Woman has a nobler mission. In the honoured station of wife, it is her blessed privilege to cheer, to comfort, to support those who must do battle with the sterner realities of life; and ever, like the Æolian harp, to transmute all external sounds into the music of her own harmonious nature. Or if hers be the holier privileges of a mother-how high her responsibility to train up heirs for heaven! "Take this child and nurse it for me." How fraught with unspeakable blessings are the "wages." They may not be reckoned herethey shall be paid in heaven. In that awful day, how will she, who must approach the Judge and say, "Lord, here is thy talent, which I have kept laid up in a napkin," compare with her who shall be able to exclaim with joy, "Behold, I and the children which God hath given me?"

As to Papal charities, a little consideration will greatly modify the extravagant praise frequently awarded to them, and tend to place ourselves, as Protestants, in our true position. While wer freely award all the credit that may be justly due, wherever extensive charities are founded or sustained, yet it is but just sometimes to call attention to those circumstances which have favoured their growth out of our connexion, and also, by exonerating ourselves from the charge of neglect, not suffer a slander to be fastened upon us which we are far from deserving.

And first, we would observe that the necessities of Roman Catholic countries are much greater than ours, and demand imperiously a larger amount of eleemosynary aid, and other charitable assistance. In any land, where the immense proportion of the population is already reduced to all but nominal slavery, and dependent for daily supplies upon their daily earnings, and those the minimum of bare existence, it is easy to see that a religion which practically nullifies a part of the divine decalogue, which says, "Six days shalt thou labour," by compelling to idleness and worse on so many saints' days and holidays, must constantly throw great numbers of this class into the yet lower condition of beggary and absolute want. This compulsory inactivity tends still further to unthrift, improvidence, poverty, vice; and, consequently, to destitution and suffering. This is so evidently the result, that it is the universal testimony of travellers, that in passing through Switzerland they can tell whether frame without complaining. The free air and social relations suited to educate, and develop, and strengthen the physical economy, are essential to a sound mind in a sound body. The people of this country are beginning to take notice of these things, and it is not strange that they should be jealous of every attempt to allure young females to take the veil, or to wear it after they alter their minds."

they are in a Protestant or Catholic canton, by the appearance of the country, as well as of the people. In the Papal countries in Europe, beggars are so numerous as to form a large class by themselves. Want, of the extremest kind, disease, and suffering, are so evident everywhere, that the first impulse of a pious or benevolent heart is to minister to physical need.

Again: The meritorious nature of good works is so prominently taught in the Romish Church, and seems so comparatively easy a way to win heaven, that the owners of great wealth gladly compromise by bestowing of their abundance rather than abandon dear and cherished sins. The concurrent experience of all ages proves that men will submit to any privation-impart freely of their wealth, undergo any physical torture, and even give their bodies to be burned if taught to believe that by such means they will merit heaven-rather than give up their sins, and live an humble, holy life of faith in a crucified Saviour.

The necessity of extreme unction also, to a dying Catholic, insures, if possible, the presence of a priest in the last hour; and innumerable are the instances of large sums left to religious and charitable houses, by persons whose lives were spent in anything but acts of charity. This is often indeed done to the great wrong of surviving families; and thus, instead of securing to themselves a blessing, they receive the denunciation of our Saviour against those who say, “It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me." Many of the most extensive Catholic institutions in Europe have been founded and enriched by legacies from the dying. The doctrine of purgatory, too, in teaching that money paid for masses may shorten the period and mitigate the extent of their suffering, has further still greatly tended to the accumulation of large amounts for kindred purposes, from the hands of those whose grasp was relaxed by death, and who thus vainly strove to lay up treasure, not in heaven, but in a place of torment. We need not do more than allude to the world-wide difference between the selfish, slavish exertion that works for a stipulated reward, and the spontaneous outgushing in return for love, itself the glad service of uncalculating affection.

There is another thought worthy of being taken into the account, as far as females devote themselves to a life of external charities. When so great a number of the other sex become celibates, (as all the priests must,) the necessity is forced upon many of them to remain unmarried also; and, deprived of their legitimate sphere of duties, they naturally seek other methods of gratifying the benevolence of their nature. Thus we have seen that the tendency of the

Catholic ritual is to create poverty, and have glanced at the nature of the influences which induce works of charity.

As Protestants, we acknowledge the justice of no charge which will lay to our account any comparative deficiency in this matter. The unprejudiced observation of a lifetime has convinced us, that the same principle which has prompted labours of love in the members of our communion, has made them careless of sounding their own deeds abroad. Their efforts, unlike those made in the Romish Church, have been less concentrated, and therefore less obvious. The one might be compared to a fountain, to which the thirsty must come to drink; the other, to a thousand smaller streams scattered throughout our land,-less noisy and noticeable indeed in themselves, but diffusing more widely and efficiently nourishment, verdure, and beauty. The duties of charity, in its restricted sense, have not been neglected, but higher claims have also been admitted. There is kindness to be done to many who need not pecuniary aid. The wounded spirit is to be soothed, as well as the feverish body to be tended. We are not only to dispense medicines, but to give kind and loving words. We are not only to pray ourselves, but to teach others the spirit of devotion which gushes forth in "Our Father." We are not, as monks and nuns, to "go out of the world," but to strive to make that world beautiful with the light of a pure and holy example. Many a fair being have we seen, clothed in no Pharisaic garb of a "professed" religionist, yet whose garments seemed to have caught the refulgence of the Mount. No claim for merit was preferred; even her gentle footfall might not be noticed-yet the path was greener for her passing step. No trumpet sounded before her deeds of charity—yet all the echoes she awoke were musical. No saintly honours canonize her on earth-but her "record is on high." "When the ear heard her, then it blessed her; and when the eye saw her, it gave witness to her." Not wiser than her Maker, she calmly put the chalice he had prepared to her lips, while love, and submission, and holy trust, turned all its bitterest drops to sweetness. Such a true daughter of Charity does not, like a coward, flee to a cloister from all the ills of life, but lightens the sad burden of humanity by sharing it.

It is well to care for orphans, even though it be within the dismal walls of a convent, where none can know the deep sympathies which warm a mother's heart; it is better, as do Protestants, to gather them together into an asylum, where one who has felt the mother's instinct will love and tend them; but best of all, the true refuge for the motherless is the fireside of the bereaved parent, who, mourning the dead, may transfer to the living the care,

and affection, and tenderness, which helpless infancy so much needs. These we believe to be the true orphan asylums, intended by the God of providence, of which he will testify his approval by the commendation, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these, ye have done it unto me."

We frankly acknowledge, that in the duties of charity we incline more to caring for the soul than the body. Do what we may, the casket will crumble into dust; we rather aim to polish and beautify the gem within, that it may be fitted to adorn His heavenly crown. We may not have tried so assiduously to filter the turbid streams of human life; but have sought, as the surest course, to purify the fountain. We are endeavouring to disseminate throughout the world the gospel of Christ, well assured that all temporal blessings will follow in its train. We make no profession of having done all our duty; nay, after our best efforts, we own that we are but "unprofitable servants;" and we pray for a more abundant gift of that wisdom which is "full of mercy and good fruits." We are not of the number of those who fear the final success of Popery, because we confidently believe the word God has spoken, that "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea;" but when we see the man of sin strengthening himself for one last desperate struggle-albeit his death struggle-we fear that some we love may fall in the terrible contest. We would forearm them to meet every emergency. We would so prepare the combatants, that when the battle must come, the victory shall be ours. Then let them rear their costly structures, and build, as for ages, in massive piles of sculptured stone, those walls shall yet be vocal with praise to the one Mediator, and the "incense of a true oblation" shall yet be offered on the very altars which are now profaned with the mockery of daily mass.

ART. VI.-NEW THEORY OF PHYSICS.

Outlines of a System of Mechanical Philosophy: being a Research into the Laws of Force. By SAMUEL ELLIOTT COUES. Boston: Little & Brown. 1851.

THIS bold treatise aims at nothing less than the overthrow of the established doctrines of physics. They all rest on the Newtonian law of gravitation, which our author affirms to be no law at all. He presents his novel views with great confidence, believing it possible to reach a clearer view of nature, and a higher and more

spiritual philosophy than has yet been attained. He thinks that philosophy treats too exclusively of second causes; and that to refer all the phenomena of nature to the action of matter upon matter, is to keep completely out of sight the great First Cause, and, to the extent of our ability, to exclude God from the superintendence of the universe.

There is a strong conservatism in science, and there is but little prospect that the theory of Mr. Coues, whether right or wrong, will soon be adopted. New ideas slowly win their way, especially when in direct opposition to commonly received opinions. This dislike of innovation is well for the true interests of science; it is the safeguard of her choicest treasures. Truth, though at first rejected, is welcomed at length with gratitude. She may be compelled to stand for a long time, waiting in the distance, while she is curiously scanned and watched, lest she may be some base impostor arrayed in lovely garb; but the moment her celestial features are distinctly recognised, she is received with joy. An illustration of this tendency of the mind may be found in the bitter hostility manifested toward the Copernican system of astronomy. It had been taught and believed that the sun revolved around the earth; and it was extremely difficult to relinquish the long-cherished theory, and admit that this beautiful world was not the motionless centre of the universe. The literature and religion of the age were so completely interwoven with this error, and the rapidity of the sun in the heavens was so often recognised in illustrating science and theology, that it was deemed downright heresy and impiety to assert that the sun stood still. We quote the following specimen from a "Body of Divinity," published by a contemporary of the great astronomer Copernicus: "The celerity of the motion of the sun is incredible: it goes beyond the thought of man to conceive distinctly of the passage through every place. If a man should divide the circumference of the circle of the sun into certain parts, he could not so soon have thought of them as the sun runs through them. God doth this great work. It is thought to be caused by the turning round of the highest sphere of the firmament, which, pulling along with itself the inferior orbs, makes them to move according to its course. But who can give a reason why that sphere itself should move so swiftly-even much more swiftly than the sun, because it is far higher than the sun, as much as that is higher than the earth-but the immediate power of God, who doth all in moving this one? But that God should make the sun fulfil such a daily race to make day and night, it highly commends the work."

We have an amusing instance in the great astronomical discoverer,