deep regard for the spiritual welfare of those connected with him in the same faith, I feel bound to respect his motives, and to be thankful for his kind intentions. "I hope it may be in your power, under the Divine Providence, to continue the Repository. The fault which you allege many subscribers find with it (viz.), its controversial character, is to me in some measure, its recommendation. It is impossible to overthrow falsity and establish new truths without brandishing the spiritual sword. Old heresies cannot be beaten down by other means, and to my mind the Repository' has accomplished much good in this way. With the assurance of my sincere regard, I am, very respectfully and fraternally, Yours, &c."

"DEAR SIR :-In my first note on the subject of slavery, I intimated to you that a view of that whole question had occurred to me in the course of my anxious meditations, which threw the first steady ray of light on it that had ever gladdened my mental vision; and that I had mentioned it to many gentlemen-public characters, and others-some of whom thought it worthy of mature consideration. I believe I was the first to set this ball in motion, though in this quiet way, as is known to many of my friends, and that more than five years ago. But as it is now being taken up by public writers and bodies, I may just hint to you what it is.

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In

I am a friend to the Liberian Colony, and think there is where the free blacks of the United States ought to go. But any sudden or compulsory breaking up of the institution of slavery in the Southern States is neither possible nor desirable. Any intelligent man, who has been reared at the South, and knows the negro character, will tell you so. The moral checks to population which operate on the white race, have no influence on them. What, then, is to become of the surplus when they increase up to the means of subsistence, and beyond the rate of profitable employment, and have cut down and occupied all the lands best suited to that species of labor? Many think that the white man cannot labor in the rice, and cotton, and sugar plantations of our Southern tier of States. Whether that is so or not, it will certainly take generations for them to become inured to it. But I do not consider that slavery is necessary to Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, or Missouri. Perhaps North Carolina and Tennessee may be included in the proposition. Suppose now that these States or any of them should at a future day, voluntarily, determine on some plan of gradual emancipation, and deportation, and that the States south of us should, as is probable, forbid their entrance within their borders, whither are they to be carried? That some plan of the sort would have been adopted in Virginia many years ago but for the intermeddling of the Northern abolition party, I have not a doubt. That, however, by the way. What is to become of these people in the case supposed The answer may be divined from the following brief statement. The Tropical regions of the earth are best suited for the habitation of the dark races of men. such climates, they only can persist in bodily labor, though they need the directing head. This is true not only of those positions of Asia and Africa, but of America also. The black man had his mission to accomplish in North America. And what was it?-for we are all born for use. That mission was to enable a Protestant nation to enter and possess the land, and prevent its monopoly by France and Spain. Cathpowers, as the former, together with Portugal, had monopolized Southern and Central America, and the West India isles, and by means of the wealth thence derived, had renewed the expiring lease of Popery for centuries more. The negro, by clearing the forest, draining marshes, and cultivating tobacco, cotton, rice, indigo, and sugar, all under the guidance of the white man, and to his own infinite amelioration--for the former neither could nor would have done it of himself,—has established the principle of Protestantism (not the church of the dragon) not only here but in the north of Europe, and given it a permanent ascendancy. (A fool or a bigot would not understand this, but I hope a hint is enough for you or any man who has studied the philosophy of history). Well, then, having nearly accomplished this mission, it will shortly be time for him to get ready to go home. And where is that? In Africa? No, no, no, no. If crowds of slaves were suddenly freed, and, without preparation, set down in Liberia, they would soon, by their ignorance, indolence, and other vices, destroy the colony and return to barbarism, and perhaps be reduced to unmitigated slavery and oppression by those of their own color." What then?

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Tropecal America is as much theirs as is tropical Africa. They have earned it, and are fairly entitled to it. THE VALLEY OF THE AMAZON WILL HOLD THEM ALL; and that is to be the terminus of their wanderings. For this consummation, as it appears to me, Providence has been making preparation during the whole of the present cen tury, and he who will observe the signs of the times, and reflect on the state of the world, may see things steadily drifting in that direction. Slavery has been translated from New England and the Middle States to the South. The improvements in agriculture, especially in the method of bringing new lands into cultivation, the facilities of intercommunication, railroads, canals, steam-boats, ocean steamers, all concur in making their assemblage on the coast, and transfer to a new countrycomparatively a light matter when the proper time shall have arrived. The mmense immigration to this country from Europe, especially from Ireland, and the emigration from the old States to California, all within a few years, and at the charge of individuals, without a draft on the public purse, go to show the possibility of removing large masses of population to a considerable distance, without ruinous expense, even if the removal of slaves from the older to the new States had not demonstrated the same thing. The East India trade has enriched every nation that ever got possession of it. We have an India on our own continent and near our own doors. Nought but capital, skill, and labor are wanting to develop its immense, its inexhaustible resources. The Spanish and Portuguese races seem to be wearing out on this continent. If so, the Anglo-Saxon must first re-inforce them and then take their place. The black race from North America can supply the labor required, and thus put a stop to the African slave trade. The climate suits them, they could have all the necessaries and many of the comforts of life, and be made useful to all the rest of the world; and when the country is fully occupied by them, and the systems of production well established, it would be resigned to them by the Caucasians, who would betake themselves to Buenos Ayres, Paraguay, &c. Thus would slavery meet its euthanasia, and in no other way that I can see.

"I could expectorate a volume on this theme, but you must accept these hints as my quota for the present, and think out the rest for yourself.

"Lieut. Maury, head of the Observatory Department at Washington, has lately written a paper for the Southern Literary Messenger (re-published in pamphlet form, and in De Bow's Review, New Orleans), in which he has presented the leading idea in great variety of aspects. The Colonization Society of Virginia have also spoken of it in a late report. Many editors in the South have noticed the suggestion favorably. I know not whether the idea was original with him or them. But cer tain it is, that I have been preaching it far and wide for the last five years, and I know that many intelligent men, Newchurchmen among them, have been set to thinking about it. Yours truly."

“Dear Brother :—I cannot longer withhold an expression of approval of the stand you have taken on the question of slavery. No apology is needed for its introduction into an independent organ of the New Church. We all rather need an apology for our almost universal silence upon a question of such vital importance. We have been, and perhaps too justly, regarded as among the priests and Levites who "pass by on the other side." The New Church (that is the external visible organization so called) has never grappled with any of the great evils of the age. She has never opened her mouth for the poor slave, who is deprived of all his rights; nor has she raised her voice, or struck a blow, against intemperance, a mighty evil which is yearly rendering thousands of women and children worse than widows and orphans. She has been dumb for the poor outcasts of our cities, and for the millions who are disinherited of their God-given rights to the soil and to the means of subsistence. She has talked about giving spiritual aid, and apparently forgotten that that "is first which is natural, and afterwards that which is spiritual." There is no ground for the reception of spiritual truth in the slave, or the drunkard, or in those who are suffering from want of the comforts of physical life. With all her boasted light, the church has never lent a helping hand in any of the great efforts to elevate humanity. She may have said that the methods were wrong, but if so, duty would seem to require that she should point out the error, show the right method, and begin to do the work in the right way. We have been gazing at and admiring Swedenborg,

1

until, like an idle boy gazing at the sun, we have been dazzled by his glory, when we should have been at work by his light. The New Church is to be pre-eminently distinguished by its works, or in doing uses to the neighbor, but we would seem to be as yet in faith alone. Light from the spiritual world is illuminating the whole Christian Heavens, revealing the mysteries of nature, and enabling science to transform the physical world. It is also revealing the deep degradation of the moral world, and warming the hearts of the Christian and philanthropist to do something for the elevation of suffering humanity. The New Church claims to be in the very focus of this spiritual light; if so, her responsibilities are proportionately increased. I rejoice, then, that you have taken up one of the most important questions of the age. But it is indeed 'humiliating to set about the proof that the slave system is incompatible with Christianity; because no one questions its incompatibility who knows what Christianity is, and what it requires.' More especially is it humiliating that this proof is required in the New Church, but it would seem that it is so, and bid you God-speed in the work.

"CINCINNATI, July 25, 1852."

M. S.

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

1.-A VINDICATION OF THE DOCTRINES AND STATEMENTS OF SWEDENBORG against the Perversions and Attacks of Dr. Mahler and Professor Perrone; (Being, at the same time, a Contribution to the History of Doctrinal Theology.) By Dr. J. F. I. TAFEL. Translated from the German by the Rev. J. H. SMITHSON. London: Hodson & Newbery. Manchester: Kenworthy. 1852. pp. 174.

A highly valuable service has been performed by the author and the translator of this volume. Mohler's work on "Symbolism" is a standard defence of the Romanst dogmas in opposition to Protestantism, and from its signal ability, as well as a certain air of candor pervading it, has probably been more read by Protestants of late years, than any other work from a Catholic pen published within the last two centuries. On this account it was evidently desirable that its cavils should be replied to, and it is well for the New Church that the task has been assumed by one so competent to it as Dr. Tafel. The execution shows that whether in the field of church history, of doctrinal theology, of logic or hermeneutics, Mohler never takes a rash position or makes an unguarded statement that the Tubingen Professor is not down upon him at once with a ready refutation not unfrequently backed with a moral rebuke that may be of service to others, though coming too late for the author himself. The work, as a confutation of the grossest errors of reasoning and statement, is triumphant, and we are pleased to see that the conduct of the argument is so managed as to present an admirable apology for the leading doctrines of the New Church for the benefit of others who may perchance have their attention turned to the subject.

2. THE MEN OF THE TIME; or, Sketches of Living Notables,-Authors, Architects, Artists, Composers, Demagogues, Divines, Dramatists, Engineers, Journalists, Ministers, Monarchs, Novelists, Philanthropists, Poets, Politicians, Preachers, Savans, Statesmen, Travellers, Voyagers, Warriors. Redfield: New York. 1852. pp. 564. No reader of history, science, literature, theology, poetry, or fiction, can well dispense with a work of this kind, and as the present is the only work of the kind, he

cannot well do without this. It is an invaluable directory to an acquaintance with all the living celebrities of the age; of the dead the silence of the grave is preserved. As the biographical gallery to which we are introduced is extensive, and the personages extant upon the walls numerous, we find the notices generally brief, containing little more than the barest outlines of their personal history, without criticism upon their works or achievements. The New Church is honored with a brief sketch of Rev. Mr. De Charms and ourself; the former of which we insert as having to our readers an intrinsic interest of its own, and as a specimen of the general style of the book.

DE CHARMS, RICHARD, Swedenborgian divine, born, of English parents, at Philadelphia, on the 17th October, 1796. His progenitors by the male line were Huguenots, who fled from France on the revocation of the edict of Nantes, in 1685. They went from Caen, in Normandy, to London. His mother, whose maiden name was Meade, was of an English family, sprung from a cross of the Irish and the Welsh. His father graduated at St. Thomas and Guy's hospital, London, as a surgeon and apothecary; but, on coming to this country, and settling in Philadelphia, in 1793 -where the distinction between surgeon and physician did not then exist in so great a degree as in England-he became an accoucheur of some note, and prac tised as a general physician. He was one of the very few physicians who remained in Philadelphia during the prevalence of the yellow fever in 1793, and was skilful in the treatment of that then terrible disease; but fell a victim to it himself in 1796. He died leaving his wife pregnant with the subject of this notice, who was born about six weeks after his father's death. His mother, struggling with poverty and adver sity, was not able to give him a thorough education in his childhood, and put him, when fourteen years old, into a printing office, where he acquired the ability to support both himself and her, until disease, engendered by his close application for that purpose, compelled him to seek some other pursuit. Impelled by an uncontrollable passion for knowledge, he commenced the study of the classics in 1822, and graduated at Yale college, New Haven, in 1826. On leaving college he purposed studying medicine, and actually entered his name as a student with one of the professors in the medical school of the Pennsylvania university. But a female friend, who had advanced the money for his collegiate education, now remitted to him his debt to her on that account, on condition that he would study for the ministry of the new Christian church, called the New Jerusalem, of which church they were both nominal members. He studied theology two years in London, under the direction of the Rev. Samuel Noble, supporting himself during that time by his labor as a journeyman printer. On returning to his native country, he was a minister of his church in Cincinnati, Ohio, for six years; then a minister in. Philadelphia for five years; and lastly a minister in Baltimore for five years. Besides some fugitive publications not worth mentioning, he is the author of a volume of "Sermons on the Doctrine of the Lord and other Fundamental Doctrines of the New Jerusalem," "Five Lectures," &c., delivered at Charleston, S. C., on the occasion of instituting a society of his church there; and more recently, "Some Views of Freedom and Slavery in the Light of the New Jerusalem." But his literary labors were devoted mostly to periodical literature. He set on foot, and printed with his own hands, the first three numbers of "The New Jerusalem Magazine" in Boston. He was the editor of "The Precursor" in Cincinnati, and of "The New Churchman" in Philadelphia, a large portion of all the original matter, of both which periodicals, was written by himself. But his chief work was "The New Churchman Extra," which contains more than eight hundred octavo pages of polemics, with a tolerably extended documentary history of the New Church in England and America.

It would doubtless be a matter of curious interest, to leap over the space of one or two centuries, and see how many of these names would find a place in a Biographical Repository of that age, and of how many of them the poet's lugubrious lines

would hold true :

"In vain recorded in historic page,

They court the notice of a future age;
Those twinkling, tiny lustres of the land,

Drop one by one from Fame's neglecting hand."

But, after all, of how little consequence is posthumous renown! The trilobites might smile at the immortality which man so eagerly covets.

3. THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN, expounded for those who search the Scriptures. By E. W. HENGSTENBERG, Doctor and Professor of Theology in Berlin. Translated from the original by the Rev. PATRICK FAIRBAIRN, Author of "Typology of Scripture," etc. Volume First. New York: Robert Carter & Brothers. 1852. pp. 581. Of the books which we are called to notice, there are many that we feel bound to read beforehand, in order to do full justice to their contents. Others again we content ourselves with dipping into for the purpose of giving our readers a general idea of their aim and execution. Twice or thrice the value of the book would be no inducement to us to traverse the arid desert over which many of them conduct us. And if we say that this remark more frequently applies to commentaries on the inspired books than to any others, the man of the New Church will not find it very difficult to conceive the fact. It would be wrong, however, to infer from this, that we had always of course, a poor opinion of the intrinsic merits of these works. On the contrary, when judged with reference to the object for which they are written and the class of readers to whom they are addressed, they are often entitled to the credit of superior excellence. Thus in respect to the volume named at the head of this notice; it has many valuable points. It is from the pen of one of the most distinguished exegetes of modern Germany-a man who has firmly withstood the rationalizing tendencies of his country and his age, and who has given to modern biblical criticism, one of its most valuable contributions in the "Christology, or the Prophecies relating to the Messiah." But his weakness is betrayed when he attempts to bend the bow of the Apocalypse. We may accord to him the credit of diligent research in every thing that relates to the literature of the book, the time when it was written, the peculiarities of its style, its genuine author, &c., and glean many items of an external kind that may be of service to the spiritual man, but as to finding it disclosing the key to the true internal scope of the Revelation, non inventus est must inevitably be written on the returned report.

4.-The Children's Home Book.--Jessie and other Stories for Young People.-Stories and Verses for Children.--The Light House and other Stories for Children.--The Obedient Boys-The Danger of Disobedience.

In the above we have the titles of a choice series of Juvenile works published, at· very reasonable prices, by Mr. Clapp, of Boston. We may add to the list The White Dove, bearing the unmistakable traces of the pen of our correspondent (*):

5.-STRAY LEAVES FROM AN ARCTIC JOURNAL; or, Eighteen Months in the Polar Regions. By Lieut. S. OSBORN. New York: Putnam. 1852. (Semi-Monthly Library.)

This forms one of the last and most interesting in the series of Putnam's "SemiMonthly Library," intended for travellers and the home circle, and to which we had designed to call attention before. The distinctive characteristics of this series are: 1. A regular periodical issue like the Magazines. 2. Good paper, good print, and