favor by the semblance of an already formed and rapidly developing public opinion. It is essentially an imposition, and no cause can be so good as to sanctify and make it right and honorable. But we have still graver matters to complain of. It is the calumnious attacks upon individual character in which some good men allow themselves to indulge, under the pretext of thereby promoting some favorite scheme of reform; not that they delight in defamation; O no! they would not hurt the hair of any body's head, if the good of the precious cause did not demand it. Here, for example, is an individual whose character and position give him influence with a portion of the community. It is deemed important to the cause to secure this influence in its favor. The man is plied softly, at first. He is told of his talents, and the high estimation in which his character is held, and the wide influence he may exert in the best of causes. He listens to these friendly suggestions and takes the subject into serious consideration; but after a candid and mature examination, he comes to the conclusion that it would not be right for him to identify himself with the movement, for he cannot conscientiously approve of some of the prominent measures of its advocates. He frankly states his objections and his decision. He is then approached in another form. With great seeming, and, perhaps, real concern, he is told of the inevitable fate which awaits him, if he persists in maintaining his position,—that the cause is every where coming up, and will soon triumph, and he, with all others who occupy the same ground, will be rode over and ruined forever. He replies,-Gentlemen, I cannot help that, I have a higher rule to govern my conduct than the decisions of the public voice. I stand upon my conscientious convictions of what truth and duty require of me. Finding that he cannot be intimidated into an adhesion by these ominous threats of public indignation, they give him up, and he is henceforth unto them worse than a heathen. They adopt the same principle of action in respect to him, as the Romanists do to the heretics. No faith is to be kept with that man. He must be "broke down," at all events, and “his influence killed." The day of his merciful visitation is past. Yes, "break him down." "Kill his influence." These are the humane and Christian terms, indicative of

the mode of action now to be adopted. The success of the good cause requires it, and this makes it all right. Forthwith they address themselves to their amiable work. Though well knowing his real sentiments, for he has frankly and fully expressed them, they impute to him. directly opposite ones; or if their conscience will not suffer them to do this at once, they go through a little process of reasoning, and the whole thing is settled. "He does not

approve of our reasoning, and he who is not with us is against us. Our measures are the result of our principles, and so being opposed to our measures, he is opposed to our principles. The triumph of our principles will alone remove the evil we are opposing. He stands in the way of that triumph, and so he is an enemy to the cause, and in favor of the continuance of the evil itself. He may, therefore, justly be held up to public indignation, as holding atrocious sentiments, and in favor of the worst of all abominations." If the cause is temperance, he is held up as loving the "creature," and slyly indulging the ardor of his attachment; if nioral reform, it is insinuated that he is secretly addicted to lewdness; if abolitionism, he is proslavery, and every thing that is bad; if "protracted meetings," as conducted by modern evangelists, he is opposed to revivals and the work of God; nay, "an enemy to all righteousness,-a child of the devil, ceasing not to pervert the right ways of the Lord." He is, in short, a man to be hated and avoided, "Fanum habet cornu. Caveto, Romane." Well, the man at first bears it all in quietness and meekness, grieved and amazed the while, that good men, engaged in benevolent and pious enterprises, can take on such ferocity, and depart so widely from the truth and charity of the gospel. By and by, however, he finds a suitable occasion to make some formal expression of his real sentiments,-sentiments which he has always most honestly and conscientiously held. Now observe the tack of his pious and benevolent calumDo they acknowledge that they have wronged . him, and show a disposition to make reparation? Not they. An acknowledgment that they had been in the wrong would hurt the precious cause in which they have embarked their all. The duty of acknowledging and retracting a wrong seems to be excluded from the ethical code of some

VOL. XI.-NO. XLIII.

37*

modern reformers. But what use do they make of the public avowal of the slandered individual? O most rare use! They herald it as a sign of progress. Another opposer has yielded at length to the power of truth and come upon the right ground, in principle at least; or, he has been compelled, under the sore pressure of the accumulating force of public opinion, hypocritically to an open avowal of just sentiments. Cheer up. The cause is onward. There has been much progress precisely of this kind in some of the reforming movements of the age. The sentiments of men, who from some cause deem themselves justified in standing aloof from the particular measures in vogue, are grossly misrepresented. Odious views, which they abhor, and motives which they scorn, are imputed to them; and when they take occasion to give such an unequivocal expression of opinion as to take away the vocation of their revilers, it is coolly announced as a cheering sign of progress! There is something more than the want of truth in the above method of promoting reform. There is a positive infusion of malignity, as much at war with Christian charity as with truth. We have not got through with the catalogue of exceptionable measures which have so extensively vitiated the reforming movements of the day. We give the above as specimens of the best of the class. There are others which deserve exposure and the most indignant and searching rebuke, but our limits will not admit of the prosecution of our painful task. We may say, in brief, that they have all the common character of the worst kind of expediency. They are recommended solely by the promise of producing prompt and available results, and rest upon the doctrine, "that the end sanctifies the means,"- -a doctrine much older than the Jesuits, and received and acted on by multitudes beyond the pale of their demoralizing association,-a doctrine which has come foul and rank from the polluting breath of the old serpent himself, and which strikes at the root of every principle of true religion and sound morality.

We had designed to make some remarks upon the moral effect of this disregard to truth in the means of promoting benevolent enterprises, upon the character of those who use them, even with the best intentions, and also

upon its ultimate influence on the enterprises themselves; but we must reserve what we have to say upon these exceedingly important points to a future opportunity; and conclude for the present with the general caution, that we should be as careful as to the character of the means we use, as of the ends we wish to promote by them; and that we cannot inflict a greater injury upon a good cause than by resorting to falsehood and deception to pro

mote it.

ARTICLE VIII.

The Life and Correspondence of John Foster. Edited by J. E. RYLAND. With Notices of Mr. Foster as a Preacher and Companion; by JOHN SHEPPARD. In 2 vols. pp. 306, 388; 12mo. New York. Wiley & Putnam. 1846.

BY THE EDITOR.

It is with no ordinary expectations of gratification and delight that we have taken up the Biography and Correspondence of the author of the Essays on Decision of Character, etc. The Memoirs of such a man as John Foster must, of necessity, possess very peculiar attractions. It is certainly natural, and, we think, not unpraiseworthy, to wish to become more nearly acquainted with a man, whose writings have been perused with admiration wherever the English language is spoken or understood; whose calm, transparent and impressive thoughts have, in their acquaintance and contact, cut out new channels of thought in ten thousand other minds; whose dignified. and sober views of life, religion and immortality are adapted to shed so hallowed a spirit over all who become familiar with them; and whose style and vocabulary, showing him a perfect master of our mother-tongue, taken in connection with his other noble characteristics as an

author, well entitle him to the quaint description of his contemporary, Robert Hall,—“ a great, lumbering wagon, loaded with gold." These volumes happily introduce us to such a view of his life and labors as it is most satisfactory for us to obtain. The plan of the editor is to exhibit, at the commencement of every chapter, the principal incidents which occurred in the history of Mr. Foster during a given period of time, followed by original letters to his principal correspondents, originating in or illustrative of those incidents, or of the peculiar characteristics of his hero during that period. He presents, also, a few pages from his journal,-comprising not mere barren statements of personal history and opinions; but, as might have been easily anticipated, profound and glowing thoughts, uttered in the choicest terms, and often opening mines of hidden treasures. Thus we see in its individuality, illustrating what we had been taught, the accomplished mind that had before instructed us "on a man's writing memoirs of himself." And although ordinarily, a biography consisting of a mere arrangement of letters and journals strikes us as a most defective performance in respect to the author, if not in respect to his subject, in the present instance we are ready to dispense with the editor for the sake of the subject. So great is our admiration of the latter, that we can easily do without any appendages, adapted to exhibit the genius or skill of the former. The holder of that polished pen, appearing in the dishabille of familiar correspondence, could scarcely fail to be his own best biographer. We may well say of him, as Dr. Johnson, in his elegant epitaph for Oliver Goldsmith," Nihil tetigit quod non ornavit."

Mr. Ryland, the editor of the memorials, is already favorably known on both sides of the water by his literary offerings; and in the compilation of these volumes, he has exercised a discriminating judgment, a blameless taste and sound discretion.

We are glad to find ourselves in possession of so much additional matter from the well-nigh inspired pen of this great master in English composition. We shall follow, in our notices, the example of the biographer, giving a few of the principal incidents of the life of Mr. Foster, and then making such extracts from his letters as will