fairy wings, carefully visiting every opening flower-cup, and, like a curious florist, removing from each the injurious insects that otherwise would erelong cause their beauteous petals to droop and decay. Poised in the air, it is observed peeping cautiously, and with sparkling eye, into their innermost recesses; whilst the ethereal motions of its pinions, so rapid and so light, appear to fan and cool the flower, without injuring its fragile texture, and produce a delightful murmuring sound, well adapted for lulling the insects to repose. . . . . The prairies, the fields, the orchards and gardens, nay, the deepest shades of the forests, are all visited in their turn, and everywhere the little bird meets with pleasure and with food. Its gorgeous throat in beauty and brilliancy baffles all competition. Now it glows with a fiery hue, and again it is changed to the deepest velvety black. The upper parts of its delicate body are of resplendent changing green; and it throws itself through the air with a swiftness and vivacity hardly conceivable. It moves from one flower to another like a gleam of light-upwards, downwards, to the right, and to the left. In this manner, it searches the extreme northern portions of our country, following, with great precaution, the advances of the season, and retreats with equal care at the approach of autumn.'

THEOLOGY AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY.

In the department of Theology and Biblical literature, American works of the present century are far too numerous to be adequately described in this brief review.

Among the earlier writers of the present century, prominence may be given to the names of JOSEPH S. BUCKMINSTER, JOHN M. MASON, and EDWARD PAYSON-writers of discourses which have been described as good examples of pulpit oratory.

In polemical theology, and especially in the controversy between Orthodoxy and Unitarianism, the more eminent of the orthodox writers are NOAH WORCESTER, SAMUEL WORCESTER, MOSES STUART, and LEONARD WOODS; while on the latter side, the names of WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING, HENRY WARE, ANDREWS NORTON, and BERNARD WHITMAN may be noticed. During the last thirty years, or rather more, an important movement has taken place in theological opinions. The Unitarians, under the leadership of Dr Channing, have become a considerable party, having a large share of influence in general literature. A distinction must be made between the Unitarians of the old schoolif we may so speak-and other writers, including Dr WALKER, W. B. GREENE, and THEODORE PARKER, who have assumed a wider latitude of opinion, and have attempted to make innovations

in theology and moral philosophy. The views of Theodore Parker are given in his Discourse on Matters Pertaining to Religion. His Critical and Miscellaneous Writings comprise essays on German Literature, the Education of the Labouring Class, and Thoughts on Labour, and other papers deserving commendation as examples of a clear style of writing. This is the more noticeable from its being evident that the writer has studied German authors who have buried their thoughts under a mass of confused verbiage.

Apart from controversy-some of the most valuable writings of American divines are found in the department of Biblical literature. The Notes on the Gospels, by ALBERT BARNES, has had a wide circulation in England as in the United States. Dr ROBINSON, formerly editor of the Bibliotheca Sacra, commenced in 1843, is the author of an important work, entitled Biblical Researches in Palestine, published in 1841. It gives the results of extensive studies and travels in the East, and has been highly commended by the best Biblical scholars of our age. GEORGE BUSH, a learned divine, who holds the views of Swedenborg, is the writer of works intended partly to oppose the literal reading of certain parts of Scripture. His principal work is a treatise entitled Anastasis, in which he has controverted the commonly received doctrine of the resurrection.

The commentaries on several parts of the New Testament and other theological writings by MOSES STUART, have gained a very high reputation in the Biblical literature of our times. A New Translation of the Psalms and other lyrical parts of the Old Testament, by G. R. NOYES, D.D.; a treatise On the Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels, by ANDREWS NORTON; and the Lectures on the Evidences of Christianity, by Bishop M'ILVAINE of Ohio these are mentioned as representatives of valuable works which cannot be particularly and fairly noticed here.

Several theological writers have contributed to the department of moral philosophy and metaphysics. The treatises of JONATHAN EDWARDS, and his son, the younger Edwards, have been briefly described in a former part of this work. The writings of JOHN SMALLEY (1734–1820), including a treatise on Natural and Moral Inability, seem to belong to the last century. Among other works of the same class, we may mention Outlines of Moral Science, by Dr ALEXANDER; The Elements of Mental and Moral Science, by GEORGE PAYNE; The Elements of Moral Science, by FRANCIS WAYLAND; Mental Philosophy, by THOMAS C. UPHAM; the writings of H. P. TAPPAN; and several works on psychology by LAURENS P. HICKOK.

Modern writers on metaphysics may be mainly divided into

two classes—the former, including those who have adhered, more or less strictly, to the general principles of Locke, is represented by FRANCIS BOWEN, editor of the North American Review; while the latter including JAMES MARSH, EMERSON, WALKER, GREENE, PARKER, and other writers-is characterised partly by a rejection of Locke's theory. Emerson is regarded as the leader of the 'transcendentalists,' and has borrowed the results of the speculations of Fichte; while others have adopted, more or less, the views of German idealism or French eclecticism. JAMES MARSH expounded the philosophical doctrine of Coleridge. More recently, the Positive Philosophy of M. Comte has been introduced in the writings of ORESTES A. BROWNSON.

In the following notices, prominence is given to the works of Dr Channing and Dr Dewey, as representatives of moral philosophy. It is hardly necessary to say that their theological opinions have no influence on our estimate of their literary merit. Channing's essays may be classed under the title of moral philosophy, and Dewey's discourses may be correctly described as practical moral essays.

This eminent divine and moral philosopher was born at Newport in Rhode Island, 7th April 1780. 'I thank God,' he said in one of his sermons, 'that this beautiful island was the place of my birth.' Here Roger Williams, the apostle of religious liberty, had laboured and suffered for the truth, and had left a commonwealth pervaded by his own spirit. The venerable founder of Rhode Island, in his quaint and rugged prose, had uttered, in the early part of the seventeenth century, the doctrine of religious freedom which was developed by Channing.

When fourteen years old, Channing entered Harvard College, where he graduated with the highest honours in the year 1798. After leaving Cambridge, he resided as a private tutor with a family in Virginia, and, during this time, his sedentary and studious habits impaired his health, which always remained delicate. Of a subsequent course of study in his native place he writes: 'I had two noble places of study-one the edifice, now so frequented and useful as a public library; then so deserted that I spent day after day, and sometimes week after week, amidst its dusty volumes without interruption from a single visitor: the other the beach, my daily resort, dear to me in the sunshine, still more attractive in the storm. Seldom do I visit it now without thinking of the work, which there, in the sight of that beauty, in the sound of those waves, was carried on in my soul. No spot

on earth has helped to form me so much as that beach. There I lifted up my voice in praise amid the tempest. There, softened by beauty, I poured out my thanksgiving and contrite confession. There, in reverential sympathy with the mighty Power around me, I became conscious of power within. There struggling thoughts and emotions broke forth, as if moved to utterance by nature's eloquence of the winds and waves. There began a happiness surpassing all worldly pleasures, all gifts of fortune-the happiness of communing with the works of God.'

In 1803 he was ordained pastor of the church in Federal Street, Boston. Though his health was feeble, his services were so acceptable that it was soon found necessary to build a larger place of worship. In the distinctive articles of his creed he was a Unitarian; but the use of this term must remind us that such names give no fair definition of character. Channing said of himself: 'I am little of a Unitarian;' and his friends have said that he was more nearly related to Fénélon than to Priestley. His sermon on 'Unitarian Christianity,' preached at Baltimore in 1819, is perhaps the best of his writings on dogmatic theology. In the following year, he published his Moral Argument against Calvinism. But controversial divinity was by no means his favourite study. Of his sermon, entitled Man the Image of his Maker, it is said, that the reading of it has been an era in the lives of many students.

In 1823, Channing published an essay on National Literature, which was followed by Remarks on the Character and Writings of John Milton (1826), and by Remarks on the Life and Character of Napoleon Bonaparte. In this review, he judges the military hero by an ideal standard, rather than by fair comparison with other men of the same class. Channing found a more congenial theme in the Character and Writings of Fénélon, of which he wrote a review for the Christian Examiner in 1829. Already, in 1816, he had written against war; and again, in 1835 and 1839, he appeared as the earnest advocate of peace. In all these writings, the amiable traits of his own character appeared prominently, as in the Address on Self-culture (1838), which served as an introduction to a course of Lectures on the Elevation of the Labouring Portion of the Community. Though Channing was not connected with any anti-slavery society, he wrote with clearness and earnestness against the great social evil of the United States, and his arguments against slavery exerted a beneficial influence on public opinion. In these and other lectures and essays he founded his principles of morals, politics, and theology on his idea of the true object of human life. He subordinated all other cultivation, physical, intellectual, and social, to the culture of man

A1. 21 gomeric fit aut social relations Chamor brums tuoigi ofer depressed by the wam of prysa zam Fie poort the ion few yean of us lie in retiremen living in boro Guing vinter, aut at Newport me bitmas IL KUMPET, wuste de dues enjoyed the society of his friends. Alister the poluva and Das the essayist, wat bad shared in the Treasures Le Kany The s pubis autress was a speech delivered is hugun 1852, it commemoration of the British emancipation of 16 October of the same year he was seized wEL TULINE kver while traveling and died at Bening in Termo Es mamoire, za z friend tas said, give emphasis to almost every waters of bie writing, and now is simple name is a nobier thing than even the booka themselves of many other writers."

The writings of Chaming consist of essays and discourses. all worked by the curveeritic of an abstract thinker. Of the thousandford varieties of human life, its stern realities, its incorkirtadien, and the difficulties it ever opposes to the schemes of the philanthropist, Channing gives no faithful delineation. He writes Kamerally in abstract terms, of will, conscience, intellect, and moral and religious culture. The same idea everywhere presents itself in his essays and discourses; the culture of the human soul is constantly asserted as the only true end of religion, philosophy, literature, society, and government. "The human soul,' we read,' is greater, more sacred than the state, and must never be sacrificed to it. Thrones which have stood for ages are to meet the doom pronounced upon all man's works. . . . . But man is older than nations, and he is to survive nations. He has rights by In the order of things, they precede society, lie at its foundation, constitute man's capacity for it, and are the great objects of social institutions. . . . . A human being is a member of the community not as a limb is a member of the body, or as a wheel is a part of a machine, intended only to contribute to some

nature.

....

Memoirs of William Ellery Channing; edited by his nephew, William Henry Channing.