These lead us to the con clusion that impressions once made upon the mind are incorporated into its very essence, and become, therefore, as it, eternal. Nothing short of the hand of Omnipotence can wipe them out, or obliterate their slightest trace. But God does nothing in vain. If he has made memory eternal, it has been in respect to the future, that man should know himself and see himself in an ever present protrait, through endless eternity-that his own memory should be the volume of his own history, not only perfect and complete, but bearing the testimony of consciousness, as the incontestible eivdence of its truth. vibrations receives and transmits of the skull, underwent the operation impressions not only corresponding of trepanning. After his recovery, to the cause which puts it into mo- he retained no recollection either of tion, but suited to communicate the the operation or of the accident, yet proper effects of that cause. Every at the age of fifteen, during the word and action is thus written upon delirium of a fever, he gave his the air, as well as upon the memory. mother an exact description of the True, the vibrations soon grow too operation, of the persons present, feeble to effect us sensibly in our their dress, and many minute parpresent state; but unless we can | ticulars. assign a limit to infinity, they still tremble in undying waves, and must for ever. Suppose, then, that in another state our impressibility is so far refined and heightened, that these eternal records upon the invisible parchment of the air shall become sensible, then will the assembled universe be able to listen to the narrative of forgotten ages, and hear the words of the vocal air reciting the stories of the mighty past. This, we are ready to admit, is but a phi losophic vision; yet we may adduce it to show, that nothing is impracticable with Him, who is in every thing, and whose infinite power seems presented to us in the endlessness of every manifestation of motion or life. | Without speculation, we may well ask, with your esteemed friend, “Who has power to obliterate even the most silly trivial expressions ?" Words neither understood, nor heeded when heard, sometimes come back to us when the mind is strung to an unusual tension, and display themselves, as ineffaceably graven on the tablet of memory. Coleridge tells of "an ignorant servant girl, who, during the delirium of fever, repeated, with perfect correctness, passages from a number of theological works in Latin, Greek, and Rabbinical Hebrew. It was at length discovered that she had been servant to a learned clergyman, who was in the habit of walking backward and forward along a passage by the kitchen, and there reading aloud his favorite authors." Dr. Abercrombie tells of a child, who, at four years of age, and while in a profound stupor from a fracture On the subject of the books that John saw opened, there were | doubtless others ; but there appears good reason for believing that the book of memory and the book of conscience were two of them. Without the memory of actions, we could not regard them as ours. We cannot identify ourself with an action that is past, unless we can remember, or be made conscious, that we did it—and hence the necessity, in the future judgment, for every one retaining a full and perfect recollection of all the actions and words of his life. By memory, our own consciousness will associate us with the action, and we shall need no other accuser. But memory is not enough. There is no moral element in memory. It does not feel approbation or disapprobation-has no emotion of innocence or guilt-impels us neither to do nor to refrain. This is the province of conscience. Hence, to enable us to feel in connection with our action, the for yourself I pray the Lord to promotives from which actions were per-long and multiply his richest blessings formed must be written down along and tenderest mercies. with the record of the facts; and this is the book of conscience. Here the secret springs, which urged us to say or to do, are faithfully presented; and as we gaze upon our actions as our pictured self, we shall also see in their uncovered nakedness the feelings which urged us to their performance. Wonderful records! Before their startling disclosures, who shall be able to stand! Who must not feel himself to be "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked!" O my soul! who shall deliver thee from this eternal shame! Where wilt thou find raiment to cover thy nakedness, and a hand to erase from the books of memory and conscience the deeds of guilt which blacken their pages! It is only here that we shall see the true efficacy of that blood which taketh away the sin of the world, and experience fully the blessedness of Him, to whom the Lord imputeth not sin. When we shall see the Son of God wiping from the record, with his own blood, every iniquity, that it may be remembered against us no more for ever, and feel ourselves covered with the white raiment of his own perfect righteousness, and led along by Him, who alone is "able to present us faultless before the presence of HIS glory with exceeding joy," then, and only then, shall we be able fully to unite with the "ten thousand times ten thousand, As ever, your's, TIMOTHY WEST. LETTERS FROM EUROPE. NO. XXXIV.* MY DEAR CLARINDA, Great Britain is, indeed, an agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial nation; but she derives her power, wealth, and glory, incomparably more from her manufacturing and commercial pursuits, than from her agricultural resources. Although her agriculture is superior to that of any nevertheless is inadequate to supply nation or country in Europe, it the wants of her own population. Her agriculturists find a home market, the best in the world, for all that they can grow. Her granaries, however, annually require a large supply from the Baltic, or from this side the Atlantic. Consequently provisions are high. Being overthan twenty-five millions of wooden, populated, and having created more iron, and brazen men, that neither eat, nor drink, nor sleep, nor wear "breath of life," and made comfortable apparel, animated by steam, their by oil, scientifically toil for little or no wages-having thus displaced some ten times their number of human operatives, men and women have become so cheap and worthless that head were they offered for sale in Lonthey would not bring fifty dollars per the understanding that their owners don, Manchester, or Liverpool, with in health and in sickness, pay their were to feed, clothe, and comfort them and thousands of thousands, in saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing." I have made you, beloved brother, a long essay instead of a friendly let-physician, and find them a hillock or ter, as I intended; but these are noble a mound in which to deposit their and delightful themes to me, and I doubt not, on this account, will prove, however imperfectly treated, agree able both to you and our venerable Brother Buchanan, for whom and bones. for time immemorial tended to make The operation of this system has the rich richer, and the poor poorer, *For No. XXXII. p. 436, read No. XXXIII. until we find more opulence in a few persons, more magnificence, more riches and grandeur, associated with squalid poverty and abject wretchedness in Great Britain, than were ever seen in America or in any nation or country possessing civilization in the world. When we learn that heads of families in various and numerous branches of manufacturing and mining operations, are receiving, oftener less than above, three dollars per week, out of which to feed, clothe, house, and warm themselves-where bread-stuffs, meats, fuel, and houserents are much higher than in this country-we are at a loss to comprehend how human beings can so live and feel that they are in social rank and privliege at all elevated above the beasts that perish. This is not a verbal definition of degradation, but a definition in fact. Nor does it appear that there is any cure for it. We of the United States can multiply machinery without limitation, and raise up millions of these wooden and metallic men, whose stomachs are never empty, whose backs are never bare, and whose muscles never tire, and we have natural men to manage them in the best style, and we have food without limit, and the materials for all manner of fabrics beyond computation, and can have ships and seamen enough to transport our wares and merchandize beyond the seas. We can, indeed, monopolize the markets of the world better than Old England, and can thus encroach upon the living of those down-trodden millions of our race so materially as to starve them outright, unless their political mother makes more ample provision for them by shipping a few millions of them to her large colonial possessions in Asia and America. As a politician, I have one theory of national policy, the obvious advantage of which I wonder all men cannot see; but as a Christian, I have another theory I wonder all men can not approve. As a politician, I plead for the policy of a high tariff, for the purpose of employing all our own materials of wealth to the greatest advantage, and for the purpose of building up our own nation upon the ruin of all rival nations, having a large population and limited territory. But as a Christian, I go for free trade and thus equally build up the interests of Great Britain or any foreign country with our own. But I would not have you to turn politician, or presume to decide questions of State policy. We have, as Christians, little to do with such matters. Political governments, in their best form, are but mere tents for pilgrims to lodge under while on their journey to the great King and Lord of all. Still people will ask some men their opinions upon every thing; and even ladies have been known to discuss questions of great national interest and honor. This not being either your taste, your privilege, or your duty, I will not trouble you with any other speculations upon the subject. I do not much indulge, as you know, in speculations or comments on national character. You must, however, have noted in your hasty tour through Great Britain, certain peculiarities in English, Scotch, and Irish character. Nations have their well established characters. Paul himself could not but note those of the Cretans. Still I have neither taste nor leisure for instituting comparisons or making out contrasts. With regard to the relative value of political institutions, it may, however, be profitable to note an influence which political institutions have in forming character. Monarchy and its handmaid Aristocracy wend their way through all orders of the English community ; and, more or less, clearly impress their image upon the exterior manners of the whole population. The little kings and little lords imitate the great ones. Each little gentleman feels that he is monarch of all he surveys, and claims of all under him a species of that tribute which he owes to his superior, and so on in the ranks above him, until we ascend to His Majesty the august head of the nation. This aristocratic spirit does not present itself to our view only in august palaces, in large and elegantly cultivated estates, in splendid carriages, and in the glitter of rich apparel; but especially and universally in a certain dignity and loftiness of manners on the part of the aspirants, which at once intimates what is expected from those who approach them. We have, what we sometimes call in America, republican simplicity and republican manners. Such is the spirit of our institutions developed in our social intercourse. So monarchy has its spirit, and infuses it into the whole community, more or less. the face of the earth." The country, indeed, is highly picturesque and beautiful. It assumes every form of beauty and grandeur, and seems disposed to accommodate itself to every variety of taste. The people are intelligent and industrious, and generally devoted to reading. I mean the educated classes, and these are a greater proportion to its whole population than I have met with in any other country. I was, however, much grieved to see that temperance had not increased: but, on the contrary, intemperance seemed much more in the ascendant than it was some forty years ago. This is the most unpropitious omen of its retrogression, and an alarming indication of the impotency of sound theories and even good common sense to reform and elevate a people. I do not in this remark speak so much from what I saw as from what I heard, and from the published reports of the enormous amounts of spiritous liquors used in that country. True, indeed, I saw too much of it in steam boats and along the public thorougfares, more than in any other country through which I have recently passed. Christianity, in some points, appears to greater advantage in the Old World than in the New, especially in this respect that it dignifies the humble and humbles the dignified of the nation. The rich nobleman rejoices that he is made low, and the The same aristocratic spirit, only poor man feels not proud, but thank- | in a lower degree, appears in Scotful, that he is exalted in Christ. | land as in England. It exhibits itHence Christianity demonstrates its self all over the United Kingdom in power in England more in this respect than in America. Noblemen, when they become Christians or Christian preachers, are more humble and familiar, and show more respect to brethren of low degree than those of low degree are wont to show to one another. Instances of this kind in extreme cases are not numerous, but in all ranks this spirit is very manifest-at least so it appeared to me. The Scotch are still as stern and proud as ever. They are peculiarly well pleased with themselves, and are as much attached to their country as the natives of a Switzerland mountain-to them the loveliest land on the remarkable taciturnity which is maintained in rail cars and steam boats, and in public meetings and public houses. I found myself seated almost on all occasions in public conveyances amidst those who, unless specially acquainted or related, would not break silence in any form of compellation or remark in a hundred miles travel. They seem to fear the violation of some code of manners, or to break caste, or in some unwelcome manner to obtrude upon the rights of others. To Yankees especially, and to Americans in general, who wish to know every thing about every person, place, and thing, this silence is a grievous impost or tax that is paid with the utmost reluctance. Nevertheless it must be paid for it is not often that a stranger can find any thing more than a yea or a nay, from a stranger to whom he is not formally introduced. In Ireland it is quite otherwise. An Irishman must talk. Silence with him is death. True, a few of them seem as if they would desire to imitate their fellow-subjects on the sister land, and to aim at better manners than to talk to s rangers; but it is seldom that the resolution is practically carried out, at least for a long time. What the cause is I know not. They have generally more inquisitiveness, and much more native cheerfulness and hilarity. But what is the cause? Can a difference in ancestry maintain its sovereignty for a thousand years? Can a greener island, or a brighter sky, or a less partial government produce such a result? The north of Ireland is a more mon I grel race than is found in any other quarter of the island. It is more a compound of English, Scotch, French, and Irish more like the United States in that respect than any other portion of the United Kingdom. It is Protestant in a high degree. Still all these facts do not, to my mind, satisfactorily explain the mystery. shall, therefore, be content to say that I do not comprehend it. But there is a cheerfulness, a contentedness, a mirthfulness, a communicativeness, a sociability, and, I may add, a general characteristic benevolence, no where else to be seen, all pervading the island, but especially the Protestant part of it. The only philosophical reason given for the garrulity, or talkativeness, or eloquence, as any one may please to call it, of the Irish, is, that they have generally larger mouths than either the English or Scotch. Now as Nature does nothing in vain, the presumption with some is, that, because they have much to say, Nature has given them a larger mouth and a superabundance of words. I cannot think that this fact, though fully established, satisfactorily explains the phenomenon; for the question then is only changed, How came they to have so much to say? I shall bid you good night, and leave you to solve the difficulty as best you can. Your affectionate Father, A. CAMPBELL. THE QUESTIONS OF THE CONSIDERED IN THEIR RELATION TO NO. VII.-THE STATE CHURCH. How shall we remove this priestly institution, which is a libel God upon What prosand an injury to man? pect is there of its removal? These are questions which continually force themselves upon the minds of Dissenters; and many and notable are the methods which have been proposed. Some men propose to confiscate the property of the Church of England. This, at first sight, appears a very easy method of destroying the State Church, but it loses all its attractions when we reflect upon the consequences of such a scheme, and the motives of the persons who advocate it. They say that this property would help to pay the interest of the National Debt, or it would pay all the Poor Rates of the country, or— in short, it would save a little money going out of their own pockets, and put a little in. It is better used in the hands of those who have it, than it would be in the hands of those who want it. These pocket-patriots do not see that the church property could not be confiscated without a convulsion which would shake society to its foundations. The monarch, the nobles, four-fifths* of the people, are attached to the union of Church * Three-fifths, we should think, would approach nearer the fact. ED. |