sponsibility consist in not honestly and fully examining the evidence presented to them. Man's beliefs are not formed for him by outward circumstances, but they are formed by him from the examination of evidence, and, therefore, he cannot be said to be the creature of circumstances. 2. The statement that man is the creature of circumstances is directly opposed to the doctrine of man's free agency. That man is a free agent is a fact of consciousness. All the proceedings of a civil government rest on the assumption that man is a free agent. "All political discussion, whether speculative or practical, constantly assumes that man is a self-moving agent, that he determines his own will, that he has the power of choosing or rejecting any given course of conduct, and that he is responsible for his own acts." It is evident, too, from observation, that men act in accordance with this principle of their nature; for no course of conduct would be pursued, no pursuit engaged in, did they think they had no power over external circumstances. Men believe that they have the power to form opinions, cherish dispositions, engage in business, and continue determinations; and this belief is a powerful stimulus to action. Miller, Faraday, and Oersted are eminent examples of men who have obtained lasting reputations, and that in spite of adverse circumstances. Great actions spring from this belief. Luther, when cited to appear at the Diet of Worms, and advised by his friends not to go, said, "I am called in the name of God to go, and I would go, though I were certain to meet as many devils in Worms as there are tiles on the houses." All the efforts made to reclaim the vicious and instruct the ignorant proceed on the fact of man being a moral and accountable being. It were useless to attempt to elevate the masses of the community, were they wholly the creatures of circumstances. The British Controversialist, too, is based on the fact that men possess the power of forming opinions, by comparing and judging conflicting evidence. Self-culture would be an impossibility, on the assumption that man is the creature of circumstances. "The whole language of men," says Price, "all their practical sentiments and schemes, and the whole frame of human affairs, are founded upon the notion of liberty, and are utterly inconsistent with the supposition that nothing is made to depend upon ourselves, or that our purposes and determinations are not subjected to our own command, but the result of an invincible natural necessity."+ In proportion as the doctrine of responsibility is unacknow ledged, is vice prevalent, honour disregarded, and the dignity of man lowered. As it pervades the minds of individuals, and is G. Cornewall Lewis's "Politics," chap. xxiii., § 10. † Price's "Review of Principal Question," chap. viii. felt by nations, is man ennobled, society progressive, and truth triumphant. Those who maintain that man is the creature of circumstances, and hence not responsible for his beliefs, dispositions, or actions, have to prove 1. That all our ideas are derived from sensation. 2. That all our volitions have an objective cause, not a part of, or dependent upon, ourselves. 3. That spontaneity is no part of the constitution of man. 4. That conscience is not the principle of moral approbation and disapprobation-the great regulative power which governs, restrains, and directs all the affections and passions. "So long as Mr. Owen," says Morell, "in common with the rest of the sensationalists, performs the real mission of this school of philosophy, by pointing out the importance of attending to the influence which outward things exert upon the mind and character, he is to be admired and applauded; but when he drives his principles to an extreme, shaking the pillars of morals and religion, and involving all human things in one unalterable chain of fixed necessity, he presents another instance to be added to the many which have gone before, of the absurdities into which those men invariably fall, who devote their whole life to the expansion of one idea, to the neglect of everything else.”* W. * "Speculative Philosophy," by J. D. Morell, vol. i., part ii., chap. iv., p. 481. TIME, the most precious of all possessions, is commonly the least prized. It is, like health, regretted when gone, but rarely improved when present. We know it is irrecoverable, yet throw it wantonly away. We know it is fleet, yet fail to catch the current moment. It is the space of life, and while we never properly occupy its limits, we nevertheless murmur at their narrowness. It is the field of exertion, and while we continually leave it fallow, we yet sorrow over our stinted harvest. MIRTH.-Harmless mirth is the best cordial against the consumption of the spirits: wherefore jesting is not unlawful, if it trespasseth not in quantity, quality, or season.-Fuller. GOOD QUALITIES.-I have known some men possessed of good qualities which were very serviceable to others, but useless to themselves; like a sun-dial on the front of a house, to inform the neighbours and passengers, but not the owner within.Swift. ADVICE TO YOUNG MEN.-The best rules to form a young man are, to talk little, to hear much, to reflect alone upon what has passed in company, to distrust one's own opinions, and value others that deserve it.-Sir W. Temple. L History. IS THE CHARACTER OF QUEEN ELIZABETH AFFIRMATIVE ARTICLE.-II. Ir is said, with much truth, that actions are the indexes to character. "To judge of character," says our friend V. V., “we must look for its manifestations in the acts of the individual, and to the early impressions and education we may generally trace the foundation of the various traits exhibited in it." The experiences of daily life, in one form or other, and more or less strikingly, furnish ample evidences of the truth of this remark. Individuals, public and private, high and low, rich and poor, in every capacity, are esteemed and honoured, or despised and rejected, according to the virtuous or evil nature of their motives and actions. Nations and communities are distinguished for their morality, greatness, power, industry, and wealth, or reproached for their vices, ignorance, idleness, and poverty, only in proportion to the exalted or degraded position in which their rulers and people stand in the great scale of human character, and the facilities which they afford for the increase of trade and commerce, and improvement in the arts and sciences; the civil and religious privileges which they confer; their preservation of rights, and their redress of wrongs; their encouragement of the virtues, or, on the other hand, the incentives they create to the practices of indolence and immorality, by open example, or, what is equally as bad, by passive submission. And this wise and universal mode of estimating the characters of nations and people, and testing their merits or demerits, collectively or individually, bears with it, we think, rather than otherwise, a very beneficial influence; because, if the character of an individual is determined by his actions, and his happiness and position in society depend on the judgment formed of him, there exists an impulse for him to pursue such a course of conduct as is consistent with the highest state of moral rectitude, and as is desirable in all men having regard for the well-being of the state. We shall not depart from this process of estimating the qualities of individuals in our examination into the character of the subject of this discussion, the result of which will, we confidently believe, prove that the judgment we have formed in the affirmative of the question is based on a substantial foundation. 66 When Queen Elizabeth was called to the throne, and proclaimed Queen of England, the news was received by the people with the liveliest satisfaction and joy. The bells of all the churches were set ringing; tables were spread in the streets, where was plentiful eating and drinking and making merry ; and at night bonfires were lit in all directions, and the skies were reddened by flames which had not consumed human victims.' ""* A prisoner, guarded by soldiers in a miserable cell, she became at once a queen, surrounded by her nobles in a stately palace; and once in that exalted position,-a position to which she was entitled, not less by the will of her people than by hereditary right,-she swayed the regal sceptre with a firm hand, and exercised her prerogative with wisdom, mildness, justice, and impartiality—in a word, as a Queen; and yet, perhaps no prince or princess ever took possession of the throne with so many difficulties to encounter and overcome. France, Scotland, Spain, the Pope, and many of the neighbouring nations, were her open or secret enemies. Parties and factions, the majority of which were headed by popish bigots, threatened to disturb tranquillity at home; while many politicians, popular in the last reign, were unwilling to conform to her principles of government, and to pay her that obeisance which a queen can claim, and is entitled to, from her subjects. But with a mind, a heart, and a spirit becoming a monarch, she resisted hostilities, suppressed insurrections, secured the affections of her people, and showed her bitterest enemies, the Papists, such an example of moderation and forbearance, as they might admire but could not imitate. The first objects to which Elizabeth applied herself with any degree of assiduity, were the extinction of Popery and the establishment of Protestantism. This was politic on her part, particularly as the nation loudly called for reformation, and as the atrocious excesses committed by the Papists during Mary's reign had, rather than strengthened, essentially weakened the catholic interests, by infusing into the minds of the people a desire for change in a system of religion so cruel in its practices, and consequently so repugnant to their feelings. She passed act after act in favour of the Reformation; repealed those statutes of Mary which acknowledged the Pope's supremacy over the church, and which enforced submission to his dogmatism and the old acts against heresy; she re-established the use of the Common Prayer-book, the reading of the services in the vulgar tongue, and ordered the articles of religion, now reduced to thirty-nine, as revised by the bishops and adopted by the convocation, to be published, and made it imperative upon the clergy to subscribe thereto. Regardless of papal bulls and the threats and admonitions of *Stow; Holinshed; Burnet. 66 66 catholic lords and bishops-confident in the support of her people, encouraged by their affections, and animated by a desire for her country's weal, she trampled over all opposition, baffled all her adversaries by her superior wisdom, and established that religion which we now have the inestimable privilege to enjoy. Well may Threlkeld" observe, in his able article, that "Elizabeth deserves PRAISE for the discretion and wisdom with which this delicate operation was carried on," which "discretion and wisdom," he continues, were qualities she always evinced." That is one admission by "Threlkeld" very favorable to Eliza beth, an admission to the effect that she strenuously exerted her best talents-in this respect at all events-for the best interests of her people (why not more carefully conceal your admiration of the lady, friend "Threlkeld"?); but history goes a little further, and says, with a result that exceeded, perhaps, the most sanguine anticipations of her most ardent admirers. And for that great and mighty work, which a revolution could not have effected, is she not worthy of our admiration? Whatever might be the faults of Elizabeth," says one of our highest authorities,* "it was plain that, to speak humanly, the fate of the realm and of all reformed Churches, was staked on the security of her person and on the success of her administration. To strengthen her hands was, therefore, the first DUTY of a patriot and a Protestant; and that duty was well performed.' It would not have been the duty of her subjects to give her support-that support would not have been so willingly and so amply afforded, did there not exist an absolute necessity for reform in the established religion of the country; and that reformation would never have been produced, were it not for that "discretion and wisdom" which Elizabeth evinced, to her great and lasting honour. In or about the year 1587, Philip, king of Spain, annoyed at Elizabeth's rejection of his hand in marriage, and incited by the Pope, who was desirous of impeding the progress of the Reformation, threatened to invade England. Emboldened by the courage and discipline of his troops, and the number and power of his fleet, he cherished no hope but that of complete success in the undertaking; while the naked state of our coasts, the paucity of our ships of war, and the inexperience of our sailors in naval warfare (who, however, lacked none of that daring and bravery which is inherent in Britons), furnished some cause for anxiety on the part of the English. But Elizabeth prepared to resist the foe with a spirit and an energy that claims our warmest admiration. She levied troops, strengthened her fleets, fortified her garrisons, built new forts, detached portions of her forces on all points of the coast, and personally superintended the progress of the various works in her arsenals. Everywhere the din of war * Macaulay's "History of England,” vol. i., p. 61. |