If, as a high dignitary of the Church, and one who confessedly aspired to the most solemn and responsible position in it, it may be alleged that he ought somewhat to have restrained his exuberance, to have dammed up his nature, and to have prevented his flowering shrubs from climbing over the wall, he set a proud example in some of the highest moral qualities which can adorn a Christian or a man. He gave all which he had to the cause of that humanity which he loved, without the hope or prospect of reward. Living in the very atmosphere where the greatest subservience is paid to rank, and in an age which was peculiarly corrupt, he contracted no depravity from miasma, and continued sound to the core. With the shining talents which were his, he might have crooked his supple joints, and reached at once the pinnacle of fame. He walked erect and manly in the humble vale. Poor, and without the prestige of rank, he raised his head above the Lords temporal and spiritual, and thundered truth into their ears. He never veered from duty for the sake of favor, nor sacrificed one principle for selfish aggrandizement, nor yielded conviction to prejudice, nor slaved himself in the trammels of party. He made no use of flattery, nor yielded to its seductions. He had better arrows in his quiver. He tore the mask from the face of hypocrisy, and was above disguise and petty meanness. He fought with the minority when he had everything to lose, and sometimes opposed the Whigs in power when he had everything to gain.

There is something sublime in the moral courage which drove him into the very teeth of Government, and caused him to stand almost alone against the guards of the palace, bearing down with a strong sense against the deep foundations of error, and flashing against the castellated battlements of existing power. But he placed at the same time his back against the pressure of popular frenzy, and chimed in with no watchword of the mob. And it is like turning from a battle field to gaze upon some quiet and softly tinted picture, when we follow this great man into the blandishments of social circles, and the delights of his little family, giving "the oil of joy for mourning, and the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness;" to see him rise up with alacrity of a morning, and sit down at his own table, "feeling," as he would say, "refreshed like a giant to run his course" or when, upon a summer's day, he would fling himself into his great chair and cry out, "I feel like a bridegroom in the honeymoon; thank God for Combe Florey; Diana, glorify the room, throw open the windows, let in the blessed light;" or when upon a Christmas festival he returned

from the sublime duties of the morning, he took his seat among the festive group, diffusing all around him that happiness, in a grateful sense of which "he thanked God that Ie had made him merry. It was a better gift than much wheat and bean land with a doleful heart." Did space permit we should be glad to trace the course of his writings, in which he battled so manfully for justice to men, and for justice and toleration towards women. It has been remarked that "there is no youth in his writings;" it might have been said with equal propriety, that they show no age, no decrepitude.

In conclusion, we cannot refrain from quoting a passage by Mrs. Austin: "High as Sydney Smith's reputation stood during his life, it has unquestionably risen since his death. If not more wide-spread, it is more just, and more worthy of his great moral and intellectual qualities. Still more perfect justice will doubtless be rendered to him by posterity. Admiration of his wit will become subordinate, as it ought to be, to respect for the purposes to which it was applied, and for the good sense by which it was guided."

ART. III.-DR. HENRY'S TRANSLATION OF COUSIN'S PSYCHOLOGY.

Elements of Psychology: included in a Critical Examination of Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding, and in Additional Pieces. By VICTOR COUSIN. Translated from the French, with an Introduction and Notes, by CALEB S. HENRY, D. D. Fourth improved Edition, revised according to the Author's last corrections. New York: Ivison & Phinney, 321 Broadway, (Successors of Mark H. Newman & Co.) Chicago: S. C. Griggs & Co., 111 Lake Street. Buffalo: Phinney & Co. 1856. Large 12mo. pp. 568.

WE suppose there is no doubt, at the present day, in the mind of any person who is at all competent to form any opinion upon the subject, that COUSIN is to be the great name in the history of Philosophy for the first half of the present century. What the second half may bring forth, no one can, as yet, say. Nor would we cast so much of a slur upon those energetic thinkers and aspiring geniuses whom we have amongst us, as would be implied in the intimation of a belief that we have not now amongst us, and even amongst the names which are not altogether unknown to fame, some one who may rise to be even a more conspicuous light than the great French Philosopher himself. We are placed in a peculiar position, and are surrounded by circumstances which stimulate the mind to its most intense activity. And if we are not to produce a mind who shall recast the whole cycle of metaphysical science anew, we certainly have a people who look into the great problems of philosophy, as no other people ever did, and whose minds must be supplied with the best literature and guided by the best thinking that we can command, or an abyss of infidelity, moral corruption and anarchy, such as the world never yet saw, is before us as our inevitable doom.

Whatever we may think of Cousin's Method, or of his System, or as a result of his Method-whether we adopt his theory or reject it-whether we admire his style or consider his books to be (as some among us profess to regard them) among the most dangerous and powerful means of corruption,-it has come to be a fact about which, as a fact, we need waste no time or energy in disputations; that the writings of Cousin have a power to charm and to work their way into a wide circulation,

seize hold of, and control the minds of readers, especially young readers, that no writings which deserve to be dignified with the name of Philosophy-ever before possessed. The fact that the work cited at the head of this Article has attained its fourth edition in the translation, besides all the copies which are bought and sold in the original French, is sufficient proof of its circulation. Nor is this the only proof. What Dr. Henry says in the Preface to his Second Edition, as the result of his own experience as a teacher, has been confirmed, we doubt not, by the experience of every one who has used any of Cousin's books as text-books. Speaking of himself in the third person, the Doctor says he had occasion to learn, too, in his own experience as a teacher, that none of the books ordinarily put into the hands of students, in their philosophical course, was studied with so lively an interest, or with so much profit, as this. Others may differ from the translator of the work referred to, in the estimate of the "profit" derived from Cousin's Review of Locke's Essay, but there can be no difference of opinion, we apprehend, as to the interest which this work always excites in the minds of those who study it.

The volume named at the head of our Article is made up chiefly of the third volume of the second series of Cousin's Lectures in the course of the History of Modern Philosophy. "This course," says MORELL, the Author of "the History of Modern Philosophy," will, in all probability, be ever the most popular of his (Cousin's) writings; the distinct classification it makes of systems; the brief yet intelligible glimpses it affords into the interior of almost every school, whether ancient or modern, together with the detailed analysis of Locke, in which is said almost all that ever need be said about that Essay on the Human Understanding, in a word, the singular union of the most sober criticisms of the Psychological school, with occasional flights into the higher regions of metaphysical analysis, all concur to secure for the course of 1829, an interest and value peculiarly its own."* And the same writer adds, "Of all nations in the world, the French are among the greatest masters of prose; and of all their prose writers, scarcely any one can be said to excel Cousin in power of expression and perfect finish of style."

As early as 1829, Sir William Hamilton, who will hold a place doubtless next to that of Cousin in the History of Philosophy, expresses his opinion of Cousin and his works in the following terms:

* Edinburgh Review, April, 1851, p. 228.

"Condemned to silence during the reign of Jesuit ascendency, M. Cousin, after eight years of honorable retirement, not exempt from persecution, had again ascended the Chair of Philosophy, and the splendor with which he recommenced his academical career more than justified the expectation which his recent celebrity as a writer, and the memory of his earlier productions had inspired. Two thousand auditors listened, all with admiration, many with enthusiasm, to the eloquent exposition of doctrine intelligible only to the few; and the oral discussion of philosophy awakened in Paris and in France an interest unexampled since the days of Abelard. The daily journals found it necessary to gratify, by their earlier summaries, the impatient curiosity of the public; and the lectures themselves, taken in short-hard and corrected by the professor, propagated weekly the influence of his instruction to the remotest provinces of the kingdom. . . . . . M. Cousin is the apostle of Rationalism in France, and we are willing to admit that the doctrine could not have obtained a more eloquent or devoted advocate. For philosophy he has suffered; to her ministry he has consecrated himself-devoted, without reserve, his life and labors. Nor has he approached the sanctuary with unwashed hands. The editor of Proclus and Descartes, the translator and interpreter of Plato, and the promised expositor of Kant, will not be accused of partiality in the choice of his pursuits; while his two works, under the title of 'Philosophical Fragments,' bear ample evidence to the learning, elegance, and distinguished ability of their author. Taking him all in all, in France M. Cousin stands alone; nor can we contemplate his character and accomplishments without the sincerest admiration, even while we dissent from the most prominent principle of his philosophy."

And again, in 1852, Sir William, speaking of his article in 1829, from which we have just quoted, says, "Moreover, I was still further disinclined to the undertaking, because it would behoove me to come forward in overt opposition to a certain theory, which, however powerfully advocated, I felt altogether unable to admit; while its author, M. Cousin, was a philosopher for whose genius and character I already had the warmest admiration-an admiration which every succeeding year has only augmented, justified, and confirmed. Nor, in saying this, need I make any reservation. For I admire even where I dissent; and were M. Cousin's speculations on the absolute utterly abolished, to him would still remain the honor of doing more himself, and of contributing more to what has been done by