"Truth is fair: should we forgo it?
Can we sigh right for a wrong?
God himself is the best Poet
And the Real is his song.
Sing his truth out fair and full,
And secure his beautiful."

notable lectures of the course was substan- leader of all right progress. But, as usual, tially a review of the recent work of Professor these Doctors of Divinity appear somewhat Seeley,* of Cambridge, England, upon "Nat- in the guise of special pleaders. ural Religion," by Dr. Henry Darling, Pre- Professor B. N. Martin, of the University sident of Hamilton College. Dr. Darling of N. Y., who spoke on the 23d, concerning stated that Seeley means by Natural Religion" Design in the Elementary Structure of -Christianity with the supernatural elements the World," is a theologian who seems actexpunged, and that he gives it as his belief uated by a truthful and generous spirit. It that this will be the religion of the future. was a pleasure to listen to his calm and clear The lecturer with great care and an evident examination of his great theme, and to intent to be perfectly fair and philosphical, observe how promptly he admitted points urged that the supernatural or miraculous is generally disputed by those who are contendan essential element of the Christian Cult, ing more for mastery on the theological side, and that it must fall if this is denied or ex- than for the discovery of pure truthpunged. I attended the afternoon discussion, when the lecturer occupied the chair and submitted to be cross-examined on his theme, answering with great courtesy all questions that were pertinent. I could not but wish that a philosopher of the non-miraculous school were present to show that the real strength of Christianity lies in its "sweet reasonableness," and that all its essential teachings are in accordance with pure reason. Darling endeavored to show that the proposed new plane of religious thought is a composite of Pantheism, Positiveism and Pessimism. As the only speakers were orthodox clergymen, I had an uncomfortable feeling of a certain one-sidedness, though I believe there was an intention to be just, on the part of many of the speakers. I think Dr. Darling's lecture will induce many to reed Seeley's book, whose attention would not otherwise have been called to it.

Another lecture which was listened to with careful attention was that of Dr. Henry A. Butz, President of Drew Theological Seminary, on "Plato and St. John." The aim of the speaker was to point out the superiority of the works of the beloved deciple to those of the consummate philosopher of old Greece, who gave his ripest thought to mankind 400 years before the Christian era. In this discourse, I did not think the Apostle John was overstated, but had a painful sense that Plato was understated. Again I wished that such a Platonist as Dr. Jones of Illinois, were present at the afternoon discussion to defend the glorious Greek, and show how nobly he outrun his age, and how fully he may be accounted the prophet of a new day of development, of benevolence and justice. I also wanted an affirmation of the common origin of all truth which has been vitalizing to humanity. I wanted some bold Platonist to declare that the great words of Plato were only an echo of that Divine Wisdom which has ever inspired the pure in heart among the sons of men, and will forever be the

* Author of "Ecce Homo."

There is something quite noble in the attitude of the man who formulates his thoughts fully and frankly, and afterward as frankly permits his hearers to challenge him on any point, and then re-affirms what has not been fully understood or rectifies false conceptions of his meaning. Such "Schools of Philosophy" must tend to clarify thoughts, to weaken irrational dogma, and to enlarge the conceptions of both the teacher and the taught. The Socratic method is just as excellent to day as when, thousands of years ago, the Athenian sages conversed with the thinkers of their time amid the Academian groves-and taught precious lessons in Ethics and in true Religion to seeking minds.

One of the questions addressed to Dr. Martin was-"Can you believe anything you do not understand?" The answer was No. In order to believe, I must in some measure understand; and, then I can believe only so far as I can understand." The questions quickly followed "Can you understand the doctrine of the Trinity, or of Christ's Divinity." To this the Doctor instead of answering categorically, replied that to explain his convictions on these points would require a sermon, for which this was not the time. But to a multitude of other questions he rendered answers that were logical and consistent. I was interested, particularly, to observe that he claimed the reasonableness of real Christianity, and did not take refuge behind the affirmation, that Faith is quite independent of Reason and therefore not amenable to it.

Of course there was no uniformity in the excellence of the lectures and the discussions, but as they progressed I was delighted to observe that the thoughts expressed belong rather to the living present than to the dead past. The great writers of the liberal school of thought, such as Emerson, Parker, Mar

tineau and their spiritual brethren, were | wondrous correspondences between the needs frequently cited; and the opprobrious terms of the aesthetic sense in man and its gratificaof atheist, infidel and agnostic were very tion in the external world. The power that sparingly applied, and only by the weakest works in nature he believes to be God, the speakers. One orator spoke with evident moral governor as well as the intelligent fervor of an impulse he felt stirred with to director of the universe. kick the venerable Herbert Spencer in order to drive him from his "know-nothingism; " but a gentleman, actuated by more sobriety of mind, explained that the term was not applicable to the great Englishman whose philosophical writings have so deeply interested thinking people of this generation.

"I have gone into churches," says C. H. Spurgeon," and have seen dead men in the pulpit, a dead man as deacon, a dead man handling the plate, and dead men sitting there." When we listen day after day to the lectures and discussions here, we are in some sense able to distinguish the living from the dead; and to sympathize with the efforts of those who desire that living and not dead teachers may instruct the churches, and that the teacher may observe his just limitations, referring the people ever to the still witness in the heart. Surely Atheism can never permanently take hold of the human mind, while men are willing to hold to the God Consciousness in the heart as superior to all the speculations of philosophers, and as out of the reach of their paradoxes.

Moral beauty is as manifest as physical beauty, as all may see who examine the works of great masters, universally acknowledged to be of consummate beauty. They represent that which suggests noble and virtuous sentiment, and touch the heart. Some of the works of ancient art which are felt to lack this moral element appeal to the intellect only and cease to gratify the highest sense of true beauty, which can only delight in what is lovely in suggested sentiment. But all works of art being the product of the finite, are limited in their perfectness, while the beauty and sublimity of nature exemplify the powers of an Infinite Creator.

The lecturer claimed the quality of infinite beauty for the life and teachings of the founder of the Christian religion. His teachings illustrated by parable and miracle are of such perfect moral beauty that they forever delight the heart, and when the illustrations are committed to canvass, or become the object of the poet's rhapsodies they are perceived to be of infinite beauty. This quality of perennial beauty illuminates those records of man's religious progress the documents which we treasure as Sacred Scriptures.

It has not been practicable to give even an abstract of any of the elaborate lectures that have been read and discussed in these meetings. Certainly they had power to awaken much thought among the summer loiterers at hotel or cottage, and the evening chat in the ample piazzas of Richfield partook of the nature of the philosophical discussions of the afternoon. Many a noble thought, many a frank admission, and many a bold inquiry has been a seed of truth dropped into the minds of amiable and cultured men and women. The professional teacher may become the special pleader, but the mass of educated Americans are inquirers after absolute verity -no longer to be fully satisfied with cruel dogma, which is assumed to be independent of demonstration.

Dr. Isaac Errett, of Cincinnati, O., a friend of President Garfield, and the Editor of the Christian Standard, read a paper on the Leading Theories of Inspiration," on the 29th, and Professor Francis L. Patton, of Princeton, presented "Some Recent Criticisms of Theistic Proof," on the 30th. On the 31st, Dr. A. P. Peabody, of Harvard, delivered the last lecture of the course, His topic was "Beauty." His own lovely personality illustrated the theme, and his argument was that the exceeding beauty of the natural world, And so the busy, happy days pass away continually renewed by the change of seasons, this delightful place. The valetudinarian has continually varied by variations of form and revived in this high place of hills and lakes, color the most exquisite, and the aesthetic and beside the springs of healing. The weary sense in man which takes cognizance of this business man has for a time, forgotten his exuberant beauty in the world of matter and cares; and the mother and housekeeper has delights in it—are evidence of creative intel-known what it is to rest from the minutia of ligence and benignity for which the evolution hypothesis fails to give any solution. Nothing but the benignant fatherly hand of a conscious creative Spirit can account for the

in

home duties, and is fully ready to light anew the household fires; while the young folks have found so much enjoyment in the daily round of social pleasures of the wholesome sort, that

it is easy to believe they are dreaming of combinations to be as lasting as life, and as joyous as "God grants to any of his creatures."

So on the last day of the splendid dying summer we mount the great four horse coach and speed away over hill and dale to Cooperstown, where by Otsego Lake we hope to linger yet a little time before resuming the homeward march. A grateful farewell to Richfield! S. R.

Ninth mo., 1st, 1883.

ISCHIA'S FATE.

seem a natural garden set in the blue sea. The oak and the chestnut there grow luxuriantly side by side with the orange, the myrtle, the pomegranate, the mastic and the vine; while the rich volcanic soil needs but to be scratched in order to bring forth abundantly such crops as the dwellers in this apparently favored spot may care to cultivate.

The mineral springs, both hot and cold, are of extraordinary efficacy in many diseases, and all these things had naturally concurred to make Ischia and all the lesser towns a favorite resort, both of health-seekers and pleasure-seekers.

The correspondent of the Philadelphia But, alas! this "fatal gift of beauty" has Evening Bulletin, gives the following par- been counterbalanced, especially in recent ticulars of the fearful earthquake which times, by the danger that the terrible forces caused so much destruction of life on the which called it into life were not extinct, but sleeping. Your readers may remember that night of 7mo., 28th. in March, 1881, many lives were lost and ROME, Aug. 6. 1883.-It is with mingled much damage done by an earthquake on the and almost indescribable feelings that I sit very scene of the present disaster. Prof. down to write to you again in my quiet study Palmieri, the great observer of these phenat Rome, after a week passed between Naples omena, and the great authority upon such and Casamicciola. The main particulars of matters in Southern Italy, declares that the the terrible disaster at the Island of Ischia so-called earthquake of 1881 was merely a are already known to you by telegraph. But subsidence of the soil. The results, however, no telegram, no letter can adequately convey were equally bad for the unfortunate dwellers the full horror of the calamity which has be- on the soil, and one would have thought that fallen there, for words but weakly convey the the warning given by the sinking of the volimpressions of those who have looked upon canic crust would not have been thrown away. the scenes of ruin which now take the place But with the singular indifference so often of the once flourishing little towns of Cas- displayed by those who dwell near danger, amicciola, Forio, Lacco Ameno and many the good citizens built their ruined houses another village around. Most of your read-more strongly than before, and Casamicciola ers will know that the island of Ischia lies about twelve nautical miles off the Neapolitan coast. The whole island is evidently of volcanic formation, and, like so many other similar spots, is endowed with singular beauty and fertility. In the centre of the island is the extinct crater of Monte Epomeo, whose terrible outbursts in classic times were ascribed to the writhings of the fabled Titan Typhoes.

lay smiling in the sun on the green hillside, more bright and prosperous than ever, but a few hours before the new calamity which has transformed it into a shapeless mass of ruins.

The reason of many of the victims is unhinged by the terrors of that fearful night. It was a Saturday, and many little social gatherings were on foot at the different hotels where visitors from Naples, who go over from the Saturday to Monday, were invited to meet Long before Vesuvius destroyed Pompeii each other. Visitors from Ischia had gone and Herculaneum, the ancient "Epopeus over to Casamicciola for the evening. The had compelled the Greek colonists on the salons rung with music and laughter; the island to flee to the mainland to avoid his ter- poorer class were, for the most part, at their rible wrath, and four hundred and seventy- evening meal; the children in bed-thus unfive years before the Christian era the whole happily all, or nearly all, within doors. Sudisland was devastated by the ashes and lava denly, without a moment's warning, a loud which it poured forth. The last great erup-report like that of a cannon is heard; then tion was in 1302, after which one side of the crater wall broke away, and nature, with her slow but sure procedure, seemed occupied in veiling over during the succeeding centuries the havoc she herself had wrought. The sides of the extinct volcano were gradually clothed with verdure, while all the lower portions of the island were covered with a vegetation so rich and beautiful as to make it

the houses rock and waver, and in fifteen seconds Casamicciola is a shapeless mass of ruins, while black dust and sulphurous vapors rise into the clear night air, and the darkness is filled with the cries and groans of the wounded and dying.

The suddenness and completeness of the disaster is perhaps unequalled in the annals of similar visitations. Casamicciola is now

knew, that powerful nations exist in which all these things are but imported luxuries, if

very majesty of God. In short, the way up into that eminent domain of character wherein eternal principles rule is a way of self-surren-ever they are known at all. The rainfall, der for infinite good.-A. M. Weeks.

ALASKA.

Thomas Meehan, a well known horticulturist of Germantown, has spent a month of the past summer in visiting our extreme northwestern territory. As a member of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, and an authority on matters pertaining to plant life, his views of this little known country are worthy of attention, though in regard to the value of the land for agriculture he differs with the Encyclopedia Britannica, which says: "Alaska will never have any great agricultural value," on account of its cool climate and the excessive rainfall.

Thomas Meehan says, in a letter to the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin:

the temperature, the general atmospheric conditions are precisely like those of England, and anything that will do well there will do well here. The only difference is that the country is much more mountainous than England-in this respect Scotland more nearly gives us the idea-but even this refers chiefly to the coast. In the interior, through the region which the magnificent Yuken trathere are said to be immense plateaus of rank verses, and which is at yet almost unknown, grass, which are well worthy of the name of upland prairies. But taking the land which I have myself seen, I can say that there are millions of acres which could be brought under successful agricultural operations under judicious hands. It is well known that sheep culture is at the bottom of England's grandeur, and that the turnip, as sheep feed, pays the whole of the interest on Great Britain's national debt. And the turnip and the sheep do here just as well. Those only who "I have traveled now over 3000 miles have been accustomed to have cattle feed all through Alaska, or "Great Land," as the the year round out in pasture see nothing in Indian word signifies, and can now form some pastoral pursuits here. Of course England's sort of an idea what the country is, and what interest in coal and iron has had much to do it may become. I had no idea of its size- with the development of her sheep industries. one-eighth of all the United States-and we But here also are iron and coal, and gold and paid $7,200,000 for it, I believe. The gen- silver and marble, and numbers of the minor eral impression is that it is a country abso- minerals, which all go to make a prosperous lutely worthless for any other purpose than people. The hills are clothed with trees, and for the fish from its waters, and the skins and every agriculturist knows that any hill, no furs of the animals which frequent its woods matter how steep, that will raise a crop of and its shores. There never was a greater first-class timber, will raise grass, and any mistake. I have seen almost every settle- other vegetation suited to a moist, cool, and ment in the Territory, except that in Un- temperate climate. Indeed, the immensely alaska and Nodiak, where no white man has thick forest growth of this section could only yet been-conversed with most of the leading come about from the extremely favorable white men and women who are in the Terri- conditions for vegetation. It is amazing to tory, had as free intercourse with the better me how trees, which grow so thickly together, class of Indians as it was possible with the can be so fine as they are. Of course, where difference in language to have-and studied they grow so close that on thousands of acres thoroughly its natural history, climate and the trees will grow at distances not averaging general resources, and I do not hesitate to say more than six feet from each other, the trees that this country is of fully as much value as cannot be large; but even here one or two Great Britain or other countries in the north feet will be the average diameter. Wherever of Europe. The climatic conditions are very they get a chance to be more widely sepamuch as they exist in England, and, so far as rated, they grow to a size perfectly wonderagriculture and horticulture are concerned, ful. At Wrangel I measured a hemlock anything can be grown here that would do spruce which was 18 feet in circumference 6 well in that country. The people who have feet from the ground, and was 4 feet in diambeen here have no knowledge of European eter 132 feet from the ground, at which point agriculture. They see that Indian corn can- it had been broken off by the storm, and not be grown-that wheat will be an uncer- at Nahna I measured two Sitka spruces tain crop-that the Alaskan may not have standing within a few feet of each other, the grape, the peach, the watermelon, the which were each 21 feet round. Thousands of tomato, and a large number of other things trees approaching these figures can be found with which they have been familiar in their everywhere, and it is absurd, with the grand own homes, but they forget, if they ever | vegetation before us, to talk about the cli