two symbolic rites to remain perpetually in his Church. But besides this, his instructions partook of the same character largely, as in the washing of the disciples' feet, etc. Doubtless the form was of value in his eyes it was a cultivating agent in connexion with the truth conveyed-or he would not have deviated from the common way of instruction. There would, indeed, appear to be a difference in the susceptibility of different nations to the cultivating power exerted by symbols. It seems to have been peculiarly strong in Oriental people. Hence it was, perhaps, that ceremonies multiplied so rapidly amongst the early Eastern Christians. For them, doubtless, they were not without instruction, in so far, that is, as they were types of valuable truth. There is not the same susceptibility, it would seem, amongst us of the Gothic race, a fact that can doubtless be accounted for; and therefore the English Church may not have limited the number of Ceremonies too much. Those we have are clearly agents of culture, as being in themselves products of the idealizing power of the mind, and as being significant of important truth. -- We have now gone over the ground that lay before us. Whether our quest has been fruitless or otherwise must now be left to our readers. They will judge, whether the Creator, in placing the creature destined for Eternity, in a world, between which and the human constitution there was such mutual harmony of adaptation, could have designed the thousand influences of that world- natural and intellectual- to be inoperative upon him, or operative only for evil; or whether He did not intend them to be instruments of culture- a culture far from being disconnected with religion, which was indeed the infinitely higher result of a power proceeding more immediately from above? They will also judge whether the ritual observances of the Church, considered as agencies for human cultivation, and in respect to the principles on which they rest, do not eminently, and with a singular harmony amongst themselves, fulfil the requisite conditions.-And if this be admitted, we would desire our readers-in order that they may the better judge of the whole strength and efficiency of these influences -to conceive of them as being all combined, each co-operating with the other, and brought to bear upon the mind from childhood upwards. At each recurrence of holy time, the general Sabbath feeling is made more definite as we come in sight of the Church tower-so separate and sacred in its style with its bells, "those Sabbath bells;" we enter the door, and more influences of the finest powers consecrated to religion steal in upon us from every side from the fit proportions and well-ordered disposition of all, to the sober coloring, that lends to them a solemn unity; a holy instrument lifts up its voice, never so heard elsewhere, pronouncing "concords mighty for the sense and soul;" the minister of religion moves to the desk in those garments of pure and solemn beauty, which bespeak the performance of no duty of daily life or worldly profession; and then he leads us with him, through that Order of Prayer, which under its simple exterior contains the result of all that martyrs and confessors, the lights of an age bright with unrivalled Christian knowledge and practice, could accomplish, with united effort, in a work so holy, - a variety, in perfect unity, embracing the words of Scripture, of primitive saints, and of Reformers, the voice of people and of priest, and the music of men and of instruments. All these works of consecrated intellect are associated with the further exertion of the best powers in presenting and enforcing divine truth.-Consider all these things in such their actual connexion with each other, and it will be seen that they present an extraordinary combination of powerful agencies, all working together for a higher end, which associates with itself the secondary end of human culture. Consider likewise, as we have said, that these influences begin their work upon us with the beginning of our life, and have continued it daily up to this time. And then, if we are ready to admit, as most are, to a faulty extent, that one's intellectual and moral character are at least materially affected by the circumstances under which it is formed; if we believe (as perhaps every body believes) that the son of the mountain, with its bold scenery and its hardy life, and the native of wide and still plains or the level shores of slow and tame rivers, bear life-long marks of these schools in which body and mind both have been trained; if we know (as who does not know?) that superior mind exercises power over the minds with which it is brought into contact, so that the intellectual character of a generation is moulded by the pervading operation of a single ruling and plastic intellect; if productive power will make itself felt unseen through its productions,— then how can we doubt, for a moment, that the influences which we have been setting forth, the combined and long exercised power of various yet co-operating works of high intellectual power, must make themselves felt deeply and long-must be living agencies in the process of intellectual growth and cul be remembered that within that useless "ornamental" are contained nearly every product of all that is divine in the spirit of man.] Why all this excessive and fanatical confidence in Reforming Associations, appealing chiefly to motives and principles that vulgarize and debase humanity? Why, to come nearer to our particular topic, is the doctrine of an educated clergy so often made to mean nothing? Why are "Theological Students" invited to think "College education" useless for them, and promoted from the workshop to a seat in judgment over Calvin and Arminius, within a brief year or two-Greek and Hebrew [and Theology?] being dispensed with? Why are the qualifications of " laborers for the West" so accurately measured by those of an athlete, as though a Backwoodsman were to be fought withal for his soul's health-as though men on the Missouri were not men? And why, finally, are the peculiarities of the Church objected to and defended amongst ourselves, as though bits of Greek out of Gregory or bits of Latin out of Jerome were all the reason there could be in the matter-as though a dozen yards of linen displayed in a shop window, or worn by the minister in holy services, would be all the same thing in worth and significancy, but for such "authority?" When these questions shall have been satisfactorily answered, we will believe that the principles of culture are familiar as household words to every man in our utilitarian generation. But we shall be well satisfied, if those who really "knew all this before," shall see, in our attempt to apply the principles of culture to a single subject, (of which the interest is, indeed, somewhat limited,) a disposition to co-operate with them according to our ability, in the noble work of casting corrective and enlivening truths into the disturbed and divided currents of our country's intellectual activity. "So build we up the Being that we are; Whate'er we see, Whate'er we feel, by agency direct, WORDSWORTH. ART. IV.- Origin, Progress, and Prospects of Steam Navigation across the Atlantic, etc. New York: 1838. Wiley and Putnam. THE sensation produced in April last, by the arrival of two large steam ships in our harbor from British ports, has scarcely yet subsided; and if it has not been actually increased, it has from time to time been renewed by the reappearance of the GREAT WESTERN, with as much regularity in proportion to the distance, as the steam passage boats upon the Hudson river, or Long Island Sound. The day on which that magnificent vessel followed the SIRIUS into this port at the interval of a few hours, and after a shorter passage, was hailed as the commencement of a new era in steam navigation; and in the excitement of the moment, the merit of originality was claimed and seemed to have been tacitly allowed in favor of those who had conducted these successful enterprises. The publication of which the title or one of its many titles -stands at the head of this article, was apparently put forth to refute this claim : with what success in our opinion our readers have already been enabled to judge, both from the "notice" of this pamphlet, and from our article on Atlantic steam navigation, in a former number of our journal. Although the voyage across the Atlantic had been performed, as detailed in this publication, by our countryman, Captain Rogers, in the steam ship The Savannah, many years before the appearance of the Sirius and the Great Western in our waters, and the establishment, prior to that event, of the Robert Fulton as a steam packet between this port and New Orleans, as well as of several other steamers, as packets, plying coastwise between New York and Charleston, South Carolina, it was nevertheless admitted by us, on the occasion referred to, and will not, we presume, be hereafter denied, that Great Britain has preceded us in demonstrating both the practicability and advantage of a regular communication between the two continents by means of steam navigation, and in the actual establishment of such a line of communication. In our former article we enumerated some of the causes which enabled her thus to anticipate the proverbially adventurous and sagacious enterprise of our navigators. But, besides her superiority in capital, and those peculiar geographical and other physical differences which induce a correspondent difference in the application and use of steam navigation in the two countries-another powerful cause operated, for a long time, to prevent even an experiment from being made. here for ascertaining the benefit and safety of navigating the ocean with vessels propelled by steam, unless by those whose interest it was to prevent its success. So long as the ingenuity, enterprise, and capital of Messrs. Livingston and Fulton, and their associates, were successfully and fully engaged in the internal navigation by means of steam, of those waters within our jurisdiction which communicate with the ocean, under the exclusive right vested in them by the state, they had no sufficient inducement to incur the hazards of the Atlantic voyage and no other persons, whether natives or foreigners, without their license, could enter into any harbor of this state, or venture to depart from it, in a steamer, without incurring severe penalties and subjecting their vessels to immediate seizure and eventual forfeiture. Although this cause was local in its operation, and has for some years ceased to exist, yet, as it furnishes an instructive chapter in the history of steam navigation, we shall devote the present article to an account of the origin and character of this exclusive privilege, and of the cause and mode of its extinction. And, we trust, we shall the more readily be excused for this attempt, as the retrospect we propose to take may revive the memory of a subject, too interesting to be forgotten, and throw additional light upon the respective and relative pretensions of several individuals, who have claimed the merit of original discoveries or important improvements in steam navigation. Notwithstanding it has been incontestibly established that the first successful application of the power of steam engines to vessels for any practical or enduring purpose was made in America, it has been shown as conclusively, that nearly a century before the first experiment in this country, a patent was granted in England, to Jonathan Hull, "for a machine by him invented, for carrying vessels or ships out of any harbor, port, or river, against wind or tide, or in a calm." This machine, as appears from the specifications and drawings published at the time, consisted of a boat with a water wheel on each quarter, moved by means of the atmospheric steam engine then in use -- and experiments were made with it in Plymouth harbor. But to whatever extent *See Quarterly Review for December, 1818. |