have other opportunities of seeing me. Go now to my brethren and tell them," &c. When Mary told the disciples she had seen the Master alive, as they were incredulous, they would intimate, that it was an illusion of which she had been the subject, or that she had seen a spectre. She would naturally insist in reply, that she had not only seen him, but that she had touched him, that she had held him by his feet, and knew that it was real flesh and blood. As this act of embracing his feet would be referred to as an evidence of the sense of feeling to the reality of his appearance, it is possible that the exact words addressed to Mary by Jesus may have been altered, and he may have been made to say, "Touch me not," when he used a term nearly synonymous but less obscure. I here close my examination of this interesting portion of the history of our great Teacher, commending it to the candor of the reader.

If it be thought that I have taken unwarrantable liberties with the records, I can only say, that I have been actuated by a single desire to give just weight to all those considerations, to which all sound principles of interpretation, as I am able to understand them, imperatively require us to give heed. In the case of all other writings, we make every allowance for the prejudices and feelings of their authors. Miraculous accounts, especially, we sift with the utmost freedom, and thus do we detect their falsehood. Shall we insult Truth by treating her as if she were willing to owe her credit to our forbearance in scrutinizing her claims? "Christianity disdains to suppress any facts, or to impute bad motives instead of answering plausible objections; it must be proved by something stronger than exclamations, and defended by something less precarious than feeling."

If it be asked why, if the circumstances of our Saviour's resurrection took place as I have stated them, they were not so narrated by the historians, rather than in the form in which they are now presented in the New Testament, - I answer, that I cannot sufficiently admire the wisdom of Providence in transmitting to us just such records as we have, records, full of the divine inspiration of nature and upon which the stamp of truth is so distinctly and deeply impressed, records wherein the very misapprehensions prove the truth in a manner the most convincing, because obviously and wholly undesigned. In the case of our Saviour's resurrection, the

error into which the women fell tends directly to establish the grand and only important fact, the actual presence of Jesus alive on the spot.

I long to see the Christian histories searched and proved by a single, fearless, and gifted spirit. I will not dishonor Christianity by cherishing the least misgiving as to the result. That some things now retained, would be found untenable in the process, as I have said, I do not doubt. Still my persuasion is deep and strong, that enough would remain, all the more glorious for its purification, to prove the divine authority of the illustrious Author of our religion, as it has never yet been proved, save to his immediate disciples,-enough to animate and comfort and bless the human mind unspeakably and for ever. If there is any instrument whereby the hearts of men, I say not their understandings, but their hearts, are to be reached, it is Christianity as it lives in the history of its Founder. Let that be exhibited in its own serene light, undimmed by passing through the imperfect and refracting medium of human ignorance and prejudice, and then will the human soul be illuminated and warmed by the knowledge of the glory of God, pouring its ineffable radiance from the face of Jesus Christ!

ART. II.A History of Harvard University from its Foundation, in the Year 1636, to the Period of the American Revolution. By the late BENJAMIN PEIRCE, A. M., Librarian of the University. Cambridge. Brown, Shattuck, & Co. 1833. 8vo. pp. 496.

THE history of an ancient University must always be a subject of curiosity and interest. A University is the literary centre, which sends its intellectual light, during successive ages, over a whole country. It is the nucleus around which the learning, the science, the arts of the collective people are gathered to form a bright orb, on which the eyes of all cultivated men are fixed. In its reverend retreats, the happiest years of youth are passed in the noblest pursuits of which the mind is capable. Beneath its shades, those associations are formed, of which the character is never robbed,

and those tastes are cultivated, which give to life more than half its beauty. Amidst the absorbing pursuits of business, in the dazzling path of ambition, in the quiet of philosophical retirement, the man of academic education looks back with filial love towards his Alma Mater, and calls up with ever new delight, the pleasant time which he spent beneath her protecting wing. In her prosperity he rejoices; in her adversity he sympathizes. He is one of a great family, who have gone forth from her instruction, and borne manfully the honorable burdens of life. He is bound to them and to her by a thousand ties, which nothing in after-years can break. He and they may be arrayed with antagonist parties in politics or in religion; they may be rivals in business, struggling hand to hand in the competition for wealth; but, when they meet on the ground sacred to learning, they feel, that they are indeed on common ground, with common tastes, feelings, and hopes. Athens and Lacedæmon are no longer warring nations, but all are Greeks alike, met together to celebrate the festival of peace.

But there are circumstances, that give a peculiar interest to the history of Harvard College. The Puritan ancestors of New England, with all the imperfections of those strange times, were the most extraordinary men that ever lived. They grew up in the field of controversy, - in the harness of battle, political and theological. For them, the brow of royalty was clothed in no overpowering majesty. The badges of a ceremonial church, the pomp of a splendid hierarchy with its imposing succession of orders, had no charms for their stern spirits. They were masters of human learning, and had become the ablest wielders of the weapons of logic. But though they set high value on scholarship, they held it subordinate to the knowledge of God's word. The things of this life were but little in comparison with the things of the

next.

When they left the "pleasant land" of their fathers, they brought with them minds ripened in all good learning, as well as energies trained to their utmost in the school of experience. Among their first cares, they anxiously looked about for the means of preserving the blessing of education. "After God had carried us safe to New England," say they in the "First Fruits," "and we had builded our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, reared convenient places for

God's worship, and settled the civil government, one of the next things we longed for and looked after was to advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches, when our present ministry shall lie in the dust." This sentence is a key to the early history of Harvard University. Its express object was to educate the clergy. The first ministers of the Puritans were men trained up in the learning of England, and it was with them a matter of earnest solicitude that the tone of intellectual character should not be lowered among their successors. The people, too, were all imbued with the strongest religious feelings, and shared with their pastors in the anxious wish to found an establishment, that should be worthy of the great cause in which they had perilled everything dearest to man. Thus the College became an object of affectionate care to the hearts of the New Englanders. The contributions of indviduals and of the government, though small compared with the affluence of this age, were wonderfully liberal compared with the poverty of those hard times. Its growth was a theme of exultation; its success a matter of personal pride to the whole community; and we must needs sympathize in the feelings so quaintly and honestly expressed, of "great comfort" in the "publique declamations in Latine and Greeke, and disputations Logical and Philosophical, which they have been wonted (besides their ordinary exercises in the College Hall) in the audience of the magistrates, ministers, and other scholars, for the probation of their growth in learning, upon set days, constantly once every month to make and uphold." *

Such, in brief, were the leading circumstances in which Harvard College had its origin. It has ever since adapted itself, with as much pliancy as is useful in a public institution, to the varying wants of society. Its history is, therefore, of great importance, as an index of the literary growth of the New England people.

The task of preparing such a work could not have fallen into better hands. We understand that Mr. Peirce was distinguished in early life for his untiring zeal in the pursuit of knowledge. Among his class-mates at College he maintained a distinguished rank, and was graduated with the highest

* Appendix, p. 4.

academic honors. Having brilliantly completed his University career, he engaged in commerce, and soon won the confidence of his fellow citizens, of which he received frequent and decided testimonials. But the cares of business were not permitted to withdraw his mind from the cultivation of letters, and much of his leisure time was given to a thorough study of the English Classics; after the best of whom his taste and style seem to have been modelled. For these and other interesting facts we are indebted to the judicious Preface prefixed to Mr. Peirce's history, from the well known pen of Mr. John Pickering.

Mr. Peirce was appointed Librarian of Harvard University in 1826. He entered on the duties of his office with characteristic zeal, and in the course of a few years published an excellent catalogue of the invaluable collection of books belonging to that institution, in four octavo volumes. This may safely be called one of the most important literary undertakings, as it certainly was one of the most laborious, to which the talents of a scholar can be devoted. Of Heyne's labors in the same line at the University of Göttingen, Heeren exclaims, almost without exaggeration, "Immortal are his merits in regard to the catalogue!" All those gentlemen who have occasion to use the Library of Harvard College must feel themselves under a debt of gratitude to Mr. Peirce for this service to the cause of letters.*

Contemporaneously with this great labor, Mr. Peirce was gathering the materials for his History of Harvard University, which, at the time of his lamented death, was fortunately in a state of forwardness that justified its publication. The editorial duty was intrusted to Mr. Pickering, who has performed his part with his usual skill and ability. The style of Mr. Peirce is admirably adapted to a work of research and learning, like this history. It is pure and nervous English, disfigured by none of the fantastic forms of speech, which are scattered over much of the popular writing of the day. His taste was severe, but not dry. Perhaps the clearness of his language and its freedom from tasteless ornaments may be

* Since the publication of Mr. Peirce's Catalogue, the Libary has been so much increased, that Dr. Harris, his indefatigable successor, is, we hear, about to send to the press an octavo volume, by way of Supplement to the work of Mr. Peirce.