primary cause. We say, as the primary cause; for it would be mere tautology to say that their faith, through which they were thus saved, was their faith, or that their good works, to which they were created in Christ, were their good works in every sense that any thing was theirs, or indeed that their being quickened with him was an exercise of their own affections. The apostle is here speaking of the ultimate Cause, not of the immediate causes. Again he exhorts Timothy, "be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel, according to the power of God, who hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose, and grace, which was given us, in Christ Jesus, before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ." Here, too, the salvation is that which had already been experienced. It is also ascribed, as in the preceding passage, to the purpose and grace of God, as the original cause, but not to the exclusion of Timothy's agency, to which the apostle appeals in his exhortation. He directs Titus to enjoin on the believers the practice of all good works; "for," adds he, "the grace of God, that bringeth salvation to all men, hath appeared, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works." He reminds Titus, in nearly the language which he used to the Ephesians, that they had formerly been foolish, disobedient, and slaves of divers lusts; but that afterwards "the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour." Let it be once more observed, that this was present salvation, as it is sometimes called, and that it was effected immediately by regeneration and the renewing influence of the Holy Spirit; thus embracing, of course, all the agencies which are called into action in that process.

Now, sinking out of sight for the present the other causes to which the work of salvation is sometimes ascribed, here are two aspects presented of our subject in almost every part of the New Testament,-the divine, and the human. If it should be thought difficult to bring these into mutual consistency, we would observe that this depends on the degree to which we have become entangled in metaphysical speculations. It is not commonly felt a perplexing problem to recognize a primary Cause, and at the same time proximate causes; and this is the simple key to unlock the whole mystery before us. Only shut metaphysics out of our mind; keep within the circle of practical common-sense; and our conscience runs spontaneously in the twofold channel of thought which the inspired teachers pursue. We recognize God as the author of all holy exercises within us, and at the same time feel the obligation on our part to perform them. Our sense of the divine superintendence only deepens the sense of our responsibility in the case. St. Paul has exhausted the whole subject in the injunction, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who worketh within you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." That is the true utterance of our unsophisticated moral and religious sense. Set the dissecting skill of metaphysics to work upon it, and the probable result will be that of the anatomist's knife on the living body some curiosities discovered, but the life of the subject destroyed. If we would be content to take the Scripture doctrine on our subject, in both of its aspects, just as they are presented in the New Testament, we should find it perfectly consistent with every dictate of unperverted reason, or common sense.

But man is a hobbyhorsical creature; and, what is unfortunate, he is commonly set upon riding only one side of his hobbyhorse at a time. If he begins with human agency, in religious concerns, he must have it that this is all; that our spiritual being is left to itself; that it works independently; and that its destiny is undetermined by any higher counsel. He is dexterous in the use of all those texts which relate exclusively to our responsibility; one half of the Bible, on the general subject, he resolutely ignores, and, with this, the very principles which he him

If it be thought that we have spoken too disparagingly of metaphysics, let us explain that we have no objection to them in their place. But may we suggest a caution. When they are employed on the subject before us, ought we not to remember that they relate to this in no other way than as they relate to all questions of practical life. Suppose we make out, by metaphysics, that man has really no agency of his own; and, therefore, that there are no conditions on his part in the work of salvation, so that he ought not to be urged, nor warned, as if he had any thing to do in it,-must we not make the rule universal, extending to all concerns, economical, prudential, domestic? If, in spite of my metaphysics, I may plead with my neighbor to take care of his health, his property, his habits, and if I may enforce the conditions of his prosperity in other respects, notwithstanding he has no agency of his own, may I not, with equal propriety, plead with him to work out his own salvation, and lay before him the conditions in this case? Metaphysics are, from their very nature, universals; the danger is that we shall make but a partial application of them, like the Berkleian, who, having proved that the external world does not exist, fell foul of every body who spoke of houses as realities, but allowed that barns and sheds might be regarded as such.

There are other relations of our subject, for which we refer to the article alluded to,

H. B. 2d.

ART. XIV.

Literary Notices.

1. History of Spanish Literature. By George Ticknor. In Three Volumes. New York: Harper and Brothers, &c. 1849. 8vo.

In 1816, Mr. Ticknor was appointed to the Professorship of Spanish and French Literature in Harvard College; in which office he continued about nineteen years, or till 1835. Two years after his appointment, he visited Spain, "to increase," he says, "a very imperfect knowledge of the language and literature of the country, and to purchase Spanish books, always so rare in the great book-marts of the rest of Europe." On that occasion, he formed an acquaintance with some distinguished men of letters; and he has ever since maintained correspondence with scholars, both in Spain and in other parts of the continent, as well as in America, who were versed in the literature of that country. On his return to Harvard, he delivered courses of lectures, on the subject, to the classes that came successively under his instruction, till he resigned his office. In 1835, he again went to Europe, and spent two or three years in intercourse with scholars, and in consulting libraries in various countries, with reference to his studies. It is said that his own library, in Boston, is the best collection of Spanish books and manuscripts, that can be found out of Spain.

Such were the opportunities, the means, and the discipline, by which he prepared himself to execute the work now before us. The result is, the most complete history, we suppose, of Spanish literature, that has appeared in any quarter. After an Introduction, on the Mediæval state and revolutions of the Peninsula, he begins with the earliest appearance of the present written language, about the end of the twelfth century; and, following the chronological order as nearly as practicable, he goes through with an elaborate account of the several authors, giving abstracts and specimens of their works, and passing critical judgements upon them, and tracing out the influences that affected the current of literature, at different periods, down to the former part of our own century. The whole is concluded with several Appendixes, and with a copious Index, which, together with very full Tables of Contents, makes it easy to find any topic or fact that may be sought, in the body of the work. It is a store-house of biography, legend, and literary anecdote, as well as of what may be called more general history of authorship and genius,-such as has rarely been brought together from so wide a field.

These volumes are written in an easy, straight onward style, clear, without ostentation, but in a manner that shows little effort to condense. Perhaps the character of the subject, together with the variety and minuteness of topics it embraced, has led the author sometimes to run too much into details. It was difficult to assimilate such a mass of heterogeneous materials into an organic whole, and to breathe through them an all-pervading life. Nevertheless, the work will stand an honorable monument of the author's exhaustive research, careful reading, and thorough study. We think there is no danger in predicting that it will always be regarded as marking a new epoch in the history of Spanish liter

ature.

On looking at the date of Mr. Ticknor's first visit to Spain, we cannot but be reminded how rich a harvest of literary renown our countrymen have since gathered on that soil! The arabesque romance of Washington Irving, his noble history, and the splendid works of Prescott, have associated the names of these two geniuses forever with the land of the Cid and Moor; and now the scholar, who seems first to have opened on that field, comes forward, after so long a period, to present the public with the fruits of thirty years' toil, and secures a place for his own name with that of his illustrious compatriots.

2. Old Portraits and Modern Sketches. By John G. Whittier. Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields. 1850. 12mo. pp. 304.

The Old Portraits are those of the renowned John Bunyan; of Thomas Ellwood, the gentle Quaker friend of Milton, and the fortunate suggester of "Paradise Regained"; of James Nayler the enthusiast, and of John Roberts the humorist, two other English Quakers of a different stamp, but true and earnest men, in the times of the Commonwealth; of Cromwell's Latin Secretary, Andrew Marvell, the poet, brilliant wit, and incorruptible statesman, and the friend of Milton; of Samuel Hopkins, our great Newport theologian, and, still more, the first as well as one of the most heroic of American Abolitionists; and of Richard Baxter, the English divine. The Modern Sketches are of William Leggett, late editor of the New York Evening Post, and Nathaniel P. Rogers, late editor of the Concord, N. H. Herald of Freedom, two champions in the cause of freedom, the former, one of the noblest spirits, the latter genial, brilliant, but erratic; and lastly of Robert Dinsmore, a quaint old farmer and poet among the Scotch Presbyterians of Londonderry, N. H.

We think that few can read these Portraits and Sketches without feeling, with reverent admiration, how high a true man, though in suffering and obscurity, stands above the mere worldly great, as the everlasting mountains tower above the proudest