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ART. IV.-The Little Villager's Verse Book. By the Rev. W. L. BOWLES. 12mo, pp. 32. Devizes, 1826.

We need not apologize for noticing this little provincial publication; it has for its object the combined instruction and amusement of the young in our villages; and as our Church is interested in the education of even its lowliest members, in all periods, from the time of their conning over the Primer till they come to know how to search the Scriptures and ponder them in their hearts,-the Christian Remembrancer may well endeavour to make this little effort better known.

Mr. Bowles' aim has been, as the title-page informs us, to compose some "short verses for children to learn by heart, in which the most familiar images of country life are applied to excite the first feelings of humanity and piety." Now if he has accomplished this humble but not trivial design, he will have presented no unacceptable offering to the community. It appears that he began to write them for the use of the poor children of a Sunday-school, whom his lady benevolently instructs during the summer, on the garden-lawn of his parsonage. "The object, which to the best of my knowledge is entirely novel, was briefly to describe the most obvious images in country life, familiar to every child; and in the smallest compass to connect every distinct picture with the earliest feelings of humanity and piety; in language which the simplest might understand, but which from the objects represented, might be read, perhaps, with some interest, by those whose minds were more cultivated."

The propriety and usefulness of the intent none will hesitate to allow, but as to the novelty of it, surely Mr. B. rates his claim herein too high; for many of Watts's Hymns,-his "Busy Bee," his "Young Lambs," and others, are incontestably of this class. So are many of the "Original Poems for Infant Minds," by the Taylors of Ongar; and doubtless, if we were to rummage among nursery shelves, others of like kind would be found. We are afraid too, that we must add to this, that Mr. B. has not effected all that he meant in the execution of the Verse Book. The component parts of each poem were to be,-a distinct picture of some one thing or occurrence in country life, a moral or pious reflection made on it by a natural transition, and the whole embodied in such verses as might readily be committed to memory. The rule is good; but the Author has not kept to it, for many of the hymns are neither vividly descriptive, nor flowingly musical; nor is the meditative conclusion in many of them naturally enough dependent on the foregoing portion. It is, however, but fair to give an example of his best, and the following is perhaps the most successful instance we could produce from the book.

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Next to it in value come "The Glow-worm," "The Sheep-fold," "Summer's Evening," and "The Primrose." In few of the rest has he kept to the conditions he assigned himself. For example, in the opening piece, "The Path of Life," where is the distinct picture which is to catch the attention of the infant learner, and to be laid up in "the chambers of imagery," good as the abstract reflections are in themselves? We quote it, not as if it were an indifferent devotional poem, but as a failure, in regard to its particular purpose.

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The metaphor of the "upland path of life," is a very slight sketch indeed, to take the appellation of a picture. We complain of “Saturday Night," and "The Swan," as having moral deductions tacked to them, which are neither relative to the topics, nor of a sort intelligible to children. In "Spring" and "The Bird's Nest," the metre is the long fourteen syllable couplet, and not a quatrain of eight and six, and consequently not so helpful to the memory. A fault, however trivial, where we have to deal with minds not particularly retentive of their tasks.

On the whole, then, Mr. B. has not been very successful in his undertaking, for scarcely more than a third of his versicles answer to their purport. We have been the more particular in pointing out the faults of the work, because we think that a collection of this kind will probably be wanted, either for a prize-book or for use in our National Schools, and the Society may hereafter desire to encourage a good one.

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Perhaps a better "Verse Book" than any existing, may be obtained by extracting from different sources: and in that case Mr. Bowles' subsidy would be very valuable.

To the amiable spirit which dictated the attempt, the praise which Dr. Johnson conferred on Dr. Watts's similar condescension, is fully due; and we cannot refrain from quoting the concluding paragraph of Mr. B.'s "præfatiuncula," (for we are dealing throughout in small matters,)—it is honourable to his better feelings.

"After a somewhat severe critical contest, I have felt such a kind of refreshment from these compositions, as an old soldier might be supposed to experience, who returns after a campaign, and wanders over the fields in summer, with the children of his native village. And if these Village Verses should ever be seen by one of my antagonists, the author of the beautiful "Butterfly's Ball," I can assure him that all unkindness is buried in my heart; although unprovoked harsh language called for sharper retribution than is congenial to my disposition.'

There is a kindliness about this altogether unlike the sore irritability which agitated him of late. Nevertheless, as criticism is or ought to be as much steeled against the softer feelings as her forensic sister justice, -we are bound to say, that we cannot think him more fortunate in his great controversy, than in this more gentle competition with the Watts's and the Barbauld's,-though in this latter, even if he have failed, he appears to a thousand times more advantage than when he was all in a foam with crimination and recrimination.

MISCELLANEOUS.

ON THE CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL.

I. HIS CHARACTER BEFORE HIS CONVERSION.

FOR every error in religion there must be some grounds apparently strong in the eyes of those who conscientiously hold it: so that if we desire to establish the truth to their satisfaction, it is necessary to examine the sources of their misconception.

It may not, therefore, be an unprofitable task to endeavour to sift with sober care and patience the whole case of the conversion of St. Paul; because it may be possible, by a strict investigation of the steps and causes of the mistakes that have prevailed upon it, to approach somewhat nearer to the decision of a question of no trifling moment in practical religion.

In such an investigation, there appears to be no object more indispensable than to ascertain what those things were from which St. Paul required to be changed;—what his character was previously to his con

verson.

On the unexceptionable authority of the apostle himself our opinion may be confidently founded.

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To the Jewish multitude he declared, that in early life he had been "zealous toward God; ' to the Sanhedrim, that "he had lived in all good conscience before God until that day;" to Agrippa he affirmed, 'my manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews; which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee;" to the Galatians he said, that in his youth he had profited in the Jews' religion above many that were his equals in his own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of his fathers; and to the Philippians, that, "touching the righteousness in the law," he had in early life been "blameless."*

And surely, the man who till the day he spoke had "lived in all good conscience before God;"-the man who, till that day, had been zealous toward God, exceedingly zealous of those principles in which he believed was contained the truth of heaven;-he, who in early life had, in the supposed only religion, made greater progress than many that were his equals, and who, touching the righteousness of the only divine law he knew, had from his youth been blameless ;-such a man will not be deemed a character in whom we shall be ready to suspect any profane depravity, any unprincipled perversity of heart.

But, with regard to the unfavourable portion of his conduct, his persecution of the Church of Christ, our opinion ought not to be formed without considerable caution.

It will be found that there are several remarkable circumstances and accidental adjuncts of the case, which are foreign to the real question of his guilt. I allude to the ardent expressions of remorse used by St. Paul himself; our suspicion that his unbelief was wilful; the knowledge we have of the real character of those he persecuted; and the opinion that persecutors are generally actuated by a malicious or worldly motive.

Among all the qualities of St. Paul, perhaps the most predominant was his religious zeal: and that zeal, in the fervour of youth, and under the influence of prejudice and error, led him into those extremes, for which he afterwards condemned himself in the strongest terms; for which, when he discovered their erroneous direction, he called himself "the chief of sinners," "the least of the apostles," unworthy of the apostolic

name.

But surely it is not now to be remarked, that in the writings of St. Paul there occurs a perpetual mixture of the ebullition of personal feelings with the ex cathedra decrees of his official character. And these his expressions of self-condemnation, may be fairly taken with a large allowance for the laudable humility of the man, rather than adopted as the literal assertion of the inspired Apostle. It was right, it was amiable and noble in St. Paul, (especially in his then exaltation to abundant honour,) thus deeply to condemn the errors out of which he had been mercifully brought. But it is not by the overflowings of a contrite heart that we can measure the tone to be adopted in

We must remember that most of these claims, which the perfect candour of St. Paul leaves utterly above suspicion, were wrested from him by the necessity of self-defence.

speaking of an important doctrine to which such contrition may seem. to have a reference.

If it be human to err, it is no less the mark of a generous mind 1. bitterly to deplore its own transgressions; and the native goodness of the heart may be known no less by the depth of its remorse for sing than by the preservation of innocence. A good man will be ingenious in magnifying the nature of his faults. The confessions of the evil! conscience, and the ebullitions of the tender conscience, will tol a superficial observer present a similar appearance. We have an instance of this in St. Paul, who dwells on the reflection of the holiness of the cause he had opposed: a circumstance totally foreign to the question of his actual guilt, because, from his simultaneous assertion of his ignorance, it is certain that of that holiness he was not at the time<l, aware. Nor does it follow, because St. Paul was inspired, that he was therefore divinely instructed on the point of an exact discrimination of his own defects or merits: and the more perfect was his character after his conversion (and of that perfection no one doubts) the more humble: would he be, and therefore the more undiscerning as to the exact degree of his early misconduct. In a word, to derive our opinion of St. Paul's criminality from his expressions of self-reproach, is to adopt no other than this most erroneous principle, that humility is a test of guilt.

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To the declaration that he was unfit to be called an Apostle, and was the least of all of them, may be contrasted not only the assertion that he "supposed he was not a whit behind the very chiefest Apostles,' but also his affirmation that his Lord placed him in the ministry, because he "counted him faithful."

Most truly, and with a humility ever to be admired and closely imitated, he attributes his calling from ruinous error into the happy light of the gospel, as an effect of the unbounded mercy of the All Good. And what man, speaking of himself, can with either truth or modesty ascribe his hopes of eternal life to any other cause? But the degree of mercy granted to St. Paul depends on the magnitude of his guilt; the very point we have to ascertain.

Let us then proceed to consider the suspicion that his unbelief was voluntary and wilful.

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It was an effect and evidence of his zeal for what he really believed to be truth, that St. Paul opposed, even to a criminal excess, what he erroneously imagined to be pernicious heresy. If he was misled by an undue confidence in his own opinions, and by the notion of the exclusive holiness of his own religion, that confidence was implanted in: him by the spell of education and early prejudice. Let us not forget that he was brought up in a religion hitherto the only true one, and by all around him and himself believed to be eternal. Let us not overlook the rooted expectation of the Jews, that the Messiah would appear with all the external symbols of temporal royalty. Let us not omit from our calculation that wise and wonderful secrecy which our Lord, during his abode on earth, maintained, on the great question whether or no he was "He that should come." That Jesus was the Christ, that the Prophet of Nazareth was the Anointed Prince of Israel, is to us a proposition of which the terms appear almost identical. But to the

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