dual good proposed by such authors. It is a good so deep and central as to be as one with the catholic spirit of humanity. It is the identity of the individual and the general. Hence can Mr. Emerson say with truth of the scholar, that "the instinct is sure, which prompts him to tell his brother what he thinks. He then learns, that in going down into the secrets of his own mind, he has descended into the secrets of all minds. He learns that he who has mastered any law in his private thoughts, is master to that extent of all men whose language he speaks, and of all into whose language his own can be translated. The poet, in utter solitude remembering his spontaneous thoughts and recording them, is found to have recorded that, which men in "cities vast" find true for them also. The orator distrusts at first the fitness of his frank confessions, his want of knowledge of the persons he addresses,-until he finds that he is the complement of his hearers ;-that they drink his words because he fulfils for them their own nature; the deeper he dives into his privatest, secretest presentiment, to his wonder he finds, this is the most acceptable, most public, and universally true. The people delight in it; the better part of every man feels, this is my music-this is myself."

We have invariably found in our experience, that democratic minds dislike above all things this doctrine. Wisdom with them resides in the multitude, not of councillors, but in the multitude as a multitude. They apprehend it as a result from the collision of minds, instead as the one spirit in the midst of every mind, whether two or three only or three thousand be gathered together.

The books before us shew that in America philosophy, relatively to a few minds, has travelled on the à priori road; but it was against the grain of public opinion nevertheless. It is some comfort, however, that in combating Mr. Emerson, Göthe, and Carlyle, the Boston reviewer uses Coleridge as his text book. We have the original of the following passage in our mind's eye.

The moral sentiment leads us up merely to universal order; the religious sentiment leads us up to God, the Father of universal order. Religious ideas always carry us into a region far above that of moral ideas. Religion gives the law to ethics, not ethics to religion. Religion is the communion of the soul with God, morality is merely the cultus exterior, the outward worship of God, the expression of the life of God in the soul; as James has it, "pure religion," external worship,—for so should we understand the original—“ and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."

It is well that the American mind can meet such a position with such an argument. It shows the influence exerted beyond the Atlantic by Coleridge's Aids to Reflection, from which work the thought is borrowed. When shall we in England substitute that volume for Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding ? The progress made in America will react on England-and this notice will not be in vain.*

* We have said in a previous article, that we cherish no literary jealousy, in proof of which, we have lent these Boston volumes to a critic in a contemporary Magazine for an article which will appear on the same day with this. Why not? Yet, we believe, that others would have acted on the exclusive system.

LIBRARY GLEANINGS.

THEOLOGY,

Twelve Sermons delivered in the New Temple of the Israelites, at Hamburgh, by Dr. Gotthold Salomon; translated from the German, by Anna Maria Goldsmid. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1839. WHEN we first took this book into our hands, we blessed God! we blessed him that he had placed us in our present position just at this point of timethis dawn of a Catholic period, whose days shall be bright and long. Our heart leaped within us at a demonstration such as this, when an orthodox publisher could be obtained for a volume of Hebrew divinity. Here we have the Doctrine of the Father alone most lovingly, most attractingly set forth. Assuredly, many will realise the desire of the translator; many of her Christian countrymen will derive a better knowledge than they previously possessed of the actuating faith of the Jew. Until a recent period, she justly remarks, "when general attention has been in some degree directed to the subject, we were scarcely aware of the amount and extent of ignorance that prevailed as to the tenets of the Israelite,-of the misconceptions that had been formed concerning the duties enjoined on us by the Mosaic code. Of the erroneous opinions that have been lately, on more than one occasion, publicly expressed, the best refutation may be found in writings whose direct object is, not the correction of such misconceptions, but the religious and moral instruction of the sons and daughters of Israel. To such writings, and to these sermons among the number, I confidently ask the attention of the kindly and conscientious Christian."

We are glad to find that the scriptural quotations are given, as corrected by Professor Hurwitz. Why is not the whole of the Old Testament put into his hands for retranslation ?

We are much pleased with "Sermon I., The Path of Light, Isaiah xi. 5 :—'House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the Light of the Lord."" This Israelite expositor of Scripture tells us that light is synonymous with reason. To walk in the Light of the Lord, is to use our reason in the examination of his Word -and is termed religious enlightenment. "When the dark clouds part, and the blue firmament is no longer hidden from our sight, we say the sky clears up. A human being whose inward reason is obscured and overcast; in whose mind confusion prevails; in whose intellect false and true notions are mingled; and who is subsequently enabled, by means of wise instruction, to separate the true from the false, and who ceases to be enveloped in the mists of error;that man is enlightened, heaven has opened unto him the portals of day, and light and heat pervade the domain of night, at the call of reason-Let there be light-Light was!" "True religion is not a matter of memory, but the occupier of the heart; religious enlightenment relieves our spirit from slavish dread of worldly rulers; it points out to us the true end of our existence, and the true relation in which we stand to our Creator; and teaches us that to serve our brother is to serve God; to love our brother is also to love our heavenly Father. It teaches us, that a pure and true faith leads men by the cords of love, and bids us not to raise the sword of vengeance against those whose belief differs from ours, if they do but right, and fulfil their duties. It teaches us to seek to imitate our heavenly Father, who embraces all creation with the bond of love; who presses them fast to Ilis parental heart, on which each of His children may pour out alike joy and sorrow, and there seek eternal repose. It teaches us, that between our future and our present being there exists the closest connection; that the former is but a continuation of the latter; that the degree of advancement which we reach here will determine our position in the world to come; and that he who voluntarily disregards the object of his existence while on earth, must not expect acceptance in heaven."

The enlightenment of the march of intellect, however, the teacher altogether

repudiates. What some term enlightenment, he says, "is the love of ease, a disposition to sensuality, selfishness, ill-digested crudition drawn from impure sources, pride, self-interest, error, and darkness. Hence, the notion appears to them ridiculous that there should be something transcendent, something beyond the reach of their senses; yes, that what is invisible should be more powerful and glorious than what is visible. What they cannot see and hear, and taste and handle, is to them of little worth. The enlightenment of which they speak, should serve to make life agreeable. What did they? Ancient and venerable ordinances were rejected; even the most beneficial religious emotions were ridiculed as if they were unnecessary to their belief; as though they were so full of the spiritual that they needed the spiritual alone. Sensuality began to take the place of reason; and what was not in accordance with it was rejected, dismissed; for they regulated, as one of the wise men of old beautifully and truly says when speaking of a similar class, they regulated their understanding according to their desires, and not their desires according to their understanding."

Further," Is enlightenment to be rejected because the frivolous understand not its aim and end? No! ye shall learn to distinguish by their characteristics true and false enlightenment. Thee, O Holy One! I recognise, in that thou makest the race of man more virtuous, more humane, more truth-loving, more moderate, more modest, more indulgent to the faults of others, more watchful over their own defects! Thou rejectest not what is old and worthy of reverence; thou snatchest not, childlike, at the new; thou seekest only to distinguish what is hurtful and offensive to God and man, and to place in its stead what is wor thier and more beneficial. Zeal without understanding, faith without virtue, piety without philanthropy, such dwell not in thy sight; such canst thou not endure. How differently does thy sister manifest herself! Proudly she lifts her head on high above all who will not follow after her: she renders her adherents more frivolous, more unprincipled, more selfish, and more immodest and immoderate in their demands. Without inquiry they reject the old, be it ever so venerable, ever so sacred; and blindly seize on the new, be it ever so pernicious and unholy, only because it glitters, and sparkles, and dazzles." In sentiments like these we recognise our own. Sermon II. is likewise to our liking. It is entitled, The Prophet's Spirit and Prophet's Course!" You may judge a man by his desires, says the preacher; and his desire is that of Moses, Num. x. 1-2. "Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them." The world, he opines, would have assumed a goodlier aspect, had this wish been fulfilled: it would be better for our generation were its accomplishment at hand. All that is good, beautiful, true, great, and exalted, would be more justly recognised, more sincerely loved, more zealously promoted. All that is ignoble and impure, all that is offensive to the mind and the heart, would be hated, rejected, and banished; healthfulness and purity, without and within, would be sought after and attained; sin, ignorance, disorder, error, strife, war, misery, and want would disappear from among men-men of one race, of one family, of one calling, men who had all become prophets of the Lord.

This remarkable wish was uttered by Moses, when Joshua proposed to interrupt the public teachings of Eldad and Medad, "My lord, Moses, forbid them;" said the young disciple, who feared lest it should become too light in the camp and among the people. But Moses, who was more enlightened than any man upon earth, answered, Enviest thou for my sake? Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets !"

"

Dr. Salomons urges this text home on the regard of rulers, that they may yield unlimited knowledge to the people, as did Moses. The point," he exclaims," on which the sages and philosophers of all nations have been, and are even now, still at variance, whether the moral and intellectual standard of the people should be raised, whether they should be enlightened, was decided thousands of years ago, by thee, Great Teacher of man, noble Instructor of the people."

The following passage is so just, as well as fine, that we must quote it, in

extenso.

"Many, who hear what we exhort men to do, and how high a standard we would place before them, would call us visionaries, or at least, if they would much honour us, pious visionaries. They would ask, 'How can that which you require be accomplished? Look around! The children of men are little worth; they wander hither and thither, and heap folly upon folly.' But, my dear friends, the highest virtue is in itself no vision; you render it such by deeming it impossible: it is not so difficult to vivify it, to put it into action, if each individual would so will it; each father, each mother, each son, each daughter, each public servant, each private individual. Men are little worth. Let each individual begin to be worth something. From these single efforts, a large aggregate of good must ultimately result. Men recede: let each individual begin himself to advance, the mass will go forward. They heap folly on folly. Let each one begin to lay aside his folly, how wise will the mass become! Individual instances of advancement you acknowledge; but is not the mass composed of individuals? Wherein then consists the delusion, the impossibility? Let each believe himself capable of much in the domain of morals; his strength will increase by exercise, each single flower is a flower in Virtue's chaplet. Let each carefully contribute his mite, and not only the man, but mankind will rise higher. What the inspired have spoken will one day be fulfilled. One day! and though that one day should tarry, await it: that is the prophet's spirit. They beheld not the entire fulfilment of the glorious and the holy things which they predicted! That did not deter them from unweariedly teaching and testifying, warning and reminding, speaking and working for children, and children's children; and the latest generations reap the harvest which they have sown. Let us follow their example, beloved friends, and wrestle and strive, and never rest, and never repose, till each has fulfilled the command of his father, to be a prophet unto the Lord, animated by the Spirit of the Lord."

This passage is worth all the Oxford Tracts for the Times, and is corrective of the heresy that they have promulged regarding apostolic and laic inspiration. O, believe us, that it is ever possible, and should be ever actual! How cheering is it that a Jewish doctor should indicate so great a truth-so Christianso Jewish! We find him also indicating another great truth, as belonging both to the Old and the New Testament, against Warburton and his schoolnamely, the doctrine of the immortality and separate state of the soul. He finds the declaration in the words, that ABRAHAM WAS GATHERED UNTO HIS PEOPLE. "Herein," he adds, "is declared the highest object of our being. To be gathered unto his people, means something far different from being laid in the grave. These words are immediately followed in the original by, And his sons buried him in the cave of Machpelah.' The dead body is spoken of in the latter passage; but he, he himself, was gathered unto his people. Thus is the death of the pious described in the Scriptures. Our death is a return home to the beloved ones, is a reunion with the souls who were dear unto us. To be gathered unto his people-not only the eternal existence of our spirit is here declared, but also the blessed relationship into which it will enter, although it is so generally imagined that such a declaration is nowhere to be found in Scripture. We shall meet again, we shall again behold one another after death-we are gathered unto our people!"

But we cease: were we to quote all the beautiful things to be found in this book, we should be compelled to elaborate a long paper, fitter for an article in chief in the Quarterly Review, than for a brief notice in our MONTHLY CRYPT. Such a Book as this makes us rejoice in the position that we have taken up as Critics. Of a truth, our Catholicity stands us in good stead. Whenever we can find a noble mind, whatever his clime or creed, there we recognise a brother of our house-the human family. Thanks be to the FATHER.

Dr. Salomon recognises the reason of man as an immediate inspiration from God, and as promulging the same truths as were uttered from Mount

Sinai. He grows sublime in his Kantism. "The sublime words," he says, "have twice sounded forth, LET THERE BE LIGHT. It was on the birth-day of the physical world for the eye, and afterwards on the birth-day of the spiritual world for the reason of man. And if at the present we were in possession only of the two first of the divine words spoken in Mount Sinai; thinking reason would solemnise in sisterly union with Divine Revelation the brightest triumph.-I AM THE ETERNAL."

He proceeds" The reason of man can find no repose except in the belief of a really existent God; one who lives and works, who guides and directs, the destinies of men and nations. A Divine Providence rules all things: chance, accident and fate, are mere unmeaning words. THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME: One only God lives in all, and the great All is sustained by him alone. One universal Spirit calls worlds and spirits into existence. Polytheism and idolatry, ye are vanquished together, with all your monstrous and unnatural offspring, for the thinking reason has said Amen to the great proclamation spoken on the heights of Sinai. Make no Image of the Eternal God; seek no similitude for him who hath no similitude in heaven or on earth."

How magnificent a conception it would be to figure the reason itself as the height of Sinai-with what splendour of language would Coleridge have decked such a thought. That a Jew should thus bring Moses and Kant together! Proof this, that philosophy is a reconciling power, and that all sects may be thereby enabled to syncretise. Friend Alerist must see to this. Meantime Dr. Salomon tells us, that Wherever reason has a voice in the most modern systems of philosophy, there we shall find philosophy seizing only as a commentary on that sacred text. Wherever that text is not adopted, there is idolatry practised, and the name of the Lord misunderstood."

And even thus a voice from Israel has corroborated what we asserted in our New Year's Address to the readers of this Magazine. Verily, our heart pours forth in gratitude unto the Most High! Holy! holy! holy! be his Name for ever and ever. Amen.

Let us proceed with another extract

"The Lord our God is One, and the only One. Thus speaks, likewise, the creed of reason; for as soon as man is able and willing to examine by her light, he rejects the belief in Polytheism, which leads him astray from labyrinth to labyrinth, and from one contradiction to another. The one only God frees him from these mazes of contradiction, and loosens the bonds of error. Hence, the reason of some sages among the ancients, led them to declare with us, that the Lord our God is One; and hence, when a better knowledge fills the earth, the reason of all men will lead them to proclaim the Lord is One, and his name One.

"What reason has discovered, is confirmed by the voice within, the sacred decision of the heart. In the minds of pious and wise men, the feeling arises spontaneously of homage to one only Being, who has called worlds and spirits into existence. The heart indeed knows no other creed, and thus in every language that man can understand,' in the pure speech of nature, in the wellordered language of reason, in the still small voice of conscience,' we hear repeated, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is One!"

Our readers will perceive an identity of opinion between this philosophical Jew, and the American writers whom we have this month introduced to their notice. With the following pregnant sentence or two we conclude.

"The feelings may mislead, and the imagination may deceive, but Reason neither deceives nor misleads. I am not speaking of the reason which has a like significance with opinion, supposition, belief; of the reason which can be corrupted by inclination or circumstances; or of that which may become, by means of prejudice, actually unreasonable. Observe I speak of the God-like faculty by which we know how to distinguish between true and false, between right and wrong; that reason which God has bestowed as a distinction upon