as shallow, too. We can only say that such is not the world which God, in his wisdom, saw fit to make for us. Can there be a serious question, whether his wisdom is to be preferred to ours? Men have always been dreaming of a Golden Age of unrestricted gratification and mere passive enjoyment; sometimes placing it back in the beginning of the world, and sometimes carrying it forward into the "latter days' glory." How many dreams of this kind have there been concerning the original condition of man, before what is called his Fall, in Eden! represent ing it as one continuous, uninterrupted holiday. No toil, no care, no trouble, nor anxiety, was there. Young Spring reigned the whole year around. The winds never mustered their strength; the air never grew inclement. Earth spontaneously yielded her fruits and flowers. Man felt no conflict within himself; and there was none without. The happy, blessed creature all that he had to do, was, to enjoy, and to make himself as quiet as possible. Such, with many, is the ideal of happiness. Such an exemption from all trial and strenuous exertion is, to them, an Eden! How little do they understand human nature, and its imperative demands. How little do they know of the real conditions of happiness, with us. The very state of things, which would make all excellence impossible, which, in a short time, would destroy all virtue in its voluptuousness, and reduce us to perpetual infancy, put a stop to all progress, and finally become utterly intolerable. to such creatures as we are, this, they mistake for the supreme height of earthly blessedness!

We see, at once, that the common idea of a Millennium, or of a Golden Age to come, is nothing but the old idea of a holiday-kind of Eden, shifted from the past, and carried forward into the future. It is, in itself, the very same dream; it has only transferred the scene, from the beginning of the world, over to the latter days. And all the talk of its being realized, in the course of time, by human progress, is but reversing the natural order of things, and going back to the obsolete notions of the infancy of our race. We ought to consider that there are two very different movements, that we may conceive of, among men; one of which is backwards. And it is well for us to see that we do not mistake this for progress, merely be13

VOL. IV.

cause it is a movement. It is movement in the wrong direction.

We do not mean that there is no real progress, with mankind; though we must confess, that much which has been said, on this point, would better have been sung then said, and that not a little has found utterance, which was too extravagant and puerile to be either said or sung. Though the general state of society may, on the whole, rather improve, from age to age, and though it may even advance with great rapidity, in certain respects, while it falls back, in other departments; yet man, as an individual, has ever to begin anew, on his entrance into the world, and to start from the same point, notwithstanding all the improvements without. At the best, we can only say, that he starts under more favorable circumstances. And even society itself has always had its cycles of retrogression, hitherto, as well as of advance; now, a period of growth, and now of corruption and decay. The elements of imperfection, that belong to every thing human, have showed themselves here, as well as every where else, and have regularly taken their turn in dominating over the results; thus producing a series of revolutions, somewhat like the changes in the old geological periods of our globe. No doubt, however, that, on the whole, there is some real progress, in the one case, as there has been in the other. We have grounds to hope that Christian principles will be better developed among us, in the future, and that the conduct of men, and the laws of social existence, will be more conformed to their spirit. But we cannot too seriously consider, that, if this be true, as we trust it is, if there be any real advance, it must be in a very different direction than towards the state of things that is often anticipated. Real progress will never bring about deliverance from toil, and hardship, and danger, and disappointment, and suffering, while we remain in this world, though it will give us strength to endure them better, and wisdom to use them to better account. It will never set us above the reach of temptation; it will only enable us to resist it more successfully. In spite of all the increased facilities that may be provided for human developement, our life, here, will forever be a strenuous warfare, or else it will be good for nothing. When we cease to contend against difficulties

without and within, we must degenerate. If we have any doubts of this position, let us look forth on the lessons that lie broadly engraved, all around us, on the actual experience of the world; let us look, and see what are the facts that obviously belong to our subject. Where is human nature the most fully developed, and brought to the highest degree of excellence it has ever attained? Where has man made the greatest progress? In those countries where the unfavorableness of the soil and climate, and other outward circumstances, were such as to force the inhabitants to exertion, obliging them to provide against evils, and to be perpetually on the alert; to face the storm and tempest, as well as to enjoy the sunshine. This was one thing that helped to make men of them, by calling forth their ener gies. Where have mankind reached the most elevated stage of moral virtue, and maintained, from generation to generation, the noblest character? in the soft, voluptuous, and indulgent South, where Nature herself seems to supply all their wants, spontaneously, and to give scope to their caprices? Has it not rather been in the hardy North, where man is obliged to war with the difficulties of his condition, and to overcome them, or else be himself overcome by them? It appears to us, that this question brings the whole matter home to the decision of facts, of positive reality, instead of leaving it to float along on the tide of idle fancy. We might ask, Which are the most vigorous and useful plants, those which are reared in a greenhouse? or those that grow out in the open air, under all the changes of inclement skies, and that are subject to the thousand-fold strains and wrenchings of wind and tempest? Green-house productions, whether vegetable or human, will never attain to the dignity of being the staple for the essential purposes of life.

We have said, that real progress will never, in this world, release us from the necessity of suffering and temptation. To the Christian, this fact has already been demonstrated, in God's economy of redemption, so that it needs no longer be regarded as a matter of hypothesis. There has been One, here on earth, who was advanced immeasurably beyond all that mankind will ever attain to, in this mortal state,- Jesus Christ. And did his absolute perfection exempt him from a full share of the trials of

mortality? No. "He was tempted in all things as we are, but without sin;" "he was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." Notwithstanding the incomparable excellence that he maintained here, as "the brightness of God's glory," such was nevertheless, the condition that belonged to him. An apostle says that the Captain of our salvation was made "perfect, through sufferings." And now, with this fact before us, shall we dream that any progress which mankind can make in moral excellence, will free them from their share of the trials that were necessary even in the case of their great Master? or that it ought to free them? or that such a liberation is even desirable? We must dismiss, from our minds, all dreams of an approaching age of holidays, on earth, when mankind will be virtuous without strenuous effort against temptation, and a rigorous, ever-watchful subjection of their own wayward propensities; or when they will be happy, by the accommodation of their outward circumstances to their likings. Our business, our great business, now and at all times, must be, to apply ourselves earnestly to the work that God has given us to do, and which he has fitted us to perform, in every department of life, secu lar, intellectual, moral, and religious. Let not our attention be diverted from this; for here is our true happiness, and our true progress, here only. While we look for continued improvements in the moral and social condition. of our race, let us be aware that they will not be effected without a long and tedious battle; and that when they are once accomplished, they will not, even then, be maintained, without the most vigilant care and unremitted labor. The world must always pay for every thing, of this kind, which it gains or inherits; or else it must lose it. While we expect a far more perfect manifestation of the religious life, among men, let us, above all things, remember in what direction this progress must tend; not towards a Golden Age of indulgence, but the contrary: that it will make life a far more earnest, laborious, self-denying one, than any which has yet been generally practised. Jesus Christ is its perfect type; and every real advance that men shall make, will be but an approach towards that "man of sorrows," who yet triumphed over his griefs by his confidence in God, and who was "without sin," while subjected to the temptations we endure.

Let no fond visions cherish within us, unawares, the love of indulgence, which grows so rapidly with use, and secretly unknits the vigor of the mind. Let no pernicious habit even of contemplating them, lower the tone of resolute self-control, which is the master-virtue in the formation of our character. Weaken this, and it is like loosening the cordage that supports the masts and sails of a vessel; all, then, goes into helpless confusion, at the first rising of the winds. Happy is he, who has learned the Christian life of self-denial and self-sacrifice; who makes the evils of our present state the means of improvement, and who can "glory in tribulation; knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope; and hope maketh not ashamed."

H. B. 2d.

ART. X.

Recent Poetry.

The New Timon. A Romance of London. First American, from the Third London Edition. Philadelphia: Carey & Hart. 1846.

Poems by William Ellery Channing. Second Series. Boston: James Munroe & Co. 1847.

Poems by R. W. Emerson. Boston: James Munroe & Co. 1847.

THE volumes thus introduced to our readers are not connected in any nearer relationship than that of the common brotherhood of books. They are printed on white paper, and were composed in rhyme. But there is no family bond nor sympathy. One of them comes to us from a foreign soil; all of them differ in their spirit, views and aim. The only principle of association which can connect them even in thought, is the law of contrast. They are recent publications, however; and without attempting any thing like a review of either, a task for which we have neither opportunity nor inclination, we wish to introduce. them with a few words of general comment.