terly its despiser. The person who hears him preach has none of the usual resources to which many are accustomed to retreat, when something is said from the pulpit that displeases their prejudices. They cannot pretend, even to themselves, that this is a secluded enthusiast who knows no better, and would not talk so, had he seen a little more of life. It is clear, from the moment he touches upon life, that he has looked at it as narrowly as if that observation had been his ultimatum, not his mean: and the probability is, that instead of smiling at his ignorance, the hearer may rather find occasion to suspect that his knowledge surpasses his own. "Having command of this rare and potent engine, with which to humble and disarm that worldly self-love, which is among the most formidable enemies of a modern preacher's eloquence, and employing it at all times with the most fearless and unhesitating freedom--and following it up at all times by the boldest and most energetic appeals to the native workings of the heart, which may be chilled, but are seldom extinguished, it is no wonder that this man should have succeeded in establishing for himself a firm and lasting sway over the minds of his ap origin of the power he has obtained, must be sought for, I doubt not, in the choice of his topics-the bold and unfearing manner in which he has dared to fix the attention of his audience, not upon matters best calculated to favour the display of his own ingenuity, or to flatter their vanity by calling upon them to be ingenious in their listening-but upon plain points of radical importance in doctrine and practice, of which, as treated by preachers less acquainted with the actual ways of the world, it is probable most of them had become in a great measure weary, but which their own innate value and innate truth could not fail to render imperiously and decisively interesting, the moment they began to be handled by one possessed of the thorough manliness of tact and purpose, which Mr. Thomson cannot utter five sentences without displaying. To talk, indeed, of exhausting the interest of any such topics by any method of treating them-would be an absurdity--and cannot be explained in any sense, without involving the severest of satires upon those to whom the discussion is addressed. But it is, after all, a very wonderful thing how seldom one does find a man carrying with bim into the pulpit, the perfect knowledge of the world as it is—a complete acquaint-parently elegant and fashionable audience. ance with all the evanescent manifestations of folly, existing, for the moment, in the thoughts and feelings of "the great vulgar and the small"-and it is no less wonderful, and far more pitiable to observe, with what readiness the cosmopolites of the day take up with the want of this sort of knowledge on the part of their clergyman, as a sufficient apology for slighting and neglecting the weight of his opinion in regard to matters, their own intense ignorance and non-comprehension of which is so much less excusable, or, I should rather say, is so entirely unaccountable and absurd. Till the fine gentlemen of the present day perceive that you understand all that they themselves do, their self-love will not permit them to give you credit for understanding any thing which they themselves do not understand-nay -not even for thinking that things are important, about the importance or nonimportance of which they themselves have never bad the fortune to occupy any portion of their surpassing acumen and discernment. In a word, in order to preach with effect to the people of the world, as they are educated now-a-days, it is necessary to show that you have gone through all their own little track-and then they may perhaps be persuaded that you have gone beyond it. Now, Mr. Andrew Thomson strikes me to be, without exception, one of the most complete masters of this world's knowledge I ever heard preach on either side of the Tweed; and therefore it is that be produces a most powerful effect, by showing himself to be entirely and ut It has never indeed been my fortune to "I had heard so much of this remarka- (for my arrival in Glasgow, but he had gone to visit his friends in a parish of which he was formerly minister, in the county of Fife, so that I was, for the time, disappointed. My landlady, however, who is one of his admirers, had heard of his return the evening before, and she took care to communicate this piece of intelligence to me at breakfast. I was very happy in receiving it, and determined to go immediately; upon which Mrs. Jardine requested me to accept the loan of her own best psalmbook, and her daughter, Miss Currie, (a very comely young lady,) was so good as to show me the way to her pew in the church. Such, I presume, is the intense interest attracted to this preacher, that a hotel in Glasgow could not pretend to be complete in all its establishment, without baving attached to it a spacious and convenient pew in this church for the accommodation of its visitors. As for trusting, as in other churches, to finding somewhere a seat unappropriated, this is a thing which will by no means do for a stranger who has set his heart upon hearing a sermon of Dr. Chaimers. "I was a good deal surprized and perplexed with the first glimpse I obtained of bis countenance, for the light that streamed faintly upon it for the moment, did not reveal any thing like that general outline of feature and visage for which my fancy had, by some strange working of presentiment, prepared me. By and bye, however, the light became stronger, and I was enabled to study the minutiae of his face pretty leisurly, while he leaned forward and read aloud the words of the psalmfor that is always, done in Scotland, not by the clerk, but the clergyman himself. At first sight, no doubt, his face is a coarse one-but a mysterious kind of meaning breathes from every part of it, that such as have eyes to see, cannot be long without discovering. It is very pale, and the large half-closed eye-lids have a certain droop ing melancholy weight about them, which interested me very much, I understood not why. The lips, too, are singularly pensive in their mode of falling down at the sides, although there is no want of richness and vigour in their central fulness of curve. The upper lip, from the nose downwards, is separated by a very deep ne, which gives a sort of leonine firmness of expression to all the lower part of the face. The cheeks are square and strong, in texture like pieces of marble, with the cheek bones very broad and prominent. The eyes themselves are light in colour, and have a strange dreamy heaviness, that Louveys any idea rather than that of dulBess, but which contrasts, in a wonderful manner, with the dazzling watery glare They exhibit when expanded in their sockets, and illuminated into all their flame and fervour, in some moment of high entranced enthusiasm. But the shape of the forehead is perhaps the most singular part of the whole visage; and, indeed, it presents a mixture so very singular, of forms commonly exhibited only in the widest separation, that is no wonder I should have required some little time to comprehend the meaning of it. In the first place, it is, without exception, the most marked mathematical forehead I ever met with. * "Singular as is this conformation, I know not that any thing less singular could have satisfied my imagination ater hearing this man preach. You have read his Sermons, and, therefore, I need not say any thing about the subject and style of the one I heard, because it was in all respects very similar to those which have been printed. But of all human compositions, there is none surely which loses so much as a sermon does, when it is made to address itself to the eye of a solitary student in his closet and not to the thrilling ears of a mighty mingled congregation, through the very voice which nature has enriched with notes more expressive than words can ever be, of the meanings and feelings of its author. Neither, perhaps, did the world ever possess any orator, whose minutest peculiarities of gesture and voice have more power in increasing the effect of what he says-whose delivery, in other words, is the first, and the second, and the third excellence of his oratory, more truly than is that of Dr. Chalmers. And yet, were the spirit of the man less gifted than it is, there is no question these, his lesser peculiarities, would never have been numbered among his points of excellence. His voice is neither strong nor melodious. His gestures are neither easy nor graceful : but, on the contrary, extremely rude and awkward-his pronunciation is not only broadly national, but broadly provincial distorting almost every word he utters into some barbarous novelty, which, had his hearer leisure to think of such things, might be productive of an effect at once Judicrous and offensive in a singular degree. "But of a truth, these are things which no listener can attend to while this great preacher stands before him, armed with all the weapons of the most commanding eloquence, and swaying all around him with its imperial rule. At first, indeed, there is nothing to make one suspect what riches are in store. He commences in a low drawling key, which has not even the merit of being solemn-and advances from sentence to sentence, and from paragraph: to paragraph, while you seek in vain to catch a single echo, that gives promise of that which is to come. There is, on the contrary, an appearance of constraint about him, that affects and distresses you you are afraid that his breast is weak, and that even the slight exertion he makes may be too much for it. But then with what tenfold richness does this dim preliminary curtain make the glories of his eloquence to shine forth, when the heated spirit at length shakes from its chill confining fetters, and bursts ont elate and rejoicing in the full splendour of its disimprisoned wings!--Never was any proof more distinct and speaking, how impossible it is for any lesser disfavours to diminish the value of the truer and higher bounties of Nature. Never was any better example of that noble privilege of real genius, in virtue of which even disadvantages are converted into advantages-and things which would be sufficient to nip the opening buds of any plant of inferior promise, are made to add only new beauty and power to its uncontrollably expanding bloom. "I have heard many men deliver sermons far better arranged in regard to argument, and have heard very many deliver sermons far more uniform in elegance both of conception and of style. But most unquestionably I have never heard, either in England, or Scotland, or in any other country, any preacher whose eloquence is capable of producing an effect so strong and irresistible as his. He does all this too without having recourse for a moment to the vulgar arts of common pulpit enthusiasm. He does it entirely and proudly, by the sheer pith of his most original mind, clothing itself in a bold magnificence of language, as original in its structure-as nervous in the midst of its overflowing richness as itself. He has the very noblest of his weapons, and most nobly does he wield them. He has a wonderful talent for ratiocination, and possesses, besides, an imagination both fertile and distinct, which gives all richness of colour to his style, and supplies his argument with every diversity of illustration. In presence of such a spirit subjection is a triumph-and I was proud to feel my hardened nerves creep and vibrate, and my blood freeze and boil while he spake-as they were wont to do in the early innocent years, when unquestioning enthusiasm had as yet caught no lessons of chilness from the jealousies of discernment, the delights of comparison, and the example of the unimaginative world. "I trust his eloquence produces daily upon those who hear it effects more precious than the mere delights of intellect. ual excitement and admiring transports. I trust, that after the first tide has gone by, there is left no trivial richness of sediment on the souls over which its course bas been. I trust the hearers of this good man do not go there only because he is a great one that their hearts are as open to his sway as their minds are; and that the Minister of Christ is not a mere Orator in their eyes. Were that the case, they might seek the species of delight most to their taste in a theatre, with more propriety than in a church. I speak, I confess, from feeling my own feebleness in the presence of this man-I speak from my own expe rience of the difficulty there is in being able, amidst the human luxury such a ser mon affords, to remember with sufficient earnestness the nature of its object-and the proper nature of its more lasting ef fects. What is perhaps impossible, how ever, on a first hearing, may, no doubt, be come easy after many repetitions-so I hope it is-indeed why should I doubt it? The tone of serious deep-felt venera tion, in which I hear this great preacher talked of by all about him, is a sufficient proof that mere human admiration is not the only element in the feelings with which they regard him-that with the homage paid to his genius, there is mingled a nobler homage of gratitude to the kind affectionate warmth with which he renders this bigh genius subservients to the best interests of those in whose presence its triumphs are exhibited.”—p. p. 468– 472. (To be concluded.) Literary and Philosophical Intelligence. Messrs. Flagg and Gould, Andover, have in press, and will publish on the first of May, Letters to Unitarians, occasioned by the Sermon of the Rev. W. E. Channing, delivered at the ordination of J. Sparks; by LEONARD Woops, D. D. Prof. of Theology in .Theol. Sem.' The reigning prince of Wallachia, a Greek by birth, has determined to send to the most eminent schools of Europe several young Greeks, who may there finish their studies at his expense; and then return home to give their native country the advantage of the knowledge they have acquired. Professor Meinacke of Hall has suc ceeded in producing a brilliant illumination by means of electric light, and with the aid of an artificial air enclos ed in glass tubes. Mr. Meinacke thinks that a city might be lighted up by electrifying machines, at a trifling expense, using the apparatus he has invented. In the mineralogical report of Lapland, presented to the Swedish government, it is stated that a great waterfall of the river Lulea, has been discovered. It is one eighth of a German mile broad, and the greatest height of the fall is four hundred feet perpendicular. Notice of the literature and language of Norway, Sweden and Denmark, by M. Rask, from the Annals of Literature, published at Vienna, by M. Gerold. The Norwegians speak and write the same language as the Danes; but this language in both countries, among the common people, has many dialects in which, words, in greater or less numbers, are retained, belonging to the ancient language of Scandinavia.These words are obsolete among the higher classes, who, in both kingdoms speak the Danish language as it is written. There exists, then, no distinct language for the literature of Norway; and the language in actual use might be as well denominated Norwegian as Danish. The literature, therefore, of the two countries is one, to the progress of which, since the period of the reformation, the inhabitants of Norway have honourably contributed. The celebrated dramatic poet, Baron Holberg, a name of the first distinction in Danish literature, was a native of Bergen in Norway; and among the Norwegian authors now living, may be mentioned the names of Pram and Steffens, who are advantageously known in other countries. The Swedish language, in its constitution and grammatical inflections, resembles the ancient Scandinavian language, but differs from it in particular expressions or modes of speech more than the Danish, as it has adopted a greater number of foreign words. The pronunciation of the Swedish language bears some resemblance to the German. The Danish pronunciation, on the contrary, is more like the Icelandic; but these two Scandinavian languages differ yet more in their orthography. The great merits of Linnæus, Celsius, and other learned Swedes, are sufficiently known to the literary world. The celebrated philologist and excellent historian Lagerbring, was a Swede; unfortunately, his great history of Sweden was not completed. Among the poets the first place is held by Kellgren, the greater part of whose tragedies were written upon a plan sketched in the French language by Gustavus III. Lidner is in high estimation for his lyric poetry; and Belman, by his anacreontics has acquired an unusual popularity: the greater part of the productions of The metrical translations of Virgil and Belman are unpremeditated effusions. Horace, by Baron Adlerbeth, are works in the first class of excellence. Among the poets now living, Afzelius and Leopold are particularly distinguished. Hallenberg, the historiographer of Sweden, now in advanced life, is employed on the science of medals. Finland, where the Swedish language is particularly cultivated among the polished classes, that country so little known to the rest of Europe, has contributed much towards the improvement and perfection of the Swedish language. Professor Porthan is engaged in writing the history of Finland; Franzen an ecclesiastic has written poetry in the Swedish language, which has obtained a high reputation, and Professor Benvall has distinguished himself by his profound researches in the Finnish language. He is now employed on a dictionary of that language, which will soon be published at the expense of Count Romanzow, whose generous sacrifices for the progress of the sciences in Russia, deserve the highest praise. A grammar of the Finnish language has been written by Inden. The dialect of the Swedish language spoken in Finland, is known by the name of nylandais. The Dalecarlian (dalskan) dialect is the prevailing dialect of Sweden. The Scandinavian nations easily understand each other even though they have not made the differences of their two principal languages their particular study. The Danes, however, speak the Swedish with less ease than the Swedes do the Danish, and the Danish literature, perhaps, is more known in Sweden, than the Swedish literature is in Denmark. Whatever may be the affinity between these two languages and the German, it is scarcely possible for an inhabitant of the North to understand the German on first hearing it spoken.This is to be ascribed chiefly to the pronunciation, to the formation of words, and to the grammatical inflexions and construction, which differ essentially from the ancient Saxon language, which is still spoken on the banks of the Elbe and the Weser, near their entrance into the ocean. There are likewise many words in the Scandinavian language which are not found in this. The language of Iceland, the true Scandinavian language, forms the principal basis of the Danish and Swedish. The Icelanders still employ it in all its purity, as well in speaking and writing, as in their public acts. In Denmark and Sweden, there are no monuments of the primitive language, except some runick inscriptions; but in Norway there are still found ancient codes of laws, written in pure Icelandic, before it had undergone any change. The syntax of this language is simple, but exact; the grammar is by no means complicated-every one understands the grammatical rules, and the least impropriety discovers the stranger. The Sagas, which contain the history of Iceland, form the favorite reading of the inhabitants. M. F. Espolin, now living, is an author distinguished in this species of literature. His Sagas have continued the Icelandic history to the present time. Revue Encyclopedique. Copenhagen. The history of Haco the aged, and Magnus, two ancient kings of Norway, from 1203-1274, was published at Copenhagen in 1818, by Professors Thorlack and Werlauff, comprising the fifth volume of Historia Regum Norvegicorum. This history was written by Sturle Thordson, (whe died in 1284,) in the Norwegian language, and is now accompanied with a Danish and a Latin translation. Christiana.-A philological seminary has been established in the University in this place, and put under the care of G. Sventrup, Prof. of the Greek language. Moscow. The University edifice, which was destroyed by the French invasion, has been re-built in a more elegant style, and was consecrated in Nov. 1818. List of New Publications. THEOLOGY. Sin destitute of the Apology of Inabilty; or Moral Inability no constituent of Human Nature. By a Christian, the Author of "Moral Agency." Philadelphia. The Felicities of the Church of God. 4 Sermon preached at Patterson, N. Y. at the organization of the Presby tery of North River. By the Rev. Joshua Spalding, A. M. MISCELLANEOUS. The Poetical Works of John Trumbull, LL. D. containing M'Fingal, A Modern Epic Poem, revised and corrected, with copious explanatory notes; the Progress of Dullness; and a collection of Poems on various sub jects, written before and during the Revolutionary War: 2 vols. 8vo. Hartford. The Moral Instructor, and guide to Virtue and Happiness, being a com pendium of moral science in four parts designed for the use of families and schools; by Jesse Torrey, Jun. Physi cian. Second edition, revised. 12mo. Albany. A new system of Astronomy, in question and answer, for the use of schools and academies, illustrated with plates; by Alvah Clark, A. B. 12mo. New-York. An Anniversary Discourse, delivered before the Lyceum of Natural History, the 28th of February, 1820; by Peter S. Townsend, M. D. |