he puts off the doctrines with the following mattered, however, whether the society apology, appended in a promissory post-committed to his charge was large or small: script:

"P.S. My intention was to have given you a delineation of the peculiar doctrines of our religion. But I had not room, and began with too little method. Should you desire it, I will hereafter give you my ideas in order on the subject. I assure you I was struck with the sublime precepts of Christianity, when I began the study of the Bible. I was struck, too, with observing how far I had deviated from them. I found that I had not a pure, an humble, a pious, or a charitable heart. I saw how Christian charity differed from what I used to call benevolence. Every thing

was new to me."-I 121.

his connection with it quickly determined it to the first rank among the churches; and the full burthen from which his modesty had shrunk, was thrown upon him. As he never quitted the Federal Street congregation, till his retirement two years before his death, his career is henceforth one continuous whole, and resolves itself mainly into a mental history, amid the natural and ordinary development of external relations: so that portraiture, rather than narrative, is needed, to give an idea of the remainder of his life.

From the time of his father's early The sense of moral beauty, evidently death, the resources of the family had been operative here, was indeed one of the cardi- painfully inadequate to the wants of their nal directions of his nature. When he was position. In order to reinstate them in a a mere child, an openness to noble influ- condition which had never been affluent, ences displayed itself in his disgust at the the two eldest sons agreed that one of them corporal punishments then resorted to in should remain unmarried for ten years. the education of boys, and his admiration The vow was fulfilled by William. His of the delicate hands of his sisters and their income from the first was liberal and no playmates, degraded by no traces of the sooner was he established as a householder ferule. And throughout his life, a certain in Boston, than he brought under his roof fineness of spiritual tact is discernible, the whole domestic circle at Newport, and enabling him to see many a good which assumed all the responsibilities of a head escaped the common eye, and sometimes of the family. The act was doubly graced perhaps depriving his judgments of broad by the happy ingenuity of love through, and massive wisdom by too subtle a com- which it was achieved, and the thorough plication of emotions. If this characteris- self-forgetfulness with which it was carried tic interfered with the soundness of some out. He pleaded with his mother, that of his political views, it eminently qualified" he had a parsonage which he could not him for the profound appreciation and re-occupy, and fuel which he could not burn, verential acceptance of Christianity. He found himself in his congenial element: and dedicated himself thenceforth to the exposition of Christian obligation, in its bearing on the existing condition of the world, with the simplicity and courage pe

culiar to entire conviction.

He did not immediately exchange his engagement at Richmond for the ministerial office. Shattered in constitution, and anxious for riper theological knowledge, he employed the first two years and a half of the present century in study; partly at Newport; partly at Harvard, where he received a minor appointment, affording

and that she would save him much waste and trouble by turning them to good use." He talked of "the necessity of punctually paying his board to his mother, and placed his funds in her hands, as he said, for safe keeping, withdrawing only such trifling sums as he absolutely needed."

"He had always been strict in his habits of self-denial, in food, dress, and every mode of expenditure; but he was now more simple than ever, and seemed to have become incapable of any form of self-indulgence. He took the smallest room in the house for his study, though he might easily have commanded one more light, airy, and sleeping-chamber an attic, which he shared with a in every way more suitable; and chose for his him the means and leisure for further selfyounger brother. The furniture of the latter improvement. In 1803, immediately after might have answered for the cell of an anchorite, his first preaching, he settled in Boston and consisted of a hard mattress on a cot-bedstead, with the small and depressed congregation plain wooden chairs and table, with matting on of the Federal Street church; having de- the floor. It was without fire, and to cold he was clined, on its behalf, a simultaneous invi-through life extremely sensitive. But he never tation more tempting to ambition, but less suitable to the weakness of his health and the humility of his conscience. It little

·

scious of inconvenience. I recollect,' says his brocomplained, or appeared in any way to be conther, after one most severe night, that in the morning he sportively thus alluded to his suffering :—

the currents and the winds to bear us,

"If my bed were my country, I should be some- | yet remembering the perfect security of the what like Buonaparte; I have no control except other. If the life on which we are afloat is over the part that I occupy; the instant I move, not so smooth and fair, that we may leave frost takes possession In sickness only would he change for a time his apartment, and accept a few comforts. The dress, too, that he habitually adopted, was of most inferior quality; and garments were constantly worn which the world would call mean, though an almost feminine neatness preserved him from the least appearance of personal neglect. The only luxury he would indulge himself in was annually to lay out a small sum in increasing his scanty library.”—I. 198.

while we lie stretched in happy contemplation; neither is the stream so terrible, that, if once we rest upon the oar, we are caught into the rapids, and swept away. When Dr. Channing looked back on this period of his early ministry from a more advanced point, he became aware that his rigor of conscience had been excessive. But there The scrupulous fidelity with which he ad- was a peculiarity about his self-culture, dressed himself to every duty incident to which was too much a part of his nature the relations of the home and the church, ever to disclose itself to him. It was not, awakens in us something of a sad and pain- as with some men, a simple expression of ful admiration. A more unreserved devot- obedience to a binding law: nor, as with edness it is difficult to conceive: but it others, a moral gymnastic, resorted to for needs, for relief, the spring of happy trust. the sake of health; but a kind of spiritual His vigilance reaches a præternatural strain: aesthetic, adopted under the idea of beauty. his self-discipline, an unproductive severi- Distaste predominates over disapproval in ty: his energies waste themselves in repres- his expressions of self-depreciation; desion: his feelings, in establishing their re- formity strikes him prevailingly in whatever lations of equilibrium inter se. If every becomes obnoxious to his ethical criticism. thought of the mind, every moment of He forms to himself the picture of a beauhe life, every word of social converse, tiful soul, full of "quickening conviction," the temper of every neighbor, the ope- of "calm energy," of "overflowing sensiration of every event, is to be made bility,"-possessed with the spirit of disinthe distinct object of care and volition, we terestedness,-speaking with "a voice of undertake a control possible only to Omnipotence, and assume an inspection disappointed by the first twinkling of an eye. It is hard indeed to hint anything amiss in such a lofty austerity of aim: criticism disappears in reverence. Compared with all ordinary standards of excellence, it can receive nothing but honor. It is only when placing it beside that highest measure, which was its own chosen rule, that we are inclined to ask, whether perfect faithfulness does not admit of more brightness and repose;—whether, in demanding a style of character expressive of movement more flowing and disengaged, we are really compromising the dignity of the moral law. Conscientiousness, carried to an anxious stringency, proceeds upon the truth, that every soul is entrusted to itself. This truth, however, is balanced by another, that every soul is under the care of God. Whoever is haunted by the impression of the one, lives in the presumption that, if ever the tension of his will is relaxed, all must go wrong. Whoever surrenders himself wholly to the other, lives in the presumption that, unless he falsely interfere to spoil, all will go right. The mingling influence of both can alone do justice to the two powers, human and divine, that dispose of us, recognizing the infirmity of the one,

penetrating power," and "infusing into the whole manner an inspiring animation." This image he sighs and strives to realize: though it is obvious that the mind ought to be engaged in the pursuit of truth rather than the attainment of convictions,-in the doing of work rather than the exercise of energy, on the things it has to say, not on the expressiveness of voice and manner. A conscious aim at an inspired unconsciousness implies the same contradiction as an intense effort to forget. In the same mood, Dr. Channing is apt to place religion before him as a work of High Art in the minds of men; for the creation of which the external conditions and appropriate realities have to be found. The imagination has to be fired, the soul to be stirred: for which purpose we must look out for some sublime objects,"" some great principles,"

Not more

some truths fitted to work penetratingly." Alas! this advertising for the means of enthusiasm and elevation can elicit only incompetency and self-delusion. vain are the sciolist's schemings for perpetual motion which would always answer well enough, if he could only stand by for ever, and in case of a dead-lift, work his own pump. The" oppressive" seriousness and reserve of Channing's early ministry arose, however, not less from the limitation, than from the

particular direction of his activity. His of political excitement during the first years feeble health imposed a sad check on his of the present century. The disappointment great aims, and drove him back upon his of every noble hope for France, the deown mind as often the only sphere of effort gradation of her aims,-from self-renovaopen to a conscience that could not rest. tion to foreign conquest, her astounding A nature of high moral enthusiasm, almost strides towards continental empire,—the denied the means of action, has a heavy gloomy grandeur of her military throne, as cross to bear. Channing accepted, rather corrupting to its admirers as it was rethan choose, the life of Thought: and it lentless to its foes,-vehemently agitated was, we imagine, a sacrifice to him: for Channing's imagination, and drew from neither the poetic, nor the philosophic ele- him,-on days of Public Fast or Thanksment of his nature had an ascendency in giving,-a number of political Sermons, him adequate to produce the permanent which, with some occasional exaggeration, fruits of such a course. In the best sense, appear to us rich in genuine wisdom. The his mind had a certain feminine cast; it was apprehensions for the independence of his rich in sentiment; delicate in sympathy; own country, with which the course of Naquick of apprehension when aroused by any poleon's ambition filled him, were indeed sufficient feeling; difficult to bring to a fixed founded on a miscalculation of the forces and definite conviction, but thenceforward required to grasp the sceptre of two worlds. heroically faithful. It has often been re- But from what is now known of the giganmarked how many an authoress will pro- tic schemes of the French Dictator, it canduce an essay, a sonnet, or a song; how not be doubted that he was rapidly completfew have even attempted a systematic trea- ing the organizing for a universal sovereigntise, a drama, or an opera. The same ina- ty, and contemplating an empire of dependbility to hold out for any continuous intel-encies from the Neva to the Atlantic, from lectual effort is manifest, not only in the occasional character, but in the internal structure, of Dr. Channing's productions. Of this, however, we shall be in a better position to judge, whenever the posthumous Fragment is published of his great work on the "Principles of Moral, Religious, and Political Science." Now, to us it appears certain that this special type of character demands, for its perfection, the discipline of strenuous outward effort. As men are greater in the difficult passages of thought, women astonish us most in severe emergencies of action. May we not in short regard it as a general law, that an intense subjectivity requires, as a counterbalance, an external life proportionally provocative of action? and that, where the two elements are not maintained at an equipoise, weakness and disarrangement must more or less ensue? Thus, the profoundly internal religion of the Puritans, which was only a healthy power in an age of social insecurity and private heroism, may become morbid by simple transmission to times of easier her alliance! habits and softer repose. And the retro- "Will it be said that these evils are political spective musings which give something of a evils, and that it is not the province of a minister mournful character to Dr. Channing's early of religion to concern himself with temporal afgoodness, point to the probable greatness fairs? Did I think, my friends, that only politihe might have achieved, had not physical cal evils were to be dreaded-did I believe that the infirmity turned the key upon him, and minds, the character, the morals, the religion of our nation would remain untouched-did I see in kept him prisoner within. The want of French domination nothing but the loss of your due exercise in the free air of action was wealth, your luxuries, your splendor,-could I in some degree supplied by the stimulus hope that it would leave unsullied your purity of

Scandinavia to Sicily. And no one who has studied the internal condition of the countries submitted to the influences of the Corsican family,-Spain, Italy, Westphalia,-will be disposed to think Channing's picture of the European dangers of that time, any more overcharged in its colors, than overdrawn in its scale. The anxiety which he felt to keep his country free from the entanglement of French alliance, explains itself in the following passages:

"Can we then suppose that the ambitious, the keen-sighted Napoleon overlooks us in his scheme of universal conquest; that he wants nothing of us, and is content that we should prosper and be Has he not already told us that we must embark in at peace, because we are so distant from his throne? his cause? Has he not himself declared war for us against England?

"Will it be said, he wants not to conquer us, but only wishes us to be his allies? Allies of France! Is there a man who does not shudder at struggle nobly, and perish under her open enmity, the thought? Is there one who would not rather than be crushed by the embrace of her friendship,

nant star.

eager

faith and manners-I would be silent. But reli- of its real though hidden meaning, a list was gion and virtue, as well as liberty and opulence, given of all the obnoxious doctrines held by wither under the power of France. The French Revolution was founded in infidelity, impiety and the extreme gauche of English liberalism. atheism. This is the spirit of her chiefs, her "The ChrisIn defence, the heretics set up most distinguished men; and this spirit she tian Disciple" in 1813: and both in its breathes, wherever she has influence. It is the pages, and in detached writings of the most unhappy effect of French domination, that it same period, we have memorials of the gradegrades the human character to the lowest point. dual development of American UnitarianNo manly virtues grow under this baleful, malig- ism; and especially of the form it assumed France begins her conquests by cor- in the mind of Channing. It was with eviruptions, by venality, by bribes; and where she dent reluctance that he brought himself to succeeds, her deadly policy secures her from commotion by quenching all those generous senti- take a side in controversial discussion ;ments which produce revolt under oppression. the reluctance, not of amiable weakness, The conqueror thinks his work not half finished desiring peace on any terms; much less, until the mind is conquered, its energy broken, its of conservative prudence, softening or supfeeling for the public welfare subdued. Such are pressing the utterance of real conviction; the effects of subjection to France, or, what is thebut of a peculiar intellect, not liking to same thing, of alliance with her; and when we be too closely pressed for definitions on consider how much this subjection is desired by Napoleon, when we consider the power and the matters transcending our measures of exThe arts which he can combine for effecting his wishes pression and thought. demand and purposes, what reason have we to tremble !" for precise and severe statement, the fond-I. 336. ness for a closely connected system, is not more strictly a characteristic of the schools With the European re-action after the of Calvin and of Priestley, than is the love year 1811, terminating in Napoleon's over- of indeterminate and widely-suggestive lanthrow three years later, the absorbing in- guage an inseparable part of Channing's terest of political questions ceased: and, religion. The distinction is far from being after a strong protest against the American one merely of manner and form. It is declaration of war with England in 1812, deeply seated in the modes of thought from we find a new class of subjects engaging which the theologies severally proceed: Channing's attention, and materially affect- and requires that we should compare these ing, not only his local relations, but his at their foundations. In doing so, we shall whole influence and reputation. The time set aside all the differences of mere Scriphad come for him to define his theological tural interpretation; supposing it to be inideas. The general body of Congregation- controvertible, that the psychological tenalist Churches in New England had hither-dencies of men predetermine the grand feato travelled on together; all of them, probably, receding from the old Puritan standard of doctrine: but to such various extent, that it became more difficult every year to consider them parts of the same The whole of Channing's scheme of company. The tendency of the divergent thought took its departure from a profound movement had declared itself in Great Bri- and natural Moral faith. The sense of tain, where Mr. Belsham had become dis- Obligation, infinitely solemn and sacred, tinguished as an heresiarch: and the lead- was predominant over every thing else, in ers of the orthodox centre at Boston deter- his own consciousness: its intensity securmined to insist upon the return of all straged for it a solitary dignity in his estimaglers, or else to cut them off. The usual arts of schism were accordingly put into operation. A periodical, The Panoplist," -was created, to give anonymous expression to all the jealousies and suspicions which are so familiar to clerical sensitiveness, but which it requires some courage personally to own. The ambiguous language of the latitudinarian divines, corresponding no doubt with the indeterminate condition of their ideas, was treated as an hypocrisy and to suggest an interpretation

tures of their belief, and the work of exegesis itself, leave only the subordinate details at the disposal of historical attainment and acquired skill.

tion; prevented his confounding it with any other feeling, or resolving it into ignoble ingredients, or assigning to it a derivative place. That man is endowed with knowledge of the right, and with power to realize it, was the jundamental axiom in his Science of human nature. Hence his attachment to the doctrine of Free-will; the compromise of which he justly regarded as rendering the sentiment of Duty illusory. A mind, entrusted with responsible power, is at once a Cause in itself, and subject of

he makes of himself must deal with us as free beings, living under natural laws: and must be merely supplementary to that law, enlarging our consciousness of it, and our aspirations after conformity with it. Everything arbitrary and magical, everything which despairs of us or insults us as moral agents, everything which does not address itself to us through the Reason and Conscience, must be excluded from the relations of intercourse between God and man.

a Higher Cause: so that the ethical prin- | ty of appeal, must respect the conditions ciple completes itself in religious truth; of our being, and, in the inmost circle, and in the Conscience itself there is both leave us to ourselves. Whatever revelation a Revelation and a Type of God. Its suggestions, by the very authority they carry with them, declare themselves to be his Law; its aspirations, to be the whisper of his spirit. Concurring with our highest nature, and present in its action, he can be thought of only after the pattern he thus gives. He therefore is a Free Cause, like ourselves he perceives the infinite difference between moral good and evil, and places his power at the disposal of this perception. The distinctions which are thus objects of the Divine Mind must be eternal and immutable; inherent in the nature of things and we must have been created in adaptation to them, not they created in adaptation to us. Hence pain and pleasure are attached to them as retributory appendages, not prefixed to them as physical sources. And finally, since the preferential power of the Will is the original type and sole model of Causality, Mind alone, to which this attribute is peculiar, fulfils the requisites of a Cause: and it is only in the inferior sense of force without choice, that the word can be applied to a physical agency. The primitive and ultimate synthesis of force with choice may undergo temporary analysis: Mind may transmit force indefinitely through matter, or so as to constitute matter, but the element of choice remains at home.

In such a system of ideas did Channing's theology find its base. Far different was the method of Priestley's thought. As the one was the result of moral reflection, the other followed the lead of material Science. It was to be expected that the successful chemist and electrician would carry the intellectual habits of the laboratory into the meditations of the church. His Theism, accordingly, is a conclusion of Inductive philosophy: a detection of the earliest term of Causation; a discovery of the Fountain-head, whence all the streams of force flow through the universe, and produce its collective phenomena. This First Cause, reached by the same reasoning that discloses other physical agencies, must be supposed a Cause in the same sense, and must be interpreted by the same rules. The nature of the effects declares him to be Now what, in consistency with this mode rational: by position he is prior to all of thinking, will be the mutual position of things; as an unintelligent step is impossiGod and man? Both will be conceived as ble to him, and no collateral power exists standing in the august presence of certain to limit him, he designs all that is producMoral possibilities, presenting a species of ed, and produces all that he designs. Every criterion of their nature. God, through object and event is therefore derivative an eternal existence, has made the good from his intending Will; independent the sole object of his choice and love. Το agency is impossible; and however comus, whom he has created in the image of pletely the mechanism may be concealed, his own Free-will, he has imparted power the human mind is included in the vast to do the same, and put us on our trial here; system, and implicitly subject to necessary giving us such participation in his own spi- laws. Hence, we can never stray from our ritual perceptions as may accord with the appointed end: the impression that we limited conditions of our being; disposing could have chosen a different course is an around us external opportunities for the illusion: the feeling that we ought to have exercise of such perceptions; and planting done so, simply means, it is unfortunate within us the voluntary force to realize for us that we did not: and even this is at their suggestions. In our personal essence, bottom never true; since our decision therefore, we are, and must ever remain, would not have obtained admission into independent agents,-associates, or " joint- the system, had it not, in spite of its ill workers" with God. He may change the looks at present, really been the best. field of our probation; may strengthen the Thus, the distinctions of good and evil discipline of our life; deepen the intima- which the moral feelings recognize, are aptions of his spirit; but, under every varie-parent only, not ultimate: the two things