You, perhaps, might have promised me the honour of being introduced with the cart and horse into a lyrical ballad.' But to me, who as you know, profess to be greatly in debt to Mr. Wordsworth's genius, and whose respect and affection were heightened by personal intercourse, there seemed a peculiar felicity in riding through this scene of surpassing tenderness, with a man of genius and sensibility, who had caught inspiration from the lakes and mountains in whose beauty I too had been rejoicing.

'Mr. Wordsworth's conversation was free, various, animated. We talked so eagerly as often to interrupt one another. And as I descended into Grassmere near sunset, with the placid lake before me, and Wordsworth talking and reciting poetry with a poet's spirit by my side, I felt that the combination of circumstances was such as my highest hopes could never have anticipated.'-Vol. ii. p. 220.

He speedily returned to America, and, as we have already exceeded our limits, we must restrict our further observations to a notice of his anti-slavery labours. These constituted an important feature in the public life of Dr. Channing, and cannot, without manifest injustice, be omitted from our sketch. They serve, moreover, to illustrate his general character, more particularly his cautious judgment, his mistrust of organizations, his candid consideration of what might be urged on behalf of opponents, and the inflexible integrity with which he ultimately followed out what he deemed right. The same feature of character which kept him aloof from theological associations, deterred him from joining in the earlier movements of the abolitionists. He shrunk from the sternness of the rebukes which they administered, was morbidly sensitive to the noise and vehemence unavoidable to their proceedings, was apprehensive of political dictation from their confederated societies, and indulged in utopian hopes of the truth being propagated in soft and silken language befitting the drawing-room only. In such anticipations he lost sight of a principle of human action, which he himself has stated with singular force and propriety, and which cannot be too frequently adverted to, in the estimates formed of the agents of all great revolutions:

'At such periods,' says Dr. Channing, and his words should be deeply engraven on every heart, men gifted with great powers of thought and loftiness of sentiment are especially summoned to the conflict with evil. They hear, as it were, in their own magnanimity and generous aspirations, the voice of a divinity; and, thus commissioned, and burning with passionate devotion to truth and freedom, they must and will speak with an indignant energy, and they ought not to be measured by the standard of ordinary minds in ordinary times. Men of natural softness and timidity, of a sincere but effeminate virtue, will be apt to look on these bolder, hardier spirits as violent, perturbed, and

uncharitable, and the charge will not be wholly groundless. But that deep feeling of evils, which is necessary to effectual conflict with them, and which marks God's most powerful messengers to mankind, cannot breathe itself in soft and tender accents. The deeply moved soul will speak strongly, and ought to speak so as to move and shake nations.'-Vol. iii. p. 153.

For a time, as already intimated, he stood aloof from the labours of William Lloyd Garrison, and his elder associates, doubting the wisdom of some of their measures, and censuring the violence and asperity with which they were accustomed to denounce the traffickers in human flesh. The silence of such a man was suspicious, and the friends of slavery, for a season, entertained hopes respecting him. In this, however, they were doomed to disappointment. Indeed, they must have strangely erred in estimating his character; for it was easy to perceivehowever long might be the process-that he must ultimately be found on the side of the oppressed. His natural temperament led him to shrink from the noise and turmoil of the arena, and his sensitive and delicate inind recoiled from being identified with language he could not approve, or with measures which he deemed questionable: but all his principles insured his ultimate advocacy to the slave. He had much to overcome, but the fire burned within him, and could not eventually fail to make itself visible. Other men might be deterred by considerations of interest, by the love of popularity, by the hereditary prejudices of a class, or by perversions of holy writ, to sanction a monstrous wrong, but such things were foreign from the heart and intellect of Dr. Channing, and could no more sway his actions than the creed of Satan could regulate the movements of an angel. The circumstances which marked his decision were honourable both to his frankness and his humility. They are thus recorded by Mr. May, in the report of an extended conversation which occurred in the autumn of 1834. After stating the objections urged by Dr. Channing against the language and temper of the abolitionists, Mr. May proceeds :

་

'Dr. Channing, 'I said, 'I am tired of these complaints. The cause of suffering humanity, the cause of our oppressed, crushed coloured countrymen, has called as loudly upon others as upon us, who are known as the Abolitionists. It was just as incumbent upon others, as upon us, to espouse it. We are not to blame that wiser and better men did not espouse it long ago. The cry of millions in bondage had been heard throughout our land for half a century, and disregarded. The wise and prudent saw the wrong, but thought it not wise and prudent to lift a finger for its correction. The priests and Levites beheld their robbed and wounded countrymen, but passed by on the other side.

The children of Abraham held their peace, until at last 'the very stones have cried out,' in abhorrence of this tremendous wickedness; and you must expect them to cry out like 'the stones. You must not expect of many of these, who have been left to take up this great cause, that they will plead it in all that seemliness of phrase which the scholars and practised rhetoricians of our country might use; you must not expect them to manage with all the calmness and discretion that the clergy and statesmen might exhibit. But the scholars, the clergy, the statesmen, had done nothing, and did not seem about to do anything; and, for my part, I thank God that at last any persons, be they who they may, have moved earnestly in this cause, for no movement can be in vain. We Abolitionists are just what we are-babes, sucklings, obscure men, silly women, publicans, sinners; and we shall manage the matter we have taken in hand just as might be expected of such persons as we are. It is unbecoming in abler men, who stood by and would do nothing, to complain of us because we manage this matter no better.

Dr. Channing,' I continued with great earnestness, it is not our fault, that those who might have managed this great reform more prudently have left it to us to manage as we may be able. It is not our fault, that those who might have pleaded for the enslaved so much more wisely and eloquently, both with the pen and the living voice, than we can, have been silent. We are not to blame, sir, that you, who more, perhaps, than any other man might have so raised the voice of remonstrance, that it should have been heard throughout the length and breadth of the land-we are not to blame, sir, that you have not so spoken. And now, because inferior men have begun to speak and act against what you yourself acknowledge to be an awful injustice, it is not becoming in you to complain of us, because we do it in an inferior style. Why, sir, have you not moved, why have you not spoken before?'

At this point, I bethought me to whom I was administering this earnest rebuke-the man that stood among the highest of our great and good men-the man who had ever treated me with the kindness of a father, and whom, from my childhood, I had been accustomed to revere more, perhaps, than any one living. I was almost overwhelmed with a sense of my temerity. His countenance showed that he was much moved. I could not suppose he would receive very graciously all I had said. I awaited, in painful expectation, the reply he would make. It seemed as if long minutes elapsed before the silence was broken; when, in a very subdued manner, and in his kindest tones of voice he said,'Brother May, I acknowledge the justice of your reproof: I have been silent too long.'

'I never can forget his words, look, manner. I then saw the beauty, the magnanimity, of an humble soul. He was exalted in my esteem more than before.'-Ib. pp. 157-159.

From this moment his decision was formed, and to the hour of his death, he never afforded reason to doubt the sincerity and earnestness of his conviction. In the following year he published his work on slavery, and took every fair opportunity of throwing the weight of his influence in the

scale of an oppressed and perishing people. We cannot enter into the detail of his labours. It is enough to indicate their general complexion and tendency. Neither can we venture on other departments of his active life. For these, we must refer to the pages of his biographer, which are enriched with innumerable extracts from his private papers and published works, illustrative at once of his character and views.

We have exceeded our limits, and must refrain from adverting to many points raised by this Memoir, on which we should be glad to remark. We regret this necessity, but have no alternative, and therefore content ourselves with recording that Dr. Channing died on October 2, 1842, at a distance from home. He was on a journey at the time of his decease, which occurred at Bennington, Vermont.

Of the manner in which his nephew has executed his task, it becomes us to speak in high, though not unmixed, terms. The arrangement of his materials is less simple than we could have desired. The Life of such a man did not call for the artificial plan adopted. The selections from his writings, particularly those which are published, are too numerous for the purposes of a memoir, and render the volumes less attractive to general readers than they would otherwise have been. The style, also, is in some cases too ambitious, and is, occasionally, overlaid with epithets which a severer taste would have discarded. These, however, are minor faults, and the first of them will, to some readers, increase the value of the volumes.

We recommend the work to the serious perusal of our readers. It should not be hurriedly passed over, for it is full of materials for reflection. It constitutes a study which may be prosecuted with great advantage, especially by those who have embraced a more scriptural faith. Let them do justice to its lessons, and their spirit will be purified, whilst their conviction of evangelical truth will become deeper and more enlightened.

458

ART. IV. Report on Twenty-Seven Prize Essays, respecting the Best
Means of Collecting and Using Night Soil for Agriculture and the
Arts. By M. A. Chevalier, and a Committee of the Society for
Encouraging Industry in France. Paris.
Paris. 4to. 1848.

2.-Extracts from the MS. Essays of M. Vincent on the Use of Night Soil in France, from 1348 to 1846. Paris. 4to. 1848.

3.-An Essay on Manures. By M. Girardin, Corresponding Member of the Institute. 5th Edition. Paris. 12mo. 1847.

4.-Chemistry applied to the Arts, and to Agriculture. By M. Dumas, Member of the Institute, F.R.S., etc. Paris. 8vo. 1846.

THE beneficent uses to which Providence directs what to the careless eye is only unsightly and noxious, have long been apparent to the enlightened observer of Nature's works. With further knowledge of those works, all will recognise the great master hand in their meanest forms; and find in their wonderful aptitude of purpose, the reason which reconciles every difficulty attending their progress. Thus culture calls grace out of deformity, and order out of confusion. Ingenuity and care give a new character to what was once universally shrunk from in disgust; so that Vespasian's coarse vindication of his odious tax, that the vile source of its proceeds was not betrayed to the sense, has something better than a parallel in our day. Corruption, itself, is discovered to be the genuine parent of new life, and the seeming destruction of one element of existence is ascertained only to lead to its fresh organization in another shape. The chief difficulty is, to make society keep pace in its operations, with the progress of its knowledge of the wonders of nature; so full of inconsistency are men, even in regard to their dearest inte

rests.

Of the strange things exposed by the late inquiries into the best means of improving the health of the people, not the least strange is the fact, that whole fleets should be sent round the globe for manure, when the same in kind, and superior in quality, is manufactured cheap in London for export to the West Indies. It is well compared by Dr. Daubeny to the case of the engineers at Gibraltar, who sent to England for stone at an enormous expense, when, with a slight knowledge of geology, they might easily have built the fortifications with materials found on the spot.

It is stranger still, that whilst our French neighbours consume millions of pounds weight of this manure with great