The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-10-14 00:00:00

I.ITEnAItY NOTICES.

The Poetical Remains of the Rev. David lif‘Nicholl,
including his Essay on the uses of Poetry. Edited by
his Sun. London : Tegg. 1836. ,
This miscellany of poems, it seems, is published at the
solicitation of the editor's friends, and, being a posthu-
mous publication, he expresses some fear that they may
be found wanting in that polish they would probably have
received had his father intended them for the press.—
They possess all the charms of harmonious versification,
beautiful imagery, tasteful selection, refined and religious
sentiment, and great felicity of language. We beg to
offer a single example from many pieces similarly excel
lent and beautiful :

INFANCY.
Smile on, smile on, those glad eyes brightly beaming ;
For smiles are buds blowing—are beauty in flower;
But roses, and diamonds, snd stars in their gleaming.
When proud of their charms, cannot equal thy power.

Sing on, sing on, little warbler, excelling
The well-measured notes that sound forth from the choir ;
More dear to thy father the chants thou art telling
Than all the gay music that starts from the lyre.

Dance on, dance on, in the arms of thy mother,
With motion untainted by passion or art ;
Quick-springing to meet the proud bound of thy brother ;
Not the dance or the spheres is more sweet to my heart.

Shine on, shine on—Heaven kindled thy spirits,
To dawn and to dazzle, but never to set ;
Go on, my loved child, higher joys to inherit ;
Yet these happy days I can never forget.

The Works of Thomas Chalmers, D.D. and L.L.D.,
Professor of Theology in the University of Edin
Vols. 3 and 4. Glasgow : Collins. Lon
don : Hamilton, Adams, and Co..p.p. 395 and 455.
We have just received the above volumes, in continua-
tion of a series of the works of this eloquent and justly
celebrated divine. These two volumes contain his elab-
orate and unanswerable work on " the Miraculous and
Internal Evidences of the Christian Revelation, and the
Authority of its Records." This has been long known
as a standard work on the subject, and as such, we be-
lieve, is held to be a high authority, not only ;in Scot-
land, but also in the universities and public schools of
our own country. And well does it merit the popularity
which it has so extensively obtained. It is characterised
throughout, by close and powerful reasoning—by an un-
flinching ezamination, and a triumphant refutationi of all
the objections which infidel writers have urged to invali-
date the authority of the divine records—by a vein of
candour, which adds to the force and effect of its argu•
tents—by great felicity of illustration, which places the
subject more plainly and prominently before the-reader,
than could be accomplished by mere abstract deductions—
and by a strain of fervid and unrivalled eloquence,
which,. while it pleases the refined taste of the enlight-
ened scholar, cannot fail to captivate the heart of the
pious Christian. The author has been long known as
one of the !nest gifted preachers of his time ; and those
who have not enjoyed the privilege of listening to his
glowing and impassioned appeals .from the pulpit, will,
in these volumes, have an opportunity of properly ap-
preciating his various and peculiar excellencies, as an
evangelical divine and a popular orator. Few men have
done more in their generation, for the edification of their
Christian brethren, and for the vindication of the truth,
titan the eminently gifted Dr. Chalmers. Long may ha
continue in 'the exercise of his high vocation—and far
and wide may his writings be spread and multiplied, to
the confusion of infidel philosophers, and to the estab-
lishment of the faith of sincere inquirers for the truth,
in the sublime verities of the Christian religion.
We have little to add respecting these volumes. They
are very neatly printed, in a portable size, and published
at a moft teasouable price. We subjoin the following
specimen of the style of Dr. Chalmers :

" We do not condemn the exercise of reason in matters of
theology. It is the part of reason to form its conclusions, when
it has data and evidences before it. But it is equally the part
of reason to abstain from its conclusions, when these evidences
are wanting. Reason can judge of the external evidences for
Christianity, because it can discern the merits of human testi-
mony ; and it can perceive the truth or the falsehood of such
obvious credentials as the performance of a miracle, or the ful-
filment of a prophecy, or the marvellous agreement between
the subject-matter of revelation, and previously or distinctly
known truth. But one of the most useful exercises of reason
is, to ascertain its limits, and to keep within them; to abandon
the field of conjecture, and to restrain itself within the safe and
certain'barrier which forms the boundary of human experience,
However humiliating we may conceive it, it is this which lies at
the bottom of Lord Bacon's philosophy ; and it is to this that
modern science is indebted for all her solidity, and all her
triumphs. Why does philosophy flourish in our days ? Be-
cause her votaries have learned to abandon their own creative
speculations, and to submit to evidence, let her conclusions be
as painful and as unpalatable as they will. Now all that we
want, is to carry the same lesson and the same principle into
theology. Our business is not to guess, but to learn. After we
have established Christianity to be an authentic message from
God upon those historical and experimental grounds, on which
the reason and experience of man entitle him to form his con-
clusions, nothing remains for us but an unconditional surrender
of the mind to the subject of the message. We have a right to
sit in judgment over the credentialS of heaven's ambassador;
but we have no right to sit in judgment over the information he
gives us. We have no right either to ;prose or to modify that
information, till we have accommodated it to our previous con-
ceptions. It is very true, that if the truths which he delivered
lay within the field of human observation, he brings himself
under the tribunal of our antecedent knowledge. Were he to
tell us that the bodies of the planetary system moved in orbits
which are purely circular, we would oppose to him the observa-
tions and ,measurements of astronomy. Were he to tell us,
that in winter the sun never shone, and that in summer no
cloud ever darkened the brilliancy of his career; we would
oppose to him the certain remembrances, both of ourselves and
of our whole neighbourhood. Were he to tell us, that we were
perfect men, because we were free from passion, and loved our
neighbours as ourselves; we would oppose to him the history of
our own lives, and the deeply-seated consciousness of our own
infirmities. On all these subjects we can confront him. But
when he brings truth from a qnarter which no human eye ever
explored ; when he tells us the mind of the Deity, and brings
before us the counsels of that invisible Being, whose arm is
abroad upon all worlds, and whose views reach to eternity, he
is beyond the ken of eye or of telescope, and we must snbmit
to him. We have no more right to sit in judgment over his in-
formation, thou we have to sit in judgment over the information
of any other visitor who lights upon our planet from some dis-
tant and unknown part of the universe, and tells us what worlds
roll in those remote tracts which are beyond the limits of our
astronomy, and how the Divinity peoples them with His won-
ders. Any previous conceptions of ours are of no more value
than the fooleries of an infant; and should we offer to resist or
to modify upon the strength of these conceptions, we would be
as unsound and uuphilosophical as ever schoolman was with his
categories or Cartesian with his whirlpools of ether.

The History of England, by Home and Smollett ; with
a Continuation by the Rev. 7'. S. Hughes, B.D. Vol.
21. London : A. J. Valpy, M.A. p.p. 446.
This appears to us to be the most valuable and com-
plete work on the history of England that has ever been
published, and we have little doubt that its intrinsic me-
rits wilt soon secure for it a general introduction. into our
family libraries. The learned editor has nobly acquit-
ted himself of his task in drawing up the continuation.
whilst he has very materially enhanced the value of the
labours of his predecessors by the introduction of nu-
merous emendations. The present publication is credit-
able to all the parties concerned in bringing it before the
publk. The editorial department, as we have already
intimated, is conducted with great ability—the printing,
paper, and binding are excellent—and the various illus-
trations by which it is accompanied are in the first style
of the art. The present volume contains a splendid en-
graving of the "Banqu"
et at the Guildhall, 1814"--,
4' The departure of Louis XVI.II. from England-and
a beautiful poi-trait of his Majesty William IV. We ex-
tract the following estimate of the

CHABACTEIt OF CANNING.
"The public character of Mr. Canning was clearly seen in
the altered policy of our government, both foreign and'domestic,
during his connexion with the Liverpool administration ,• his am-
bition, like that of Chatham, to whom as a minister and states-
man he bore the nearest resemblance, was lofty and imperious;
but it was directed to noble ends; to the glory of his own
country, and thetadvancement, through her greatness, of the
best interests of other nations: his anxiety was, that all should
benefit. not only by her commercial prosperity, but by the
blessings of her constitution; and when he was constrained to
wield her thunders, it was only to check the spirit'Of despotic
tyranny, and to keep, Great Britain in her natural sphere as the
protectress of those who aspired to freedom. He exhibited a
splendid contrast to certain characters of the preient day; who,
having entered on public life as the advocates of liberal and
patriotic sentiments, have degenerated into bigOted defenders
of antiquated opinions, and selfish supporters of intolerable
abuses; Mr. Canniug, on the einittarv, though party 'intro-
duced him into the senate, and tory principles long secured to
him a place in the administration, gradually imbibed, and
became insensibly influenced by, the free spirit of the British
constitution ; until at length, enlightened by experience, he
cast off the trammels of that oligarchy, with which early am-
bition had associated him but to which he owed no natural
allegiance. Being determined to uphold the noble fabric reared
by our forefathers, he contemplated with horror any attempt to
endanger its foundation, or to alter its character; but when he
found that the principles which he once professed began to
threaten its safety, he abandoned them as far as he thought
expedient; and, conciliating his political opponents without
submitting to their dictation, he availed himself of their as-
sistance to carry on his measures of regeneration. England
regretted in: him the most accomplished orator that the en-
lightened spirit of the age had yet produced ; and the liberal
portion -of Europe mourned over the loss of his moral influence,
as a great calamity to the world at large,"

The Patriarchal Religion of Britain ;• or .a complete
Manual of Ancient British Druidism, comtaining a
full ,developement of its true origin, primitive Cha-
racter,.peculiar, Tenets, Mode of Instruction,. 7'ra-
ditionary Art, Orders, Costume, Privileges, and In-
fluence, with specimens of Druidical Compositions in
Triads and Triplets, 4c. By 'the Re‘'. D. James,
Kirkdale, Liverpool : R. Morris, Hatton Garden, 1836.
p.p. 100.
We have little space left for noticing this excellent
manual, from which we intend making several extracts.
To our Druidic- friends it will prove an . invaluable ac-
quisition; whilst to the general reader it cannot but
prove interesting, containing, as it.does, . such a copious
fund of information .respecting tlrk• ancient order—to
which Freemasonry itself must yield the claim of priority.