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of one class of books which in other days was universally interdicted in the self-same circle-novels? Observe, sir, I do not prefer this in quiry to the governors and members of families in general, but to those, and those exclusively, who speak of the line of demarcation necessarily separating the two grand moral divisions of society. By whatever name you choose to characterize these, it is perfectly well understood by the parties directly concerned in the matter under discussion, that there ought to be a dif ference, a definable difference, between themselves and the unthinking crowds which trifle and glitter around them.

Distinctions created by mere phraseology, costume, modes of address, or even adhesion to a religious sect, may exist, without any salutary influence on the mind; so that individuals very widely separated from the rest of the species by language, livery, and ceremonial, may be quite as irreligious as their fellows, and thus be only worldlings in masquerade. But the difference supposed, and required, by Christianity itself in its disciples, affects the current feelings, the tone and leading character of the mind, its usual train of thought, and its gratifications. If such be a correct view of this difference, it follows that spiritually-minded persons cannot meet the world at large in its modes of pleasure, without a violation of their principle. How then is the phenomenon to be explained, that iwo parties, professing to be (in relation to the objects severally pursued by them) irreconcileably disunited, do yet consent to be allied in their taste for the popular literature of the times? The same airy, sparkling, effeminate systems of philosophy-the same impassioned volumes of poetry-the same novels, polluted as they are by levity, profaneness, and false estimates of human obligation, seem to be dividing with ominous equality, the applauses of the two moral divisions

of society; as though here were a station where the wise and the foolish virgins might, with equal indifference to all consequences, slumber and sleep! This coalition of parties is the more inauspicious, from the circumstance of its being an union in pleasure. When it was once observed to Dr. Johnson, that a person's character might, perhaps, be most accurately ascertained by observing his favourite amusements, he said, "Yes, sir: no man is a hypocrite in his pleasures."

It is indeed pleaded, that, from the refinement of the age, works of fiction are no longer stained with the indecorum which characterises the writings of Fielding, Smollett, and the novelists of their times. The plea is just; and if the expediency of encouraging works of fiction depended upon their comparative, or even their positive purity, the question would generally be determined in favour of modern writers-as far, at least, as the majority are concerned. But it ar gues a portentous want of moral feeling, when an apologist for novels insists on a formal production of expressions and sentiments obviviously and flagrantly bad. would be but an unskilful artist,

He

An admired and truly British painter of the French character observes: "In Paris there is nothing seen painfully to offend the eye; and this is enough to satisfy the Parisians that they ought not to shock the mind. They know nothing of the difference between virtue and vice as a matter of feeling. It must take the tangible and palpable ceive it; and even then their percepshape of an action before they can pertion is not always correct. Where principles are unsettled, and duties ill understood, and worse practised, the most vicious will assume a companionable decorum of behaviour; for they will feel that they must not go much out of the common way; and, being on terms iniquity will help to form a generally of familiarity with all around them, their distinct and odious, as a contrast to what debased standard, instead of remaining is pure and valuable."-Scott's Visit to Paris, ch. ix,

who could not draw up a story essentially gross and anti Christian, in periods which, detached from their context, might defy the keenest scrutiny, and who had not dexterity sufficient to retort upon his accuser the chivalrous motto, Honi soit qui mal y pense ;--Do not interpret my book by the depravity of your own mind.

The truth is, that in one sense, the best novels are the worst. They do not repel by undisguised levity: they look innocent, and therefore men think they may be conscientiously approached. And where has been the harm? No definable harm, perhaps, has resulted; no immediate explosion of romantic imprudence; all is quiet and tranquil, as before. But if the novel-I assume such to be the case-has been read with ardour and fixed attention, and with deepening interest as the circumstances of the story developed themselves, and gathered towards the catastrophe, will any observer of the human mind assert that no effect is produced? Are our minds so constructed as that they may be nailed, for hour after hour, to a work of fiction, but with no influence upon the passions? A great master of morals has given currency to the works of a novelist of the preceding century, by asserting that he taught the passions to move at the command of virtue. He would have written more accurately, had he supposed them to have fluttered under the excitement of high feeling. A state of excitement is the real effect produced by these writings, and which is not counteracted by some ten or twenty lines bringing up the rear of three volumes, and exhorting the reader to adore the loveliness of virtue.

I have seen enough of the world, sir, to convince my judgment of its selfish, alluring, and plausible character; and if a conviction of the understanding always governed the heart, I should perhaps venture farther than I now do, into the popular literature of this age. But I

cannot trust myself. I have gained such a share, at least, of practical wisdom, as warns me not to expose my passions to temptation. Though rendered somewhat torpid by time and serious engagements, I dread the still perilous influence of impassioned writers. They might yet persuade, or half persuade me, that this our present life is not exactly what the Scriptures, and my own experience and calculations, describe it to be; not a state of existence where to be really happy we must avoid being too impatient for happiness, where employment ensures more pleasure than indolence, and where it is very possible to be contented without perpetual stimulus.

With regard to my immediate concern with the popular books of the day, I own that I have been greatly embarrassed about admitting certain admired performances into my family circle, from the difficulty of ascertaining whether any novel were admissible, and then whether I could satisfactorily permit my children to have at their command even those which are honourable exceptions to the general run of novels. Up to the present hour, I have certainly forbid the entrance even of these. And why? 1st, Because, although my children (if you will excuse this domestic egotism), possess, as I trust, many hopeful qualities, I by no means presume to look upon their characters as formed, or their minds as sufficiently pre-occupied with sacred instruction; and consequently I dare not entrust them with books which have, in my view, a direct tendency to secularize their feelings, to give them a premature ac quaintance with the ways of the world, to stir up a busy curiosity to be better acquainted with a scene which, according to these stories, abounds with so much entertaining variety, and finally to cause them to feel a sensation of their own inferiority, at not having had a portion of the gaieties which diversify the lives of the wonderful

children and young persons there described. 2d, Because, finding that where a similar taste in reading exists, there will naturally follow a similarity of views in other things, I wish to draw a line of separation in books between my children and those families with whom an intimacy would be injurious. 3d, Because, whatever speed other children may have made, mine have not yet perused the standard, established classics of our country. My eldest daughter only finished Addison's critique on Milton five weeks since; and I tell her, that, according to the ancient code of lettered law, she must fairly purchase her right to run through the new publications by fairly studying the old ones.

It seems, indeed, that the books of to day and yesterday, and such as are promised for to-morrow, are the only literature now in fashion. A lady reader, who occasionally visits my family, astonished me the other evening, when, after a two hours' criticism on the comparative excellencies of Lord Byron, Campbell, Walter Scott, Southey, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Moore, Leigh Hunt, Crabbe, Montgomery, Graham, and tribes of secondary names, this wide-reading critic did not seem to be aware that about forty years since somebody had written the lives of other poets, and that his perform ance constituted the finest effort of critical skill in the language: and to increase my wonder, she had neglected to peruse, in passing, only Paradise Lost, Comus, Samson Agonistes, Dryden's Fables, Cato, the Castle of Indolence, and, if I remember right, the Night Thoughts. Every work of fiction in prose she had read, except Rasselas, and "things of that kind."

A person familiar with current poems and novels is no cipher, I understand, in modern society. This fanfiliarity is the passport to abundance of parties. Abundance of parties! The very phrase indicates that there is something in the CHRIST, OBSERV, No. 185.

system of modern reading which, while it is valuable to the thoughtless creatures who bask and flutter in the sunshine of the world, is obviously hostile to those whose better principles flourish rather in retirement, and who, when they emerge from the shade, offer a most ungraceful exhibition of inconsistency to the stare and secret ridicule of the very multitudes with whom they venture to mingle in unsafe pleasures. It is urged against the present manners of the Christian community, that in many instances they transgress the boundary assigned to them in the last age; and that, whatever may have caused the transition, its results have been injurious to the conceding party, without any perceptible benefit to the opposite. I should certainly calculate upon such effects from the acknowledged improbability of softening any sworn enemy by half measures, and especially by a process which bore upon it the impress of artifice and timidity. Let us beware of endeavour. ing to win over the world, lest in the desperate manœuvre we quickly retire with loss, and the loss in this instance will be all on one side. If we are not to think, to feel, to act, and to perish with the world, let a deep and wide interval yet exist between the habits of pleasure of the two parties. It is the duty of Christian parents to deny their dearest inmates those intellectual gratifications which cannot be separated from what has polluted many, and possesses at least the power of injuring all. Have we among us so little acquaintance with the philosophy of human nature, as to be blind to the effects of causes which act with noiseless, tranquil, unseen, and yet potent operation?

EXCUBITOR.

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lately visited the native Christians in the neighbourhood of Travancore, and may be interesting to your readers, as furnishing an authentic account of their doctrines and discipline, which have been greatly misrepresented in the Abbè Dubois's letter to the Bombay Auxiliary Bible Society".

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B. T. "Columbo, October 28, 1816. "I will now leave Goa, to say something of the Syrian Christians whom we visited, and of whom I will hereafter send you a complete account. You will be surprised to hear that these Syrian Christians are at present neither Nestorians nor Eutychians. They disclaim the errors of both, and profess to believe Christ to be very God and very man. They, however, acknowledge seven sacraments. In baptism they use water only, and sign with a cross the eyes, nose, mouth, and ears; to signify, as they say, that these senses of the carnal man are to be obedient to the Cross. In the Lord's supper they use leavened bread, and stamp the wafer with a cross dipped in oil; but in neither of these sacraments do they use salt. They have two bishops, both residing at the same place; but only one of them appears to have any charge of the clergy. Their priests are ordained by the imposition of hands; and though they have but three orders, bishops, priests, and deacons, yet they have many different degrees in each order. I understand there are three among the priests, and four among the deacons. They formerly had archdeacons, but have none at present. They have many customs among them which mark them as an Oriental Church; but both their ceremonies and their doctrines have been much corrupted by the Church of Rome. They administer both bread and wine to the laity; •Vide Christian Observer for 1816,

P. 822

but the elements are then mixed to-
gether. They do not believe in
transubstantiation; though they
say the body and blood of Christ
are verily and indeed taken by the
faithful communicant. They do
not believe in purgatory, but they
believe that there is a common re-
ceptacle, a gehenna, for the souls
of men after death, into which
Christ descended, in the interval
between his crucifixion and resur-
rection, and to which they think
he alluded when speaking to the
thief on the cross; and that Christ,
at his descension, relieved the
souls of all then there; and that
the souls who have died since, will
remain there till the general re-
surrection, when they will be
judged according to their deeds.
In the mean time, the good are
supposed to feel a pleasing hope of
happiness, and the wicked a fear-
ful looking for of judgment. They
believe that certain saints and
martyrs are in a heaven above this
receptacle, and yet not admitted
into the presence of God. They
pray through the intercession of
saints; but strenuously deny that
they worship saints, and will not
allow any images of them in their
churches, professing that salva-
tion is through Christ alone. Their
liturgy and whole service is per-
formed in the Syriac language,
which is understood only by the
priests; they have however, of
late years, used in many of their
churches the Malayalim translation
of the Gospels, which was made
chiefly by their present bishop,
Mar Dionysius, (then Ramban
Joseph), under the superintendance
of Mar Dionysius, who was the
bishop in Dr. Buchanan's time.
I was present at their performance
of Divine service on a Sunday, and
which, I am sorry to say, partakes
in some measure of the superstitious
mummeries of the Papists. They
use frankincense, chaunt the whole
service, cross themselves often, ele-
vate the Host. On the Sunday, they

have a very useful custom of reading a portion of the Gospels, in Malayalim, from the altar, and then briefly expounding to the congregation. They do not preach as Europeans do, nor use pulpits: they have no schools, and little means of teaching the poor; but this arises rather from their extreme poverty than from any unwillingness to teach and be taught. Indeed, consider ing the persecutions they have suffered from the Papists, and the proselyting ravages of Tippoo Saib, I am thankful and surprised that they still retain so much of genuine Christianity amongst

them.

"The dress of the priests consists of loose white trowsers, with a white surplice and a red silk cap. The proper dress is ofa dark colour; but they told us, that they were too poor to purchase it: each priest has a pastoral staff, generally tipped with gold. At ordination, the priests profess to sign the Canons of the Council of Nice, which are read to them by the bishop; but they could not shew "s any copy of them. They, at the same time, swear to shave the crown of the head, and not to shave their beards; to fast on the fourth and the sixth days of the week: but they do not engage to lead a life of celibacy: this custom has crept in among them from the Romans. The bishop, Mar Dionysius, has lately sent a circular letter to his clergy, expressly stating that they are at liberty to marry: some have actually availed themselves of this permission, and forty more have declared their readiness to do so when their circumstances will admit. Their incomes are wretchedly small, merely fees and gratuities. They all, both bishop and clergy, earnestly besought us to give them copies of the Scriptures, both in Syriac and Malayalim. I had with me a few copies of the Syriac Gospels, the type of which they con

sider as exceedingly beautiful. I hope the Bible Society will go on to complete that work: it is a highly useful well executed edition.

"The form and architecture of their churches is simple, and may be Syrian; the windows long and narrow, not pointed, as Dr. Buchanan implies. They possess very few books; I understood no printed ones but the Gospels in Malayalim; and besides the Scriptures in manuscript, they have some sacred hymns and their liturgy, which are often obliged to be carried from one church to another for service. The copies of the Old Testament which we saw wanted Nehemiah; and the New Testament had the Nestorian readings. Some books are also in their Canon which we do not call canonical.

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They were very much pleased with the Bishop of Calcutta's visit, and expressed a very earnest desire to put themselves under the protection of the English. Colonel Munro, the British Resident at Travancore, is doing a great deal for them he has established a college for the better education of their priests, and employs many of them in his public office. I must not omit to mention one interesting and truly pious custom of these Christians. The father of a family collects his children around him in the evening; and sitting on a sod on the outside of his cottage, he reads or repeats portions of Scripture to them. These, of course, consist chiefly of such passages as are most easily understood and retained in the memory-the parables, the passion and death of Christ, &c.--which he explains, and dilates on the doctrines and duties of Christianity as he is able.Here, then, is a promising harvest: if the Lord but send forth reapers, every thing may be hoped for where we find so much zeal and piety, and so much inclination to be instructed."

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