a volume destined to live after him, and the simple and beautiful sketch of his life prefixed to it, without great delight to find a spirit of such deep, unaffected, unalloyed piety breathing through it. The wish of the Christian Poet is accomplished in this volume, which contains in its portrait of the author the deep, clear lines of the image of God renewed, and a body of thought that could only have sprung from deep Christian experience.

There were delightful qualities in Dr. Marsh's character, of which I have not spoken, but which all who knew him could appreciate even better than they could understand his profound scholarship, or his true philosophical worth. He had the finest feelings, and an unselfish, unworldly heart; a very rare undeviating singleness of purpose, a simplicity of character like a child's, a genuine humility of mind, and a delightful freedom from all ostentation, all pride, either of talent or acquirement. Indeed this latter trait in him was very remarkable. It was, in part, the cause of that retired calmness, with which, unsolicitous to gain a name, and careless what men might say of him, he proceeded as on the path of duty, in his philosophical investigations. He had much poetical sensibility, and the most affectionate social feelings. He possessed the spirit of true patriotism, and would to God that such exhibitions among us of love to our country, as may be found in his Inaugural Address, were more common among our public and literary men. We want men of principle, men of patriotism, thinking men, and praying men.

I congratulate this Institution that it has possessed so noble a Christian Philosopher and scholar, as one of its presiding spirits; that so noble a contribution has been made to our native, original philosophy and literature in the volume of his Remains; that a personal exemplar of such disinterested views and holy principles has been before the students; that in this volume they have the stamp of the character of so pure and simple-hearted, yet pro

found and vigorous-minded a seeker after truth. I rejoice in behalf of all our institutions, that there has been such a defender of the necessary agency of religious truth in the cultivation of the mind; such an asserter of the only foundation of permanence and stedfastness, in the Divine Word, and the religious principle. Our republic is safe, if everywhere the guardians of our youth, the teachers of the minds. and hearts of our children, may but be imbued with such views of truth and duty. The Spirit of God attends such views, so inculcated, and we believe ever will; nor has the importance of such teachings, in every direction, as the Spirit of God can consistently accompany, such as will cooperate and not conflict with his divine influences, ever been sufficiently considered.

The memory of Dr. Marsh's great and profound attainments, his deep piety and learning, his delightful simplicity and purity of soul, would have long remained fresh with those who knew him, even if no fruits of his genius had been left after him. To many who loved him, or who sought his kindness and his guidance, he was so familiar and affectionate a friend, that he left them almost unaware that he was a great man; so little is genuine simplicity of character understood or valued as an attribute of greatness. Indeed, it is one of those qualities which the great world do not understand at all, and which, I had almost said, men can see only by not looking at it, but by being made partakers of it; it being indefinable, omnipresent as an atmosphere, and making its impression unconsciously upon the soul. Dr. Marsh's friends knew him as the good man, and the sense of his goodness became one with, and familiarized the impression of his greatness. They loved him as the good man, and he was, indeed, a rare and precious example of the union of the child-like Christian with the profound Philosopher.

His reputation abroad is established by fruits of his labors, that cannot die; but far better is the fragrant

memory of his goodness at home; far better the assurance that there where he was best known, he was most appreciated, revered, beloved, lamented. While we remember his wisdom, and dwell upon his lovely and attractive qualities this day, let us beware lest our regret that God has taken him away so early, prevent or diminish our gratitude, that we have been permitted to enjoy his presence, his example, his instructions, so long. And let us remember, that though God may not have moulded us in so peculiar a constitution, of so fine and exquisite materials, as that we might aspire or attain to Dr. Marsh's intellectual greatness, yet by divine grace it is both our privilege and duty to be all possessors of his goodness, in being made partakers of the holiness of God in Christ.

LIFE AND WRITINGS OF JOHN FOSTER.*

GEOLOGISTS tell us, somewhat quaintly, that great and inexhaustible springs are found in connection with what they call faults, that is, breaks in the continuity of the rocks. There must be these breaks in the strata, and if it were not for this benevolent arrangement of Providence, there had been neither running fountains nor rivers, but sluggish stagnant pools. A powerful spring is not to be found but in connection with the existence of a great fault. The despotic crust of the earth must be broken up, before its living fountains of waters can gush in freedom to the surface. There is an instructive analogy in all this.

An Ecclesiastical Despotism would keep the intellectual and moral world without faults, that is, without freedom: it would circle the globe with the dead, hard, rocky crust and tetter of an enforced religious uniformity; it would have no spontaneous, powerful springs breaking out and running freely to the ocean. But God's benevolent power interposes, and breaks up the despotic continuity, and gives us springs. The strata of establishments being pierced and rent, there are no longer stagnant pools, but deep, living fountains.

The analogy might be extended into something like an argument for the necessity and usefulness of various de

* The Life and Correspondence of John Foster. Edited by J. E. Ryland. With notices of Mr. Foster as a Preacher and a Companion, by JOHN SHEPPARD, author of "Thoughts on Devotion," etc., etc. In two volumes. New York, Wiley & Putnam, 161 Broadway, 1846.-Biblical Repository.

nominations in the Church of Christ. These things are not necessarily the result of sectarianism, but of freedom; and God makes use of these faults, even if we admitted them to be, not merely in the geological, but moral sense of the term, faults,-for the production of vastly greater good than ever there could have been without them. They are not faults, but blessings; and though men may abuse them, they are the assurance and the safeguard of spiritual freedom.

Of the English minds that have departed from our world within a few years, none have excited a deeper interest, or wielded for a season a loftier power, than John Foster and Robert Hall. They were both triumphant instances of the superiority of intellect, and the homage that will be paid to it, over all circumstance and mere external distinction. One of the most obvious reflections that rises in the mind of a thoughtful observer of the greatness and power of such intellect, after the first analysis and admiration of its elements, may be that it was a possession and result of what is called the voluntary system. These men were two of the "Intellectual Incas" of their race. In the two together, there were combined nearly all the grand qualities that ever go to make up minds of the highest order; severity and affluence, keenness and magnificence, simplicity and sublimity of thought; ruggedness, power, and elaborate beauty and exquisiteness of style; precision and splendor of language; condensed energy, fire, and diffusive richness of imagination; originality, independence, and perfect classical elegance; comprehensiveness and accuracy; nobleness of feeling, intense hatred of oppression, Christian humility, childlike simplicity.

And yet there were greater differences between them than there were similarities. In some respects their minds were of quite an opposite mould. Hall's mind was more mathematical than Foster's, and he was distinguished for his power of abstract speculation, and his love and habit of