and which always encounters the resolute resistance of souls that prize their independence, by which it is attempted to bring a moral and social influence from one community or country to bear upon the manners, customs, or institutions of another. So constant and so rapid is the tide of reform, that artificial means are not needed to accelerate it. We may safely rely upon the conviction, that, before long, it will everywhere be thought desirable, as the only means of drawing forth the beauties and the riches of nature in all their fulness and glory, to commit the earth to the untrammelled possession and management of the elastic, progressive, and creative spirit of a free and intelligent industrial population. That land only can have its natural capacities thoroughly and completely developed, which is cultivated under the stimulus and with the energy that belong to him who looks over the acres that smile and bloom beneath the labors of his own hands, and, while he looks, can call them his own. This truth is evolved by all the processes of education, and is uttered by all the voices of human experience. It is the result of every analysis to which the laws of the mind may be subjected, and is the solemn lesson proclaimed in the miseries and woes that have gathered in blackness, deepening every day, over the countries of the Old World, whose institutions are based upon its violation. The time will come, when the noble and fertile regions of our country, now suffering for the want of its life-giving and life-renewing influence, will be regenerated into their original fertility, and overflow with prosperity, by the magic which resides in the combination where labor and possession are united in the same perGreat will be the happiness, and bright the glory, of those statesmen, patriots, and philanthropists, who may have the felicity to suggest, and the wisdom and bravery to carry out to its successful issue, a consummation so devoutly to be wished.

son.

But whoever they may be, they must rise up from the midst of the community whose institutions they are destined to reform. The renovation or amelioration of a people can be effected only by an influence proceeding from its own bosom. The idea of enforcing alterations in the laws or frame of society of a country by an interference or agency of any kind proceeding from without, it matters not whether it be in the form of physical or of moral force, is as prepos

terous as it is overbearing, as inefficient to accomplish its end as it is derogatory of the rights of man. It is, indeed, a violation of the nature of the mind, of the great moral laws by which it is governed. In his circular to the diplomatic agents of the French republic, Lamartine says that "there is no durable freedom for any nation, but that which grows of itself, on its own soil." Upon this principle he refused to allow France to assume the attitude of a propagandist of republicanism throughout other nations. In taking this ground, he saved the cause at the time. If he adheres to it, and succeeds in maintaining it, he will place his name, where none can be inscribed above it, among the benefactors of France and of the world. The principle is essential to the progress as well as the peace of mankind. The rightful influence which the experiments of reformed institutions and an improved social organization, if left to their own natural action, would exert, are all paralyzed and perverted by impatient and intermeddling agitators. The course they pursue and the spirit in which they pursue it, instead of opening the hearts of those who need a remedial influence to receive it, array them in armour to resist it, and build walls of separation between sections and classes, which, if the bond of mutual love could be kept bright and strong, would be spontaneously and gladly engaged in the delightful intercommunication of improvements, and in lifting each other upward in a true Christian civilization. Whoever reads the histories of the various European colonies planted on this continent will find them alike most instructive on this point. All the plans, schemes, and efforts of governments or companies on the other side of the Atlantic, however carefully devised, or however prompted by wisdom, benevolence, or piety, utterly failed, and the only beneficial and permanently successful enterprises and movements were such as originated among, and were conducted to their issues by the wants, the experience, and the intelligence of the Colonists themselves.

We have but one more reflection to offer in connection with the works before us, and others belonging to the same department. The European colonies planted in America enjoyed peculiar advantages in a removal from the burdens and the clogs of superannuated institutions, in the clear and wide field before them, and in various other circumstances growing out of their condition; but it has been only through

the trying experience of two hundred years that the social and political organizations they gradually established, and which constitute the States of the American Union, have attained to the degree of capacity for self-government they now exhibit. And things are not yet adjusted among us, in all respects, according to the pattern at which we aim. There are still conflicting elements, that must be removed before order and peace are perfected. We have no doubt, indeed, that the main body of the structure of our political system may justly claim to be considered as resting on a firm and immovable foundation. The fact, as a leading foreign journal has recently admitted, that from all the most distant bounds of our confederacy, over all its surface, in all its latitudes, and from shore to shore, if the continuance of the Federal Union were put to vote, there would be one clear, loud, and unanimous affirmative response, settles the question of the essential and durable adaptation of the government to the people of the country. The substantial framework may be regarded as placed beyond peril and beyond change. Still, we occasionally behold clouds gathering in our sky, and sometimes sounds of discontent and apprehension are heard rising from different quarters. The lesson our Colonial and subsequent history teaches is, that we ought not to indulge in sanguine and extravagant expectations in reference to the cause of liberty and reform abroad. If two hundred years of severe, constant, and often critical discipline, with all our Cisatlantic advantages, have been required to bring us to the still far from perfect point we have yet reached, we cannot reasonably expect that by a single bound other nations will be able to reach it. The crowded millions of Europe, with their popular ignorance, utter inexperience, long and deeply aggravated spirit of discontent, inextricable entanglements and encumbrances, and discordant elements, have a weary and a thorny road to traverse before they can enter upon the promised land. It is only after a long and anxious voyage over a stormy sea, that the political system of the Old World can cast anchor in the peaceful and secure haven of freedom, order, and union. Years- nay, is it not more probable, centuries? will elapse, before the agitation of the waves produced by the demolition of feudalism and the rising of a new form of society, in accordance with the flexible genius of commercial enterprise and the free spirit of

political equality, will completely subside. Instead of being repelled from our allegiance to republican liberty because its pursuit and its operation in the countries beyond the Atlantic may be accompanied by much confusion, tumult, and violence, let us be prepared for such temporary results. The Old World has reached a crisis in which, for some time to come, there can be no more tranquillity. Monarchical institutions have lost their once supposed power to give security, peace, and prosperity. They are cracked and seamed "from turret to foundation-stone." They are crumbling and falling, and as they fall, they spread destruction more or less around them. Occasionally we shall be startled by the crash, and clouds of dust will darken the air. It is an inevitable and a necessary process. A new and fairer structure will, by and by, appear over the ruins. But it will not rise in a day. Like the ancient cathedrals of Christendom, it may exhaust the labors of generations. In the mean time it becomes us, by fidelity to our own republic, to keep the model to which they all turn, and by which they must all work, fair and bright before their eyes.

ART. III.1. The Works of the English Reformers, WILLIAM TYNDALE and JOHN FRITH. Edited by THOMAS RUSSELL, A. M. London: Ebenezer Palmer. 1831. 3 vols. 8vo.

2. The Annals of the English Bible. By CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON. London: William Pickering. 1845. 2 vols. 8vo.

THERE are many points connected with the history of the Reformation which have not as yet received sufficient attention. Considered as affecting the masses of the people, and as influenced by them in its early progress, the Reformation is a subject which, notwithstanding its importance, is very imperfectly understood. Connected with this, and of almost equal importance, is the history of the opposition to the Church of Rome in preceding centuries, and this also has never been satisfactorily treated. But to do complete justice to these topics would require the highest qualifications in an historian.

There is another point, however, which has been too much neglected, although more easily treated and possessing a more general interest, the personal history of the Reformers. On that of some few of the most prominent among them much study, it is true, has been bestowed. But there were men who devoted their lives and gave the strength of their minds and their hearts to the cause of the Reformation with a patient and holy zeal, men who "counted it an honor to suffer for their duty, and blessed God for keeping them firm under trials," who, if they have done nothing else deserving our gratitude, have left us a rich legacy in the memory of their lives, and yet in these later times have been almost forgotten. "The light which they shed upon the world should be reflected back upon themselves." It is but suitable that we, who are reaping the blessings which have sprung from their labors, should cherish their remembrance and honor their example.

To none of these men do we owe more than to William Tyndale, the chief of the English Reformers. He was born (probably) in 1485, the year in which Henry VII. came to the throne.* The Romish Church was never to appearance more firmly established in England than at this period. The religious dissensions which had burned high during the first fifty years of the century, and the spirit of reform which had then been prevalent, were extinguished in the horrors of the civil wars, and at the time when Henry VII. became king, the number of open heretics was vastly smaller than it had been a hundred years before. The king made close alliance with the Pope, and all classes seemed content in submitting to his authority. But the foundations of the Church were, nevertheless, insecure; the period of its worst oppressions and abuses was running out, and the man who was to do more than all others to overthrow its influence in England was already born.

The family of Tyndale had for many years resided in Gloucestershire, and probably possessed property, as the earliest notice which we have of the Reformer is of his being sent to Oxford, where he was brought up from childhood. The materials for the narrative of his early years are unfortu

*There is some doubt with regard to the year of his birth. It was either 1484, 1485, or 1486, probably 1485.