tious, lest by your thoughtless or improper conduct you minister to the cause of infidelity, and supply objections to the religion which you profess to love. Perhaps it is not too much to say, that Christianity has suffered much more from its declared friends than from its bitterest enemies. Who have corrupted it, secularized it, converted it to unholy purposes, marred its beauty and neutralized its power? Not its professed enemies. Who are they who, while bearing the name of Christianity, live in defiance of all its precepts, and are guilty of vices which would disgrace a heathen? Not the declared enemies, but the nominal friends of Christianity. O, it is distressing beyond measure, that so pure, and holy, and benevolent a system should be thus dishonoured and obstructed by those who bear its name. You then, who feel its power, who derive from it your highest hopes, your choicest comforts, be doubly careful to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.' And for your own sakes, for the sake of others, and for the sake of Him who died to save you, and who has entrusted his cause into your hands, let your lives be the Epistles of Christ, known and read of all men.'

"And, finally, my respected hearers and townsmen, let me give you a caution. You most of you profess to hold in abhorrence what you consider pernicious errors in your neighbours; beware that this abhorrence extend not to their persons. Let them not have to complain of persecution, let them meet with nothing like unkindness or contempt. You believe they are in error; shun that error, value the truth, and if you possess it, rejoice in it more than in thousands of gold or silver;' but let charity and compassion be extended to those whom you consider as deceived, as spoiled through a vain and deceitful philosophy. Remember that contempt is not argument, and unkindness is not likely to produce conviction. Let your conduct, therefore, be formed on the model of the gospel, let your practice show the superiority of your principles; in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves,' if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth."-pp. 275–279.

We cannot leave this volume without congratulating the able author on the fact, that two editions of his work have appeared in America, and that no measured approbation of it has been expressed by competent judges in that important country.

66

The author of A popular View of Atheism" thinks that infidelity is on the increase, and that to an alarming extent. It is readily acknowledged, that "certain seasons are eminently favourable to the production and propagation of fatal diseases;" and it may also be admitted, that "some states of society engender and foster mental delusion to a fearful extent." But whether the present state of society in this country, and Europe in general, be just fitted to produce atheism may admit of question.

The two classes of agitators, the political and the ecclesiastical, are to certain alarmists objects of great fear. They seem to think that the civil and the ecclesiastical affairs of the country are never so safe as when enjoying a deep and long-continued sleep. The least agitation of their dormitories is deprecated as injurious; and should some one dare to obtrude on their slumbers, to rouse them from their repose, and to render them sensible that activity is their duty, he is branded at once as an enemy to the church and to the state; a base agitator, who, under the influence of factious motives, seeks only selfish ends, while his conduct tends to the production of impiety and anarchy. We have no hesitation in expressing our belief, that there may be some agitators influenced by the motives, and impelled to the ends to which we have adverted: but that the

mere agitation itself of religious questions, or of political principles, will lead to the abandonment of all piety, and to the production of anarchy we more than doubt. If truth feared the light, and shunned inquiry, because she is not qualified to meet the gaze of men, and to stand the test of a fair and impartial scrutiny, we should say let her lie hid in the most retired recesses; but believing, as we do, that the more she is seen the more she will be admired; and the higher and the purer the standard by which she is tested, the more her superlative excellence will be made apparent; we have, we confess, none of those alarming fears, which ferment in the bosoms of numbers of good, but weak-minded men, in the present day. That the well-informed should be afraid of the diffusion of knowledge, cannot arise from the nature of knowledge itself, but from certain effects they imagine it will produce, unless its operation on the minds of the many be carefully watched. In order to secure the good and exclude the evil, knowledge, we are told, must be administered in certain quantities, and by an authorised channel. The multitude may drink of the cistern, but they must not slake their thirst at the full and copious river. The attempt has always been opposed, and though the opposition has long since ceased to produce much effect, the cry of danger is still heard, and the fearless experimentalist, when he has said

"Magno de flumine mallem

Quàm ex hoc fonticulo tantundem sumere,”

has been reminded of the treacherous ground on which he treads, and told

"Eo fit

Plenior ut si quos delectat copia justo,

Cum ripâ simul ferat Aufidus Acer."*

But this is to reverse the fine, though often repeated saying of Bacon, "that a little knowledge leads men away towards atheism, but depth in philosophy brought them back to religion." Thus it is in sects, whether of religion or politics. When we regard all the knowledge, either of the one or the other, as comprehended in these cisterns of mere human contrivance, we may believe in their value, so long as we make no inquiries beyond their boundary; but if, on investigating, we discover something without, in some degrees different from that of our favourite inclosure, we shall begin to doubt the efficacy of the contents of the former, while we shall be in no doubt, if our views be sufficiently enlarged, as to the abundance, excellence, and efficiency of the latter.

The sectarian speculator, whether in politics or religion, is the man who is exposed to the danger of scepticism, or infidelity. The all that he knows does not satisfy him, nor will the region of conjecture; but let him look abroad into the realms of truth and certainty, and he will doubt no longer. We are not, then, afraid of agitation, of inquiry, of the most searching investigation. We fear indolent acquiescence in received opinions; partial and superficial know

Hor. Sat. I. i. s. 1.

ledge; and the limitation of our countrymen to the narrow inclosures of sects, whether political or religious. We are afraid of the pedantry, not of the philosophy, of politics and religion.

The author of the "Popular View" ascribes great zeal to the atheists of the present day; a zeal, he tells us, which is decidedly superior to that of the advocates of religion. "Lectures are delivered to propagate atheism, but who has heard of lectures to refute it? Thousands of horrible publications are distributed amongst the populace, to proselyte them to the notions of our modern freethinkers but amidst the numerous religious books, of all sorts and sizes, which are incessantly issuing from the press, comparatively few make a direct attack upon these works of the devil."-Again:

"If atheists set up their Temples of Reason, to teach all ranks of persons that religion is a senseless and pernicious device, we cannot comprehend why believers should not erect temples of theology, to explain the evidences, principles, and claims of religion; to expose the arrogant pretensions of the human mind, when it would travel beyond its province; and to prove to all persons, who need the proof, that they act most like reasonable beings, when they weigh facts, admit probabilities-where demonstration cannot be obtained-and yield to the force of evidence which ought to produce conviction."—p. 17.

Now, without assuming as a fact that all men believe in the existence of one only God, the creator and upholder of all things, we are yet inclined to the opinion, that the number of mere speculative atheists is comparatively small. It is, indeed, a difficult undertaking, for a man who thinks at all, to arrive, on this point, at a negative conclusion: to satisfy himself that he has, by legitimate argument, convincingly demonstrated that chance has originated and sustains all things. If he think at all he must, we believe, in a moment perceive, that he puts a word for a cause-a word without meaning, to designate a cause that produces unnumbered and most astonishing effects. But the truth is, that infidelity is not the product of mental conviction; but a rank, pestiferous weed, that springs up in the soil of corrupt emotions, affections, and passions. Let the heart be purified, and we shall have no fear of the intellect taking this most irrational of all directions.

We do not agree with our author in his wish for some temples of theology, for the one object of proving the existence of God. Religious truth is comprehensive, and the especial and peculiar advocacy of some truths might lead to the almost total neglect of others: and the effort made to prove the being of a God might also possibly lead some, who never for a moment had doubted of this fundamental truth, to call it in question, at least mentally; and to have their scepticism cherished by the fact, that men of character, and piety, and talent, were delivering elaborate lectures to prove this, of which these persons had never, till they heard of such a temple, and of such lectures, entertained a doubt. But why have temples or places of public resort of any kind consecrated to an object so exclusive? Would not the tendency be to form a new sect, (the name suitable to which we will not venture to assign,) and thus to add another barrier to those already sufficiently numerous, by which the different parties in the christian world are separated from each other? It is

true that the existence of God is a fundamental truth, universally acknowledged among all Christians, and hence it may be urged, that no fear can be reasonably indulged, that our author's plan would tend to increase the number of religious sects. But yet he who gives an almost exclusive attention to any one truth, will inevitably invest it with an importance which he does not attach to others. We have examples of this, sufficiently numerous and instructive, among some sections of the great christian body, as the Friends, the Baptists, the ultra-Trinitarians of the Bible Society controversy, and others, each of which affix, to what they deem some one peculiar truth, a measure of value and importance, which tends in no slight degree to divert from others the attention which they deserve. And some of these sects have gone so far as to receive their designation from opinions merely, and one from that ordinance of the christian church which is administered but once in the life of the subject. But, indeed, is not our very place of worship a temple to prove that there is a God? And though it rarely occurs, perhaps, that the ministers of our respective sanctuaries deem it necessary, as did our respected friend Mr. Godwin, to enter into any enlarged proof of the being and attributes of God; yet the subject is not overlooked, but frequently, by hints, by suggestions, and occasionally by a more lengthened course of argumentation, urged on the attention, and enforced for the conviction of the auditors.

We do not see in every respect eye to eye with the author of the "Popular View of Atheism;" but, on the whole, we regard the work as very valuable, compressing in a short compass much information, and embodying many of the most important arguments from writers on natural theology. Of Mr. Davies' style our readers shall judge for themselves by the following quotations.

"Were a number of desperadoes to make their appearance in a commonwealth, and, from dissatisfaction with an excellently established order of things, to become opposed to the supreme power,-even to a denial of its existence,-to maintain that all authority is tyranny, that all laws are arbitrary edicts,-expedients of the powerful to oppress the feeble; that all social order is an encroachment upon freedom; and that the only real and valuable liberty consists in an unrestrained licentiousness of purpose and practice; every person of intelligence would perceive, that the numerical increase of such persons, and the prevalence of their sentiments, must lead to anarchy throughout the state, inflict deep and permanent misery on all classes of society, and entail utter ruin upon all the great interests of the country. Every patriotic man, however obscure his station, would hold himself pledged, in this emergency, to disabuse to the extent of his ability, these infatuated persons of their pernicious delusions; or, to counteract their cruel machinations--and in proportion to his success, would be the amount of the actual benefit conferred upon the community."—pp. 1, 2.

On the degradation to which atheism would subject human nature, our author has the following passage:

"When we deposit in the earth the remains of a beloved relative, or feel that we ourselves are sinking into the grave, the heart-rending grief in the one case, or the gloom and depression in the other, is greatly relieved by the belief of a separate existence, and the hope of a renewed life even for the body. That the whole of us does not die; that there is an immortal spark sustained in our

mortal bodies, and that our mortal parts themselves shall become immortal; that this corruption shall put on incorruption,' has been the persuasion and solace of the most profound and splendid minds-the most extraordinary geniuses that ever appeared in this world. It may be said, that we have not mathematical proof of these pleasing hypotheses. Neither have we of their falsehood. And, independent of Divine testimony, (which, however, to a believer is demonstration,) the balance of probability is greatly in their favour. And it is impossible not to perceive the superior importance which they attach to us-the honour which they confer upon our compound nature.

"But here again atheism crosses our path, to destroy our consideration, and to extinguish our hopes. Instead of claiming an almost equality with the bright intelligences of heaven, we can rank only with the animal creation!-What we fancied only the dawn of our existence is the entire day!- and instead of inheriting an endless life, we are to be altogether speedily and finally extinguished, devoured by corruption, turned into absolute nothingness."-pp. 76, 77.

The Wrongs of the Caffre Nation; a Narrative by Justus. With an Appendix, containing Lord Glenely's Despatches to the Governor of the Cape of Good Hope. London: Duncan. 1837. THERE is no darker feature in the character of civilized and professedly christian nations than the mode of treatment pursued by them towards the aboriginal tribes, deemed and denominated rude, barbarous, and savage, with which they have come into contact. Injustice, oppression, and cruelty have been perpetrated in their most hateful forms, by nations which boast of their strength and prowess, against the weak, inoffensive, and comparatively defenceless people in the immediate neighbourhood of their colonial settlements. England, alas! forms no exception to this melancholy fact. In South Africa she has deeply participated in the guilt and infamy of this nearly universal crime. The bad example set by the Dutch has been too closely followed by the English since the year 1795. The narrative before us exhibits "a colony of the British nation systematically oppressing the aboriginal inhabitants by harsh and unrelenting injustice, and enlarging its boundaries by acts of violent spoliation." We are deeply ashamed and grieved that a tale so replete with grievous wrong and cruel suffering, inflicted on our part, should be true. But true it unquestionably is, and the truth must be told. The facts here recorded are supported by the most satisfactory evidence, being chiefly deduced from a mass of documents printed by order of the House of Commons, and from the testimony of eyewitnesses and disinterested persons.

The first attempt made in the year 1510, by the Portuguese, and another in 1620, on the part of England, to obtain a footing at the Cape of Good Hope, were vigorously resisted by the natives.

The Dutch first succeeded in effecting a permanent settlement in 1652. The portion of territory, of which they took forcible possession, was ultimately ceded by treaty. The Hottentots were then a numerous, wealthy, and virtuous people. Their wealth consisted of large flocks and herds, which soon excited the cupidity of the European settlers. Cattle were first seized, then pasture-ground; the inhabitants were next expelled, shot, or reduced to slavery. Thus deprived of their cattle and lands, the miserable remnant were