after all," he says, "you shall be told this religion is false; but, meanwhile, it has restored in you the image of God, reestablished your primitive connection with that great Being, and put you in a condition to enjoy life and the happiness of heaven. By means of it you have become such, that, at the last day, it is impossible that God should not receive you as his children, and make you partakers of his glory. You are made fit for Paradise, nay, Paradise has commenced for you even here, because you love. This religion has done for you what all religion proposes, and what no other has realized. Nevertheless, by the supposition, it is false; and what more could it do were it true? Rather do you not see that this is a splendid proof of its truth? Do you not see that it is impossible that a religion which leads to God should not come from God, and that the absurdity is precisely that of supposing that you can be regenerated by a falsehood." The influence of Pascal, of whose "Thoughts," we have already hinted, Vinet was a profound student, is very obvious in these apologetic views. With both, it is the marvellous adaptation of the gospel to the exigences of human nature which constitutes the peculiar evidence of its divinity. On the one hand, man, cast aside from God, yet cannot rest without Him. The vision of a divine home, from which he has wandered, pursues him. The brightness of a vanished light haunts him. The very depth of his sinful misery asserts the reality of his original holiness. On the other hand, the gospel appears as the satisfaction of these confessed wants of humanity as the remedy of its guilt and wretched discord. This was the fruitful idea of Pascal, to whose full development his great work, of which the Pensées are but the disjointed fragments, was to be dedicated. This was also, it is well known, a favorite branch of evidence with Chalmers. But neither of these great writers, perhaps, has seized the view more completely, or dealt with it more effectively, than Vinet, who pursues it with a force of comprehensive analysis, and a confidence of illustration, deeply impressive. "The gospel," he says, "unites itself intimately with all that is most profound and ineradicable in our nature. It fills in it a void-it clears from it darkness-it binds into harmony the broken elements, and creates unity. It makes itself not only be believed, but felt; and when the soul has thoroughly appropriated it, it blends indistinguishably with all the primitive beliefs, and the natural light which every man brings into the world." "You re Again, in a beautiful passage:member the custom of ancient hospitality. Before parting with a stranger, the father of the family, breaking a piece of clay on which certain characters were impressed, gave one half to the stranger, and kept the other himself. Years after, these two fragments, brought together and rejoined, acknowledged each other, so to speak,-formed a bond of recognition between those presenting them, and, in attesting old relations, became at the same time the basis of new. So in the book of our soul does the Divine Revelation unite itself to the old traces there. Our soul does not discover, but recognizes the truth. It infers that a reünion (rencontre) impossible to chance--impossible to calculation-can only be the work and secret of God; and it is then only that we believe-then when the gospel has for us passed from the rank of external to the rank of internal truth, and, if I might say so, of instinct-when it has become in us part and parcel of our consciousness." Throughout the Christian writings of Vinet there is a sufficiently marked growth of opinion. We think, however, that M. Scherer, under the force of his own peculiar convictions, somewhat exaggerates the character of this progress. It does not appear to us that Vinet in any respect abandoned the clear and definite orthodoxy of his earlier years. Only in the more thorough transfusion of the different elements of Christian truth in his own consciousness, he certainly came to dwell less upon their logical prominences. He ceased to take any pleasure he may have ever had in sharply defining the boundaries between the different items of his creed. Realizing evermore the whole system of Christian truth as a living synthesis in his own heart, it appears to have been his great aim in his later works to exhibit this synthesis more entirely. He felt always more strongly the force of what he himself says in his Homiletics, and owned more thoroughly the influence of such a conviction. "Every dissection of moral truth," he observes, "is provisory and hypothetical; we separate what is not separate, what cannot be so, what being separate loses its nature. There is, therefore, in the best made analysis something false, were it only in the character of succession which it impresses on simultaneous facts." He became, in short, always more of a profound Christian philosopher, and less of a mere abstract theologian. This appears to us to be the whole explanation of that development in the theological views of Vinet on which M. Scherer insists so | later Discourses. This does not arise, howmuch. For example: He propounds in his earlier Discourses a certain view as to the relation between Reason and Faith-a view still common in more than one of our theological schools-according to which Reason and Faith are apprehended as wholly distinct faculties of the human mind, and it is represented as the glory of Faith to receive that which is stumbling to Reason. Already, however, in the second edition of these Discourses, the idea of his error in this respect had obviously dawned upon him. For he says in the preface, "It is necessary always that the truth without us correspond to the truth within us--to that intellectual conscience which, no less than the moral conscience, is invested with sovereignty, asserts its claims, and may be said even to feel remorse--to those irresistible axioms which we carry in us, which are part of our nature, and the necessary support and basis of our thoughts-in a word, to Reason." A higher conception of Reason had here, it is clear, sprung up in the mind of our author, and this, blending it with a higher and more comprehensive conception of Faith, was carried by him up into a unity of power, which, directed to the divine verities of the gospel, may be indifferently denominated Reason or Faith; the truth being, that the soul does not in any case put forth separate faculties, but in every case truly puts forth its entire activity, only now charged more with a moral, and now more with an intellectual element. This approaching unity of Reason and Faith, conspicuous in his later writings, does not, however, in the least degree impair his orthodoxy. It only exalts and purifies it. In carrying Reason with him in this nobler sense, not merely to the threshold of the divine Temple, but within the Sanctuary, he is so far from approaching Rationalism that he destroys it in the most effectual manner, by showing the eternal conformity between the revealed glories of Christianity and the demands of the human soul. Deep is beheld answering to deep, and in the perfect congruity of Reason (expressing the highest attitude of the soul towards the Truth) and Revelation, the door is shut effectually against all those lower questionings whose issue is alone Rationalism in any intelligible sense. Again, it is no doubt true, that the distinction between justification and sanctification is much more sharply apprehended and expressed by Vinet in his earlier than in his ever, from his having lost sight of the radically distinguishing element in the former, without the due apprehension of which the latter soon loses all its peculiarly evangelical meaning. The whole explanation of his difference of view appears to us to be that, in his earlier representations of the gospel, he looks more at its objective side-at the fact accomplished for us by divine grace-while in his later representations, particularly in his famous discourse on the work of God," he looks more at its subjective side-at the work accomplished in us through the Divine Spirit. But while this subjective aspect of salvation assumed latterly a special interest for him-while the realization of the truth in the life of the believer, and his continual purification thereby, became with him obviously the favorite theme of meditation and preaching, there is yet no reason to believe that he for a moment forgot the eternal reality expressed in the peculiarly Protestant doctrine of justification, on the assurance of which the sinner can alone rest amid all his doubts and shortcomings. This great test of a standing or a falling church, we have no right to think was dimmed for a moment from the gaze of Vinet. Only its analytic exposition did not much attract him in his later years, especially in reference to certain Antinomian tendencies which he thought he traced in the Swiss churches. He did not care to dwell on the distinctive theological significance of the doctrine, (truly as he prized it) but rather on its synthetic, practical relation to the whole Christian life. Hence his beautiful and impressive illustration of the river and its source, whereby he shows how in act and life, all the technical and scientific distinctions, by which the theologian characterizes the different stages of salvation, merge into an indivisible unity, even as the river in its source and throughout its course is still the same, however often it may change its name in its onward passage. Vinet, we have already said, was appointed Professor of Practical Theology in the Academy of Lausanne in 1837. The installation discourse which he delivered on this occasion is a fine specimen of the mingled depth and simplicity of his Christian views.* It strikes with a firm yet delicate hand the *The reader will find it at the close of the re cently published volume on Homiletics, the translation of which we have placed at the head of our article. of such numberless compromises-marked by such beautiful compensations--is sacrificed to the rigors of theory. Common key-note of the theological course, the preparation of which henceforth formed one of the main labors of his life. Fervent and even impassioned in evangelical tone-glow-sense-that vivifying essence in all duty-is ing throughout with love and devotion to the cross-it is at the same time eminently rational, and, in a word, human in its sympathies. It blends spirituality and reality, faith and nature, piety and literature, in an exquisite harmony of composition, which fills, as with a full and mellow satisfaction, the mind and heart. made to yield to abstractions. We believe profoundly that such treatises, much as they are sometimes talked about, have exercised but little actual influence in moulding the pastoral mind in successive generations. Eminently adapted to keep an ideal of the pastorate before those who, through the life already in them, are seeking after such an ideal, they yet present far too few points of contact with the necessities and exigences of daily existence, to serve effectually in the great work of pastoral education. The two volumes on "Pastoral Theology" and "Homiletics" are the fruits of Vinet's theological labors at Lausanne which have been preserved to us. They are both of them posthumous volumes, and appear unThe value of Vinet's work, on the conder every disadvantage attaching to such trary, just consists in the diffused presence works. In both cases they are in fact little of this element of common sense and reality else than the materials, collected in the shape throughout. At every point he brings the of notes, for the complete works which the position and duties of the pastor into contact author, had he been spared, would have with life. No man can be more impatient of fashioned out of them. Here and there abstractions in every sense; none care less elaborated with obvious care, and character- for raptures and spiritual excesses of any ized by the utmost finish of sentiment and kind. Ceremonialism has no sacredness for expression, they yet bear many marks of im- him where it cannot render a speedy account perfection. They are apt in consequence to of its reason or usefulness. He carries into disappoint in the mere perusal,-the thread all departments of ministerial work the posi of continuity is so often broken, and the at- tive spirit, which, as he truly says, "distintention so frequently distracted by the frag-guishes our age-which brings back to their mentary, note-like aspect of the page. They are admirable, however, in spirit, and contain as a whole more valuable matter of study for the Christian minister than any similar volumes which we know. proper sense all the metaphors of life-which demands from every sign an account of its value, from every form an account of its reason-which wishes every word to be a fact, every discourse an action-which banishes It will not be expected that we can pre- from style, as from society, all arbitrary or sent any analysis of these works at the close unintelligible ceremonial, and which wishes of this extended paper. Each in itself that eloquence, in particular, should render might form a theme for separate treatment. an account of its processes, no longer to I The smaller volume on "Pastoral Theology" know not what art, to I know not what prois especially excellent in the point of view perties, but to life." The reader is accordfrom which it contemplates the whole sub-ingly presented in Vinet's volumes with no ject. Here the clear openness of Vinet's nature displays itself with the best effect. In almost every treatise on the Pastorate, from Chrysostom's downward, the great defect has always appeared to us to be the air of exaggeration and unreality which to a great extent pervades them. The Christian priest is too much isolated, and his position and duties treated of too much as belonging to a wholly separate region of experience and responsibility. So much so, sometimes, that, as with certain manuals of mystical devotion, the heart which has not abandoned itself to that subtlest of all delusions, a false and empty spirituality, is driven back in a sort of fright and despair at the picture presented to it. The truth of life, admitting mere ideal the vague responsibilities of which, as suggesting their own impracticability, he can easily shift for himself; but he is presented with a real and living picture, whose truthfulness in its very plainness and simplicity often startles him, calling forth from the slumbering depths of the conscience an answering emotion not easily put to sleep either under the impulses of a fantastic spirituality or a hardening worldliness. Before such a clear portrait, the self-delusions both of the one and the other fall away. It is this union of nature and faith-of the reality of the one and the sanctity of the other which we feel to constitute the peculiar excellence and usefulness of Vinet's "Pastoral Theology." Pastoral Theology, according to Vinet, concerns the whole theory and practice of the Christian ministry. The expressions "pastoral duties," and "pastoral prudence," he considers incomplete, as suggesting merely the practical side of the subject, whereas it also claims and deserves our attention on the speculative side. "He who has only re"He who has only regarded the various elements of his profession as they are presented to him in active life, will act neither with liberty, intelligence, nor profundity." The name of Pastoral Theology might thus very well be given to all the collection of topics embraced in the wider name of Practical Theology, for the idea of the pastorate is implied in all these, and governs them all. It is in the light of the Christian ministry, and as bearing on its adequate fulfilment, that they all find their peculiar meaning. At the same time it is desirable, with a view to the more complete treatment of the different branches of the general subject, to apply the designation of Pastoral Theology more immediately to what belongs to Christian Worship and Discipline, leaving Homiletics and Catechetics to be discussed as special subjects. Vinet has not, however, attempted to carry out this distinction with any rigor,-as, indeed, it cannot be done, so thoroughly do the different functions of the ministry mutually suppose and involve one another. The subject of preaching is, therefore, treated by him in the volume on Pastoral Theology, as well as in the larger volume especially devoted to it. This volume on Homiletics" appears to appears to us, upon the whole, to be stamped with a higher and more comprehensive ability. The truth is, that Vinet from his previous studies was especially at home on such a subject, in which he finds scope not only for his powers of exposition, but also for his rich faculty of criticism, some exquisite gems of which are scattered up and down its pages. The subject is divided by Vinet according to the "immemorial and inevitable division" of a course upon the art of oratory ; viz., Invention, Arrangement, Elocution. Under the first of these heads he has two separate sections, devoted, 1st, to the subject of the pulpit discourse; 2d, to the matter of the pulpit discourse. "The matter is to the subject what the edifice is to the foundation." "The subject is the proposition; the matter is the development of it; the very substance of the discourse, the pulp of the fruit." The subject, in short, is contained in the text or title of the sermon,-the matter in the sermon itself. Under the second head, he considers the whole method of the sermon in its general outline,-exordium, transitions, and peroration. Under the third division he treats at large of style and delivery. The field over which he ranges in this volume is thus very copious and interesting, and one just peculiarly fitted for the display of the author's highest gifts,-one in which his fine Christian intelligence and rare literary skill find the freest scope and exercise. We have exhausted our space, however, and can add only a few words of general appreciation of the great writer from whom we have received so much delight and instruction, and of whose life and labors we feel we have presented so inedequate a portrait. The peculiar distinction of Vinet, it is obvious from that portrait, does not consist so much in any special eminence as a man of letters, or a divine, as in the beautiful combination which he exhibits of the higher qualities which at once adorn literature and give life to theology. A mere man of letters he certainly was not;-a Christian interest being found, we have seen, to underlie his most purely literary productions, and to touch all the springs of his criticism. Still less perhaps was he a mere theologian. There are even some who would be disposed to grudge him this name at all-so entirely destitute was he of the technique of theological science. The critico-historical element, which enters so essentially into the constitution of the theological mind, was certainly too much wanting in him, as in one with whom he has been sometimes, although with little propriety, compared-Dr. Chalmers. But while Vinet may not thus occupy separately the first rank, either as a littérateur or a theologian, he was something undoubtedly greater than either. He was a Christian thinker, who had the rare skill to clothe his thoughts in precise and beautiful language. He was eminently one of those nobler spirits whom God ever and anon raises up to stir by their living utterances the hearts of many -to bring into powerful relief that perfect harmony of the divine and human which has been given eternally in the gospel-to speak, in short, "the language of the gospel to the world, and the language of the world to the Church." His comprehensiveness as a thinker we reckon his highest intellectual characteristic. He seizes with direct grasp the central principle of every subject of speculation and discussion-the unity in which it inheres, and from which its whole meaning goes forth. What a refreshing strength and buoyant interest does this give to his writings, after, it may be, wading through volumes of disjointed, however important, learning. His fertility and variety-the rich profusion of intellectual treasure which he expends so freely and sometimes so brilliantly-is probably his next most prominent endowment. We feel that while we have attempted to exhibit this diversity to some extent, we have only partially succeeded. There is one interesting department of literary effort that of sacred song-in which he occupied, it may be truly said, a distinguished place, to which we have not even alluded.* It were diffi * These sacred pieces of Vinet are mainly found in a collection entitled Chants Chrétiens. The first edition of this collection appeared in 1834, and contained seven pieces from his pen. Others were added in successive editions, although he is believed to have written many more than he ever published. These pieces are precious as containing the most intimate expression of the writer's secret feelings. "It was his only way," said one very near to him, "of communicating to me what passed in the depths of his soul." Generally, according to M. Scherer, they fail in preserving the character of the hymn. The reflective habit of the philosopher overmasters the inspired mood of the poet. Some of them, however, are very beautiful and touching, and especially one on the death of his daughter in 1839. "If we compare it," says M. Scherer, "with the elegy which a similarly mournful event drew from the pen of Lamartine, we cannot fail to be struck by the real superiority which a living faith | cult, certainly, to point out any one-save his own countryman, Pascal, we know of no one-who possessed in a higher measure that manifold gift which can touch with mastery the lighter felicities of literature, and at the same time sound with freedom the utmost depths of Christian thought. A genuine simplicity gave their enduring charm to all his qualities. The most polished intelligence, combined with the most perfect moral purity, is the picture which we meet in every page of his writings. A uniform elevation of sentiment-a frank sensibility, which rejoiced in, while it did not invite sympathy-a profound humility-a fearless candor-is the picture which, associated with the name of Vinet, lives in the hearts of all who rejoiced in his friendship. And in bidding farewell to him, we feel that while there are no doubt greater names which the "Church of the Future" will delight to honor, there are yet few, if any, which will suggest a finer union of Christian graces and gifts-a character at once more noble and beautiful. has given to the Christian poet in the expression of his grief, and the revelation of its true meaning and end." This piece is found in a separate collection, by Mme. Olivier, entitled Poésie Chrétienne, Lausanne, 1839. From the Biographical Magazine. WILLIAM No one that has arisen in England for a long period of time can be justly compared with WILLIAM COBBETT for strength of character, independent powers of thinking, and for a naturally lucid and forcible method of giving utterance to his opinions. For a period of more than thirty years, the compositions of no English writer exercised a wider influence on the public mind; nor did any ever sink so rapidly out of sight, almost immediately after his death, as those of the author of the Political Register. The cause in this instance did not uphold the man; for though he had the credit of being one of the foremost of the Radical school, there was so much of the idiosyncratic in the Radicalism COBBETT. of Cobbett that it never harmonized with the popular sentiment; but choosing a sphere of its own, which was rather anti-oligarchic than that of Radical reform, his system, if it could be called such, was kept before the public only by his own genius, and when that was withdrawn, the whole fell to the ground. Cobbett's account of his origin is the following: "With respect to my ancestors I shall go no farther back than my grandfather, who was a day - laborer, and I have heard my father say that he worked for one farmer from the day of his marriage to that of his death-upwards of forty years. He died before I was born, but I have often slept beneath the same roof that sheltered |