bound coast.

Our iron climate and sterile soil increase the wants of the people; while those wants compel into action the resources and energies of their character. The son of our soil will convert the cotton and the wool into fabrics of warmth and beauty. He will dig out of the mountains his implements of defence and toil; and out of the earth fuel which, long before the deluge, waved as forest-trees. The winds will be his servants, the lightnings will become his messengers, and the vapors will urge his chariot over the iron path with the fleetness of thought. He builds rail-roads for autocrats, and is the minister of civilization to the isles of the sea, and the guardian of religion on the coast of Africa. You may find him searching at the North pole for curiosities, at the South pole for frozen continents, panting beneath the palm-tree at the equator, at the head of some trading caravan in the desert, or chasing his giant game over the depths of the Pacific ocean.

What our winter does for man's bodily and mental nature, our religion does for his moral nature. Manly virtues and high sacrifices are the fruits of New England piety. Calvinism is somewhat like winter. Neither of them wears a welcome aspect to a superficial observer, or to the effeminate child of tropical influences.

There is much to be poetically admired in scenes of unfading verdure, soft airs, bland breezes, and freedom from frost and the driving snow-storm. But when you consider what man is at the equator; and that those climes, where no rude winds. blow, are climes where the pestilence stalks abroad, where venomous reptiles lurk under the gay and poisonous flowers; who would not prefer the land of cold and tempest?

A religion of mere sentiment and feeling may appear milder than Calvinism. It takes what seems to be a less repulsive view of man's sinful nature and life. It appears to rejoice in more of sunshine and song. It covers death with flowers, and hides the grave under a profusion of roses. It can weep delicious tears over the agonies portrayed on the "Ivory Crucifix;" and there is nothing stern or unbending about it. But what does such a religion effect for man; What vigor does it infuse? What mission of civil and religious blessings does it establish in heathen lands? To what, unless to dissipation and folly, does it offer up its sons and daughters. We ask not, respecting a southern clime, how bright and luxuriant are its blooms and its foliage; but what

kind of men does it produce. And so of this effeminate and sentimental piety. To what does it prompt? Does it gird men to suffer for the truth, and to shed their blood in the cause of conscience, as Calvinism has done? Does it stand up before kings, and resist oppression, like the Puritans of England? Does it plant the cross on pagan ground? Does it send its dearest children to die by the side of the altars of God, which they have built in the remotest and darkest parts of the earth?

To one who never knew the domestic comforts of a right New England home, or the refined enjoyments which cheer our long wintry nights, a residence among us might seem dreary to his soft and enervated nature. Not so with one reared on our rugged hills, and familiar with those resources which cheer our happy winters. So to the worldly and selfish mind of him who is a lover of pleasure more than of God, our religion will not appear inviting. But to one who is a child of the kingdom, and is taught of God, it stands like an impregnable fortress; the exterior, perhaps, not pleasing to the eye, with heavy battlements frowning around its massive walls, and secured by broad buttresses and strong bastions. But the sheltered courts within are fair and fragrant as the garden of the Lord. Under the serious countenance which rebukes profane mirth and unhallowed amusements, is often found the heart most warm, and tender, and true; most deeply touched. by human woe, and most eager to relieve.

We complain not of our clime when it moulds minds of manly and hardy virtue. Nor should we murmur against a religion, which, in the field and the forum, in defeat and in triumph, has been true to the liberties and highest interests of man. We complain not of our fields of ice, when we can turn them into gold; nor of our rocky ledges, when we can convert them into bread. And why should we censure the apparent severity of our religion, when from it has sprung every temporal and religious blessing which our country can boast? No, gift, however large, can ex. ceed the benefactions of the early Calvinists of New England. The largest modern donation is but an humble imitation of the sacrifices, in which the foundations of Harvard College were laid. Let us thank God for the earlier and later orthodoxy of New England, whose firmness and hardihood are inwrought with the whole frame-work of our institutions, and must be ever felt as long as these institutions shall endure.

REVIEW.

THE PRINCIPLES OF NATURE, HER DIVINE REVELATIONS, AND A VOICE TO MANKIND: by and through Andrew Jackson Davis, the "Poughkeepsic Seer," and "Clairvoyant." Octavo, Pp. 782.

THIS huge work purports to be the production of an artless and unsophisticated young man, now in his twenty-second year, whose entire school education was limited to about five months. The method of its composition is stated to be as follows; Davis is first thrown by Dr. Lyon, his mesmerizer, into a state of the most profound mesmeric slumber; a state "corresponding almost precisely, according to his own explanation, to that of physical death." In this state, he goes into the other world, and associates with the departed spirits, or comes under their influence; and from them all his impressions are received. When a truth or fact has been imparted to him in that world, "his spirit returns to its material. habitation," so far, at least, as to be able to give utterance to the revelation, which is immediately committed to writing by his scribe. In this manner the work before us was written; occupying in its preparation a period of some fifteen months. Such, at least, is the account given us by the amanuensis, William Fishbough.*

The work is divided into three parts; first, "the Key;" secondly, the Revelation;" and thirdly, "the Application." As the first part consists chiefly of general principles, which are more fully unfolded and illustrated in the other parts, it will not be necessary to attempt an analysis of it here.

The second part, "the Revelation," commences with the author's theory of the universe.

"In the beginning, the Univercœlum was one boundless, undefinable, and unimaginable ocean of liquid fire. The most vigorous and ambitious imagination is not capable of forming an adequate conception of the height, and depth, and length, and breadth thereof. There was one vast expanse of liquid substance. It was without bounds, inconceivable, and with qualities and essences incomprehensible. This was the original condition of matter. It was without forms; for it was but one form. It had not motions, but it was an eternity of motion. It was without parts, for it was a whole. Particles did not exist, but

Associated with Fishbough are a Mr. Brittan, and a Mr. Harris; all Universalist ministers. A periodical is to be started, and lecturers are to be sent forth, to diffuse and vindicate the revelations.

the whole was as one particle. There were not suns, but it was one eternal sun. It had no beginning, and it was without end. It had not length, for it was a Vortex of one eternity. It had not circles, for it was one infinite circle. It had not disconnected power, but it was the very essence of all power. Its inconceivable magnitude and constitu tion were such as to develope, not forces, but omnipotent power."

At some period in the countless ages of eternity, and from the operation of causes within itself, this infinite ocean of fire threw off an atmosphere of light and heat, a "nebulous zone of unparticled matter," which, being condensed and conglomerated, became a vast circle of suns. Each of these suns, being an intensely heated body, threw off in like manner, a wave of atmosphere, which, becoming condensed, constituted a system of planets. And from most of the planets, a corps of satellites, more or less numerous, was, in the same way, developed.

Thus was forined, for, according to Mr. Davis, nothing was ever created, the first circle of suns, with their planets and satellites. Meanwhile the great central ocean of liquid fire was not idle. It had thrown off another zone of matter, like unto the first; which, being condensed, had resulted in a second circle of suns; and each of these suns, by a like process of developement, had surrounded itself with planets and satellites.

In process of time, a third circle of suns, with their array of planets and satellites, came into existence; and then a fourth; and then a fifth. The sun of our system is one of the fifth circle, the last which has yet been completely developed.

A sixth circle of suns has long been in the process of development; but "these have not yet become properly consolidated, and so they are at this time pursuing their undefinable orbits in the form and composition of blazing comets." The tails of the comets consist of partially formed planets, which, when the comets come to be suns, will take their places, and revolve around them.

Such is Davis' theory of the universe, so far as developments have at present proceeded. The great central ocean, or the Vortex, as he sometimes calls it, is still active as ever, and other suns and worlds are yet to be evolved.*

* Mr. D. is reported to have said, that Saturn's rings are precisely similar, in their cause and construction, to the halo round the moon, in a hazy night; but this item of revelation is omitted in the book. The scribe seems to have had some discretion, as to what was, and what was not, proper to be recorded.

This earth, after it had come into being, was a long while in becoming cooled and consolidated. At length, a crust was formed. on the fiery surface; the primary rocks were deposited; and after them the secondary formations. Meanwhile, there were frequent and terrible convulsions, owing to the force of internal fires. Still, the surface of the earth and its atmosphere were gradually improving, and in process of time, by an inherent law, the lowest forms of vegetable and animal life began to appear.

As the earth and atmosphere were further improved, still higher forms of life were exhibited, till at length there were some approaches to the structure of man. The first specimens of this kind were of the rudest formation, half monkey and half fish. The different species, however, continued to improve; the apes and ourang-outangs waxing brighter and brighter, till the process of development brings us, at last, to what may be called man, or rather men; for three distinct tribes seem to have come up together on the earth; one in Asia, another in Africa, and still another in America. This was just three thousand eight hundred years before the commencement of the race, as spoken of in the first chapter of Genesis.* P. 321.

For long ages, the human species, in point of intellectual attainments, seemed scarcely superior to the brutes. "They had no conception of the arts and sciences; " no houses, and no oral, vocal language; being accustomed to "communicate their ideas by expressions of the countenance, and outward physical signs." They existed at this time, "in an innocent and pure condition," incapable of deception, and perfectly united among themselves.

The invention of language, according to Davis, was a primary and principal cause of man's corruption. Having this new power of conversation, they began to "clothe their imperfect thoughts in false sheaths, or deceptive aprons of obscurity." By this means, "disunity and confusion" were created, and "the whole race became dejected and depraved." In a little time, wars were excited, during which the worse part of mankind destroyed the better; or, as the Scriptures allegorically express it, Cain killed Abel.

* In another place, Mr. D. speaks of the records of the Chinese, which, be says, "extend in an unbroken manner 34,000 years beyond the chronology of the Bible.” P. 455. According to this, the Chinese must have not only lived, but have been capable of keeping records, more than 30,000 years before the existence of man!