upon; and so are we led on and lulled away into the exquisite music of the last three lines, than which there are none more harmonious in almost the whole range of English poetry :

"Two shall be named, preeminently dear-
The gentle lady married to the Moor,
And heavenly Una with her milk-white lamb."

But there is yet another magnificent sonnet, in which the subject is concluded:

"Nor can I not believe but that hereby
Great gains are mine; for thus I live remote
From evil-speaking; rancour, never sought,
Comes to me not; malignant truth, or lie.
Hence have I genial seasons-hence have I
Smooth passions, smooth discourse, and joyous thought;
And thus, from day to day, my little boat
Rocks in its harbour, lodging peaceably.
Blessings be with them and eternal praise
Who gave us nobler loves and nobler cares-
The poets, who, on earth, have made us heirs
Of truth and pure delight, by heavenly lays!
Oh! might my name be number'd among theirs,
Then gladly would I end my mortal days."

Delightful bard! you have yourself accomplished your own desire. Your name is numbered among the very greatest of England's poets--among those whose aim is truth and pure delight. Your lays are the music of philosophy. They present to us wisdom tranquilly floating upon a tide of melody. The mind is elevated and made more pure, the heart is softened and made more gentle, while the sweetly swelling strains of meditative poetry are poured upon the

listening ear-poetry that, while it soars heavenward, does not roam from the realm of quiet, homely, domestic affection,

But, "with the lofty, sanctifies the low."

THE CHURCH.

THE present time is rife with disputes about the amount of authority which the Church is entitled to claim in the inculcation of Christian verity. It must be admitted that these disputes are for the most part carried on with so much of political and party feeling, as to make them unpleasant to those sober-minded persons who wish to think as they ought to think upon points of such awful importance. But these questions being raised in public, it is impossible but that the noise of them should penetrate even into the quiet domestic circles of thoughtful and religiously-minded families, and it cannot but be important to supply them, so far as it may lie within the range of one's opportunities, with some trust-worthy opinion, as a resting-place for the anxious yet dutiful mind.

Having this end in view, I shall proceed to quote very briefly from Woodgate's Bampton Lectures for 1838, what seems to be a very admirable epitome of that which is reasonably to be held concerning Christian liberty and Church authority. Very seldom will there be

found more, or even so much, important matter in as small a compass of words. "The union of these two sacred instruments," says the preacher (viz. Scripture and the Church), " in their due proportion, where each retains its relative influence, is, like those happily-mixed institutions in civil matters, which combine, as far as human corruption and waywardness will allow, protection and liberty. It gives protection against the human heart, with the exercise of such liberty as our nature can bear; and by its appeal to Scripture, under certain limitations, it affords liberty, without the licentiousness and lawlessness arising from the undue indulgence of the right of private judgment. Now, of these two instruments, the suppression or weakening of either is most prejudicial to the whole fabric of the Christian faith. The suppression of Scripture leads to corruption and tyranny like Popery: the suppression of the authority of the Church leads no less certainly to licentiousness, proceeding through the various grades of heresy to rationalism and infidelity, and thence back, perhaps, by a different road to Popery. These will correspond respectively to despotism and democracy, caused by the suppression-in the one case of the charter-in the other of the government."

It is perhaps not too much to say, that the whole conclusion of the controversy touching the guidance of the Scripture alone, or the

guidance of the Church, is satisfactorily laid down in this passage. The Scriptures are the charter, the Church is the government authorised to rule according to what that charter contains. And from the above conclusions the Rev. lecturer derives definitions of Popery and Sectarianism, which it may be very well, for the sake of clearness in thought, and in controversy, to bear steadily in mind:

"POPERY is despotism in religion, effected by the suppression of our CHARTER, HOLY SCRIP

TURE.

"SECTARIANISM is democracy and republicanism in religion, brought about by the suppression of the CHURCH."

These are the definitions; the following are the references for the illustration of them:

"Of the one we have the exemplification and the proof in the whole history of the Papacy, from which the protecting mercy of God, in his own good time, gave us deliverance.

"Of the other, if the history of our own times does not afford the like exemplification, it is be-, cause we are in progress to it, rather than have as yet fully arrived at it."

These views are as profound as they are simple, and well fitted to form the foundation of stable opinions.

218

RELIGIOUS REVERENCE.

DR. JOHNSON says, in his life of Dryden, that malevolence to the clergy is seldom at a great distance from irreverence of religion, and that Dryden afforded no exception to the observation. This is a maxim which would probably be mocked at by a mere theoriser, because there is no chain of logical inference to be traced between hatred of certain persons and irreverence of that which it is their business to inculcate. But it is a sound maxim nevertheless, built upon observation and experience. Beware then of that man who speaks scoffingly, or with hatred, of the clergy, no matter how carefully he may abstain from saying anything directly against religion. Though he may not give positive evidence against himself of irreligion, he is nevertheless to be suspected-fœnum habet in cornu-let but the opportunity arrive, and the probability is he will go further than malevolence to the clergy.

As to Dryden, although he may doubtless have been betrayed both in his life and conversation into irreverence of religion, and therefore have afforded full ground for rebuke to so scrupulous a man as Dr. Johnson, yet it is satisfactory to know that so very great a genius not only thought, but wrote, under powerful impressions