with alacrity and with diligence. He was faithful in a small diocese; and the Lord of the harvest, the Prince of the kings of the earth, has said to him, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been ruler over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things." But we trust the period is far distant at which he shall be called, in the most exalted sense, to "enter into the joy of his Lord."

The translation of Dr. Sumner from Llandaff to Winchester, has, we doubt not, occasioned unfeigned sorrow to many pious and devoted men among our Cambrian brethren. To some, perhaps, it might appear as though he had been labouring in vain, and spending his strength for nought, in a diocese which he was so soon to leave; but far otherwise, we doubt not, will the fact of the case appear, when all circumstances are fully known. The good seed which with a liberal hand has been sowed during a very short episcopate, will, we confidently believe, be watered with heavenly showers, and bring forth abundant fruit. Perhaps, indeed, some worldly, careless priests, will rejoice at the removal, hoping that they shall not be made uneasy in a neglect of duty by the warnings and exhortations of another vigilant spiritual ruler. We trust, however, that the clergy of Llandaff will find in Dr. Copleston a worthy successor of their late diocesan. We cannot allude to this subject without expressing our thankfulness at another appointment to the episcopal office uninfluenced by any political considerations. The Provost of Oriel has been long known and highly respected as a scholar: nor are we ignorant of instances, which might be named, of those who, having during their academical course been committed to his care, have, by God's blessing on his endeavours, afterwards come forth before the church as workmen not needing to be ashamed. In some minor points we should probably take a different view of things with Dr. Copleston; but we have long considered that his character and station pointed him out as an eligible candidate for "the work and office of a bishop in the church of God," to which, indeed, we think he ought to have been elevated before. That the Provost of such a college as Oriel will make a good disciplinarian, we cannot doubt; nor are we without a good hope, that, both as Dean of St. Paul's and as Bishop of Llandaff, he will "walk by the same rule, and mind the same things," with the man of God upon whose offices he has entered.

But on this subject it would be premature to enlarge, till their Lordships shall have had time to hold their primary visitations; the one in the diocese of Llandaff, and the other in that of Winchester. To the Charges to be delivered on those occa

sions the attention of our Church, and indeed of the nation, will be directed. In the mean time, may it be the prayer of our readers and our own, that the two Prelates, together with their Right Reverend brethren in the sacred office, may have grace given them" to witness a good confession before many witnesses;"" to reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine;" and to " feed the flock of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood:" that, when the chief Shepherd shall appear, they may "receive a crown of righteousness which fadeth not away."

An Essay on the Philosophical Evidence of Christianity; or, the Credibility obtained to a Scriptural Revelation from its Coincidence with Facts of Nature. By the Rev. R. D. HAMPDEN, M. A., late Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. London: Murray. 8vo. pp. 314. 1827.

IT is a consideration of vital importance to the public teachers of religion, that infidelity is continually changing in its mode, and that scarcely an age passes in which it is not presented in some peculiar form, or under circumstances of novel influence. It would not be a difficult task to illustrate this observation by an appeal to historical records, in which we believe it will be seen, that the several great eras which mark the progress of Christianity have each been distinguished, not merely by a general enmity, or by the opposition of a worldly and sensual philosophy, but by a system of hostility begun and carried on with characteristics which, when the great register of time is opened, will be the superscription of its several chapters. Passing, however, over this detail, to which, notwithstanding, we would earnestly direct the attention of our readers, as one of considerable interest, we cast our eyes on the present state of the great controversy between the believers and disbelievers in the religion of Christ;-a controversy which, under one form or another, is ever awake; and which, with different degrees of publicity, is constantly employing men's minds.

In seasons of great intellectual activity, it is seldom the materiel of public thought is derived from those deep and secluded fountains of truth whose only attraction is their purity. The value of any species of mental exertion, national as well as individual, must always greatly depend upon its exciting causes. When these are defective, either in uniformity of action, in application to the better faculties of our nature, or

in freedom from low and corrupting principles; whatever may be the extension of knowledge, or the impetus given to the public mind, neither science, morals, nor philosophy, will gain a step of ground from which the slightest political change will not in an instant repel them. But if knowledge be of any value; if it be a received principle that intellectual improvement is a real benefit, and that it is worthy of a free and generous people to diffuse its benefits through every class; it is surely most important to consider how these advantages may dered most permanent; and how we may best avoid the fallacy of mistaking the existence of great intellectual activity for the actual increase of knowledge, or the diffusion of a light, superficial science for the progression of a people either in religious or political wisdom.

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There is no period, we believe, in which the people of this country were so busy in the pursuit of knowledge as in the present; and so far as the excitement has been given by the growing strength of a healthy frame, it is an important and valuable addition to our grandeur as a nation. But it is not sufficiently pure from other and very different causes, to be regarded altogether in this manner: and while we deprecate with abhorrence the Popish doctrine, that the education of the people endangers their fealty to the church-which is, in fact, canonizing ignorance as the patron saint of ecclesiastics-we would cautiously examine, not merely the food which is offered to the enlarged appetite for knowledge, but the appetite itself. And in doing this, we think we discover signs of its having been forced by stimulants beyond its natural capacity, and of advantage having been taken of a real and healthy keenness to produce an untempered voraciousness.

There can be little doubt, after the great political events of the last twenty years, that no nation in Europe, with the exception of Spain, remains in the same moral or intellectual situation in which it did at the commencement of the war. Men's minds had been kept in a continual agitation; their lives and liberties had been the stake of the kingly game; and the war itself had had its origin in an event which, however deplorable in its consequences, marked, for the first time since the creation of the world, the beginning of a new order of things, which owed its origin neither to war nor policy, but to the simultaneous advancement of popular opinion and philosophical theory. Melancholy, indeed, was the darkness which was thought light in those times; but the convulsions which followed were the consequences of this stirring up of the human mind in its great and mighty masses of people and nations. And was it to be

expected, when the agitation ceased; when the giant who had overturned nations in his youth became a man, and he had become conscious of his strength; that things could return to their old state, and that the only consequences of the convulsion would be a few changes in the political relations of kingdoms, or some clearer notions on the balance of power? It had been absurd to suppose this. The whole constitution of society had been altered; the different relations of civil life had become modified by different ideas of liberty and right; and the action of public thought had received too strong an impulse to rest satisfied without employment for its energies. The visionary ideas of freedom and equality, and the still more visionary and infinitely more dangerous philosophy prevalent in France at the time we are mentioning, were in every way calculated to rouse all minds to exertion, and to supply them with a never-ceasing motive. They were made familiar to every capacity, because they appealed to the strongest passions of every heart; and they came with the vouchers of the most popular men of the time as the true introduction to perpetual liberty and happiness. It was impossible that such opinions as these should be received and acted upon in a nation like France, without having a considerable influence on the popular feeling in other European countries; and it is well known, by those who are acquainted with the state of the public mind in England twenty or thirty years ago, how powerfully they affected it. There was nothing in the subsequent events at all calculated to allay the fermentation; and the result, therefore, which has actually followed, was to be expected, a peace distinguished beyond all other periods of tranquillity by unbounded intellectual activity, by a popularity of literature and science scarcely ever before paralleled, by a diffusion of knowledge among the middle and lower ranks which was hardly equalled even in the ancient republics, and by a close and direct union of literary speculation with religion and politics. In the political features of the times, then, we may find some of the most powerfully operating causes of the present state of the public intellect; and it is in proportion to the good and evil mixed up in these causes, to the just or base and profligate principles they embrace, that the result is profitable or the contrary; that the friends of humanity have to lament or rejoice in the events that have occurred; or that the philosophic observer can place any dependence on the present passion for inquiry as a sign of permanent and solid good. So far as knowledge is diffused for its legitimate purposes-intellectual activity promoted to make the people wiser or better, in the true spirit of benevolence and patriotism—the knowledge

diffused will nine times out of ten be sound and useful; and the consequence an improvement in public morals, as well as public opinion. When, on the contrary, a party or factious spirit, to whatever class it may belong, labours for the instruction of the people, rather to make them powerful auxiliaries, than a free, moral, and well-governed people ;-we shall find, when this is the case, how great soever be the abilities employed, that the increase of knowledge will fail of its end; that after a few years the spirit will either have evaporated, or the solid good it might have produced been wasted in a useless activity; and that the patriots and philosophers of other generations will have to begin de novo, the work of popular instruction.

We do not intend this as a reflection upon the exertions of any body of men engaged in diffusing useful knowledge; we do not intend it as a slur either upon their proceedings, their abilities, or their sincerity; but we have said it to warn them, that in whatever proportion party spirit contracts or perverts sound reason, they will become the enemies instead of the friends of the people.

But if the remarks we have just made be true as they refer to political purity, they are evidently so in respect to freedom from perverted views on religious points. And it is here we have to express our alarm at the fearful progress of infidelity; an infidelity marked with all the signs of the times, and taking, from the activity, the popularity, and materialism of our literature, increasing vigour. The extent of this evil can hardly be imagined by our readers. It is neither confined to the closets of a few philosophers, who, looking at the sun, have become blind: nor is it the favourite system only of the profligate sensualist, whose love of darkness is a sufficient reason for his disbelief. Nor, on the other hand, are we speaking of it as at such a dangerous height because a blaspheming print-seller, or a foolish man whose vanity has made him mad, are preachers of it to the multitude: No, but because it has spread extensively among a class of persons whose opinions, whether expressed directly or not, are of the greatest importance to the public;men too who, for their own sakes, as well as their influence, deserve respect and attention, and who form one of the most influential classes of society as it is at present constituted. We mean, literary men; among whom the opinions we are alluding to, it is to be feared, exist to an alarming extent. We have not now space to enter into the consideration of this subject at length, but we will observe, that one of the principal characteristics of the disbelief of the present age is, its resolving every thing almost into expediency, either political or private; and