once the seats of most glorious and triumphant empires; the theaters
of valor and heroical actions; the soils enriched with all earthly
felicities; the places where Nature hath produced her wonderful works;
where arts and sciences have been invented and perfected; where wisdom,
virtue, policy, and civility, have been planted, have flourished; and,
lastly, where God himself did place his own commonwealth, gave laws and
oracles, inspired his prophets, sent angels to converse with men; above
all, where the Son of God descended to become man; where he honored the
earth with his beautiful steps, wrought the works of our redemption,
triumphed over death, and ascended into glory; which countries, once
so glorious and famous for their happy estate, are now, through vice
and ingratitude, become the most deplored spectacles of extreme misery;
the wild beasts of mankind having broken in upon them, and rooted out
all civility, and the pride of a stern and barbarous tyrant possessing
the thrones of ancient and just dominion. Who, aiming only at the
height of greatness and sensuality, hath in tract of time reduced
so great and goodly a part of the world to that lamentable distress
and servitude, under which (to the astonishment of the understanding
beholders) it now faints and groaneth. Those rich lands at this present
remain waste and overgrown with bushes, receptacles of wild beasts,
of thieves, and murderers; large territories dispeopled or thinly
inhabited; goodly cities made desolate; sumptuous buildings become
ruins; glorious temples either subverted or prostituted to impiety;
true religion discountenanced and oppressed; all nobility extinguished;
no light of learning permitted, nor virtue cherished; violence and
rapine insulting over all, and leaving no security except to an abject
mind, and unlooked-on poverty; which calamities of theirs, so great and
deserved, are to the rest of the world as threatening instructions. For
assistance wherein, I have not only related what I saw of their present
condition, but, so far as convenience might permit, presented a brief
view of the former estates and first antiquities of those peoples and
countries; thence to draw a right image of the frailty of man, the
mutability of whatever is worldly, and assurance that, as there is
nothing unchangeable saving God, so nothing stable but by his grace and
protection.
THE DESIGN OF THE NEW ENGLAND PLANTATIONS.
By the REV. COTTON MATHER.
There were more than a few attempts of the English to people, to settle
and improve the parts of New England which were to the northward of
New Plymouth, but the designs of those attempts being aimed no higher
than the advancement of some worldly interests, a constant series of
disasters confounded them, until there was a plantation erected on the
nobler designs of Christianity, and that plantation, though it has
had more adversaries, perhaps, than any one upon earth, yet, having
obtained help from God, it continues to this day. There have been
very fine settlements in the northeast regions, but what is become
of them? I have heard that one of our ministers, once preaching to a
congregation there, urged them to approve themselves a religious people
from this consideration: that otherwise they would contradict the main
object of planting this wilderness, whereupon a well-known person, then
in the assembly, cried out: “Sir, you are mistaken, you think you are
preaching to the people at the Bay; our main end was to catch fish.”
Truly ’twere to have been wished that something more excellent had been
the main end of the settlements in that brave country, which we have,
even long since the arrival of that more pious colony at the Bay, now
seen dreadfully unsettled, no less than twice, at least, by the sword
of the heathen, after they had been replenished by many hundreds of
people who had thriven to many thousands of pounds, and all the force
of the Bay, too, to assist them in maintaining their settlements. But
the same or like inauspicious things attended many other endeavors to
make plantations, on such a _main end_, in several other parts of the
country, before the arrival of the Massachusetts colony, which was
formed on more glorious aims.
REMARKS ON THE CATALOGUE OF PLANTATIONS.
(1) There are few towns to be now seen on our list but what were
existing in this land before the dreadful Indian war which befell us
twenty years ago; and there are few towns broken up within the then
Massachusetts line by that war but what have revived out of their
ashes. Nevertheless the many calamities which have ever since been
wasting the country have so nip the growth of it, that its later
progress hath held no proportion with what was from the beginning; but
yet with such variety, that while the trained companies of some towns
are no bigger than they were thirty or forty years ago, others are as
big again.
(2) The calamities that have carried off the inhabitants of our several
towns have not been all of one sort. Pestilential sicknesses have made
fearful havoc in divers places, where the sound have not perhaps been
enough to tend the sick, while others have not had one touch from the
Angel of Death, and the sword hath cut off scores in sundry places,
when others, it may be, have not lost a single man by that avenger.
(3) ’Tis no unusual, though no universal experiment, among us, that
while an excellent, laborious, illuminating ministry has been continued
in a town, the place has thriven to admiration; but ever since that
man’s time they have gone down the wind in all their interests.
The gospel has evidently been the making of all our towns, and the
blessings of the Upper have been accompanied with the blessings of the
Nether Springs. Memorable also is the remark of Slingsby Beibel, Esq.,
in his most judicious “Book of the Interests of Europe:” “Were not the
cold climate of New England supplied by good laws and discipline, the
barrenness of the country would never have brought people to it, nor
have advanced it in consideration and formidableness above the other
English plantations exceeding it much in fertility and other inviting
qualities.”
(4) Well may New England lay claim to the name it wears, and to a room
in the tenderest affections of its mother, the happy island. For as
there are few of our towns but what have their namesakes in England, so
the reason why most of our towns are called what they are, is because
the chief of the first inhabitants would thus bear up the names of the
particular places there from whence they came.
(5) I have heard an aged saint, near his death, thus cheerfully
express himself: “Well, I am going to heaven, and I will there tell
the faithful who are gone long since from New England thither, that
though they who gathered in our churches are all dead and gone, yet the
churches are still alive, with as numerous flocks of Christians as were
ever among them.” Concerning most of the churches in our catalogue,
the report thus carried unto heaven, I must now also send through the
earth; but if with “as numerous,” we could in every respect say as
gracious, what joy to all the saints, both in heaven and on earth,
might be from thence occasioned.—_Magnalia Christi Americana._
EXTRACTS FROM “ESSAYS TO DO GOOD.”
By the REV. COTTON MATHER.
To take a poor child, especially an orphan left in poverty, and bestow
a liberal education on it, is an admirable charity, yea, it may draw
after it a long train of good, and may interest you in all the good
done by him whom you have educated. Hence, also, what is done for
schools, for colleges, and for hospitals is done for the general good.
The endowment and maintenance of these is at once to do good to many.
But alas, how much of the silver and the gold is buried in hands where
it is little better than if conveyed back to the mines whence it came.
How much of it is employed to as little purpose as what arrives at
Hindoostan, where a great part of it, after some circulation, is by the
Moguls lodged in subterraneous caves never to see the light again. The
Christian whose faith and hope are genuine, acts not thus.
Sometimes elaborate compositions may be prepared for the press, works
of great bulk, and of greater worth, by which the best interests of
knowledge and virtue might be considerably promoted, but they lie,
like the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda, in silent neglect, and
are likely to continue in that state, till God inspires some wealthy
persons nobly to subscribe to their publication, and by this generous
application of their property to bring them abroad. The names of
such noble benefactors to mankind ought to live as long as the works
themselves live; and when the works do any good, what these have done
towards the publishing of them, ought to be “told for a memorial of
them.” He urges gentlemen of leisure to seek “some honorable and
agreeable employments,” and says, “I will mention one: The Pythagoreans
forbade men’s eating their own brains, or keeping their good thoughts
to themselves.” The incomparable Boyle observes that as to religious
books in general, “those that have been written by laymen, and
especially by gentlemen, have (_cæteris paribus_) been better received
and more effectual than those published by clergymen.” Mr. Boyle’s
were certainly so. Men of quality have frequently attained such
accomplishments in languages and science that they become prodigies
of literature. Their libraries also have stupendous collections
approaching toward Vatican or Bodleian dimensions. It were much to be
wished that persons of wealth and station would qualify themselves for
the use of the pen, as well as of the sword, and deserve this eulogium:
“They have written excellent things.” An English person of quality in
his treatise entitled “A view of the soul,” has the following passage:
“It is certainly the highest dignity, if not the greatest happiness of
which human nature is capable in the vale below, to have the soul so
far enlightened as to become a mirror, conduit or conveyor of God’s
truth to others.” It is a bad motto for a man of capacity to say, “My
understanding is unfruitful.” Gentlemen, consider what subjects may
most properly and usefully fall under your cultivation. Your pens may
stab atheism and vice more effectually than other men’s can. If out of
your tribe there come those who handle the pen of the writer, they will
do uncommon execution. One of them has ingenuously said, “Though I know
of some _functions_, yet I know no _truths_ of religion that like the
shew-bread belong to the priests alone.” * * *
To do good is a sure and pleasant way effectually to bespeak God’s
blessings on ourselves. Who so likely to find blessings as the men who
are blessings? While we work for God, he certainly will work for us,
and ours—will do for us more than we have done for him; “more than we
can ask or think.” A good action is its own reward.
But what shall be done for the good man in the heavenly world? His part
and work in the city of God are at present incomprehensible to us, but
the kindness which his God will show him in the strong city will be
truly marvelous. The attempts which the Christian has made to fill this
world with righteous things, are so many tokens for good to him, that
he shall have a portion in that world wherein shall dwell nothing but
righteousness. He will be welcomed with “Well done, good and faithful
servant.”
I will conclude with a declaration which I will boldly maintain. It
is this: Were a man able to write in seven languages, could he daily
converse with all the sweets of the liberal sciences to which the
most accomplished make pretensions; were he to entertain himself with
all ancient and modern history; and could he feast continually on the
curiosities which the different branches of learning may discover to
him, all this would not afford the ravishing satisfaction which he
might find in relieving the distresses of a poor, miserable neighbor,
nor would it bear any comparison with the heartfelt delight which he
might have by doing service to the kingdom of our great Savior in the
world.
SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE.
By JONATHAN EDWARDS.
There is a kind of taste of the mind, whereby persons are guided
in their judgment of the natural beauty, gracefulness, propriety,
nobleness, and sublimity of speeches and action, whereby they judge,
as it were, by the glance of the eye, or by inward sensation, and the
first impression of the object; so there is likewise such a thing as
a divine taste, given and maintained by the Spirit of God, in the
hearts of the saints, whereby they are in like manner led and guided
in discerning and distinguishing the true spiritual and holy beauty of
actions; and that more easily, readily, and accurately, as they have
more or less of the Spirit of God dwelling in them. And thus “the sons
of God are led by the Spirit of God, in their behavior in the world.”
A holy disposition and spiritual taste, where grace is strong and
lively, will enable a soul to determine what actions are right and
becoming Christians, not only more speedily, but far more exactly,
than the greatest abilities without it. This may be illustrated by
the manner in which some habits of mind, and dispositions of heart,
of a nature inferior to true grace, will teach and guide a man in his
actions. As for instance, if a man be a very good natured man, his good
nature will teach him how to act benevolently amongst mankind, and will
direct him, on every occasion, to those speeches and actions which are
agreeable to rules of goodness, than the strongest reason will a man
of a morose temper. So if a man’s heart be under the influence of an
entire friendship, and most endeared affection to another, though he
be a man of an indifferent capacity, yet this habit of his mind will
direct him, far more readily and exactly, to a speech and deportment,
or manner of behavior, which shall in all respects be sweet and kind,
and agreeable to a benevolent disposition of heart, than the greatest
capacity without it. He has, as it were, a spirit within him, that
guides him; the habit of his mind is attended with a taste by which
he immediately relishes that air and mien which is benevolent, and
disrelishes the contrary, and causes him to distinguish between one
and the other in a moment, more precisely, than the most accurate
reasonings can find out in many hours. As the nature and inward
tendency of a stone, or other heavy body, that is let fall from aloft,
shows the way to the center of the earth more exactly in an instant
than the ablest mathematician, without it, could determine, by his most
accurate observations, in a whole day. Thus it is that a spiritual
disposition and taste teaches and guides a man in his behavior in the
world. So an eminently humble, or meek, or charitable disposition,
will direct a person of mean capacity to such a behavior, as is
agreeable to Christian rules of humility, meekness and charity, far
more readily and precisely than the most diligent study and elaborate
reasonings of a man of the strongest faculties, who has not a Christian
spirit within him. So also will a spirit of love to God, and holy fear
and reverence toward God, and filial confidence in God, and an heavenly
disposition, teach and guide a man in his behavior.
It is an exceedingly difficult thing for a wicked man, destitute of
Christian principles in his heart to guide him, to know how to demean
himself like a Christian, with the life and beauty, and heavenly
sweetness of a truly holy, humble, Christ-like behavior. He knows not
how to put on these garments; neither do they fit him.
The saints in thus judging of actions by a spiritual taste, have not
a particular recourse to express rules of God’s word, with respect
to every word and action that is before them, the good or evil of
which they thus judge: But yet their taste itself, in general, is
subject to the rule of God’s word, and must be tried by that, and a
right reasoning upon it. As a man of a rectified palate judges of
particular morsels by his taste; but yet his palate itself must be
judged of, whether it be right or no, by certain rules and reasons. But
a spiritual taste of soul mightily helps the soul in its reasonings
on the word of God, and in judging the true meaning of its rules:
As it removes the prejudices of a depraved appetite, and naturally
leads the thoughts in the right channel, casts a light on the word of
God, and causes the true meaning, most naturally, to come to mind,
through the harmony there is between the disposition and relish of
a sanctified soul, and the true meaning of the rules of God’s word.
Yea, this harmony tends to bring the texts themselves to mind, on
proper occasions; as the particular state of the stomach and palate
tends to bring particular meats and drinks to mind, as are agreeable
to that state. “Thus the children of God are led by the Spirit of
God” in judging of actions themselves, and in their meditations upon,
and judging of, and applying the rules of God’s holy word: And so God
“teaches them his statutes and causes them to understand the way of his
precepts;” which the Psalmist so often prays for.
But this leading of the spirit is a thing exceedingly diverse from
that which some call so; which consists not in teaching them God’s
statutes and precepts, that he has already given; but in giving them
new precepts by immediate inward speech or suggestion, and has in it
no tasting the true excellency of things, or judging or discerning the
nature of things at all. They do not determine what is the will of
God by any taste or relish, or any manner of judging of the nature of
things, but by an immediate dictate concerning the thing to be done;
there is no such thing as judgment or wisdom in the case. Whereas, in
that leading of the spirit which is peculiar to God’s children, is
imparted that true wisdom and holy discretion, so often spoken of in
the word of God; which is high above the other way, as the stars are
higher than a glow worm; and that which Balaam and Saul (who sometimes
were led by the spirit in that other way) never had, and no natural man
can have without a change of nature.
[End of Required Reading for October, 1883.]
* * * * *
MAN is only a reed, the weakest plant of nature, but
he is a thinking reed. It is not necessary that the
whole universe should be in arms to crush him. A
vapor, a drop of water is sufficient to put him out of
existence. But even though the universe could crush him
to atoms, man would still be more noble than that which
kills him, because he is conscious that he is dying,
and of the advantage which the universe has over him;
the universe knows nothing.—_Pascal._
* * * * *
NOTHING is so dangerous as an ignorant friend; a wise
enemy is worth much more.—_La Fontaine._
WHERE LIES THE MUSIC?
By ALICE C. JENNINGS.
[When Paganini once rose to amuse a crowded auditory
with his music, he found that his violin had been
removed, and a coarser instrument substituted for it.
Explaining the trick, he said to the audience, “Now I
will show you that the music is not in my violin, but
in me.”—CHAUTAUQUAN _for December, 1882_.]
An artist once, whose magic could command
That sound its deepest secrets should unfold,
Had found his instrument by evil hand
Exchanged for one of meaner, coarser mould.
Yet, like the clashing tongue of vibrant bells,
The hindrance but a greater power revealed.
“See, I will show thee that the music dwells
In _me_, and not the instrument I wield.”
He turns, and sweetly, grandly, at his call,
The violin its richest music flings.
The instrument is naught—the player all—
The power is in the touch, and not the strings.
A coarse, rude instrument, this world, at best:
Its strings made tense by selfishness and pride;
If by its discords music be expressed,
The music in our fingers must reside.
Remember this: in tune keep heart and hand,
And to earth’s music thou shalt hold the key,
And from its discords sweetest tones command,
Unknown and unimagined, save by thee.
WAVERLEY NOVELS.
By WALLACE BRUCE.
When Walter Scott, one morning before breakfast, while looking for
fishing-tackle, came upon his long neglected manuscript of Waverley,
and decided to publish it, he baited his hook, so to speak, with a
plump literary angle-worm, and carefully concealing himself, dropped it
cautiously into one of the quiet and almost stagnant pools which here
and there break the flow of the eighteenth century.
Not to carry the figure further he wakes up one morning to find the
“Author of Waverley” famous; but no one knew _who_ the “Author of
Waverley” was. Romances, relating alike to the history of Scotland,
England, France, Switzerland and Palestine, covering a wide range
of life and character, with a varied record of eight hundred years,
followed each other so rapidly that the reading world opened its eyes
in wonder, until the “great unknown” was finally regarded the “great
magician.” His books, as they came wet from the press, were literally
devoured by the story-loving people of England and Scotland; and
packages, shipped across the Atlantic, were regarded the most valuable
part of the cargo. I have heard elderly people of New England speak of
anxiously waiting for the next ship which was to bring to their hands
a new novel by the “Author of Waverley.” Never before had the pen of
any man awakened such responsive interest in his own generation. The
publication of Waverley marked a new era in romantic literature.
During the eighty years that have followed that publication mankind
has had its hopes, longings, ambitions and jealousies mirrored in
works of fiction. Hundreds, ay, thousands of novels—most of them
unworthy of their high lineage—have contended with each other for the
world’s approbation; writers without number have flooded the century
with romance; but through all these years Walter Scott stands the
acknowledged master, the purest-hearted, the noblest-minded of them
all; the man who could say upon his death-bed: “I have not written one
line which I would wish blotted.”
No words of re-invitation are necessary to those who have once read
the pages of Sir Walter, but it will be a “consummation devoutly to be
wished” if I can turn the coming generation of your readers away from
the sickly sentiment of the day to the works of him, whose influence,
like that of King Arthur of the Round Table, inspires the soul with
“High thoughts and amiable words,
And courtliness, and the desire of fame,
And love of truth, and all that makes a man.”
Some years ago, while preparing a lecture on “The Landmarks of Scott,”
I found myself confronted with twenty-six novels and five well-known
poems, besides innumerable essays and histories, all demanding at
least a passing word. I saw that two minutes devoted to each would
more than fill my lecture hour, and leave no room for the frame-work,
viz: Loch Katrine, Loch Lomond, the Trosachs, Melrose, Edinboro, the
Yarrow, the Ettrick, the Tweed, and the Border Country, where the
Percy and the Douglas fought. It then occurred to me that Scott had
unconsciously prepared a panoramic history of Europe from the time of
the Crusades to the year 1812. Acting upon this suggestion I examined
the novels and poems and found to my great delight, that with here
and there an absent link of fifty or a hundred years the chain was
almost perfect. I condensed the prominent features of eight hundred
years, tracing their connection with Scott’s graphic pictures into a
pen-sketch of ten minutes, and I have been gratified to see that this
idea of chronological order has been recently followed by one of the
leading New York publishers. It is my object in a series of articles to
elaborate this historical sequence from the time of “Count Robert of
Paris” (1094) down to “St. Ronan’s Well” (1812), and to point out in
passing some of the beauties of the great author.
If the reader of these articles will follow with me the romances to
which I refer, I think he will say, at the close of the series, that
he has found in the Waverley Novels a vivid picture of the events
and customs of Europe, from the days of the crusades down to a time
within the memory of men still living. M. Augustin Thierry, one of the
most philosophical essayists of France, has eloquently said: “There
are scenes of such simplicity, of such living truth, to be found,
that notwithstanding the distance of the period in which the author
places himself, they can be realized without effort. It is because in
the midst of the world which no longer exists, Walter Scott always
places the world which does, and always will exist; that is to say,
human nature, of which he knows all the secrets. Everything peculiar
to the time and place, the exterior of men, and aspect of the country
and of the habitations, costumes and manners, are described with the
most minute truthfulness; and yet the immense erudition, which has
furnished so many details, is nowhere to be perceived. Walter Scott
seems to have for the past that second sight, which, in times of
ignorance, men attributed to themselves for the future. To say that
there is more real history in his novels on Scotland and England than
in the philosophically false compilations, which still possess that
great name, is not advancing anything strange in the eyes of those who
have read and understood “Old Mortality,” “Waverley,” “Rob Roy,” the
”Fortunes of Nigel,” and the “Heart of Mid Lothian.”