have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and REPENT in dust and ashes."-(xlii. 5, 6.) The affections of the heart must be brought into harmony with the convictions of the understanding. What is seen to be evil must be hated as such: not merely avoided from prudential considerations; but rejected as sin against God, and as detrimental to the happiness of his creatures. Asking for "all things new," by faith and prayer ;- Thus the true penitent not only finds the secret of all real bliss, but is enabled to rejoice in the noble reflection, that by so doing the will of his Heavenly Father upon earth, by checking every evil desire that opposes the coming of His kingdom, he is uniting in the labours of those happy beings who do His will in heaven, and whose angelic joys, we are assured by the Lord himself, are increased by every sinner's repentance. X. ON MODERN BIOGRAPHY. A taste for biography has prevailed at all times. In the present day, that taste has increased to such a degree that the breath is scarcely out of the body of any person of note, before a volume issues from the press containing every particular that can possibly be remembered about him. The practice has become so habitual, that it would not have been noticed here, except for the purpose of engrafting an inquiry upon it :-Has the practice its origin in an evangelical spirit, or not? That is the question to which I would fain direct the reader's attention. That it is an important one, I need not tell him. My reason for putting it, is, that such as the spirit of the work is, such will, beyond all dispute, be the spirit imparted to the reader. If the book be written in the evangelical spirit of brotherly love, of bettering the condition of mankind, unless the materials be so meagre, or the style so dull as to excite no interest, the spirit imparted will be evangelical, the desire to improve by the example will be strengthened. On the contrary, if the spirit of the work be chiefly to afford amusement, to rake together all the gossiping anecdotes with which the subject of the biography may have been connected, who does not perceive that the chief effect on the reader will be to retail the same gossip to the next dinner party which has not yet had the same opportunity of reading? To write biography with benefit to the world, requires something more than a talent to correct and arrange anecdotes. It requires an evangelical spirit; the love of our fellow-creatures, guided and corrected by sound discrimination. Can such a qualification be ascribed to the writers of modern biography? to men who commit to paper every conceivable circumstance relating to their hero? Take a celebrated instance,-Boswell's Life of Johnson. That it is highly amusing, is granted. That it is equally instructive, is another affair. Where was the utility of exhibiting that vehement champion of religion and morals under circumstances enough to demonstrate that he was too apt to turn his back on both? Whatever delight the reader may occasionally derive from the depth and richness of the thoughts, from the nervous terms in which they are expressed; in the very midst of his delight, his mind is perpetually crossed by an idea which cannot be better represented than in the description which Johnson told Boswell, had been given of them by the Scotch :-They say, I am a mad dog, and you are the tin canister tied to my tail. Love of truth is the common excuse made for these laborious writers. And is the love of truth-of that holy attribute of Supreme Goodness-the real reason for displaying to the wide world all the weaknesses and follies and vices of poor human nature? Has the vanity of a successful publication, of being an amusing writer, no influence on the materials of the work? If truth be the object of love, let the truth be told on this question, and then will mankind be able to judge of the force of the excuse. "The Truth" is to "make free" from the bondage of vice and folly. But such truth as is here made the pretext for mischief, rivets their chains, by giving stamp and currency to the base coin of those who have some pretension to the failings, and none to the religion and morals, such as they were, of a man of note like Johnson. Of what benefit did the world partake, by being told that Howard the philanthropist lived on bad terms with his only son? The only effect, probably, on the thoughtless crowd composing the bulk of the world, was to give a low opinion of the public benevolence which could stifle and deaden domestic endearments. Since the days of Johnson and Howard, the evils of biography have been grossly aggravated by making the biography of the individual a screen for wider-spread slander. Private characters are dragged before the public for no other reason than to make sport, or glut revenge, or swell a tedious page. The Lord Justice Clerk, McQueen of Braxfield, was not a man who stood too high in a decorous love of justice. Yet his scanty character must be made still shabbier, for no better purpose than to show that Sir Walter Scott had enjoyment in telling a heartless jest, and George IV. in hearing it; a jest too which has been since shewn to rest on no foundation whatever. Sir Walter's misfortunes excited sympathy as long as the fault was supposed to be with the Ballantynes. But his biographer, fancying himself the despotic lord of the domains of literature, and not content with the substance, must needs grasp the shadow too; and by the attempt to deepen it, has wasted, if not lost the substance. In the eagerness of his vindictive love of truth, he has given the Ballantynes an opportunity of incontestibly establishing that they were ruined by Sir Walter, not Sir Walter by them. They proved that, in one sense, the Jewish law of retaliation was still in force, "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth ;" and they verified the Saviour's assertion that "One jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled." Had his biographer never put pen to paper, Sir Walter might have passed for an amiable and chivalrous man. His example would have been. useful to his country in many respects; and the calamitous issue of his labours might have been pitied without being copied. Lockhart's gossiping volumes have sunk his "Great Man" to a rank which gratitude for past pleasure forbids to be mentioned. A still more lamentable forgetfulness of evangelical duty occurs in the Life of Wilberforce. In the high days of Pitt's supremacy, a boy at school had nearly been rewarded with a bloody nose, for his pains in stating to his school-fellows on paternal authority, that however eloquently Pitt might harangue on "the cause of Law, Order, and Religion," he was in reality no better than an infidel. The boy, doubtless, deserved a bloody nose for daring to meddle with the private character of a man, whose religious opinions were his own property, and not the public's; unless indeed the public could be considered to have bought them by paying his debts. What then is to be said of Pitt's confidential friend, who, by the freedom of confidential friendship, has been enabled to hint, and who has hinted in terms not to be mistaken, that the slander was far from being destitute of foundation? What becomes of the sacred nature of private intercourse, when the good and pious and companionable Wilberforce has recorded such a hint? and has left that hint for publication? Still more appalling is the question occasioned by the actual publication itself. Is this the mode of recommending Evangelical Religion to the consideration of those who think with Pitt rather than with Wilberforce? Is this the pastoral crook of religion wielded by its reverend shepherds, as the most effectual means within their reach for discountenancing infidelity, by keeping the "tongue from evilspeaking, lying, and slandering," and by promoting charitable feelings and charitable opinions about all men? Verily, one would think there was some meaning in what D an infidel once said,-The way to get on in the world is, to believe all that good people say you ought to believe, and to take care to let none of it influence your practice. Verily, modern biography might be said to be, The history of a mad dog, snapping at every creature in his way; and the biographer, the slop-kettle tied to his tail. XI. THE BAN-DE-LA-ROCHE.-No. 1. Behold a Pastor, humble and sincere, Whom Heav'n commends, his people all revere. Who soothes their mournful, shares their joyful lot; His watchful care neglects no secret woes; His secret charities, Heav'n only knows. He strips grim want and death, of half their terrors, Oft at his board the rankling quarrel ends, From Delille's "Homme des Champs." If the object of biography be to instruct mankind by the plain teaching of wise and virtuous example, the biographer will seldom find a subject more worthy of his attention, than the Pastor of the Ban-de-la-Roche. The evangelical virtues and practical wisdom of the admirable OBERLIN, are not more remarkable, than the variety of occupations in which they are displayed. His character presents a rare union of christian piety and humility, with the activity and address of a man of the world. He taught his flock, both by example and precept, to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; but he showed them at the same time, that heaven could only be gained by the faithful discharge of the duties of earth. When with pick-axe in hand, he headed his villagers in making a |