Without wasting time in further reflections, let me entreat you to place in their former condition the churches of Lescar, of Pau, and other places, which have been so deplorably desolated by you. This advice is preferable to that given you by your ministers, which it imports you to abandon, &c. &c.-Your loyal and very obedient servant,

Vielleperite, August 18, 1563.

THE CARDINAL D'ARMAGNAC.

Now follows Queen Jeanne's reply, the Cardinal's courier having been kept in waiting while her Majesty penned the epistle. Whatever might be the merits of the subject which engaged the two writers, or however unreasonable, violent, and cruel might be the principles and conduct of the religious parties that at the time distracted the south-west provinces of France, the Cardinal, we imagine, found the Queen's reply too spirited and clever for him to provoke many more contests with her of the sort. Still, if Mr. Jameson had reported so fully from the Catholic chronicles as he has done from those written by the Protestant authorities consulted in the library at Pau, it is probable, that the reader might have found more to be objected to in the history and characters of the women whom he pictures as being the holiest and most exemplary of saints, than occurs at present in his pages. The Queen to the Cardinal:

My Cousin, From my earliest years I have been acquainted with the zeal which attached you to the service of my kindred. I am not authorized by ignorance of that zeal to refuse it the praise and esteem it merits, or to be prevented from feeling a gratitude which I should be desirous of continuing towards those who, like you, having partaken of the favour of my family, have preserved good will and fidelity towards it. I should trust you would still entertain those feelings towards me, as you profess to do, without allowing them to be changed or destroyed by the influence of I know not what religion, or superstition. Thanking you, at the same time, for the advice you give me, and which I receive according to its varied character, the dissimilar and mingled points it touches being divided between Heaven and Earth, God and Man! As to the first point, concerning the reform which I have effected at Pau and at Lescar, and which I desire to extend throughout my sovereignty, I have learnt it from the Bible, which I read more willingly than the works of your doctors. As to the ruin impending over me through bad counsel under the colour of religion, I am not so devoid of the gifts of God or of the aid of friends, as to be unable to make choice of persons worthy of my confidence, and capable of acting, not under a vain pretence, but with the true spirit of religion.

*

I clearly perceive that you have been misinformed, both respecting the answer of my estates and the disposition of my subjects. The two estates have professed their obedience to religion. I know who my

neighbours are; the one hates my religion as much as I do his, but that does not affect our mutual relations: and besides, I am not so destitute of advice and friends as to have neglected all necessary precautions for the

defence of my rights in case of attack.

Se

Although you think to intimidate me, I am protected from all apprehension; first, by my confidence in God whom I serve, and who knows how to defend his cause. condly, because my tranquillity is not affected by the designs of those whom I can easily oppose, with the grace of Him who encompasses my country as the ocean does England. I do not perceive that I run the risk of sacrificing either my own welfare or that of my son; on the contrary, I trust to strengthen it in the only way a Christian should pursue; and even though the spirit of God might not inspire me with a knowledge of this way, yet human intellect would induce me to act as I do, from the many examples which 1 recall with regret, especially that of the late king, my husband, of whose history you well know the beginning, the course, and the end. Where are the splendid crowns you held out to him? Did he gain any by combating against true religion and his conscience?

*

I blush with shame when you talk of the many atrocities which you allege to have been committed by those of our faith; cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the moat in thy brother's eye purify the earth that is stained with the innocent blood which those of your party have shed, a fact you can bear testimony to.

*

You are ignorant of what our ministers are, who teach patience, obedience to sovereigns, and the other virtues of which the apostles and the martyrs have left them an example. You affirm that multitudes draw back from our belief, while I maintain that the number of its adherents increases daily. As to ancient authorities, I hear them every day cited by our ministers. I am not indeed sufficiently learned to have gone through so many works, but neither, I suspect, have you, or are better versed in them than myself, as you were always known to be more acquainted with matters of state than those of the church. I place no reliance on doctors, not even Calvin, Beza, and others, but as they follow scripture. You would send them to a council. They desire it, provided that it shall be a free one, and that the parties shall not be judges. The motive of the surety they require is founded on the examples of John Huss and Jerome of Prague. Nothing afflicts me more than that you, after having received the truth, should have abandoned it for idolatry, because you then found the advancement of your fortune and worldly honours. Read again the passages of scripture you quote before you explain them so unhappily on any other occasion: it might be pardonable in me, a female, but you, a cardinal, to be so old and so ignorant! truly, my cousin, I feel shame for you. 串 If you have no better reasons for combating my undertaking, do not again urge me to follow your worldly prudence, I consider it mere folly before God, it cannot impede my endeavours. Your doubts make me tremble, my assurance makes me firm. When you desire again to persuade me that the words of your mouth are the voice of your conscience and your faithfulness, be more careful, and let the fruitless letter you have sent me be the last of that kind I shall receive. Receive

*

this from one who knows not how to style herself: not being able to call herself a friend, and doubtful of any affinity till the time of repentance and conversion, when she will be,-Your cousin and friend,

JEANNE.

89

ART. VIII.-The Age of Great Cities; or Modern Society viewed in relation to Intelligence, Morals, and Religion. By ROBERT VAUGHAN, D.D. Jackson and Walford.

DR. VAUGHAN is an originalist, and in the best sense of the word. In this work we not only meet with what is new in regard to design, but with what is excellent in point of doctrine and sentiment. All this too is illustrated with his accustomed skill; although, perhaps, there is more appearance of effort on certain occasions than we discovered in one or two of his former works. This feeling on our part, just as the actual existence of the feature, may be accounted for by the fact that "The Age of Great Cities" carries out the author's object and views as contemplated also in the "Modern Pulpit," as well as in his Congregationalism;" being a continuation of what he considers to be the progress and tendency of human advancement, especially as developed in modern British society. One fancies that he experiences a slight degree of over-elaborated sameness, not of idea certainly, nor owing to any poverty of expression; but because, perhaps, our author's previous speculations and reasonings were so luminous as to shed light over kindred fields, and cause us to feel that we could in some measure of ourselves explore their recesses and perceive whereto they conducted.

But if there be a degree of effort displayed in these pages, or even of repetition, it is effort and it is repetition of which the intelligent and inquiring reader will not soon get tired. Dr. Vaughan's liberality is built upon such a firm basis, his views are so broad and maintained with such a philosophic calmness and dignity, while his eloquence is so fitting and masterly, that it will be long before we seriously complain of him on the score of one-sidedness, or of an advocacy where zeal bewilders the judgment. In a word, our author embraces a large sweep of subject in the present pages, and cultures to a high degree of susceptibility, that upon which he plants his foot; so that the result is richer in suggestion and more teeming in regard of genial fruit, than any less prolific and disciplined capacity would conceive to belong to the theme, as indicated by the title of the book.

It is probable indeed that the reader will not very readily or clearly perceive what is meant by that title; and also, that after he has been conducted by the author a considerable way into the work, he will begin to fancy that the subject takes a much wider scope than can very appropriately be brought within the domain, as indicated by the name. However, objections of this sort may be deemed hypocritical, especially when learning and research, together with a sustained philosophy and beautiful illustration, characterize the current and the wide compass of the deductions..

Dr. Vaughan is an advocate of great cities in their intellectual and also in their moral results. He holds that, until men congregate in large numbers together, and upon a principle of settled residence, they cannot advance beyond a very inferior stage of civilization. This doctrine, he maintains, not only as that which is agreeable to the reason of the thing and the constitution of human nature, but as taught by the history of large towns in ancient, and still more fully, in modern times. His review extends to the middle ages as well as to the classical and the patriarchal. Nay, he argues that not alone do letters and the fine arts flourish most healthily in great cities, and also whatever belongs to refined life and social comforts, but that agriculture itself is indebted for its best discoveries and triumphs to these seats of enlightenment.

Our author renders it quite clear, that feudalism and the military spirit, as manifested in the middle ages, are inimical to the best interests of society; whereas the tendencies of large cities greatly preponderate the other way. He exposes in his most successful manner the perverseness of the opposite creed, which has many advocates even at the present day. Let us here quote from his

pages:

Hence the time has come, in which some men do not scruple to speak of great cities as the great evil of the age. It is not deemed too much to say, that the accident, or revolution, which should diminish everything commercial and civic, so as to place the military and the feudal in the old undisturbed ascendancy, would be a change fraught with good, more than with evil. Avowals of this nature have been made deliberately, openly, and in journals of the highest authority. According to some discoveries in social philosophy, which have been recently made, every great city should be regarded as an unsightly "wen," and not a healthy, a natural portion of the body politic. Its speedy disappearance, either by dispersion, or by almost any other means, so far from being a matter to be deplored, should be an object of solicitude. It may be, that our being a people whose land has become in an eminent degree the home of great cities, is the fact which has raised us to our place as the great commercial power of the globe, and which has secured to us our greatness in nearly all other respects; but with persons of the class adverted to, considerations of this nature are no matter for congratulation. The statesman who should signalize his ascendancy by reducing us from this elevation to-morrow, would deserve a place among our greatest benefactors. In the esteem of such persons, the main and the natural effect of the social relations, as they obtain in any greatly-crowded population, is to generate ignorance, vice, and irreligion. Hence, the political change, which should serve to restore much of the military arbitrariness which characterized the secular power in the old feudal times, and which should restore the power of the Christian priesthood in much of the form and measure which distinguished it during the middle age, would be regarded by such persons as a change which should be hailed with gratitude by every friend of order, virtue, and religion. Principles of this tendency

may of course be adopted in various degrees, but in the case of multitudes they are embraced to the extent now stated.

Even religious men, who mean well to their country and to humanity, contribute unconsciously to swell this tone of accusation against our civic population, and against the whole character of the civilzation exhibited in our large towns and cities. Such persons are deeply affected by the scenes of depravity and wickedness which they explore in such places; and they express themselves in strong terms, natural to men who know little with regard to the condition of the massés of the people in the great cities of other lands and other times; and in terms, we may add, which are no less natural to men who consider little what the condition of these people would have been, had they been wholly separated from the good influences which go along with such forms of civilization, as well as from those of an opposite description. It must be obvious, also, that there is much need of caution, if persons of this class are to guard strictly against a manner of representation and colouring, which is not so well adapted to convey the whole truth, as to produce a certain kind of effect. We naturally expect that our case will be pleaded with success, in proportion as it can be made to appear one of deep urgency.

We have referred to Dr. Vaughan's review of the social and moral condition of the inhabitants of the large cities of antiquity; not only of those of Athens and Rome, but of Asia; and the manner in which he touches upon many matters indirectly, as well as others pointedly and at length, in this survey, is truly informing. Let us hear what he has to say of the condition of woman in the East and the classical cities of ancient times:

It is to a defective estimate of female character that we must trace the practice of polygamy, so common in the East. In that pernicious usage alone, we see a cause sufficiently potent to prevent any nation adopting it from becoming either free or great. Polygamy converts the family circle into a caldron of passion most repugnant to concord and happiness; and nations are made up of collections of families. In such families, every new wife must become a new element of rivalry, and the children of the same father become acquainted with the relationship which is common to them only to become enemies on account of the relationship in which they differ. Even the conjugal relation, in such cases, has commonly a stronger tendency to cherish the malevolent than the milder affections; and the same may be said of the relations of brother and sister. The proper fruit of polygamy, throughout the domestic circle, is distrust in the place of confidence, and a disposition to cherish an ever-rankling animosity in place of the tenderest attachments. Nor is this all: it is an institute which, in its general effect, first degrades women, and then allows them to become the educators and rulers of the class of men who should be as educators and rulers to all beside! Where this usage prevails, princes receive their education in the seraglio; and, in general, the effect of their early training is sufficiently observable to the end of their days.

In Greece and Rome, a man was the husband of one wife, but that wife was in scarcely any sense his equal. His servants were slaves; his wife was