Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

consciences. Hence in a vast majority of cases young men have in fact no real character, no fixed principles, no stability of purpose, but are the creatures of circumstances, knowing no difference between reputation, or the opinions which are entertained of them by others, and character itself, which is a man's essence. To such the lofty principle which Sallust declares to have been the governing rule of Cato, "ESSE QUAM VIDERI to be rather than to seem, is frigid and unearthly stoicism. They appear to live on the sentiment which Horace in compliment addressed to his friend,

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

"Tu recte vivis, si curas esse quod audis,"

cups,

and are so much the creatures of other people's opinions that no one can place an hour's reliance upon them. They are like the drunken Tinker "Sly" in the Induction to Shakspeare's "Taming of the Shrew," who being taken up while asleep from the gutter into which he had rolled from his and carried into a palace, placed upon a sumptuous couch, surrounded by obsequious attendants, and on waking addressed as "my Lord," was fool enough to doubt his own identity, forswear, as a sickly dream, his former low-lived adventures, and believe himself indeed a lord. They know themselves only from the lips of others.

Great efforts are necessary, and should be made, to remedy this great evil. In a republican country especially, every citizen should be in fact what he is by profession, his own master, in all respects free and independent. An aristocracy of force of character is as properly an object of jealousy as an aristocracy of rank.

To obliterate odious and ill-founded distinctions among the various classes of the community, by bringing all who are virtuous into companionship with each other, Mr. Walker regards as another result aimed at by the various Young Men's Associations; and finally he commends the influence which they exert in creating a correct estimate of wealth, and of the proper modes of using it, as well as in preparing the man of business for a happy retreat from the cares of acquisition to the quiet of domestic life.

One very just and noble sentiment is here expressed, to which we desire to point the attention of our readers. It is, that when the business man has attained to that comfortable competence which should satisfy the wants of a rational being, as it secures him against the vicissitudes of sickness

and of old age, he should retreat from the field of competition, give place to younger aspirants in whose way he stands, and content himself with other modes of enjoyment.

Were it not for two prevalent evils this truth would oftener be practised upon. The first evil is the defective education of business men, in consequence of which, when once the habit of money-getting is formed, they have no other fountain of enjoyment, no other means of satisfying their cravings after activity of some sort or other. The second evil, and one that may be classed amongst the greatest curses with which society can be visited, is the desire of leaving large inheritances to heirs. No reflecting person can consider this desire any thing but a curse. In the first place it detains men in the labor after gold when they ought to be in retirement, using their property in doing good, and preparing themselves for death, and of course throws the most serious obstructions in the path of youthful enterprise. In the second place it leads men to overthrow one of the fundamental laws of nature, and thus prepare those whom they would benefit, for almost certain ruin.

The law to which we allude is this, that we shall always pay for an article a price equivalent to its value, or in other words, that for a great good we shall be called on to make a great effort. He who would become learned must study long and patiently; he who seeks wealth must toil industriously and perseveringly; he who covets fame must put forth all the energies of body and mind to win it. The wisdom of this law blazes in the light of self-evidence. Its utter reversal by the law of inheritance is equally manifest. And we cannot but wonder that the history of every year, recording as it does the ruin of health, and intellect, and morals, induced by the bestowment of large estates on those who have never paid the price required by Providence, does not palsy the hand of every testator as he attempts to sign the fatal bequest, does not teach rich men to fear the de

struction of their children.

Every parent is bound to furnish his child with the means of earning his own support through life;-but to shower down the result of long continued labor upon the head of him whose brow has never been moistened with the sweat of exertion, is folly, if not SIN. If the duty of laboring for our daily bread came with the curse in Eden, it is certain

that its neglect draws down a curse far heavier and more terrible.

Such are some of the principal topics of the Address. In conclusion the speaker remarks, that the plans of these Associations terminate not with Boston, but go forth and embrace our whole land, and that the full assurance of universal success cannot be regarded as enthusiasm.

The peroration we will copy as presenting a lucid and stirring epitome of the whole Address.

"Let us then, my friends, in view of the ample encouragement afforded by the history of the past, go forward with all the confidence of hope; with all the ardor and zeal which a belief in the utility and importance of our labors can inspire. "Our cause is one. Under whatever banner, in whatever division of the great army we move, we are aiming at the same grand and general result, the universal triumph of reason and virtue. In perfect harmony then, let us advance. The field is before us, vast as the wants of man, wide as the world; and while we bear in mind that the better part of valor is discretion, let us bring to the undertaking all the fire and energy of youthful zeal; let us prosecute our labors in the cheering hope, that we shall contribute our part towards hastening that happy era, when it shall not be necessary to license seven hundred persons in Boston, to distribute liquid poison daily, 'for the public good'; when every moral nuisance shall be removed, and the cities of our land be no longer the abode of pestilence and death; when a public sentiment shall be formed, before whose healthful and omnipotent influence, vice and profligacy shall be banished from all places of honor and trust; when mental culture shall be the absorbing object of youthful ambition, and intellectual emulation be their esprit de corps; when the taste of the community shall not require vicious and degrading amusements, nor coarse and vulgar appeals to their passions; when WOMAN shall stand forth in all her innate moral and intellectual beauty, enjoying that silent, graceful, yet commanding influence, to which, even in the most refined and elevated society, she has never been permitted to attain ; when the love of acquiring wealth shall be universally blended with a disposition for the general good; when the interests and feelings of our citizens shall be so united and harmonious that no lines of invidious distinction can be drawn; when all shall enjoy equal advantages as well as equal rights; AND WHEN

THE FREE INSTITUTIONS OF OUR HAPPY LAND SHALL FIRMLY REST ON THE IMPERISHABLE FOUNDATION OF UNIVERSAL IN

TELLIGENCE, AND PUBLIC VIRTUE."—pp. 30, 31.

We recommend the Address as a production highly creditable to a business man whose time for preparation was very short, and as embodying principles the prevalence of which amongst us ought to make us grateful to God, and the future diffusion of which through our land is an object to which we look forward with high hope and the "prayer of faith.

ART. IX.-Friendly Letters to a Universalist on Divine Rewards and Punishments. By BERNARD WHITMAN. Cambridge. Brown, Shattuck & Co. 1833. 12mo. pp. 356.

A full, thorough, and satisfactory treatise on a single and narrow subject affords but small scope to the reviewer. Nothing of importance is left to be added, or subtracted, or altered; nothing in short, to be done, but to describe and recommend what has been done by another. This remark applies in many respects to the work, now before us. Considered as a book for the people, and on the single point of a future retribution, waving all questions respecting the nature, degree, and duration of the rewards and punishments to be expected, it may be said to have exhausted the subject. The reader, however, must bear in mind that it is a book for the people, and not for scholars only. Otherwise his taste will be likely to be offended by the great plainness, and occasional quaintness and homeliness of the phraseology, by the frequency of verbal explanations, and an extreme minuteness and diffuseness on some topics, which under other circumstances would seem uncalled for, and by the almost total absence of learned quotations and the parade of Hebrew and Greek criticisms, which, to those who judge by the form rather than the substance, do so much to give to discussions of this nature the air of thoroughness and authority. Indeed, after all due allowance is made for the particular and express aim of this work, some may still be of the opinion that a little more care in the composition, and a little more condensation in some parts, and a little more selection and dignity in the illustrations would have given it additional attractions

among the better informed, without materially lessening its circulation and usefulness in other quarters.

In the Introductory Epistle Mr. Whitman, after drawing the proper, and now generally recognised, distinction between Restorationists and Universalists, and disavowing the intention. of attacking the distinguishing doctrine of the former, makes the following disclosures respecting the nature and extent of the particular error which it is his object to expose and refute.

"Do you assert that universalists believe in a perfect earthly retribution?' I do. Read the following official declarations. "The fundamental principle of universalism is this, that all men shall be rewarded according to their works; that the punishment of sin is not delayed until the future existence, but that it is swift, sure, and inevitable. In regard to retribution, this is the doctrine of universalists.' 'It is a sentiment which distinguishes us from all our religious opponents, that this life is a state of retribution as well as of trial or probation; that here virtue receives an ample reward of happiness, and that here sin meets a competent punishment of misery.' There is in the moral government of our heavenly Father, an established administration, which secures to those who love and obey him a present complete reward; and one which delays not to give unto the wicked the reward of his hands. To deny this, however popular the contrary opinion may be, is a moral delirium, a fatal insanity, which not only exposes us to danger, but absolutely plunges us into trouble. Trumpet, vol. xiii. p. 38. Cobb's Sermon in Ch. In. 1829. Ballou's Select Sermons, p. 87.

"Do you assert that universalists believe no one will be rewarded hereafter for the goodness here acquired?' I do. Read the following official declaration. By this rational interpretation, we avoid the heathen notion of recompensing men in one state of being for the conduct they do in another. Of all reveries this is the wildest. Jesus no where taught that doctrine.' Trumpet, vol. xii. p. 134.

[ocr errors]

"Do you assert that universalists believe no one will be punished hereafter for the sins of this life?' I do. Read the following official declarations. The universalist does not indeed believe in punishment after death for the sins of this life. Our doctrine is and has been, that men will not be punished in the future world for the sins of this life.' 'Universalists do maintain that punishment in the future state is not threatened in the divine word.' Trumpet, vol. xiii. p. 42. Vol. xii. pp. 158, 190. 'Do you assert that universalists believe all will be made happy in heaven the moment they enter upon the next conscious ex

666

« ПредишнаНапред »