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559 The Institutes," by which the author proposes to remedy these grave defects, are based on "the law of contradiction" (as it is usually called) originally propounded by Aristotle, (Metaphys., iii., 3,) as the fundamental axiom of all philosophy, in the following terms: "It is impossible that the same quality should both belong and not belong to the same thing. This is the most certain of all principles. Wherefore they who demonstrate refer to this as an ultimate opinion. For it is by nature the source of all the other axioms."

From this single axiom the author's whole system of Metaphysics is deduced in a series of demonstrations, each of which professes to be, and in our judgment is, as strict as any demonstration in Euclid. And so, all of them taken together constitute one great demonstration, serving to correct not only the inadvertencies of ordinary thinking, but also the false teaching of Psychology, or "the science of the human mind;" it being taken for granted, on the basis above-mentioned, that every metaphysical truth is faced by an opposite error, which has its origin in ordinary thinking, and which it is the business of philosophy to supplant. For the purpose of exhibiting more distinctly these corrective results, each proposition is immediately followed by the "counter-proposition" of ordinary thinking which it is intended to correct, excepting a very few cases, in which no such correction appears to be required. And each pair of propositions is followed by a series of observations and explanations, critical and historical, intended to remove any difficulties which might be felt to attach to the main proposition of the work.

The three divisions of philosophy, as laid down by the author, are, first, the Epistemology, or theory of knowledge; secondly, the Agnoiology, or theory of ignorance; and, thirdly, the Ontology, or theory of being. And "this arrangement," he says, "is not dictated by the choice or preference of any individual thinker, but by the necessity of the case, which will not admit of the problems of philosophy being taken up in any other order."

In the course of the work, he shows reason for allowing more credit to Pythagoras, Plato, and other ancient philosophers, for their approximations to philosophical truth, than has been usually conceded to them. "The early Greeks," he says, "had right tendencies wrongly directed, especially the earliest. Plato was confused in design, yet magnificent in surmises. To this day all philosophic truth is Plato rightly defined, all philosophic error is Plato misunderstood." He is also very gentle towards Hegel and his predecessors up to Kant. "Their faults," he thinks, "lie certainly, not in the matter, but only in the manner, of their compositions. Admirable in the substance and spirit and direction of their speculations, they are painfully deficient in the accomplishment of intelligible speech, and inhumanly negligent of all the arts by which alone the processes and results of philosophical research can be recommended to the attention of mankind." He is proportionably severe upon the Scotch metaphysicians, particularly Reid and Brown. The former of these he compliments as having "very good intentions, and very excellent abilities for every thing except philosophy."

In his judgment, "the philosophers (in general) have misinterpreted the Platonic analysis, and have mistaken for cognitions what Plato laid down as mere elements of cognition. Proceeding from this interpreta

tion, philosophy has travelled almost entirely on a wrong line. And this path has been the highway on which systems have jostled systems, and strewed the road with their ruins, since the days of Plato, down through the Middle Ages, and on to the present time. And now," he adds, standing at the very source of the mistake which feeds the whole of them, and on which they all join issue, we are in a position to unravel the controversies in which they were engaged, and to understand how none of them should have succeeded in establishing any truth of its own, however successful they may have been in refuting the errors of each other." We have said quite enough, surely, to engage the attention of those who take any interest in the subject; and if any one, between jest and earnest, ask, “Quid dignum tanto feret hic promissor hiatu?" we will only add that, if he will give himself-we will not say the trouble, but-the pleasure, of reading for himself, he will find his attention to it amply rewarded.

History of the Colony of Natal, South Africa. To which is added, A Brief History of the Orange-River Sovereignty. By the Rev. William C. Holden, upwards of Fifteen Years a Resident in the Colony. With Three Maps and Nineteen Illustrations on Wood and Stone. London: Alexander Heylin.

THE statistics of a country are always important and instructive; those of a new country, whose resources are little known, and but partially developed, still more so. To this subject Ministers may, in any Colony, usefully turn their attention in their leisure moments.

The work before us is valuable to all who may think of emigrating to this important and thriving Colony; to all who, from commercial or other considerations, feel a more than ordinary interest in its state and prospects.

The Maps-the absence of which in books of this class we pronounce to be a radical defect-are sufficiently numerous and distinct to be very useful to the reader; and the Plates, though unpretending, serve well the purpose of illustration. In this volume we find full information as to the geographical position and natural history of Natal: and as to its towns, villages, settlements, and capabilities.

The interesting account of its discovery, and of the first English settlers, is marked by a plenary share of the vicissitudes and privations, of the difficulties and struggles, which are incident to all new Colonies. We cannot read without deep sympathy the chapter which details the immigration of the Dutch Farmers, and the slaughter of a large party of them, with their leader Retief, by the crafty and cruel Chief Dingaan. It is painfully tragic. Retief had just completed an honourable agreement with the Chief for the sale of land, and was invited, in apparently the most friendly spirit, to a farewell visit. Upon entering the vast native kraal, he and his companions left their arms without, according to the custom of the nation. Being drawn within the power of the Chief, and quite defenceless, they fell an easy prey to the thousands who thus treacherously massacred them in cold blood. By the descriptions and Plates we may form an idea of the mode in which Kafir wars were formerly conducted.

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The position of the Dutch Boers is well elucidated, and their principles, habits, and actions, are described with much fairness and candour. The whole question of the Orange-River Sovereignty is calmly and fully discussed; and the reader is furnished with ample materials for forming his own conclusion as to the wisdom, or otherwise, of our Home Government in abandoning that Territory.

The information contained in this History evinces much care and diligence in its collection, and may be regarded as fully reliable; yet in a second edition we should suggest the advantage of a little more arrangement and condensation. "Being the first description of the Colony of Natal on an extended plan, it will be deemed worthy of commendation for its suggestions and aspirations, though, in common with all new undertakings, it does not pretend to be faultless in its execution." We quite concur in this very modest testimony to the worth of the volume, and in this very gentle appeal to the lenity of criticism.

Meditationes Hebraica: or, A Doctrinal and Practical Expo

sition of the Epistle of St. Paul to the Hebrews, in a Series of Lectures. By William Tait, M.A. New and enlarged Edition. Two Vols. London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co. THE author of these Lectures is of opinion that the devotion to Patristic Theology, which now prevails, has well nigh ruined the (Established) Church, and that, if the Clergy would be owned and blessed of God as the spiritual guides of His people, they must devote themselves rather to the study of His holy oracles. Whatever may be the extent of the mischief he deplores, there can be no doubt as to the suitableness of the remedy which he suggests. These volumes evince his own practical attention to that which he recommends to others, and his anxiety to urge Bible reading and study upon those who are engaged in "the occupations and engrossments of business," as well as upon his brethren of the Clergy; and with the domestics of the household, as well as with the families they serve. He has provided a work which, on the whole, is well adapted to promote his object. Opinions will vary, even amongst Church-of-England readers, as to the correctness of some of his doctrinal views, as when he says, that "the election of God" is "the election of a people for God's service out of a world for which an atonement has been made," and that "this is the Calvinism of the Church of England." For ourselves, it is hardly necessary to say, that our views of the election of God do not agree exactly with his, even in the milder form in which he seems to understand it. Neither do we see sufficient reason for believing, that "he who is possessed of that life, of which conscious fellowship with Christ is the beginning,' can never finally perish;" or that, when Christ shall "come again to receive" His people to Himself, the place to which He shall come again, as "His rest for ever," where Himself and His people shall be, is particularly mentioned in Scripture, and that "CANAAN IS THAT LOCALITY." With the exception of these points, and some others of a similar character, we can recommend these volumes as being the fruit of much good thought and feeling, and as being, throughout, earnestly devout and evangelical.

VOL. IV. NO. VIII.

99 66

Meditations and Moral Reflections. By M. Guizot. Translated by the late Marquis of Ormonde.

STATESMAN, orator, philosopher, moralist, and critic,—a Christian Tully in the most classical of modern nations,-M. Guizot has many titles to be considered the foremost man in France; perhaps he is also the most accomplished and most capable in Europe. The range of his achievements suggests the inferior name of Crichton; but he is more "admirable" in a far higher sphere, and evinces, not the versatility of talent, but the universality of genius. Endowed with the noblest gifts, he has turned them to the largest possible account, and his career has proved the worthy index and exponent of his mind. In the character of M. Guizot, the greatest capacity for practical affairs is joined to the finest genius for abstract philosophical research,-both subsisting in rare harmony, both carried to something like completeness and perfection, both rising to distinction and rewarded by success. In this combination he has no rival in modern history, and only one in the annals of Greek and Roman fame.

The slightest publication of such a man cannot fail to be significant; for, as Pascal strongly says, "In a truly great man every thing is great." This slender volume of M. Guizot is highly characteristic of his genius. It represents very fairly the expansive conservatism, if we may so speak, both of his political and moral sentiments, and shows how comprehensive, almost to weakness, is his ambition of great social ameliorations. As a statesman, he aims at the perfect conciliation of order and freedom; as a Protestant, he asserts the mutual claims of Christian faith and religious liberty. These are grand problems, and capable, we believe, of practical solution; and if, as we also must believe, M. Guizot has not suggested the most direct and legitimate method of solving them, great allowance must be made for his peculiar circumstances, and high praise awarded to his noble and sincere endeavours. It is well known that the Protestantism of M. Guizot is not of an extreme character. Considering his position, this can hardly be a matter of surprise. In a public point of view both advantage and discouragement are probably due to this circumstance. The long political ascendancy of M. Guizot, in the reign of Louis Philippe, was no doubt conducive to the interests of religion, though in a degree that might seem faint and disproportionate. On the other hand, whatever his influence may have been on the religion of his countrymen, it is clear that the Gallican Church has made considerable way in his affections and esteem. He goes so far as to entertain hopes that Catholicism may formally abandon its intolerant character, and, while granting the fullest liberty of conscience, may yet maintain its authoritative and exclusive claims. The Preface to the volume before us embodies some such dream. "I feel," says M. Guizot, "a profound respect for the Catholic Church. She has been during centuries the Christian Church of France. I look upon her dignity, her liberty, her moral authority as essential to the fate of entire Christianity; and did I believe that the Catholic Church could not without self-subjugation accept in the State the principle of religious liberty, I should be silent; for, above all things, I detest hypocrisy and subtlety. But it is not so." In

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We do not class

this hopeful declaration we are unable to concur. ourselves with those extreme Protestants who can see nothing but evil in the Romish Church, and who regard infidelity itself as less hurtful to the individual and to society. But the saving merit of Catholicism-to wit, its religious zeal-is bound up with its intolerance; and it must be dead as a religion, and therefore only an organized system of hypocrisy and fraud, before it can willingly endure the presence and independence of the Reformed Churches; and if those Churches ever cease to protest against its corruptions and delusions, it will be because they have lost much of their faith and purity and power. We deplore, with M. Guizot, the growing infidelity of the age; we long, with him, to see all Christians lose something of their differences, and remember chiefly their common faith and love; but the alliance he proposes is hopeless and self-condemned; for how could it antagonize that spirit of worldliness and unbelief to which it had already half surrendered ?

We cannot leave this little volume without indicating its peculiar merit. Nothing is more unmistakable than the religious earnestness of M. Guizot, and no fact is more cheerfully to be acknowledged. In a land of perverted genius and unhallowed speculation, we recognise with pleasure the faith and devotion of her brightest son. After such measures of learning and experience as few can have, this great man owns the insufficiency of mere human science to explain the central secret of the world, or to satisfy the inquiries of the soul; and his language, always so pointed and felicitous, is unusually direct and clear in making that acknowledgment. In a speech delivered at a Protestant Bible Society, and quoted by the author in the Preface already drawn upon, occur a few most valuable sentences: "The question in dispute, to call things by their right names, is between supernaturalism and naturalism. On the one side unbelievers, pantheists, pure rationalists, and sceptics of all kinds. On the other, Christians...... Among the first, the best still allows to the statue of the Deity, if I may make use of such an expression, a place in the world and in the human soul; but to the statue only, an image, a marble. God Himself is no longer there. Christians alone possess the living God......It is the living God whom we need! Our present and future safety requires, that faith in supernatural order, that respect for, and submission to, supernatural order, should again pervade the world and the human soul,-the greatest minds as well as the simplest, the most elevated classes as well as the most humble. The truly efficacious and regenerating influence of religious belief depends on this condition. Without it all is superficial, almost worthless."

In addition to these weighty sentiments, this slender, but interesting, tract abounds in choice remarks, of which we cull but two by way of specimen. "Controversy opens the abyss which it pretends to fill; for it adds the obstinacy of self-love to differences of opinion......It would not be worth while to live, if we gathered from a long life no other fruit than a little experience and prudence in the affairs of this world, against the moment of leaving it." Our quotations are still from the suggestive Preface; the "Meditations" themselves are left untouched, but heartily commended to the reader. The lamented Marquis to whom we owe the present translation has performed it with taste and skill.