3.-Works of Claudius.

Matthias Claudius, a distinguished German author, was born in 1741, near Lübeck, and died at Hamburg, in 1815. In the latter part of his life, he became deeply imbued with religious feelings. His writings have been extremely popular in Germany. "Some of his little poetic pieces are gems of the highest order, familiar to every rank and age in Germany, from the cottage to the throne, and from the cradle to the grave."* His complete works, up to 1812, have been published in eight volumes. A friend of ours, a native German, now in a foreign land, has sent us a translation of a part of a preface of Claudius, prefixed to his translation of a French work, entitled, "Des erreurs et de la vérité," by St. Martin. "I doubt not," says our correspondent, "you will find some grains of gold in it. They are not, like those of many a writer now, beaten out upon the anvil into broad scales, and polished, and fixed up to sight; but simply thrown out, if, peradventure, somebody may go by and pick them up." We now proceed to the translation from Claudius:

The book, "Des erreurs et de la vérité," is a singular book, and literary men hardly know what to make of it. For none seem to understand it; and yet, that upon which judgment is to be pronounced, should be eminently understood.

Now and then, indeed, the author opens his mouth and speaks, as e. g. his remarks on the origin of evil, and on the freedom of man, and in various other places; and what he says on these subjects is rather more satisfactory than the current notions hitherto. Most of the time, however, he goes about, like a ghost, his mouth shut, and with his uplifted finger pointing at something beyond our sphere of knowledge. His hints and remarks are by all means grand and cheering, like the distant mountain tops of our native land; but, at the same time, they are so eccentric and so strange, that our understanding seems to be unable to apply her compass any where, or to connect, classify or arrange them at all for her purpose.

This, however, is no great matter. For if our understanding has an acquaintance merely-and a limited one too-with the wilderness of the material world, then the promised land begins just there, where she begins to gnash her teeth and to wring her

hands in despair. And if Wisdom does not grow in the field of literature and learning as it is now,-a position which hardly one of the tillers of that soil will maintain earnestly, then hints and remarks on Wisdom must naturally appear strange. The authenticity of such hints and remarks remains to be decided, to be sure; and we ought by no means to take inconsiderately that for fire from heaven, which after all may be a mere ignis fatuus, or the twinkling of a glow-worm.

Many of the readers will allow no fire at all to our author, but smoke only; and they compare his book with a picture, where the horizon is all wrapt in clouds. They may have their reasons for judging thus. Nor is the comparison with a cloudy picture inapposite; and there are pictures of that kind, where a hand comes forth from the clouds endeavoring to impart something. The disposition of an author, his motive, and his object, they are the best guide-board in judging him ; and he usually adds it to his work as a card for his experienced reader, though often ignorantly, and much against his own will and advantage. Nor do I, myself, understand the book. But, besides an impression of superiority and confidence, I find in it purity of motive, and extraordinary mildness, and elevation of sentiment, and rest, and internal peace. And that must needs come home to the heart. Do we not all want peace, do we not all seek rest, and find none! And there is no purity, no rest, no peace, except in the element of holiness.

Doubtless, one or another of our literati will undertake to refute the author. But, first, there is much difficulty in refuting a book which is not understood. For if we take out of the work some disconnected sentences, measuring them by our scale, and just as the words sound in themselves, we are in danger of attributing, by our own fault, a meaning to the author which is not his; specially when he declares, that he often says one thing and means quite another, and that he generally keeps back a great deal of the sense in his mind. And then, the main doctrine of our author is this, viz. Man, left to himself, and without the guidance of an universal, temporal, active, and intelligent cause, (as he calls it,) runs himself into mere error and folly, knows and effects nothing without that cause, just as with it, every thing. By' that position, the most thorough refutations of the learned are at once deprived of their sting; and the best, yea, the only way to bring about something would be this, viz. to labor to become acquainted with that Cause, if it ex

ists, and to be guided by it. Then the matter would be clear, we should be a match for the author, and could judge of his performance, and decide whether it is the powerless glare of a meteor, or a star from better worlds.

There may be still stronger objections than this; this one will, at all events, not settle the question. For look now, I pray thee, at the sun, how he shines, bright and majestic,-but art thou able to pull out a handful of his rays with the roots, to see how they grow? Canst thou seize the moon and press her sap into a cup? And yet, behold! she enlightens all the world, and moistens and affects land and sea, and the ebb sets in and presses up our river with power, though we see her not. there are hid from us in the material world so many things for which we enjoy the use of three senses, how shall we judge of immaterial things without the use of that one sense, which our author calls the spiritual faculty, or the sense of the spirit?

But if

But let this book be what it may, thus much is clear; it sets aside the concerns of the world and temporal matters; it urges renunciation of our own will, and faith in the truth; it proclaims the vanity of this world, the weakness and frailty of what is sensitive and human in the nature of man, and the excellency of what is truly intellectual and spiritual in him; and on every page almost it dissuades you and draws you away from that which is seen and perishing, to lead you to that which is not seen and eternal! And that is certainly not a bad thing; and who is he who would not heartily wish success to it?

And thus I have translated the book; and he who uses it for that purpose, will certainly do well; and he who uses it for vain and foolish purposes, will do ill, and he may consider his way and learn wisdom. The fact is, we all grope naturally in the dark, we are embarrassed within ourselves and at a loss, and we cannot extricate ourselves; and the attempts of the learned to extricate us, are mere ungrateful, unsuccessful efforts. Besides, the realizing sense of our own helplessness, has in every age been a sign of real greatness; and it is, otherwise, also a fine feeling, and it may be the port where we must set sail if we want to discover the North-west passage.

Man has a spirit within himself whom this world cannot satisfy, who chews with grief and disgust the cud of the husks of this world, and of the thorns and thistles along the road, and who longs for his home. Nor has he an abiding place here, and his departure is at hand. And it is obvious enough, how

much or how little that wisdom can do for him, which is confined to the narrow sphere of this visible and material world. It may be valuable and dear to him here below in many respects, but it cannot satisfy him. How should it satisfy him, if material nature herself cannot, but deserts him by the way, and when he is carried to the grave, remains behind him in his study, like his globe and his electrical machine?

That which is to satisfy him must be in him, of his nature, and immortal like himself. While he sojourns here below, it must instruct and console in view of the principle, purpose and course of this material world, and of all her imperfections and scars, and in the land of embarrassment and subjection, it must make him feel in reality confident and free; and when he removes hence, it must go with him through death and dissolution, and, like a friend, accompany him home. This wisdom, I know, is not found in any book, nor can it be purchased with money, nor will a man who divides his heart between God and mammon find it. Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground! But that wisdom. does exist; we know it. And the man who is conscious of the breath of life in his nostrils, will take it to heart, and if he does not find her in the visible and material world, nor in his own speculation, he will receive and improve wholesome counsel, and seek her elsewhere.

4.-Christian Ethics; or Moral Philosophy on the principle of Divine Revelation. By Ralph Wardlaw, D. D. From the second London edition, with an introductory Essay by Leonard Woods, D. D. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Boston: William Peirce. 1835. pp.

380.

We have long regarded the instability of our systems of mental philosophy as a most extraordinary fact. From the days of Aristotle, the science of mind has been in constant fluctuation. The great object of successive writers has been to demolish the superstructure of some predecessor. Such has been the fact in every country where the subject has received any degree of attention. The arts, the physical, and some of the intellectual sciences have been comparatively defined and settled. Why has mental and moral science been in ceaseless agitation? Men of sagacious and of comprehensive intellect, in great numbers,

have devoted many years of enthusiastic study to the faculties and operations of the human mind. Why have they not succeeded? Because, we unhesitatingly aver, that they have overlooked or neglected the real condition of human nature, and the authoritative statements of divine revelation. Here, we believe, is an adequate explanation of the failure of many successive systems of philosophy. The authors of them have not looked at man's nature as it is. They have gone about constructing systems for angels, or for beings who never tasted the bitter fruits of apostacy. In so doing, they have exhibited as much wisdom as our astronomers would, if they should spend a whole laborious life in teaching the doctrines of Ptolemy or of Tycho Brahe. While such astronomers might communicate many important truths, they would not develope the principles of astronomy. So Stewart and Brown have illustrated various topics in philosophy with great eloquence and truth and beauty. But they fail in the origin of their inquiries, and so fail fundamentally. Their lectures are not strictly on the human mind, but on the qualities of certain imaginary beings. To point out this fatal error of the philosophers is the great object of Dr. Wardlaw's treatise. He examines successively, so far as this point is concerned, the systems of Aristotle, Zeno, Epicurus, Cudworth, Clarke, Price, Adam Smith, Hutcheson, Dr. Thomas Brown, Hume, bishop Butler, and others. He allows the great merit of many of these writers, particularly of Butler, but maintains that important errors have crept into all their systems, in a greater or less degree, because they did not proceed sufficiently on the assumption of the depravity of man. He then discusses the rule of duty, which he considers to be the will of the Governor of the world, as made known in the Scriptures and by the law of nature and conscience. In consequence, however, of the obliteration of the disposition to do our Maker's will, conscience has become so sadly defaced and confused in its characters and impressions, that, though it leaves man accountable as a subject of a moral government, yet it has been rendered as a standard of right and wrong, incompetent and unsatisfactory, itself requiring to be rectified by the light of divine revelation. The origin of virtue, or the primary principles of moral obligation, Dr. W. considers to be the nature or the character of the Supreme Being. To this conclusion he comes, after a careful inquiry into the theories of Paley, Edwards, Dwight, Mackintosh, Hume, and others. The general argument of Dr. Wardlaw is