Our Saviour frequently foretold his disciples, that they should be persecuted, imprisoned, brought before tribunals and kings, &c. for his name's sake; but he never told them that they should serve others so, if ever it should be in their power. How is this?

But what is blasphemy ? Until lately, it was blasphemy in England, a country of boasted freedom, to speak against, or deny, the doctrine of the Trinity; but thanks to the bishops, the English meaning of the word blasphemy has undergone some little modification. We are now allowed to speak against that mysterious and unintelligible credendum. But a sapient critic, if I remember right, has told us by way of monition, that we must use this liberty very gingerly: and so it seems.

Blasphemy is, to speak injuriously of or concerning God, his attributes, his works, his word or his providence, and that intentionally; for without the intention there can be no injurious meaning, no impiety in the speaker. A person may speak in an injurious manner concerning God through mere ignorance or prejudice; in that case, however, he is chargeable with error, not with blasphemy.

cerning curious specimens of composition, which derive their religious character wholly and entirely from acts of the English legislature, is blasphemy.

It must be confessed, that on comparing the evils respectively stated in the two last paragraphs, the latter are much more aggravated than the former; and no one surely can be surprised that their demerits are so admirably appreciated in so enlightened an age.

But how in the name of common sense and consistency, are the Voltaires, the Humes, the Gibbons, the Rousseaus, allowed the privilege of a free toleration, and appear to be welcome guests in the highest circles, in the most genteel society; while poor Tom Paine, and Wat Tyler, and such unfortunate urchins, must hide their diminished heads?

I will next, Sir, state what I am afraid is blasphemy. If a poor preacher, having been himself convinced by the authority of Martin Luther, the renowned Reformer, the potent reasons of the late Dr. Edmund Law, Bishop of Carlisle, father of Dr. Law, the present Bishop of Chester, and of the late Dr. Francis Blackburne, Archdeacon of Cleveland, that the soul has no separate existence from the body, that with the body it dies, and that it will be raised again with the body-should deem it his duty to declare the whole counsel of God to his audience, and this among the rest; and if some blundering wrong-headed animal, with just as much theology in his head as charity in his heart, should choose to understand this as denying a future state, and should make a deposition before a magistrate to that effect; I am afraid, Sir, it would turn out in the end to be blasphemy.

If a person tired with the dulness. and ill-success of reasoning soberly against a favourite abracadabra, consecrated by the prejudice of the learned and the ignorance of the vulgar, should amuse himself with burlesquing it, in these good times, he would be charged with blasphemy. And though there should be in this self-same abracadabra some impious expressions, this would by no means alter the blasphemous character of the travestie; it being in that case the blasphemy of a blasphemy. And that certainly must greatly en

hance its blasphemous quality, being as a square number is to its root.

I have supposed a few cases, concerning which I should be glad to learn from some of your Correspondents whether they think them of a blasphemous character or not.

If upon the death of the most wicked person in a parish, the most reverent person in it should think proper upon a most solemn occasion to say, in the most public manner, that he believed him now a sainted spirit in heaven, would the lie itself, the solemnity of the occasion, the injury to morality by totally confounding the merits of the good and wicked, &c. render him justly liable to the charge of blasphemy?

If a person should be induced on particular occasions to risk the salvation of his soul on the bare ground of his telling the truth, what would be the character of the act? What means, "So help me God"?

If a dissipated, vicious, or irreligious young fellow should avow in the most solemn manner, that he chose a profession in consequence of a solemn mandate communicated immediately from the Deity, while no sensible man can doubt but his choice originated in very different motives, would he be guilty of blasphemy? And if guilty, which of the persons of the Trinity would be blasphemed ?

At present I shall say no more on this important subject; but I issue a warning voice, that if any further progress should be made by the furious eruptions vomited forth from the volcano of intolerance, it will behoove thousands to provide for their safety.

To be at the mercy of perjurious informers, deposing their vile lies before officers of tried bigotry, and whetted to mischief by the mad rant of renegade versifiers! Good heavens, what a situation!!

of Florence were searched for materials for this work, and many writings of Lorenzo himself first given to the world in Liverpool. This work of Mr. Roscoe's has diffused a general taste for the literature of Italy. It has been said of men of letters, that, like prophets, they have no honour in their own country; but to this saying to which there are so few exceptions, one honourable one is to be found here. The people of Liverpool are proud of their townsman: whether they read his book or not, they are sensible it has reflected honour upon their town in the eyes of England and of Europe, and they have a love and jealousy of its honour, which has seldom been found any where except in those cities where that love was nationality, because the city and the state were the same. This high and just estimation of Mr. Roscoe is the more praiseworthy, because he is known to be an enemy to the Slave Trade, the peculiar disgrace of Liver pool.

14. University of Cambridge. "What a happy life," said I to our Cambridge friend," must you lead in your English universities! You have the advantages of a monastery without its restrictions, the enjoyments of the world without its cares, the true otium cum dignitate." He shook his head and answered, "It is a joyous place for the young, and a convenient place for all of us,but for none is it a happy one:"-and he soon convinced me that I was mistaken in the favourable judgment which I had formed. I will endeavour to retrace the substance of a long and interesting evening's con

versation.

It is a joyous place for the young,— joy and happiness however are not synonymous. They come hither from school, no longer to be treated as children; their studies and their amusement are almost at their own discretion, and they have money at com. mand. But as at college they first assume the character of man, it is there also that they are first made to feel their relative situation in society. Schools in England, especially those public ones from which the universities are chiefly supplied, are truly republican. The master perhaps will pay as much deference to rank as he possibly can, and more than he honestly ought;it is however but little that

he can pay; the institutions have been too wisely framed to be counteracted, and titles and families are not regarded by the boys. The distinctions which they make are in the spirit of a barbarous, not of a commercial calculating people; bodily endowments hold the first, mental the second place. The best bruiser enjoys the highest reputation; next to him, but after a long interval, comes the best cricket-player, the third place, at a still more respectful distance, is allowed to the cleverest, who in the opinion of his fellows always takes place of the best scholar. In the world, and the college is not out of it like the cloister,-all this is reversed into its right order; but the gifts of fortune are placed above all. Whatever habits and feelings of equality may have been generated at school, are to be got rid of at college, and this is soon done. The first thing which the new student perceives on his arrival is, that his school-fellows who are there before him pass him in the street as if they knew him not, and perhaps stare him full in the face, that he may be sure it is not done through inadvertency. The ceremony of introduction must take place before two young men who for years have eaten at the same table, studied in the same class, and perhaps slept in the same chamber, can possibly know each other when they meet at college.

There is to be found every where a great number of those persons whom we cannot prove to be human beings by any rational characteristic which they possess; but who must be admitted to be so, by a sort of reductio ad absurdum, because they cannot possibly be any thing else. They pass for men, in the world, because it has pleased God for wise purposes, however inscrutable to us, to set them upon two legs instead of four; to give them smooth skins and no tail, and to enable them to speak without having their tongues slit. They are like those weeds which will spring up and thrive in every soil and every climate, and which no favourable circumstances can ever improve into utility. It is of little consequence whether they shoot waterfowl, attend horse-races, frequent the brothel, and encourage the wine trade in one place or another; but as a few years of this kind of life usually satisfy a man for the rest of it, it is convenient

that there should be a place appointed where one of this description can pass through this course of studies out of sight of his relations, and without injuring his character; and from whence he can come with the advantage of having been at the University, and a qualification which enables him to undertake the cure of souls. The heretical bishops never inquire into the moral conduct of those upon whom they lay their unhallowed hands,→ and as for the quantity of learning which is required, M. Maillardet who exhibits his Androeides in London, could put enough into an automaton.

Such men as these enjoy more happiness, such as their happiness is, at the University than during any other part of their lives. It is a pleasant place also for the lilies of the world, they who have neither to toil nor to spin; but for those who have the world before them, there is perhaps no place in their whole journey where they feel less at ease. It is the port from whence they are to embark,and who can stand upon the beach and look upon the sea whereon he is about to trust himself and his fortunes, without feeling his heart sink at the uncertainty of the adventure? True it is that these reflections do not continue long upon a young man's mind, yet they occur so often as insensibly to affect its whole feelings. The way of life is like the prospect from his window, he beholds it not while he is employed, but in the intervals of employment, when he lifts up his eyes, the prospect is before him. The frequent change of his associates is another melancholy circumstance. sort of periodical and premature mortality takes place among his friends: term after term they drop off to their respective allotments, which are perhaps so distant from his own, that years may elapse, or the whole lease of life be run out, before he ever again meets with the man, whom habits of daily and intimate intercourse had endeared to him.

A

Let us now suppose the student to be successful in his collegiate pursuits, he obtains a fellowship-and is, in the opinion of his friends, provided for for life. Settled for life he would indeed have been according to the original institution, and it still is a provision for him as long as he retains

it, but mark the consequences of the schism,-of altering the parts of an establishment without considering their relations to the whole. A certain number of benefices belong to the college, to which as they become vacant the fellows succeed according to seniority, vacating their fellowships by accepting a benefice, or by marrying. Here one of the evils of a married clergy is perceived. Where celibacy is never regarded as a virtue, it is naturally considered as a misfortune. Attachments are formed more easily perhaps in this country than in any other, because there is little restraint in the intercourse between the sexes, and all persons go so much from home into public. But the situation of the college-fellow who has engaged his affections, is truly pitiable. Looking with envious eyes at those above him on the list, and counting the ages of those who hold the livings for which he is to wait, he passes years after years in this disquieting and wretched state of hope. The woman in like manner wears away her youth in dependant expectation, and they meet at last, if they live to meet, not till the fall of the leaf,-not till the habits and tempers of both are become fixt and constitutional, so as no longer to be capable of assimilating, each to the other.

I inquired what were the real advantages of these institutions to the country at large, and to the individuals who study in them." They are of this service," he replied, “to the country at large, that they are the great schools by which established opinions are inculcated and perpetuated. I do not know that men gain much here, yet it is a regular and essential part of our system of education, and they who have not gone through it always feel that their education has been defective. A knowledge of the world, that is to say of our world and of the men in it, is gained here, and that knowledge remains when Greek and geometry are forgotten." I asked him which was the best of the two universities; he answered that Cambridge was as much superior to Oxford, as Oxford was to Salamanca. I could not forbear smiling at his scale of depreciation: he perceived it and begged my pardon, saying, that he as little intended to undervalue the establish

"Still," said I, we may regard the universities as the seats of learning and of the Muses." "As for the Muses, Sir," said he, "you have traversed the banks of the Cam, and must know whether you have seen any nîne ladies there who answer their description.

We do certainly produce verses both Greek and Latin which are worthy of gold medals, and English ones also after the newest and most approved receipt for verse-making. of learning, such as is required for the purposes of tuition, there is much,beyond it, except in mathematics, none. In this we only share the common degeneracy. The Mohammedans believe that when Gog and Magog are to come, the race of men will have dwindled to such littleness, that a shoe of one of the present generation will serve them for a house. If this prophecy be typical of the intellectual diminution of the species, Gog and Magog may soon be expected in the neighbourhood of their own hills.

"The truth is, Sir," he continued, "that the institutions of men grow old like men themselves, and, like women, are always the last to perceive their own decay. When universities were the only schools of learning, they were of great and important utility; as soon as there were others, they ceased to be the best, because their forms were prescribed, and they could adopt no improvement till long after it was generally acknowledged. There are other causes of decline. We educate for only one profession: when colleges were founded, that one was the most important; it is now no longer so; they who are destined for the others find it necessary to study elsewhere, and it begins to be perceived that this is not a necessary stage upon the road. This might be remedied. We have professors of every thing, who hold their situations and do nothing. In Edinburgh, the income of the pro