In that wood's shadowe lurkd the robber Death-
A robber since time was-ever in wayte

For light of mortall eyne and mortall breath,

Glad lookes are bright and mock his dark estate;
And breath is life, and therefor moves his hate ;-

A robber from fayre cheekes of ruddy hue,

That sicknesse may have room to looke more palely through.

A robber from the riche of gold they cherishd,

A giver to the poore of reste they sought,
A hope to some when all else hoped had perishd,
A feare to more whose earthly hope had wrought
To such successe that they could wish for nought,
A robber from the foole of good he meant,
Who dyed and left undone his long-deferred intent.

A ryder on the dusty desert-winde,

And on the slaughterous thundering avalanche, Hailed like calm sea by the world-wearie minde Which the next moment feares thereon to launch, A hov'rer o'er red fields where he will stanch

The gaping wound with bony finger cold,

And draw the faint soule thence one moment since so bold.

A life to those whose life is hid in God,

Deadly to those whose pleasures with them dye; The gate of heaven to those who heavenward trod, The frown of winter that must be past by Before our endlesse summer smyles on hye,

The summoner we know not when or where

The stemme of heavenly flowres or roote of hell's despayre.

A robber from the weepers of their dying,

A giver to the graveyards of their dead,

And heaven and hell with either hand supplying;
A robber of the food whereon Love fed,
Wrapping his clay-cold spoyle in sullen lead-
A wanderer o'er the world-yet oh! how still—
Sitting to watch Decaye in charnels dank and chill!

He deemes the Pilgrim must have found some wealth
To cheare him through the beating miseries

Of his storm-pelted pathway,-so, by stealth,

Taking the counsel of dark-whispering trees,

He hydes among their trunks, this wealth to seize ;His bow ybent is raised, and at his eare

The raven-shaft, and now the unthinking prey draws nere.

Quivering, the barb is fastened in his hart;

Backward he reels, and falls down dizzily;

Now from his ambush hungry Death doth start
Wolf-like on him that panting there doth lye,

"Thy treasure-foole!" he shouts with hollow cry:To those pale lippes but one more breath was givenSmyling at Death, they cryed, "The treasure is in Heaven!"

R. A. V.

REVIEWS.

1. Contributions, Biographical, Literary, and Philosophical, to the Eclectic Review. By John Foster, Author of "Essays on Decision on Character," &c. &c. 2 vols. 8vo. pp. 570, 527. Ward and Co. 1844.

2. Lectures delivered at Broadmead Chapel, Bristol. By John Foster. 8vo. pp. 419. Jackson and Walford. 1844.

THE mass of men are never known, and leave no trace of their existence behind them. They are not distinguishable in life from the vast crowd among whom they move and have their being, and at death they pass away-producing no more impression than the shadow of a cloud upon the waves of the sea. But there are a few in every age that give to it a character, embodying, directing, and stimulating its mighty influences; marking its place in the history of humanity, and making it the starting point of new periods of intellectual and moral advancement. They stand out, like mountains, from the dead level of society, and may be seen and admired at a distance that is fatal to the perception of the general surface of human minds. John Foster was one of these. He obtained a real and high distinction while he lived, and generations will have passed ere his name and his works vanish from the view of the great and the good. He acquired a great and holy influence, and gave a stimulus, whose nature is to deepen as it spreads, to the mightiest movements of intelligence and faith.

We rejoice that it is not necessary to introduce so gifted a mind to our readers. Indeed, it would be a reflection on any one pretending to any appreciation of the loftiest endowments of genius, and to an intelligent acquaintance with the most important facts and characteristics of his times, to suppose him ignorant of such a man and such a writer as John Foster. Originally possessed of mental powers such as are but rarely given unto men, he exercised them in a manner worthy of their exalted nature. Made to be independent of other men, no one was more free from the influence of custom and conventionalism. He dared to use the noble faculties that God had given to him, in subjection to no will but that of his Maker. Hence his thoughts were as fresh as they were free. On many subjects he was before his times, his province being to lead and not to follow the intellect of his agepresenting the standard of truth, and not adopting the views of men. In reference to education, the relations of government to Christianity, the ministry, and many other matters, he developed principles that startled more than they convinced, and were misconceived by more

than wondered at them, and that are even now but partially received, although the tendency is strong towards their full approval and practical adoption.

The present appearance of the "Contributions" will be a cause of deep gratification to the thinking class. It was well known that Mr. Foster committed some of the richest results of his mental exercises to the pages of the Eclectic; but we had no conception, and, we believe, the public in general had none either, of the number and variety of his productions that have appeared in that important and well-conducted periodical. When our readers are informed that about sixty reviews are contained in these volumes, and that these are but a selection from a much larger number, one hundred and eighty-five, while they rejoice in the repast provided for their edification and delight, they will wonder less than they may have done at the infrequency of Mr. Foster's appearance as an author in his own proper person. The editor has exercised a sound discretion in reprinting them in their present form ; indeed, we do not see how, being the only proprietor of their copyright, he could have stood acquitted to his own conscience, and the public, had he omitted so great a duty. And, if he has done well, he has also done it well. He has abstained from the fashionable and vicious practice of altering the writings of the dead; regarding any attempt at revision as "the height of presumption-the very impersonation of vanity." At the same time, "many of the papers included large extracts from the works reviewed, the greater part of which has been excluded from the present reprint, together with such connecting remarks as the extracts required;" so that the volumes contain Mr. Foster's thoughts without being filled, to a great extent, with the thoughts of other men.

It is unnecessary to characterise these papers. All who read them will readily admit the judgment of the editor, that though, "as compared with the republished papers of some eminent living reviewers, they may be wanting in that finish which their personal superintendence has secured to their productions, yet in all the higher and more permanent qualities of intellect, in their largeness of view, the penetrating subtlety of thought, deep insight into human nature, and sympathy with the nobler and more lofty forms of spiritual existence, they will be found eminently worthy of the genius of their author, and subservient to his permanent repute." They are worthy to go along with the reviews of Hall, Macaulay, and Jeffrey. Profound, keen, courteous, powerful in reasoning, vigorous and massive in style, and eminently Christian in sentiment, they will suffer nothing by comparison with the writings of those justly celebrated men in the most important points, while in some they possess an evident superiority. We allude more particularly to the religious principles on which they are all based. Mr. Foster's views on the greatest of all matters were thoroughly evangelical, and he could not forget them when estimating individual character

or describing general events. He never suffers talent, or taste, or learning, to take the place of genuine godliness; does not allow the great, whose lives or writings he reviewed, to be judged of by a rule made only for themselves; but asserts and applies the principles of the faith and morality of Christ with an impartial severity. This is a uniform characteristic; but it is seen, especially in the notice of such works as those of the Rev. Sidney Smith, whose position in the Established Church shows how little security there is in fact, whatever may be in boast, for harmony between the preaching of its ministers and the meaning of its articles.

The second work we have placed at the head of this article, consists of Lectures delivered between the years 1822 and 1825, at the request of some of Mr. Foster's personal friends. "His auditory," observes the editor, "consisted of persons belonging to various religious communities in Bristol, most of whom had long known and appreciated his writings. With such a class of hearers, Mr. Foster felt himself warranted to take a wider range of subjects, and to adopt a more varied and elaborate style of illustration, than in addressing a promiscuous congregation." We suspect this explanation will not go very far in accounting for the character of the volume. We need not any explanation; and those who do, will scarcely be satisfied with this one. The character of Mr. Foster's mind, and the nature of his convictions, would not have allowed him, under any circumstances, to deliver lectures very different from these. He was not one of those who think it necessary to confine the ministrations of the pulpit to a few theological commonplaces. He had too comprehensive a view of "the whole counsel of God" to preach perpetually on one or two only of its principles; and, believing that people in general, to use his own words, "have nothing but the Gospel," he dared to encounter the prejudices of the most prejudiced of all classes, in developing the facts and sentiments of Christianity in their remotest associations, and most general bearings. Hence he would not always be termed an "evangelical" preacher by many who seem to pride themselves on their contracted views, and mistake oneness of idea for singleness of mind. But on this, as on other subjects, he consulted not the prevailing notions, but took his stand on the clear and well-reasoned conclusions of his own mind, and has thus exerted no mean influence on the general modes of exhibiting Christian truth.

We need not say that the Lectures are full of wise and important thoughts, and such as might be expected from a Christian philosopher of great originality of mind. The Lectures are twenty-seven, upon the following subjects:-the New Year-the Supreme Attachment due to Spiritual Objects—the Self-discipline suitable to certain Mental States -the Right Mode of giving and receiving Reproof-On combining Watchfulness and Prayer-Characteristics of Vain Thoughts-Correct

ives of Vain Thoughts-Spiritual Freedom produced by Knowledge of the Truth-On Formality and Remissness in Prayer-the Season of Spring and its Moral Analogies-the Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah-On Sober-mindedness-False Grounds of Superiority in Holiness-Fallacies operating against Earnestness in Religion-Earnestness in Religion enforced-the Uses and Perversions of Conscience-the Autumn, and its Moral Analogies-Elijah's Sacrifice and the Priests of Baal-the Winter, and its Moral Analogies-the End of the Year-on Negro Slavery-the Comprehensiveness of the Divine Law-the Necessity and Right Method of Self-examination-Christ, though invisible, the Object of devout Affection-Noah and the Deluge-Our Ignorance of our Future Mode of Existence-the Christian Doctrine of the Perfectibility of Man.

One thing has struck us forcibly in these Lectures-they are severely practical. Without the smallest portion of violence or declamation, they are eminently adapted to awaken the most spiritual thoughts, and produce the deepest impressions. Indeed, it is easy to see that the absence of violence and declamation is inseparably associated with the causes of their impressiveness-they are a striking instance of the power of truth. Full of solemn realities, the soul is almost obliged to feel its interest in them; the results of clear and comprehensive reasoning, there is no chance that the detection of weakness in some points shall lessen the power in other points. Not the assumed forms of a conventional mind, but the fresh growth of a natural one, they get more than that ever-ready and formal assent, which is more frequently the polite mode of rejecting than the indication and means of receiving truth. There is nothing of the style and manner of preachers who are apt to imagine themselves the only men that are in earnest, the energy of whose ministry is more a matter of physical force than of anything else; but there is the greater power of deep thought and "faith unfeigned." Mr. Foster was what Carlyle would call a real man, and spoke real things. He "reasoned;" and as he reasoned souls "trembled." He cared not for the "wind" and "earthquake" and "fire" of boisterous and blazing declamation, in which "the Lord is not," but he spoke in the "still small voice" of truth, philosophy, and earnest personal consciousness-and God was in it.

We hope that our readers will make themselves acquainted with all these volumes. They are entitled to the circulation which there can be but little doubt they will obtain. Ministers cannot do better than recommend such works to their people; they would tell upon the highest ends of ministerial labour, as hundreds of works continually published from the pulpit can never tell.