conversion in the south and west of Ireland has one likes, the other dislikes; what one admires as probably drawn away a portion of their funds, and excellent, the other secretly scorns; what wakes is deserving of the intense interest excited in its the pleasure of one, moves the disgust of the other; favour, I have really a doubt whether in its aim what kindles the enthusiasm of one, excites the or results, good as they are, it inspires a higher ridicule of the other. The views, the habits, the confidence, or has to acknowledge more of the tastes, the modes of thinking, the modes of exdivine blessing, than the comparatively quiet pression, which are pleasing to one, are distasteful working of the Ladies' Hibernian Female School to the other. The two natures are diametrically Society." The number of schools in connection opposite. There are no points of affinity between with the society is 181, and the number of pupils them. It seems as if they could never be made to (inclusive of 3,301 Romanists) is 8,356. Some harmonize and coalesce. All attempts at union idea may be formed of the character and results of seem but to make the breach wider. You strive the scriptural instruction given in the schools by a to conciliate, but you repel; you strive to soothe, knowledge of the portions of the bible learned in but you only create greater aversion and scorn. one of the society's schools in the county of Cork." It it be possible," says an inspired apostle, "as For instance. Two children repeated the first much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men"; and second chapters of Proverbs, the tenth of implying that there were cases in which this is Romans, and the second chapter of the first epistle impossible. of St. John. Nine children repeated the first four chapters of St. Mark. Thirteen children repeated the first three chapters of St. Mark, the latter being in the second class."

EMIGRATION FROM RAGGED SCHOOLS.From July, 1848, to April, 1852, no less than 365 emigrants have been sent from the schools in connexion with the "Ragged School Union." The cost of their education, board, lodging, and emigration, on an average, is estimated to have been not more than £25 each: so that the total cost amounted to £9,125. But the cost, had they been sent out as convicts-and there was every prospect, in their cases, of such a climax-would have been £109,500; and the cost to the Australian public would have been an imposition of 365 branded convicts, instead of as many useful and tolerably well-trained emigrants. To the English public alone, therefore, the benevolent, Christian-minded patriots, who conduct these schools, have been the means of saving no less an expenditure than upwards of £100,000. This calculation does not include the far less expensive, but no less efficient, plans adopted for providing situations for hundreds of other scholars, nor for training thousands in the knowledge of gospel truth, and leading them to reduce their lessons to the practice of every-day life.

SKETCHES.

H. S.

BY THE REV. DENIS KELLY, M.A., Minister of Trinity Church, Gough-square, Fleet-street, London.

No. LXV.

THE ANTIPATHY.

"Antipathies are none-"

COWPER.-"TASK" (Winter Walk at Noon). WE often find in this world what are called antipathies, i. e., invincible dislikes subsisting between individuals and families, and even races of people; and these are the fruitful poisonous springs of some of the worst evils and miseries that afflict our lot. There are repugnances, mutual dislikes, which alas! it would appear, nothing can overcome. They seem to be founded in an essential difference of constitutional temperament, in a natural contrariety of taste and feelings. What

And these antipathies are not occasioned merely by misconduct and moral delinquency on the part of the object of them; for then the removal of the delinquency would cause them to cease. They subsist between those who are unexceptionable in outward conduct, nay, between those who feel an involuntary respect for each other's characters. No, disguise the matter as we may, there are unconquerable natural repugnances which all the courtesies of society can barely gloss over, and which keep many who are moving in the same sphere of action as much alienated from each other, as wide asunder as the poles; which keep the bosom of each as close as death from the other, and which make each an everlasting constraint upon the other. These antipathies we perceive to exist; and I fear we must regard them as evils, positive evils, inseparable from our own fallen, apostate condition.

When man departed from God, these disruptions and contrarieties of nature (the fruitful source of bitterness and misery) seem to have followed as a necessary consequence. And, doubtless, one of the blessed characteristics of the unfallen state of existence, as contradistinguished from ours, is, that in that blessed state there is no place for these dislikes and antipathies. "There antipathies are none.' The perfection, both of mind and body, attained there prevents the possibility of them. There all is perfect; and perfection necessarily excites admiration and love. But here all is imperfect, all is corrupt and sin-defiled; and this imperfection and sin produce alienation and aversion among children of the same parent. Alas! these antipathies seem a necessary adjunct to our fallen condition. They have existed for thousands of years, and there seems as little hope of reconciling those in whom they exist (as the world is now constituted) as of blending together the most discordant and antagonist elements in nature; for nothing that we know of-at least, no human means-can conquer and overcome that natural repugnance and contrariety in taste which keeps some asunder. It must be a work for God, and not for man, to effect this. Then what is to be done or advised in a case like this? That which cannot be entirely removed may, nevertheless, be lessened and mitigated. That which is a sore evil in itself may be overruled for good, and made to subserve high and important purposes.

I believe that these very repugnances and antipathies may be overruled for good; that they may be

come the most powerful incentives to a separate and
independent course of thought and action, both in
nations and individuals (Gen. xiii. 8). One indi-
vidual, for example, is the object of antipathy to
another. The repugnance seems to be founded on
constitutional temperament. The only remedy in
this case seems to be separation-taking a separate
and independent field of action; and, in that field,
seeking that honour and respect and influence
which are the natural result and reward of an
unblemished and virtuous career of conduct. The
respect and the honour which attend on virtuous
conduct seem to be the only antidote to this kind
of antipathy. For a feeling of involuntary respect
for the character is perfectly consistent with per-
sonal repugnance. The individual with whom
you dislike all personal intercourse may yet con-
strain your respect by his conduct and character.
You may dislike the individual personally, while
you cannot help admiring the virtue which nothing
can corrupt, the honesty which nothing can tempt,
the truth and firmness of principle which nothing
can shake. While you would despise and scorn the
individual who would strive by mean and un-
worthy condescensions and compliances to over-
come your repugnance, you involuntarily respect
that individual if you perceive in him that true
independence of spirit which makes him choose a
separate path for himself, and seeks honour and
influence in that path by every noble, virtuous,
and self-denying effort. The rule holds equally
in regard to men collectively as individually.
The repugnance against a community, that is only
increased and exasperated by want of honourable
independence on their part, by servility or un-plary course of conduct.
worthy concessions, is converted into a feeling of
respect, where a people independently, honoura-
bly, firmly, unitedly, husbanding their own re-
sources, standing by one another, rely upon
their own strength, and, above all, assiduously
cultivate those virtues which draw down, in an
especial manner, the blessing of him who is the
"King of nations." The only thing that can
overcome that secret scorn, which is the fruit of
antipathy, is the honour and respect which he
who is the Fount of all honour puts upon those
that "bonour him." Antipathy is, in this case,
converted into respect.

action. They may make them, instead of sub-
mitting to mean condescensions and compliances,
aspire to constrain the admiration and respect of
others by those virtues on which God himself has
set the stamp of his approval.

Thus may this lamentable adjunct to our condition in this fallen state be overruled for good in the end. It may eventuate as antipathies have sometimes done in the case of individuals who have risen to deserved eminence. The antipathy felt at home for an individual has often been the very occasion which has conducted that individual to future respectability and credit and eminence. Finding a repugnance which was unconquerable felt towards him at home (for alas! antipathies are often worst in families), he has formed the resolution to quit the shelter to which his heart too tenaciously clung. Finding an aversion to him there, which he vainly endeavoured to subdue, and which all concession, all attempts at conciliation, all virtuous conduct, only made worse, he has chosen for himself a separate and independent field of action. He has struck out a new path for himself; and, having done so, one of the strongest motives and inducements thenceforward to a virtuous course of conduct in that path, one of the greatest incentives to steadiness, virtue, integrity, honest, honourable exertion, has been the consciousness of that very repugnance, that antipathy, of which he is the object, and which he feels can never be overcome or diminished except by its yielding to another feeling-that of the respect and admiration which are occasioned, or, rather, constrained, by an honourable, virtuous, and exem

In this manner may these very antipathies, which are the bane of this wretched world, be overruled, in the providence of the Almighty, for eventual good. They may become the strongest incentives to independent, honourable, virtuous exertion. They may conduce to a noble rivalry in all that is virtuous, excellent, and "of good report." Where two cannot, owing to their antipathies, pursue the same course amicably and happily together, their repugnance may lead to each taking a different path, and striving to outdo the other in all that is just, honourable, and virtuous. They may lead to separate and independent action and thinking. They may lead to a concentration of the powers and energies of each. They may urge on each, in their own path, in pursuit of the right "mark and high prize," which is the approbation of him that is higher and greater than man. They may lead to a just scorn of those arts and practices which are the blot upon, and the ruin of, any people, and kindle a noble ambition for honourable, virtuous, independent thought and

RELIGIOUS WRITERS OF SPAIN.
BY MISS M. A. STODART.

No. I.

PREFATORY REMARKS.

THE little attention that has been paid to the Spanish language and literature in England is a singular fact, and one that is almost inexplicable. It is true that the merchant seeks to acquire the language for the purposes of commerce; and the traveller, in these days of locomotion, endeavours to learn enough of the phrases of every-day life, in order to find his way through the country with out inconvenience; but in both cases the language is superficially and partially studied, and the lite rature is not thought of. Yet the language itself, as one of the most beautiful and sonorous of living tongues, might well lay claim to better treatment. And, when we add to its intrinsic merits the interest of the strong oriental colouring which pervades it, and which renders it, in point of fact, the connecting link between the dialects of Europe and those of the east, we have said enough to recommend its real and accurate study to the philologist and the man of letters.

Then, as regards the literature, there are mines of wealth among the mental treasures of Spain, which are as yet almost unexplored, and which would well repay the labour of working. The names of Cervantes, of Lope de Vega, and of

sacred poet, he stands pre-eminent in Spain, and very high among the sacred poets of Europe. His exquisite ode on the Ascension, one of the most beautiful sacred lyrics ever penned by an uninspired writer, was composed in the dungeons of the inquisition at Valladolid, where he spent five years under the charge of having translated the Book of Psalms into Castilian.

Calderon, are of European celebrity; and yet, Fray Diego de Yepes, her biographer, Diego de except the names of all, and the unequalled Estella, Pedro Malon de Cháide, and others. romance of the first, few among even the educated One of the chief writers in Spain, whether in part of the British public will be found to know prose or poetry, is Fray Luis de Leon. Among nore. This is not the place to descant on the the most remarkable of his prose writings are wonderful invention, the matchless fertility, the "La perfecta Casada" ("The excellent Wife"), a graceful and flowing versification of Lope de Vega, treatise on the last chapter of Proverbs; and a or on the magnificent language, the high-toned work on the names of Christ. It is a proof of eeling, and the glowing conceptions of Calderon the total neglect of Castilian literature, of which le la Barca. Neither is there time to refer to the I have already complained, that, when this pallad literature of Spain, unrivalled in Europe country was deluged a few years ago by works on for rapidity and energy of description, pointed the duties of women, there was not, as far the expression, variety of form, and curious informa- | writer's knowledge goes, one single allusion to the tion with respect to life and manners; though one erudite and elegant treatise of Fray Luis de Leon. who has loved to listen to the magic harp may be This great man is distinguished as a poet as well pardoned for a passing allusion to a rich source of as a theologian; indeed, he ranks as one of the poetic inspiration. chief lyric poets of his own country; and he may, A theme more suited to the pages of the Church in that department of poetical art, bear a comof England Magazine are the works of the reli-parison with those of any other nation. As a gious writers of Spain, her divines and theologians. The character of the people is deeply devotional and reverential; and this is so far impressed upon the medium for expressing their thoughts, as to have induced, as is well known, an imperial linguist to select Spanish as the idiom best suited for holding communion with the Deity. It is impossible for the Christian of purer faith and more enlightened views to think of Spain without sorrow and sadness of spirit. Many a noble heart in that land beat high with aspirations after Christian truth, and was crushed under the iron hand of the Inquisition. The blood-red banner of the Son of God streamed beyond the Pyrenees; but many a gallant soldier of the cross folded it to his bosom, and fell in the struggle. We must not and cannot think that God left himself without witnesses; or that, though the response was hushed and oft inaudible, there was no re-echo to the gospel truths as proclaimed silently in the lives and deaths of suffering saints. "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church ;" and it will not be till that time when "the earth shall disclose her blood, and no more cover her slain," that mankind will know how rich and glorious were the fruits of the public auto de fé, and of the more private suffering in the dungeons of the inquisition.

"Con el rey y la inquisicion, ¡ chiton! ¡ chiton !" ("Towards the king and the inquisition, hush! hush!" that is, be silent and respectful) is one of those countless Spanish proverbs in which the wisdom of many has been concentrated by the wit of one; and the saying, in this case, affectingly proves how the very springs of thought and language have been checked and arrested.

The religious writers of Spain are, as was to be expected, chiefly ecclesiastics, and their views are necessarily obscured by the dark clouds which, in the Romish church, surround Christian truth. But the Spirit of God is mighty; and often we may see rays of divine truth shining brightly even amid surrounding darkness. It is needful to take "the precious" out of "the vile;" but I shall be able to prove, I hope, that there is what is "precious" to be selected.

It is probable that even the names of the distinguished divines of Spain are unknown to many English readers. I may mention Fray Luis de Leon, Luis de Granada, San Juan de la Cruz| (the contemporary and coadjutor of Santa Teresa),

It has been thought that striking extracts from some of the more distinguished Spanish ecclesiastics would, probably, not be unacceptable to the English reader. I will commence with Fray Diego de Estella, partly from the intrinsic value of his writings, and partly from the consideration that from his work on the Vanity of the World whole chapters may be placed before the protestant reader without meeting with any passage requiring modification or curtailment.

Weekly Almanac.

"Every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.”—LUKE iii. 9. O LORD, forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee, mercifully grant that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.