On earth, and water, hill, and vale, and sky, The rippling lake, with arrowy brightness strewed; Of fairy fancy, where the sun-beams played Illumined or created, till his rays, Faint and more faint, the varied scene displayed- 'Mid such a scene I wandered forth, and felt Its influence on my heart, and feel it still Though years have rolled, and that same sun hath set Over the graves of thousands, who then breathed, And trod the earth in sorrow or in joy. Night reigned! but other shores saw morning rise To bask in the hot sun beams. The wide earth, And every season-and they all were blessed. Descending, or withheld, informed the scene. Man-and this life but part of one great whole, (To be continued.) ERRATUM.-Page 160, (in the last Number) line 13, for indignant read malignant. THE FREETHINKING CHRISTIANS' REVIEW OF THE RELIGIOUS WORLD. MRS. FRY. “Charity vauuteth not itself—is not puffed up-doth not behave itself unseemly-seeketh not her own."-PAUL. ANY particular notice of Mrs. Fry and her follies, would be very unworthy the objects proposed by the conductors of this Work, if Mrs. Fry were to be regarded only as an isolated and eccentric individual; or, as Quaker Sewell would say, if hers were to be considered "a particular case" of" odd behaviour, which she herself must be responsible "for." But viewing, as we do, this lady as occupying a most important station among the saints in general, and the Quakers in particular-considering her as one with whom the cause of her party is closely identified-beholding in her the finished representative of Quakerism-as, in fact, a concretion of all the characteristic qualities of the sectwe apprehend that an examination of the public conduct of this lady becomes a matter of just importance; and we feel authorized in adducing her example as illustrative of our objections to the principles-not only of her sect-but to the practices of the whole tribe of pharisaic professors of all sects; who, under the cloak of charity and religion, are but vaunting their own virtues, and promoting their own ends. It is not a little remarkable that, notwithstanding the strictures we originally offered upon the conduct of Mrs. Fry and her party; and notwithstanding the laboured exposure we have since given of the dangerous tendency of the principles of Quakerism, not a single individual of the body has ventured to impugn our statements, or to vindicate the conduct, either of the lady in question, or the principles of the body. This caution, on the part of the Quakers, is the more singular when we call to mind the readiness with which their early writers undertook to answer the charges which appeared in print against their avowed principles. Indeed, so late as 1802, there issued officially from the Friends, a reprint of the "Extracts from the Minutes and Advices of the Yearly "Meeting of Friends, held in London," from which, under the head" BOOKS," we extract the following advice: Q "Friends are desired to be diligent in spreading Friends' "books which are answers to adversaries, and to get them ex"posed to sale where the adversaries' books are sold; and this to "be done in due time, and not delayed till the service may "be partly over." This is all, no doubt, prudent, excellent advice; but why have not the Friends acted in the spirit of this advice in our instance? Why do they delay publishing an answer to our arguments" till the service may be partly over?" Whence this forbearance? Wherefore this prudent, this studied silence? We invite them to the contest, and we will so far aid the object of the above-quoted minute, that we promise that any direct answer to our Review of Quakerism shall be exposed to sale where our own Work is sold. There has, indeed, advanced to the contest an individual as the champion of Mrs. Fry, whose arguments, supposing them to proceed from a party closely identified with the Quakers, we readily consented to insert in our Register; but judge of our surprise and disappointment when, by a subsequent communication from the same correspondent, he informed us that he was 66 not a Quaker, nor in any manner "connected with Mrs. Fry." Our disappointment, indeed, was the more complete when, by his own confession, the writer dwindled down to a mere nondescript character, pertaining to no sect or party; and when, actuated probably by a love of adventure, or a desire for victory, he presented himself before us as that flighty, chivalrous sort of personage with whom we could feel little of interest, and less of duty, to contend. But that we may not misrepresent the character of our correspondent, let him be permitted to introduce himself. After denying that he is a Quaker the gentleman proceeds: 66 " "In your reply, therefore, I beg you will consider me as an "individual of NO SECT OR PARTY; a sort of DON QUIXOTE, even without a squire, regardless WITH WHAT, OR WITH WHOM I CONTEND; and anxious to receive in my own per"son, without INVOLVING OTHERS in my adventures and disgrace, any blows which may be expected in an encounter "with literary giants like yourselves." Such, then, is our opponent; but the parties most concerned, it will be observed, keep their peace: their spirit is not moved in the cause of their sainted sister-the Quakers hold a silent meeting upon the subject of our testimony against them. Having, however, in the first instance, bound ourselves to publish the arguments of our correspondent, J. F., the same will be found in our last number, to which the reader will please refer, that he may the better understand the force, if force it shall be thought to possess, of our rejoinder. And first, a word as to the propriety of remarking at all on the conduct and character of Mrs. Fry. MRS. FRY is a public character-a public character in the strictest sense of the designation-as much so as Wilberforce, as Cobbett, or Carlisle. We have not brought her before the public; it was her own act, or the act of her party, which raised her to the pedastal of public fame on which, in common with other gazers, we beheld her. We found her ostensibly and publicly engaged in the difficult, the immense, the gigantic effort of reforming the prison discipline of this country. We heard of her, through the accustomed channels of public report, in her various peregrinations from prison to prison, throughout England and Scotland. We witnessed her taking into her own hands the duties of the state secretary for the home department; and, in our own metropolis, performing the functions vested by the laws in the city magistracy. In this important, public, and self-assumed station, Mrs. Fry, we apprehend, became a legitimate and fair object, either of censure or of praise, according as her motives should, upon inquiry, appear either personal or pure-her plans visionary or practicable. There was something, we confess, that little comported with our conceptions of the female character, or the female duties, in the position occupied by this lady and her pious sisterhood; and we ventured to present our ideas of that character, and of those duties, in terms which, we believe, are expressive of the common sentiments of all men, and which were fortified by the recommendations of scripture; and certainly more from a feeling of pity, than intended disrespect, towards Mr. Fry, the husband of the lady of the same name, we dropped an observation which was designed to express no more than our opinion that, by an inversion of the order of Nature, the public labours and public honours of the lady occupied so large a space in the public mind, as to put a complete extinguisher upon the gentleman, and to render the family name known only in connection with his wife. If in this our sentiment, however, we have been in any way mistaken, it will give us pleasure. Indeed, since the period of the publication of the remarks in question, we have seen one or two little endeavours of the gentleman himself in the public prints, which go certainly to prove the existence of Mr. Fry, and which may possibly have |