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body of Mrs. Spooner showed a foetus in her womb of the age of five months. It was quick, of course, when she petitioned for a reprieve, and had been conceived a month before the date of the murder of her husband.

In trying to account for the alleged crime of Mrs. Spooner, Chandler says: "Whether she was actuated by aversion to her husband, or was hurried on by the blind impulse of unchaste desire, it is now impossible to know, as she never made any revelations on the subject, and the statements of Ross are not worthy of entire confidence; but it seems probable that she was conscious that her conjugal infidelity must soon inevitably become known to her husband, and desired the death of one who must soon have indubitable evidence of her guilt. This accounts for the inconsistency of her conduct and the desperate eagerness with which she undertook to accomplish her purpose."

But why suppose that an improper intimacy grew up between Mrs. Spooner and the boy Ross, who had been an inmate of her husband's family and had secured the affection of both husband and wife? Or supposing that such an intimacy did grow up, was not Mrs. Spooner crazy when it grew up? It seems to me that neither of the suppositions adopted by Chandler to account for the part taken by Mrs. Spooner in the murder of her husband is so probable an explanation of the facts of the case as the one brought forward by her counsel, namely, that she was insane. The facts which I have adduced, some of which were not known to Mr. Chandler, and others which could not have been known to him, add much weight, in my opinion, to that conclusion. Mrs. Spooner had been well brought up, and her position.

1 Chandler, Vol. II., p. 10.

2 The stories of the results of domestic infelicity in her father's family have been very much exaggerated. There is not the slightest foundation for the statement that has sometimes been made that General Ruggles set his daughter an example of domestic infidelity. He was an exceedingly hospitable man, but himself, certainly during portions of his life, very abstemious. He was also pure.

in society had always been such that she had everything to lose and nothing to gain by crime. Her mental characteristics and peculiarities might readily have developed into insanity under the uncongenial influences of her married life and the excitement accompanying the experience of the bitter feelings of the community towards a father whom she loved passionately and whose views she probably shared.1

1 Since making these remarks an eminent lawyer, and a well-known physician who has occupied successfully for the last forty years prominent positions in institutions for the treatment of the insane, have each stated to me, after examining the evidence carefully, that it is their opinion that, if Mrs. Spooner were to be put on trial to-day and defended on the ground of unsoundness of mind, she would be discharged. I am glad, also, to be able to add that the same views have been expressed to me since the meeting of the society by one of the most distinguished students of American history. I will not undertake to reproduce at length here the opinions of these gentlemen, but may return to the consideration of the whole subject at some future time and treat it more elaborately than would be proper in the Proceedings of this society.

HOPKINSIANISM.

BY ANDREW P. PEABODY.

SAMUEL HOPKINS was born at Waterbury, Connecticut, in 1721, graduated at Yale College in 1741, was settled as a minister at Great Barrington, then the Second Parish of Sheffield, Massachusetts, in 1743, became minister of the First Congregational Church in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1770, and died at Newport in 1803. He was a profound and original thinker, and while never attractive as a preacher, he exercised, through the press, an extensive and by no means short-lived influence on New England theology. His system, while at certain points it seemed Calvinism intensified, was, nevertheless, a revolt against some of the dogmas deemed fundamental by the Genevan reformer. Dr. Hopkins denied the imputation of Adam's sin to his posterity, and of Christ's righteousness to the redeemed; yet maintained that Adam's posterity inherited from him a sinful and ruined nature, being born sinners, and that Christ's righteousness is the meritorious cause by means of which alone a portion of the human race are saved from the everlasting punishment which all, even infants, deserve for their sinful nature, and which also is justly due as the penalty for any single sinful act or volition which, as an offence against the Infinite Being, itself becomes infinite. Selfishness, according to him, is the essence of all sin, and virtue consists in disinterested benevolence, embracing every being in the universe, God and all his creatures, and self only as an infinitesimal part of the universe. Thus so far is self-love from being the measure of brotherly love,

that love for the remotest being in the universe is the normal measure of self-love. Man, according to the same system, is a free agent, that is, can do as he wills, but is morally incapable of aught but evil before conversion, has a depraved will, can do nothing toward his own conversion, sins in his every endeavor to improve his moral condition, and is entirely dependent on the supernatural agency of the Holy Spirit for his regeneration.

The supreme purpose of God in the creation of this world and of man, according to Dr. Hopkins, was the manifestation of his own glory, and that glory can be manifested only by doing what he will with his own. By his very nature he is above all law, and the laws which he enacts for his creatures have no claim on his observance. With him might creates right. From the human race, sinners by the depraved nature inherited from Adam, and therefore meriting eternal misery, he, in a past eternity, by his own arbitrary decrec, elected a certain number who should be rescued from perdition, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and made partakers of heavenly happiness. They were elected, not because of any foresight of their faith or good works; but, being elected, they are endowed by the irresistible grace of God with the traits of character that make them fit for heaven. An essential pre-requisite to regeneration is the hearty approval of and assent to the Divine sovereignty in the arbitrary election of those that are to be saved, even to the extent of a willingness to be among those eternally lost, if the glory of God so require. He who is not willing to be damned is not in a salvable condition.

It will be readily seen how intimately connected are the two points on which Mr. Sherman assails Dr. Hopkins's system. Self-love must of necessity be extinguished, or reduced to an infinitesimal fragment of itself, before the soul can be willing to suffer everlasting torment.

Dr. Hopkins's earliest publication that drew the attention of theologians to his peculiar views was in 1759, namely,