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consciousness: that the bar which it interposes between man and God may be removed, is the great revelation of Christianity. Thus Neander considered, that the Unitarians of the present day as well as their predecessors, failed to perceive the necessary purpose of the whole Christian Revelation: and though he would be the last to deny the privileges of the Christian name and brotherhood, he yet never felt himself drawn to them by any vivid sympathy. With the justice of his conclusions respecting Unitarianism past and present, we have here no concern: those who held the doctrines he condemned, shared equally with others his liberal hospitality, and every ready courtesy and aid.

In the form of his History, Neander did not display the qualities of an artist. He had bad examples before him, and a somewhat cumbrous instrument with which to work. German style is-from the very nature of the languagevery generally deficient in point and liveliness: and German scientific works are too often written in happy ignorance of the necessity of style at all. The student of Neander's History must not therefore expect to find in his pages either the epigrammatic liveliness of Gibbon, or the easy perspicuity of Hume. He had neither the imagination requisite to make him a word-painter, nor the fervid rhetoric, which so often strives to supply its place. But he succeeds in building up his vast mass of materials into a simple and harmonious, if not a splendid edifice. The reader's attention is not unduly called, for the general effect, to the consideration of unimportant details. The results of profound learning and patient investigation are presented in an unpretending and intelligible form: there is little controversy with his fellow-labourers in the same field, and no animosity against them: and the decisions between rival theories, and conflicting statements, are those not only of a mind not only unprejudiced, but itself clear and sound. Yet, most of all, the reader is enticed on by the conviction, which cannot but dawn upon him from every page, that he has to do with one, who is not writing for love of lucre or reputation, but because he is one in spirit with the invisible Head of that Church, whose annals he records-who writes of Christianity, not as a

remarkable historical phenomenon the progress of which will make a good book-but as God's appointed means for bringing all mankind to a knowledge of Himself.

It is necessary that we should say something of the theological opinions of one, who by his writings and personal intercourse has exercised so wide and deep an influence over the present generation of German theologians. The task is by no means easy-nor are we aware that it is likely to lead to any profitable result. We will therefore be very brief. Neander occupied a middle position between the two contending schools of extreme Supernaturalists and extreme Rationalists: between the schools which assumes Scripture, as the organ of Revelation, to be the basis of religion and the criterion of Philosophy: and that which altogether subjects the Bible to the abstract conclusions of the human intellect. Whether or not he consciously strove to occupy this position we know not. It was the fortune of his life to have to contend alternately against the extremes on either side of him. At one time he was vindicating the liberty of Biblical Criticism, at another defending it from license. But the truth is, that the historic and the philosophic mind are rarely conjoined in one person. The historian is too dependent on the statements and conclusions of others: too much accustomed to weigh evidence, and extract an average of truth, to be able to follow boldly and independently a train of abstract reasoning to its ultimate consequences: especially in a case where the adoption of such consequences results in opposition to a great majority of thinkers on the same subject. No doubt there are subjects in which the "in medio tutissimus ibis " is justly applicable to the discovery of truth. But even in those it is rather practically safe, than theoretically true; and in the case of Religious Truth, above all others, can lead only to ill-founded principles, vague statements, and hasty assumptions. Such, we say it reverently, have seemed to us the practical faults of Neander's theological opinions: so far as his somewhat cloudy written statements, and evident disinclination to converse on doctrinal subjects, allowed a student or observer to form a conclusion. He recoiled from the orthodoxy which he himself disbelieved: yet recoiled equally from the heterodoxy, to which his own principles, logically carried out, would inevitably have led.

Something, too, may be attributed to the fears of a spiritually-minded and deeply religious man, lest in departing too far from the form of doctrine in which he had originally received Christianity, he should lose those practical benefits, which were the blessings of his daily life. And as we do not the less love Howard for his narrowminded Calvinism; nor Fletcher for his enthusiastic Methodism-so in this case, too, we will not quarrel with the Saint, because he was not Prophet too.

One word more, and we have done. Neander, like many other German theologians of eminence, was a layman; and as such he presented an example, not altogether unprofitable to be regarded both in Germany and England, of one who by no means imagined that Theology may be studied on the same terms as any other science or that the requisites for a successful theologian are no more than those for a successful astronomer. In Germany there are many who take up Theology as a profession: in Germany and England there are no few, who, profaning the inmost sanctuary, make Religion a profession too. Against such, the whole life of August Neander is an accusing example. The saint-like purity of his daily life : his consuming devotion to the duty of Christian labour: the quiet self-denial, which was the habit of his soul, prove how sincerely he believed the truth of his favourite motto, that it is neither profoundest learning, nor most vigorous intellect, nor most fervid eloquence, but "pectus est quod facit theologum "-the heart which makes the theologian.

ART. IV.-EASTERN MONACHISM.

Eastern Monachism. An account of the origin, laws, discipline, sacred writings, mysterious rites, religious ceremonies and present circumstances of the order of Mendicants founded by Gótama Budha (compiled from Singhalese MSS. and other original sources of information), with comparative notices of the usages and institutions of the Western Ascetics, and a review of the Monastic System. By R. Spence Hardy, Member of the Ceylon branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. London. 1850.

Introduction à l'histoire du Buddhisme Indien. Par E. Burnouf, de l'Institut de France. Tome Premier. Paris. 1844.

It is almost universally allowed that the course of events obliges the English people to undertake the government and guidance of the nations of Hindostan; but it can hardly be said while we have the pride of victory, that we justly feel the responsibilities of conquest. If there were, indeed, present to the minds of Statesmen all the anxieties, toils, perils and slaughter which Foreign rule necessitates, they would pause in anxiety instead of pressing our troops on at double speed. The difficulties of Ireland may re-appear in other possessions, and a Hindoo agitator at the head of a hundred millions might raise troubles that would not terminate in a Smith O'Brien cabbage-garden; and as it becomes increasingly evident, that in the time of persons now living the United States will be more populous and wealthy, and in particular have greater power to strike any where on the Pacific than ourselves, if we wish to keep our place in the East we must cultivate the affections of the people, whom we now treat too much de haut en bas. The very perfection of our government is a source of danger. We have been accepted as the arbiters of Native quarrels; but while disorders die away before our strong arm we have to fear the enmity of an unreconciled and united population. We must, then, either apply the dia

bolic maxim, divide et impera, or so impress ourselves upon the Hindoos as the representatives of justice and wisdom, that they shall fear to fight against us as against God himself. To enable us to play this higher part which as yet we cannot sustain, it is necessary that we should study every peculiarity of the Hindoo character and position, so that we may guide the subject-population not only to the payment of taxes but, as it were, in spite of itself, to science and the higher virtues. In this respect it is imperative to bear in our recollection that the religion of a people is the key to its mind, and that the study of this will unlock for us the stores of its speculation, the objects for which it strives and the purpose for which it imagines that it exists. We would say therefore that the first preparation for any Statesman who aspires to rule the Hindoos, should be to study their Religion as the only means by which he will get a clue to the rationale of their customs and manners. On this ground alone we should welcome the works that stand at the head of our article, as signs that men are beginning to be alive to the necessity of this higher study: but we imagine that a still greater benefit will arise therefrom to ourselves, namely, a more convincing certainty of the value of Religion and the necessity of obeying her laws. Among the more energetic part of our population, who seek adventure in the colonies, and give the tone to a great deal of public sentiment, an utter indifference to religion is apparent, and indeed is cherished, from the supposed ease and advantage which it gives to a man in mingling with and pushing his fortune in all companies. But if we are to hold our possessions by superiority of mind, and not by cunning, we must seek that superiority from the only power who has it to bestow. It may be said of religious men in general, that they are too cramped and isolated in their sympathies. All the Religions of the world are correlative and supplementary to one another, and he who confines his studies to one sect has as narrow a mind as the rustic who sees nothing beyond his native village. The circle of Religious truth is completed when all the Religious speculations of the world have been mastered; for as the positive electricity of one pole is balanced by the negative electricity of the other, so the Spiritual magnetism of the world is only complete in the

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