which the course of instruction is formed by much thinking, rather nearly the same as in our colleges. than by much reading. And it is One great cause of the multiplica- because some people read every tion of Dissenters, is the profligacything and digest nothing, that their of many of the Episcopal clergy reading often makes them ridicu. But the vast wealth of the church lous. Their heads are full of erucreates an extent of patronage, dition, but they are likewise full of which it is not easy to limit or de- disorder. I have known a learned stroy.

doctor compound his discourses of It is a fact generally agreed in such miscellaneous assemblages of England that there is an increase things, and with such ludicrous efof the numbers of Roman Catholics fect, as to hold his wondering hearin that country; particularly in the ers in suspense whether he were a western or manufacturing counties; wise man or a fool. Nay, I have the Irish migrating to those coun- known a congress-man, and that ties for employment. Indeed, the lately, starting a thousand topics, efforts of the Roman See to extend and discussing none, quoting in a its power, and its principles, have single speech all the authors he had never been greater than at this ever seen, sacred or profane, till he time, and it is generally believed raised a question whether he were that the Holy Alliance have fa- in his wits, or out. voured this extension, as they have With a view to prevent this haconsidered the popish religion as bit of merely passive reading, in best suited to prevent any renova- my own family, I have lately adopttion of government, that mighted the following plan. We have a endanger their power.

large blank book, in a convenient place for writing, which we call the Family Repertory. Each mem

ber, whenever he meets with any To the Editor of the Christian Spectator. thing, in his reading, which strikes

him as interesting or important, is IMPROPER USE OF THE WORD " verse.' expected to write down the pas| Rave observed, for many years sage in this book, with his reflecpast, that our clergy, in directing tions upon it; or, if he please, his the psalms to be sung in our reflections without the passage. churches, have entirely laid aside Our friends who visit us are usualthe use of stanza, which they call ly desired to do the same. The a verse. Surely the gentlemen all two youngest of the family (whose know that a verse in poetry is a ages are nine and eleven) are alsingle line, and that a number of lowed to transcribe, without comlines in connexion constitutes a ment, such passages, in prose and stanza or set. I see no use, but poetry, as strike their fancy, prosome impropriety, in this innova- vided they be not too long, and so tion. It seems to be far better to do not take too much time,-by let different things have different which means their judgment is exnames.

A. ercised, and an opportunity is giv

me to correct and improve their taste. As to method, we be

gin on the first leaf, and each one, To the Editor of the Christian Spectator. leaving a suitable blank, writes

where the last left off, putting the PARAGRAPHS FROM A FAMILY ALBUM.

number and subject of what he To read without reflection is to writes in an irregular index at the read without profit. An intelli- end. gent and well-disciplined mind is Besides the advantage already

en

mentioned that this plan pro- might reach him there, must these motes thinking, it may be added sounds of laughter-excited by his that thinking promotes conversa- own ungodly wit-strike him, amidst tion, and conversation makes each the unutterable things of eternity. one's knowledge common proper- Love of literary fame is the ty. We elicit, too, some of the strong passion of the age. The best thoughts of our friends,-who world is full of writers, too many thus leave behind them something of whom are less anxious for the to remind us of their visit, and re- moral tendency of their producnew the pleasure which we derived tions than for their reception with from their society.

the ravenous public. But let such In the famous Club which Frank- writers pause. Byron wrote for lin formed at Philadelphia, in 1727, fame. i Verily, he had his rethe frst of a long string of ques- ward.' But who would dare to be tions which were put to each mem- the inheritor of Byron's fame, if ber at each meeting, was, “ Whe- along with it he must take upon ther he had met with uny thing in him Byron's responsibilities. the author he last read remarkable, Cowper had an almost painful or suituble to be communicated to the sense of his accountability for evejunto?” Why may not the mem- ry word he wrote.

- An author," bers of a family be as useful to he remarked to his friend, " had each other in this way, as the need narrowly to watch his pen, members of a junto?

lest a line should escape it which Having said thus much about my by possibility may do mischief, plan—which is more than I intend- when he has long been dead and ed I shall add an extract or two buried. What we have done when which are taken at random from we have written a book, will never our repertory.

PARENS. be known till the day of judgment:

then the account will be liquidated, POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE.

and all the good that it has occaIt is an affecting consideration sioned, and all the evil, will wit that our follies speak when we are ness either for or against us.

."

H. dead, no less than our virtues. We die, but our example lives. It continues to exert its influence, In reading the books of our travwhile we have no longer power to ellers in England, nothing delights undo the evil we have done, or me more than their descriptions of in any measure to cancel or re- an English cottage. Similar specical the mischiefs we have be- mens, it is true, are to be met with queathed to our survivors. 66 Be- in our own country : they are maing dead, he yet speaketh.” These ny, and multiplying, it is hoped, yet words struck me with melancholy there is much reason to regret that force, when, a few days since, as I they bear so small a proportion to was sitting in a reading-room, the the habitations of a different aspect. silence of the place was broken by An American farmer is generally the sudden laughter of one reading more intent on acquiring land, than a witty but profane author. Being desirous of cultivating what he aldead, he yet speaketh—he still ut- ready possesses. Let him be addters his sarcasms, and the immoral ing field to field and he is satisfied ; still answer with mirth. But how give him the privilege of calling sad, I could not help reflecting them his own, and he is content to how sad to one in eternity must be pay taxes on some hundreds of lean the consideration that he is still a acres, which yield him no profit. mirth-maker for the unthinking I regard the man who surrounds living. How mournfully, if they his dwelling with objects of rural

RURAL TASTE.

taste, or who even plants a single shall find themselves not less agreeshade-tree by the road-side, as a ably than usefully employed. A public benefactor ; not merely be- blooming Eden shall rise up around cause he adds something to the them and repay their toil with its general beauty of the country, and fragrance and its beauty. And I to the pleasure of those who travel cannot help remarking, if all our through it, but because, also, he young people would spend a portion contributes something to the refine- of their leisure hours in these emment of the general mind ;-hre im- ployments, how soon and how easily proves the taste, especially of his would a charm be spread over our own family and neighbourhood. whole country, the charm of groves There is a power in scenes of rural and waters, of green foliage and beauty, to affect our social and mo- greener herbage, filling the mind ral feelings. A fondness for these of the beholder with sensations, scenes is seldom found with coarse. how different from the effect of ness of sentiment and rudeness of that barren aspect which now too manners. One may judge, with often meets the eye.

MARIA. confidence, of the taste and intelli

(By a guest.) gence of a family by the external air of their dwelling. In my excur

LUTHER'S CELL. sions in the country, if I pass a hab- The people of Glasgow have itation, however spacious, standing built a tall monument in honour of naked to the sun, with nothing or

John Knox. More impressive to namental, nothing inviting, around my mind is the manner in which it, I cannot help saying to myself, the memory of Luther is preserved bowever abundant may be the slov- at Erfurth. In Russel's tour in Gerenly possessions of its owner, there many, I find the following notice of is no refinement in that house ;

his cell. there is no delicate and kindly in

“ The Augustine monastery, in terchange of sentiment among its in- which the young Luther first put mates, and if ever they are sociable,

on the cowl of the hierarchy which their sociableness consists in rude he was to shake to its foundations, and fitful loquacity. Their books and strove to lull with his flute the are few, and those ill-chosen and impatient longings of a spirit that unread. But if I notice a dwelling, was to set Europe in flames, has however humble, which is appar- been converted to the purposes of ently as snug as its owner has means an orphan asylum ; but the cell of to make it, displaying neatness and the Reformer has been religiously taste in its fences, and shades, and preserved, as the earliest memorial shrubbery, with perhaps a tasteful of the greatest man of modern times. summer-house in a luxuriant gar- The gallery on which it opens, is den, and flower-pots at the win- adorned with a Dance of Death, dows, I feel assured that this is the abode of refinement; this is “ The reader probably knows, that such the home of quiet and rational

a Dance of Death is a series of paintings, rep; enjoyment, of intelligent and kind resenting Death leading off to the other world

all ranks of men, from the monarch to the ly intercourse ; the wayfaring beggar and of all professions, and characters, man as he passes by, at the close priests and coquettes, soldiers and philosoof the day, weary with his jour- phers

, musicians and doctors, &c. &c. They

were generally painted, either in charchney, might cast his eye wistfully yards, as in the cemetery of Newstadt, in towards it, and fain make it his Dresden, to teach the general doctrine of 'hu

man mortality, or in churches and convents, lodging-place for the night.

to commemorate the ravages of a pestilence. Let the sons and daughters of a of the latter kind was the celebrated Dance family join their hands thus to adorn

of Death at Basle, painted on the occasion of

the plague which raged while the council their paternal dwelling, and they was sitting.”

and over the door is the inscrip- of very good illuminations, that it tion,

might be called a Bible with plates. Cellula, divino magnoque habitata Luthero, The wooden boards are covered

Salve, vix tanto cellula digna viro ! with ingenious carving and gilding, Dignus erat qui regum splendida tecta subiret, and studded with pieces of coloured Te dedignatus non tamen ille fuit.

glass to imitate the precious stones The cell is small and simple, and which so frequently adorn the manmust have been a freezing study. uscripts of the church. It is said to Beside his portrait is hung a Ger- have been the work of a hermit of man exposition of the text, “ Death the sixteenth century, who thus is swallowed up in victory,” in his employed his leisure hours to do own handwriting, and written in honour to Luther ; yet Protestant the form in which old books often hermits are seldom to be met with." terminate, an inverted pyramid.

G. There is a copy of his Bible so full

REVIEWS.

Christian Researches in Syria and present frequent allusions to those

the Holy Land, in 1823 and 1824, peculiar traits of national character in furtherance of the objects of the and feeling, and to those distinct Church Missionary Society. By and permanent outlines of natural the Rev. WILLIAM Jowett, M. A. scenery, to which his heart and eyes With an Appendix containing the have ever been accustomed. To Journal of Mr. JOSEPH GREAVES, his countrymen, whose eyes look on a visit to the Regency of Tunis. abroad upon the same scenes, and From the London edition. Bos- whose hearts are attuned to the ton, 1826. pp. 364.

same social sympathies and habits,

such allusions serve to heighten the The literature of every people is charm which his works exert over national and local. The mind of them, by awakening in their minds a writer is moulded and fashioned the same bland associations which by the circumstances in which he dwelt in his own bosom. Or if his is placed, and his genius necessarily work be simply historical narration, receives the impress of all those still the actors are men of their features of society and manners, and own country, and traverse the of physical nature, by which he is scenes, and are conversant with all surrounded, and with which his ear- the circumstances, with which they liest and fondest recollections are in- are habitually familiar. timately associated. Hence, when But to the men of a different age he embodies his warm emotions or and country, who have been trained vivid conceptions in language, and in the midst of society of a different sends them forth to enlighten or to character, and among scenery of move his fellow-men, who are another description, works of this placed in similar circumstances, and national cast must be deprived of surrounded by the same external that peculiar charm which gives objects, his works will them such hold on the affections of hibit the same characteristics as those to whom they were originally those with which his own genius is addressed. There is at first no eostamped, and will spontaneously kindred sympathy or fond associa

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tion to be awakened in their bo- the eyes of the church universal soms ; and the only way in which are directed; here the warm affecsuch feelings may be implanted tions of all hearts centre, which there, ready to respond to the have known the love of Christ; touch of genius from a foreign land, and for this country in its present is to transport one's self as far as degraded, polluted, and most unhappossible into the situation and feel- py state, we doubt not the keenest ings of the inhabitants of that land, sympathies both of Christians on to read as they read ; to see as they earth, and saints and angels in heasee; to feel as they feel; and to

ven, are strongly enlisted. surround one's self in vivid imagin- Whatever tends to render us ation by all those scenes in the midst more intimately acquainted with of which they dwell.

the geography of Palestine, whethTo do this fully in respect to the er civil or physical, goes directly to literature of ancient nations is now increase our power of comprehendimpossible. We may rove among ing the Bible, and of entering more the scenes of their departed great- fully into the spirit and force of all ness, and behold with admiration its beautiful allusions and descripthe monaments which they left be- tions. It tends, of course, to place hind; we may gaze with rapture us more completely in the situation on the same beautiful or sublime of the Jews, to whom the scriptures features of nature on which they were first addressed. It enables were wont to look ; but the spirit us, in a measure to gaze with them of life and manners which once on the “glory of Lebanon” and on dwelt there can never be recalled. the “excellency of Carmel ;" to Yet even this is much. Who does delight in the rich vales and fertile not feel with a keener relish the pastures of Sharon, and in the lake power of the Greek and Romun and the valleys of Galilee; to roam writers, after having gazed on the among the mountains and romantic fading glories of the Parthenon, or dells in the vicinity of Jerusalem, wandered among the desolations of the queen of nations, the joy of the the eternal city ?

whole earth. But the thousands But there is a land, whose litera- and ten thousands who once came ture and whose scenery awaken in up from all the land to worship in the heart of the Christian, a still her courts, those courts themselves, deeper sympathy. We refer to

where the glory of the Lord was Palestine, the land of patriarchs and wont to be manifested, and where prophets, of heroic warriors and the Saviour of men dispensed light patriotic statesman; a land favour- and life and salvation to a lost world ed of Jehovah, and among whose -all have crumbled into dust ! the scenes God himself was manifest in towers of Zion, so beautiful on the the flesh. There is the spot which sides of the north, are gone ; and bore the impress of a Saviour's foot- the haughty and ferocious Turk steps. There the city still remains now lords it over the heritage of where he was cradled in a manger, God, and offers bis unhallowed worand where on the adjacent plains a ship on the very spot where of old heavenly host proclaimed, « Peace Jehovah dwelt between the cheruand good will to men.” There is bim! Hence, also, whatever gives yet the humble village and the vale us information on the present state of Nazareth where he spent his of the unhappy people of that land, youth ; and there the holy city, enables us to form a juster estimate beautiful for situation,' where at of the obligations we are under to last he gave his life to take away strive to rouse them from the slumthe sin of the world! This is the ber of ages, and to restore the light region, to wbich above all others, of divine truth to that horizon,

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