conciliates law and liberty, or popular sovereignty with the supremacy of goyernment! The whole secret of the thing is simply this: that each community has an inalienable right to do just as it pleases, and, if by chance it comes into conflict with some other community, the General Government acts as umpire between them, and sees that they have a fair fight. In other words, to compare great things with small, the General Government is a bottle-holder to all the separate popular sovereignties, and does not suffer any one of them to pitch into another more than is good for the wholesome of the latter! Thus, Missouri invades Kansas; but, is it going to hurt Kansas? Not at all: it is only going to save it the trouble and expense of legislation, while the President and his Cabinet look on quietly, in order to see that Kansas behaves herself with proper gratitude and respect.

"But not alone on this negative side of duty are our merits conspicuous. In the active pursuits of war and diplomacy we play a second fiddle to no nation. Consider, by way of illustration, the grand military events of these latter years. England and France, as you are aware, have been trying, with all their fleets and all their armies, for more than a twelvemonth, to take the single small fortress of Sebastopol. They have tried in vain. Their ships have done nothing but drag their anchors; and their hosts are food for fever and the army-worm. All mankind are laughing at their impotence and want of skill. But turn to gaze upon another picture! Behold the siege and sack of Greytown! Call to mind the disproportion of the forces,—and then, the celerity of the American attack, and the completeness of the American victory!-A single ship engaging an entire nation!

"Nor did the daring deed require a year, -or a month,- -or a week,-no! only a single day. Surrender,' said the gallant Hollins to his proud and defiant foe. We won't,' they answered in the plenitude of their full security.

Then, by the rapacious eagle at the peak,' rejoined the puissant chief of the war-worn Cyane, 'I'll blow you to the devil!' and he did. Within the space of five short hours, the hitherto impregnable Greytown was leveled to the dust; its forts, its walls, its magazines, its churches, and its palaces were given VOL. VI.—7

to the flames, and the poor remnant of its insolent inhabitants, who had dared to resist the commands of Brother Jonathan's consul, and fling bottles at his ambassador, were driven to the forests and the swamps! Oh, intrepid and mighty exploit! The glories of Thermopyla and Marathon, yea, of Donnybrook Fair, hide their diminished heads before thee! and, to the end of time, poets will sing thy praise, as the old Homer sang the conquest of the greatly inferior Troy?"

-The applause of the company was about to be renewed, as the orator had finished this touching and patriotic passage, but was restrained by the breathless interest that attended the first words of his peroration, which now began.

"I shall close," said the eloquent orator, "by an allusion to the vital greatness and sempiternal importance of the national Union."

-This sentence was greeted by a salvo of tremendous cheers, and cries of "Go it, Pepperage!"

"The Union!" perorated Mr. P.—“Inspiring theme! How shall I find words to describe its momentous magnificence and its beatific lustre? The Union!it is the ark of our safety!!--the palladium of our liberties!!!-the safeguard of our happiness!!!!-and the ægis of our virtues!!!!! In the Union we live, and move, and go a-head. It watches over us at our birth-it fans us in our cradles-it accompanies us to the district school-it gives us our victuals in due season-it selects our wives for us from 'America's fair daughters,' and it does a great many other things; to say nothing of putting us to sleep sometimes, and keeping the flies from our innocent repose. While the Union lasts, we have the most reasonable prospect of plenty of fodder, with occasional drinks. By its beneficent energies, however, should the present supply give out, we shall rise superior to the calculations of an ordinary and narrow prudence, and take in Cuba, Hayti, and Mexico, and such parts of all contiguous islands as may offer prospects for an advantageous investment. Palsied be the arm, then, and blistered the tongue, and humped the back, and broken the legs, and eviscerated the stomach, of every person who dares to think or even dream of harming it! May the heaviest curses of Time fall upon his scoundrelly soul! May his

juleps curdle in his mouth! May he smoke none but New Orleans tobacco ! May his family be perpetually ascending the Mississippi in a steamboat! May his own grandmother disown him! And may the suffrages of his fellow-citizens pursue him like avenging furies, till he is driven, howling into Congress. For, oh! my dear, dear friends-my beloved fellow-citizens-who can foretell the agonies, or the sorrows, or the blights, and the anguish, and the despair, and the black eyes, and the bloody noses, that would follow, upon the dispersion of our too happy, happy family?

"The accursed myrmidons of despotism, with gnashing teeth and bloodstained eyes, would rush at large over this planet. They would lap the crimson gore of the most wealthy and respectable citizens. The sobs of females and the screams of children would mingle with the barking of dogs and the crash of falling columns. A universal

and horrid night would mantle the skies, and one by one the strong pillars of the universe go crumbling into ruin, amid the gleam of bowie-knives and the lurid glare of exploding steamboats!"

The plaudits that greeted the perspiring orator, on this splendid close, became absolutely terrific; and such numbers of men rushed forward to congratulate him on his success, that he was almost crushed by the crowd. A few more judicious friends hurried him at once out of a back window into a carriage, in which he was rapidly driven to his. home, not so exhausted by his effort as one might suppose. It was by this timely ruse, however, that he was saved from an immolation by his enthusiastic admirers. But the latter, not to be defeated in their purpose, at once held a public meeting, and unanimously nominated him for President. Whether he accepts this honor may, doubtless, be learned from the next number of the Independent and Democratic Bivalve.

AMERICAN

RELIGIOUS WORKS.--A posthumous work of the late Mr. ANDREWS NORTON, of Cambridge, appears in his New Translation of the Gospels, with explanatory notes, and an accompanying volume on the genuineness of the evangelical narrative. He spent many of the best years of his life on this labor, which, for careful scholarship, research, and independent, but not extravagant, opinions, does his memory the greatest credit. It has been edited, by his son, from manuscripts left after his decease, with the most pains-taking industry, and in excellent taste. In typographical execution, too, the work is an honor to the press of its enterprising publishers, Messrs. Little, Brown & Co.

But the undertaking itself is one that cannot have much value or interest, except for professional readers and scholars. The popular mind will continue to prefer the old version of the Scriptures, executed under King James, to any new translation that is likely to be given. Its words and phrases are so associated with our deepest

devotional feelings, that another rendering of any part, even though it should be more precisely correct, would not appear to possess the same force and beauty. Mr. Norton, for instance, in the first of the Beatitudes says, "Blessed are they who feel their spiritual wants, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven;" but how much more direct and touching is the old form, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." Or, again, in that beautiful illustration in a subsequent part of the Sermon on the Mount, he translates, "And why are you anxious about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field are flourishing. They toil not, they spin not; but I tell you that not even Solomon, in all his glory, was arrayed like one of these." In the Lord's Prayer, we have "Our Father in heaven, may thy name be reverenced. May thy kingdom come. May thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our needful food. For give us our offenses as we forgive those who offend against us. Bring us not into trial, but deliver us from evil," with all

the rest, the doxology omitted. The first chapter of John reads thus: "In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God." But in all these and a thousand other cases, where the change of sense is almost imperceptible, the words used seem to us inferior in simplicity and force. What is the Greek Logos compared with our noble, old and significant WORD? We wonder why any change should be made, when the sense itself does not require it, and the old forms convey the thought with perfect fidelity and strength.

The most indefensible change made by Mr. Norton, is in the use of the personal pronouns, of you for ye, which takes away a great deal of the quaint and pertinent significance of the style, without being a whit more easy or grammatical. We confess, also, that we think the change of the old verbal termination in eth into the participle in ing, no improvement, as "the little girl is not dead but sleeping," for "she is not dead but sleepeth."

It is stated, in an editorial note prefixed to the book, that Mr. Norton was induced to undertake this translation because there was no translation extant, sufficiently accurate, and, at the same time, sufficiently simple, to reflect the real meaning of the original; but, surely, he must have forgotten the very able version of Dr. George Campbell, which, in accuracy, is quite equal to his own, and in style, we think, superior; while the preliminary dissertations, and the notes, are among the ablest of the kind that have ever been printed.

The notes of the second volume are very full, learned, candid, and instructive. They give the reasons of the author for any changes or omissions he may have made in his translation, his sense of the meaning of doubtful passages, and the opinions of competent critics on the textual difficulties, with essays relating to the chronology, the characters, the figurative language, and so forth, of the Scriptures. These notes are a thousand fold more valuable than the translation is likely to be, and, as a commentary on the Gospels, deserve to be in the hand of every person who wishes to take intelligent views of Christianity. They are, of course, open to controversy. They express the sentiments of a Unitarian, and of one who was peculiar, even in his Unitarianism; but, at the same time, it

is evident, from a moment's reading, that he was a scholar of rare attainments, of cautious habits of thought, and of the sincerest purposes.

Mr. Norton's sentiments are given most at length in the accompanying volume on the Internal Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels, which are elaborate, and, in some respects, profound treatises on all the topics usually discussed between believers and infidels, but, more especially, those suggested by Strauss's mythical theory of the life of Jesus. It does not seem to us that the defense is put upon the highest grounds; indeed, we think, that Mr. Norton's whole philosophy of the Gospel exposes it to more serious inroads than Strauss has yet been able to make; but we must still admire the erudition he brings to the argument, and the frankness with which he meets the essential perplexities of his subject. In his rooted aversion to nearly all forms of German speculation, he fails to do justice to the extraordinary grasp and acuteness of the German mind, so that one is often inclined to smile at the panic terrors into which he is thrown by the Teutonic monsters of metaphysics, but his aim is, for the most part, towards an impartial estimate of all opponents.

-The first chapter of Genesis has been a source of considerable trouble to those theologians, who think it incumbent upon them to reconcile the teachings of their creeds with the teachings of science. The difficulties, if we understand them, have sprung out of the two statements, first, that light was made two days before the sun, which we are taught, by modern authorities, to look upon as the cause of light; and, second, that the several processes of creation are confined to periods of a day each, whereas geology and other sciences show us that the physical world must have undergone vast progressive revolutions in the course of its attainment of its present state. Mr. TAYLER LEWIS, in a new work on the subject, entitled the Six Days of Creation, discarding all the old theories, and professing a very slight respect for the deductions of science, undertakes a philological investigation of the real meaning of the chapter. He has devoted two years of patient study to it, and the conclusion at which he arrives is, that the creative periods called "days," in the Bible, are indefinite periods, or, of a dura

tion not measurable by any subordinate division of time derived from the present constitution of things. They are spoken of as days, for three reasons: first, because this is the best language the Hebrew or any other ancient tongue could furnish; second, because of their cyclical or periodical character; and third, because this periodical character is marked by two contrasted states (evening and morning), which could not be so well expressed in any way as by those terms.

Each of these indefinite periods, then, was employed in an alternating series of growths, which had a supernatural beginning, but, in the processes of their development, were natural.

Yet this use of the word day, it is contended, is not a mere fanciful conjecture, or a philological resort to escape a difficulty of science, but is forced upon us by considerations which lie upon the very face of the account, especially in the description of the first four periods which preceded the regular division of days by the sun. "By representing them as ante-solar, the writer, whatever may be his science, gives us a clear intimation that the days of which he is speaking, are not the common diurnal revolutions measured by the rising and setting of the heavenly bodies."

This general position Prof. Lewis makes out, with great wealth of learning, and some force of logic; but he has connected the simple philosophical inquiry with so many metaphysical theories, that his contributions to knowledge on one side are quite overlaid by untenable, or, at least, indeterminable speculations on the other. Had he given us the results of his researches as to the meaning of the words and sentences used by Moses, he would have laid us under obligation; but, in attempting to illustrate them by his own peculiar philosophy, he sometimes rather confounds than enlightens us.When, for instance, he speaks of nature, as a "self-subsistent and self-acting power," or, again, as "a force developing itself by law which God has given it;” or again, of a tree or animal, as "developing itself by its own internal law," he either uses language which has no meaning, or which teaches the grossest kind of naturalism.

There are so many questions started by this book, however, which it would be

quite out of place to discuss here, that we must dismiss it with a single remark as to the care and conscientiousness with which the writer has arrived at a position, somewhat novel among his class of men. He has been compelled to differ from the prevailing authorities in his Church, but he does so with becoming modesty, and yet with an honorable independence of judgment. We have no doubt that his book will have a tendency to expand the range of speculation on the high themes of which it treats, without, at the same time, encouraging a reckless or extravagant style of philosophizing.

-The History of the Life and Institute of St. Ignatius Loyola, by Bartoli, an Italian writer of the beginning of the seventeenth century, has just been translated into English, by Madame CALDERON DE LA BARCA, a lady whose eminent qualifications as a translator are well known. The original, composed about a century after the death of the great Catholic Founder, by a member of his Society, who cherished the profoundest admiration of his character, and who had access to the most authentic means of information, is the most entertaining, if not in all respects the most able life of Ignatius that we have. Madame Calderon has rendered the liquid periods of the Italian into clear and graceful English, without sacrificing more of the southern vivacity and the naive simplicity of her author than was inevitable, considering the difference of the two languages. Bartoli himself is really a charming narrator; and though the characters and events which he describes are, many of them, revolting to our more liberal conceptions of the nature of the religious life, he writes with such an unquestioning faith in the most wonderful things, with such a hearty enthusiasm, and with such a romantic sensibility to adventure, that it is a pleasure to read his accounts. Nor was he deficient in sagacity of insight or in depth of reflection. His sketches of men are often admirable portraits, while his remarks on life and manners evince observation and thought. In his honest, and obviously well-founded details of the early Jesuits, we get, perhaps, a fuller statement of the original objects of the Company of Jesus, and of the spirit in which it was conceived, than in the more pretentious and elaborate general histories.

For three hundred years, the powerful society which Ignatius founded, has been an object of intense devotion on the part of its friends, and of as intense hatred by its enemies. In all the nations of the world it has made itself felt, either as an instrument of good or of evil. The bones of its martyred missionaries have whitened the soil of every part of the globe, from the Mississippi valley to the interior of India, while it maintains its influence among the most civilized states, and is supposed by many to dictate the policy of some of the cabinets of Europe. Abhorred and reverenced, distrusted and loved; branded in one place as a secret conspiracy for the most worldly and unworthy objects, and eulogized in another as the most selfdenying and modest of religious bodies, it would seem to be impossible to arrive at a correct notion of its true character. If we take Protestant authorities, we shall find it represented as the most wickedly ambitious scheme for the government of the world, by means of its superstitions, that was ever contrived; but if we take the defenses of its members, we shall behold only a vast and well-organized brotherhood, sworn to the most sincere and earnest piety, incapable of official honors in Church or State, and exclusively devoted to the spiritual regeneration of mankind.

But while there is this diversity of opinion as to the tendency of the Society of Jesus, under the developments given to it by time, there need be no doubt as to the character and designs of its great originator. According to Bartoli's own showing, and in the midst of all his loving veneration, one sees that the saint was an intense fanatic, who by a long series of almost incredible macerations and austerities, had subdued every human propensity in his own soul, under the assumption that this was necessary to the pure love of God, and who sought to work a similar change in the souls of all other men. The extirpation of self-love from the heart, and the substitution therefor of the love of God and the Savior was his ideal of Christianity; and, in order to diffuse this ideal throughout the world, he organized a society which should aim at no other end. He organized it on the most despotic principles. Its first, fundamental, pervading law was obedience to the superiors-obedience not only in respect to the general objects of

the society; but in respect to the minutest directions of those in power, as to sleeping, and walking, and speaking or not speaking. Its members were to have no will but the will of God, and that will was represented by the Superior, "in whom, whether wise or imprudent, holy or imperfect, resides the authority of Jesus Christ himself." They were to have no life outside of the life of the society; to acknowledge no ties of kindred or country; to accept of no dignities or honors; to attach themselves to no professions, no pursuits, no favorite studies, except as permitted by the society: and to hold themselves ready, at a moment's warning, to surrender their existing duties, whatever they were, for other tasks imposed by the commands of the corporation. In the words of Ignatius himself, each member was to consider himself as "soft wax" in the hands of the Order-as "a dead body without will or intelligence"-as "a little crucifix which is turned about irresistingly at the will of him who holds it, or as a staff in the hands of an old man, who uses it as he requires it, and as it suits him best."·

It is easy to discover, from this brief sketch, the various causes which have led to the tremendous influence of this society, in human affairs; its powerful spring of action in its intense conception of the nature of love to God; its energetic vitality in the despotic compactness of its organization; and its almost universal offensiveness to men, in its rigid exclusion of all those personal motives, even the most innocent, by which men are usually governed. Whether it has always been enabled to maintain the high religious tone in which it was begun, is a question for the historians to settle; but we think we see enough in the avowed principles of its founder, to account for the hostility which it has so often provoked, without imputing to it those ambitious and cunning designs, which have made the name of Jesuit, in popular acceptance, a synonym for all that is selfish and treacherous. In other words, we should be willing to acquit the society of the usual accusations of its enemies, as to its practical interferences in civil and domestic affairs, and yet find enough in the very principles of its constitution to justify a very earnest dislike and opposition.

-In the Golden Reed of Mr. BARRETT, we have a discussion of the true idea of the Church, mainly from the stand-point of