there is a serious proportion of it which is not true. This is a lucid enough statement of the pantheisThose trenchant observations about our life being tic view of things, and what makes it curiously ininevitably conditioned by our fathers and our cir- teresting is that it really appears to be Mr. Arnold's cumstances remind one of a friend of college days; belief, not only in poetry, but in prose ; not only a friend remembered not unkindly on the whole, for literature, but for life. It cannot, of course, in but with a slight mixture of that contempt which is itself be new to any educated man, unless it be to bred of familiarity, - to wit, the time-honored de- Mr. Swinburne; and as Mr. Arnold does not supbate on necessity and free-will. Mr. Arnold, as port it by arguments which have even a semblance Mr. Swinburne will be much astonished to hear, of newness, it would be pedantry to enter upon a does not go far into that ancient question, and formal statement of the proof that personality, not if these gentlemen would like to see logical work indifference, is the central principle of the universe, on the subject by a master in the dialectic craft, personality of physical power, personality of moral they may be recommended to the “iron-linked and will, personality in God, the Spirit of the universe, invulnerable argument” in favor of man's bondage personality in man, the spirit that represents God to predetermined motives constructed by one Jon- here. After all, the matter is hardly one for arguathan Edwards. It is more to the purpose to ob- ment; if a man can shut his eyes to the ordinance serve that, whatever Mr. Arnold or Mr. Swinburne of moral law in this universe, an ordinance written may advance to the contrary, man does not stand on with the precision of an individual lawgiver on a level with nature's common phenomena. Wheth- the tablets of the human heart, he is not likely to er from nature, or from nature's God, he unques have it revealed to him by formal statement of evitionably holds sovereignty here below, and is, as dence. Something on the point, however, will Goethe calls him, the " small god of earth.” The come in our way as we proceed. Libyan wind? Why, he tames its wayward will, Mr. Arnold buttresses his declaration of pantheand forces it to sit, his obedient slave, in the corner ism with replies to several of those arguments adof his shoulder-of-mutton sail. The torrent? He duced by men in defence of a belief in God and in curbs its pride, lays it down in the smooth mill-immortality. As Mr. Swinburne says, he “rebukes stream, and sets it, with steady, patient throbbing, and confutes the feeble follies of inventive hope, the to turn his wheel. And has not the lightning stooped futile forgeries of inventive comfort." Looking at his beck from the cloud, and does it not at upon the great world, reflecting how little he can this hour bear his messages under three thousand know of it in his brief span of earthly existence, miles of sea ? Would not all the children of nature man thinks of a Being to whom nature is all known, stand up and tell Mr. Arnold that he mocks them, and of an enduring life in which he shall expatiate in and that the terrible man-child is their conqueror ever new fields of knowledge. Again, he feels that and king? Over the individual, indeed, nature has his capacity for happiness has been here unsatisfied, power, and at moments, like a maniac when his and he conceives the hope of blessedness in a celeskeeper's eye is turned aside, the force which man tial dwelling. Dreams, mere dreams! says Mr. has tamed and quelled springs upon him with glare Arnold and screams Mr. Swinburne. Our knowland yell, to cast him down and rend him. But edge, poor blinking lantern which has been of some against man united, against the ordered array use to us in picking our way through the thick fogs of human kind, against the ever-advancing, far- of this world, will be flung contemptuously into the stretching line of the great exercitus of the race, na- grave by death, and extinguished forever. As for ture's rude host, - winds, lightnings, pestilences, eternal joy,storms, - what are they? Chaff before the blast.

"Fools ! that so often bere Mr. Arnold, however, will not consider this long

Happiness mocked our prayer, battle and gradual victory. Man, he insists upon

I think might make us fear

A like event elsewhere! it, will not " fight as best he can, and win what's won by strife." The bewildered mortal seeks an “ The mighty hopes which make us men," thereeasier way to cheat his pains. He peoples the air fore, are deluding phantoms, and if our human na with gods, — cruel gods, who embitter human life, ture whispers to us of such things, she must, like a kind gods, who smile on human endeavor,--and | lying spirit, be smitten on the mouth. tries to find an opiate for his indolent wretchedness By all means, I answer, on the hypothesis that in paying homage to these. Such conduct is quite she be convicted of falsehood. But if she has been nonsensical. Granting even that the world may be faithful in little, it seems fair and brave to trust her filled with gods whom we cannot see, they are ne in much; and if she has spoken the truth for time. cessarily impotent, argues Mr. Arnold, either to it is not extravagant to pay attention to her wbie mend or mar our state.

perings on the subject of eternity. How stands " All things the world which fill

the fact ?
Of but one stuff are spun,

Born into the world in ignorance, man is in
That we who rail are still,
With what we rail at one;

pelled by an imperious instinct to know. ** Seek." One with the o'er-labored power that through the breadth and length whispers a voice in his soul, “and thou shalt fel" "Of earth, and air, and sea,

He seeks, he observes, he inquires. He ascendis the In men, and plants, and stones,

mountain of knowledge, - rugged, precipitous; he Hath toil perpetually,

climbs with difficulty from crag to crag; on the And struggles, pants, and moans ; Fain would do all things well, but sometimes fails in strength. topmost peak, in the clear evening of an inte " And patiently exact

lectual life, he beholds, not sterile boundaries o This universal God,

universe explored, but an ocean of knowledge ye Alike to any act

to be traversed, a Pacific of truth stretching on * Proceeds at any nod, And quietly dechims the cursings of himself.

on into the deeps of eternity. The fascinas « This is not what man hates,

that placid splendor is as great upon him t h at Yet he can curse but this.

he first aspired to know. He yearns to b
Harsh gods and hostile Fates
Are dreams ! this only is :

new voyage. He looks into the eyes of his se Is everywhere ; sustains the wise, the foolish ell."

with a " dumb surmise" of endless progrese u

limitless attainment and hope sublime. The prom- | to be striven after. All religions, therefore, have ise-whisper of his infancy has not deceived him; he been wrong only in degree; the spirit that sneers has upon earth made some onward steps, and tasted and disbelieves, — the spirit of frivolity and indifferof the ecstasy of knowledge; his eyes have been ence, of heartless irony and jaded discontent, of opened, and life has taught him that there is an in- giggling merriment and languid sensuality, — this finite to be known. And now that transporting has been the universal minister of death in human whisper is once more at his ear,“ What thou societies. knowest not now thou shalt know hereafter."| The vivid poetical religion of the finest European Mind, the angel of the universe, ready to soar out tribes in the morning of Hellenic civilization was of the mists of earth, preens her wings for everlast- not so much a falsehood as a presage of truth. They ing flight. The instinct which forbids her to close err who represent it as having consisted simply in her pinions and to die has been veracious for time, nature-worship; they err who would resolve it wholly and it is justly trusted for eternity.

into hero-worship: it was a subtle blending of aweSo with the instinctive thirst for happiness. Man struck wonder before the might and mystery of is born helpless and miserable, as well as ignorant. nature, and of reverent appreciation - chiefly, howNaked, feeble, weaponless, the man-child lies gasp ever, as a mere prevailing force of the heroic in ing on the rocks. But a will to live, a will to con- man. It broke into syllables and stammering acquer, a will to be happy, stirs in his breast; joy he cents the truth that nature is not dead, that human importunately demands, and the instinct which bids history is not purposeless, that there is a celestial him demand it assures him that he has a right to ground-plan in the structure of the world. And possess it. He accepts the promise in faith. He now, when science has taken the reins of the sunrises to his feet. The wind raves mockingly in his chariot out of the hands of Apollo, and the sunrealm of rock and swamp and black moorland, but gleams in the valley, when the summer shower falls he sings it a song of defiance, and tells it that it will free, are no longer the glittering robes of immortals one day be a Zephyr to pipe in his garden. Andrejoicing in solemn dance at the marriage of Zeus his song comes true. The world yields him harvest and Hera, of heaven and earth, cannot reason subof happiness in return for his toil. Civilization stitute a more articulate and coherent doctrine for crowns him with her rewards, for it is the mere that sweet fancying? I venture to answer in the whine of intellectual green-sickness to say that the affirmative. civilized man is not happier than the savage. Tast- Avoiding vague talk on a subject on which we ing happiness, man feels - every healthy person are perhaps apt to think and talk rather vaguely, I feels — that joy is the atmosphere in which the soul would suggest that science, viewed in connection expatiates, flourishes, grows. But the taste of hap- with the history of human progress, tends to add piness he has had upon earth has been only enough clearness to the idea, and evidence to the fact, of to let him know what joy is, and how much joy may relation subsisting between man and the world, of do for man. The scant sunshine of earth's bliss appointment of each for each. Not only in what awakens a surmise of what the soul may enjoy, of nature is, but still more in what she, apparently of what the soul may be, in the eternal light of God; set purpose, refuses to be; in her pause and reserand as the instinct of happiness has not deceived vation and denial ; in her treasures that are hidden, him here, he believes that it also will not deceive and her beauty that is veiled; in that mystic imhim hereafter.

perfection which, for man, lies everywhere over Such, I submit, is the just and rational interpre nature, putting his energy to the train, and forcing tation of nature's revealing upon these matters. him to better and beautify the world; in the inThe answer to the riddle of human destiny is not salubrity and discomfort of savage climates, which that man's life is a falsehood, that man himself is an can be tempered into mildness; in the barrenness of elaborate lie. It is in loyally believing and obeying unploughed lands which culture can change into ferthe dictates of his higher nature that he becomes tility; in the wild grains which must be nurtured, the great. His regal instincts speak the truth.

wild fruit-trees which must be grafted and pruned, These speeches of Empedocles are at bottom an the wild animals which must be tamed and doexposition and enforcement of the thesis of the Com-mesticated; in the opulence of iron and coal lying tists, that religion, in its ordinary and legitimate ac deep in the earth, the powers of steam and electricity ceptation, as an impulse, attraction, or energy direct requiring to be explored and regulated ; - in these ing man towards an Infinite Spirit, and turning his and a thousand such phenomena there is a precise thoughts and hopes on a life of immortality, is a adaptation of the world to educate man, and of man grand mistake, and has been a source of evil to man. to educe the fulness and foison of the world, which This thesis I simply and definitely reject. Religion it requires a dead-lift effort of the mind to impute to has been a stimulus, an aid, a pole-star in human chance, and which reason easily and graciously rehistory. Like all the influences which act mightily cognizes as the work of a Divine Intelligence. Why upon the soul of man, - like the passions them- not accept the light of that natural law which has selves, which for good or for evil are the warriors, in many a province been a lamp to science, namely, the workers, the gigantic toilers of the mind, that what is distinctive and peculiar in every creareligion has been liable to misdirection, misuse, in- ture affords the hint to its meaning and to the law toxication, delirium. But the testimony of the past of its existence? The only creature on earth that is that religion has been, on the whole, beneficent has religion is man; the only creature on earth that to mankind. The fiercest, rudest tribe that had a has a moral will is man; the only creature that has religion was superior to the tribe that had none. named the name of God is man. Is not this the key The religious tribe had started in the march of prog- to the riddle of the world ? Is there, after all, any ress; it was going on; its gods, bad as they might objection to it except just this, that it exactly fits be, were ideals painted on the skies of heaven, to the case, that it turns easily in the wards of the lock, wards which it lifted up the head ; they were some- that it is an open secret, and that man is too proud, thing better, something higher, than itself, — some-too presumptuous, to believe in a secret that is thing to be admired and reverenced, to be risen to, lopen? I am not so foolish as to imagine that noth

ing of mystery will, in any event, remain. In con- | There is but one word that now reaches us from the sidering the lot of the individual, or even of the silent, sacred East:nation, there is difficulty, terrible difficulty. Again

“ From David's lips this word did roll, and again will the soul, in the impassioned agony

"T is true and living yet ; of sympathetic pain, cry out, - Why slept the

No man can save his brother's soul, lightnings when that solitary child was tortured ;

Nor pay his brother's debt." when that kind, heroic, beautiful woman died in Man must henceforward stand “alone, self-poised.” agony of fire; when that brave tribe was sold into Christianity has played its part in world-history. slavery? But the purpose of God is very wonder- | The Catholicism of the Middle Ages was swept ful and very deep; and may it not be that in these away, and Protestantism has failed to take its very throbs of sympathetic anguish, urging us to place > destroy cruelty and wrong from the face of the

“The past, its mask of union on, earth, impelling generation after generation to strive

Had failed to live and thrive;

The past, its mask of union gone, more ardently than they would otherwise have

Say, is it more alive? done to make such horrors impossible, we have the

“ Your creeds are dead, your rites are dead, proof that the individual sufferers have not endured

Your social order too ; in vain, and the explanation of the possibility of

Where tarries he, the power who said such occurrences taking place under the govern

See, I make all things new? ment of moral law and of infinite beneficence ?

"The millions suffer still, and grieve;

And what can helpers heal In the poem entitled “ Obermann Once More,”

With old-world cures men half believe Mr. Arnold attains a loftier altitude of poetry than

For woes they wholly feel?” in the “ Empedocles.” There is more in it of prac. What hope, then? Much. replies Mr. Arnold. tical grappling with the present, more of the speech the sun is pison. of living man to living man, than in the arid and unblossoming generalities of the Sicilian Ecclesiastes.

“He melts the icebergs of the past,

A green new earth appears. In verses imbued with heartfelt sincerity of mean

Millions, whose lives in ice lay fast, ing, and moving on in majestic roll of grave and

Have thoughts, and smiles, and tears. earnest music, Mr. Arnold presents us with a philo

"The world's great order dawas in sheen, sophical summing up of Christian civilization, de

After long darkness rude,

Divinelier imaged, clearer seen, cides as to its value and validity in our day, and

With happier zeal pursued." looks in the face the perilous and testing question of what is now to be hoped for and to be done.

How? we impatiently ask. What is this new Two thousand years ago, - thus he proceeds,

order? What is to be hoped for, what to be done? the world was in much such a state as at present.

Here is the answer :Its head was clear, its activity unpausing, its attire

“What still of strength is left, employ, splendid, its fare sumptuous; but it did not thrive,

That end to help men gain: and that because its “heart was stone." Mr.

One mighty ware of thought and joy

Lifting mankind amain.” Arnold's picture of Roman civilization, in its hour

ur | And then the oracle is dumb. Fain would one ask of perfect triumph and of utter failure, is masterly:

by what terrestrial impulse, or celestial attraction, “On that hard Pagan world disgust

this “ mighty wave" is to arise. With the heavens And secret loathing fell.

Mr. Arnold has abjured communion. There is for
Deep weariness and sated last
Made human life a hell.

him no God but that blind impartial force which * In his cool hall, with haggard eyes,

lives in stones and trees and oceans. Nor can The Roman noble lay:

earth lend him assistance, for the great enthusiasis He drove abroad, in furious guise,

which have arisen among men in the past were Along the Appian way;

delusions, and the secret of those delusions, the "He made a feast, drank fierce and fast,

trick of the old religious mystery, has been disAnd crowded his hair with flowers, No easier nor no quicker passed

covered. What sun has risen ? None. The light The impracticable hours."

of joy that is henceforward to flash and gleam But morning broke from the East. The star of |

through the universe, gilding its waves and painting Bethlehem rose. The West beard the doctrine of

its rainbows, is to emanate from no God. the Child and the Crucified. She flung crown and

Mr. Arnold would, he tells us, have been a

Christian if he had arrived in the world a few ages sword away, imperial purple and luxurious pomp ; sbe rushed into the wilderness. Her heart melted;

sooner. Wbile Christianity was credible, he would she wept; but on her tears was the light of day

so gladly have believed it. spring:

"0. bad I lived in that great day,

How bad its glory per
« Tears washed the trouble from her face!

Filled earth and heaven, and caught away
She changed into a child.

My ravished spirit too!
'Mid weeds and wrecks she stood,-a place
of ruin, -- but she smiled!”

* No cloister-floor of humid stone

Hnd been too cold for me ; A wave of love streamed out upon the world - from

For me no Eastern desert lone Christ's then open grave.” For centuries its force

Had been too far to flee. continued unspent :

“No thoughts that to the world belong

Had stood against the wave “Ay, ages long, endures his span

or love which set so deep and strong
Or life, 't is true received,

From Christ's then open grave.
That gracious Child, that thorn-crowned Man,
He lived while we believed."

«No lonely life had passed too slow

When I conid hourly see But we no longer believe, and, in consequence

That wan nailed Form, with bead drooped low,

Upon the bitter tree."
“Now he is dead. Far hence he lies
In the Jorn Syrian town,

That is to say, Mr. Arnold pronounces it to be a
And on his grave, with shining eyes,
The Syrian stars look down."

desirable and blessed thing to be well deceived,

to be lapped in sweet delusion. I think it is manlier | kindness, are of the essence of Christianity. True, to hold with Paul that, if Christianity is a dream, there is much doubt abroad. But does the thoughtthe very sweetness of its illusions, the very glory of|ful mind see no meaning, no preciousness, no its dazzling imagery and transporting promises, blessed influence, educating, humanizing, refining, render those deceived by it the more miserable. in doubt? Is not doubt the hand, trembling yet Madness, be its visions gay or gloomy, is immedi- careful, that turns the telescope of earnest inquiry cably sad. To be in his right mind is best for a upon the heavens of truth? Is not doubt the man; and the rightness of the mind is belief in revealer of difficulty, and does it not thus minister truth, however harsh. But I may be permitted to to the most delicate sympathy of intellect and of question the correctness, though I do not in the heart? Is it not doubt that casts those side-lights least question the sincerity of Mr. Arnold's theory, upon dogma, and suggests those reserves and qualias to what he would have been if he had lived in fications, which must characterize every statement the early ages of Christianity. May it not be or solution of a complicated question that is delidoubted whether he would have cast in his lot with cately and finely true? Doubt is the element of the struggling sect whose reputation was so ambig- all the most sincere and exquisite action of mind, uous, and which was so largely recruited from the the mother of intellectual modesty, and manly difdregs of the people, sinners and publicans, Mag-fidence, and gracious forbearance. In an age of madalens and slaves ? Is it not, on the whole, more | ture learning and varied speculation like ours, it is probable that his sensibilities would have been too no paradox to say that he who has first doubted dainty for such companionship, and that he would and then believes, believes best; and scarce a parahave been found cultivating sweetness and light in dox to affirm that he who has never doubted has some refined Gnostic coterie ?

never believed. I am, of course, aware that there Be that as it may, Mr. Arnold has less reason for is a habit of affected and feeble dubitation, which rejecting Christianity now than he would have had is the mere wasting of the intellectual fibre and at any period since John the Baptist sent his dis- the fainting of heart and soul; but profoundly true ciples to the Master. The early Christians were is it that honest, brave, onward-looking doubt is nearer to the time when Christ hung upon the cross the ally of faith and hope, and the handmaid of than we are, but they had not such means at their love. command as we possess of forming a clear and Mr. Arnold thinks of Christianity only as a sysarticulate idea of the evidence for that and the ac- tem, feudal or modern, Papal or Protestant. But companying occurrences. Those who, centuries what if it is more than a system? What if, when long, had assailed Christianity with the weapons of the inadequacy of all systems to contain its ethehistorical criticism have as good as thrown down real spirit had been demonstrated, and the massive their tools, and taken refuge in the abstract asser- ecclesiasticisms of the past, like icebergs stranded tion that miracle is impossible. They will not admit in a southern clime, were inevitably melting away, that Christianity has been proved Divine ; but the its genuine, inborn potency should be the first problem of disproving its historical evidence, with fully exhibited ? What if the race has been gradualout invalidating all proof of occurrences long since ly, through all these ages, preparing itself to know past, has baffled them; and in irritated perplexity, and appreciate Christianity — the chambers of the remarking with a continental writer that it would human spirit enlarging themselves to receive the be interesting, were it possible, to discover the germ heavenly visitant and her august retinue of truths of the Christian fable, they pass on.

and ideas? Only in these last days, when the deBut Christianity has lost its power. It is not be-velopment of material civilization has drawn nalieved. Practically it is extinct. Is this, I ask in tions towards each other by the ties of commercial calmness and sobriety, true? To me, looking at association, has it been surmised by practical men the question as boldly, broadly, and soberly as I — by at least here and there a practical man can, it appears that the aspect of affairs is for that the morality of the Sermon on the Mount, Christianity more promising now than it has ever which, during eighteen centuries of the clangor and been. Christianity was never so wise and pure, - torment of war, all Governments and all Churches never did Christian zeal burn with so clear and have assumed to be, on the platform of national life, ardent a flame, -as at this hour. Monastic Chris- | impracticable, admits of being realized, and that tianity was very narrow and very sickly. Latin literally the soundest national policy, the policy Christianity, though one of the most glorious things producing most of benefit for all, is that each nation ever beheld on this earth, was cramped with super-should seek to promote its neighbor's welfare, and stition. Protestant Christianity, as organized at the to communicate, instead of monopolizing, the bounty Reformation, was grievously, inexpressibly injured of Providence. What a revolution were that, worth by the worldliness of its patrons, by the secularity another thousand years of waiting and working, of its arrangements, by the rigidity of its forms, by which should see nations changed from fighting nathe scorching intellectualism of its spirit, by the tions into co-operating nations! paralyzing influence of its great sin in gnashing its Mr. Arnold returns, or thinks that he returns, to teeth with furious hatred against those who, a few David. “No man can bear his brother's sin or pay years before, had been companied with as fellow- his brother's debt." Hard and cold negation, false Christians. The Christianity which is vital at this and haggard and dead! Man is man in that he hour, the Christianity which more or less inspires bears his brother's sin and pays his brother's debt. devout and intelligent souls in all Churches, and in all the glory of human tenderness, of human all civilized nations, is a gentler, purer, more beau-trust, of human fellowship, the deepest music of chivtiful spirit of moral life than ever in this world alry, the loveliest devotion of friendship, all that breathed in an equal number of human bosoms. is most sacred and thrilling and beautiful in human Only in these latter days, — nor is the fact wonder- story, is destroyed by this attitude of rocky isolation ful, for the truth in its simplicity is always the and iron pride. Man to rise must accept help from highest and the last attainment of man, — bave we the meanest of his fellows, and the deepest thinkreally learned that toleration, mercy, brotherly | ers of the time -- Goethe for one of them — would not agree with Mr. Arnold that man is degraded in golden plains of England, in the purple valleys of accepting help from the God-man.

Scotland and Wales, on the emerald slopes of IreBut, after all, is not Christianity practically a land, beneath the crags of Switzerland, by the rivers failure? “ The millions suffer yet." Well, there is of America, unperplexed by scepticism, unconscious truth in that; but let us speak composedly on the of fear, walking in the light towards the perfect day. subject. Is it true that suffering is a prevailing con- There are green pastures and still waters where the dition of Christians, either as individuals or as flocks of God are yet led by His Hand. Never since families? Is it not rather a fact that Christian vir- man joined hand with man, and the development of tue, whether by the calm it breathes within, or by civilization commenced, were the fountains of benerthe activity, sobriety, contentment which it enjoins, olence so full, so overflowing; never were there so is the most powerful of talismans for conjuring happi- many Christian hands stretched out to succor the ness to the heart and to the hearth? If you look, orphan, to dry the widow's tear, to make anguish you will find that the grumblers of the world are smile, and cheer the bed of death. Sorrow in these not, as a rule, the Christians: Again, is it not one days has but to make itself known, and the angels of the boyish impressions most surely and rapidly come trooping to its relief, - angels none the less dissipated by any real inquisition into the facts of real that they look through human eyes and speak history to suppose that the “millions” were ever in human accents. Never did the Christ walk more happier than now, if they were ever so happy ? gloriously before the nations — never did the " wan There was possibly – I would not dare to use a nailed Form" exercise a more constraining power stronger word — a brief period in the feudal ages in than now. But, as has indeed been the case at all England when the common people were better off | times, the eye of faith can best, or can alone, perthan at present. I think it probable that, in the ceive Him. That Revelation of the Natural, with moments of their highest religious enthusiasm and its startling announcement that our little theories as brightest national prosperity, flying gleams of a hap- to the way in which God had revealed Himself to piness beyond the average of that ever enjoyed else man in Holy Writ were inadequate, has perplexed where, visited the mass of the Hebrew people. and disquieted many devout souls. The darling But throughout vast tracts of human history, have thought, the priceless and ravishing conviction, that, not the body of the race been preyed upon by after all generations had been more or less in error, pestilence, famine, the sword, and has not all indus- we, with our cut-and-dry inspiration theory, bad try languished, save that ghastly industry in which reached the summit of perfection, and might at last man sheds his brother's blood ? Poets must not put abandon all idea of change or of advance, has been their ideals for facts, or despise that standard of well-torn from us. The age is one of transition; the orbeing which seems to be appointed for man here dinance of progress, terrible in the ear of weak hubelow. The common man has ever been a toiler: manity, but never to be repealed in this time-world, scope to toil, opportunity to earn his bread in the is sounding loud and clear, as if the angel of the ressweat of his brow, this has been all that man in urrection had put the trumpet to his lips; but there this world ordinarily attains. Horny hand, bent is no cause for apprehension if Christians will but be back, aching limb, hard fare, these have been man's strong and of good courage, and never forget that to lot. He is a true man who does not whine over fear truth is to blasphere God. this ; who does not call it suffering; who silently! In all that Mr. Arnold writes there is trace of rewrestles and endures, and takes with all his heart flective thoughtfulness, consideration for others, and what happiness is to be had. Labor is not joyous, a reasonable estimate of bis own powers. But Mr. but grievous; and yet the laboring man, whatever Swinburne, in writing of Mr. Arnold, merges the ofhis vocation, is par excellence the healthy and the fice of critic in that of showman, and loses nice dishappy man on this planet.

crimination of beauties in boyish extravagance of Mr. Arnold favors us with no information as to applause. With the true instinct of the showman, how, under the régime of his "mighty wave of he shrieks at the top of his voice in depreciation of thought and joy,” the race is to diminish its suffer- what he regards as the opposition booth, and illusing and widen the margin of its joy. But it is trates the virtue of self-suficience, and its obvious not necessary for Christians to leave this, which is distinction from the base vice of presumption," by so essential a part of the matter, undetermined. pointing the finger of scorn at such poetry as * In Their programme for the future is simple and dis Memoriam" and " The Two Voices." Mr. Arnold tinct. It is to acknowledge fearlessly, faithfully, joy- owes Mr. Swinburne less than no thanks for suggestfully, God's Revelation of the Natural, which has ing comparison between himself and Mr. Tennyson been made in these last days, and animating the as intellectual and religious poets. Mr. Arnold is new machinery with that “ enthusiasm of hu- a man of true genius, a cultivated and admirable manity," that passion of infinite kindness, which was poet; but, apart from that passionate sympathy with first inspired by Christ, and wbich, though philos-life and that power of setting life's strongest, subophers, before and after Comte, may, to their credit, tlest, homeliest feelings to entrancing music (the appropriate it, has never burnt long or bright ex- main and mighty gift of the poet, after all), in which cept on Christian altars, to advance with fresh ar- Mr. Tennyson is great even among great masters, dor against the embattled array of human ills. and in which Mr Arnold is so weak that his place

The toil is not over, the strife and the agony are must, I fear, ultimately be among minor poets, the still to be endured. We fight in the shadow; we pre-eminence of Mr. Tennyson is conspicuous and march in the night; but starry gleams penetrate the indisputable. In compression, power, and sterling darkness, and streaks of dawn pierce upward from originality of thought, in many-sided presentation the horizon of the world. We shall not distrust the of the theme, until the mind is filled and satisfied. might of goodness, nor say that God's purpose has in variation of softly brilliant, exquisitely appropri. failed in the world. Never did so many householdsate imagery, picture after picture of breathing, rudworship the Creator in peace and joy, myriads of dy-tinted life, each picture speaking forth the aryafamilies, differing in their ecclesiastical badges, join-ment in glow of noblest color, each picture moving ing, morn and eve, in praise and prayer, on the on as in rhythmic starry dance to the music of the