their numbers. But it would answer no good purpose to conceal the truth, or to shrink from its examination.

Under institutions calculated, with the entire force of human ingenuity, to accelerate the civil and religious advancement of mankind, we might expect an indefinite improvement, even to the perfection of our species, if we did not find, that, in every arrangement of man's device, there is something to retard as well as to propel, and that, as in physics so in morals, an increase of the moving power does not always produce a proportionate progress in the body to be moved.

To the animated pursuit of wealth, neither the genius of our system, nor the condition of individuals offers any restraint. Probably here, more than under any other form of society, wealth itself has the most allurements, and promises the largest rewards. Political power or talents, besides that they are necessarily the distinction of a few only, though they cannot be purchased and do not depend for their existence upon the accident of affluence, are of comparatively small advantage without it. All the faculties of active and busy men are devoted to this object; and there is not here, as elsewhere, any superior or even balancing power. In wisely abandoning the distinctions, which, in European society, have some control over the universal passion for accumulating property, we lose also the checks they impose upon it. We restrain it, to be sure, by the force of moral principles and the energy of good laws; but where the inducement is so vast and constant, these will be evaded or opposed with more or less success, in proportion to the solidity or weakness with which proper defences are erected in the public mind. But it is hardly possible these defences should be sufficient; and the consequence is, that in the general eagerness to advance, means are resorted to that cannot be tolerated with safety or respectability; and classes of men arise, who, not daring to avow any direct assault on the good order of the State, will yet, by artful and ingenious devices, strive to press forward their own fortunes, whatever may be the consequences to the public.

The passions and vices of men, quite as much as their honest requisitions, afford means for the accumulation of property; and the hazard which is incurred by those who minister to their gratification, is often repaid with large profits, which are too strong temptations for ill-regulated minds.

Another evil is found to be connected with one of the best principles of our institutions. The system of universal education too often carries men beyond the sphere in which their exertions might be useful to themselves, or the public. Accommodate as we will, the condition of society to the general desires of those who compose it, there will always be, as there ever has been, an inequality of wealth, dignity, and enjoyment. It is inevitable that there should be poor men as well as rich, working men as well as idle, men of little consideration or esteem as well as those who may fill the distinguished stations of society. And it seems, also, just as certain a decree of Providence, that the least enviable classes should be the most numerous. But to the highest positions of society every man here has an equal claim; and though the actual summit may be beyond his view, each, by a natural and laudable ambition, strives to pass his original condition. But the majority of these aspiring minds are destined, by the immutable laws of human existence, to severe and hopeless disappointment. The advanced stages of society are filled to overflowing. The employments which are assigned to genius and talents, and high faculties of mind, are seized on and exhausted; and still an unsatisfied multitude remain behind, unable to labor, and ashamed of their poverty. The useful, though, as they are sometimes considered, the humbler occupations of life are neglected, in the hope of engaging in loftier and more honorable duties. But fame cannot satisfy her votaries; power is limited in its means; distinction, from its very nature, can be conferred only on a few. The ability of living without manual labor may indeed be possessed by some, but obviously not by all; and disappointment, wherever it falls, is rarely borne with equanimity. It adds nothing to the quiet of the scene, that success is not always in proportion to merit, and that he who apparently most deserves encouragement, meets oftentimes with the most cruel neglect.

The tendency of this state of things, is, to crowd those professions and employments which are considered easiest or most respectable, and to gather, out of the great majority who have been altogether or partially disappointed, a band of malecontents, complaining of the laws, the institutions, and the general arrangements of society. It is not merely the danger to political establishments growing out of this state of things, that it is our present purpose to consider. Such establishments

VOL. IX-N. S. VOL. IV. NO. I.

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may resist, a long while, whatever open force may be brought against them. It is the more speedy and certain evil of wrong principles, which will produce wrong conduct; want of regular employment, that will be succeeded by a dangerous activity, and find in dishonest and disreputable means, the gains that had been expected in a different pursuit. It is the course of immoral life, openly going to the very line of the law, and secretly passing it, that cannot to any extent be indulged, under free institutions, without inevitably undermining their foundations, and sooner or later tumbling them to the ground.

We do not know whether the classes of men to whom we refer, are more numerous in our Commonwealth, than might be expected anywhere with an equal population; but that there are such classes, and that already they exert an influence on our laws and manners and public men, is too obvious, we think, to be doubted. To all these, Paul Clifford will be a text book. They will form themselves by his model, if not in action to the extent which he is represented as going, yet in kind, and habit, and taste, and effect, with like disregard to principle, and like encouragement for depravity, and with the same conviction that the laws of society are not their friends; that the code of morality is the mere contrivance of self-interested individuals; that the one may be evaded without compunction, and the other set at nought whenever it can be done. with impunity.

ART. V.―The Evil Consequences of an Injudicious Use of the Old Testament. For the Christian Examiner.

AN apostle said of the Jews, that when Moses was read, a veil was upon their heart. For this, perhaps, they were not answerable. Their prejudices were sufficiently natural. But their condemnation was, that they obstinately resisted every endeavour that was made to remove them. It would seem as if the moment the fact was stated to them, that the Hebrew religion was only a preparation for another, they must have felt that it was true. It was evidently adapted to a single people and to an ignorant age. It was full of safeguards against idol

atry, which was the prevailing temptation of an unenlightened people. It abounded in ceremonial observances, such as are suited to a people who resemble children in their simplicity, and were more likely to regard a trifling visible form than an important religious truth. If this were not enough, the fact that all the Hebrews were required to present themselves three times a year in the temple, made it evident that the religion was meant for a country of narrow bounds. To suppose that it was meant to be perpetual, is the same as supposing that man was intended to keep himself forever an infant in understanding, and to resist improvement as a matter of duty; for the Hebrew law is plainly and exactly calculated for an infant state of the world.

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All this is now so evident to any reader of the Old Testament, that it seems almost impossible that it should not have forced itself upon the convictions of the Jews. It is true their religion was their great distinction above the rest of the nations and it is natural that they should have resisted everything which went to diminish its value in their eyes. But there must have been those among the wiser men of their country, who felt a secret consciousness that the system was not likely to endure. Why not, then, come forward, when they heard Jesus Christ saying, that the purpose of that law had been fulfilled by his coming-why not come forward and receive the living spirit instead of the dead letter? It must be remembered that a large proportion of them did receive his instructions, and avow themselves Christians. And those who did not, were undoubtedly kindled to fiercer wrath by a consciousness deep within the breast, that the days of their faith were numbered. Such is human nature; and but for this irritating consciousness it would have been almost impossible for the Pharisees to overcome the personal popularity of Jesus Christ. Seeing to what point their efforts were directed, he repeated to them that it was not his object to destroy, but fulfil; that not an iota should pass away from the law, till all was fulfilled. They felt the foundations of their national pride sinking beneath them, and were wrought up to madness, instead of being subdued to sorrow and despair.-We may trace the operation of this singular feeling among religious partisans of the present day. Instead of yielding with the best possible grace to the force of truth, they resent argument as a personal affront, the moment it grows too hard for them to answer, and never cling to their faith with a grasp so inflexible as

at the moment when their last poor sophism in defence of it, is overthrown.

We should have but little concern with this piece of history at present, however, if the same prejudice were not found among many who bear the name of Christians. We do not hesitate to say, that many professed Christians have nothing but the Hebrew religion. Because the Old Testament holds the foremost place in their Bibles, they give it the same place in their reverence and affections. Not merely the ignorant, but those who might know better, regard those writings as equally important with the gospel. They read the Old Testament, and neglect the New. They get their ideas of God and duty from the Old Testament. If they want instruction, encouragement, or consolation, they go to the Old Testament. They are in the constant habit of drinking from that broken and moss-grown cistern, though the living water is flowing at their feet. If this were the case only with those who use the Bible as a talisman to guard the household, or read it as an incantation, believing in its magical power to purify and calm the soul, we should not say a word. But those who have the power, and whose duty it is, to correct such impressions, feel as if it were their interest to sustain them; and to this do we ascribe much of the narrowness of feeling, the servility of devotion, which dishonors the religious spirit of the present day, and gives occasion to the enemies of Christianity to say, that, by drawing their faith and feeling from such a fountain, Christians are become no better than Jews, in understanding, character, and heart.

We believe that this is a great evil, and therefore state it strongly. Doubtless we shall be asked, in no good temper, whether we would not have the Old Testament read. Čertainly we would have it read; but read as the word of God addressed to an unenlightened people, and no more suited to Christians than infant instruction to the manhood of the mind. The difficulty is, that men read it with a veil upon their hearts; without in the least regarding what people and what times it was meant for. We would have it read, as containing the record of the Hebrew, not the Christian faith, and fix the reverence of men as strongly as possible upon the Gospels, as the great treasury of our religion.

We will now attempt to point out one or two of those results which follow from this misuse of the Hebrew scriptures.

Men borrow from them incorrect impressions of the nature of