us Southey's estimate of that sum of all monstrosities:

"That question might have been easily answered. The doctrine implies that an almighty and all-wise Creator has called into existence the greater part of the human race, to the end that, after a short, sinful, and miserable life, they should pass into an eternity of inconceivable torments, it being the pleasure of their Creator that they should not be able to obey his commands, and yet incur the penalty of everlasting damnation for disobedience. In the words of Mr. Wesley, who has stated the case with equal force and truth,The sum of all this is, one in twenty, suppose, of mankind are elected, nineteen in twenty are reprobrated.' The elect shall be saved, do what they will; the reprobate shall be damned, do what they can.' This is the doctrine of Calvinism, for which diabolism would be a better name; and in the worst and bloodiest idolatry that ever defiled the earth, THERE IS NOTHING SO HORRID, SO MONSTROUS, SO IMPIOUS AS THIS."

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

The Swan of Avon, once, at least, sung this great Religious Truth. Here is the spirit of our Religion. Shylock, a portrait of the Popular God, demands his just due, even though it is the pound of flesh nearest the heart. Portia replies:

"The quality of mercy is not strained;
It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven,
Upon the place beneath; it is twice blessed;
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes;
"Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty;

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway,-
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,

It is an attribute to God Himself;

And earthly power doth then show likest God's,
When Mercy seasons Justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy,
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy!"

R. W. EMERSON

employs the following language in an article on the system of Swedenborg :

"Another dogma, growing out of this pernicious theological limitation, is this Inferno. Swedenborg has devils. Evil, according to old philosophers, is good in the making. That pure malignity can exist, is the extreme proposition of unbelief. It is not to be entertained by a rational agent; it is atheism; it is the last profanation. Euripides rightly said,

'Goodness and being in the Gods are one,

He who imputes ill to them makes them none.'

To what a painful perversion had Gothic theology arrived, that Swedenborg admitted no con

version for evil spirits! But the divine effort is never relaxed; the carrion in the sun will convert itself to grass and flowers; and man, though in brothels or jails, or on gibbets, is on his way to all that is good and true. BURNS, with the wild humor of his apostrophe to " Nickie Ben,"

poor old

"O wad ye tak a thought, and mend!”

has the advantage of the vindictive theologian. Everything is superficial, and perishes, but love and truth only. The largest is always the truest sentiment, and we feel the more generous spirit of the Indian Vishnu, 'I am the same to all mankind. There is not one who is worthy of my love or hatred.'”

J. A. FROUDE.

One of the most vigorous of modern writers, J. A. Froude, M. A., in his Nemesis of Faith, gives vent to the feeling which is now so general in churches of all communions, of horror and disgust in reference to eternal punishment. He says:

"I know but one man, of more than miserable intellect, who, in these modern times, has dared defend eternal punishment, on the score of justice, and that is Leibnitz; a man, who, if I know him rightly, chose the subject from its difficulty, as an opportunity for the display of his

genius, and cared so little for the truth, that his conclusions did not cost his heart a pang, or wring a single tear from him. No if I am to be a minister of religion, I must teach the poor people that they have a Father in Heaven, not a tyrant; one who loves them all beyond power of heart to conceive; who is sorry when they do wrong, not angry; whom they are to love and dread, not with caitiff coward fear, but with deepest awe and reverence, as the all-pure, allgood, all-holy. I could never fear a God, who kept a hell prison-house. No: not though he flung me there because I refused."

The young Episcopal clergyman, who is the hero of the book, finds the absurdity of endless punishment an impassable barrier between his profession and his duty.

ALLAN CUNNINGHAM.

Besides mentioning the fact that BURNS was a Universalist, CUNNINGHAM indicates his love for the doctrine, in his life and writings of Burns, and in his novel "Roldau," neither of which have I been able to procure.

WORDSWORTH-GAINESBOROUGH.

61

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH,

The most philosophical, and one of the greatest of English Poets, shows us, that Christain Faith is the substance of things hoped for.

"One adequate support

For the calamities of mortal life
Exists, one only; an assured belief
That the procession of our fate, however
Sad or disturbed, is ordered by a being
Of infinite benevolence and power,
Where everlasting purposes embrace

All accidents, CONVERTING THEM TO GOOD."

OUR LOVED ONES,

[This couplet was written by the excellent. American Poet, J. G. PERCIVAL.]

"We send these fond endearments o'er the grave, HEAVEN WOULD BE HELL, IF LOVED ONES WERE NOT THERE."

GAINESBOROUGH.

When GAINESBOROUGH, the great painter, and the hating and hated rival of VANDYKE, was dying, he cried out, "We are ALL going to Heaven, AND VANDYKE IS OF THE PARTY!"