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haunted with all the infernal demons, and made the forge of plots, and rapine, and murder. Here everything that is black and detestable is first contrived, and a thousand wicked designs conceived that are never executed. Here, too, the Furies act their part, taking a severe though secret vengeance upon the self-condemned criminal. How happy is that mind in which the light of real knowledge dispels the phantoms of superstition; in which the belief and reverence of an all-governing Mind casts out all fear but the fear of acting wrong; in which serenity and cheerfulness, innocence, humanity and candour guard the imagination against the entrance of every unhallowed intruder, and invite more amiable and worthier guests to dwell! There shall the Muses, the Graces, and the Virtues fix their abode: for everything that is great and worthy in human conduct must have been conceived in the imagination before it was brought into act.

good designs have been

And many great and

formed there, which

for want of power and opportunity have proved

abortive.

The man whose imagination is

occupied by these guests must be wise; he must be good; and he must be happy.

Thomas Reid.

MYSTICISM.

In the present day, when religion and philosophy are assuming such novel aspects; when the mysterious in revelation is subjected to the scrutiny of philosophy, and philosophy herself straying into the labyrinths of mysticism, and claiming kindred with the supernatural; when the apostolic simplicity of Christian worship is marred by the glitter and mummery of exploded superstitions; it is necessary to warn you against speculations morally and intellectually degrading. In the blue heavens above, in the smiling earth beneath, and in the social world around, you will find full scope for the exercise of your noblest faculties, and a field ample enough for the widest range of

invention and discovery.

Science has never

derived any truth, nor art any invention, nor

religion any bulwark, nor humanity any boon from those presumptuous mystics who grovel amid nature's subverted laws, burrowing in the caverns of the invisible world, and attempting to storm the awful and impregnable sanctuary of the future. If these views be sound, the instruction of literary and theological students, and, indeed, of the whole population, in the grand truths of the material world, becomes the duty of a Christian Church and a Christian state.

Sir David Brewster.

MATERIALISM.

Materialism, the philosophy of all expiring epochs and peoples in decay, is, historically speaking, an old phenomenon, inseparable from the death of a religious dogma. It is the reaction of those superficial intellects, which, incapable of taking a comprehensive view of the life of humanity, and tracing and deducing its essential characteristics from tradition, deny the religious ideal itself, instead of simply affirming the death of one of its incarnations.

Mazzini.

ERRORS MINGLED WITH TRUTH.

Errors to be dangerous must have a great deal of truth mingled with them; it is only from this alliance that they can ever obtain an extensive circulation; from pure extravagance, and genuine, unmingled falsehood, the world never has, and never can sustain any mischief.

Sydney Smith.

OF JUDGING CONCERNING DIVINE ORDINANCES. Le vray champ et subiect de l'imposture sont les choses incogneues: d'autant que, en premier lieu, l'estrangeté mesme donne credit; et puis, n'estants point subiectes à nos discours ordinaires, elles nous ostent le moyen de les combattre. A cette cause, dict Platon, il est bien plus aysé de satisfaire, parlant de la nature des dieux que de la nature des hommes, parce que l'ignorance des auditeurs preste une belle et large carriere, et toute liberté au maniement d'une matière cachee. Il advient de là qu'il n'est rien creu si fermement que ce qu'on sçait le moins; ny gents si

asseurez que ceulx qui nous content des fables, comme alchymistes, prognosticqueurs, iudiciaires, chiromantiens, medecins, id genus omne: ausquels ie ioindrois volontiers si i'osois, un tas de gents, interpretes et contreroolleurs ordinaires des desseings de Dieu, faisants estats de trouver les causes de chasque accident, et de veoir dans les secrets de la volonté divine les motifs incomprehensibles de ses œuvres; et quoyque la varieté et discordance continuelle des evenements les reiecte de coing en coing, et d'orient en occident, ils ne laissent de suyvre pourtant leur esteuf, et de mesme creon peindre le blanc et le noir.

Montaigne.

CORRELATION BETWEEN INTELLECTUAL AND

MORAL EXCELLENCE.

It is not only to be reasonably expected, but it is experimentally felt, that in weak and ignorant understandings there are no sufficient supports for the vigorousness of a holy life, there being nothing, or not enough, to warrant