25. CONV. S. PAUL. Mr.V.Green, Joh. Feb. 2. FEST. PURIF. Mr. Winn, Joh. 12. Mr. Vaughan, Joh. 19. Mr. Charlton, Sid. 24. FEST. S.MAT. Mr.Steward, Trin. 7. DIES CINERUM. CONC. AD CLER. 25. FEST. ANNUN. Mr. Farish, Regin. Apr. 1. Mr. Presgrave, Trin. 8. Mr. Wilkinson, Trin. 15. Mr. Sidney, Joh. 20. PASSIO DOм. Mr. Fendall, Jes. 25. FEST. S. MARC. Thornton, Clar. 29. Mr. Grey, Joli. Mr. Morris, Joh... SColl. Oppon. Mr. Brandling, Joh. Mr. Lafont, Emm. Mr. Francklin, Clar. Coll. Joh. Mr. Blyth, Chr. Mr. Hasted, Chr... Mr. Roper, Corp. Mr. Gilpin, Chr... Mr. T. C. Mai. 1. FEST. SS. PHIL. ET JAC. Mr. C. P. Byde, Pemb. 6. Mr. Wybergh, Pemb. 13. Mr. H. Thompson, Joh. 20. Mr. Hughes, Corp. 27. Mr. Schneider, Joh. 31. FEST. ASCEN. Mr. Leach, Trin. Jun. 3. Mr. Hannington, Regal. 10. FEST. PENT. Mr. Waring, Mag. 12. Fer. 2da. Mr. R. S. Battis- 17. Mr. Pratt, Trin. Mr. Maul, Chr.... Resp. in Jur. Civ. Resp. in Medic. NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. Coll. Trin. Mr. Adcock, Pet. Coll. Trin. Mr.Blackburne, Ch. (Mr. Farish, Regin. Oppon. Oppon. Mr. Borrett, Cai. With sorrow we have to inform " An Old Maid," that the writer of the article, to which she alludes, is a Benedict. As to her favourite " Vicar," were we to criticise all he preaches as well as publishes, we should astonish the good man himself with the latitudinarianism of his own ideas." R. C." is under consideration. A Correspondent suggests the propriety of omitting the words "Poor Man's," in the Rev. Blanco White's pamphlet, entitled, the "Poor Man's Preservative;" the work being suited to the rich as well as poor. The essential difference between tradition, as held by Ireneus and by the Roman Church, referred to by a Layman," we endeavoured to point out at p. 748 of our last volume. The same is also ably done by Mr. Faber, in his "Difficulties of Romanism," 2d ed. pp. 266-271. We beg to thank "J. L." "F. G." and "E. D." for their similar communications, which shall appear as soon as applicable. "Percunctator" is under consideration. Numberless communications alone have prevented the appearance of the first edition of "X. ;" the second, however, shall appear as soon as possible. Our thanks are due to our friends at Lichfield and Bristol. We shall be happy in receiving any information respecting the hebdomadal meetings of the unchurchman-like enthusiasts at Plymouth. THE CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER. MARCH, 1832. REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. ART. I.-Natural History of Enthusiasm. Fifth edition. London: Holdsworth and Ball. 1831. 8vo. pp. 328. THAT the work which we are about to review possesses no ordinary degree of attractiveness, is manifest from the fact of its having already reached a fifth edition. We would not rely upon the popularity of an author as an infallible proof of his merit; yet the writer who has secured a general perusal has a peculiar claim to critical notice, whether for praise or for chastisement; that his influence may be diminished or strengthened, for good or for evil, according to the sterling value of his performance. This judicial award is a task often of difficulty; and the burden of our office is then most oppressive, when an equal mixture of truth and error perplexes our suspended judgment, and keeps the scales of literary justice in a painful state of dubious vacillation. It will readily be granted that our official responsibility is greatly augmented by the importance of the topics submitted to our notice; and that when such grave subjects as morals and religion challenge our examination, we ought specially to guard against the mischief of a rash and precipitate sentence. Nor will it be denied, that when religious disquisitions are intimately connected, as in the case before us, with the science of mind, our labours are increased with the increased metaphysical profundities with which such lucubrations are wont to be surrounded. With the exception of these abstruse disquisitions, (for our author has wisely discarded the niceties of modern metaphysics, as ill adapted to his practical description of "fictitious sentiment in matters of religion,") the "Natural History of Enthusiasm" stands in the very predicament to which we have made allusion. Its attractiveness is witnessed by its wide circulation. The importance of the topics which it embraces no man can question. The talents of the learned and eloquent author have challenged our admiration. The felicity of his illustrations has often delighted us; and the giant power, with which he has trodden under his feet the monstrous chimeras of fantastic pietists, has convinced us that, whoever he be, he is oux ỏ TUX@v ȧvip. And yet we are not prepared to lend the sanction of our "imprimatur" to all his tenets, but must qualify our general encomia by stating that our author, in some respects, seems to be himself the enthusiast he describes. But enough of this introductory prelude. It is time to inform our readers that whilst our author, in the cheering hope of "a bright era of renovation, and union, and extension," in the Christian Church, has endeavoured to paint "that fictitious piety" which may be anticipated as "the probable attendant of a new developement of the powers of Christianity;" "he has also endeavoured so to fix the sense of the term enthusiasm, as to wrest it from those who misuse it to their own infinite damage." An enthusiast is one, we need hardly remark, who, in the literal acceptation of the phrase, supposes himself in possession of knowledge immediately and miraculously communicated to him from God himself, without the production of credentials to establish his claim.* In a secondary sense, enthusiasm has been confounded with fervour in religion, as if it were connected with the dispositions or affections of the human mind, and were not, what it really is, the abortion of a warm imagination, or the child of weak presumption; for "those who have believed the reality of inspiration, thinking that, if they were inspired, they must feel it, have presumed that their internal sensations were immediately from God." Enthusiasm, thus mischievously confounded with zeal, has been the ready opprobrium with which the giddy, the lukewarm, and the graceless have sought to depreciate that earnestness in religion which such characters never pardon, because it condemns their own torpid indifference. "The artificial fire of an imaginative piety" may indeed hurry an ardent temperament into the wildest of visionary theories, and into most frantic indecencies of conduct: and it is matter of little astonishment to him, who considers "the fitness of the vast objects revealed in Scripture to affect the imagination," that religion should draw such multitudes of enthusiasts within her precincts. Yet fervour is not enthusiasm; nor is devotion madness; nor is piety a delusion. To remedy the evils arising from the abuse of the term enthusiasm, by those who will acknowledge no difference between genuine and spurious piety, and who see nothing in religion but its corruptions; our author employs the first section of his essay in shewing what he means by enthusiasm, and under what forms it Ludlam's Essays, Vol. ii. p. 86. Hey's Norrisian Lectures, Vol. iv. Art. 10. §. 49. manifests itself in men, according to their different temperaments, whether physical or intellectual. It is the offspring of a disordered imagination; the excesses of which it so stimulates as to overbear the powers of the understanding. The enthusiast passes through life in a sort of happy somnambulency-smiling and dreaming as he goes, unconscious of whatever is real, and busy with whatever is fantastic.-P. 4. "Some fiction of an exorbitant imagination" is permitted to exclude all other motives and affections of human nature, or to trespass upon forbidden ground, where it prevents entirely, or mischievously disturbs, the operation of reason and right feeling. In the breast of the enthusiast there is "more of commotion than of action; more of movement than of progress; more of enterprise than of achievement." Such is an enthusiast. But, To apply an epithet which carries with it an idea of folly, of weakness, and of extravagance, to a vigorous mind, efficiently as well as ardently engaged in the pursuit of any substantial and important object, is not merely to misuse a word, but to introduce confusion among our notions, and to put contempt upon what is deserving of respect. Where there is no error of imagination-no misjudging of realities-no calculations which reason condemns, there is no enthusiasm, even though the soul may be on fire with the velocity of its movement in pursuit of its chosen object. If once we abandon this distinction, language will want a term for a well-known and very common vice of the mind; and, from a wasteful perversion of phrases, we must be reduced to speak of qualities most noble and most base by the very same designation. If the objects which excite the ardour of the mind are substantial, and if the mode of pursuit be truly conducive to their attainment;-if, in a word, all be real and genuine, then it is not one degree more, or even many degrees more, of intensity of feeling that can alter the character of the emotion. Enthusiasm is not a term of measurement, but of quality.-P. 7. Such being the nature of enthusiasm, our author pursues his beautiful analysis of that "child of hope," by setting before us the baleful consequences resulting from its influence, when "the religion of the heart is supplanted by a religion of the imagination," and "a fictitious piety corrupts or petrifies" the whole moral system of the "religious idealist," who revels in intellectual voluptuousness and barren contemplations; or becomes a furious zealot, "more punctilious of his creed than of his word;" or a ruthless fanatic, "whose ambition it is to rival the achievements, not of heroes, but of fiends;" or a visionary, "who lives on better terms with angels and with seraphs, than with his children, servants, or neighbours;" or a sour recluse, who, "while he reverences the thrones, dominions, and powers of the invisible world, vents his spleen in railing at all dignities and powers of earth." This general history of enthusiasm being drawn in our author's first section, in the subsequent divisions he paints the particular features of her character; and his second section is styled "Enthusiasm in Devotion," in which our eloquent essayist tells us that |