To Correspondents. **Correspondents will please address "Thomas Cooper, 5, Park Row, Knightsbridge, London. G. W.-Fifty treatises, which might be named, would not be of the value of one-Jonathan Edwards on the Freedom of the Will.-Several editions of it have been published; and G. W. may easily meet with a second-hand copy, for about half-a-crown. The celebrated Robert Hall is said to have read it over thirteen times, and then to have pronounced it 'irrefragable.' Let G. W. remember, however, when Edwards has proved to him the doctrine of Necessity (which he cannot fail to do, for no one was ever heard of yet, who had read the book without being convinced by it)—that it does not therefore follow that "Man deserves neither praise nor blame," &c. H. P., Leicester. Am gratified by the receipt of his letter; but his verses are scarcely perfect enough to print. J. E., Old Street. So soon as arrangements are made for the proposed discussion, public information shall be given. 'Working Student,' City. I know it, my friend, I know it. But the self-educated, however fervently they may desire perfection, find it difficult to observe rules which they have had to discover, before they could begin to make the practice of them habitual: it is widely different with those who were taught to lisp correctly from their very infancy. I beg to add that I do not think the best authority and usage' demand the short o in knowledge. Factory Operative,' Manchester. His thoughts on a Progress Union are valued: respecting the Ten Hours' Bill, he will see that his suggestion is attended to; but with the contentions in the Religious body he names, I hesitate to meddle, thinking that our scanty pages can be better occupied. J. FINLEN, Seven Dials. He must not think Shakspere less worshipful, because all his thoughts are not original. We cannot conclude that any known author is entirely original: not even Homer, or the author of the Book of Job: undoubtedly they were learners from others, like men in our day. Plato's 'Phædo' is the work in which J. F. will find the thoughts he refers to: it stands first in Mr. Bohn's translated edition of Plato. N. P. N. If this writer will give me his address, I will write to him per post. THOMAS EAGLE, Wellington Street. Wesleyan Methodist Class meetings are weekly, not quarterly. The 'leader' is a person appointed by the preachers and leaders-is supposed to have more than the average religious experience,—and after stating his own experience during the week, he asks each member of his Class, in turn, the state of their minds. They answer, in general terms; and he addresses to them a few words of advice, caution, or encouragement. There is no resemblance in these meetings to the Romish Confessional: the Classes vary in number, sometimes exceeding a score, and all speak in each other's presence. Lectures, in London, for the ensuing Week. SUNDAY, March 10, at 7, Literary Institution, John Street, Fitzroy Square. "Columbus, and the discovery of America"-Thomas Cooper. At 7, Hall of Science, near Finsbury Square, City Road. "Why do the Clergy, High and Low, avoid discussion with opponents?"-G. J. Holyoake. At 7, Farringdon Hall, Kings' Arms' Yard, Farringdon Street. "Workingmen's Associations, as means of elevating their moral condi tion"-Walter Cooper. MONDAY, March 11, at half-past 8, Mechanics' Institute, Gould Square, Crutched Friars, "Life and Genius of Coleridge"-Joseph Fearn. At a quarter to 9, Finsbury Hall, 66, Bunhill Row. "Writings of Charles Dickens"-Mark Wilks. At half-past 8, Finsbury Mechanics' Institute, Bell Yard, City Road. "Life and Health, and the Theory, that Life is Electricity"-Dr. Curl. At half-past 8, Pentonville Athenæum, 17, Chapel Street. Elocutionary Entertainment. At a quarter-past 8, Literary Institution, Carlisle Street, Edgeware Road. "Cromwell and the Revolution"-P. W. Perfitt. GOVERNMENT.-If popular representation, or choice, is necessary to the legitimacy of all governments, the House of Lords is at one stroke bastardized and corrupted in blood. That house is no representative of the people at all, even in semblance or in form. The case of the Crown is altogether as bad.-Burke on the French Revolution. THINKINGS, FROM RALPH WALDO EMERSON. SOCIETY AS IT IS.-Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is a joint stock company, in which the members agree for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity-Selfreliance is its aversion-it loves not realities and creators, but names and customs. INDEPENDENCE.-What I must do, is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who, in the midst of the crowd, keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. THE TRUE POET.-A poet is no rattlebrain, saying what comes uppermost, and, because he says everything, saying at last something good; but a heart in unison with his time and country. There is nothing whimsical and fantastic in his production, but sweet and sad earnest, freighted with the weightiest convictions, and pointed with the most determined aim, which any man or class knows of in his times. HEROISM. The characteristic of a genuine heroism is its persistency. All men have wandering impulses, fits and starts of generosity; but when you have resolved to be great, abide by yourself, and do not weakly try to reconcile yourself with the world-the heroic cannot be the common, nor the common the heroic. Yet we have the weakness to expect the sympathy of people in those actions whose excellence is that they outrun sympathy, and appeal to a tardy justice. would serve your brother, because it is fit for you to serve him, do not take back your words when you find that prudent men do not commend you. Be true to your own act, and congratulate yourself if you have done something strange and extravagant, and broken the monotony of a decorous age. If you SIMPLICITY OF CHARACTER.-Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing. All great actions have been simple, and all great pictures are. BEAUTY.-Beauty, in its largest and profoundest sense, is one expression for the universe-God is the all-fair truth; and goodness and beauty are but different faces of the same All. But beauty in nature is not ultimate. It is the herald of inward and external beauty, it is not alone a solid and satisfactory good. It must therefore stand as a part, and not as yet the least or highest expression of the final cause of Nature. THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE.-The idea which now begins to agitate society has a wider scope than our daily employments, our households, and the institutions of property. We are to revise the whole of our social structure, the state, the school, religion, marriage, trade, science, and explore their foundations in our own nature; we are to see that the world not only fitted the former men, but fits us, and to clear ourselves of every usage which has not its roots in our mind. What is a man born for but to be a Reformer, a re-maker of what man has made; a renouncer of lies, a restorer of truth and good, imitating that great Nature which embosoms us all, and which sleeps no moment on an old past, but every hour repairs herself, yielding us every morning a new day, and with every pulsation a new life. Let him renounce every thing which is not true to him, and put all his practices back on their first thoughts, and do nothing for which he has not the whole world for his reason. If there are inconveniences, and what is called ruin in the way, because we have enervated and maimed ourselves, yet it would be like dying of perfumes to sink in the effort to reattach the deeds of every day to the holy and mysterious recesses of life.. SCEPTICISM.-Scepticism is the attitude assumed by the student in relation to the particulars which society adores, but which he sees to be reverend only in their tendency and spirit. The ground occupied by the sceptic is the vestibule of the temple. Society does not like to have any breath of question bown on the existing order. But the interrogation of custom at all points is an inevitable stage in the growth of every superior mind, and is the evidence of its perception of the flowing power which remains itself in all changes. Он, never doubt of man, the active mind Will dare the coming storm, with firm unshrinking breast. Oh, never doubt of man; his destiny In golden words is writ; his course must run! And sunny days succeed the morning dun; Oh, never doubt of man, the prophecy Oh, never doubt of man, for even now, Till every wrong its final race has run, And earth be altogether freed from misery, want, and wo. JOHN ALFRED LANGFORD. Working men must add their mental might We all must toil, in the mine of thought, Or we toil in vain to sever the chain, By the power and craft of tyrants wrought. And from this mine of wealth untold, We must bring forth the rich, long-buried gold; Many bright gems still unrevealed, Each man must till his own fallow ground, To make the oppressor quake with dread,- Think, ye toiling men, 'ye slaves by birth;' Ashton-under-Lyne. Do this, and quickly we all shall see, A POWER LOOM WEAVER. CRITICAL EXEGESIS OF GOSPEL HISTORY, ON THE BASIS OF STRAUSS'S 'LEBEN JESU.' A SERIES OF EIGHT DISCOURSES; DELIVERED AT THE LITERARY INSTITUTION, JOHN STREET, TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD, AND AT THE HALL OF SCIENCE, CITY ROAD, ON SUNDAY EVENINGS, DURING THE WINTERS OF 1848-9, AND 1849-50. 66 men (3.) Mark has a peculiar narrative, and it is peculiar to himself (8 ch. 22 v.) Jesus has a blind man brought to him, at Bethsaida, and they beseech him to "touch" him. Jesus takes the blind man by the hand, leads him out of the town, spits on his eyes, puts his hands on him, and asks him if he sees aught. The blind man answers that he sees as trees, walking." Jesus, "after that," puts his hands again on the man's eyes, makes him look up, and the man is "restored" and sees every man clearly." By Mark's conclusion, where Jesus sends the man home, and forbids him either to go into the town, or to tell it to any in the town-we perceive that the narrative means us to understand that a part of this singular procedure was intended to secure secresy. But what then? If all this were done in secret, who was Mark's authority? Would Jesus himself be likely to rehearse all this circumstantial account of his performance? What! after telling the man to keep it secret? Was it the man that was cured, then, from whom Mark had the narrative ? Mark' does not say! Did 'Mark' ever see the man? Does 'Mark' know anything of his whereabouts, afterwards? Silence is the answerless answer. Is this evidence for our belief of such a peculiar story? Couple it with another of Mark's peculiar stories! the cure of a man that was "deaf, and had an impediment in his speech" (7 ch. 32 v.)-—and note the resemblances! The multitude here, also, beseech Christ to "put his hand on him "—that is, to touch him, as in the other narrative: Jesus here, also, takes the man aside from the multitude: here he uses great external means, as before-puts his fingers into the deaf man's ears, spits, and touches his tongue, looks up to heaven, sighs, and says to the man (in Syriac) Ephphatha, that is 'Be opened '-and gives charge that the whole procedure be kept secret! How artlessly the imitative tendency displays the legendary birth of such narratives of which Mark' is the most exquisite type for dramatic effect and elaboration. The multitude, he relates, "were beyond measure astonished "(he must select the most exaggerated expressions)-saying, "He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak." In these two narratives, a class of commentators who are inclined to find natural interpretations of the Miracles, think they find a stronghold. Jesus, they say, by putting his fingers into the man's ears, discovered that the deafness arose from the hardening of secretions in the ear, and with his finger removed the hindrance to hearing; by 'touching his tongue,' it is implied that Jesus cut the ligament of the tongue in the degree necessary to restore the pliancy of that organ; and, again, by 'putting his hands' on the blind man's eyes-and repeating that operation-Jesus by gradual pressure removed the chrystalline lens which had become opaque. Further, say these interpreters, Jesus used saliva which, in the opinion of ancient physicians, has a salutary effect on the eyes; and, perhaps, he moistened some medicament, probably a caustic powder, therewith, and applied it to the eyes and earsbut the blind and deaf men either did not observe the use of the mixture, or if they did, in accordance with the spirit of the age, they gave little heed to the natural means, and the narrative has not preserved them. There would be no end of interpretations, if such as these were admitted. Our concern is not with them; but with the credible nature of the testimony. It is not such as would justify us in receiving the account for fact if contained in any other book. Independently of the consideration that the transactions are not attested-since we neither know who the writer is, or the witnesses the dramatic description of Mark,' his air of mystery, and tendency to exaggeration, are all characteristics of the legend. We have not here solidly attested facts, commanding that belief which is said to be necessary to salvation. And yet 'miracles' wrought to establish a Divine Revelation, ought to be so solidly attested as to command belief: their veritableness ought to be impregnable to the keenest scrutiny. Do not tell us that a Deity whose essence is Love, could mock His fallen creatures,' by clothing the Revelation His compassion moved Him to give them, with 'evidences' such as resemble the details of romantic story, and utterly destitute of the features of duly attested history. (4.) The cure of the man who was born blind, related by the fourth evangelist alone (John, 9 chap.) may form the concluding narrative for our investigation into this class of Miracles. The class of interpreters just alluded to, think that they find also in this narrative a great support for their theory that the cures wrought by Jesus were natural cures. Jesus "spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle! and he anointed the eyes of the blind with the clay, and said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way, therefore, and washed, and came seeing.' (John 9 ch. 6 and 7 vv.) From such a narrative, say these advocates for the natural cures, it cannot be known whether Jesus did not use something more than clay and saliva to make the eye-salve, whether he did not remove something by extraction or friction, or otherwise effect a |