Wotherspoon's Satires.

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preachers who admired him addressed them in a very different speech from that of their old divines and from that of the inspired writers. The description given of the new style of preaching by the clerical satirist Wotherspoon, in his "Characteristics," was found to have point and edge: "It is quite necessary in a moderate man, because his moderation teaches him, to avoid all the high flights of evangelic enthusiasm and the mysteries of grace of which the common people are so fond. It may be observed, nay, it is observed, that all our stamp avoid the word grace as much as possible, and have agreed to substitute the moral virtues in the room of the graces of the Spirit.' Where an old preacher would have said a great degree of sanctification, a man of moderation and politeness will say a high pitch of virtue." In the advice to a good preacher the following counsels are given :-"1. His subjects must be confined to the social duties. 2. He must recommend them only from rational considerations, viz., the beauty and comely proportions of virtue, and its advantages in the present life without any regard to a future state of more extended self-interest. 3. His authorities must be drawn from heathen writers; none, or ast few as possible, from Scripture. 4. He must be very unacceptable to the common people." "The scattering a few phrases in their sermons, as harmony, order, proportion, taste, sense of beauty, balance of the affections, will easily persuade the people that they are learned; and this persuasion is to all intents and purposes the same thing as if it were true. It is one of those deceitful feelings which Mr H in his Essays has shown to be beautiful and useful." In illustrating the third counsel he says, "It is well known there are multitudes in our island who reckon Socrates and Plato to have been much greater men than any of the apostles, although (as the moderate preacher I mentioned lately told his hearers) the apostle Paul had a university education and was instructed in logic by Gamaliel. Therefore let religion be constantly and uniformly called virtue, and let the heathen philosophers be set up as great patterns and promoters of it. Upon this head most particularly recommend M. Antoninus by name, because an eminent person of the moderate character says his Meditations are the best book that ever was written for forming the heart." The effect of this accommodation of religion to the world is graphically and truly described: "The necessity of such a conduct cannot be denied when it is considered what effect the length and frequency of public devotion have had in driving most of the fashionable gentry from our churches altogether.' "Now the only way to regain them to the church is to accommodate the worship as much

as may be to their taste." "I confess there has sometimes been an ugly objection thrown up against this part of my argument, viz., that this desertion of public worship by those in high life seems, in fact, to be contemporary with, and to increase in a pretty exact proportion to, the attempts that have been made and are made to suit it to their taste."

Hutcheson's works got fit audience in his own day, but did not continue to be much read after his death. In his mode and manner of writing he is evidently indebted to the wits of Queen Anne, such as Shaftesbury, Bolingbroke, Pope, and Swift, who were Frenchifying the English tongue, polishing away at once its roughness and its vigour, introducing the French clearness of expression, and we may add, the French morals. Hutcheson has their clearness, but is without their liveliness and wit. His style is like a well-fenced level country, in which we weary walking for any length of time; it is not relished by those who prefer elevations and depressions; and is disliked by those who have a passion for mountains and passes. He ever maintains a high moral tone; but it is doubtful whether he has retained for morality a sufficiently deep foundation.

His philosophy is undoubtedly an advance upon that of Locke, and rises immeasurably above that of those professed followers of Locke in England and France, who in the days of Hutcheson were leaving out Locke's reflection, and deriving all man's ideas from sensation, and all his motives from pleasures and pains. His view of the moral faculty is correct so far as it goes. He represents it as natural to man, and in his very constitution and nature. There may even be a propriety in calling it a sense with the qualifying phrase moral, inasmuch as like the senses it is a source of knowledge; revealing to us certain qualities of voluntary acts or agents; and inasmuch as it has always feeling or sensibility attached to its exercises.

But, on the other hand, his view of the moral power falls greatly beneath that of the great English moralists of the previous century, and below that of the school of Clarke in his own day. The word sense allies the conscience too much with the animal organism, and the whole account given of it separates it from the reason or higher intelligence. On this point he was met immediately on the publication of his views by George Burnet, who maintains that moral good and evil are discerned by reason; that there is first reason, or an internal sense of truth and falsehood, moral good and evil, right and wrong, which is accompanied by another succeeding internal sense of beauty and pleasure; and that reason is the judge of the goodness and badness of our

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affections and of the moral sense itself. Hutcheson does speak of the moral sense as being superior in its nature to the other senses, but he does not bring out so prominently and decisively as Butler did, its supremacy and its right to govern.

If his theory of the moral power is superficial and defective, his account of that to which the conscience looks is positively erroneous. He represents virtue as consisting in benevolence, by which he means good will. This view cannot be made to embrace love to God, except by stretching it so wide as to make it another doctrine altogether; for surely it is not as a mere exercise of good will that the love of God can be described as excellent. His theory is especially faulty in that it overlooks justice, which has ever been regarded by our higher moralists as among the most essential of the virtues. Nor is it to be omitted that his moral system is self-righteous in its injunctions, and pagan in its spirit. No doubt he speaks everywhere with deep admiration of the morality of the New Testament; but the precepts which he inculcates, are derived fully as much from Antoninus and the Stoics as from the discourses of our Lord, and the Epistles of the apostles; and we look in vain for a recommendation of such graces as repentance and humility, meekness and long-suffering.

By bringing down morality from the height at which the great ethical writers, of ancient and modern times, had placed it, he prepared the way for the system of Adam Smith, and even for that of Hume. Smith was a pupil of his own, and Hutcheson was brought into contact with Hume. Hume submitted to Hutcheson in manuscript the "Third Part of his Treatise of Human Nature," that on Morals, before giving it to the world. The remarks which Hutcheson offered have been lost, but we can gather what they were from the letter which Hume sent him on receiving them, and which has been preserved. Hutcheson most characteristically objects to Hume, that he had not expressed a sufficient warmth in the cause of virtue, and that he was defective in point of prudence. Was this all that the high moralist Hutcheson had to object to the founder of modern utilitarianism? On the publication of his Institutes of Moral Philosophy, Hutcheson sends a copy of it to Hume, who remarks upon it, specially objecting to it as adopting Butler's opinion, that our moral sense has an authority distinct from its force and desirableness; but confessing his delight "to see such just philosophy, and such instructive morals, to have once set their foot in the Schools. I hope they will next get into the world, and then into the churches." Yes, this was what the rationalists wished in that day, and what they wish in ours,

to get their views into the churches. Hutcheson, though disapproving of the philosophy of Hume, and refusing to support him as a candidate for the chair of Moral Philosophy in Edinburgh, which he himself declined, had not retained sufficiently deep principles to enable him successfully to resist the great sceptic who had now appeared. Error has been committed, God's law has been lowered, and the avenger has come. We must endeavour in our next article to present him to our readers.

ART. III.-Life of Theodore Parker.

Life and Correspondence of Theodore Parker, Minister of the TwentyEighth Congregational Society, Boston. By JOHN WEISS. In Two Volumes. London: Longmans & Co. 1863.

IT has been well said, that "toleration is a plant of easy growth in the soil of indifference." It cost the old Romans nothing at first at least-to admit the possible divinity of Jesus Christ, because, looking at no religion as exclusively true, one god more or less in their Pantheon made no real difference to them. And the easy catholicity which distinguished the Romans did not become extinct with the Latin Empire. There are still to be found, in these our own days, men who not only see nothing incongruous, for example, in a Pusey, a Stanley, and a Ryle, being ministers in one church, but who are disposed to embrace, with almost equal cordiality, the foes and the friends of the Christian revelation. It is positively no exaggeration to say that, among not a few of the very liberal public writers of these times, the assaults of Colenso on the foundations of our faith have been regarded with a kindly and almost affectionate indulgence, while the strong language with which Renan is denounced in Christian circles, has been earnestly deprecated, as savouring not merely of bigotry, but of the spirit of persecution.

It would be well to come to some distinct understanding with the advocates of this modern method of " toleration." If it is their opinion that the Bible is of no authority, that nothing has yet been settled as to matters of faith, and that we are still in want of some theological Newton to rise up and disclose to us which are the principia of religion, then let them frankly say so. We shall, after that, know exactly where to find them; and more than this we shall give them all due credit for

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consistency. For a man whose creed contains just this single article, There is nothing particularly true," is of course entitled to welcome and patronise any teacher, no matter what may be the kind of doctrine he chooses to proclaim. But, on the other hand, it will not be reckoned unreasonable that we should ask that the position of such persons as ourselves should be looked at and fairly estimated. We are convinced, rightly or wrongly, that theology is not an infant science with its first principles still undiscovered; it is our honest belief that the Bible is the word of God, and the ultimate standard of appeal in all matters both of faith and practice; and we are So thoroughly satisfied of the soundness of our convictions on these points, and of their importance, that we can no more consent to have it remain an open question, whether Jesus Christ be divine or not, or whether there is any other way salvation except through him, than we can, as loyal subjects, admit the questionableness of the Queen's right to rule over the British Empire. The essential tenableness of the position is, of course, a fair subject for discussion, and in that connection we are quite prepared, and, as we believe, quite able to hold our own. But assuming that our position is what we have now stated it to be, it is not a little strange that candid men should feel warranted, for one moment, to accuse us of intolerance, when we proceed to pronounce upon the men and books that are brought under our notice such judgments as our known and professed principles logically require us to pronounce.

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On one condition we should have had no hesitation in welcoming the Life of Theodore Parker in the way that some have done, as a valuable addition to our collection of religious biographies. That condition is that we had felt ourselves at liberty to admit the possible falsehood of Christianity, or, at least, that we could have accepted the doctrine that the religion of Jesus is just one of the many true religions which are at present professed on the earth. The subject of this memoir had much about him that was fitted to interest and attract. His natural abilities were of a high order, and he took extraordinary pains to cultivate them. His early advantages were few, and he received scarcely anything of school or college training; but by his own indomitable energy and perseverance, he made himself one of the most learned men of his age and country. He was warm-hearted, too, and had the faculty of surrounding himself with circles of devoted friends. And while, in all his relations, his honesty, and sincerity, and earnestness could not be doubted, there was much substantial good which he was enabled to do in connection with the great social movements of his time. Now there will, of course, be many who will regard these virtues as more than sufficient to cover or atone VOL. XIII.-NO. XLVIII.

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