wise man of the Stoics. And what was he?

One who had

destroyed all his affections and become indifferent to every sympathy; a man of cold reason with the emotional part of his nature dead; a man of stern and severe justice, but of no gentle virtues; a man above all the ills of life, because he had destroyed his susceptibility. This conception of a mutilated humanity was the model man of the best sect of ancient philosophy. Shall we ask then what idea of a perfect human character the ancient pagan religions can give us? Alas, here is the most unlikely place of all, to find a conception resembling the character of Jesus. Their ideas of excellence are embodied in myths so gross and foul, as to shock all the moral feelings. We cannot condescend to mention them in our argument, but turn to inquire, Does it fall far short of a miracle that in ages such as these, with such inadequate ideas of moral purity, the picture of Christ was painted on the canvas of the Gospels? Here is no place for that small subtlety of carping criticism which would dissipate the marvelous beauty of the divine picture, by studying out the minor discrepancies, and the want of chronological order, in the different records of the life of Christ? What care we if there were a thousand more of these than there are? It is the Saviour, Jesus, that we want. Why care, in what order, or by what sort of a pencil, the tints are laid upon the canvas, provided we have the complete picture? Does any one thus analyze a work of Raphael's, refusing to admire or to feel till he has satisfied himself that he understands completely the process of the artist's work? No! and in like manner before the living form of our ascended Lord, as pictured to us in the records of the Gospels, all minor criticism fades away, and he himself stands forth to vindicate his claims as the revealer of God, with a power to teachable hearts like that which shall accompany his advent in the clouds of Heaven.

There are only three hypotheses, by which skepticism can attempt to deny this conclusion; the first that the entire life of Christ is a fiction invented by writers of a later date; the second, that a very good man called Jesus really lived, and was put to death under Pontius Pilate, but that all the supernatural, which is related of him, was a drapery, thrown around him, by the imagination of his biographers; the third, that the entire character, excepting only the most general outline, is a myth or outgrowth of the time. The first position has been abandoned. Though it was once held with great tenacity, no living skeptic of any eminence ventures to occupy that ground. Whatever writer on the Christian evidences, now wrestles with this antagonist, exerts his strength agianst the ghost of a dead

and buried foe. Yet Bishop Butler, not much more than a hundred years ago, could write, in the preface to his Analogy, "It has come, I know not how, to be taken for granted, by many persons, that Christianity is not so much as a subject of inquiry; but that it is now at length discovered to be fictitious. And accordingly they treat it as if in the present age this were an agreed point among all people of discernment, and nothing remained but to set it up as a principal subject of mirth and ridicule, by way of reprisals for its having so long interrupted the pleasures of the world." That day has passed forever.

Yet the second theory is not a whit less absurd, though it proudly holds up its head, and boasts of the strategy by means of which it allows, as it must, an element of truth to the Gospels, and yet relieves them of everything which would burden the conscience, reducing the revealer of God, Jesus, to the level of Thomas Carlisle. All the insuperable difficulties, which hedge up the way of the human intellect towards the pure invention of such conception as the life of Christ, cluster around the modern theory of unbelief. Not one whit is the impossibility lessened by allowing a real personage, whose life is to be invested with a supernatural glory by the inventive faculty of earth-born genius. In fact, this is the very task, which the greatest men in literature through all ages, have set to themselves,-weaving their imaginings around some living being, either present to their own experience, or made palpable to their hearts in history. And in this very thing, they have uniformly failed to image forth any such conception as that of the character of Christ. They have given us caricatures for characters, overdrawing single passions, foibles or excellencies. They have given us unnatural characters, above or below the range of humanity. They have given us outlines of earthly passions and affections, but have not risen to the higher range of the spiritual and the Godlike. They have failed in their tasks; though what they have accomplished has rendered them immortal. Even of these, how small the number! So rare is the gift of inventive genius. And it is this task which we are to suppose, the fishermen of Judea accomplished; or what is more remarkable-some mighty mind whose name the world has permitted to die. Nay! it is more than this, for how delicately has the task been accomplished! Who can see where, the natural and supernatural unite? So blended are they, who can mark the transition from the one to the other. It has been said of John Jay, that when the judicial ermine fell upon his shoulders, it touched nothing less pure than itself. So, when the supernatural drapery of the Gospel, the glory of miraculous power, the mysterious splen

dor of the transformation, the pomp of herald angels, the awfulness of the resurrection, or the brightness of the ascension, invests the person of Jesus, it rests upon nothing less divine than itself.

Where, we may ask, in all the Gospels, do you find traces of the toils of authorship? Are not those simple hearted records radiant with an honest purpose? Is it not absurd to conceive of those ingenuous writers, as weaving from their own fancy, garlands to adorn their Lord? Is not everything related as if it were the simplest fact?

The latest theory of skepticism is that which bears the name of Strauss, and which would have us believe that the entire character of Jesus, excepting only the most general outline, is a myth, or outgrowth of the time. This hypothesis is invented to avoid the difficulties of the preceding, and is a virtual concession, that former theories are untenable. Instead of regarding the disciples as deliberately or enthusiastically inventing the supernatural, this view maintains, that there grew up spontaneously in the church, without any conscious invention, a mass of legendary tales, which grouped themselves around Jesus. Such a view needs only to be propounded to show its folly. The chances are ten thousand to one, that a mythologic formation would never crystallize into such exceeding beauty as the recorded life of Jesus. All the tales of mythology are grotesque, wholly deficient in proportion and symmetry. Besides, the character of man is an entire refutation of the theory. No age of the world has there ever been, and least of all, the age in which Jesus lived, which could deposit from the turbid current of its legendary tales, the purity and beauty of the evangelic story, or the conception of that majestic person-majestic in his lowliness-who is the theme of all the story. Will the dark waters of the Mississippi leave upon its shores a deposit of crystal beauty? The clear azure ocean lines its shores with pure, bright sands, and in its depths the pearls are sown. It is not from the turbid pool of human passion, that the character of Jesus has been accidentally deposited. This pearl of great price, in our human history, came only from the infinite ocean of God's eternal purity.

Strauss himself admits, that the life of Jesus differs from the tales of Pagan mythology, in its purity, in its general credibility, in its idea of fitness between God and actions, and in its relation to the unchangeableness of God. Is it then of the same kind? Of all the positions which skepticism has assumed, or to which it has been driven, we think that his is the weakest. Nor do we believe the work of Strauss has obtained its influence, by virtue of any plausibility in his theory. Its

credit even among the skeptics is owing rather to the subtle criticism by which he has tried to pick flaws in the ancient records of our faith.

There is but one other supposition possible, and that is the supposition that the story is true; that the historic Jesus of Nazareth, who died and rose again, is indeed the revealer of God to man. The character of Jesus demonstrates Christianity. It is related of Socrates, that when Aristophanes had produced a poem with the design of ridiculing him, and it was about to be acted in the theatre, Socrates himself went thither, and when in the midst of the performance it became known that he was there, the audience with loud voices expressed their desire to see him; so that at last he was compelled to stand up, and show himself, as the original of the caricature. In an instant all the power of the comedy was gone. The indignation of the audience was turned upon the poet, and the poem of the Clouds was rejected with contempt. In the presence of Socrates, it was imposible to satirize Socrates.

So, if Jesus in his divine life were once really present to the discernment of skeptical hearts, all doubts would be resolved. Beholding "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ," their souls would be melted into repentance and faith, and they would seek "to be transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

ART. V.-SLAVERY-ITS EFFECT ON THE PROPERTY, INTELLIGENCE, AND MORALS OF THE WHITES.-OLMSTED ON THE SEABOARD SLAVE STATES.

A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States, with remarks on their Economy. By FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED, Author of "Walks and Talks of an American Farmer in England." New York: Dix & Edwards. London: Samson Low, Son & Co. 1856.

We do not know of any book, professing to give information respecting the working of slavery in the United States, which is on the whole so valuable as this. It is an octavo volume of

723 pages, filled with the observations of a careful, competent, and candid witness. Mr. Olmsted being a scientific and practical farmer, is peculiarly fitted to form an intelligent and sound judgment concerning agricultural labor and economy, to which the slave States are especially devoted. And his previous work, "Walks and Talks of an American Farmer in England," proves him to be a traveler accustomed to observe facts carefully and intelligently, to reason from them fairly, and to express his observations and inferences clearly and felicitously. His opportunities of observation, and the manner of preparing his book, are thus described by himself. "In the year 1853, the author of this work made a journey through the seaboard slave States, and gave an account of his observations in the New York Daily Times,' under the signature of 'Yeoman.' Those letters excited some attention, and their publication in a book was announced; but before preparing them for the press, the author had occasion to make a second and longer visit to the South. In the light of the experience then gathered, the letters have been revised, and with much additional matter are now presented to the public." He says that he "had, at the outset of his journey, a determination to see things for himself as far as possible, and to see them carefully and fairly, but cheerfully and kindly. It was his disposition, also, to search for the causes and extenuating circumstances, past and present, of those phenomena which are commonly reported to the prejudice of the slaveholding community; and especially of those features which are manifestly most to be regretted in the actual condition of the older slave States." These principles, it is evident, have influenced and controlled him through all his course to the completion of his work. He writes not like an extremist, or even a theorist, but as one who looks at facts as they are, examines thoroughly into their causes, and deduces from them fair and candid conclusions.

We cannot, within the limits of this article, give any adequate idea of the great and varied masses of information, which Mr. Olmsted has embodied in this thick volume of over seven hundred pages. We will try to give such an idea of it, however, as will incline our readers to peruse the work for themselves. The book may be regarded as a thesaurus of knowledge respecting the effects of slavery, especially its economical effects.

Dr. Bushnell has a very ingenious sermon on the "Age of Roads," in which the civilization of an age or country is measured by the condition of its roads. The comparatively miserable accommodations for travelers in the slave States, on roads,