Fichte and Teufelsdröckh contrasted with the Old Mystics. 389 utterances of the Montanuses, the Münzers, the Engelbrechts, the Hildegards, the Theresas. But what saith History as to mysticism? Very plainly she tells us that the mystics have been a power in the world, and a power for good, in proportion as their teaching has been in accordance with the Bible;-that the instances wherein they have failed have been precisely those in which they have attempted (whether wittingly, or not) to substitute another and a private revelation for it. They have come as a blessing to their age, just in proportion as they have called the attention of men to some of the deepest lessons of that book-to lessons too commonly overlooked. The very men who might seem, to superficial observers, to bear witness. against the Bible, do in reality utter the most emphatic testimony for it. A fact of this nature lends additional importance to the history of mysticism at the present time.

Again, there are some who may suppose there is a real resemblance between the exhortations of Tauler, and the counsel given men by such philosophers as Fichte, or Herr Teufelsdröckh. Do not both urge men to abandon introspections to abstain from all self-seeking-to arise and live in the transcendental world, by abandoning hope and fear, and by losing our finite in an Infinite Will? Some similarity of sound there may occasionally be, but the antipathy of principle between the two kinds of teaching is profound and radical.

We will suppose that there comes to our Teufelsdröckh some troubled spirit, full of the burden of this unintelligible world,' questioning,-as to an oracle. The response is ready. What do you come whining to me about your miserable soul for? The soul-saving business is going down fast enough 'now-a-days, I can tell you. So you want to be happy, do 'you? Pining after your Lubberland, as usual,-your Millennium of mere Ease and plentiful supply. Poor wretch! let me tell you this,-the very fact of that hunger of yours proves 'that you will never have it supplied. Your appetite, my friend, 'is too enormous. In this wild Universe of ours, storming-in, vague-menacing, it is enough if you shall find, not happiness, but existence and footing to stand on, and that only by 'girding yourself for continual effort and endurance. I was wretched enough once-down in the Everlasting Nay,' thinking this a Devil's-world, because, in the universal scramble of myriads for a handful, I had not clutched the happiness I set my heart on. Now, here I am in the Ever'lasting Yea,' serene as you see me. How? Simply by 'giving up wanting to be happy, and setting to work, and resigning myself to the Eternities, Abysses, or whatsoever

' other name shall be given to the fontal Vortices of the inner 'realms. . . . Miracles! Fiddlestick! Are not you a miracle 6 to your horse? What can they prove? . . . . Inspiration!— 6 Try and get a little for yourself, my poor friend. Work, 6 man: go work, and let that sorry soul of thine have a little 'peace.'

'Peace,' repeats our 'poor friend,' as he goes discomfited away. Peace! the very thing this soul of mine will not let me have, as it seems. I know I am selfish. I dare say this 'desire of happiness is very mean and low, and all that; but "I I would fain reach something higher. Yet the first step 'thereto he does not show me. To leap into those depths of stoical apathy which that great man has reached, is simply impossible to poor me. His experience is not mine. He 'tells a bedridden man to climb the mountains, and he will 'straightway be well. Let him show me the way to a little 'strength, and in time I may. I will not hunger any more ' after mere 'lubberly enjoyment,' if he will offer my affections 'something more attractive. But Infinite Will, and Law, and Abysses, and Eternities, are not attractive-nay, I am not sure that they are intelligible to me, or any mortal.'

Now the doctrine of Tauler is nowhere more in contrast with that just uttered than in its tenderness of Christian sympathy and adaptation, as compared with the dreary and repellent pride of the philosopher. Instead of overwhelming the applicant by absurdly demanding, as the first step, a sublimity of self-sacrifice which only the finished adept may attain, Tauler is not too proud to begin at the beginning. Disinterested love is, with him, a mountain to which he points in the distance, bright with heavenly glory. Disinterested love, with Teufelsdröckh, is an avalanche hurled down right in the path of the beginner. Tauler does not see, in the unhappiness of the man, so much mere craven fear, or thwarted selfishness. He sees God's image in him; he believes that that hunger of his soul, which he vainly tries to satisfy with things earthly, is a divine craving, a proof that he was born to satisfy it with things heavenly. He does not talk grandiloquently about Duty, and the glory of moral Freedom. He tells him that the same Saviour who died upon the cross, is pleading and knocking at his heart, and doth passionately long to bless him. He sends him away to think over this fact, till it shall become more real to him than house and home, or sun and stars. He does not think that he can improve on the low morality' of the gospel by disdaining to appeal to hope and fear in order to snatch men from their sins. If so to plead be to speak after

The New Government for the Principalities.

391 the flesh, after the flesh he will speak to save a brother. There will be time enough, he thinks, if God sees fit to lead the man to the heights of absolute self-loss; and God will take his own way to do it. All Tauler has to do is to declare to him the truth concerning a Saviour, not to prescribe out of his own experience a law beyond that which is written. In this way, instead of striking him into despair, or bidding him bury care in work, he comforts and strengthens him. He does not despise him for keeping the law simply out of love to Him who gave it. He does not think it unmanly, but true manhood rather, when he sees him living, a suppliant, dependent on a life higher than his own-on a Person, whose present character and power were attested of old by history and miracle, as well as now by the witness of the Spirit.'

We think the candid reader of these sermons, and of Sartor Resartus, will admit that a difference in substance such as we have pointed out, does exist between them. If so, those who follow the philosophy of Teufelsdröckh cannot claim Taulerhave no right to admire him, and ought to condemn in him that which they condemn in the Christianity of the present day.

ART. IV.-(1.) A Revised Firman of the Turkish Government, convoking a Divan in each of the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. 1857.

(2.) The Second Congress, and the Russian Claim to the Isle of Serpents and Bolgrad. By J. W. WILKINS, LL.B., of Lincoln's Inn; late Fellow Commoner of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Second Edition. Ridgway. 1857.

THE adjustment of the difficulties and the fulfilment of the obligations immediately arising under the Treaty of Paris, during the last three months, have now left but a single controversy, relating to the reconstruction of the Turkish Empire, for the decision of the European Powers. The clouds which, towards the close of the last year, seemed again to be gathering round the East of Europe, have in the interval been rapidly dispelled. The settlement of the Russian claims to the Isle of Serpents and Bolgrad has been followed by a faithful redemption of the pledges which had been understood to be contingent upon that settlement. The Russo-Turkish boundary line in Bessarabia has been drawn without the provocation of any further controversy; and

the Russian troops have already evacuated both the Bolgrads. The Austrian forces are rapidly quitting the Principalities which, since the conclusion of peace, they only professed to hold as a counterpoise to the hostile demonstrations of Russia at the mouth of the Danube. This necessary prelude to any free expression of opinion on the part of the Moldo-Wallachian people is now on the verge of being fully attained; and we are at length about to enter practically on the question of the reconstruction of their Government.

For this important question, therefore-that of the forthcoming constitution for the two trans-Danubian Principalitieswe now claim a brief attention. The subject is one of some inherent perplexity; and this original difficulty has been largely increased, first, by the special and conflicting interests which the principal Powers of Europe possess in its settlement; and, secondly, by the open avowal, on the part of the French Government, of a line of policy directly opposed to the views of several of the parties to the Treaty of Paris. The social constitution of these two provinces, and the complicated internal relations arising out of it, involved in themselves the deepest forethought and consideration. We had to deal on the one hand with an intriguing aristocracy, a grasping prelacy, and a still more rapacious monastic community. On the other, we had to raise the condition of a people ground down by the binal corruption of State and Church, into a condition approximating to an enjoyment of social freedom. We had to arrange these relations in such a manner that they should combine popular freedom and the existing rights of property, without producing the disaffection of either class from the Turkish Government. In addition to these objects, we were compelled to hold in view a development of the intellectual professions in such a manner that it should fail fatally to offend the prepossessions of the superior class; and to provide for the means of calling into action the elements of commerce which exist in the two Principalities, by means both of mercantile settlements and territorial colonization.

These necessities, in themselves, may fairly tax the intellect of men versed in every phasis of modern statesmanship. But independently of the purely internal relations of the MoldoWallachian people, we shall have to bear in mind the necessity of conforming opinions on the form of Government most expedient in the abstract, to what the interests of each of the Seven Powers may render practicable. A conflict of interest-though not, we hope, a serious conflict of policy-is likely to prevail upon grounds quite independent of the Turkish Empire itself,

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from considerations of trade, and of the influences of popular government on the contiguous territories of Powers recognising a despotic code, even where it fails to spring from the worst intrigues (such as those with which we have been already threatened), by persons individually interested in the future Government. This complexity, it is to be feared, has been increased by the circumstance of the French Government having prejudged the question of the Union of the two Principalities, on which it was understood that the votes of the Powers who were parties to the Treaty of Paris would be reserved until after the expression of an opinion had been obtained from the two Divans already convoked by the Sultan.

We have entered upon these observations in order to show that any expectation of carrying out the general opinion of this country upon all the questions that must arise, will be purely chimerical. We shall be content if we succeed in instituting a system which shall interpose an effectual barrier between Russia and the South-Danubian provinces of Turkey, and shall also offer some security for the development of a country so fertile as that of Moldo-Wallachia.

Before we proceed to deal with the merits of the principal questions which will have to be determined, it may be well to show what will be the probable course of deliberation, and in what degree the actual procedure will conform to the theory of the treaty itself, under which the people of the two provinces are allowed a voice in the arrangement.

We by no means share the regret which has been occasionally expressed in this country, that the Moldo-Wallachians now appear likely to exert so slight an influence over the formation of their future government. The very difficulty to which we have adverted as arising from the complexity of their social constitution, would peculiarly obstruct the general concurrence of the nation. in any wise and comprehensive scheme. Nothing, at the same time, could be more politic or more just, than that representatives from each of the different classes should be required to express their respective opinions; both because the Commissioners of the Seven Powers, charged with the actual drawing-up of the Constitution, will thus obtain the best index of the actual wishes of the community, and because the deliberation of these Divans will tend generally to the eliciting of facts necessary to the formation of their judgment. But it is clear that the prejudice and intolerance of the higher class, both noble and religious, and the ignorance of the peasantry, would render it impossible for us to expect of them any comprehensive designs founded upon grounds of general interest. The terms of the former Firman