The Press.
London, England, 1853-07-30 00:00:00

party during the winter and part of the ensuing
year by hunting—was disappointed by the
non-arrival of a boat with ammunition and
stores—and thus found himself destitute of
food, and deprived of the means of barter,
towards the commencement of the winter.
The Indians, receiving no payment in return,
ceased to bring supplies ; while, in November,
to crown his misfortunes, the fort took fire,
leaving nothing unburnt except a few skins
and some powder. He now quitted his post
and went out into the forest, where for two
mouths he lived on such game as could be
picked up ; and, returning in March, found one
of the two savages, whom he had left, dead, and
the other feeding upon his carcase. Disgusted
and horrified, he again took to the woods, and,
returning a second time, discovered only the
bones of the t:anniba I mingled with those of his
victim. At the last extremity he was relieved by
a friendly Indian, and thus survived to tell his
tale. Cannibalism is not rare among these
dwellers in the far north ; but it is the result
of hard necessity, and not of choice.

Sermons at Harrow School. Second Series.
By C. J. Vaughan, D.D. London : John W.
Parker and Son.
WE have been disappointed by these tilt;
courses. Their composer has often come
before the public, and frequently with distinc
tion, and we expected to find in his Harrow
sermons a series of addresses calculated to
arrest the attention of grown youths on the
threshold of the world. While we recognise
the merits of Dr. Vaughan as a preacher to a
parochial audience, we do not see in these dis-
courses the special aptitude required for
his present performance. His style is not
sufficiently striking, and is destitute of fancy.
He is also inexpert in those rhetorical
arts which some preachers skilfully use
as substitutes for the faculties that excite
attention and prevent it from flagging. A cler-
gyman of the English Church can scarcely be
called upon to address any congregation re-
quiring such peculiar qualifications in the
preacher as when ho has to speak before the
youths
in one of our great public schools. He
before him a large body of huts, varying
in their ages, taken from different classes
of society. Some of them are youthful
patricians, born to privileges, and heirs to no-
ble names. Others aro the sons of men who
have fought an uphill contest in " the battle of
life." All are alike, or nearly so, in being sub-
ject to the peculiar temptations incident to
early years, and they all look upon the world
through the illusions of a joyous imagination.
In appealing to such minds, and describing
the trials of the world, the preacher should re
collect that he has to encounter competition
with the novelist and the poet. He has to
speak of old and familiar truths, and he has
not the variety of a dramatix personw, or the ex-
emplication of a romantic plot, to give him aid.
But what then? Surely, even in his particular
subject, he is not without great resources. Be-
yond almost any other congregation the
youths at a great public school are worked upon
by the master passions of ambition, and
thirsting eagerness to take part in the affairs
of the great world. That world the preacher
can repeatedly describe as it is; and if endowed
with the faculty of personifying abstractions,
and giving vivacity to sentiment, he can always
get the audience of a public school to listen to
him, for with such a peculiar congrega-
tion more dramatic vivacity of style is allow-
able than in other ministrations from the
preacher's chair. The style of an essayist is
not perhaps the worst for arresting the minds
of young clever lads, themselves conversant
with the mechanics of easy writing, and fami-
liar with the art of using commonplace books
for their themes.
But, while we indicate the fault running
through these " Harrow Sermons" of being
deficient in the special felicity required for a
public school, we cordially recognise the
merits of Dr. Vaughan as a preacher to the
general world. Though without imagination,
there is in his piety much that is emotional,
without its degenerating into empty senti-
mentalism. He has strong sympathies, and
his homily is often warmed by the genial glow