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beautiful, and the climate precisely that of Georgia in virtually "open sewers," and sprinkling it over the December or January ; while the traveller was “agreeably macadamized streets, "to lay the dust." Some of the surprised" with the “amount of agriculture and cultiva-water fountains of the Borghese would have been useful tion in the Campagna," which disappeared as the evening there. Even humbler water-carts would be improveclosed in, and the aspect of the plain really did become ments on the present plan. Their contents would prodesolate. Night came, and Rome was reached. "Ibablybe pure and clean. Ladies who have a thirst for was," says Mrs Butler, "in Rome, and it was the very useful domestic knowledge will find it in such sketches Rome of my imagination; the dark, deep, dismal, of the green markets and the flesh markets of Rome as stinking streets through which we now rattled, however, we quote:were new experiences," and the custom-house was in the way; but at last "my sister's servant met me here, and at length, transferred to an open carriage, we rolled through the streets, where the houses looked, by contrast of moonlight and shadow, like actual carvings of ivory and ebony, up steep and slippery pavements, to the Pincio, where, at a lighted upper window, I saw a woman's figure. I scrambled up three pairs of stone stairs, into my sister's arms, worn out, and ready to die with the fatigue of coming and the emotion of being come."

and

Our space will not allow us to follow Mrs. Butler in her pleasant wanderings in and around Rome. We can only take an extract from her pages here and there, to show what may be expected in the book. The beggars of Rome are, as we have previously remarked, more importunate than those of any other country. "Words," says Mrs. Butler, "fit only for dogs, do not repel them, nor the threatening arm and lifted hand; they have lost all sense of shame or of injury; they are triple-cased in the impervious callousness of the lowest degradation." Mrs. Butler sometimes found the means of cleanliness where little attention was given to their employment.

"This afternoon, we drove through the streets of Rome, out to a place that was once one of the innumerable Cenci possessions, but which is now a farm house of the Borghese. In one corner of the littered stable-yard, where heaps of manure occupied most of the ground, stood a stone sarcophagus with spirited and graceful rilievi, into which fresh water was pouring itself, in a glassy stream. As we went round the house, we came upon another stone basin, of beautiful form and proportions, into which another gush of living water was falling in the bright sunshine; further on, again, beneath a sombre avenue of ilex, another of these precious reservoirs sparkled and gleamed. I cannot describe my delight in living water: these perpetually running fountains are a perpetual baptism of refreshment to my mind and senses. The Swedenborgians consider water, when mention is made of it in the Bible, as typical of truth. I love to think of that when I look at it, so bright, so pure, so transparent, so temperate, so fit an emblem for that spiritual element in which our souls should bathe and be strengthened, at which they should drink and be refreshed. Fire purifies, but destroys: water cleanses and revives. Christ was baptised in water, and washed, himself, in the regenerating element, his disciples' feet. He promised living waters to all those who, thirsty, drew near to Him, and spoke of that well of everlasting life, which those to whom He gave to drink possessed for ever in their souls. I do not wonder at all the marvellous wassercur reports. I believe the material element to be, as potent in regenerating and healing the body, as the spiritual element, its clearness dimly represents, is to regenerate and heal the mind."

Whatever be the efficiency of cold water as a cure, we have no doubt of its usefulness as a preventative. In our large towns the necessity for an abundant supply of water is not yet practically acknowledged. One day lately in Glasgow we noticed men busy with large shovels in baling out liquid manure of tolerable consistency from "gutters,"

'Among the vegetables which, load the stalls at the street corners, I perceive one here with which I am unacquainted; it is the root of the fennel, whose green, delicate foilage is, for some reason, inseparably associated in one's stomach, and, therefore, one's mind with boiled mackerel. We had some at dinner the other day; it was stewed like celery, and was not otherwise than very good. The stalls where the frying of fish is carried on in the streets amuse me excessively. The whole process has, strange to say, a cleanly and inviting appearance, and the groups occupied in cooking and in eating at these booths, with their green bowers of branches and coloured paper lamps, would make most capital and spirited sketches if they could be faithfully copied. In a country where fruit and vegetables are abundant and cheap, I know nothing prettier, or more pleasant, than the sight of a fine market: the beautiful colours, graceful forms, and sweet smells are most agreeable; and the benificence that provides this plenty is naturally suggested to a thankful mind where there does not exist, as with us, such a cruel disparity in the means of the purchasers. The market in Philadelphia is one of the cheapest and most abundant I have ever seen, and I know few more satisfactory sights than that which it presents at Midsummer, with its great baskets of precious looking tomatoes; piles of Indian corn, like strings of Roman pearl; heaps of the finest purple polished egg plant; huge water melons, cut to show the firmness and freshness of their quality, with that beautiful combination of colours, the dark, green rind, the rosy pulp and shining jet-black of every seeds; and then the mountains of downy peaches conceivable tint, from a sort of purple pink, to a warm gold colour; these, interspersed with huge fan-like nosegays of dahlias, bunches of jesamine, and heavy-leaved magnolias, and fragrant tube roses, have often caused me mentally to exclaim- Thou openest Thine hand, and fillest all things living with plenteousness.' It is very pleasant to live in a country where there is great abundance, and little poverty, though the one does by no means make the other, and that this fertile land of Italy testifies, where in the midst of their olive and vineyards, and golden harvests, and smiling orchards, the people go ragged, and squalid, and miserable looking-working and begging too-a most degraded race, whose lovely country seems accursed, because of men, to those who have lived where humanity is nobler, though nature is less rich-an admirable sample of the fact that prosperity is a moral and not a physical growth. A less agreeable but very necessary article of consumption attracted my attention this morning. The butcher's shops were full of people, bajocchi (2d.) a pound, made me think of our people's and the price of lamb, which they were selling at four food in London, and of some of those agreeable details of ways and means suggested by the ingenuity of charity, (?) such as one sees in poor-house reports, and accounts of committees for the relief of the starving, and finds occasionally in the speeches of gentlemen and noblemen anxiinnumerable host of unhelpables-the poor of the wealous to exert themselves, and devise help for that awful

thiest nation in the world.

The notices of Roman shopkeepers are still more amusing, though we fear that Mrs. Butler has not much experience of the country trade of England, or of the largest number of shops either in country or town, because the abominable practice of having not merely two prices, but even half-a-dozen, is not by any means confined to Italy. The experience of the Authoress in America might have

furnished examples of similar practices both on a small and a large scale.

"Returning home, I called at the shoemaker's about the appointed time-now considerably after the time, they were finished and produced-a pair of black, double-soled, thick, heavy, half leather, stuff-boots. I had myself given the order for a pair of light-coloured Holland ones, with mere toes of patent leather, and the thinnest soles that could be made. The shopman shrugged his shoulders, smiled, said it was a mistake, and would take the one's I did not want, and wait till such as I did want could be made. I walked out of the shop and did neither. English people are the only honest trades-people that I am acquainted with, and I say it advisedly; for Americans are unpunctual, and an appointment is a contract with time for its object, and they are as regardless, for the most part, of that species

some boots I had ordered, and which were not finished at

"The next drawing we saw was one of Jesus surrounded by his mother, St. Joseph, and St. Ann, and I the group. They are all attentively observing the child, am not sure whether there is not another male figure in who, represented at about the age of six or seven years old, is endeavouring, with the implements of his father's There is something trade, to saw the form of a cross. striking in the conception (whether borrowed or not from any of the innumerable legends of our Saviour's childhood, I do not know), and the expressions of all the counteeverything which Overbech does, there is a deep piety in nances are remarkably beautiful and appropriate; like the whole composition. After this followed scenes from the Gospel; a Last Supper, where the artist has very judiciously made an overturned seat the sole representative of the troubled soul of that unfortunate one who Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me!' excited the Another drawing, representing the betrayed the Just.

things-ideal representations of that reality? If we had a friend, a benefactor, a deliverer, to whom we owed more than life; for whom, though we had never seen him, our love was greater than for any human being whom we ever had seen; and that imaginary representations were brought to us of this our most precious friend, what would we say? Should we not turn with almost a feeling of insult from a pretended likeness of what was to proportion as any real record or representation of Jesus us so dear and venerable? It seems to me that, just in Christ would be inestimable to us (so inestimable, that I think, in denying us any such vestige, Almighty God has ercifully saved us from the danger of an almost rational idolatry), so worthless and even offensive appear to me all these invented images of him-so inadequate when they merely seek to represent that face and form, the like of which was never seen here on earth-so intoler

of contract as of some others of a different kind. I have utmost enthusiasm of some Russian ladies, who, like now been six months in Rome, and have had leisure and opportunity to see something of the morals of retail ourselves, were admitted to the privilege of seeing these beautiful things; but for me, I ceased very soon to distrade; at any rate in matters of female traffic, among tinguish it through the blinding tears that filled my eyes. the shop-keeper's here. In the first place, the most flag-Oh! how can people bear to see representations of these rant dishonesty exists with regard to the value of the merchandise, and the prices they ask for it of all strangers; but more particularly of the English, whose wealth, ignorance, and insolence, are taxed by these worthy industrials, without conscience or compassion. Every article purchased in a Roman shop by an English person is rated at very nearly double its value; and the universal custom here, even among the people themselves, is to carry on a haggling market of aggression, on the part of the purchaser, and defence on that of the vendor, which is often as comical as disgusting. In Nattaletti's shop in Rome, the other day, I saw a scene between the salesman and a lady purchaser, an Italian, that would have amazed as well as amused the parties behind and before the counters of Howell and James Hardings, &c. The lady, after choosing her stuff and the quantity she required, began a regular attack upon the shopman; it was mezza voce, indeed, but continuous, eager, vehement, pressing, overpowering, to a degree indescribable; and the luck-able, when they repeat the closing scenes of that unpaless man having come for a moment from behind the shelter ralleled life, through which the world was redeemed." of his long table, the lady eagerly seized him by the arm, and holding him fast, argued her point with increasing warmth. She next caught hold of the breast of his coat, her face within a few inches of his, her husband meanwhile standing by and smiling approvingly at the thrift and eloquence of his wife. I think, however, she did not succeed. The shopman looked disgusted, which I am afraid is a consequence of their having adopted the English mode of dealing in that house, as they themselves informed me, to signify they did not cheat, lie, or steal, but dealt like honest people. I felt proud of his manner of speech. Madame, nous avons adopté la manière Anglaise nous vendons au prix justé, nous ne surfaison pas, et nous ne changeous pas nos prix,' so that to deal in the English fashion is synonymous to dealing justly. It pleases me greatly, and it is true; for in France too they have abandoned the abominable system of prices for the English; and it delights me to think that integrity, justice, truth, cleanliness, and comfort follow in the footsteps of my own people, wherever their wandering spirit leads them through the world. It is very fit and just that they should bring such compensations to the foreign people, among whom they so often introduce also habits of luxury, of ostentation, and that basest habit of bartering for money the common courtesies and amenities of life, the civilities and the serviceableness which are priceless, which the continental people have, and our own have not, and which we should have learned to imitate rather than taught them to sell. I may as well mention here, that I have found Nattaletti's shop the best in Rome in every respect.

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We have already quoted Mrs. Butler's opinion regarding the decoration of churches by fanciful representations of the Saviour, of his life and of his agonies. The following remarks, however, seem to us so very just that we subjoin them.

:

When the subject is fully considered we almost expect every right-constituted mind, believing in the truths of Christianity, to adopt the opinion expressed in the latter part of this extract. Fanciful and imaginative delineations of scenes or of individuals unconnected with the highest interests of mankind may be proper, and often even commendable; but it betrays a singular and not a happy taste in those who accept the doctrine of the atonement to render those terrible scenes the subject of a fanciful delineation, with all the coolness employed in the sketches of stories from heathen poetry, or from the works of a novelist.

The new Pope occupies a great place in the world, and a considerable number of pages in Mrs. Butler's second volume. He has had credit for a number of small reforms -so small, that unless they had been done at Rome, where "nothing changes" was hitherto the rule, they would have attracted little attention. Evidently he is a man in advance of his position. Whether he may fall back, or endeavour to pull his drags of cardinals and councils on to his own views, remains still a question for time to tell; but there is no question that he has raised hopes in Rome that may not be easily repressed-hopes in which all Italy participates; and Mrs. Butler seems inclined to believe that he may be the last of the popes in whose person the secular sovereignty and the spiritus 1 power will be conjoined, as probably as the regenerator of the system. The closing anecdote of the following extract is creditable to his feeling; and yet, there is nothing extraordinary in it—nothing more than the saying

of a sensible man, not inclined to adopt the course followe by a Georgian planter, who flogged his slave for daring to pray for him.

"To supply the immediate and pressing necessities of his government he levied, soon after his accession, a tax of three scudi upon all monasteries, and borrowed a very considerable sum of money from the Jesuits; a measure of very popular economy, which he adopted at the same time, was the entire suppression of all moneys for the purposes of paying spies, surveillance, &c. The rather compulsory nature of the loan thus contracted with the Jesuits is not supposed to have by any means rendered that powerful body more propitious, either to Pius IX. personally or the policy of his government, and a ludicrous instance was given of the people's apprehension of the illwill borne their sovereign by the whole order, when, on the occasion of his first visit to the Jesuits, the crowd in the streets ran by the side of his carriage, calling to him 'Santo Padre non prender la cioccolata.' - told us,

too, of a curious conversation he had overheard among some workmen employed in some repairs at the Ilanoverian minister's house. These men were diliating upon the admirable qualities of their new Pope, and the consequent ill-will borne him by certain of the Cardinals, and more especially by all the Jesuits, who are themselves objects of extreme dislike to the Roman people generally. One of the number, alluding to the malignity of the Pope's enemies, said he must take good care or they would be giving him the Boccone,' (literally the mouthful,' i.e. poison), to which the others responded, that if they did so, he would be the last Pope in Rome, as, in the event of his so perishing, the people would rise and have no successor to him. So violent, indeed, is the feeling of the people at present in favour of the Pope, and against all who are supposed to be inimical to him, that the latter are bound to pray day and night for his safety, for if he were to die from a fall from his carriage, or the most undeniable natural death in the world, his end would not fail to be attributed to the machinations of his enemies, who, in any popular outbreak, sure to follow upon such a catastrophe, would inevitably be made the first victims of the violence of the people. The enthusiasm of all classes (except, indeed, the higher ones) is not confined to Rome. In Ancona,

told us he did not think there was a single house without a bust, or engraving of him. In Bologna, the very hearth hitherto of dissatisfaction and disturbance, the same spirit prevails. An unfortunate priest very narrowly es caped annihilation there, who ventured to suggest a doubt as to the wisdom of the act of amnesty. Silk cravats, of alternate stripes of yellow and white, (the Papal colours,) with Viva Pio Nono' embroidered in gold upon their ends, are worn by all the men; and the women fasten their waists with long sashes of the same colours similarly adorned. In Rome, the rejoicing over the act of amnesty gave rise to some touching expressions of public feeling, and more than one house, to which father, sons, or brothers returned, whose untimely burial in political dungeons had covered them with gloom, were hailed and cheered by the assembled multitude, who shared in the joy of their restoration to their homes and families. ludicrous anecdote was told us, for the truth of which, however, I do not vouch, that Cardinal Lambruschini, finding no other vent for his displeasure at all that was going forward, had caused prayers to be put up in some church under his especial charge, for the enlightening the Pope by the Holy Spirit; of which rather insolent interest in his well-doing, Pius IX. being apprised, he expressed his entire approval of it, and his own extreme need of the assistance of God's directing and enlightening grace."

A

Our notice of the two volumes has extended far-not farther than they deserve, though somewhat farther than we can well afford. We have no doubt that they will form favourite summer reading, and help to profitably pass away many hours of June and July evenings in country houses and sea-bathing quarters, where those who cannot give the time required by an Italian journey, seek a month's recreation within a morning drive of those

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A History of Rome, from the Earliest Times to the
Death of Commodus, A.D. 192. By Dr. Leonard
Schmitz, F.R.S. E., Rector of the Iligh School of
Edinburgh. London: Taylor and Hatton.

You have doubtless, gentle reader, visited the Picture Gallery of Holyrood; and, while you gazed with astonishment at the portraits of the long line of kings, with and without beards, you did not know which to wonder at most the execrable taste of the collection, or the vast antiquity of the royal race of Scotland and of her records. Go to the old chroniclers, and you will have the lives of these kings narrated to you with almost the circumstantiality of the Court Journal. Buchanan is sceptical where England is concerned. He will not believe the tale that Englishmen tell-how king Diocletian of Syria had thirty daughters, who killed their husbands in one night, and were sent to sea in a ship without a man to help them, that they might thus expiate their crime how they arrived at Britain, and, from demon husbands, produced giants-how Brutus-Ascanius' grandson, having killed h's father by chance, was banished, came to Britain, subdued the giants, and took possession of the island. All this Buchanan will not believe; but he swears to Fergus I., king of Scotland, B.C. 330, and discourses of some eighty-five kings before the great Thane of Fife, that should be king thereafter. And so you know Fergus, and Fartharis, and Mainus, and Dornadilla, and Donatus, and so on through a list of names most edifying

to read, doubtless to them that believe in them.

Haec prisca files! Who now has faith enough to believe these tales? Not, we are sure, Dr. Small of Aber

nethy himself, of whom, it is said that, having dug up, in some part of Fife, a button, bearing on it the number 9; and having been reminded, when he produced it, as a proof of the Romans having been there in the shape of the ninth legion, that the said Romans were unacquainted with the Arabic numerals, he stoutly averred that this particular button was a better proof that the Romans were acquainted with Arabic numerals, than that, being unacquainted with them, they had not been And so, gentle reader, in this incredulous age, come from the Gallery of Holyrood, and purchase of our excellent publisher a History of Scotland-Tytler's, of course—and not one word will you find of Fergus nor of

there.

Yet, both in Scotland and England, Fergus and Brutus, and their lines, are quietly dropped in all our modern histories. The same work has been going on in regard to other nations. Our present business is with Rome. And strange to say, the first note of scepticism was struck in Italy.* Laurentius Valla, who died, not an old man, in 1458, was the first to question Livy. Germany followed him in the person of Elaveanus, more than half a century having elapsed. In 1715, died Perigarius, a man of great independence of thought, whose dissertations and animadversions show that his immense learning and his ingenuity have conducted him nearly to the results reached in more recent times. Then followed Boyle, and in France, Pouilly and Beaufort. In Scotland, Hume and Ferguson stated their doubts, but wanted learning to push the matter further. At last, monarch of this region of historical inquiry, arose Niebuhr, with whose astonishing results the general public of this country were first made acquainted through the in the year 1833, written by Dr. Arnold. medium of a masterly paper in the "Edinburgh Review," Niebuhr's views have since been tested, and many of them modified by various writers-in our own country, principally by the great mind that first introduced him to notice in Great Britain. But his main statements remain unshaken; and happy in having had as his translators such men as Thirlwall and Hare, he has enjoyed the additional adearly in life became a denizen of this country. Through vantage, that one of his most talented pupils, Dr Schmitz, him we have had two volumes of lectures, which continue the systematic history already bestowed on us, and we are glad to learn that they form but part of a series, containing, in part at least, the researches of Niebuhr on other subjects than the history of Rome.

We have had in this country histories of Rome, as matters were then generally viewed, of great merit. There is much to be said in praise of Ferguson and of the laborious looke for the republic; and Gibbon's book on the concluding portion stands yet unapproached in European literature. Even Goldsmith has merits of his own. It is true that his able authority, Livy, was himself altogether careless of any thing like historical acascertain what was the truth, and, if the narrative flatcuracy, as we now understand it. Ile took no pains to tered Roman pride, or admitted of romantic detail, that was sufficient. And so, while Livy has a power But this was a gradual process. Men first laughed and a beauty in the pictures which he draws, that is perquietly in their closets at the queer old worthies, before fectly unequalled—a grouping of incidents that is masterly they guffawed them out of history. And have they not in its picturesqueness, and a majesty of style which is the been consecrated in song? Has Shakspeare not immorvery beau ideal of the historical manner-he is, like our talised Lear, and the race whence sprung Macbethown Hume, quite worthless as an authority on all matters though not of woman born? And so, what with the pertaining to constitutional usage; and, even in the nargallery, and the enshrinement of poetry, and of quaint ration of facts, he does not concern himself so much about chroniclers, the men of ante-recording times shall be pre- the truth-gross contradictions often occurring of his own served among us. Milton alone is sufficient to keep in previous statements-as about the attractive and the orremembrance the fables of early England. What says he?namental. In all belonging to this department, he is un

Donald Bain.

"But now of Brutus and his line, with the whole progeny of kings, we cannot so easily be discharged; descents of ancestry long-continued, laws and exploits not plainly seeming to be borrowed or devised, which, on the common belief, have wrought no small impression; defended by many, denied utterly by few. . . . . Those old and inborn kings, never to have been any real persons, or done in their lives at least some part of what so long hath been remembered, cannot be thought without too atriet incredulity.”

rivalled. And, in the same way, Goldsmith's style has
a charm, a raciness, an idiomatic force, which renders
But it is for style alone we
him peculiarly attractive.
can praise Goldsmith. He took no pains to remedy, in
any respect, the defects of his authority. These are all
the faults of Livy, of course aggravated by this—that, if

* Niebhur's Lectures, edited by Schmitz, vol. i. p. 300,

The Life and Character of Thomas Wilson, Esq., Trevsurer of Highbury College. By his Son. One Vol. London: John Snow, Paternoster Row.

Memoir of Willivm Knib. By J. H. Hinton, M.A.

London: Houlston and Stoneman.

Memoir of Dr. Yates. By James Hoby, D.D.

don Houlston and Stoneman.

:

Lon

Livy did write as a Roman of the Augustan age, still he did write like a Roman. Let us give one or two very brief illustrations of Goldsmith's failure as a historian, in the abridgement made by himself, and commonly taught in the schools of this country. The Roman power, about a century before the Christian era, was exposed to imminent danger-a danger similar to that which menaced Christendom when the Saracens had penetrated into the heart of France. In more than four pitched battles had the forces of Rome been overthrown at the very threshold of Italy by the barbarian hordes, the Cimbri and the Teutoni, before they were quelled by the generalship of the ferocious Marcus. This peril is disposed of by Gold-in accomplishing great changes on the surface of society, smith in half a sentence. Again, the wars of Mithridates brought the Romans for the first time effectively into contact with the Jews—an event of deep interest in the his

tory of the world. Goldsmith never notices this at all. And yet, in spite of such gross defects as these, the attractiveness of his style is such that we feel it to be positively painful to denounce what has afforded so much enjoyment. Without mentioning the work by Dr. Arnold, of which nothing need be said here-a translation of foreign works, founded on Niebuhr, such as Michelet's-we may state, at once, that this work by Dr. Schmitz is decidedly the best elucidation, for either advanced classes or for students, of the new and correct views of Roman history. It is written with a thorough understanding of the subject, and after an investigation of what has been advanced for, against, and regarding the views of the book, from whom he does not scruple to differ, when he has occasion. And if any one, not conversant with the classics, or even any scholar, who has not leisure to devote deliberate attention to the subject, wishes to understand the history of Rome, in the only sequence, in which that history has been intelligently presented, he will meet with no such guide as this in our language. As Gibbon wrote, and Lord Mahon writes French, so Dr. Schmitz writes English not only purely, but with elegance and vigour.

It is of no small importance that, in the study of Roman history, we should have correct views, as illustrations are often drawn from it, affecting the political doings, narrowly affecting the passions of men in our own day. Even in matters of mere speculative history, the light thrown upon the past, rendering that past intelligible, is not without its value. In estimating human motives, it was a perfect marvel why, according to the received account, Servius Tullius, the sixth king of Rome, should have encountered the hatred of the aristocracy, and been the idol of the populace-the plebs-for his arrangements were, in the old account, all in favour of the aristocracy. Previously to his time, each citizen's vote was of equal value. But he, it was said, thought this arrangement too democratic, and so contrived it that the whole Forum was vested in the hands of the wealthy classes. Yet, it was the wealthy classes that wrought his downfall, and he was honoured, till latest times, as the good King Servius-true friend of the commons. The difficulty disappears when we find that previous to his time the people meaning by that the commons-had no voice in public matters at all; and that his arrangement was one whereby, without disturbing too much the existing order of things, every man, not according to descent, as before, but according to his means-and here was an inducement to industry -had a oice in public affairs.

THERE are many who esteem a life passed in earnest

labours to spread knowledge and improve the world, by
elevating the thoughts and purposes of its occupants,
better spent than the time of heroes or statesmen who,

have won lasting fame. There are, however, few—very
few-who endorse the opinion of adopting that course of
life. We except the professional teachers of religion
without doubting or denying, even while asserting
that many in that class abandon the pursuit of wealth
and extensive influence in abiding by their profession,
there are many men calculated every way to rise high in
secular pursuits, contentedly engaged, nevertheless, in
teaching and counselling a very humble church in an obscure
locality, placed in contracted circumstances, but delighted
with their avocation, and rejoicing in its duties. But
comparatively few men of wealth abandon the paths of
money-making, to give the strength of their days to the
world and its best interests. To the world, in theological
language, there is enough given; on its improvement
there is but little bestowed; although all will confess
that the work of a member of the legislature, in his official
capacity, can have little influence on the happiness
of men, compared with the results of Thomas Wilson's
labours. His biography is in reality a history of Evan-
gelical Dissent in England, so far as it has been de-
veloped by external movements for the last half century.
Biographical teaching may be useful to all classes,
in the same
but will be most serviceable to men
rank to which its subject belonged.
ciple, this biography will be most useful amongst
the wealthy mercantile classes. Many amongst them,
like Thomas Wilson, are firmly impressed with the
opinion, that mankind can only become permanently
happy through religious influence. But how few have the
heroism that in early life marked his resignation of a
highly lucrative business, that he might consecrate all his
time and energies to manage an academy devised for the
instruction of the future ministers of religion; Mr. Wil-
was elected to fill the office of Treasurer to the
Evangelical Academy, on the death of his grandfather,
in 1794, and he continued to hold the office, and to con-
duct the affairs of the academy, in its various changes to
Hoxton and to Highbury, until his death in 1843,
a period of nearly fifty years. He was born in
1764, and early initiated into business, from which
he retired in 1798, when in his 34th year.
last forty-five years of his life formed a continued
series of exertions in favour of religious instruction
This feature in the character of Mr. Wilson
at home.
charms us. He began his course of benevolence as a
business man. He conducted it in a business way. As

son

On that prin

The

a lay propagandist of Christianity, he pursued the means that had been so successful in selling ribbands. His work was systematically done. From all we read in this valuable book-his memoir-and from all we have learned

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