memory!' I suppose I did,' he said, interrupting himself for a moment. 'I did! That's neither here nor there. 'Oh Richard, if you ever did; if you have any memory for what is gone and lost, take it to her once more. Once more! Tell her how I begged and prayed. Tell her how I laid my head upon your shoulder, where her own head might have lain, and was so humble to you, Richard. Tell her that you looked into my face, and saw the beauty which she used to praise, all gone: all gone and in its place, a poor, wan, hollow cheek, that she would weep to see. Tell her everything, and take it back, and she will not refuse again. She will not have the heart!''

'So he sat musing, and repeating the last words, until he woke again, and rose.

'You won't take it, Margaret?'

She shook her head, and motioned an entreaty to him to leave her.
Good night, Margaret.'

• Good night!'

He turned to look upon her; struck by her sorrow, and perhaps by the pity for himself which trembled in her voice. It was a quick and rapid action; and for the moment some flash of his old bearing kindled in his form. In the next he went as he had come. Nor did this glimmer of a quenched fire seem to light him to a quicker sense of his debasement.

In any mood, in any grief, in any torture of the mind or body, Meg's work must be done. She sat down to her task, and plied it. Night, midnight. Still she worked.

'She had a meagre fire, the night being very cold; and rose at intervals to mend it. The Chimes rang half-past twelve while she was thus engaged; and when they ceased she heard a gentle knocking at the door. Before she could so much as wonder who was there, at that unusual hour, it opened.

'Oh Youth and Beauty, happy as ye should be, look at this! Oh Youth and Beauty, blest and blessing all within your reach, and working out the ends of your Beneficent Creator, look at this!

She saw the entering figure; screamed its name; cried Lilian !'

'It was swift, and fell upon its knees before her: clinging to her dress.

Up, dear! Up! Lilian! My own dearest !'

"Never more, Meg; never more! Here! Here! Close to you, holding to you, feeling your dear breath upon my face!''

"Sweet Lilian! Darling Lilian! Child of my heart-no mother's love can be more tender-lay your head upon my breast!' Never more! When I first looked into your On my knees before you, let me die. Let it

Never more, Meg. face, you knelt before me. be here!'

"You have come back. My Treasure! We will live together, work together, hope together, die together!'

Ah! Kiss my lips, Meg; fold your arms about me; press me to your bosom; look kindly on me; but don't raise me. Let it be here.

Let me see the last of your dear face upon my knees!'

'Oh Youth and Beauty, happy as ye should be look at this! Oh

Youth and Beauty, working out the ends of your Beneficent Creator, look at this!

'Forgive me, Meg! So dear, so dear! Forgive me! I know you do, I see you do, but say so, Meg!'

She said so, with her lips on Lilian's cheek. And with her arms twined round-she knew it now-a broken heart.

'His blessing on you, dearest love.

Kiss me once more! He suffered her to sit beside his feet, and dry them with her hair. Oh Meg, what Mercy and Compassion!'

'As she died, the Spirit of the child returning, innocent and radiant, touched the old man with its hand, and beckoned him away.'-pp. 124 -134.

Our young readers must not imagine that the tale ends thus wretchedly. Toby suddenly awakes to the happiness and festivity of a new-year's wedding-day, and all the dramatis personæ are disposed of just as a kind heart would have them be.

We need not recommend the volume, as Mr. Dickens's name will have sent it to the extremities of the kingdom before our pages are read. The illustrations are exceedingly appropriate, and are skilfully executed; and the 'getting up' of the volume is tasteful and elegant.

Art. VII. 1. Denkschrift der homiletischen und Katechetischen Seminarium der Universität zu Jena vom Jahre 1824. Unter Auktorität der theologischen Facultät herausgegeben. Von Dr. H. A. Schott, Prof. der Theologie, Director des homilet. Seminariums und des Academ. Gotsdienstes. Jena, 1824. [Memoir of the Homiletical and Catechetical Seminary of the University of Jena, for the year 1824. Edited, under the authority of the Theological faculty, by Dr. H. A. Schott, Professor of Theology, and Director of the Homiletical Seminary and of the Academical Divine Services. Jena, 1824.] 2. Die Bedeutsamkeit des evangelisch-theologischen Seminares in Wirtemberg, und die Frage über das Rathsame seiner Aufheburg oder Schmälerung, beleuchtet, von Dr. J. C. F. Steudel. Tübingen, 1827. [The Importance of the Wirtemburg Seminary for Evangelical Theology, and the question of the advisableness of suppressing or reducing it, illustrated by Dr. J. C. F. Steudel. Tübingen, 1827.]

3. Ueber Predigerseminarien. Mit Berücksichtigung der zu Herborn, Loccum und Wittenberg vorhandenen, und in Bezug auf die Errichtung eines solchen im Grossherzogthum Baden. Von Th. W. Dittenberger, Litentiaten und Privat-docenten der Theologie an der Universitat zu Heidelberg. Heidelberg, 1835. [On Seminaries for Preachers,

with reference to those now existing at Herborn, Loccum, and Wittenberg, and the establishment of a similar one in the Grand Duchy of Baden. By Th. W. Dittenberger, &c., &c.]

4. Geschichte der geistlichen Bildungsanstalten. Mit einem Vorworte, enthaltend: Acht Tage im Seminar von St. Euseb. in Rom. Von Dr. Augustin Theiner. Mainz 1835. [see next work.]

5. Histoire des Institutions d'Education Ecclesiastique. Par Augustin Theiner, traduit de l'Allemand par Jean Cohen, Bibliothécaire à St. Geneviève, Paris, 1841. [In two volumes.]

6, 7. Assemblée Générale de la Société Evangélique de Genève. 5ième anniversaire. Genève, 1836. Gième anniversaire. Genève, 1837. 8. Outline of the Course of Study pursued by the Students of the Theological Seminary, Andover, in the department of Christian Theology, with references to the principal books in the library, pertaining to that department, for the use of the Students. Andover, 1830.

9. Laws of the Cincinnati Law Seminary. Cincinnati. [No date.] 10. Plan of the New York Theological Seminary, founded on the 18th of Jan. A.D. 1836. New York, 1837.

11. Laws for the government of the Protestant Dissenting College, at Homerton. Hackney, 1831.

12. Circular of the College Committee, appointed by the Commission of Synod of the Presbyterian Churches in England (professing the principles of the Free Church of Scotland) for the establishment of a Theological Seminary in London. London, 1844.

13. Congregational Magazine for Dec. 1844. [Document relating to the Congregational Theological Colleges of England and Wales, presented to the Congregational Union of England and Wales, at their 6th autumnal session, held at Norwich, Oct. 15th and 16th, 1844, and ordered to be printed.]

THE array of books and documents here enumerated, the dates of some of them, and the nature of others, will already have suggested to many of our readers that the object of this article is not so much to draw attention to their literary character, as to make use of them in connection with the present movement of the Congregational Union respecting their theolo gical schools. That there is such a movement we are devoutly thankful to Him who has the hearts of all men in his hands; and we shall look, with no small interest, for some effect from it upon our Baptist brethren, believing that the moral strength and influence of both denominations, and, consequently, the cause of that 'one faith' which we believe in common, would be considerably advanced by a judicious advance in this direction. That our colleges have hitherto received far less attention than they require or deserve, is a proposition which, though it will probably be questioned by some, can be satisfactorily proved.

It arises, partly, from causes which may be considered accidental; but is probably still more the result of wilful ignorance and prejudice.

The first and most obvious cause of this neglect (accidental, perhaps, as respects the ordinary members of our body, but not so as respects those whose duty it has been to urge the claims of our colleges upon our people), has been the want of any regular and efficient advocacy of their object, necessity and claims. The other hindrances are still more painful to mention. Of these the first and greatest, doubtless has been, the wilful ignorance which has existed among our people on the subject. That such ignorance receives any countenance from the principles of Congregationalism, in the larger acceptation of the term, we cannot for a moment admit. That these principles recognize the utter worthlessness of human learning without the teaching of the divine Spirit is indeed true; it is also true that they recognize the sufficiency of that teaching to qualify for some of the most essential relative duties of believers to each other: but they by no means recognize the sufficiency of the Spirit's teaching, as it is imparted to private individuals to discover to them the way of salvation, and as it is distinguished from the teaching granted, in the first age of the church, for public purposes, to qualify for all the duties of the christian ministry: neither do they take for granted, that there are such promises of official grace, in the form of special spiritual gift, as will justify pastors, teachers, or evangelists, in relying on the Spirit's teaching only without private diligence and study. It is also well known by those who have any knowledge on the subject, that the restorers of primitive independency were many of them among the most diligent and successful students of the very literature which it is the object of our colleges to promote; that the scholarship of Ainsworth, in the commencement of the seventeenth century, was worthily followed up by that of Owen, Goodwin, Caryl, Clarkson, Howe, and others, towards the close of it; and that the learning as well as the ability of the dissenting brethren (as the Independents were called) in the Westminster Synod, was the admiration of the whole assembly. The distrust of literature, which we sorrowfully admit has since appeared, here and there, in the Congregational body, is neither the consistent result of Congregational principles, nor the reproach of its more influential or useful ministers. It is in part the natural consequence of those difficulties which the laws of our country put in the way of nonconformist learning, by excluding dissenters from the national universities; and, for a time, forbidding them even to teach in any public or private school. On this subject, the document ad at the Norwich meeting gives some curious information;

as it does, also, respecting the means employed, after the Revolution, to preserve in our ministry that literary proficiency for which the Independents of the ejectment period were so honourably distinguished. The value of these means, inferior as it must be admitted they were to those at our command now, was evinced in the character and usefulness of the ministers they helped to produce. To such comparatively private academies we are indebted, in part, for Watts, Doddridge, and all the most valuable ministers who adorned the first half of the eighteenth century, and whose number would have been far greater, had not the difficulty of obtaining competent tutors, and the expense of providing for the maintenance of all their different institutions, which dissenters have always had to bear, in addition to the various charges levied on them in common with others, for the support of the national establishment, been too great for the times. Hence the academies, being one step further removed from the sympathies and affections of the people than the existing ministry was, were far too much. neglected; and those which have depended upon voluntary contributions, have at times had a very precarious subsistence. To this, however, another cause has, since the rise of methodism, in some degree contributed. It pleased God in that age of revival, to call out, in his providence, from the masses, various individuals who were endowed with remarkable gifts for addressing the multitudes on the great concerns of eternity; and it has required no small amount of experimental proof to convince the bulk of such as received their first impressions of divine things under an uneducated ministry, that the gifts which were adapted to awaken sinners were, in the order of means, insufficient for the permanent and growing edification of the church. Indeed, this is just the lesson those have yet to learn who are opposed to the education of the ministry. They suppose that the modicum of gifts which sufficed for the itinerant ministry of Whitefield's zealous companions, will carry a man honourably through all the duties of a stationary pastorate; that the knowledge which enabled the methodists of the last century to meet the various prejudices and objections of that shallow age would be found sufficient to meet all the emergencies and demands of this. Preposterous and lamentable delusion!

There is, we are sorry to say, one other cause by which the prejudice we have just attempted to expose has for some years past been confirmed. This is the unwarrantable manner in which our academical institutions have been, and still are, spoken of by some who have been invested with the sacred office among us. These persons are for the most part incompetent ministers, who having disgracefully neglected their acade