the new, is not fanatical. These all furnish a compass of discussion and a richness of views which we should be glad to transfer at some length to our own pages. But the time and space allowed us will admit only a moderate selection of passages, which struck our minds by their beauty and force, or which deserve a passing comment on other accounts. In this way we shall endeavor to give some idea of the character and contents of the work, and shall find occasion for a few general remarks in the conclusion.

Our author, justly conceiving that the purity of the church and of christians individually is essential to the great object of converting the world, denounces with a merited severity the reluctance or jealousy which is often felt, that the corruptions of the religious body should ever be exposed.

How culpable then, and how ignoble too, must we deem that spirit of jealousy or reluctance which would divert such a scrutiny, as if the honor of the gospel were better secured by cloaking the faults of its adherents, than by laboring to dispel them! Shall we, as christians, wish to creep under the shelter of a corrupt lenity? Shall we secretly wish that the time may never come, or at least, not come while we live, when the inveterate and deep-seated errors of the religious body shall be fairly dealt with, and honestly spread to the light? It may indeed be true that when we have to denounce the flagrant evils that abound in the world, and when open impiety and unbelief are to be reproved, we should use a serious severity; but then, when we turn homeward, shall we at once moderate our tones, and drop our voice, and plead for a sort of indulgence, as the favorites of heaven, which we are by no means forward to grant to the uninstructed and irreligious portion of mankind? Shall our thunders always have a distant aim? Alas! how many generations of men have already lived and died untaught, while the church has delicately smothered her failings, and has asked for an inobservant reverence from the profane world! True it is that the vices of heathens and infidels are grievous; but it is also true that the vices of the church, if much less flagrant, and less mischievous in their immediate operation, are loaded with a peculiar aggravation, inasmuch as they destroy or impair the ONLY EXISTING MEANS for the repression and extermination of all error and all vice!

If then the alledged dependence of the religious welfare of mankind upon the vigor and purity of the christian body be real, we find a full apology for whatever methods (even the most rigorous,) that may conduce to its cleansing. All we need take care of is the spirit and intention of our reproofs. Should there be any, calling himself a disciple of Christ, who would protest against such impartial proceedings, he might properly be told that the inquiry in hand is too monentous, and is far too extensive in its consequences, than that it should be either diverted or relinquished in deference to the feelings or interests of the

parties immediately concerned. Be it so,' we might say to the reluctant and faulty christian, be it so, that your spiritual delinquencies are not of so fatal a kind as to put in danger your personal salvation, (an assumption, by the way, always hazardous,) and let it be granted that you are chargeable only with certain infirmities of judgment, or with mere exuberances in temper or conduct ;-yes, but these faults in you, as a christian, and especially at the present critical moment, exert a negative power, the circle of which none can measure. Can you then desire that we should exercise a scrupulous tenderness towards you, while we faget pity towards the millions of mankind? Nay, rather, let every instrument of correction, and the most severe, be put in play, which may seem needful for restoring its proper force to the gospel,-the only means as it is of mercy to the world.' No, we must not flinch, although the sensitiveness and the vanity of thousands among us were to be intensely hurt. Let all-all be humbled, if such humiliation is indeed a necessary process that shall facilitate the conversion of the world.' pp. 9-11.

Among the reasons which he urges for laying bare those pernicious sentiments which have been so terrible a scourge to mankind, is one derived from the liability of their sudden return, for be considers them now as in some good degree departed. In his opinion the present indifference and levity may soon change to strong vindictive feeling. His observations may be sufficiently conclusive in the view of some minds, and are certainly striking and beautiful; but we had hoped, perhaps against hope, that mankind, at least in truly christian countries, were forever delivered from so fearful a state of things. The circumstances of the world are so exceedingly different from what they once were, in view of a single cause alone, viz., the press, improved and extended beyond all former precedent, and perhaps in its nature incapable of retrogression, that we cannot reason with much certainty on this subject, from what has been, to what will be in time to come. Even since the period of the early French revolution, an instance of frenzied popular feeling to which the author doubtless alluded,the change in this diffusive medium of thought has not been inconsiderable. How far then, in its present condition, and especially with the improvements of which it may be still further susceptible, it is likely to regulate and check that tendency to excess, which has disturbed the tranquillity of the world in past ages, it is not easy to tell; and yet we are not without omens, that even alone, but especially when combined with other causes, it will, like the balance in a clock, preserve in a good degree, a moral equilibrium in the social state. The author, we know, discards the idea that the diffusion of knowledge in its present extent, or in any extent, is a security against the dreaded evil; but we should like well to see the experiment of education made through the world at large, as it has been, for instance, in Connecticut. The views, however, to which

we advert are worth considering, even were it only for the felici with which they are expressed. A portion is given below.

If, just at the present moment, there seems little or no probabili that sanguinary and malignant superstitions should regain their lost a cendency, can we say it is certain that no such evils, congruous as the are with the universal passions of man, shall henceforth be generate and burst abroad? Manifest as it is that the human mind has a lea ing towards gloomy and cruel excesses in matters of religion, when can we derive a firm persuasion that this tendency shall, in all futur ages, be held as much in check as now it is? Not surely from broa and comprehensive calculations, such as a sound philosophy authent cates. The supposition that human nature has forever discarded ce tain powerful emotions which awhile ago also raged within its circl must be deemed frivolous and absurd. How soon may we be taught t estimate more wisely the forces we have to guard against in our politica and religious speculations! The frigid indifference and levity we se around us is but the fashion of a day; and a day may see it exchange for the utmost extravagance, and for the highest frenzy of fanatical zeal Human nature, let us be assured, is a more profound and boisterous el ement than we are apt to imagine, when it has happened to us for length of time to stand upon the brink of the abyss in a summer season idly gazing upon the rippled surface,-gay in froth and sunbeams. What shall be the movements of the deep, and what the thunder of its rage at night-fall, and when the winds are up!

And

Nothing less than the ample testimony of history can support general conclusions as to what is probable or not, in the course of events. yet even the events of the last few years might be enough to that prove mankind, whatever may be the boasted advance of civilization, has by no means outgrown its propensity to indulge vindictive passions. Or can we have looked abroad during our own era, and believe that the fascinations of impudent imposture and egregious delusion are quite spent and gone? Rather let it be assumed as probable, at least as not impossible, that whatever intemperance, whatever atrocity, whatever folly history lays to the charge of man, shall be repeated, perhaps in our own age, perhaps in the next.

The security which some may presume upon, against the reappearance of religious excesses, if founded on the present diffusion of intellectual and biblical light, is likely to prove fallacious in two capital respects. In the first place, the inference is faulty, because this spread of knowledge (in both kinds,) though indeed wide and remarkable,-or remarkable by comparison, is still in fact very limited, and its range bears an inconsiderable proportion to the broad surface of society, even in the most enlightened communities. If a certain number has reached that degree of intelligence which may be reckoned to exclude altogether the probability of violent movements, the dense masses of society, on all sides, have hitherto scarcely been blessed by a ray of genuine illumination; moreover, there is in our own country, and in every country of Europe, a middle class, whose progress in knowledge is of that sort which, while it fails to insure moderation or control of the passions, ren