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Personal Qualities.

281

different subjects, or rather classes of subjects, pertaining chiefly to biography and history. Indeed his published writings give no idea of the variety and amount of his productions, planned or partly executed. Nor can we attempt to give an idea. Prose and verse in every form, from the most grave to the most playful, literature, science, religion, narrative, song, child's alphabet, child's prayer, sacred drama, mathematical lecture, besides all the usual forms of professional labor and public service, make an incalculable amount, of material, and show at least a wonderful fertility and industry. They show more. They bear almost uniformly the character or the aim of usefulness. That word, as has been well said, defines, if one word can, the prevailing feature of his writings and object of all his efforts. But it was a usefulness that had little affinity with common 'utility,' still less with that popular term which to him was offensive-'expediency.' Seldom has any one labored so much for present want and immediate use, yet with so large and high an aim. Few have done more for the reforms of the day, with such independence of party and faithfulness to principle. No writer has contributed so much, probably, to all the periodicals of the denomination; to no one, certainly, are we more indebted for the origin and success of our religious associations and benevolent efforts. And all this, it will be remembered, with health constantly interrupted, often entirely prostrated, and with scrupulous fidelity to the duties of an arduous profession. He did too much. He attempted enough to task and break the stoutest frame. His own, always frail, bore up with astonishing power for a longer period than any expected, but failed prematurely still. The lesson is to be heeded. In this, if in anything to the eye of man, he erred. Yet who that knew his temperament, the demands made upon him, and all the circumstances of his life, will be the reprover?

We shrink from any attempt at strict analysis or formal description of character. Beside that others did this sufficiently at the time of his death, and the closing chapter of the Memoir embodies much of it, it is less needed than in most prominent cases. No one who knew Henry Ware, will ask to have him described minutely, and we doubt if any who have only read what he has written, require to be informed of his leading traits. The transparent simplicity, 4TH. S. VOL. V. NO II..

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directness, and truthfulness of his character, none mistook in seeing, reading or hearing him. It may be that no one ever thought of his greatness-it must be that no one ever doubted his goodness. Has there been at any time a better instance of the power of goodness, not only by itself and upon others directly, but by its influence upon all the faculties, and its agency in producing that harmony of parts, concentration of effort, steadfastness and elevation of purpose, which leave a mark upon the age, such as genius seldom leaves, and common greatness never approaches? With no precocity or early prominence, with no peculiar adaptation or preference for any one branch of study→ unless his self-consecration to the ministry be so regarded

with an entire absence of system, and frequent departure from his own rules of mental pursuit, if he formed any, always subject to innumerable and diverse cares, always harassed by infirmity, and fearing utter prostration, how was it, that he accomplished what he has, that his name stands for so much to so many minds, that his affections, reserved and ever calm, made their way to so many hearts, and that he has left so precious a memory in the commu nity, as teacher, benefactor, and friend? It was by the singleness of his devotion to good ends. It was by the union of qualities, scarcely one of which was distinguished apart, but all of which created a beautiful and powerful whole. It was by an enlarged and enlightened interest in all classes and causes of humanity, with unwavering fidelity to the paramount cause of truth and Christ. It was by firm adherence to his own convictions, with determined just>ice to others, and the freest charity for all. It was by the forgetfulness of himself alone, in toiling, through life and unto death, for the ignorant, the neglected, the destitute, the intemperate, the hostile, the enslaved, the old in error or sin, the young in innocence and peril. It was, in brief, by the Christian combination of qualities and forces usually separate, and often thought incompatible; gentleness and boldness, freedom and caution, enthusiasm and judgment, active zeal with meek charity, the poet's fire and the preacher's calmness, the reformer's and martyr's spirit with the patience and forbearance of the most practical and humble laborer.

Henry Ware has described "the man of the Beatitudes."

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His Letters.

283

Has he not portrayed himself? He has given us beautiful, and now familiar lines, on "Seasons of Prayer." His life was prayer. Devotion was an element of his soul, and some of his most moving eloquence was in its private and public expression. One of his last employments, after he was stricken, was to compose some prayers for families, in which the "young" might feel that they had a part and an interest. His doctrine of prayer was absolute faith in God, not only as hearing but answering; and in Christ, not as a teacher alone, but as a sympathizer and intercessor. We never talked with him on this subject, we might almost say we never saw him, that we did not find our own faith confirmed. We know not whether his public or private power, his speaking or his silent presence, affected us most. know only that no speech or silence ever moved us more than has his, and by no life or death have we been more blessed.

We

With reluctance we leave this pleasant task. It has been to us another interview with one dearly loved. We loved Henry Ware with an affection altogether peculiar ; and we speak of it the more freely, because we know it was shared by so many. It is one proof of the singular power of his character, that with so little expression he could create such deep and tender love. Is it not felt by multitudes, who have little knowledge of him, except through his life, preaching, and writing? What a place did that life fill in the community, and in the affections of men! What an influence did that preaching and writing exert! And to how many in this country and England will the Memoir go, and find grateful welcome! It carries two portraits of him-imperfect likenesses. It carries his life and letters and there is the man. Never was a man more visible in his letters. He wrote as he felt; -no effort, and with near friends no restraint. He wrote easily in everything; in letters most rapidly, as without thought yet full of it, now serious and now ludicrous, lavish of sentiment and figure, in English or Latin, prose or poetry. We have letters with not a word of English, and others all in irony

showing the greatest readiness, and amazing versatility. But we speak of his letters here with a single object, to which we have not referred. Many of them show him in the filial relation, and bring before us also those inval

uable letters of his father. Their correspondence gives us a beautiful picture of both. And if no other picture is to be granted us of that venerable man, we do wish that more of his letters to his children could be published. We know their worth, and we know how many they would gratify and bless.

The father has joined his son. They are again together, enjoying an intercourse dependent on no earthly medium. But they are not removed from earthly communion or human affections. Our reverence and love are with them, and their benediction is constantly descending. They both passed away in gradual and unconscious death. They both live in a life that we may share now, and share forever. It was said by one who witnessed the death of the younger -"Tranquilly did that spirit pass, and the peace of heaven settled at once upon that beloved face; such an expression of repose and rest, such a return to youth and its hopeful anticipations, was depicted in it, that it seemed indeed a type of the new birth of the spirit in that new existence which it had just commenced." With that existence Henry Ware is now familiar. Many has he helped to enter it, and many he is helping still. Long will his words come to us-those words, especially, that conveyed through a brother one of the last messages of his life-and come with a power that goes to fulfil their prayer:"Peace and love to the brethren!"

E. B. H.

ART. IX.-RELIGIOUS LIFE OF ENGLAND.*

THE age, it is said, has become "historical." It is gathering up the fruits of the past history of the race. It is not content with brushing away the dust from old monuments, retracing half effaced inscriptions, gazing at mere facts— the outward, visible life of humanity. It deals with analysis -keen, searching analysis. It has grown philosophical. It is looking at the significance of facts rather than at facts

* A Retrospect of the Religious Life of England: or the Church, Puritanism, and Free Inquiry. By JOHN JAMES TAYLER, B A. London. 1845. 8vo. pp. 563.

1846.]

themselves, at their revelations of the interior life of thought and feeling. It collects, arranges, compares, only. to get at the hidden meaning or principle. It treats the past as the chemist treats the substances subjected to his examination. It applies tests, it uses the crucible, till it is made to yield up its subtlest spirit or essence. Dr. Dryasdust has his place and office, indispensable ones too, but not the highest in the province of intellect and humanity. Without our Dryasdusts we could not have our Carlyles, who help us to look through the outer garment into the very soul and heart of humanity itself, bring up the "heroes" of the past and cause them to talk to us face to face, write "French Revolutions" and "Cromwelliads." The historian now condenses, generalizes, lays open elementary laws. He may sometimes refine and theorize too much, may occasionally torture the past to make it utter the right word, may by a Procrustes process reduce it to the measure of his system. We think Michelet at times chargeable with this fault, yet what living pictures glow on his pages. History under such a pen becomes instinct with life and soul; it is no longer a mere heap of dry sticks..

The age, we said, is historical, philosophic, analytic. This feature of it appears in Mr. Tayler's book. It is a book for the times, just such a work as the age demanded, and so far as the subject is concerned in some sort new. We know of no one who has treated the subject before him, at least in the same way, for we cannot consider the occasionally subtle analysis, and few glimpses of great principles and of the elementary life of religion, found in Maurice's "Kingdom of Christ" as contributing much to the elucidation of the past "religious life of England."

"Retrospect of the religious life of England," to the thoughtful, few themes can be more pregnant and kindling. What images crowd on the mind. What voices come up from the past, in that land where our fathers had their homes, voices, indeed, not always sweet, nay, sometimes harsh and grating, driving out some of her noblest sons, compelling them to leave the sepulchres of kindred and ancestors, and seek a refuge and "freedom to worship God" on the wild shores of the New World. Yet without a knowledge of the religious history of England we cannot under-, stand our own; and both as descendants of the Pilgrims,