were strictly immutable they would have no place, while general uniformity and occasional innovation meet precisely all the great exigences of the providential government of God for the ultimate renovation of the earth. Hume has asserted that any innovation upon the laws of nature is contrary to all experience; but he had not lived in all time and every where, and how did he ascertain what had been the past universal experience of the whole world? He could learn it only from history, while there is not in any nation a page of history, fabulous or inspired, which does not attest the existence of some supernatural interposition. If he meant only contrary to his own experience, that would no more prove universal immutability of nature's laws, than the experience of the torrid zone would disprove the existence of ice in the frigid.

I have only to add, that the philosophy of the immutability of the physical laws of the universe, as unaffected by human guilt, or penitence and prayer, and the various exigences of the divine moral government, seems to me entirely unscriptural. I do not mean that all who have adopted it are infidels; for it is a specious philosophy, all of whose relations and bearings are not immediately perceived. But I do mean that it is, in my view, wholly and irreconcilably adverse to the entire testimony of the Bible, so that no man can be a full and consistent believer in the inspiration of the Bible, and at the same time a disciple of this philosophy.

According to the Bible, the government of God over nations is a moral government, universal and entire ; and his dominion over the material world, in the administration of a particular providence, accommodated to the purposes of moral government, and diversified according to the exigences created by the character and deed of his subjects, for punishment to the incorrigible, for purposes of forbearance and forgiveness, to those who cast off their sins, and turn to God with weeping and supplication, is announced and repeated with equal clearness and frequency on the sacred page. All the great laws of nature are the ministers of his court, the body-guard of his throne, to check rebellion, and keep back mutinous subjects from presumptuous wickedness, as well as to encamp round

about those that fear him, and bear messages of mercy to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at his word. He sends rain or drought, mildew and murrain, and pestilence and famine. Let it not be said that all this is poetry, or allegory, or Jewish philosophy. It is poetry inspired of Heaven and philosophy taught of God, which holy men of old spake and recorded as the Holy Ghost gave them utterance. It is true, that, for purposes of special effect in the preservation of his religion and worship against the encroachments of idolatry, the principle of temporal judgements and mercies, according to character and deeds, was rendered more emphatical. But the same general principle is still recognized as extending to all nations. The 18th of Jeremiah might suffice to prove this. But whoever reads the prophecies, and profane history, will find in the one predicted visitations upon nations, according to character and deeds, and in the other the record of their literal fulfilment. And whoever will sit down at the feet of Christ, may hear from his lips that God clothes the grass, feeds the ravens, arrays in beauty the lily, numbers the hairs of our heads, and notes the fall of the sparrow.

I should not have troubled you with this communication, if I had not regarded the philosophy which I oppose as subversive not only of the Bible, but of that providential government of God which gives force to admonition, and hope to reformation and humiliation and prayer. Upon the necessity and power of a retributive providence to purposes of national morality, I need not amplify. They appall the hardened sceptic; they cool the delirious fever of worldliness, and tame the madness of passion, and put out for a time the fire of ambition; they rouse the thoughtless to consideration, and send their terrific notes of loud admonition into high places of voluptuous guilt, as well as the low places of vulgar vice, while in thick showers, and with deadly aim, his arrows fall upon the retreats of crime; and they carry out, into all ranks and orders of society, a deep and all-pervading sense of absolute dependence upon God. When mists, which no man can dissipate, gather about the sun, or his rays fall cold and powerless on the earth, — when the wind, with steady breath, for months, blows contaminated

atmosphere across the Atlantic, - when the destroying angel has passed the highway of nations and the barriers of the north, and has received his commission and commenced his work in the great city of our land, who does not feel that it is time to proclaim a fast, -to convoke the nation, to acknowledge the hand of God, to put away all evil-doing, and supplicate mercy of the God who spared Nineveh, and would have spared even Sodom, if there had been only ten righteous persons to pray for it? especially when the visitation finds us so eminently fitted for destruction,

our Sabbath falling before cupidity, — the government of God before infidelity, and national morality before temptation, while from abroad, and at home, masses of ignorance, and filth, and crime are rising up in our cities, to mock Heaven, and serve as the conductors of his burning indignation. CLERICUS.

EDWIN BUCKINGHAM.

For two years from the 20th of June, 1831, the Courier was published in the name of Joseph T. & Edwin Buckingham, as joint editors. Such an association had in fact existed for nearly three years; but the son being a minor, the public recognition of it was delayed till he should arrive at the age of twentyone. He wrote much for the paper, and, by his labors, added much to its popularity and circulation. It may look like the indulgence of paternal pride to exhibit specimens of his writing, or to speak of their literary merit; but when the works of other co-operators are introduced, neither justice nor propriety seems to demand that he should be excluded from the rank of assistants. From the mass of his juvenile productions, the following articles are selected: :

COMFORTS OF THE SEASON.

The night, to the great mass of mankind, is the season of relaxation, recreation and enjoyment. How delightful, after the business of the day, to ride a few miles in the country, and breathe the atmosphere pregnant with health and fresh ness, and fragrant with the "sweet and wholesome odor of the new mown hay; to promenade the mall and common, or to linger on the free bridge to catch the invigorating salt sea gale; or even to recline on one's own parlor sofa, and dream of rest or indulge imagination with an antepast of the joys of independence! How happy he, who

When Evening kind, with blushes cools the air,
The steer resigns his yoke, the hind his care,
The clouds aloft with golden edgings glow,

And falling dews refresh the flowers below,—

can lay aside his labor, smooth his care-wrinkled brow, restore the waste of physical and intellectual power, and prepare to meet the duties and the employments of another day, with renewed relish and invigorated faculties. Ah! happy indeed! whispers a responsive sigh, rising from the prostrated soul of a diurnal editor. O, how happy! echoes from every compositor in the printing-office, while pressmen, boys, and carriers join the universal chorus.

Our comforts, - we speak individually, but we trust that we touch a chord, which vibrates in sympathy in other bosoms,— our comforts, thanks to the Postmaster-General, and those who have made such sad innovations upon the mail arrangements, are of quite a different character. Our comforts during the dog-days, with the mercury ranging from 80° to 100°, have consisted, from three to five, P. M. in endeavors to postpone an entire dissolution of our materiality, or to preserve the jelly to which flesh, blood, and bones have been reduced, from total evaporation. At five we begin to look anxiously for the mails; and this delightful state of expectation, suspense, and disappointment, continues till six, seven, and sometimes till eight o'clock. From this time forward to an indefinite period, we sweat by lamp-light, with pen, scissors, and paste; sometimes

relieved by a kind neighbor, who comes to inquire if there is any news, and good-naturedly to prolong our pleasant employment to as late an hour in the night as possible As to the operatives in the printing-office, they (happy fellows!) immersed in a compound of light, and smoke, and heat, issuing from forty or fifty lamps, windows shut, to keep the wind (if there should happen to be a breeze in motion) from extinguishing the blaze, - amuse themselves with putting in type what we may have manufactured by the help of the triple machinery above mentioned. In addition to this, which is a positive recreation to them, they have a comparative pleasure in translating the mysterious hieroglyphics of an advertisement, or deciphering the pot-hook characters of a communication, brought in at nine o'clock, the author of which is very anxious that it should appear next day to further some project in which he may have an interest, but which is of no concern to us or the public in general. But the superlative comfort is enjoyed the next morning, when some whole-souled customer has discovered an error in his advertisement, and comes to salute the whole force of the establishment, editor, compositors, pressmen, and devil, with a few gratuitous damns, for a figure changed, a letter turned upside down, or possibly for an advertisement omitted, which, on examination, happens to be inserted exactly according to his direction.

We have enjoyments, too, coming from another quarter. The mass of matter to be prepared after the arrival of the mails, and the advertisements left about the same time, have necessarily detained the press beyond the departure of the mails, and consequently the papers of the next morning lie in the post office twenty-four hours, and this produces complaints from subscribers, who think they are neglected. Some of them get vexed by a repetition of what they are pleased to consider as carelessness on our part, and send us letters threatening a withdrawal of their patronage, and perhaps insinuating, in a very gentle and respectful manner, that if we know our duty, we have no desire to perform it.

The consummation of our comforts, not the hundredth part of which have we yet told, is when the collector returns at