But to

are, of course, prominent. A wayfaring man, though a fool, may detect, and to some extent appreciate, them. do exact justice to his intellect and his heart, to distinguish between what he was and what he was not, to separate the natural growth of his soul from the product of the powerful influences through which he passed to manhood, and to point out how far he was wrong, and how far right, in the respects in which he thought and felt almost alone,-this would be a great, and not a very easy, task. Unqualified praise or censure are out of the question, and yet the one or the other is very likely to be his fate. His undeniable abilities will serve to pass off his more doubtful characteristics, as marks of manifest superiority among a crowd of undistinguishing admirers; and the exhibitions of sentiment which, least lovely in general appearance, may, and often do spring, from the excessive operation of the finest principles, will be taken advantage of, for the purpose of depreciating his real and great endowments. Foster, however, can pass through both these ordeals; he can afford something to the folly of friends and the malice of foes. After the maturest and fullest judgment has been passed upon him, he will retain the reputation of gifts that very rarely indeed fall to the lot of mortals.

The general characteristic of his mind was originality. That young want of his, 'to put a new face upon things,' never left him. It marked all he did. He was thoroughly disgusted with the prevailing modes of thought and phrase; and his dissatisfaction arose not from their commonness only, but their shallowness. His intellect was eminently curious and penetrating. I like my mind,' said he wisely, 'for its necessity of seeking the abstraction of every subject.' He could not be contented with a superficial truth and beauty. The covering must be removed, and the hidden essence exposed to view. Walking over the well-trodden field of life and fact, he found, and not by accident, the pearl of great price. Very little would supply material for deep and protracted meditation; but that little was like the water that is poured down the dry pump in order to obtain a large supply. Small 'fires' kindled 'great matters.' In happy mood, his analysis was severely delicate. He stripped every fibre from every thought. The 'Extracts from his Journal,' which fill more than seventy pages, would supply many choice specimens. From this valuable collection we must enrich our pages.

All pleasure must be bought at the price of pain: the difference between false pleasure and true is just this-for the true, the price is paid before you enjoy it; for the false, after you enjoy it.'

'I know from experience that habit can, in direct opposition to every conviction of the mind, and but little aided by the elements of temptation, (such as present pleasure, etc.), induce a repetition of the most unworthy actions. The mind is weak when it has once given way. It is long before a principle restored can become as firm as one that has never been moved. It is as in the case of a mound of a reservoir; if this mound has in one place been broken, whatever care has been taken to make the repaired part as strong as possible, the probability is that if it give way again, it will be in that place.

'One has sometimes continued in a foolish company, for the sake of maintaining a virtuous hostility in favour of wisdom; as the Jordan is said to force a current quite through the Dead Sea.'

There is not on earth a more capricious, accommodating, or abused thing than CONSCIENCE. It would be very possible to exhibit a curious classification of consciences in genera and species. What copious matter for speculation among the varieties of-a lawyer's conscience-cleric conscience-lay conscience-lord's conscience-peasant's conscience - hermit's conscience-tradesman's conscience-philosopher's conscience-Christian's conscience-couscience of reason-conscience of faith-healthy man's conscience— sick man's conscience-ingenious conscience-simple conscience,' &c., &c., &c., &c.

(Said of a narrow-minded religionist.) Mr. F. sees religion not as a sphere, but as a line; and it is the identical line in which he is moving. He is like an African buffalo-sees rightforward, but nothing on the right hand or the left. He would not perceive a legion of angels or of devils at the distance of ten yards on the one side or the other.'

Argument from miracles, for the truth of Christian doctrines. Surely it is fair to believe that those who received from heaven superhuman power received likewise, superhuman wisdom. Having rung the great bell of the universe, the sermon to follow must be extraordinary.'

At

'I want to extract and absorb into my soul the sublime mysticism that pervades all nature, but I cannot. I look on all the vast scene as I should on a column sculptured with ancient hieroglyphics, saying, There is significance here,' and despairing to read every turn it is as if I met a ghost of solemn, mysterious, and undefineable aspect; but while I attempt to arrest it, to ask it the veiled secrets of the world, it vanishes. The world is to me what a beautiful deaf and dumb woman would be; I can see the fair features, but there is not language to send forth and impart to me the element of soul'

'Burke's sentences are pointed at the end,-instinct with pungent sense, to the last syllable. They are like a charioteer's whip, which not only has a long and effective lash, but cracks, and inflicts a still smarter sensation at the end. They are like some serpents of which I have heard it vulgarly said, their life is the fiercest in the tail.'

• Attachment must burn in oxygen, or it will go out; and, by oxygen, I mean a mutual admiration and pursuit of virtue, improvement,

utility the pleasures of taste, or some other interesting concern, which shall be the element of their commerce, and make them love cach other not only for each other, but as devotees to some third object which they both adore. The affections of the soul will feel a dissatisfaction and a recoil if, as they go forth, they are entirely intercepted and stopped by any object that is not ideal; they wish rather to be like rays of light glancing on the side of an object, and then sloping and passing away; they wish the power of elongation, through a series of interesting points, on towards infinity.'

Reading lately some of Newton's letters to his wife, I wondered at the phenomenon of so warm and long protracted an affection, or rather passion, with so little of this oxygen; no literature, no romancings of fancy, no excursions over the creation, no moral discussions, no character criticism, no plans of improvement, no analysing of each other's qualities and defects; no, all mere I and you, you and I. A measure of piety, indeed, there is; but without any variety of specific thought.'

I still less and less like the wealthy part of your circle (H.'s). It appears to me, that the main body of principle is merged. As to religion, sir, they are in a religious diving-bell, religion is not circumambient, but a little is conveyed down into the worldly depth, where they breathe by a sort of artificial inlet—a tube.'

Idea, partly serious, partly comic, of formally judging myself, sentencing, and then hanging myself; the thousand faults that still attach to me might almost tempt to this.'

(In the vestry of Battersea meeting, during evening service.) Most emphatic feeling of my individuality-my insulated existenceexcept that close and interminable connexion, from the very necessity of existence, with the Deity. To the continent of Human Nature, I am a small island near its coast; to the Divine Existence I am a small peninsula.'

Theology and philosophy have been entirely separated by most divines, and some have attempted an awkward association of them; they joined them without producing unity or union. All the emanations of both ought to converge to one focus; and thence, combined and identified, dart forward, a living beam of light, in infinitum.'

What is that sentiment approaching to a sad pleasure, which a mind of profound reflexion sometimes feels in a far inward incommunicable grief, though the fixed expectation of calamity, or even guilt, were its cause?'

One object of life should be to accumulate a great number of grand questions, to be asked and resolved in eternity. We now ask the sage, the genius, the philosopher, the divine,-none can tell ; but we will open our series to other respondents,—we will ask angelsGod.'

I doubt if S. is not too innocent to become sublimely excellent; her heart is purity and kindness; her recollections are complacent; her wishes and intentions are all good. In such a mind, conscience becomes effeminate for want of hard exercise. She is exempted

from those revulsions of the heart, that remorse, those self-indignant regrets, those impetuous convictions, which sometimes assist to scourge the mind away from its stationary habits, into such a region of daring and arduous virtue, as it would never have reached, nor even thought of, but for this mighty impulse of pain. Witness Albany in Cecilia. Vehement emotion, mortifying contrast, shuddering alarm, sting the mind into an exertion of power it was unconscious of before, and urge it on with restless velocity toward the attainment of that moral eminence, short of which it would equally scorn and dread to repose. We fly from pain or terror more eagerly than we pursue good ;-but if both these causes aid our advance!' 'One of the strongest characteristics of genius is-the power of lighting its own fire.'

A man of ability, for the chief of his reading, should select such works as he feels beyond his own power to have produced. What can other books do for him but waste his time and augment his vanity?'

'Shakespeare had perceptions of every kind; he could think every way. His mind might be compared to that monster the prophet saw in his vision, which had eyes all over.'

'Superlative value in connexions of friendship or love, of mutual discrimination. I cannot love a person who does not recognize my individual character. It is most gratifying, even at the expense of every fault being clearly perceived, to see that in my friend's mind there is a standard, or scale of degrees, and that he exactly perceives which degree on this scale I reach to. What nonsense is sometimes inculcated on married persons, and on children in regard to their parents, about being blind to their faults, at the very time, forsooth, they are to cultivate their reason to the utmost accuracy, and to apply it fully in all other instances!-as if, too, this duty of blindness depended on the will!'

(Expression in an evening prayer). May we consider each night as the tomb of the departed day, and, seriously leaning over it, read the inscription written by conscience, of its character and exit.'

Common-place truth is of no use, as it makes no impression; it is no more instruction than wind is music. The truth must take a particular bearing, as the wind must pass through tubes, to be any thing worth.'

'Some people's religion is for want of sense; if they had this, they would have no religion, for their religion is no more than prejudice -superstition.'

Lord Chatham in his speeches did not reason; he struck, as by intuition, directly on the results of reasoning; as a cannon-shot strikes the mark without your seeing its course through the air as it moves towards its object.'

These extracts will bring before the reader the reflective habit and power of Mr. Foster's mind. In this he excelled; in

this was his prime excellence. He not only loved to know, he loved to think. His mind was not a window, but a workshop. What he received he assimilated. He had not entered deeply into the studies that might have been judged most congenial to his taste. Contemplating a visit to the British Museum, he says: Amidst such spectacles, however, it is a great grievance, and partly a shame, to me, to be so destitute as I am of scientific knowledge.' He 'exceedingly deplored' to his friend Hughes his total want of all knowledge of intellectual philosophy, and of all metaphysical reading.' Allowing, as we readily do, that these confessions say more than they mean, it is yet indisputable that he could not boast that extensive acquaintance with science and philosophy, that some might expect. He knew comparatively little of systems. But he had a great insight into the things that make systems of any worth. With their forms in other minds, and in books, he might not be familiar, but he had found and mastered them by his independent power. He was his own' philosopher, and if this accounts for some unconscious exaggeration of his achievements, it gave to his views and style a personal force and freshness that we would not part with for a great deal. To him the objects that nature and life presented were not arbitrary and isolated signs, but representations and types. They were, like fragments of another world, helps to a conception of its general state and processes. Like a skillful workman, he could make his own tools.

There is one feature of Mr. Foster's mind which it is well just to refer to. Our readers will probably anticipate our mention of it-a strong tendency to gloomy judgments of men and things. He confesses to have been addicted through expericnce, if not somewhat given by temperament, to sombre meditations,' and whether confessed or not, the fact appears beyond all possibility of doubt. He was apt to be invaded,' to borrow from his description of his wife, by gloomy sentiments respecting the awful moral condition of our nature, and the tremendously mysterious economy of the divine government of this world.' These sentiments haunted him like ghosts. They made their appearance on all occasions, disturbing the scenes of joy, and adding new shades of darkness to the gloom. On every field of thought the awful mystery of the divine government surrounds us with its darkness, and abases our speculations and presumptions.' The death of children he therefore looked upon in the light of a great escape: 'I constantly and systematically regard this world with such horror, as a place for the rising human beings to come into, that it is an emphatical satisfaction, I may say pleasure, to me (except in a few cases of rare promise), to hear of their prematurely leaving it.' In viewing