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takes up and answers the objection of the Pagans in due form. The next four books proceed on the offensive, carrying the war into the enemy's camp. Augustine here proves to the Pagans that while their religion prevailed, it was of no benefit to the human race, either socially, morally, or physically; that what of virtue or happiness remained to Rome under its bloody exactions, came rather in spite of it, than by its means. And as Paganism could do nothing for its votaries in temporal things, the author proceeds to show, in the next five books, that it could do even less in spiritual things; that as it was valueless in respect to the blessings of this life, it was worse than that in its bearing on the life to come.

The remaining twelve books have more of a theological character. Some of them seem almost prophetical. Augustine describes the Civitatem Dei, the kingdom of Christ, as a state older than that founded by Romulus, wider in its conquests, mightier in its power, firmer in its eternal foundations, and more majestic in its final triumphs. He carries forward the history of this kingdom, under both dispensations, from the beginning, to the time at which he wrote; and from that point, proceeds to point out its issues in the coming ages, and in eternity. He gives a description of the final judgment, and of the everlasting miseries of the wicked, and happiness of the righteous, in the future world. He closes with a delightful view of the glories awaiting the city of God, in this life, and for ever.

This work was one of great importance, not only in its immediate effects, but in the influence which it exerted through all the Middle Ages, and which it continues to exert to the present time. Since the revival of letters, it has been often published, and translated into most of the languages of Europe. In the language of another, "the rhythmic character of the work; the wave of imagination on which its narrative and its argument, its historic illustrations and its nice analogies, its sad review of follies, superstitions, and errors seem to be borne; the fervour of its piety, if not the glow of its prophecy; the changes of tone from the minor key of a funeral strain, to the triumphant vision of Christian victory—all justify us in classing it as among the greatest epics of the world. In the light

of subsequent history, it seems one long prediction of the triumphs of the cross."

The eighth, ninth, and tenth volumes of Augustine contain his controversial writings, of which so much has been said already. The ninth is wholly occupied with his publications against the Donatists, and the tenth with his more important works on the Pelagian and Semi-Pelagian controversies. The eleventh volume is appropriately devoted to Appendices, Indices, and other helps, for the convenient consulting of the previous works.

In person, Augustine is represented as tall and slender, of a fair complexion, with a thoughtful countenance, and a full and brilliant eye. In the character of his mind, he united, in a high degree, the intellectual and the emotional-traits which are not often found conjoined in the same person. That he had an exuberant imagination, and an active, profound, and farseeing intellect, no one conversant with his writings can doubt. And as little can it be doubted that he was a man of deep and earnest feeling. In his Confessions, particularly, his irrepres sible emotions bubble up and boil over, all the way. It was these characteristics, combined with a devoted piety and an iron diligence, which made him the great reformer and pulpit orator of his age, and enabled him so to sound the gospel trump, that its echo has reverberated through all the intervening ages, to the present time.

As a man, Augustine was distinguished by simplicity of dress and manners, temperance in eating and drinking, and meekness and patience under sufferings and injuries. In some things, he showed a monkish self-denial, which was as congenial to his own age, as it is foreign to ours. Thus he was afraid to enjoy the pleasures of music; and was careful to have his food so prepared as to be distasteful to him, lest he should indulge himself too freely, and enjoy it too much. He was so careful not to speak evil of the absent, and not to encourage others in doing so, that he had the following distich engraven on his table: "Far from this table be the worthless guest

Who wounds another's fame, though but in jest."

He was ever diligent in business. Not a moment of his time Indeed, from the number and variety of his

was wasted.

works, it must have been so. He attended many councils, in which he ever took a leading part, and distinguished himself always in defence of sound doctrine, and the established order and discipline of the church. In introducing others into the ministry, he was careful to follow the directions of Christ, and to consult the wishes of those for whom pastors were to be provided. He was conscientiously attentive to the wants of the poor, and was prompt to relieve them, either from the revenues of the church, or the oblations of the charitable, which had been committed to his hands. He kept himself, says Possidonius, who knew him well, entirely disconnected from the world, owned neither house nor land, sat at the same table with his pupils and clergy, and improved the opportunity, not so much for sensual indulgence, as for religious instruction and improvement.

Augustine lived to see Northern Africa overrun, and his beloved Hippo besieged by the ruthless Vandals. In the prospect of approaching trials and sufferings, it was his daily prayer, either that God would deliver the city, or that he would give his servants grace to endure all that might be inflicted, or that he might himself be taken out of the world. In the last particular, and we hope in the two last, his prayer was heard. In the third month of the siege, which lasted fourteen months in all, Augustine was seized with a fever which terminated his life. He died, A. D. 429, in the seventy-sixth year of his age, and the fortieth of his ministry. During his last sickness, he had David's penitential Psalms inscribed on the wall, where he could see them constantly; and for several days before he expired, he desired to be left alone as much as possible, that he might give himself wholly to devotion. As he had neither lands nor money to bequeath, he left no will. He gave his library to the church.

Between Augustine and the Apostle Paul, there were some strong points of resemblance. Both had been virulent enemies of the gospel, in their younger days. Both had been arrested by omnipotent grace, had been deeply convinced of sin, and had been thoroughly renewed and changed. Both could say from the heart: "I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. Old things

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have passed away with me, and all things have become spiritually new." They resembled each other in the character of their minds; and after conversion, both became the heralds and champions of the same system of doctrines-the doctrines of grace. It was Paul's vocation, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, to combat the errors of his times, and lay down a platform of evangelical doctrine, which can never be destroyed. And in a time of general declension, when these doctrines had been obscured, and dead formalism was rising up to take their place, it was Augustine's vocation to combat the errors of his times, and bring back the doctrines of the great apostle to something like their original place and purity.

And it was from these joint wells of salvation that the Reformers of the sixteenth century drew living water. Luther and Calvin, with their co-labourers and coadjutors, had steeped themselves in the theology of Augustine and of Paul, and in their preaching and controversies, appealed to the former almost as frequently as to the latter. It is thus that Augustine holds a middle place between the Apostles and the Reformers. Augustine and the Reformers sustain the wires, over which the electric current of truth passes down from the apostles to the present time.

We would not be understood as ascribing a supernatural inspiration to Augustine, or as endorsing every expression or every sentiment which occurs in his voluminous works. Far from it. But we have no hesitation in saying, that probably no one man has lived since the days of Paul, the influence of whose writings upon the religious world has been so great, so enduring, and on the whole so happy, as those of the renowned Bishop of Hippo.

ART. IV. Examination of some Reasonings against the Unity

of Mankind.

NO CHARLES F HoDe IN 1839 Dr. Morton published his "Crania Americana," a description of the skulls of American Indians. These skulls belonged to individuals of "more than forty Indian nations," extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the southern extremity of the continent to the northern polar circle. The most important ethnological conclusion which the author deduced from his comparisons was, that except the Esquimaux, all the aborigines of America, including the northern tribes, with the Mexicans, Brazilians, Peruvians, and others of the south, belonged to one race, or had been derived from one common stock. It is well to bear in mind this broad and momentous conclusion.

In 1844 appeared the "Crania Egyptica," by the same author. In this work, from an examination of ancient and modern skulls of the eastern continent, he undertook to determine other races, totally distinct from the American, as also from each other.

The catalogue of skulls examined and compared in these works, amounting to 643 in number, was published in 1849; in it was given also an exhibition of their maximum, minimum, and mean capacity, in cubic inches, ascertained with great care. A little earlier, Dr. Morton had published his "Distinctive Characteristics of the Aboriginal race of America."

These several works attracted great attention, and awakened a deep interest. For this there were two reasons, first, because they involved a vast amount of labour and study; secondly, because they contained a positive denial of the unity of the human race, and particularly of its having originated from one human pair. Dr. Morton's views upon this subject were fully exhibited in an "Essay on the Varieties of the Human Species," prefixed to the "Crania Americana," which fills ninety

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