sons.

The issue is, that, by studying the Bible, and the notes which Churchill had written, he gradually obtains a knowledge of the Scriptural system.

We shall not pursue the story.

Our readers will have perceived from the extracts we have given, the excellence of many parts of Dunallan.' There are sundry faults, however, which we must notice with no unfriendly motive. We do not think the Author very successful in the portraiture of character. St. Clair, we deem an improbable conception. Her females have most monotonously the family likeness. Catherine, Elizabeth, Mrs. Oswald, Mrs. Williams, Mrs. Dunallan, Mrs. Ruthven, Helen Graham, Rose Lennox, Miss Morven-are all amiable and gentle,-some of them very beautiful, and not a little romantic ; but they lack

2 the distinctive traits that would render them individual pér

The story is slight, and not very probable. We might pass the promises wrung from Dunallan and Catherine, when babies, to marry each other. But we do not exactly see how two persons living for weeks under the same roof, with ample facilities for intercourse, might not communicate with each other on any given subject. The artifice of the intercepted letters, in addition to its improbability, has the disadvantage of being worn thread-bare. It figures again, however, prominently in the second volume. It is improbable, that Catherine should decline requesting an explanation of the marvellons change in Dunallan's conduct. It is improbable, that Duuallan should persist in believing her_guilty of the base hypocrisy which the writing the letter to Elizabeth implied. It is improbable, that St. Clair should have shewed his hatred to Dunallan by forgeries that could not possibly fail to be discovered. His character, indeed, we have already remarked, we deem an entirely improbable conception. A strict attention to keeping, could alone have rendered Miss Baillie's finely conceived character of De Montfort probable. De Montfort's hatred to Rezenvelt is a passion, 'growing with his growth, • and strengthening with his strength,'-drying up the sources ? of affection, and propelling him at length to destroy his victim,

with the potency of a resistless passion. The causes of St. Clair's hatred, his love to Catherine, and his contempt for Dunallan's religious principles, are totally inadequate for producing the effect. His horrid' joy on the supposed death of his victim, is not the natural sequence to a sated passion, Miss Baillie justly represents De Montfort as shewing the most frightful remorse, after the murder of Rezenvelt.

The style of Dunallan is simple, chaste, and pleasing ; but there occur several palpable transgressions against grammar,

Dunallan.

467

which we notice, that they may be corrected in a second edition. Oh, a hundred ways, which by degrees brings.' Vol. I. p. 37. You will never know what real happiness is, until that heart is so changed.' p. 143. The blush which glowed on her cheek were perfectly suited.' p. 156. How happy is that wife whose affection and fidelity has no other security.' p. 171. But they say that reason or philosophy are of no value until they are enlightened.' p. 240, &c.

Harcourt! why do you determine to indulge such horrible anticipations?" replied Dunallan with much emotion. "You have the offer of heaven without one condition but that of humbling yourself to receive it. We are perhaps both on the verge of an eternal state, Harcourt, and

""Eternal!" interrupted Harcourt, in a voice that made Catherine unconsciously shrink closer to Dunallan; "eternal!" repeated he. The word seemed to have awakened ideas of extreme horror. "I once believed in an eternal sleep," continued he; 66 now I believe in an eternal, never to be satisfied searching for sleep. I am awake-vividly awake for ever. I cannot sleep now. I never more shall sleep. Oh for one single hour of dreamless sleep!"

'Catherine was moved, for Harcourt's voice had changed in uttering the last words from a tone of horror to one of despairing sadness. The state of his own feelings too seemed so overpowering, as to make him scarcely conscious of the presence of others, and she ventured "It is that want of necessary sleep, Mr. Harcourt, which makes the future appear so gloomy. One night of quiet repose would dispel all those horrors."

to say,

"And who denies me sleep?" asked he in the same despairing tone of voice. "They repeat words to me, and say they are the words of God; they tell me that the hairs of my head cannot become white or black without His permission; and then you speak of sleep -sleep to one who would give a world for one night's sleep, as if it was a thing of chance. If I cannot sleep, it is because God has decreed that I never more shall sleep."

"You cannot know, Harcourt, of any such decree," said Mrs. Oswald quickly, but gently. "You reject truth, and believe dreams of your own imagination."

"Is your story of the worm that never dies, the fire that is not quenched, a dream?"

The conclusion, we think beautifully told. His children were brought to him.

Little Mary, placing herself close by his sofa, said, "Papa, you will soon be very, very good."

"I Mary! How shall I be very good?"

"Because, Papa, God afflicts us to make us good.".

"Does he not afflict us, Mary, as a punishment for having been wicked?

Harcourt looked for the child's reply, as if it could have sealed his doom.

"But it is to make us give up being wicked, Papa," said Mary, " and if we confess that we have been wicked, and come back to God, he will not punish us any more, but will love us when he sees us coming, and will come to meet us."

"Come to meet us!" replied Harcourt.

"Yes, Papa," said Mary, "shall I read to you about that in the Bible?"

• Harcourt allowed the child to do as she wished, and she brought

her Bible, and seating herself close to him, she read the parable to which she had alluded. Harcourt listened earnestly, and the hard. ness and darkness which had withstood all our attempts, seemed to yield before this lowly means. When Mary came to that passage, “ But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him," she looked up, and said, “ Now, Papa, did not I tell you?";

Art. X. Letters, chiefly Practical and Consolatory; designed to il

lustrate the Nature and Tendency of the Gospel. By David Russell, Minister of the Gospel, Dundee. 2 vols. 12mo. pp. 804.

Edinburgh. 1823. THE "HE claims of epistolary correspondence to the attention of

the public, may be founded either on that vivacity, ease, and elegance of expression, which can diffuse a charm even over subjects in themselves trivial, or on that intrinsic value in the sentiments conveyed, which can excite an interest in the mind of the reader independently, to a considerable degree, of the form and style of composition. Whether the form of letter-writing be better adapted than any other, to Mr. Russell's mode of thinking, and to the subjects on which he has treated, we entertain considerable doubts; but, if his volumes do not present the most fascinating specimens of epistolary composition, they are recommended by qualities of a far higher character,-qualities which amply justify the title he has prefixed to them; for they are admirably adapted to • illustrate the nature and tendency of the Gospel.' These Letters exhibit the full development of a mind highly gifted with the power of correct discrimination, richly imbued with the spirit of pure and vital Christianity, and familiarized to comprehensive and connected views of Scriptural truths in all their mutual relations and practical bearings. The intention of the Author will best appear from his own concise advertisement:

• The following Letters were addressed, for the most party to persons in affliction. They are not, however, merely consolatory. Sorrow is the fruit of sin, and therefore its true cure lies only in the medicinal truth which purifies the heart, and “saves and sets the sinner free.” With this conviction, it was the Writer's object, in these Letters, to state that great truth in the different lights and connections in which it appears in Scripture. The individuals to whom they were written, believed that they received benefit from them, and they thought that others might do so likewise. This is the history of the publication.?

The following are the subjects of the First Volume.

. 1. On the Sufferings of Christ. 2. On the Glory of Christ. 3. On the Invitations and Promises of the Gospel. 4. On the Design of our Lord's Mission. 5. Thoughts on the Law and the Gospel. 6. On Christian Comfort. 7. On the Practical Influence of the Truth. 8. On the Means and happy Effects of Sanctification. 9. On the Perseverance of Christians. 10. On the Death of a Relative. 11. On the Benefit of Affliction. 12. On our Lord's Answer to the Sons of Zebedee. 13. On the Diversity of Degrees in Glory: 14. On some Difficulties relative to coming to Christ. 15. On Christian Confidence in Prayer.'

As the subjects discussed are not presented in the order of arrangement which might have been exhibited in a regular treatise, nor even in connected Essays, we can do little more than select a few extracts as specimens of the Author's characteristic modes of thinking and writing. The following paragraphs are taken from the XIVth Letter; the subject of which regards the difficulties which are supposed to attach to the act of coming to Christ.

• That there is no necessary connection between distress of mind and being brought to believe in Christ, is evident from the fact, that not all who trembled under the discourse of Peter on the day of Pentecost, but only a part of them gladly received the word. It is true, that without a sense of what renders the salvation of the Gospel necessary, it cannot be believed; but, though by means of the distress and alarm I refer to, God often leads to a welcome reception of the truth, they do not in themselves contain any holy advances towards it on the part of the sinner. They respect the state of the intellect and the conscience, not that of the heart. Convictions of sin arising from the law, frequently lead either to despondency on the one hand, or to a delusive hope on the other. The slavish terrors resulting from the former, and the groundless confidence excited by the latter, are of course no infallible signs or prognostics of conversion. Such convictions may issue in it, but often they do not. Witness the cases of Felix, Judas, and Saul. Of themselves, they cannot reconcile the heart to God and to his word ; but on the contrary, they sometimes call forth the most unhallowed ideas of both. It is with these, as with the afflictions of life, which, although blessed to many, others bave felt most keenly, and yet have afterwards forgotten them, and

gone into every vanity. When such sensations are experienced, the hand of God may be ordering them in subserviency to the designs of his mercy, which are afterwards to be manifested; but I need pot say that the subject of these fears has not been subdued, while the Gospel is not received by him, as far as he is made acquainted with it. Why then act as if a particular preparatory course of tormenting dread must necessarily precede faith in Christ?

· There are some, however, who have had partial views of their

a