We may descend a little from the elevated ground of theological and political examinations, to consider Channing in the humbler relations of social life. Before we knew anything of his domestic history, and judging of his character merely from his writings, we had been led to think that he was possessed of a kind and gentle heart, affectionate in its disposition, and generous and persevering in its affections. Withall his theological errors, and notwithstanding his many strange opinions on doctrinal subjects, he must be, we thought, a man filled to overflowing with kindly feelings towards all, and more especially to the members of his own household. Nor have we been disappointed in this expectation on perusing the passages in the present work which relate to his private history. In early life he laboured strenuously and devotedly to relieve his widowed mother of the charge of his support, and to enable her to apply to the junior members of the family the savings of her humble store which were thereby effected. In after years, when the emoluments of his profession furnished him with more abundant means, he cheerfully devoted them to their wants, and became a kind and devoted son and one of the kindest and best of brothers. His home became the home of all the family. He was fourand-thirty years of age, in 1814, when he married; and even when the cares and responsibility of his own family may be supposed to claim thenceforward all his means and the greater part of his affections, he yet was able to devote a considerable share of both to those who had hitherto looked up to him as their guardian and pro tector. In the year 1822 the state of his health was so delicate, that his friends and medical advisers recommended a voyage to Europe, hoping that change of air and scene would restore his strength again. Accordingly he sailed in the May of that year, and landing in Liverpool, he spent about a year in making the ordinary European tour. He passed the winter months in Italy; and we were anxious to see what Channing felt and wrote on those subjects that must have been so interesting. We looked through the pages with much interest, in the hope of finding some record of his feelings at Florence, Naples, or Rome; but we have looked in vain. There is only one letter dated Rome, but it is confined entirely to reflections on the death of his infant son. We did not expect that the religious associations of the eternal city would awaken feelings kindred to our own; but yet we did expect that something would have fallen from his pen worthy of being preserved in his biography, and evincing some interest in that which has been the object of many a distant pilgrim before. It was not till after his return to America that Dr. Channing appeared before the public as an author of any literary pretensions. "He became," says the biographer, "an author unawares. When the Anthology Club commenced the course of labours which did so much to give an impulse to the intellect of New England, he was invited to be a contributor to their Journal; and, in consequence, he communicated to its pages two or three essays, a few fragmentary thoughts, and one or more short pieces in verse, which were probably the only attempts he ever made at poetical composition. But he could not enter cordially into what he felt to be, for himself at least, but 'busy idleness.' His work was to preach. As great political occasions called from him sermons which contained declarations of sentiment and opinion adapted to the wants of the times, he reluctantly yielded to the demand for their publication, and allowed them to be printed as first written, with scarcely a verbal amendment. At length the desire to aid in giving a a higher tone, and securing a wider sphere of influence to the Christian Disciple, which in 1824 was enlarged, and took a new form under the name of the Christian Examiner, drew from him some essays which attained a most unlooked for celebrity, and made him universally known in the world of letters. The attention excited by these papers was a great surprise to him, and he always considered the estimate placed upon them by the public exaggerated. To redeem his promise of communicating an impulse to the Review, which was the special organ of Liberal Christianity, and to set an example of a bold, free, manly treatment of great subjects in literature, politics, education, science, &c., he poured out with his usual rapidity of composition, trains of thought which at all times interested him, and which were freshly recalled by the successive appearance of Milton's 'Christian Doctrine,' Scott's Life of Bonaparte,' and 'Selections from Fenelon; but his chief aim was to awaken his own circle of believers to a more comprehensive, cordial, direct application of religion to life."-vol. ii. p. 346. His first voluine was published in 1830, and consisted of "Miscellanies." It was followed some time after by a volume of Sermons. These publications introduced him in regular form to the literary world, and were the occa sion of a correspondence with several distinguished literary characters. Several of the letters are given in the present volumes, and will be found of considerable interest. During his public ministry in Boston, Dr. Channing exerted himself very perseveringly in the cause of social reform. The more humane treatment of criminals, the suppression of intemperance, the improvement of the working classes, were all in turn the objects of solicitude; and in the promotion of his benevolent purposes, he exerted not only his social influence as minister of a wealthy and numerous congregation, but also the powerful advocacy of his pen. Some of his best and longest treatises were written for this purpose, such as the tract on Temperance and Self-culture. It was one of the leading articles of his creed, that human nature was capable of accomplishing mighty results in the work of self-improvement, and he spared no pains to further the good cause. He believed also that man and society were to go onward with a steady and increasing ardour towards that glorious and happy condition to which even on this earth they were destined. Alas! that such glorious visions are not to be realized here below. Great, indeed, is man's capacity for improvement; many are the triumphs which his intellect and his industry are to achieve upon this earth. But we know and believe that a primeval malediction has denounced woe upon the abodes wherein he dwells; that sorrows are ever to lie in wait at its threshold, and misery in some of its many forms to brood over his hearth; that the fiery car, in which science travels with lightning speed, cannot bear him away from sickness and poverty and pain and death, that will ever hover over our social life, and like the flaming sword of the cherubim that guarded the lost bowers of Eden, will ever hinder the children of Adam from regaining here below their paradise. But though all that benevolence would aspire to may not be done, much yet may be effected by it. Much more may be effected by christian charity. Though the efforts of Channing in the work of human improvement may have been the mere impulse of a kind and generous heart, influenced by mere moral virtue, it is still to be admired. In more favourable circumstances God's grace would have inflamed and kindled that moral virtue into the more sacred one of supernatural charity. There are many points of personal and general interest in the volumes before us, to which we would willingly direct attention, if time and space permitted; but we cannot pass over the great question of anti-slavery agitation, with which Dr. Channing's name is so closely identified, without a passing notice. We may rest assured from what we have already seen and known of his character and dispositions, that his sympathies were in favour of Emancipation; but events were about to take place in his day of a nature to make him take a more active and immediate part in the movement to attain that object. In the autumn of 1830, the necessities of his health compelled him to spend a winter in the island of Santa Cruz. Here he had frequent opportunities of observing the condition of the negroes, and his sympathies were strongly excited in their behalf. About the same time also the question of Slavery began to be extensively and warmly agitated throughout the several States of the American Union. It is not our intention to enter into the consideration of a subject that has been so often and so ably discussed, and which, as far as these countries are concerned, has been long since effectually decided. Indeed, the question seems so clear, that it is matter of surprise how the great and fundamental principles on which it rests, could ever be doubted. But when men have great interests at stake, their minds are easily inclined to that view of the question which is most for their own advantage. During the great controversy which was carried on in the United States at this period, there seemed to have been but little of the temper or tone of mind suited to free discussion. The Abolitionists and their opponents had both become excited to a degree that bordered upon frenzy; and that which should have been made purely a question of principle, became, in the excitement of the hour, a question of party and of passion. If there was corruption and injustice and violence on the part of the friends of slavery, we must also admit that there was violence and imprudence and injudicious assertion of principle on the part of their political opponents. Dr. Channing was led by his position, as well as by his own inclination, to take an active part in this stirring controversy. We always thought that he did so on the broad principle of justice and humanity. We confess that the following statement of his biographer has come upon us completely unawares: countrymen to the great spiritual truths involved in the antislavery movement, and was fearful that the whole tone of feeling and action, in regard to our great national sin and shame, would be debased by the intermixture of political jealousies and intrigues. In fact, his cherished hope was, that Abolitionism-asserting as it did the very fundamental principles of justice, the essential rights of every human being, and the universal law of love-would widen and grow up into a Church of Practical Christianity, by whose influence the whole nation might be regenerated."-vol. iii. p. 191. Do we understand rightly when we understand by this that Channing, in supporting the great movement against Slavery, meant to make that movement a means of extending his own peculiar religious opinions? We trust that in his support of the cause which he so ably and so warmly advocated, he was animated by a more generous and philanthropic spirit than these words imply. In his latter years he was drawn more and more into the vortex of political discussion. Many of his opinions on the great subjects that occupied the attention of the day, are recorded in his own words in the pages lying open before us; but we can do no more than refer the curious reader to the pages themselves. Where there is much to admire and approve, we grieve to say also that there is some little thing to be condemned. Our readers will easily understand that the tone of Channing's mind, as well as the fundamental principle of his religious creed, must have been utterly at variance with those which we Catholics believe to be indispensable, and therefore that the leading dogma of our Church, namely, the infallibility of its teaching, was particularly the subject of his animadversion. To the high virtue and devotion of many of its members, indeed, he is ready to do full justice. His essay on Fenelon is not only a true appreciation of that character, but also one of the most eloquent productions that has issued from his pen. In every case also where the civil or political rights were invaded or threatened, or their personal security endangered, Catholics were always sure of his support and of the warm advocacy of their cause. Yet it is astonishing to find how grossly he must have misunderstood, and how signally he must have mistaken some, at least, of the tenets, with which he should be correctly acquainted. Such, for |