which the colder and more elaborate records transmitted through the press, are said to convey hardly the faintest idea. And what writer of the present day has exerted the same moral influence as Channing, whose sermons on the familiar themes of God, and heaven and duty-without the recommendation of novel speculation or recondite learning, and in spite of the prejudices against an obnoxious creed-have carried with them the love and sympathy of human hearts, wherever the English language is read, by the simple earnestness and comprehensive benevolence of their spirit? With such facts before us, we cannot believe, it is from dearth of materials, or from the enfeebling of moral sympathies and religious tendencies, that the pulpit seems to be losing its influence-but rather from the want of earnestness and conviction in numbers who occupy it-from the absence of simplicity of purpose and courageous reliance on truth.

We have little doubt, that the excellent and highly gifted author of the Discourses mentioned at the head of this article, will take his place among those who have redeemed sermon writing from the charge of being necessarily deficient in interest and instruction. His volume is the production of a vigorous, richly-stored and earnest mind, and marked by one of the surest indications of genius-the power of placing familiar truths in a new light, and of strengthening and adorning, by original illustration, conceptions which have become almost powerless from the monotonous garb in which they are usually clothed. As a preacher, speaking with manly seriousness to the conscience of his fellow-beings, Mr. Martineau was precluded by the nature of his subject, from throwing out any views of religion and morals that are absolutely new; but he has quickened into fresh life old and faded themes, and dispelled the dull and heavy conventionalism that hung around them :- and this first of all excellencies in a spiritual instructor, he appears to us to derive not more from the strength of his intellect and the vivacity of his imagination, than from the general intrepidity of his mental constitution which disposes him to apprehend every object in a manner peculiar to himself, and that calm internal depth of faith which is never disturbed by the boldest sweeps of his speculation.

We shall attempt to describe simply and faithfully-if possible, without any consideration of our personal feelings towards the author-the impression which his volume has left upon our mind, substantiating our judgments by a few extracts from its pages. The whole work is distinguished by a philosophical breadth and elevation of view, which surveys the commonest duties of life and the simplest offices of religion under a very different aspect from that which they wear to the

ordinary observer, traces their relations with the general economy of providence, and raises them into dignity by unfolding their affinity with the noblest attributes of an immortal mind. A pure and lofty morality, almost severe in its construction of human obligations-high faith in God and the unchangeable rectitude of his moral government, and a benevolence healthful and comprehensive, and wholly uninfected with sentimentality -breathe in every line, and inspire the fullest confidence in the character and purposes of the writer. Whatever may be thought of the soundness of all his opinions, no one can fail to perceive, that he is thoroughly in earnest;-that God and Christianity and human duty and the heavenly world are with him something more than phrases-that they are constantly before his mind as realities, of whose existence he is firmly persuaded, and to which he is prepared to surrender all the energies of his being. In his view, religion is not a means, but an end -the highest, the only, end of man; and every plan of life which comes short of it, wants the basis of solid wisdom and virtue.

These moral qualities which must alone give interest to every work that clearly reflects them, are recommended by intellectual endowments of a high order, by an acute and penetrating judgment which seizes at once the essential points of an argument, and by a philosophical fancy of no ordinary richness which fetches its illustrations, often with great felicity, from an ample range of scientific and literary attainment. The author's style singularly expressive of the character of his mind-is always luminous, never dull, and in his best passages pure, vigorous and graceful.

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Criticism of the separate discourses would extend this notice to too great a length; and different readers, according to the constitution of their minds, will probably be attracted by different excellencies: but we cannot refrain from directing attention more particularly to the third, Great Principles and Small Duties'-the seventh, Religion on False Pretences'-the eighth, on Mammon Worship'-the two (ninth and tenth) on The Kingdom of God within us'-the fifteenth, The Strength of the Lonely'-the nineteenth, The Great Year of Providence' -and the last in the volume, 'Nothing Human ever dies'—as peculiarly distinguished by justness of reasoning, delicacy of discrimination, originality of conception, and happiness of illustration. It is really difficult to select amidst so much that is wise and beautiful. The following passage from the third discourse exhibits in the most favourable light Mr. Martineau's fine sense and delicate delineation of moral beauty:

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It is an error to suppose that homely minds are the best administrators of small duties. Who does not know how wretched a contradiction such a rule receives in the moral economy of many a home?—how often the daily troubles, the swarm of blessed cares, the innumerable minutiæ of arrangement in a family, prove quite too much for the generalship of feeble minds, and even the clever selfishness of strong ones; how a petty and scrupulous anxiety, in defending with infinite perseverance, some small and almost invisible point of frugality and comfort, surrenders the greater unobserved, and while saving money ruins minds; how, on the other hand, a rough and unmellowed sagacity rules indeed and without defeat, but while maintaining in action the mechanism of government, creates a constant and intolerable friction, a grating together of reluctant wills, a groaning under the consciousness of force, that make the movements of life fret and chafe incessantly? But where, in the presiding genius of a home, taste and sympathy unite (and in their genuine forms they cannot be separated)—the intelligent feeling for moral beauty and the deep heart of domestic love,— with what ease, what mastery, what graceful disposition, do the seeming trivialities of existence fall into order, and drop a blessing as they take their place! how do the hours steal away, unnoticed but by the precious fruits they leave! and by the self-renunciations of affection, there comes a spontaneous adjustment of various wills; and not an innocent pleasure is lost, nor a pure taste offended, nor a peculiar temper unconsidered; and every day has its silent achievements of wisdom, and every night its retrospect of piety and love; and the tranquil thoughts that, in the evening meditation, come down with the starlight, seem like the serenade of angels, bringing in melody the peace of God! Wherever this picture is realized, it is not by microscopic solicitude of spirit, but by comprehension of mind, and enlargement of heart; by that breadth and nicety of moral view which discerns every thing in due proportion, and in avoiding an intense elaboration of trifles, has energy to spare for what is great; in short, by a perception akin to that of God, whose providing frugality is on an infinite scale, vigilant alike in heaven and on earth; whose art colours a universe with beauty, and touches with its pencil the petals of a flower. A soul thus pure and large disowns the paltry rules of dignity, the silly notions of great and mean, by which fashion distorts God's real proportions; is utterly delivered from the spirit of contempt; and in consulting for the benign administration of life, will learn many a task, and discharge many an office, from which lesser beings, esteeming themselves greater, would shrink as ignoble. But in truth, nothing is degrading which a high and graceful purpose ennobles; and offices the most menial cease to be menial, the moment they are wrought in love. What thousand services are rendered, aye, and by delicate hands, around the bed of sickness, which, else considered mean, become at once holy and quite inalienable rights. To smooth the pillow, to proffer the draught, to soothe or to obey the fancies of the delirious will, to sit for hours as the mere sentinel of the feverish sleep ;-these things are suddenly erected, by their relation to hope and life, into sacred pri

vileges. And experience is perpetually bringing occasions, similar in kind though of less persuasive poignancy, when a true eye and a lovely heart will quickly see the relations of things thrown into a new position, and calling for a sacrifice of conventional order to the higher laws of the affections; and alike without condescension and without ostentation, will noiselessly take the post of gentle service and do the kindly deed. Thus is it that the lesser graces display themselves most richly, like the leaves and flowers of life, where there is the deepest and the widest root of love; not like the staring and artificial blossoms of dry custom that, winter or summer, cannot change; but living petals woven in nature's workshop and folded by her tender skill, opening and shutting morning and night, glancing and trembling in the sunshine and the breeze. This easy capacity of great affections for small duties is the peculiar triumph of the highest spirit of love."-p. 38-41.

There is a profound wisdom beautifully expressed in the concluding passage of the discourse, entitled-we must add, with with some want of good taste-"The Besetting God:"

"It is not apparently the design of Heaven that we should be permitted to seek rest and to desire ease in this aspiring state; and it is the vain attempt to make compromise between duty and indulgence, that creates the corrosions of conscience, and the perpetual disquietudes of spirit, and disappoints our own ideal from day to day and from year to year. There is no way to the peace of God but by absolute self-abandonment to his will that whispers within us, without reservation of happiness or self. Then, the relinquishment once made,--giving ourselves up to any high faith within the heart,—the sorrows of mortality, its reproaches, its fears, will soon vanish, and even death be robbed of its terrors; for, to quote the noble words of Lord Bacon, 'He that dies in an earnest pursuit is like one that is wounded in hot blood, who for the time scarce feels the hurt; and therefore a mind fixed and bent upon somewhat that is good, doth best avert the dolours of death."". p. 31.

How deep an insight into character is displayed in the following portraiture, where many a mind will recognize features that it has known in its living experience !

"He who is dependent on human sympathy acquires far greater power over others. He reflects and reciprocates the emotions of other minds; he understands their prejudices; he is no stranger to their weaknesses; he does not stare at their impulses, like a being too sublime to comprehend them. He may not obtain that kind of distant respect which is yielded to the man of cold but acute and confident intellect ;-a respect which is founded in fear,-which suppresses opposition without winning trust, -which silences objectors without relieving their objections ;-that unsatisfactory respect which we feel when conscious that another is right, without perceiving where it is that we are wrong. But he may earn that better power, which arises from profound and affectionate know

ledge of the human heart. There is no human being to whom we look with so true a faith, as to him who shows himself deep read in the mysteries within us, who seems to have dwelt where Omniscience only had access, and traced momentary lines of feeling whose rapid flash our own eye could scarcely follow; who put into words weaknesses which we had hardly dared to confess in thought; who appears to have trembled with our own anxieties, and wept our very tears. This initiation into the interior nature is the quality which, above all others, gives one mind power over another. If it comes upon us from the living tones of a friendly voice, we listen as to the breathings of inspiration; if it act on us only from the pages of a book, the enchantment is hardly less potent. That a being, distant and unknown, perhaps departed, should have so penetrated our subtlest emotions, and caught our most transient attitudes of thought, should have so detected our sophistries of conscience, and witnessed the miseries of our temptations, and known the sacredness of our affections, that we appear revealed anew even to ourselves, truly seems the greatest of the triumphs of genius. It is a triumph peculiar to those who love the sympathies of their kind, and, because they love them, instinctively appreciate and understand them. It is essentially the triumph which Christ won when the minions of tyranny and hypocrisy shrunk back from him in awe, saying, 'Never man spake like this man.'

"With this quality, however, great feebleness of will, and even total prostration of moral power, may sometimes be found combined; and we may almost say, the greater the intellectual endowments, the more likely is this to be the case. If ordinary minds want sympathy before they can act freely, they can easily obtain it; their ideas and feelings are of the common staple of humanity, and some one who has them too may be found across the street. But if those of finer mould should have the same dependence of heart, it may prove a sore affliction and temptation to them; for who will respond to the desires, and aims, and emotions most dear to them? They wed themselves to a benevolent scheme ;it is thrust aside as a chimera. They demonstrate a truth of startling magnitude; it is ackowledged and passed by. They describe some misery of the poor, the child, or the guilty;-the world weeps, and the oppression is untouched. They pour forth their conceptions of perfect character, and seek to refresh in men's minds the bewildered sentiment of right;-every conscience approves, and not a volition stirs. thus they are left alone, without the practical support of a single sympathy: what wonder that they think in one way, and act in another, when the world reverences their thoughts, and ridicules their actions? Compelled by their nature to desire, what they are forbidden by men to execute; unable to love anything but that which is pronounced to be fit only for a dream; secretly dwelling within a beauty of excellence which they would be held insane to realize,-what wonder is it, if their practical energies die of dearth,—if they begin to doubt their nobler nature, and, while cherishing it in private, dishonour it in the world,—if the pure sincerity of their mind is thus at length broken down, and they soil in act the spirit which they sanctify in thought; and life wastes away in habits, on which the meditations of privacy pour a flood of ineffectual shame, and

And