rural sounds," when suddenly the ear caught the merry notes of childhood. "Play on sweet innocents! and be your hearts as pure as now We pass a fine article by Miss E. A. Starr, "To a Bed of Wild Violets," and come to the Poetry suggested by an expression of Macdonald Clarke, "Four things I am sure there will be in heaven; music, plenty of little children, flowers, and pure air." The article is by J. G. Adams, entitled, " A Poet's Heaven," we have room, only for a single verse. "Beautiful conception! Who 'Mid the poet's vision clear, Would have brought to human view One more welcome,-heaven so near? "Seasons of Meditation," by E. H. Chapin, is a very good article, which will have a tendency to make the heart better with high and pure thoughts. Three seasons are especially named as seasons of meditation, "the evening of a day, the evening of the year, and the evening of life." "The evening of a day possesses many advantages for meditation. The objects upon the earth are then growing dim and passing into shadow, and with them may fall away all our secular images. The most familiar things assume strange aspects, as the darkness slowly swallows them up. How suggestive this of the unsubstantiality of those forms to which we cling, of the superficial acquaintanceship there is between us, of the isolation in which as spirits we really stand, and of the mystery all around and within us. And how vividly then can we realize there is but One in whom we live, and move, and have our being!" But we feel that it is marring the beauty of the whole to extract, and we pass to the last article of the volume, "The Visioned Scroll," by Mrs. C. M. Sawyer. It is a fit article for the close of a volume worthy of a place in the elegant literature of our country. The Editress has done her part well, while the Publisher deserves credit for the fine style of binding and splendid engravings. -There are seven of the latter. "Infant Devotion" and "Water Lilies" we think most beautiful. The former will remind many a gazer of the days of early childhood, when first we learned to pray at a mother's knee. The latter is of a child with one tiny bare foot in the water, while her hand grasps a water lily. S. M. C. P. ART. XXIV. Superior Claims of Christianity in the Formation of National Character. THE characters of the religions which have been founded respectively by Christ and false teachers pretending to special divine illumination, have not been more different than the nations which have embraced them. From the time of their first promulgation and establishment up to the present hour, they have presented a different and strongly marked aspect. Their converts, in every nation, have imbibed their distinguishing properties, and the understandings and affections of the people have been assimulated to their respective teachings. The experiences of the past, the influences of climate, the forms of government, the manners and customs of the people, have yielded in a great measure to religious persuasion- a power which can scarcely be too highly rated in forming a due estimate of the moulding of national character. The appearances which those portions of the globe respectively present in which these different religions have been planted, form a most striking feature in the modern history of the world, and political speculation might find in the investigation a splendid subject for its labors, even though it were not at the same time an important item in the claims to superiority which Christianity proffers. A view of mankind as arranged under the influences of religious opinion will be found to present to us very singular and permanent oppositions of national character. Wherever a false religion is established it is invariably 338 Superior Claims of Christianity in the united with despotic power. On the banks of the amidst the boary hills of old Hindostan, on the the Caspian, or in the swarming multitudes of tial empire, it is still found united with a debasi tude and blind subjection. To be faithful to thei is in one word to renounce the pride of independ the security of freedom. It is not thus with Christianity. That on the is found to exist and to flourish under every varie litical power; and it is no slight commendation in that the more liberal the government and the more the people, this "tree of life" puts forth a deeper sends out wider branches. In the various eras of tory it has been found blended with every form of ment, and among all those nations by whom it is a as a rule of faith, one of the most discriminating is that equal and courteous system of manners wh evidently so strongly tended to arrest the overr arm of tyranny, and, even in the few countries where tism still holds sway, has served to soften the severi administration. Religions which have no higher source than "the of this world," have always been distinguished by of separation, instead of union. A disaffection, in cases amounting to enmity, towards the rest of ma has been industriously nourished, as if those who outside of the fence by which they were inclosed also shut out from their benefactions and sympathies. is especially the case with Mahometanism and in us as an illustration, I avail myself of the language of ter of the history of Mahomet. "Wherever Mahon ism has established itself, the relations of situation, o guage and of national policy have been controlled influence of religious enmity. The regulations wh prescribes for the conduct of private life, have a ten to separate the Mussulman from all community with men and all participation in the offices of humanity in every period of its history, the pride or the jea which it has inspired, seems to have represented the of mankind as enemies, with whom, while they opp the prophet's power, it were impious to converse, and w it was even meritorious to destroy." Universal benevolence, universal philanthropy, universality in all its length and breadth, depth and height, in all its phases, experiences and appliances, stand out in the gospel of Christ as prominently as any hero who embellishes the pages of history or fiction. The great Teacher himself was the embodiment of this glorious and sublime sentiment. Whatever nation is imbued with the spirit of Christianity, will, in the proportion in which it has imbibed it, be operated upon in its social intercourse. The virulence of national animosities, which have been so rife with dissention and bad feelings, is every day, as Christianity is better understood, yielding to the dictates of a more enlarged humanity. Even when the conduct of men has not been always directed by the religion of Christ, it has secretly influenced the opinions of those who have professed it; and there exists at this moment between the most cultivated nations of Europe and this vast Republic, a disposition to courtesy, kindness, and humaneness, in opposition to every distinction of language, of manners, of national interests, which is destined in the day of its maturity to unite the various people of whom it is composed in one firm bond of brotherhood and affection. God speed that day! In countries where the gospel is not received, another feature is very strikingly developed-an ignorance which rests in its own selfsufficiency, and emulates none of the improvements of the countries by which it is surrounded. Activity and zeal in the support of their religious tenets outweigh all other considerations, and lay insuperable obstacles in the way of their progress in science, their capacity to invent, and even their willingness to adopt, any useful or elegant art. Philosophy comes to a deep pause, and between the opportunities which they have for improvement, and the advantage actually taken, there seems to be "a gulph that cannot be passed over." Such is a true picture of the nations unillumined by divine revelation. Knowledge meets not only with neglect, but con tempt. That spirit of inquiry and bold research which leads to such astonishing results is not only unheeded, but uncared for. The very desire for progress is totally extin guished. Nothing is added to the common stock by their own discoveries, and the worst of pride, the pride of Superior Claims of Christianity in the ignorance, keeps them from availing themselves discoveries of others. That disease is hopeless, w remedy is rejected with disgust and contempt. Wh judice and ignorance usurp the place of reason and edge, there is nothing left to break the spell that bi mind to the tyranny of the despot, the policy of the and the bigotry of the vulgar. If we were to portray on the canvass the characte Christian nation, the feature which would perhaps most prominently on the foreground would be a perv intelligence. Science seems to have marked Christ for its own. Though its light may have been sc perceptible in the ignorance which overshadowed E during the irruptions of barbarous nations; though oppressed by the violence of ecclesiastical power an grossness of early superstitions, its flame, like the crucian lamp in the vault, though unseen, was not guished. It burnt secretly, even in the recesses of m tic retirement; there, though of itself too feeble to d the mass of darkness that had gathered about it, it wa preserved from total extinction amidst the chimerical ceits of the fanatic, and the frivolous contentions of recluse. Even among these dreamy minds there was sufficient unction to feed it. But a more propitious was coming; and it rekindled and flashed out in an when the human mind seemed to awake from its d slumbers, and when the spirit of liberty stirred up hearts of men, and great discoveries most salutary to human race were unfolded; then it attained its prist lustre, and, not monopolized by the powerful or the of lent, but diffusing its genial influence over the whole m of human mind, it illuminated those several forms of tru liberty and religion, which had before been concealed fre every vulgar eye. In this connection it is impossible not to refer, in mi at least, to the Reformation, and though partiality for th event may have sometimes wandered into extravagand and panegyric have assumed the language of hyperbo it is not too much to say, that no event in the record history, or in the investigations of philosophy, has bee attended by consequences so momentous, in private an in public life, in the administration of national govern |