very good taste indeed, but making up in curiosity its defects in intrinsic merit.

The plates are exceedingly beautiful: they consist of—1. King Edward VI. presenting the Charter to Christ's Hospital, from the Picture by Holbein, in the New Hall. 2. The Old Hall, Whittington's Library, and the Cloisters, Christ's Hospital, A.D. 1700. 3. Ruins of the Old Hall, Christ's Hospital. 4. View of Christ's Hospital, Hertford. 5. The New Grammar and Mathematical Schools, Christ's Hospital. 6. Portrait of Arthur William Trollope, D. D. late Head Master of Christ's Hospital, from a Painting by Tannock. 7. Portrait of James Palmer, Esq. late Treasurer of Christ's Hospital, from a Painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence. 8. Elevation of the New Hall, Christ's Hospital. 9. Exterior View of the New Hall and New Wards, Christ's Hospital. 10. Interior View of the New Hall, Christ's Hospital. The work is got up with the taste and elegance characteristic of our publisher.

ART. II.-Fanaticism.

By the Author of "The Natural History of Enthusiasm." London: Holdsworth & Ball. 1833. Pp. viii. 515.

8vo.

(Continued from p. 140.)

HAVING analysed the four first Sections of this able work, we arrive in due progress at the fifth, which treats of the "Fanaticism of the Scourge," or of "personal infliction." When we recur to our author's definition of Fanaticism as being "Enthusiasm inflamed by hatred," we naturally ask "What are the objects of hatred in the breast of our selftormenting fanatics, and against whom do they direct their virulence? Do they hate themselves?" Our author answers in the affirmative; and endeavours to assign the probable causes of this singular phenomenon. Violent passions are said to vex the heart that generates them, in consequence of the mere lassitude of the animal system, which, while it insulates a man from others, yet does not much affect the interior of the character." Another cause of this self-tormenting error is discovered occasionally in that "misanthropic arrogance," which refuses to be so far dependent upon others as to call them the objects of its hatred or revenge :

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There is a haughtiness so egregious that a man will contemn and torment himself, sooner than condescend to look abroad as if he stood in need of any beings as the objects of his ireful emotions.-P. 90.

In opposition to this proud class stand the instances of such selftormentors, as have gloomy introversions of austerity arising from a mild meditative humour, perverted by some false system of belief, or

from some outraged sensibilities, or from some physical timidity, combined with lofty and exquisite sentiments. Such are some of the sources of this species of fanaticism. The elements, upon which it employs itself are three :

1st. The miseries, physical and mental, to which man is liable. 2d. A consciousness of personal guilt, and dread of retribution. 3d. The supposition of supererogatory or vicarious merit.—P. 92.

How the rebellion of a proud heart against the calamities of life impels the disordered mind to forestall its misery ;-how this sullen pride, spontaneously embracing wretchedness, combines itself with the consciousness of guilt, and the fear of punishment;-how, thus closely allied, they lead to the voluntary endurance of extreme pains ;-how the rigid devotee," bound to the stake by the cords of pride,” furnishes evidence of "an overthrown greatness in the human mind," which bespeaks an immortal destiny, and demonstrates the superiority of the mental over the animal principles of our nature; - how these selfinflicted torments prove the supremacy of the moral sense in the constitution of man, and his relation to invisible and retributive power, and the sovereignty of religion over the motives of his conduct;-how the fanatic counts the absolving value of his sufferings, and thus is brought boldly to defy vindictive power ;—if our readers would learn, let them consult the eloquent pages of the Section under review, whence we extract the following passage in connexion with these topics, and beg leave to call their notice to the originality at once and the beauty of the closing simile:

Pitiable triumph of the lacerated heart that thus vaunts itself in miseries as useless as they are horrid! Must we not mourn the infatuations of our nature, as we watch the ascent of the soul that climbs the sky only to carry there a sullen defiance of Eternal Justice! So the bird of prey, beat off from the fold, and torn with the shepherd's shafts, its plumage ruffled and stained with gore, flaps the wing on high, and fronts the sun as if to boast before heaven of its audacity and its wounds!-P. 101.

Fanaticism, having passed this stage, fear and humiliation yielding to hope, to pride, or to revenge, becomes a mixed sentiment, and degenerates into hypocrisy, or quite evaporates. The pains of privation are easily endured by proud and independent spirits, and the habitude of positive pain brings its own relief to the ascetic saints, whose powers of endurance amaze the readers of monkish records.

It is not till after the fanatic has acquired some familiarity with selfinflicted torments, and is at ease in his character of voluntary martyr, that he entertains the bold ambition of undertaking to suffer vicariously for those who may be less resolute than himself.-P. 106.

Having reached this pinnacle of absurdity, the public martyr feels himself secure, and expiating the sins of others, is certain that his own are discharged.

thus the warfare against ghostly exactors is carried on upon advanced ground; and the knight-spiritual has a space in the rear to which, if pressed, he may retreat.-P. 108.

The Mohammedan and Popish superstitions have severally encouraged the practice of voluntary inflictions. How, and by what different principles, our author teaches us in many beautiful pages of the Section before us, to which, for lack of room, we reluctantly refer our readers. This part of the volume reminds us strongly of the celebrated Bampton Lectures of Dr. White (aut quocunque nomine gaudent,) which so elaborately annihilate the pretensions of the Arabian priest. The result of our comparison would be anything rather than injurious to the fame of our eloquent author, to whose philosophical views of human nature,—to whose brilliant periods,-to whose power of language, and to whose depth of thought, and various learning, we willingly lend the (perhaps worthless) panegyric of our feeble pen.

The fanaticism of this voluntary austerity was the proper parent of the fanaticism of cruelty for they, who first had tortured themselves, would easily be persuaded to scourge others. Our author illustrates this position by a detailed reference to the history and writings of Basil, whose influence was so great, that, both in the Latin and the Greek church, his volumes formed the text-book of monkery, and gave almost irresistible sanction to its follies; and of whom we may well exclaim, that he is an illustrious example of the truth of the apothegm, which teaches us that

-such is the original limitation, or such the superinduced infatuation of the human mind, that when once it takes a wrong path, not the most eminent powers of reason, nor the most extensive accomplishments, avail to give it a suspicion of its error.-P. 129.

The faith of Basil was comfortless, severe, and dim. His distinction between "the common life," and the " 'angelic" or "monastic," generated a disdain of the christian community, and "a preposterous conceit, (ill concealed beneath the cant of humility,") of peculiar privilege as the distinction of a favoured few. So much for the primate of Cappadocia.

We turn to another form of the Fanaticism of the Scourge,-the custom of pilgrimage.

Among the many routes, (says our author,) beaten by the foot of man, which catch the eye as we look broadly over the earth's surface, if there be one that stares out from the landscape, whitened with bones, we shall always find it terminate at some holy shrine. A spot made important by nothing but the dreams of superstition, has become, by the accumulated mortality of ages, the very Golgotha of a continent, and death has fitly erected his proudest trophies on the paths that have led to the place of a sepulchre. The train of pilgrimage, at first mastered by folly, has renounced as an impiety the guidance of reason, and hurrying onward every day with a more desperate hate than before, has at length poured itself as a torrent along the very valley of death. -P. 134.

We would relieve this dry analysis by more lengthened quotations, did not our limits forbid us: yet, in spite of these, we must adorn our pages with the following simile; and we take this opportunity of remarking that our notes are filled with points of admiration of the very many examples of beautiful similes in the volume on our table. Our author, be it observed, is describing how religious delusion coalesces with mercenary calculations, so that the wasted pilgrim becomes a pedlar, and deals in the wares of superstition.

Oftener than can be told, has pious heroism slid down by a rapid descent into sordid hypocrisy, and the stalking devotee of yesterday has become to-day a sheer knave. Just so does a torrent tumble from crag to crag of the mountains, and sparkle in the sun as it storms along; until, reaching a level and a slimy bed, it takes up the impurity it finds, gets sluggish as well as foul; and at length creeps silent through the oozy channels of a swamp.-P. 135.

The sixth Section of our author treats of the "Fanaticism of the Brand," or of "Immolation and Cruelty." It is plain that no subject can equal religion in furnishing occasion to malign and murderous passions, whether we look to the importance or to the obscurity of the questions embraced by it.

Common hatred now rises to an immortal abhorrence; wrath swells to execration, and every ill wish breaks out in anathemas.-P. 146.

"the

Hence the cruelties of religious discord. Hence torments and death in lieu of argument. Hence, ere we can prevail on ourselves to destroy our religious opponents, we contrive to charge upon them some enormous moral delinquencies, and assign them to the class of malefactors, to prove that the objects of our hatred are indeed worthy of detestation. All this is energetically enforced by our eloquent author, to whom again we refer our readers. This "fanaticism of cruelty" is aggravated by incidental causes, one of the most obvious of which is, mixed feeling of jealousy and interested pride that floats about the purlieus of every religious despotism." This rancour especially characterises the sacerdotal institution of the Romish church, which is here emphatically styled, "the COLISEUM of Papal cruelty;" for whilst other superstitions, Druidical, Syrian, Scythian, and Indian, have tended only to blood,—the Fanaticism of the Romish Hierarchy breathes revenge, “and murder beats from its heart." Perhaps the severities inflicted upon the Christians of the three first centuries, may be compared with these papal horrors. Yet some points of difference present themselves, and we must remember, while we pursue our comparison, that "the senate, the pro-consul, and the centurion, knew nothing more than the darkness of Paganism could teach them; but popes, and cardinals, legates, priests, and monks, held the gospel of peace in their hands." We pass over (most unwillingly, we allow,) our author's statements, when comparing papal cruelties with the wars of the Moslem

conquerors; we omit (again most unwillingly) what he has said so admirably of the nature of popery as alien from the temper of the free nations of western Europe, and confine ourselves to his opinions :"1st. of the doctrine of the Romish church; 2d. of its constitution as a polity; and, 3d. of its sacerdotal institute:" in their tendency to generate, and their fitness to sustain, a sanguinary fanaticism.

1. Divine mercy, coupled with divine justice, the promises of grace, and the declarations of wrath, working upon each other for the production of the love and the fear of God, are the prime elements of Christianity. If these correlative principles be severed, alarming evils follow. The free mercy of God through Christ, disjoined from his attribute of justice, fades into the idea of indolent clemency, and relaxes the motives to morality. If the doctrine of wrath be brought in question, or "abated of its force and meaning," the doctrine of mercy loses its significance and its attractions. But the Church of Rome has grievously perverted the doctrine of eternal damnation; for whilst our Lord and his apostles speak of the wrath of God as due to the impious and the immoral, and the hardened unbeliever, and for the purpose of enforcing their invitations to mercy," the papal hell is but the state prison of papal tyranny," and "future retribution is only an ecclesiastical terror," wholly removed from the consciences of men. The natural consequences of this perversion may be seen in its effects upon general philanthropy, and upon the impressions which it conveys of the divine character and government ! The same perverted doctrine still characterises the papal church. The same rule of ecclesiastical damnation still lives in her members; and the history of Europe, during a thousand years, has been the comment on the rule.

True it is,-(oh! hear this, ye emancipators of papal persecutors; hear this, ye destroyers of Protestantism,-ye ruthless ROBBERS of the Protestant Church!)— true it is, that the ecclesiastical hell of Romish despotism has, of late, been closed, and a seal set upon it by the stronger hand of popular opinion; but the dogma is as it was, and where it was! The pent up fire of its revenge still murmurs through the vaults of the spiritual edifice, from the mouth of the Tagus to the Carpathian mountains; GIVE IT ONLY WIND, AND HOW SHOULD IT RAGE TO THE SKIES!!!—P. 176.

2. The polity of the Romish church necessarily generates a spirit of ferocity and revenge, exaggerated hugely by the conscious indistinctness of the grounds on which it demands submission to its extended sway; and yet further heightened by the hypocrisy of using the civil sword of justice to consummate its bloody cruelties, of which the fittest symbols are the torments of the damned!

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3. Our author speaks of the sacerdotal institution of the Romish church as exhibiting a fanaticism more intensely ferocious than the world has elsewhere seen." We beg leave to quote, for the instruction of those who think the power of popery too weak to deserve their notice, the following passage: