turned and looked to the other shore; but it was far too distant to be reached. If he was to be saved, it must be by crossing the narrower gulley: and, at last, a means of doing so seemed to offer. Several trees had been carried past by the current; but they were all borne on headlong, and he had no means of arresting their course: but one came at length, a trunk of the largest growth, and therefore making its way more slowly than the rest. It tilted from time to time against the bank, and when it reached the island, fairly stuck at the very point where the stream was narrowest. With intense gratitude, - gratitude which two hours before he would have denied could ever be felt towards slaves, - Horner saw the negroes cluster about the root of the tree to hold it firm in its position. Its branchy head seemed to him to be secure, and the only question now was, whether he could keep his hold on this bridge, while the torrent rose over it, as if in fury at having its course delayed. He could but try, for it was his only chance. The beginning of his adventure would be the most perilous, on account of the boughs over and through which he must make his way. Slowly, fearfully, but firmly he accomplished this, and the next glimpse of moonlight showed him astride on the bare trunk, clinging with knees and arms, and creeping forward as he battled with the spray. The slaves were no less intent. Not a word was spoken, not one let go, and even the women would have a hold. A black cloud hid the moon just when Horner seemed within reach of the bank; and what happened in that dark moment,

whether it was the force of the stream, or the strength of the temptation, - no lips were ever known to utter; but the event was that the massy trunk heaved once over, the unhappy wretch lost his grasp, and was carried down at the instant he thought himself secure. Horrid yells once more arose from the perishing man, and from the blacks now dispersed along the bank to see the last of him.

""He is not gone yet,' was the cry of one; 'he climbed yon tree as if he had been a water-rat.'

""There let him sit if the wind will let him,' cried another. 'That he should have been carried straight to a tree after all!'

"'Stand fast! here comes the gale again!' shouted a third. "The gale came. The tree in which Horner had found refuge bowed, cracked, - but before it fell, the wretch was blown from it like a flake of foam, and swallowed up finally in the surge beneath. This was clearly seen by a passing gleam. "Hurra! hurra!' was the cry once more. 'God sent the wind. It was God that murdered him, not we.'

"When the planters were sufficiently recovered to exchange letters of condolence. Mr. Mitchelson wrote thus to Mr. Bruce. 'You have probably heard that my overseer, poor Horner, was lost from the waters being out when he was making his way to the field where his duty called him. We all lament him much; but your son will be glad to hear (pray tell him when you write) that my slaves are conducting themselves as well as if still under the charge of him we have lost. I am persuaded they would have risked their own lives to save his, if it had been possible. But, as they say, it was God's will that he should perish!' - pp. 152 – 158.

We intend, at some future time, when more of the Illustrations are before the public, to examine more at length Miss Martineau's general merits as a writer, and to discuss some of the principles of political economy which she supports.

ART. V. - The Evidences of Christianity in their External • Division, exhibited in a Course of Lectures, delivered in Clinton Hall, in the Winter of 1831-2, under the appointment of the University of the City of New York. By CHARLES P. MILVAINE, D. D., Rector of St. Ann's Church, Brooklyn, - Professor of the Evidences of Revealed Religion and of Sacred Antiquities in the University of the City of New York. New York. G. & C. &. H. Carvill. 1832. 8vo. pp. 565.

THESE Lectures do not profess to be the result of original investigations, nor are they elaborate treatises in any respect, nor can they be said to be recommended by a peculiarly felicitous method or style. Considered, however, as popular discourses hastily prepared, they present, as well as might be expected, the common arguments in the common order with the common applications, and were listened to, doubtless, with attention and profit by "a class of many hundreds, from among the most intelligent in the community, and composed, to a considerable extent, of the members of the New York Young Men's Society for Intellectual and Moral Improvement," before which they are said, in the

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Preface, to have been delivered. Personal and local considerations may also, now that they are published, give them in some quarters, as the author modestly intimates, a temporary interest and advantage in the perusal, not possessed by the standard works on the subject; but we are by no means prepared to assign them a place among the standard works, or to regard them as a very valuable contribution to the literature of the country.

The skepticism of the present day is of two kinds; that of the Free Inquirers, who maintain that we have no proper evidence respecting God or the spiritual world, and therefore that it is equally absurd to assert or deny any thing about them; and that of the Anti-Supernaturalists, who believe in the being of a God, and in his providence, but deny what they térm his irregular or immediate providence, or miracles. Bishop M'Ilvaine has not thought it worth his while to study into the nature, history, or tendencies of either of these existing developements of the skeptical principle; but has contented himself, so far as a knowledge of the causes and grounds of infidelity is concerned, with a superficial acquaintance, gathered for the most part from the writings of their opponents, of the old English Deists. We submit, whether the writer of the following paragraph understood Hume, whom he professes to refute, - or himself. After having given Hume's argument against miracles, as abridged in the Encyclopædia Britannica, he says:

"The grand hinge of the whole is this, that our belief in testimony is founded on no other principle than our EXPERIENCE OF THE VERACITY OF HUMAN TESTIMONY. Hence the reasoning is, that a miracle being, in the author's estimation, contrary to experience, opposes and contradicts the very foundation of its evidence, and therefore destroys itself. But let me ask, admitting that a miracle is contrary to experience (which is not true), What experience is it contrary to? The argument requires that it should be contrary to our experience of the veracity of human testimony. To say merely that it is contrary to experience of some sort, without specifying this particular sort, does not touch the question. It is its contrariety to that particular kind of experience, on which our faith in testimony (according to Hume) is built, that must destroy the credibility of a miracle, if it is to be destroyed at all. But this, it would be ridiculous to assert. So far from miracles being inconsistent with our experience of the veracity of human testimony;

the truth is directly on the other side. Deny that miracles were ever wrought, and your whole experience of the truth of testimony is directly and violently opposed." - pp. 181, 182.

Another objection to these Lectures still more serious, and one which must make them worse than useless, considered as a book to be put into the hands of intelligent skeptics, is their want of the appearance, and, we regret to say it, of the reality of candor in speaking of unbelievers. We can pardon the lecturer's infirmity, not very uncommon, some have said, in the logic of the pulpit, of being particularly confident where he is particularly weak. Neither are we inclined to blame him for expressing unmeasured contempt, if he really feels it, for the reasonings and abilities of noted infidels, much as we doubt its expediency. We are also willing to pass over the undue eagerness he sometimes manifests to make out a strong case, his disposition to make many of his arguments pass for more than they are worth, and his propensity to play the advocate even where he professes to sit as judge. But we cannot go along with him at all in his notions of historical fidelity, which allow him, it would almost seem, to believe every thing which Christians say of themselves or of infidels, but nothing which infidels say of Christians, or of one another. Take, for example, the impressions he would leave on the reader's mind respecting the private character of such men as Socrates and Lord Herbert, to whom we might add, much as we dislike them in

many respects, Hobbes, Hume, and Gibbon. The only effect of such attempts on the enlightened and ingenuous must be to prejudice them against the writer, and if they are skeptical already, to confirm and exasperate them in their skepticism.

On other topics, our author is more just, discriminating, and satisfactory. The first Lecture is an introduction to the course; the second, third, and fourth are on the authenticity, integrity, and credibility of the New Testament; the fifth and sixth are on miracles; the seventh and eighth, on prophecy; the ninth gives the argument for Christianity from its propagation; and the tenth and eleventh, the argument from its fruits; the twelfth contains a summary and application of the whole; after which, in the thirteenth and last Lecture, comes a feeble exposition and defence of the popular views of inspiration, and the divine authority of the Scriptures. Having excepted against parts of this work, we are unwilling to close our brief notice of it, without giving one or two favorable specimens, taken from the Lecture on the credibility of the gospel history.

"Generality is the cloak of fiction. Minuteness is the natural manner of truth, in proportion to the importance and interest of the subject. Such is the precise manner and continual evidence of the honesty of St. John. His history is full of the most minute circumstances of time, place, and persons. Does he record, for example, the resuscitation of Lazarus? He tells the name of the village, and describes the particulur spot where the event occurred. He gives the names of some of the principal individuals who were present; mentions many unbelieving Jews as eye-witnesses; states the precise object for which they had come to the place; what they did and said; the time the body had been buried; how the sepulchre was constructed and closed; the impression which the event made upon the Jews; how they were divided in opinion in consequence of it; the particular expressions of one whose name is given; the subsequent conduct of the Jews in regard to Laza

rus.

This, you perceive, is being very circumstantial. It is only a specimen of the general character of St. John's Gospel. It looks very much as if the writer was not afraid of any thing the people of Bethany, or the survivors of those who had been present at the tomb of Lazarus, or the children of any of them, might have to say with regard to the resurrection. Now, when you consider that John's history was widely circulated while many were yet living, who, had these events never been, in Bethany, must have known it; and among a people, who, in addition to every facility, had every desire to find out the least departure from truth, I think you will acknowledge that the circumstantial character of this book is very strong evidence that the author must have written in the confidence of truth." - pp. 146, 147.

Again he says:

"How much has been made of the testimony of the Roman historian, Tacitus, to some of the chief facts of the gospel history. It is the testimony of a Heathen, and, therefore, supposed to be incomparably valuable. Now suppose that Tacitus the Heathen had not only been persuaded of the facts he has related, but had been so deeply impressed with the belief of them as to have renounced Heathenism and embraced the Christian faith, and then published the history we now possess, - who does not know that, with the infidel, and with many a