is the foppery of universality; of knowing all sciences and excelling in all arts-chemistry, mathematics, algebra, dancing, history, reasoning, riding, fencing, Low Dutch, High Dutch, natural philosophy, and enough Spanish to talk about Lope de Vega. In short, the modern precept of education very often is, "Take the admirable Crichton for your model; I would have you ignorant of nothing." Now my advice, on the contrary, is, to have the courage to be ignorant of a great number of things, in order to avoid the calamity of being ignorant of everything. I would exact of a young man a pledge that he would never read Lope de Vega; he would pawn to me his honour to abstain from Bettinelli and his thirty-five original sonneteers; and I would require from him the most rigid securities that I was never to hear anything about that race of "penny poets" who lived in the reigns of Cosmo and Lorenzo di Medici.'-P. 100.

The first thing to be done in conducting the understanding, is precisely the same as in conducting the body-to give it regular and copious supplies of wholesome food, to prevent that atrophy of mind which comes on from giving it no new ideas. It is a mistake equally fatal to every faculty to think too early that we can live upon our stock of understanding-that it is time to leave off business, and make use of the acquisitions we have already made, without troubling ourselves any further to increase them. Every day destroys a fact, a relation, or an inference, and the only method of preserving the bulk and value of the pile is by constantly adding to it. . . . A man who will not pay this price (of hard labour) for distinction, had better at once dedicate himself to the pursuit of the fox-or sport with the tangles of Neæra's hair or talk of bullocks, and glory in the goad! There are many ways of being frivolous, and not a few of being useful: there is but one mode of being intellectually great.'-Pp. 96, 97.

Young and old are alike chastised in these pages:

Nothing, in my humble opinion, would bring an understanding so forward, as the habit of ascertaining and weighing the opinions of others a point in which almost all men of abilities are deficient; whose first impulse, if they are young, is too often to contradict; or, if the manners of the world have cured them of that, to listen with attentive ears only, but with the most obdurate and unconquerable entrails. I may be very wrong, and probably am so, but, in the whole course of my life, I do not know that I ever saw a man of considerable understanding respect the understandings of others as much as he might have done for his own improvement, and as it was just he should do. . . . I touched a little, in my last lecture, upon that habit of contradicting into which young men and young men of ability, in particular are apt to fall; and which is a habit extremely injurious to the powers of the understanding. I would recommend to such young men an intellectual regimen, of which I myself, in an earlier period of life, have felt the advantage-and that is, to assent to the two first propositions that they hear every day; and not only to assent to them, but, if they can, to improve and embellish them... When they have a little got over the bitterness of assenting, they may

then gradually increase the number of assents, as their constitutions will bear it; and I have little doubt that, in time, this will effect a complete and perfect cure.'-P. 284.

To such as are pleased with these specimens, we heartily recommend this acceptable volume.

ART. X.-1. Second Triennial Report of the British Anti-state-church Association.

2. The Nonconformist, April 10, 17, and 24, and May 3, 1850. 3. The British Banner, April 3, 10, 17, and 24, 1850. ALTHOUGH Works on prophecy are already numerous, we would fain have one addition to wit, a collection of the unfulfilled prophecies of uninspired seers. We would have enumerated the prognostications with which ignorance and prejudice have met some of the most signal achievements of scientific and inventive genius; the forebodings of the unthinking and the timid at the progress of ameliorative innovations, and especially the vaticinations, conscientious or malignant, never more freely indulged in than when it has been sought to apply great moral and political truths to the business of legislation and the ordinary affairs of life. Such a record could hardly fail to be instructive, and would certainly be entertaining. Nor would the evidence furnished by it of the fallibility of human judgment, however ripened by culture and exercised with deliberation, be the most surprising feature. Passion and feeling would be seen dominant over irrefragable reasoning and the stern reality of fact; astute intelligence, hoodwinked, and self-deceived by the shallowest delusions; truth mistrusted and unloved, even while receiving ostentatious theoretic homage; virtue, wisdom, and patriotism, occasionally in temporary but ill-omened alliance with their ancient foes. Most humiliating of all would be the apparent disregard, by successive generations, of the lessons suggested by the errors and short-sightedness of their predecessors; and their proneness, even while boasting of their own advanced position, to cast obstructions athwart the path of others desirous of reaching a point beyond.

Without wishing to apply them to the occasion, except in a very modified degree, we yet acknowledge that these reflections have been suggested by the holding of the Second Triennial Anti-state-church Conference; for, say the committee, in

the Report presented on that occasion, had the predictions ventured upon by many at the commencement of this enterprise been realized, not the second alone, but even the first Triennial Conference of the Anti-state-church Association would never have assembled.' It will, doubtless, be remembered, that not only was the movement regarded as born out of due time,' but its originators were not the men' for the occasion, and their experiment was to issue in a series of follies and disasters. Their measures ill-judged, their spirit unlovely, and their language intemperate, they were to do serious damage to a cause worthy of discreeter championship. Churches were to be divided by the introduction of a new element of discord, and authority weakened by the unyielding pertinacity of the new propaganda. All who refused to co-operate with them were to be the subjects of bitter vituperation, and to be constantly pilloried as hollow and half-hearted. Their fierce invectives against the Church would alienate Churchmen accustomed to reciprocate civilities with Dissenters, and their Quixotic pursuit of an abstraction would expose Nonconformity to ridicule; while, by alarming Whig statesmen, it would retard the redress of practical griev

ances.

The only comfort remaining to these prophets of evil was the apparent inadequacy of the resources which the crusaders had at their command. But few of the Dissenting rulers had believed, the official cliques were decidedly hostile, and the metropolis especially was but slightly affected by the contagion. Denied the means and appliances deemed indispensable for the success of Dissenting movements, it could at the best be but a spasmodic effort. The hot-headed zealots would expend their energies in the preliminary outburst, and even the deeper-seated determination of others would be worn out by friction with the gigantic difficulties to be encountered. Pecuniary embarrassments would consummate their failure, and after two or three years of fruitless labour the millstone of debt would sink the organization beneath the waters of oblivion!

We shall make no comments, ill-natured or otherwise, upon these predictions; since we are content to point out their substantial, and in many respects egregious, failure. The Antistate-churchmen have had sufficient good sense to avoid running their heads against every wall in their way. They are even allowed to have displayed some of that judgment and tact which become men placed in circumstances of difficulty and responsibility. Even unscrupulous recreancy has been compelled to acknowledge that the experiment has been made with the utmost care and well-devised effort;' and has been marked by energy, skill, and perseverance, such as are seldom brought

to any enterprise." So far from their platform exercitations being largely leavened with acrimonious reflections on unfriendly Dissent, they have been more wisely directed to the enlightenment of perplexed and inquiring Churchmen. Narrowly and jealously watched as have been all their movements, surprisingly little has been alleged to their discredit. Such, indeed, has been the estimate formed of the general tenor and spirit of their proceedings, that even those not identified with them have not withheld the expression of their generous admiration; and, as we happen to know, recent events have led many to avow their anxiety that the same temperate and dignified course might be yet pursued. Neither have the sinews of war' been wanting, the funds, however inadequate for such a work, having been obtained with regularity, and year by year been increased; and the Association being still, as it has always been, free from the entanglement of debt.' Most surprising of all, there are even now no symptoms of flagging, but the reverse. After six years

of labour,' say the Executive Committee, in their Report to the Delegates, 'some of them unmarked by indications of success-not attracted by the charm of novelty-impelled by no artificial stimulant-with the certainty that the wished-for goal is not yet at hand, and is deemed by some to be beyond attainment, you are assembled, from all parts of the kingdom, to declare, on the part of yourselves and of the thousands whom you represent, your unshaken faith in the principles of Christian voluntaryism, and your inflexible purpose to win for them, sooner or later, the practical homage of the people of these realms.'

All this has not been, as in the nature of things it could not be, without its effect on those who, from timidity or distrust, hesitated at the outset to connect themselves with the Association. We have among us high-minded and ingenuous individuals, too wise to assert their infallibility, and too magnanimous to refuse an acknowledgment of mistake and hence men, like the late Dr. Hamilton, and Mr. Ely, and Mr. Hinton, Mr. Samuel Morley, and Mr. Davies, with many others in a less public sphere, have gracefully acknowledged their shortcomings, and identified themselves heartily with the organization. Another, and a somewhat numerous class, who still decline taking such a step, adopt language greatly differing from that employed a few years since. They speak of the Association and its operations in terms of respect, and take particular pains to satisfy its friends that with its object they fully sympathize. We are, of course, aware that there are others who still openly, and, as we allow, conscientiously, avow and manifest hostility to all agitation for giving practical effect to Anti-state-church principles.

'British Banner,' April 17, 1850.

We

refer to the fact regretfully, and not without a feeling of concern for the parties themselves. It is by no means gratifying to see men who have been in the van of Dissenting movements gradually consigning themselves to public oblivion. We have some knowledge of the extent to which this process of alienation is going on, and we predict that, on the next occasion which calls into array the hosts of Nonconformity, a conscious loss of influence on their part will afford painful evidence of the result. We refrain from saying all that occurs to us touching another, and less honourable, class of opponents-the men who, in their coteries, seek to damage the Association by oracular whisperings and cowardly inuendos, aimed at its more conspicuous friends. We are thankful that the spirit of misrepresentation has been driven into comparative privacy; and still more, that these and similar indications of what exists in certain quarters of Dissent are attracting the thoughtful attention of an increasing class, who are solicitous for conformity to a severer standard of virtue than has always been observed in the conduct of our public affairs.

The Second Triennial Conference of the Anti-state-church Association was an event which would in any case have been anticipated with interest, as an occasion for testing the state of public feeling in relation to the society and its object, but unlooked-for occurrences invested it with special importance. A hitherto friendly journal, supposed to possess considerable influence, had suddenly wheeled round into opposition, and exhausted all its resources to damage the policy it had formerly supported ;-another organ of Dissent, also a professed ally, at the same time preserving an ominous and suspicious silence.* It was not, however, to be anticipated that an attack of such a kind could seriously, if at all, affect a movement which had grown strong by its triumph over far more formidable obstacles. The only real ground for apprehension was, the possibility that feelings of disgust and indignation might display themselves in unseemly acts and an unchristian temper.

The Conference, which assembled in the Theatre of the City of London Institution, on the 30th of April last, was in all respects worthy of the occasion, and in harmony with those expectations which the previous operations of the Association had naturally suggested. In spite of every adverse circumstance, no less than 550 persons were delegated, or about three times the number attending the National Reform Conference, held in the previous week-a fact to which we refer, not invidiously, but as one worthy of note by those radical reformers,

The Patriot' had a highly laudatory article after the Conference had assembled, and when its success was ascertained.