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judgment, and decide against those spiritual habits. We show that we have less faith in him than in ourselves; we are false to our professed allegiance to him as the Head of the spiritual kingdom on earth. As subjects of the Divine Government, we have nothing to do with the Divine Law; bu tto ascertain what it is and obey it. If it is to be ascertained from the teaching of Christ, one might as well proclaim war against the course of nature or the right hand of God, as presume to go contrary to his precepts; it were equally rebellion and folly, and equally sure to end in discomfiture and despair."

DOCTOR WALKER'S LECTURES.

I cannot give you an account, as I should like to do, of Dr. WALKER'S Lectures. He undertakes this winter to prove the subjective truth of what the Theist believes from human nature, instead of pursuing the English course of proving it from the evidences of design in the outward world. He stated in his first Lecture, that he took this course because the posterior argument involves as its basis an element of the argument a priori, or assumes the principle that every effect has a cause, a principle presupposed in the very act of seeking proofs of design in the outward world, or even among the phenomena of the mind. He averred that the argument, a priori, was the ground on which religion rests generally in the minds of men; although the majority of the believers were as unable to make a philosophical statement of the ground of their faith, as the generality of men would be to make a philosophical statement of the grounds of their belief in the external world, which however, they do believe in. To give the argument a priori, he further stated, was to disengage, by analysis of the complex state of mind of the believer, those Intuitions of the soul which are natural Religion, namely: the existence of God, human accountability, and a sense of immortality.

The second Lecture, was the Discourse before the Alumni of Cambridge, a little altered. It showed that Philosophy and Religion were friends. He took occasion in these two Lectures to show the defects in Butler's Analogy, Paley's Natural Theology, and the Bridgewater Treatises; and to show that Locke made the first step towards that denial of all Philosophy which resulted in Atheism in France, and a blight of Science and Religion in England. In the criticism on Butler, he quoted from Charles Elwood, naming its author "an able writer.' He also endorsed Cousin and the other Eclectics of France; Kant, Schliermacher

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and De Wette, of Germany, as Theists, and as having restored Europe to Religion.

His third Lecture was to ask, what in the intelligence of man, made him man specifically, allowing to brutes a mind with regard to outward things, a mind which often could observe, compare, reason, and meet emergencies. He at last clearly stated that man, beside this, had intelligence with respect to itself, it could think about thinking, and about the thinking principle, in short, it could make itself objective to itself. This power of self-inspection, involved by necessity, a sense of accountability. Because the mind can re-act on itself, it feels the duty of purifying itself when stained by sin or error. And accountability involves the moral necessity of immortality.

The fourth Lecture was the analysis of the Religious sentiment. Man, by the experience of life, is thrown back on himself, and he reflects. As soon as he reflects, Reason suggests to him God-the idea of God awakens a feeling of reverenceReverence in a healthy mind impels to an act of worship. He proved that this development must take place in every soul of man, that lives to the age of Reflection. But only those who by effort concentrate attention, inwardly unfold and realize the religious sentiment. It must perpetually renew itself in its fountain Idea, which is ever to be found, and only to be found in the depths of Intuition. He took occasion to describe the difference between Discursive Reason, and Intuitive Reason; and showed how different it was to found Religion on Reason, from founding it on Reasoning which was the function of the Discursive Reason, shared with the brutes. He was very eloquent in showing that it was from the depths of Intuition the hero and martyr arose, incomprehensible mysteries to the worldly minded, however powerful in inference and induction, however versed in the weaknesses of human nature. The subsequent Lectures are to show verification of the analysis he made of Religious sentiment, in the history of worships.

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To-night also our friend JAMES F. CLARKE began his new ministry. He proposes to organize a new Church in Boston, embodying, as he thinks, Jesus Christ's idea of a Church. Tonight he preached on the text, "What shall I do to be saved," whose answer contains the essentials of Christianity. Sunday night he preaches on Justification by Faith, a doctrine which rightly interpreted, contains, as he thinks, the vital principle of Christianity; and his third lecture is to be on the Church, what it was in the Apostolic times, and what it ought to be, and can be now, but is not. His audience was full, notwithstanding Dr. CHANNING preached to an overflowing congregation at Warren Street; Mr. BRIGGS, of Plymouth, to another at Waterstons', and Braham was singing at the Melodeon. The audience had the best people in it. EASTERN CORRESPONDENT.

POETICAL LITERATURE OF THE WEST.

The true Poetry is not written, carved, painted nor sounded forth. All art, even the highest, is but the reflected sun in the twilight heaven of memory, when the moment once livingly present has set in the Past. Life is the Poem; Man is the Poet; Soul embodied in true deeds, is the Creation of Genius. Yet dear to us is the imaged splendor of remembered Life. The Life-Poetry of this Western world, has been of a grander style, than we of this age oftentimes are aware of. Never yet, in civilized times, has Man been seen so free, so fearless, as in the Valley of the Mississippi, in the earlier days of the settlements. The bondage of old creeds, religious and political, still hung upon him, held dear like a familiar garment; but they scarcely impeded the movement of his strong limbs. The eye was keen, the head erect, the chest broad, the body firm and elastic, and arm and leg were pliant and sturdy. So with the mind equally, passions were full, thought fresh and quick, energy ready and constant, enjoyment keen and varied. Body and spirit, the old hunters and pioneers were manly; they were Poets in life; and breathed in the silence, the immensity, luxuriance and fresh beauty of forest and prairie, river and lake, as we do not, perhaps cannot. And a liberal courtesy, imbibed from the whole scene and atmosphere, clad them.

Not in vain, we trust, did those brave men and women build their cabins and rear their little hordes of white-headed savages. Their leaven of liberty still works;-and is destined, we will hope, to inspire the Western character with a large, strong, earnest spirit, that may yet make the American, what Providence intended him to be, and what he is not now, a Free Man. Meanwhile the Devil is busy as ever, sowing the thistle seed of worldliness with one hand; parceling off and fencing the broad lands with Party Creeds of all sorts, with the other.

We thank Mr. GALLAGHER for the various efforts he has made to keep alive, through Literature, this spirit of the Western Sires; and among these efforts we rank high his present labor of love. Here we have verses from thirty-eight western writers; and the fiftieth anniversary of western life, one might say, has just passed. We like Mr. GALLAGHER'S Poems too; for they have somewhat of the western odor about them; which the most of these verses have not. If we felt inclined to be captious, we should criticise this collection as not being what the title of the book leads us to expect. Many of these poems are fine in tone and expression, but they might have been written on the banks of the Delaware or Hudson or Connecticut, or for that matter, in any student's attic in an eastern city, or even in Europe. The prairie freshness, the forest's massive richness, the stately river's

flow, they lack. But there are others truly instinct with the sweet breath of the Woods. Some of these we should like much to extract, and hope to do so in our next number. Meanwhile we think Mr. JAMES has given us a very pretty volume; and Mr. GALLAGHER a very readable one; and he is no western man who will not, even in hard times, have this book on his centre table, and writing desk. W. H. C.

THE CATHOLIC TELEGRAPH, STAR IN THE WEST, AND THE CORRESPONDENCE.

The Editors of these two papers take us to task for treating THE FIFTEEN, with courtesy. They do not like our "tame" "please don't" tone. Well! Sirs! we wrote the letter unadvised, and should probably do the same again; and hold ourselves nowise answerable to you or to others, for the spirit, or if you choose, want of spirit, with which we expressed ourselves.Perhaps, the Telegraph, perhaps the Star would have conducted the Correspondence more wisely and well; perhaps not. We have never seen any thing in the style or tone of those papers which we thought particularly deserving of imitation, so far as Controversy is concerned. We allude to this matter again, then, not to defend ourselves from the charge, which our two editorial brethren bring against us, of being culpably courteous, for we do not consider them good judges or good models; but because we are giad of an opportunity to say a few words on two points, the first having particular reference to the "Correspondence;" the other being of a general nature.

We feel one regret, when reflecting upon our course in this business of the Correspondence, which is, not that we were not more pungent, and sarcastic, and indignant, &c. &c., but that we ever thought of the conduct of "THE FIFTEEN," a second time, or ever alluded to it in the pulpit and the press. It was too petty and trifling and childish a matter to demand a word. The mere act of "Remonstrance" was a sufficient exposure of the spirit and aims of its authors. And the signal rebuke which this puny effort of intolerance has called forth from all sides, from old and young, rich and poor, male and female, shows that this community have emancipated themselves from the tyranny of a priesthood, and are free to do their own thinking, without ministerial dictation. The only importance we ever attached to the publication was, that the occasion seemed a good one for teaching a lesson of Liberality and Union. And now it appears, that layChristians of all denominations, have already learned, and are ready to practise that lesson. The people are far in advance of

the Clergy. We regret, therefore, having wasted time about such frivolous matters. A man feels himself belittled by such boyish feuds. Ecclesiastical power is in some denominations dead; in others it is dying; and it is merely painful to see the last convulsive struggles. Men will be men, whether priests will give them permission or not: they will judge, feel, and act for themselves, whether this, or the other little Pope, sees fit to fulminate his bull of excommunication, or to withhold it from prudent weakness. They who have broken from the mesh of creeds and canons, and all manner of priestly entanglements, have then better work to do than to clear away the rubbish of the old Bastile of priestly exclusiveness. And this brings us to the second point, upon which we wish to speak. What is this better work now to be done?

It is to give up Theological Controversies once and for all, and turn heart and mind to a religious and benevolent life. Men are placed upon this earth amidst the glories of the universe, and the relations of society, for grander purposes than to quibble about speculative theories. The misery of the Church has been, ever since ecclesiastical power was first usurped, and the priest became something else than a good man, in seeking to be more, and lost the true influence of character and wisdom by clothing himself with pompous authority, that attention has been chiefly turned on dogmas. One might as well hope to raise fruit and flowers from a rock, as to bring nobleness, and purity, and sweetness, and active kindness out of subtle sophistries. Yet this has the Christian world been always attempting. Ecclesiastical history presents to our view one long barren desert of controversies. The world has been Christianized in spite of Priests, not by them. The humble hearts who have imbibed from Jesus himself, his own lovely, earnest, tender and aspiring temper, have been the true preachers of the gospel. Lonely and unnoticed, like dews and gentle rains, their influence has fallen on the sands of the ecclesiastical world, watering its dryness with streams of life. And at last some greenness shows itself upon the edges of the waste. Practical Christianity is multiplying itself in thousands of hearts. At last, the simple distinction is recognized, at least in some degree, between truths addressed to the heart, and truths addressed to the head, between spiritual convictions and speculative theories, between religion and theology, between faith and doctrines. It begins at last to be felt, that Jesus appealed to something deeper in men, than their logical understanding, even to their intuitive reason, to something holier than their selfish hopes and fears, even to the disinterested law of right in the soul. Happy is it for us, if we have at length learned that Christianity is the Gospel to us, because it aids us to become Men, sets us free from bondage, and redeems us into liberty of soul, and leads us to that eternal life, which is God's spirit in our spirits.

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