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splendidly; and to obtain their friendship, out of his special favor, escorted them himself until they were in safety. During the time of dinner, the before-mentioned squire addressed Sir John Charlton, saying, "Sir John, you can, if you please, do me a very great favor, which will cost you nothing." "From friendship to the Constable," replied Sir John, "I wish it may cost me something what is it you wish me to do?" "Sir," replied he, "that I may have your passport to go to England, to my master, John of Brittany, whom I am more anxious to see than anything in the world." By my faith," said Sir John, “it shall not be my fault if you do not. On my return to Cherbourg, I shall cross over to England: come with me, therefore, and you shall accompany me, and I will have you conducted to him, for your request cannot be refused." "A thousand thanks; my lord, I shall ever remember your goodness." The squire returned with Sir John Charlton to Cherbourg; when, having arranged his affairs, he embarked, and made straight for London, attended by John Rolland, whom he had conducted to the castle where John of Brittany was confined. John of Brittany did not, at first, recollect him; but he soon made himself known, and they had a long conversation, in which he told him that if he would exert himself to procure his freedom, the Constable would make the greatest efforts to second him. John of Brittany, desiring nothing more eagerly, asked, 'By what means?" I will tell you, my lord: the Constable has a handsome daughter whom he wishes to marry, and if you will promise and swear that on your return to Brittany you will marry her, he will obtain your liberty, as he has discovered the means of doing it." John of Brittany replied, "he would truly do so;" adding, "when you return to the Constable, assure him from me that there is nothing I am not ready to do for my liberty, and that I accept of his daughter and will cheerfully marry her." They had several other conversations together before the squire left England and embarked for Brittany, where he related to the Constable all that had passed.- Froissart's Chronicles.

ROTHINGHAM,

OCTAVIUS BROOKS, an

American clergyman, son of N. L. Frothingham; born at Boston, November 26, 1822; died there November 27, 1895. He was graduated from Harvard in 1843, studied at the Cambridge Divinity School, and in 1847 became pastor of the North Church (Unitarian), Salem, Mass. In 1855 he removed to Jersey City, and in 1860 became minister of a newly formed society in New York, which took the name of the "Third Unitarian Congregational Church." He retained this position until 1879, when the society was dissolved, and Mr. Frothingham spent the subsequent two years in Europe. After his return he devoted himself entirely to literary work. Besides numerous published sermons, and frequent contributions to periodicals, he published The Parables (1864); Religion of Humanity (1873); Life of Theodore Parker (1874); Transcendentalism in New England (1876); Spirit of the New Faith (1877); Biography of Gerrit Smith (1878); with Felix Adler, The Radical Pulpit (1883); Memoir of William Ellery Channing (1887); Boston Unitarianism (1890), and Recollections and Impressions (1891).

THE BELIEFS OF UNBELIEVERS.

In every age of Christendom there have been men whom the Church named "infidels," and thrust down into the abyss of moral reprobation. The oldest of these are forgotten with the generations that gave them birth. The only ones now actively anathematized lived within the last hundred years, and owe the blackness of their reputation to the assaults they made on superstitions that are still powerful, and dogmas that are still su

preme. The names of Chubb, Toland, and Tindal, of Herbert of Cherbury, Shaftesbury, and Bolingbroke, though seldom spoken now, are mentioned, when they are mentioned, with bitterness. The names of Voltaire and Rousseau recall at once venomous verdicts that our own ears have heard. The mcmory of Thomas Paine is still a stench in modern nostrils, though he has been dead sixty years, so deep a damnation has been fixed on his name.

Sceptics these men and others were: I claim for them that honor. It is their title to immortality. Doubtless they were, in many things, deniers" infidels," if you will. They made short work of creed and catechism, of sacrament and priest, of tradition and formula. Miraculous revelations, inspired Bibles, authoritative dogmas, dying Gods, and atoning Saviours, infallible Apostles, and Churches founded by the Holy Ghost, ecclesiastical heavens and hells, with other fictions of the sort, their minds could not harbor. They criticised mercilessly the drama of the Redemption, and spoke more roughly than prudently of the great mysteries of the Godhead. But, after their fashion, they were great believers. In the interest of faith they doubted; in the interest of faith they denied. Their "Nay" was an uncouth method of pronouncing "Yea." They were after the truth, and supposed themselves to be removing a rubbish pile to reach it. Toland, whose Christianity Not Mysterious was presented by the Grand Jury of Dublin, and condemned to the flames by the Irish Parliament, while the author fled from Government prosecution to England, professed himself sincerely attached to the pure religion of Jesus, and anxious to exhibit it free from the corruption of after times. Thomas Paine wrote his Age of Reason as a check to the progress of French atheism, fearing "lest in the general wreck of superstition, of false systems of government, and false theology, we lose sight of morality, of humanity, and of the theology that is true."

These devout unbeliefs were born of the spirit of the age. It was an age- rather, let me call it a series of ages in which great events occurred. There had been