great primary end, to which every man of genius, like all other men, should consider his talents, in whatever line they may predominantly lie, as solemnly and sacredly pledged, is the promotion of the glory of God. This was the very object for which a mind was bestowed upon him, and proportioned to the superior energy and capability of that mind is unquestionably the force of the obligation, by which he is bound to give its exertions a sound and salutary direction. This is the first, the central point, to which every ray throughout the whole circle of human endowments, should steadily and invariably converge. It is true, indeed, that this object may be promoted in various ways; that it may be advanced by different habits and modifications of intellectual exercise. In establishing the glory of God as the great standard, to which all the efforts of the mind should be ultimately referred, there is no necessity that the faculties should be cramped in their exercise-that they should be confined in their attainments, partial in their application, or timid in their researches. With this object, their most unfettered development, their most extensive, and their loftiest excursions, so far from being incompatible, are in the highest degree congenial. In the grand system of the moral universe, while the glory of its Author, as the sun, occupies the centre, there is range enough both for the flaming comet, which wheels through its distant round, still, however, paying the homage of a strict and undeviating gravitation, and for the milder planet, which appears to pursue a more regular and uniform course. Whatever may be the amount of the talents which any individual has received, there is abundant scope for their exercise, and for carrying on such a profitable negotiation in the varied intercourse of human society, as may enable him on the great day of account, while he still feels himself to be at best an unprofitable servant, to return them, in CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 332. the language of the parable, with usury to him who gave them. As the scenes of nature are infinitely diversified, as its laws require to be investigated, and its beauties to be displayed, by the exercise of appropriate powers of mind, and as the attributes of God admit of various modes of illustration, there is obviously opportunity afforded for the development of every order of talent, and for the indulgence of every pure and well-regulated taste, while the end is still uniform and the same. Science, history, philology, poetry, and the fine arts, may be cultivated in all their departments, with all the enthusiasm which the most devoted adherent of these pursuits may desire, without any necessary dereliction of that primary design to which they must all be subordinate. The intellect may prosecute its researches, and delight itself with the discoveries of truth; the judgment may arrange her materials, and form them into trains of reasoning; the memory may accumulate her treasures, and make still fresh additions to her stores; the imagination may embody her visions, and Fancy may weave her garlands; while the eye of the mind is still firmly fixed upon that which gives a character of sacredness to every effort. that is really wanted is simplicity of purpose, and a Christian rectitude of aim. The spirit of man was never designed to be stretched upon a Procrustean bed, to the form and dimensions of which the elastic powers are to be rigidly adapted and admeasured. But while the mind may justly assert its native liberty of action; while it may refuse to have its kindling energies smothered beneath the choking layers of antiquated notions and predilections, and to shape its conceptions into a servile and rigid conformity to the model of prevailing and ordinary sentiment; while it is privileged to expatiate with freedom over the varied field of thought, there must still be a point 3 S All with which it is found to move in harmony. Though it may rise above the influences of earth, there must still be a luminary in the heavens; there must be a fixed, a never-varying regard to the glory, the majesty, the will, and the purposes of its beneficent Creator, whose sway it must cheerfully and unreservedly own; and until it has been brought under this legitimate and salutary controul, it is as incapable of guiding itself aright as the fabled Phaeton of directing the chariot of the sun. It is owing to the want of such a prevailing and all-pervading principle as this; it is through the want of realizing the great end for which their powers were bestowed upon them, that so many distinguished men of our own country have wasted their talents in fugitive and desultory efforts, which were attended with no satisfaction to themselves, and no benefit to their species. To omit less strongly marked examples, I might mention the Burns, the Shelleys, the Sternes, the Byrons, and many of the dramatic poets and novelists of our nation, as instances of this deplorable deficiency of a fixed and legitimate purpose, as the great end of their exertions; the productions of whose genius, with all their splendour, are such as would render it well for the real interests of mankind, if they had never lived. The lustre of our national literatrure indeed might experience a trifling diminution, but the loss would have been more than compensated by the superior purity of the atmosphere which their noxious influence has impregnated; for intellectual gratification, or the flattering of national pride by the display of talent and genius, though of the highest order, when received in exchange for the moral sensibilities of true refinement, is purchased at too dear a price. Before the man of genius, therefore, undertakes to wield the instrument of his power, he should seriously and deliberately consider whether the motive which prompts him, whether the end at which he aims, be worthy of his character, consistent with his obligations, and accordant with the lofty destiny of his nature. He should reflect, whether his aim be such as his dispassionate judgment will approve; such as will stand the test of examination under all the varied circumstances of his being; the fluctuation of events; the silence of solitude; the depressions of sorrow and disease; the vicissitudes of time; the evolutions of eternity. A man that has any pretension to compass of mind, as well as any claim to right principle, must take all these certain and inevitable facts into account, in proposing to himself an end in the exertion of his faculties; and if upon a calm, unprejudiced, and enlightened survey of its obligations, it can fix upon any other than that which has been here stated, let him pursue it. Assuming, however, that this point has been sufficiently determined, and that the duty of proposing the noblest and highest end is fully and distinctly recognized, I proceed to notice another obligation of mental endowment. (To be continued.) DEFINITION OF THE TERM NATURE. Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer. A CORRESPONDENT (Ignorantis), in your Number for June, requests a definition of the term nature, a word frequently used in vague and erroneous applications. In answer, may I be allowed to point out a meaning affixed to this word by Sir Thomas Browne, which strikes me as being correct, and marked with that peculiar force and power which distinguish the best parts of that extraordinary writer. The passage I allude to occurs in the first chapter of Religio Medici, where he is speaking of nature as one of the sources from which he collects his divinity: adding, "Nor do I forget God so as to adore the name of nature: which I define, not with the schools to be the principle of motion and rest, but that straight and regular line, that settled and constant course which the wisdom of God hath ordained for the actions of his creatures, according to their several kinds." A little further on he says, "Nature is the art of God." E. B. R. sent the Jewish phylactery; for in that case, why do they not appear on them all? Why not carry the conjecture further, and argue that the arrow-headed character was the ancient Hebrew? Again, several of the figures have trowsers or boots, which is certainly no part of the Jewish costume. The cap of the last in the procession is imagined by Sir Robert to be an exaggerated representation of the mitre worn by the sacerdotal tribe of Levi;" which conjecture may perhaps be admitted when the tribe of Levi can be shewn to be one of the Ten Tribes of Israel. In Belzoni's plates of the tomb of Psammis, are some figures which Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer. are assumed to be beyond contra ALLEGED BAS-RELIEF OF THE TEN TRIBES. IN Mr. Horne's truly valuable Introduction to the critical Study of the Scriptures (Vol. I. p. 222. 5th edition), I find an account of a bas-relief, which Sir R. K. Porter, from whose travels the description is taken, considers as a representationof the Ten Tribes of Israel carried into captivity by Shalmaneser; and which Mr. Horne has therefore adduced as affording a confirmation of the truth of the Scripture history. But, in reality, the meaning assigned to the basrelief is at best only conjectural; and the cause of truth is rather injured than aided by doubtful evidence. It does not appear to me that the sculpture in question has any relation to the event supposed to be commemorated by it. There are, it is true,ten captives delineated; but, with the exception of this circumstance, which may be accidental, and which, in the absence of other proof, is at least indecisive, I can discover no point of correspondence. Only two of the supposed Israelites have beards; IN EXARNUS. ON CLASSICAL QUOTATIONS IN RELIGIOUS WORKS. the rest, as may be seen by Sir R. K. Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer. Porter's plate, have merely mustachios on the upper lip. The arrowheaded characters which completely cover the lower garment of one of the figures can hardly be meant to repre your Number for December last, Anti-Horatius strongly censures the introduction of quotations from the Greek and Latin classics, in works upon serious and sacred subjects; and, without entirely exemping your own publication from the charge, he hints at even some editions of the Holy Bible itself, which offend in this respect. There is expressed in his paper a sense of the paramount importance of sacred things, which a Christian cannot observe without a feeling of affection and respect; and there doubtless is a possibility of carrying the practice, which he proscribes, to an excess, offensive at once to good taste and to piety. But I am happy to find that you are not prepared to go all lengths with him: because, to name no other reasons, I apprehend that there are minds so constituted, that they may be attracted to a devotional work, even by a happy classical quotation prefixed to it or contained in it; and that the attention, which has thus been conciliated, may, through the Divine blessing, be followed by most important results. Possibly AntiHoratius himself may be induced to revise his opinion, and to think that even an annotation on the Scriptures is not profaned by a classical quotation, when he is reminded that classical quotations are to be found in the sacred text of the Scriptures themselves; and that St. Paul did not disdain, now and then, to enforce his argument by the introduction of a scrap of heathen Greek. Certainly, when we see this great Apostle appealing to the poetry of Aretus (Acts xvii. 28), of Menander (1 Cor. xv. 33), and of Epimenides (Titus i. 12), we cannot conclude that he deemed the occasional introduction of an apt classical allusion, an inappropriate method of giving effect to the wish, expressed even by your correspondent himself," of making heathen learning altogether subservient to the doctrines of the cross of Christ." N. J. EXCEPTIONABLE TENDENCY OF PHRENOLOGY. Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer. OBSERVING in your Number for May, an article on Phrenology, in reference to morality, I am induced to draw your attention to a circumstance which occurred a few weeks since. Every Monday fortnight, during the session of the Phrenological Society, a conversation is held, at which ladies are present, when some subject connected with phrenology, so-called, but more truly cranioscopy, is discussed. At one of these parties, Dr. Epps read a paper on the ameliorating, sympathy-producing, and ennobling tendencies of phrenology; and in the course of his remarks, endeavoured to prove that the Church of England is founded on principles, and sanctions practices, quite opposed to the constitution of the human mind, as discovered by phrenology. His views are developed in a work expressly on the subject, in which he urges a distinction between piety and religion; endeavours to shew that mere piety without religion, which, he says is very common, is the shadow without the substance: it is the devotional feeling without the proper cause for its production. He calls mere piety" outward devotion," and gives several illustrations of this outward devotion; in some of which he is pleased to attack various practices of the Church of England, particularly that of dedicating sacred edifices to the service of God, which he tells us is an indubitable relic of Popery, or perhaps, more distantly viewed, of Paganism. Were then Moses and Aaron Papists, or was Solomon a Pagan? If the practice of consecration, in the present age, were as evil as Dr. Epps alleges, it at least originated in a Divine sanction; but then Solomon, with all his wisdom, was not a phrenologist ! PHILALETHES. NEED OF ADDITIONAL BISHOPS Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer. It is most gratifying to observe the the offices of the church might be But it is objected, that our church would fall in the estimation of the world, if our foreign bishops were increased in number, and had not incomes far larger than ordinary presbyters. But this is not found to be the case in other religious communities. On the contrary, the Christian church rises by humility; and the estimation of the world is to be sought, and may be obtained, by a holy life, by pastoral diligence and affection, and by zeal in the cause of religion, rather than by the glittering ornaments of outward shew. No true Episcopalian would refuse to acknowledge the new bishops as our spiritual superiors, or be ashamed of them, because they resembled those of the primitive church, or the sister-episcopal church in the United States of America. I would not withhold even a large income from a bishop where circumstances allow of it; for no man living has greater opportunities of doing good with his pecuniary resources; but where the choice is between having no bishop at all, where one is much wanted, or having one with only a very moderate stipend, there surely cannot be a doubt what ought to be the decision. Why not at once. select some venerable clergyman at several of our dependencies, allowing him, where his whole time would not be wanted for Episcopal duties, to retain his chaplaincy, and affording him a small honorary stipend to meet unavoidable expenses, while he still consorted with his brethren, being removed from them only by ecclesiastical dignity without affecting superiority of civil station. If I lived in Ohio, though I would not grudge the splendid revenues of |