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And all the winds slept soundly. Nature seem'd
In silent contemplation to adore

Its Maker. Now and then the aged leaf
Fell from its fellows, rustling to the ground;
And, as it fell, bade man think on his end.
On vale and lake, on wood and mountain high,
With pensive wing outspread, sat heavenly Thought,
Conversing with itself. Vesper look'd forth
From out her western hermitage, and smiled;
And up the east, unclouded, rode the moon
With all her stars, gazing on earth intense,
As if she saw some wonder working there.

Such was the night, so lovely, still, serene,
When, by a hermit thorn, that on the hill
Had seen a hundred flowery ages pass,
A damsel kneel'd to offer up her prayer,-
Her prayer nightly offer'd, nightly heard.
This ancient thorn had been the meeting-place
Of love, before his country's voice had call'd
The ardent youth to honor'd office far
Beyond the wave; and hither now repair'd,
Nightly, the maid, by God's all-seeing eye
Seen only, while she sought this boon alone,-
"Her lover's safety, and his quick return."
In holy, humble attitude she kneel'd,
And to her bosom, fair as moonbeam, press'd
One hand, the other lifted up to heaven.
Her eye, upturn'd, bright as the star of morn,
As violet meek, excessive ardor stream'd,
Wafting away her earnest heart to God.
Her voice, scarce utter'd, soft as Zephyr sighs
On morning's lily cheek, though soft and low,
Yet heard in heaven, heard at the mercy-seat.
A tear-drop wander'd on her lovely face:
It was a tear of faith and holy fear,
Pure as the drops that hang at dawning-time
On yonder willows by the stream of life.
On her the moon look'd steadfastly; the stars
That circle nightly round the eternal throne,
Glanced down, well pleased; and everlasting Love
Gave gracious audience to her prayer sincere.
Oh! had her lover seen her thus alone,
Thus holy, wrestling thus, and all for him!
Nor did he not; for ofttimes Providence
With unexpected joy the fervent prayer
Of faith surprised. Return'd from long delay,
The sacred thorn, to memory dear, first sought
The youth, and found it at the happy hour,
Just when the damsel kneel'd herself to pray.
Wrapp'd in devotion, pleading with her God,
She saw him not, heard not his foot approach.
All holy images seem'd too impure

To emblem her he saw. A seraph kneel'd,
Beseeching for his ward before the throne,

Seem'd fittest, pleased him best. Sweet was the thought,

But sweeter still the kind remembrance came,
That she was flesh and blood form'd for himself,
The plighted partner of his future life.

And as they met, embraced, and sat embower'd
In woody chambers of the starry night,
Spirits of love about them minister'd,
And God, approving, bless'd the holy joy!

JONATHAN DYMOND, 1796–1828.

JONATHAN DYMOND, the celebrated author of the Essays on Morality, was born in Exeter, in 1796. His father, who was a member of the Society of Friends, was a linen-draper of that city, and brought up his son to the same business. Of course, he did not receive what is called a "liberal education;" but he possessed that without which a liberal education is worse than useless; for the sound moral and religious principles, which were carefully inculcated by his parents at home, laid the foundation of that elevated and stern standard of morality which has given him a high rank among English moralists. On leaving school, he found employment in his father's business, in which he afterward became a partner, and in which he continued until the close of his life.

In 1822 he married Anna Wilkey, a Friend, of Plymouth, who survived him nearly twenty-one years: their family consisted of a daughter and a son, the latter of whom died at the age of seven years. In 1823 he published his Inquiry into the Accordancy of War with the Principles of Christianity, a work composed in the momentary intervals of business, and in his early morning hours,-time rescued from sleep by his habit of early rising. This work, from the energy and earnestness of its style, and from its high standard of Christian morals, immediately attracted very great attention, and soon ran through three editions. During the time occupied in publishing the Inquiry, he was diligently engaged in laying the foundation of his other work,-that on which his fame chiefly rests,-his Essays on the Principles of Morality. He was never of a strong constitution; and early in the spring of 1826 appeared the symptoms of that disease which, in two years, was to send him to his grave. His disorder-pulmonary consumption-continued to make rapid advances, and after trying two or three different situations in the country in hopes of benefit, he returned to his native place, where he remained still employed, as his small remaining strength would permit, in preparing for the publication of his Essays; and he might be seen surrounded by his papers until a few days before his death, which took place on the 6th of May, 1828.

If "that life is long which answers life's great end," few men have lived to a greater age than Jonathan Dymond, though he died at the early age of thirtytwo,-for few men have done more good. His Essays on the Principles of Morality is undoubtedly one of the very best works upon that subject; and it is worthy of remark that, though learned scholars, profound civilians, celebrated divines, and famous moralists had written upon the same subject, an humble individual of the Society of Friends, bred in no academic halls, should have surpassed most of them. The plain, simple reason is that he takes the

word of God as his infallible standard of rectitude by which to weigh all actions, and that, with a clear head and an honest conscience, he follows his principles wherever they lead, knowing that they can never lead wrong. It is amusing as well as instructive to see with what ease he overthrows all the previous standards of rectitude which various men had set up,-utility, expediency, &c.,-and establishes the great central truth, that the Will of God is the only standard by which to judge concerning the right or wrong of actions.

LOVE THE TEST OF ONE'S CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES.

Love is made the test of the validity of our claims to the Christian character: "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples." Again: "Love one another. He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law." It is not, therefore, surprising that, after an enumeration in another place of various duties, the same dignified apostle says, "Above all these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness." The inculcation of this benevolence is as frequent in the Christian Scriptures as its practical utility is great. He who will look through the volume will find that no topic is so frequently introduced, no obligation so emphatically enforced, no virtue to which the approbation of God is so specially promised. It is the theme of all the "apostolic exhortations, that with which their morality begins and ends, from which all their details and enumerations set out, and into which they return." 'He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." More emphatical language cannot be employed. It exalts to the utmost the character of the virtue, and, in effect, promises its possessor the utmost favor and felicity. If, then, of faith, hope, and love, love be the greatest; if it be by the test of love that our pretensions to Christianity are to be tried; if all the relative duties of morality are embraced in one word, and that word is love; it is obviously needful that, in a book like this, the requisitions of benevolence should be habitually regarded in the prosecution of its inquiries. And, accordingly, the reader will sometimes be invited to sacrifice inferior considerations to these requisitions, and to give to the law of love that paramount station in which it has been placed by the authority of God.

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HUMAN SUBORDINATE TO DIVINE LAW.

The authority of civil government is a subordinate authority. If from any cause the magistrate enjoins that which is prohibited

by the moral law, the duty of obedience is withdrawn. "AH human authority ceases at the point where obedience becomes criminal." The reason is simple: that when the magistrate enjoins what is criminal, he has exceeded his power; "the minister of God" has gone beyond his commission. There is, in our day, no such thing as a moral plenipotentiary.

Upon these principles the first teachers of Christianity acted when the rulers "called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus." 66 Whether," they replied, "it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye." They accordingly "entered into the temple early in the morning, and taught;" and when, subsequently, they were again brought before the council and interrogated, they replied, "We ought to obey God rather than men :" and, notwithstanding the renewed command of the council, "daily in the temple and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ." Nor let any one suppose that there is any thing religious in the motives of the apostles which involved a peculiar obligation upon them to refuse obedience; the obligation to conform to religious duty and to moral duty is one.

To disobey the civil magistrate is, however, not a light thing. When the Christian conceives that the requisitions of government and of a higher law are conflicting, it is needful that he exercise a strict scrutiny into the principles of his conduct. But if, upon such scrutiny, the contrariety of requisitions appear real, no room is left for doubt respecting his duty, or for hesitation in performing it. With the consideration of consequences he has then no concern: whatever they may be, his path is plain before him.

SLAVERY.

To him who examines slavery by the standard to which all questions of human duty should be referred, the task of deciding, we say, is short. Whether it is consistent with the Christian law for one man to keep another in bondage without his consent, and to compel him to labor for that other's advantage, admits of no more doubt than whether two and two make four. It were humiliating, then, to set about the proof that the slave-system is incompatible with Christianity; because no man questions its incompatibility who knows what Christianity is, and what it requires.

The distinctions which are made between the original robbery in Africa, and the purchase, the inheritance, or the "breeding of slaves in the colonies, do not at all respect the kind of immorality that attaches to the whole system. They respect nothing but the degree. The man who wounds and robs another on the highway is a more atrocious offender than he who plunders a

hen-roost; but he is not more truly an offender, he is not more certainly a violator of the law. And so with the slave-system. He who drags a wretched man from his family in Africa is a more flagitious transgressor than he who merely compels the African to labor for his own advantage; but the transgression, the immorality, is as real and certain in one case as in the other. He who had no right to steal the African can have none to sell him. From him who is known to have no right to sell, another can have no right to buy or to possess. Sale, or gift, or legacy imparts no right to me; because the seller, or giver, or bequeather had none himself. The sufferer has just as valid a claim to liberty at my hands as at the hands of the ruffian who first dragged him from his home. Every hour of every day the present possessor is guilty of injustice. Nor is the case altered with respect to those who are born on a man's estate. The parents were never the landholder's property, and therefore the child is not. Nay, if the parents had been rightfully slaves, it would not justify me in making slaves of their children. No man has a right to make a child a slave but himself. What are our sentiments upon kindred subjects? What do we think of the justice of the Persian system, by which, when a state offender is put to death, his brothers and his children are killed or mutilated too? Or, to come nearer to the point, as well as nearer home, what should we say of a law which enacted that of every criminal who was sentenced to labor for life, all the children should be sentenced so to labor also? And yet, if there is any comparison of reasonableness, it seems to be in one respect in favor of the culprit. He is condemned to slavery for his crimes; the African, for another man's profit.

It is quite evident that our slave-system will be abolished,' and that its supporters will hereafter be regarded with the same public feelings as he who was an advocate of the slave-trade is now. How is it that legislators or that public men are so indifferent to their fame? Who would now be willing that biography should record of him-This man defended the slave-trade? The time will come when the record-This man opposed the abolition of slavery will occasion a great deduction from the public estimate of worth of character. When both these atrocities are abolished, and, but for the page of history, forgotten, that page will make a wide difference between those who aided the abolition and those who obstructed it. The one will be ranked among the Howards that are departed, and the other among those who, in ignorance or in guilt, have employed their little day in inflicting misery upon mankind.

This was, of course, written before the glorious act of Great Britain,-the emancipation of the slaves in all her colonies in 1834.

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