passages of Scripture; passages less open and direct, indeed, than this before us, but, &c.". p. 563.

But determining to make thorough work of his investigation, he consults successively all the writers to whom he chances to have access, such as, Grotius, Adam Clarke, Rosenmüller, Father Simon, Le Clerc, Bishop Tomline, Bishop Marsh, Professor Porson, Dr. Wardlaw, Coleridge, Bishop Bloomfield, &c. &c., but by all these great men, as by those first referred to, he finds the verse in question rejected as spurious. What must he think?

It is evidently quite within the limits of possibility, that the case we have supposed should actually happen. If our imaginary inquirer should carry his investigations into all the other proof-texts, and should chance to light upon such authorities as are gathered together in the volume by Mr. Wilson, which is a possible thing, one cannot easily conceive his astonishment at finding the whole Trinitarian ground abandoned by Trinitarians themselves, to their opponents. And though he should be told that other Trinitarian writers, equally learned, would tell a very different story, still, he cannot conceal it from himself, that the fact, at a knowledge of which he has thus accidentally arrived, is a very strong presumption, to say the least, against the scriptural foundation of the great doctrine which he has been accustomed to regard, as imbedded not more deeply in men's faith and affections than in the very substance of the Bible.

The public, the Unitarian public, that is, are under great obligations to Mr. Wilson for the great work he has so well accomplished. As one portion of that public, we offer him our hearty thanks. We consider him to have produced one of the most powerful Unitarian tracts ever published, and we hope to see it widely circulated among us, if not through an American edition, at least through a large number of imported copies.

Human Life; or Practical Ethics. From the German of De Wette. By SAMUEL OSGOOD. Boston: James Munroe and Co. 1842. 2 vols. 12mo. Ripley's Specimens, Vol. 12th.

NOT having room, at present, to take this book up as an "Examiner" and discuss it thoroughly, nor even to present, as we could wish, the results of our private examination, we must content ourselves with expressing the high satisfaction it has given us, in the hope of persuading others to enjoy the same. We should not, indeed, had we room, think we were doing any sort of justice to a work, which so well deserves its title of

"Human Life, or Practical Ethics," by undertaking to give an abstract or skeleton of its contents, in the shape of headings of chapters and beginnings of paragraphs; such a skeleton would convey but a poor idea of the living man, with all his blood and muscle, with the glow of health and beauty on his cheek, and the soul beaming from his eye; nor should we presume to hand round separate bricks as specimens of the noble edifice, as we cannot convey the whole living work to our pages, nor forestall the author by reproducing him in our own words, we would only and can only invite our readers to enter the beautiful and august temple he has erected, and assure them that, if they truly converse with the spirit of the Architect, (to speak of nothing higher,) they will come back wiser and nobler beings.

In plain prose, we cordially greet this work as an admirable companion and successor to "Jouffroy's Survey of Ethical Systems," which appeared in former volumes of Mr. Ripley's Series. De Wette manifests many of the qualifications for an Ethical writer, which charmed us in the French Philosopher. He has the same "clearness of spirit," to use the name which he himself assigns to one of the cardinal virtues in his plan, and the same glow of goodness, or, to use another of his designations, the same "moral earnestness, or inspiration." Perhaps, indeed, De Wette's classification of moral qualities is not always strictly philosophical; perhaps in certain cases, some of the nicer and more fastidious spiritual chemists might think they could analyze what he calls one quality into two or more; and phrenologists, of course, would not agree to his division of the moral manifestations. It must be remembered, however, (waiving the phrenological question,) that the classification and nomenclature of the faculties and feelings are in a great measure arbitrary, and dependent upon the individual genius of the systematizer; it must be considered, too, that this is a work of practical ethics; and this considered, we feel sure that any reader of good sense will find our author philosophical enough for all practical purposes. Any one, who merely glanced at the headings of the pages, might be disposed to charge the author with having loosely mixed up elementary principles and manifestations of character together; but upon examination he will find that De Wette recognises but very few fundamental principles of morality, and that all those particular titles, "Clearness of mind," "Patience," "Temperance," &c. express only dif ferent modes or manifestations of (perhaps we should say one) elementary principle. "Thus (he says) everything that concerns human duty is an effluence from pure respect and love for

man; and the various precepts and obligations are like the prismatic colors into which the pure light is divided." We have seldom conversed with a writer, who so well exemplifies a remark of Mr. Dewey in his Phi Beta Oration, (we quote from memory,) that "where there is strong thinking there will always be strong feeling, and the reverse." To use Coleridge's illustra tion, he resembles not a close stove, giving out heat darkly; nor the moon, giving light coldly; but the sun, pouring at once light and warmth. We wondered, at first, that Mr. Osgood did not translate "geistesklarheit" literally, "clearness of spirit;" but upon the whole we prefer it as he has it, "clearness of mind," because the importance of seeing things clearly as they are seems to us to have been too little considered in moral culture, and many a man becomes a sinner merely or mainly from seeing things in a mist, who, if clearness of mind had been cultivated in him, might have been a man of eminent virtue. We like the author's placing this quality in the foreground. We think it an originality in his system.

On the whole, this is one of the best works, if not the best, of the class, we have seen. We assure those of our readers, who have been accustomed to associate with the word Ethics an idea of something dry and dull, that they will find no dryness or dulness here. They will find ample refreshment along the road, in the details and execution of the work, while they are won upward and onward by the great idea which is its end and goal.

We call De Wette an original thinker. He seems to us to take hold of his great subject in a master-like manner. We were very much struck with his picture of the wise man, which, by the way, made us think vividly of one who was a bosom friend of the author, the late Dr. Follen.

"Would that I could portray the ideal of the wise man in strong, grand traits, worthy his elevation and greatness, and, at the same time, with the gentle power of sweetness and amiability which belongs to him! Would that I could open the view into his lofty, clear mind, into his large, pure heart, and show how life, like a grand landscape, which is viewed from a mountain, lies before him in comprehensive, sunny prospect, with all its varied paths, with gentle, lovely vales, where quiet shepherds have settled, with tumultuous, bustling cities, in which manifold business throngs, with the great highways, which connect the people with each other; how nothing appears strange and insignificant to him, and he accepts and values everything in its own place; how he contemplates with kindly regard the playing child, the striving youth, the struggling man, the hoary sage, and assigns to each his place in life; how he has sympathy with the gladsome animal spirits of youth, and the earnest striving and judgment of age; how he

values and honors, each according to its proportion, the industry of the quiet citizen, the rational activity of the official, the ready courage of the warrior, the calm reflection of the scholar, the religious contemplation of the clergyman, the shaping power of the artist, the inspiration of the poet, and recognises and vindicates every good faculty and gift; how, with his clear mind, he is able to remove every discord of life, every entanglement and misunderstanding, and to bring every jarring note into accordance with the universal harmony; how his heart beats for all that is great and sublime, and, at the same time, for all that is fair and lovely; how the trumpet of war, the flute of the shepherd, and the organ notes of sacred devotion, touch kindred chords in his own bosom; how he takes part in the cheerful throng of the multitude, and, also, as holy priest, cherishes the flames of inspiration and devotion upon the altar of his heart; and how, discharging his duty, a cheerful citizen of the earth, satisfied with his lot, and filling the sphere allotted to him, he longingly lifts his gaze up to the everlasting home! Could I present this picture truly, vitally, strikingly, then I should solve a great problem, and give utterance to what has filled and moved my mind.

"But if I can succeed at all in this, it can be only by gradual development. Gradually I must unfold to your eyes the wise man's plan of life, and from separate traits compose the whole picture. Science cannot, like art, crowd the whole fulness of ideas into a single figure, which, with instantaneous power of representation, seizes upon the heart and mind, and excites its inmost depths. It has not at its command the glow and brilliancy of coloring, nor the marvellous power of tones; it may not, with the poet, trust to the wings of imagination; but it must quietly, discreetly, and steadily wend its way, and guide the thinking mind, by the thread of ideas, to the goal of truth. But it may turn to the heart, and appeal to its inmost, holiest feelings; to the heart it should appeal, since only in harmony with the heart can the mind comprehend the highest, and penetrate the sacred deep. Would that I could awaken in your minds and hearts the lofty thought, the sublime sentiment, in which the idea of wisdom consists! As every thing great is extremely simple, so also is wisdom. However much may be said upon it, all things return to a single one; we must contemplate the different sides, but all converge in a centre; all the richness of life, with its tendencies and efforts, enters into the life-plan of the wise man; and yet there is but one law of life, one direction, in which all unites. Should I succeed in making this one thought clear, in awakening this single feeling, then should I properly have done more than poets and artists have been able to do by their creations. In this elementary thought and elementary feeling a creative power lies hid; all which human life has of grand, majestic, beautiful, is enfolded within it, as in a germ. To him who bears within himself this thought and this feeling, all the mysteries and wonders of the world reveal themselves; all buds spring forth before him, and display their fulness of beauty; all mists fall away from his consecrated vision, and the world stands in sunshine before him; all fragmentary and distorted features are arranged into a living form of beauty; all discordant notes melt into wonderful harmony. As the creative fiat called forth from dark chaos the radiant order of the world; the primeval waters

separated themselves; heaven, with its lights, stretched itself over the earth, clothed as it was in plants and flowers, and peopled with living creatures; and, at last, man appeared, the lord of creation, the image of God; so the wise man, communing with God, and godlike by his understanding of the divine law, possesses the power to create anew, with the free spirit of divine wisdom, the world, so misunderstood by man, and life, so dismembered and distorted by errors, to behold, with the open vision of a seer, the eternal harmony and beauty of creation to interpret all enigmas- to remove all perplexity. If artist and poet present single traits of sublimity and beauty, the wise man is the poet, who forms in himself, with comprehensive mind, the infinite figure of the universe, and carries within himself all the archetypes of beauty. He stands at the fountain from which all spiritual life flows, and quaffs the drink of immortality, eternal youth and beauty." - Vol. I. p. 57.

We cannot resist the temptation (notwithstanding what we said above about showing a brick as a specimen of the building) to quote one more passage among a hundred that take strong hold of us, which may give, too, some idea of the author's "stand-point."

"There is a wide distinction between the faults and weaknesses of a truly virtuous man, and the trangressions and vices of him who has in himself certain good qualities as natural gifts, or mere habits. The light of genuine virtue beams in its own peculiar splendor, even while spots appear upon it; and it shines far differently from the faint, obscured lustre of the virtue that springs from native temperament, or from mere habit. Even if a tree has some defect, even if, on the side where it lacks light and air, the growth is retarded, yet the other branches are green and blooming, fresh and flourising. It is thus with human virtue. If it is only living as a whole,- if it springs from inward power and fulness, — it may be imperfect by a defect or weakness; yet this imperfection, although blameworthy, does not take away its peculiar essence.

"True virtue is a whole, cast from a single piece, solid and pure; not a mixed mass, molten from different ores, nor carefully soldered together from various pieces. It is a living body, with a living soul; not a puppet, which is hung with drapery to make it counterfeit the human form; and its actions are living motions, springing from inward impulse and life, not produced by force and artificial calculation. This truth should be recognised, in order to avoid all delusion from the de- ceptions of hypocrisy, and from the anxious efforts of those who are studious merely of a refined outward good breeding; and in order, even in sincere endeavors after virtue, to escape the error of acting as if it depended upon this or that particular, or this or that excellence an error which frustrates all sincere endeavor, since the energies are thereby turned towards scattered particulars, and thus dismembered. They who covet virtue should know, that they ought to strive after complete virtue with the whole soul, and that they have to gain the whole or none; they ought, therefore, before they apply themselves to this or that dutiful deed, and appropriate this or that good moral, to be