He was a faithful, indefatigable alwyer. Whatever he undertook, he performed, promptly, efficiently, satisfactorily. He was not one of those who aspire after regard and credit, without making those exertions which merit and will ultimately secure them. He knew that no great enterprise could be accomplished without great application and effort; and he therefore gave himself to the duties of his profession with an earnestness and constancy that could not but secure to him confidence and respect. And he did obtain them. He had gained an honorable place among his associates, and was daily rising in esteem and trust among our citizens. Few men of his age had done more, none were more deservedly beloved, none had fairer prospects in view. His friends were looking forward with an assurance which his character and past success justified, to the period when he would be more widely known and become more useful, by occupying higher and more responsible stations. But their fond hopes and cherished expectations have all, alas! been suddenly blasted. A premature death has shortened his days, and left to them nothing but his beloved image, and honored name. I have spoken of the intellectual endowments of our lamented associate, and of the fidelity and diligence with which he applied himself to the various duties of his calling. The qualities of his heart corresponded with the powers of his mind, and were discerned and appreciated by all who knew him. His gentle and benevolent disposition appeared in the bland expression of his countenance and in the uniform kindness of his address. He was distinguished by an uncommon composure and evenness of temper. His mind was too well balanced and controled, ever to be ruffled by the turbulence of passion. Austerity or moroseness were never seen to usurp the place of his habitual suavity and mildness. Retiring and unobtrusive, his manners were imbued with the spirit of the old school. He cherished a regard for the feelings of others, and this was evinced, not by loud professions, nor by a bustling parade of services, but by a demeanour uniformly affable, conciliatory, and respectful. His politeness was not a blind obedience to established ceremony, but the natural, sincere expression of his good will. 'But the distinguishing trait of his character, that which we now love most to remember and cherish, was his incorruptible integrity. He was a man of principle; of moral and religious principle; and when I have said that, I have said every thing; for it embraces all that is good; it is the sum and substance of virtue. He did what was right, not because it was easy, or convenient, or agreeable, but simply and solely, because it was right. He was a pure, conscientious man. His character was unsullied. Calumny had not assailed it. Envy could find in it no place to invade. His principles were attested by the uniform sobriety of his mind and conduct. Truth and sincerity had taken up their abode with him, and they led him into the right way, into the paths of pleasantness and peace. 'It is for others to say with what fidelity he discharged the duties of the social relation. It is not for me to invade the privacy of domestic retirement, and proclaim the unseen, unrecorded virtues of the household. I delineate his public character, and declare his acknowledged excellences, that those who hear may honor and imitate them. I will not attempt to portray the thousand acts of goodness which adorned his quiet and happy home, which so endeared him to every member of an extensive family, and the mere mention of which revives in their souls that anguish of grief which burst forth at the tidings of his early departure.' ERRATA. Page 294, line 29, members,' for 'numbers.' THE Christian Examiner. VOL. IV.] September and October, 1827. [No. V. Miscellany. TRANSLATION FROM PHILO JUDÆUS. In the work of Philo On the Formation of the World,' there is a striking passage, in which he speaks of the dignity and powers of man, as an intellectual being. It resembles a very glowing and beautiful description of the unlimited reach of the mind, in the first book of Akenside's Pleasures of Imagination.' Akenside was a scholar and an enthusiastic admirer of the Platonic philosophy. It is not improbable, therefore, that he may have read and remembered, more or less distinctly, this passage of the Jewish Plato, as Philo has been called. There is nothing, however, of that peculiar character in the correspondence between the two passages, which would imply very strongly, that the latter writer had seen the words of his predecessor. The following is a translation of the words of Philo. * 'It is very well said, that man was made an image and likeness of God, for nothing earthborn more resembles God. But let none suppose that this likeness is in the lineaments of the body; for God has not the shape of man, nor is the form of the human body divine; but the image spoken of consists in the ruling power of the soul, intellect. For to the One * The passage may be found, pp. 14, 15, ed. Paris. pp. 15, 16, ed. Mang. Mind, which is the intellect of all things, that which exists in each individual is conformed, being, in some sort, the god of what bears it about and enshrines it. For the human intellect appears to hold the same relation to man, that the Great Ruler does to the universe. Seeing all things, it is itself invisible; and while it comprehends the nature of other things, its own nature is unknown. By the help of the arts and sciences, opening for itself various ways, and all broad and easy, it passes through earth and sea, searching out what is peculiar to each. * Then taking wing, after contemplating the air and its phenomena, it is borne upward to the ethereal region and the revolving spheres of the heavens, and is there carried round with the choirs of the wandering and the fixed stars, moving according to the perfect laws of harmony. Hence, following the love of wisdom as a guide, and raising its view above all sensible objects, it is urged forward to those which are only perceived by the intellect; and upon beholding, in their exceeding beauty, the patterns and images of the sensible things † which it had before seen, it is seized with a sober intoxication, possessed, as in trance, by the spirit of God; and being filled with another, a sweet and better longing, it is by this impelled onward to the highest summit of intellectual being, and thinks to make its way to the Great King himself. But while it is straining to behold him, the untempered and unmingled rays of Divine Light pour forth like a torrent, darkening the eye of the mind with their splendors.' + *For this has Science searched with weary wing, By shore and sea, each mute and living thing.'- -Campbell. Philo here expresses a conception of Plato, who regarded the immaterial archetypes of things, as existing apart, objects not of sense but of intellect; all sensible things being formed more or less imperfectly after the fashion of these preexistent models. They are the images of Plato; images, not ideas, as the word is often rendered, I think incorrectly; at least since an idea is no longer regarded as an image in the mind. The conception of Plato may serve to illustrate the theory of Sir Joshua Reynolds respecting beauty. Perfect beauty, according to him, resides in what may be called the standard form of each species of things, that to which nature appears to be always inclining, and from which the variations in individuals are departures toward deformity. These models, after which nature may be imagined as working, correspond, so far, to the images of Plato,¡ his archetypal forms. -Eternal King, the author of all being, Amidst the glorious brightness, where thou sit'st The passage of Akenside referred to, is the following. It is quoted from his poem as originally written. In its first form, it corresponds, in general, more with the extract from Philo, than it does as refashioned by the author in the elaboration of his work. -The high born soul Disdains to rest her heaven-aspiring wing The fated rounds of time. Thence far effused, Throned inaccessible, but when thou shad'st Approach not, but with both wings veil their eyes!'-Milton. The same thought, as every one will recollect, is used by Gray in speaking of Milton himself. 'He saw, but blasted with excess of light, Closed his eyes in endless night.' Philo, however, will bear the test of a comparison with either poet. Instead of introducing the image of mere bodily vision, he has applied the figure of the Divine Light to express the truth, that the mind of man forms but an obscure and imperfect idea of God through the very perfection of His nature. She plunges; soon o'erwhelmed and swallowed up In the revised edition, the last lines are thus altered: The gloomy void, astonished, yet unquelled, I must confess that the conclusion of Akenside seems to me, in either form of it, obscure and unhappy. It does not harmonize with the spirit and poetical energy of what precedes. The headlong steep' and 'gloomy void' to which the English poet conducts the soul, are not comparable, in sublimity or in justness of thought, to the overwhelming splendor, with which the Jewish philosopher invests the highest object of intellect, the Divinity. Poetry. TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN EXAMINER. SIR,-I send you a few verses, which were written for the beautiful air of Silent, Oh Moyle;' and that I had regard in composing them to their fitness for that music, rather than their exact conformity to the rules of metre, will account for, and, I hope, excuse, the apparent halting of some of the lines. TWILIGHT AND AUTUMN. Mark how the earth, as the months are declining, In crimson and gold, groves and mountains are shining, Proudly they stand in gorgeous splendor, Glorious mid the gathering gloom; Calmly waiting to surrender Honors that freshly in spring shall bloom. Low in the west day's king is descending, The clouds, as they change, on their monarch attending, |