always bears the impress of immoderate effort. Still the style had a suitableness in emanating from Chalmers-whereas an indiscreet imitator would soon ramble into the region of the mock sublime.

But the mind which served to elevate Chalmers far above his most intellectual contemporaries, was not the mind which fitted him for happiness on earth, or immortality in heaven; though it is perfectly plain to our perceptions that the good Doctor himself frequently confounded nature with grace, and was much hindered in his religious progress by the strength and subtlety of his reasoning faculty. Like his nation generally (pace Scotorum), he was of a metaphysical cast of mind, fond of all the specious trickeries of controversial argument, and prone to undervalue truth, if not reached through the violent vista of disputation. Such a mind offers at every step a more than ordinary opposition to the sublime simplicity of the gospel. Doctor Hanna employs a great deal of grandiloquent circumlocution in narrating the story of Chalmers's conversion to Christianity; as if any man could be a Christian by any natural power, faculty, or religious opportunities. This is the great fault of the book. Instead of setting Chalmers's case clearly before us, as that of a man of fine natural intellect and attainment, but who, nevertheless, lived a nominal Christian, in a land of nominal Christians, until about the thirtieth year of his age, when the sovereignty of God called him out of darkness into marvellous light; Doctor Hanna spins out a sort of dramatic tale, in which Chalmers's changes of opinion are placed in scenic succession, not unlike dissolving views. What the excellent Doctor laboured under was weakness of faith, continually combated by a powerful natural understanding; for we may assume it as an axiomatic certainty, that the more vigour and cultivation of intellect any man possesses, the more vehement will be his resistance to the truth of Christ. For the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. We have not the slightest doubt of Chalmers having been a spiritual man, and much anterior to the period arbitrarily assigned by his biographer; but we can discover, through all the gossamer concealments of Doctor Hanna, where Chalmers's great snare really lay. He wanted to be a great philosopher of high scientific and ethical repute, and at the same time to be a disciple of Christ, and an authoritative teacher of Christianity; and, according to our im

man.

partial, and certainly not unfriendly estimate, he long failed in both objects of ambition. He was too philosophical to receive without severe struggle those heavenly truths which cannot be believed without God-given faith; and he had too much reverence for Christianity to yield implicitly to the arrogant claims of the world's philosophy. So poor Chalmers was, for a season, prominently a two-fold man, though emphatically not a double-minded He preached Christianity to philosophers, and philosophy to Christians, without, perhaps, conducing materially to the edification of either class. In this frank exposition of what we conceive to be Doctor Chalmers's dominant temptation, we disavow all desire of diminishing the reverence justly due to his illustrious On the contrary we boldly say, who shall lay anything to his charge? Like every creature of mortal mould, he had his allotted gifts and his predestinated mission. All that was good in his constitution came down from the God of all grace, and will live in eternal remembrance. All that betokened the sinful infirmity of human nature, utterly corrupted by the fall, was destroyed by the death of the Redeemer, and every taint of turpitude washed away by his precious blood. This scriptural solution of a good man's case gives glory to the God of salvation, while it properly rebukes the fond infatuation which leads erring men to canonize the errors of some remarkable son of Adam.

name.

We ventured to affirm that the Journals of Doctor Chalmers, forming so considerable portion of Doctor Hanna's book, are little, if indeed at all, calculated to edify his Christian readers-for we presume he kept that peculiar class pre-eminently in view. It is not our intention to increase the spread of what we believe to be a pernicious error, by transcribing quotations from the Journals in order to establish our proposition; but we shall take occasion to offer some observations which will convey explicitly our reasons for rejecting a vast deal of that recorded childishness which passes under the name of Christian experience. According to our notion of the true meaning of the apostolical expression "experience," it imports an experimental, believing knowledge of the truth of the everlasting gospel, and without question a Journal which should record the augmenting apprehension of divine truth--the riches of grace and the hope of glory enlargedly sealed upon the soulwould be salutary and strengthening to spiritual minds. But

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what we complain of respecting all the diaries of professedly religious persons so unpitiably palmed upon the public, is the total absence of all certainty concerning Christianity itself, which painfully characterises these vaunted productions. So far from furnishing us with invigorating testimony to the rejoicing reception of the gospel, these pious publications are mainly the journal-entries of unbelief, eked out with profuse details of the workings of an evil nature inveterately at war with the wisdom, grace, and mercy of God. What benefit, we ask, could an incipient convert, struggling between light and darkness, derive from the perusal of the jumbled contrarieties which make up the sum of those mental log-books which the press, in some shape or other, is continually producing? Therefore we regret that Doctor Chalmers's great name has been perversely used, so as to lend a seeming sanction to the extravagant errors jotted down by devout diarists intent upon chronicling their own corruptions. Fortunately Dr Chalmers's writings, meant for publication, go far to nullify the ill effect of those Journals, which we are confident he never would have suffered to see the light; but blots on the brightest luminaries are all the more quickly marked, and we fear the pruriency of public curiosity will dwell more eagerly upon his defects, than upon his plenary contributions to the cause of Christianity.

It is impossible to read Doctor Hanna's own narrative of Doctor Chalmers Life up to the latter's thirty-fifth year, without being impressed with a thorough sense of the simplicity, integrity, and thorough amiability of Doctor Chalmers's character. In all his domestic relations, those cords of man by which society is in fact held together, there was a manly amenity, a conscientious cordiality and kindliness which made him a model for the heads of other families, and the central charm of his own happy household. Chalmers was an honour to his country and his kind; and when all the exciting scenes in which he took so fervent a part shall occupy a narrow niche in history, the recollection of his private worth and wisdom will be warmly and affectionately remembered. The memory of the just is blessed.

179

THE LATE FRANCIS JEFFREY.

As our existing British Literature has been deprived of one or the leading intellectual lights which so long animated and adorned it; the popular portion of the press has not been slow to signify a sorrowful sense of the loss so suddenly sustained. When we use the word "suddenly," we do so more in compliance with the general expression of mournful surprise occasioned by the death of Lord Jeffrey, than in strict accordance with the truth of the case; for a life of full 77 years cannot be considered as cut off by untimely termination, although preceded by but few days of actual illness. The longevity of the Scottish Judges is almost proverbial, and the recently withdrawn ornament of the Bench had, we conceive, filled up a large measure of days, so as to show that he had partaken of the customary professional privilege. But distinguished men, who have long flourished in public renown, and who have occupied a bright space in the eye of the world, become insensibly a part of the social system, and we look upon them as fixed stars rather than passing meteors. So much has been said, and well said, in cordial commendation of Lord Jeffrey, that we should perhaps act more prudently in embellishing our columns with a fasciculus of graceful eulogies gathered from the leading Scottish and English journals. But whether it be from fastidiousness, or from some latent desire to display our own petty powers of analysis, we feel inclined to risk saying something on our own account concerning the great departed-to estimate his intellectual character and efforts and to take a sober survey of the reputed influence of the Edinburgh Review, which he more than any other individual contributed to nurture into importance and celebrity. We leave to others the task of following him through the passages of his political and professional life, and we shall only advert to them as incidently illustrating some peculiarities in the cultivation. of his mind, or in the versatile vigour which marked his literary career. The language of panegyric poured around a freshly filled grave, must not be too severely scanned, but we are disposed to abate somewhat of the overflowing fulness of laudation with which the Caledonian newspaper condolers have extolled the memory of Lord Jeffrey. That he was a man of very eminent talent is unquestionable; that he possessed a singular quickness of perception;

an almost mercurial activity of mind; a power of appropriating the thoughts of others, so as to give an air of originality to his adroit adaptations—all this may be most justly affirmed of him— and when we add that he enjoyed a rich command of sparkling diction, sound Saxon speech, seasoned with occasional Scotticisms, we have, we honestly think, embraced the sum of Jeffrey's intellectual qualifications. But there is an order of mind far above this, with which it would be unfair to class this remarkable manwe mean the order which soars higher than the region of mere cleverness—the thin rank of truthful thinkers, who leave behind them not scattered effusions of brilliant brevity, but the consecutive results of masterly meditation. Jeffrey was not of the race thus described, but among which, pardonable patriotism would strive to enrol him. We seek to assign him the place which posterity will allot him; and his countrymen will excuse us if our tone of praise be somewhat tamer than the commendations of grandiloquent compatriots.

Jeffrey, after eight years of an advocate's "hope deferred," finding himself not over-burdened with briefs or fees, resolved to chalk out a career for himself, which although affording a wide field of literary labour, should still be compatible with the forensic exercitations of his professional pursuit. According to Sydney Smith, the English ecclesiastical Momus, and jocose diner-outthe project of a Review, which should outshine all the organs of contemporary criticism, was first started in an attic of Buccleuch Place, where Jeffrey lodged close to the clouds. The waggish divine asserts that he was the Promethean propounder of the plan which was to impart fresh fire to reviewing; but be that as it may, his were not the fitting faculties to carry such an enterprise into effective execution. Jeffrey was quickly installed as the editor of the new journal, even though the first number of the Edinburgh Review should have been put together by the gibing concocter of Peter Plymley's Letters. More than 47 years have now elapsed since this powerful and influential journal first occupied the earnest attention of the reading world—and with various fortune, it still continues to maintain a respectable literary position. But the prestige which attended Jeffrey's editorship, ceased with his retirement from the critical chair, which occurred on his being elected Dean of Faculty in 1828. Twenty-six years of intellectual incum bency supplied ample scope for the exercise of Jeffrey's omni