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sponsible, our constant over-sight and attention are necessary. We are concerned, not only with its direction, but its volume. If variations are caused by the advance of years, and the changes they bring, these must be faithfully registered and accounted for. We are hence doomed to never-ceasing and painfully agonizing, because fruitless introspection; and instead of acting with the freedom and efficient concentration which characterize us where the quantum of will may be wholly neglected, we waste most of our energies in striving to get up an intensity of choice-about as foolish a business as if we should attempt to climb to the moon on stairs of empty space. It is to us a great marvel how a theory, so utterly unfit for application in a system of moral legislation, and so hostile to virtuous effort, ever obtained a place in the theological world. As to a foundation, it has none in reason; as to esthetic beauty, or any charms for the imagination, it is wholly destitute of them; as to the absurd consequences it involves, they are absolutely insurmountable. To what accident then is its birth to be ascribed? We know not, unless it be to the confusion of the sensibility with the will, which

"Breeds

Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things,
Abominable, unalterable, and worse

Than fables yet have feigned, or fear conceived;
Gorgons and hydras and chimeras dire,"

Different persons will doubtless make very different inferences from this contrast, but, for ourselves, we are ready to say, if there were no other reasons for rejecting totally this intensity-theory than what this simple contrast presents, we should not hesitate a moment. When once it is understood. that the law, and all the conditions of knowing and perfectly obeying it, must be known before the performance of the acts it commands, no man in his right mind, can ever regard this theory in a more favorable light than as an exploded folly of by gone days.

3. The dogmatism of the quotations by which this theory was introduced is also a matter of astonishment. By what right can Dr. Beecher affirm that "love to God is in its origin feeble compared with what it ought to be according to the moral law." It has been shown that even if such feebleness of love were not an impossibility, its existence can never be ascertained. By what right can Pres. Edwards teach that there may be more defect of love than strength of love"? that "there may be true love to God which neverthe

less may not be one half as strong as it ought to be"? This assertion is sheer dogmatism; nay worse, it is proved to be downright absurdity. By what right can the common pulpit echo and re-echo, in every variety of form, and with still unabated certainty, this miserable dogma? By what right can they affirm that sin is mixed with their holiest performances? For ourselves we think it high time there were some abatement in the positiveness with which this ridiculous absurdity of the past is re-echoed at the present--some examination into the grounds on which it rests if it has any; and, if we are not mistaken, the time is not far distant when its reiteration without an exhibition of those grounds will be somewhat offensive to the common sense of mankind.

[The author of the above article, as our readers are doubtless aware, has now passed to his last account. The doctrine clucidated in the articles entitled, "The Simplicity of Moral Action" was the last subject in theological and moral science to which his thoughts and his pen were devoted. His design was, to perfect these articles so that they should contain a complete elucidation of this great subject. For accom plishing this end, he expressed a strong desire for strength to think and write, one more half day. But this privilege was not granted. His manuscripts, however, were left in such a state, that his brother, Rev. S. D. Cochran, will be able to get the remaining article in readiness for the next number of the Quarterly. The present and preceding articles have been occupied with the discussion of the essential preliminary questions bearing upon the subject. The next and final article will contain the direct argument. Those who would understand this great foundation doctrine of true christianity, are earnestly desired to give all the articles on this subject, a very careful perusal. The next article will probably be accompanied with a brief notice of the character of the author, by Rev. S. D. Cochran.]

A M.

ARTICLE LX.

Reflections on National Literature applied to that of England.

By T. B. HUDSON,

Professor of the Greek and Latin Languages in O. C. Institute.

To understand aright the character and worth of a nation's literature, we must contemplate it as the product of that nation's mind. We need of course to understand the character of a nation's mind before we are prepared to sit in judgment on its literary manifestations. Accordingly in presenting to our readers an estimate of the character and worth of British literature, we deem it an indispensable preliminary not only to inquire into the general relations which the literature of a nation must sustain to its character, but also to determine what has been the particular character of British mind. If these points are satisfactorily settled, the way will be open to a just appreciation of the literary triumphs and treasures of our mother isle. These remarks

will suggest the order which we are to pursue.

What then is the relation which the literature of a nation sustains to its character? We answer that it is necessary and quite uniform. In every civilized nation, and in some that are but partly civilized, wherever mind has made any considerable progress in improvement or thought, there is a literature, the off-shoot and growth of that mindbearing a very faithful resemblance in all its features to the parent that gave it birth. it birth. As is the national mind, so will

be the national literature.

The origin of national literature will serve at once to prove and illustrate this point. The mind is always active. When free, it is ever on the wing. Or if it folds its pinions, it is but to attempt the heaven of undiscovered thought in a more adventurous flight. It seeks to make known the results of its labors to others. Benevolence which aims to diffuse the good it has attained-ambition which labors to build an

undecaying monument to its own glory-patriotism circling the name of father-land with a halo of splendor-friendship decking with flowers the grave of departed worth-religion multiplying in ten thousand forms, its one solemn message to man, are but so many motives impelling man to speak from his heart to the hearts of other men. The result is a literature; and the more mighty the impulse under which the mind of a people may act in the birth of their literature, the more spontaneous, earnest, and truthful that literature will be. In any probable circumstances, the grand features of a nation's character will be as fully disclosed in its first literature as the energies of a virgin soil are revealed in the ver dure of its prairies, or the primeval forests which have shadowed it from before the memory of man.

Another consideration which will show how a national literature is the index to the national character is the mode in which such a literature is extended and perpetuated. When a nation's character has become definite and known, when its taste can be made the subject of calculation and reflection, a large majority of writers will work to gratify the demand which they find to be the reigning demand. The principle of "supply and demand" becomes now as applicable to literature as to any other article of commerce. Writers furnish what the people demand, and furnish most readily and in largest amount, what is most rewarded in fame and gold. Thus a national literature not only tends to perpetuate itself, but also most faithfully represents the prevailing condition of the masses of the people.

Our proposition is not the less true, when great changes are wrought in the character of a national literature. These changes, whether for better or for worse, begin with a few. They speak out their convictions. They diffuse their sentiments through the popular mind. If they are received, the public mind undergoes a transformation. It demands a new literature and its demands are no sooner heard than ten thousand pens are busy to supply them. Thus a change in the popular mind works almost at once a corresponding change in the literature on which that mind feeds.

But if the attempted change fails of success, if the small corps of writers who may have tried to stamp their new views on the public mind find that it will not yield to the impress which they have labored to fix upon it, the attempted revolution of course stops. The old literature occupies its

place of honor as before. It holds its throne, because it is the best exponent of the state of the public mind as it was and still is.

If there are apparent exceptions to this rule they are only apparent. A national literature may be struggling into being. Its voice will falter and its utterances will be broken and contradictory. But even here the contradiction and weakness in the literature will exist because of the weakness and contradiction in the public mind whose state it embodies. A literature which has borne sway for an era, for centuries even, may seem to be withering away; and no strong literature of fresh growth may appear at once to take its place. Here too the literature will be an unerring index to the state of the public mind. The idols of its old worship have crumbled and fallen from their holy places; and no new divinities yet claim its offerings and its adoration. Such, we say, may be the condition of a national literature. Such at that very time will be the condition of the popular mind and heart.

Thus literature in its nature, its origin, its maintainance, in the various forms which it assumes, in the manifold changes which it undergoes, is only the shadow in the mirror, the counterpart and resemblance of the public thought and feeling. If we would learn a nation's progress or decline, its growth or decay, we may question its literature for an answer. The answer will not long deceive us. On the other hand, we may safely infer the character of a national literature from the known character of the nation itself, The savage has no literature. We know from his condition, that a literature is with him impossible. Among a half civilized people we expect a stunted and shriveled literature, for there mind has but a stunted and shriveled growth. Beneath a despotism whose cheerless winter blasts every plant and flower as it springs in the soil of free thought, we look for a waste in literature, for the soul is there frozen to rock and ice. Among a free and enlightened people on the contrary, where art has given shape to the idea of the beautiful, where science has pierced to the heart of things, and dragged forth the mysteries of. nature to the gaze of all, where the hope of triumphant achievement nerves every power to its fullest exercise, where invention yokes the energies of the outer world to the car of human progress, where government, morals, and religion are most profoundly studied and most faithfully applied, we expect to find a literature rich, varied and profound, beautiful, eloquent, sublime—a literature in short which shall reflect the

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