And there is not a more affecting and improving lesson in his history, not excepting its melancholy termination, than the conscientious record of his early dereliction from duty, the regret and mortification thus induced, and his subsequent and complete reformation. He dwells, with the bitterest self-reproach, upon this brief period of his life, nor attempts, even to himself, to qualify its folly by referring it to his youth, his circumstances, or any other palliative cause. In the struggle which succeeded the first conviction of his almost fatal error, between his old habits of thinking and his newly awakened sense of right, he seems well nigh to have yielded himself to despair; but the better purpose eventually triumphed.

"More than once," says he, "in the still hour of midnight, did I wander to the river's brink, with the rash resolution of there ending my troubles by a precipitate rush into a dread eternity! Eternity! ah! that was a word of fearful, untold import, and then it pealed upon my ear in terrible accents. Oh! if I could have read and believed then, what my heart so much wished was true, that death was an eternal sleep, I had not been here to record my presumptuous revellings. But no! the clear, deep stream before me, the slumbering dead beside me, the solemn silence of the night, so many audible voices, uttering, in unison with my own conscience, the alarming truth, After death comes the judgment! could I rush into the presence of a justly offended God, who seemed to be looking down upon me through every twinkling star that adorned the clear heavens? But there was the gently undulating river, and down, where the moonbeams seemed to be lost in the dark depths, I saw a grave where I fondly hoped I might be for ever, yes, for ever concealed! And is God not there? said a voice, which was heard above the conflicting, clamorous passions of my breast! I could not deny it, and nerving my heart, as for another dreaded combat, I sought again my bed."-pp. 30, 31.

Mr. Wright was first incited to self-examination by one of those eloquent appeals which characterize the preaching of his persuasion, and his most effectual religious impressions were derived from intercourse with its members. To them, therefore, he attached himself, though the circle of his sympathies extended far beyond the pale of any denomination. He was allied to many minds by the bond of a common interest in various benevolent and intellectual objects. And to these connexions he frequently and fondly reverts in his

diary. It was his intention, and he had in fact prepared himself, to follow the business of a printer; but, as his native propensities unfolded, he readily yielded to their dictates, seconded as they were by a deep sense of duty, and prepared himself for the Christian ministry. The brief term of his practice in the profession was marked by the strong attachment of those among whom he labored, and, on the other hand, by the expansion and improvement of his mind and feelings. It was at about this period that he seems most perfectly to have enjoyed that quiet happiness and pure satisfaction, which the consciousness of usefulness and growth never fails to inspire. Possessed of good native powers, and having a happy share of the poetical temperament with an active and liberal spirit, he deservedly gained upon the affections of all with whom he was in any wise connected.

The Missionary enterprise in Africa was brought more immediately before Mr. Wright in his capacity of editor of a religious journal. He inquired and reflected upon the subject until it deeply interested him. He saw, in its prospective fruits, a rare combination of useful and happy results; and, in proportion as his mind delighted in conteinplating the probable effects and present circumstances of the mission, he seems to have desired, and finally to have felt impelled, to make Liberia the scene of his efforts. There was much in this noble purpose wbich harmonized with his native sentiments, and every thing that his Christian principle approved. Yet he was not insensible to the dangers and discouragements of the undertaking. These he appears to have realized, in anticipation, to a remarkable degree, considering the vein of idealism which belonged to his very nature. The enthusiasm of philanthropy, while it rendered the distant prospect cheerful, did not blind him to the extent of the sacrifice he was about to make. On the contrary, his sufferings, up to the time that the plan was definitely arranged, were extreme; and the touching manner, in which he describes his last visits to the paternal oof and the habitations of his friends, evidences his sense of the privileges he was thus about to renounce.

"The feelings of Mr. Wright on this occasion, and subsequent to it," says the author, "may be inferred best from the following passage of his journal, dated at midnight of October 2d. - For a few moments, after an evening of confusion,

I am left alone to commune with my own heart. Yesterday I visited Malden, and bade my beloved friends farewell! Many were the tears we shed; and many the blessings they craved on my unworthy head. It was one of the most trying moments of my life. God bless this affectionate people! I cannot cease to pray that I may yet return to their embrace. This evening my friends have called to take their leave, and we have said farewell, and pressed many a trembling hand, until our hands and hearts both ache! I would have been spared this scene. Separation is a bitter drop in the cup of friendship, but the nectar is sweeter when the poison is no more. My mind I find wonderfully sustained at this moment; and I feel a longing for that hour when my feet shall press the blood-wet ground of Africa. Over the sepulchre of a thousand pleasing, fond realities, I must write

"The beautiful is vanished and returns not."''

His voyage was safely accomplished; he had already begun to acquaint himself with the character of the people whom he hoped to influence; many events of interest and incitements to hope combined to cheer him, and his journal betokens the alacrity with which he commenced the work so long anticipated. A few weeks passed, and the partner alike of his joys and sorrows, hopes and fears, fell a victim to the African fever. Ere long he, too, sunk under a relapse of the same disease; to the moment of complete exhaustion evincing, by his own recorded thoughts, that resigned, hopeful, peaceful state of feeling which springs only from the "faith touching all things with hues of heaven." In view of such incidents, who will not sympathize in the beautiful termination of the volume?

"No! weep not for him! He but rose to his rest,
From his own loved land of the fervid line,
With his silvery sheaves of the dawn all gleaned
Ere bright dews blazoned the noon's decline;
He shall toil, with tears, in the gloom of a dim
Lone harvest no more; -oh weep not for him!

"And weep not for her! they have laid the dust
Of the early exile so softly away,
In the pleasant shade of the plantain-tree,
That the Judgment angels who seek that day
The jewels of glory, will scarcely stir

weep not for her!

Weep not! In the home where the sinless meet,
Lingers no lonely yearning for this, -

As the pilgrims sorrowed (and smiled the while)

In dreams, o'er the visions of vanished bliss:

No sorrow enters that radiant realm,

No mourning, no yearning; - oh weep not for them!"

- pp. 121, 222. Such is the outline of this memoir. There are those, perhaps, who will behold in the enterprise of these missionaries a zeal which overcame even just discretion. They will deem it almost presumptuous for two individuals, natives of the Northern States, to have expected immunity from consequences like that which so soon and so sadly terminated their existence. Let it, however, be remembered, that Mr. Wright's devotion to the cause he had espoused was not only instinct with ardor; it was calm and deliberate. The purpose he cherished, and in the advancement of which he found a premature grave, was a holy purpose. And the fact, that his ministry of love was thus early consummated, his martyr's crown thus early won, should lead us, in contemplating his character, to think more earnestly upon its leading principle, upon that feature which death itself served more perfectly to develope, we mean the spirit of self-sacrifice.

The devotion of self to something beyond self, and yet for the sake of self, this philosophy recognises as an universal law. The leaf which sinks into the earthy bed whence it originated, only to assume a renewed form of life; the dew-drop that cools the drooping petal only to be borne thence on a sunbeam to its parent cloud; the animal which loses its identity beneath the sod, only to pour into other channels its ever varying beauty and being, all are but faintly typical of the sacrificial spirit of the universe.

And if we ascend to human offerings, the eye but dimly discerns the power, interest, and extent of sacrifice. The mother, what does she devote at affection's shrine? Is it nought but strength, ease, and time? How much more of feeling, serenity, and thought! The philanthropist, is not his toil, weariness, and wearing-away, but as dust in the balance, when compared to the sentiment and inward energy which he profusely expends for man's welfare? The studious devotee,-number his hours of confinement, the

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throbs of his aching brow, the beatings of his fevered pulse, and then descend into that excited, watching, sensitive spirit of his, and view the numberless visions of fancy, the eager yearnings of ambition, the unfathomable depths of desire, which people with latent disappointments, with restless and destroying elements, the inner-world of his idolatry.

A holy, fondly-nurtured hope is the sustaining principle; -the hope of eminent usefulness and honor; the hope of standing among the moral heights of the world to draw down. the renovating influences of heaven. And when such a hope is checked or extinguished ere fully accomplished, the philosophy of improvement bids us remember that the philanthropic impulse, the determinate spirit, the noble intent it is ours to cherish; the occasion will proceed from him who prompts the sacrifice.

The source and end of the self-denying principle consists in its relation to the highest forms of spiritual force and activity. It is identical both as an evidence and result with power, - power of the most exalted character. Nothing truly great was ever effected without it. And the vigor and prowess of that spirit is indeed untested, which is a stranger to the trial, the strength-giving, joy-enkindling influences of holy self-sacrifice.

NOTICES AND INTELLIGENCE.

The Sunday Library for Young Persons. Edited by the Rev. HENRY WARE, JR. - Vol. I. The Life of the Saviour. By HENRY WARE, JR., Professor of Pulpit Eloquence and the Pastoral Care in Harvard University. Second Edition. Cambridge James Munroe & Co. 1834. 16mo. pp. 272. Vol. II. Lives of Philanthropists. Volume I. JOHN HOWARD. By Mrs. JOHN FARRAR, Author of " Congo in Search of his Master, "The Children's Robinson Crusoe, " and "The Story of the Life of Lafayette." Cambridge: Brown, Shattuck, & Company. 1833. 16mo. pp. 274.- Vol. III. The Holy Land and its Inhabitants. By S. G. BULFINCH. Cambridge James Munroe & Company. 1834. 16mo. pp. 298.

These little books, as many of our readers know, make the first three of a series, edited by Prof. Henry Ware, Jr., having for