His Conversational Qualities. 81 my instructions to the cases of those who hear me, to enable me to treat every subject in a proper manner, to replenish and strengthen my mind, and for a thousand other purposes. Hence in general, the propriety of doing with the greatest diligence everything having a tendency to gain the great object in view."-Pp. 36, 37. One of the acquisitions to the possession of which Dr. Heugh in early life aspired, and in mature days had attained in very un'common measure, was the power of conversing with facility to himself, and interest and advantage to others. This power he sought not for ostentation, but for usefulness. He by no means over-estimated the importance of the accomplishment he coveted. If persons sufficiently reflect on the influence of speech in ordinary intercourse, surely the efflux of frothy gossip to name no graver classes of offending words-were a rarer thing. Who can tell the power for good or evil of but one sentence, falling on a fellow-creature's ear; or estimate the mighty series of emotions, purposes, and actions, of which one articulate breath may be the spring? "A word spoken in season, how good is it!" In another sense than the poet's-all words are winged, and imagination can ill track their flight. Evil or idle words may seem as they are uttered light and trivial things; yet, if light, they are like the filaments of the thistle-down, each feathery tuft floating on the slightest breeze, bears with it the germ of a noxious weed. Good, kind, true, holy words, dropt in conversation, may be little thought of too, but they are like seeds of flower or fruitful tree, falling by the way-side, borne by some bird afar, haply thereafter to fringe with beauty some heretofore barren mountain-side, or make some nook of the wilderness to rejoice. And we know not if there is any thing, viewed either as an element of character, or a means of usefulness, which ad-mits of more thorough reformation, or calls more imperatively for the regulation of fixed and resolute principle, than the ordinary conversation of Christians. The subjugation of the untameable tongue is ranked in the New Testament as the highest achievement of self-control; and judging from the paucity of cases where the conquest has been attained, the difficulty of the task must assuredly be great. Above all, it were well that we could exorcise the spirit of censoriousness, manifesting itself in a thousand ways-the whispered insinuation, the suggested suspicion, the eagerly retailed scandal, the eulogy which prepares the way for some damnatory but, the prejudiced judgment, the undisguised utterance of bitterness and wrath. The reader will find in this biography some important hints for the attainment of the habit of instructive and charitable conversation. In reference to the species of tongue-sin particularly named, take the following resolution : VOL. XIV. : NO. XXVII. F "Let me have the following maxims always in mind, for the regulation of my conduct :-Never to praise myself, never to speak evil of, or detract from, any other individual. Better not to speak at all, than speak to slander and calumniate. Resolve, never to use such language of any person as I should be ashamed to use in his presence.”—P. 29. Did the Christian world, from a high principle of love and duty, but adopt and practise this determination; implying, as it does, the relinquishment of backbiting on the one hand, and the faithfulness of true affection on the other, by that one result the shadow on the dial-plate of Time would be found advanced by ten degrees, as with a bound, towards the hour marked for the dawn of the millennium. It is cognate to the subject just adverted to, to notice a beautiful feature of Dr. Heugh's character from his earliest life-his spirit of generous catholicity. There are a hundred instances, scattered over his Life, of his hearty appreciation of the excellencies of good men of every religious communion. At a recent date, the subject of Christian union employed his pen, in a manner which proved how thoroughly congenial to his heart would have been the practical movements towards the closer fellowship of all good men, which are so happily characteristic of the Christian Church in the present day. And in years when the Evangelical Alliance was yet undreamed of, and long ere the lesson of union had been wrought into the history of his own communion, we find his warm and liberal Christianity overflowing the bounds of sectarian distinction, at that time somewhat rigidly maintained and jealously guarded. Some of the dearest friendships of his life were formed with brethren of other sections of the Church; and his exertions were honourably, and with some success, expended to make such sections fewer. We forbear to expatiate on this inviting topic; but there is a letter relating to it, written by him, in 1817, from which we must extract a portion, partly on account of the opinions embodied, and partly as presenting an illustration of the subdued humour which so often enlivens his correspondence, now breaking forth into a single joyous sparkle, and at other times playing and coruscating, aurora-like, through continuous sentences, and even consecutive paragraphs. After referring to the subject of Christian union as one to which his thoughts had often turned, and which he regarded as one of the most important which could occupy the mind, he proceeds :— "A revolution has in fact been already produced both in men's minds and in practice. It is not long since each religious party was surrounded with lofty walls of its own rearing; partly for separation, partly for defence, and partly for annoyance; and there was little either of ingress or egress, but for its own exclusive friends. If the His Catholic and Missionary Spirit. 83 walls are not thrown down, the artillery is dismounted, the works are neglected or going to decay, and there is a constant coming and going by the gates. There are, moreover, many pieces of neutral ground discovered, where men from all the various enclosures assemble; and if they do not construct a formal treaty of union, they at least contract attachment from the habits of peace, and feel strange longings for the entire demolition of their old scowling parapets. A good many in each enclosure grumble when their friends issue from their precincts, and meet old enemies on these newly discovered commons, and look with a jealous eye, from a distance, at these strange festivities; but even these grumblers venture sometimes from curiosity, or other motives, to visit them themselves; and it is wonderful what tendencies to revolution even they experience. When they get out from their old walls, and narrow streets, and old-fashioned dark lanes and tenements, to the open green commons, they feel they breathe a freer air, their very hearts warm and expand, and something within them says, It is good for us to be here!' Yet we must not be too rude to the enclosures,-after all they are venerable hallowed abodes. In some of them piety has flourished for ages, salvation has been in their gates. Prayer, and praise, and holiness have hallowed many of their dwellings, and the King of Glory has long blessed them with his presence. And if we, their sons, feel and enjoy liberty to step without, we must not be harsh to those who remain behind. We must not attempt furiously to bring down their walls and their houses upon their heads. And, after all, if the revolution be prudently conducted, perhaps these ancient cities may be permitted to remain."-P. 160. Among the matters which must engage the attention of the pastor are two subjects of much difficulty and eminent importance, the visitation of the sick and the admission of applicants to the communion of the Church. The second of these is one of the best subjects we know for the next prize essays; to be called for in such a way as should summon to the task the profoundest intellect and most fervent piety which the Church possesses. There are in this biography many helpful hints on both these subjects, by one who proves himself to have felt at once their interest and their special difficulty. Another cognate topic, of a practical kind, lay so near Dr. Heugh's heart, as disclosed in this "Life," that we cannot avoid noting it. We refer to the revival of religious energy and of missionary enterprise in the Christian Church. Few men ever did more than Dr. Heugh to evoke, foster, and wisely work, the elastic principle of Christian beneficence. So high, indeed, was the standard he looked to, that some of his plans and hopes have appeared to the minds of many like dreams; but we are persuaded the dreams of the present generation-as has happened so often in the march of modern science-will be outrun by the ordinary realities of the Church of the future. Our materials for lessons are not yet nearly exhausted. We have attempted no sketch of the narrative contained in this biography. We have thought it better to narrow our remarks to a single definite purpose, and we have kept by our design. Otherwise, following the track of the biographer, it would have been delightful to accompany Dr. Heugh through the successive stages of his life. It would have been a profitable task to go with him into the noiseless walks of pastoral duty to commune with him through the medium of his intimate and domestic correspondence to ramble with him on his many journeys-now in pursuit of labour, now in quest of health-to the Highlands, to Ireland, to England and her metropolis, and to the Continent, listening to his comments on men and things-to note the public social labours which his sympathy with all benevolent movements led him to undertake, and, above all, ever and anon, to retire with him into the calm of his own closet, and hear his wrestlings with himself and with his God. But we can only thus give some imperfect indication of the kind of walk prepared for the reader of this book. When he has gone through it we are mistaken if he will not be disposed to say, this is true living. He will find such instruction and pleasure at every turn that it will seem as if the man of God, whose steps he is tracing, had realized the old fable, and blossoms and fruit had sprung up with his advancing footsteps. It would be ungrateful to dismiss these volumes without adverting to the manner in which the biographer and editor has accomplished his task. We do not know a biography better written. There is a unity of aim and purpose in the construction of the work, announced, kept in view, and attained. The reflections and observations which incidentally arise are neither tedious nor trifling, and sometimes touch on a vein of deep and beautiful thought: and opinions relating both to persons and subjects are penned with a sobriety of diction and a judicial calmness that bespeak the lover of truth. Mr. Macgill was perhaps cumbered by the very riches of the materials placed within his reach; but he has used them with much skill; constructing a work which holds no mean place among the classics of religious biography. The Agricultural Crisis. 85 ART. IV.-1. The Present Prices. By the Rev. A. HUXTABLE. London: 1849. 2. Mr. Huxtable and his Pigs. By PORCIUS. Edinburgh: 1850. 3. High Farming the best Substitute for Protection. By J. CAIRD of Baldoon. Edinburgh: 1849. 4. Caird's High Farming Harrowed. Edinburgh: 1850. 5. An Appeal to the Common Sense of the Country. By Professor Low. Edinburgh: 1850. 6. Analysis of Evidence before Health of Towns' Commission. London: 1847. 7. Flax versus Cotton. No. 1. By Mr. WARNES of Trimmingham. London: 1849. 8. Silk Culture. By Mrs. WHITBY of Lymington. London: 1849. 9. A Word to Farmers on Maize, &c. By J. KEENE. London: 1849. "THERE is a certain immorality," said Mr. Carlyle of the Corn-Laws seven years ago," a certain immorality, where there is not a necessity, in speaking about things finished; in chopping into small pieces the already slashed and slain. When the brains are out, why does not a solecism die?" But, alas! the Corn-Law solecism does not die. Even though buried, and got safely out of sight, as we hope, for ever, it still keeps muttering out of its grave, in querulous confused ejaculations, Cassandra-prophecies of vengance and ruin, and entreaties to be allowed to rise again, if but for a few weeks, to set forth certain important arguments which it unfortunately forgot to urge during its lifetime. The press teems still with protectionist pamphlets, demonstrations that Mr. Caird is mad, Mr. Huxtable is mad, Liebig is mad, political economists are mad, all England mad; exhortations to idleness and despair, sermons on the patriotic duty of proving that free-trade cannot work, by refusing to work it, and doing nothing out of a conscientious spite. To the majority of these productions, Mr. Carlyle's rule will well apply. It would be foreign to the purpose, and indeed to the dignity of this Review, to meddle with them. But when a man like Professor Low of Edinburgh, of known intellect, learning, and character, as well as high official station, comes forward as the champion of this gospel of agricultural despair, and in a pamphlet of more than a hundred closely printed pages, propounds at length a proof of the insanity of three-fourths of Her Majesty's subjects, he requires a patient and respectful hearing, and, if possible, a careful and earnest re |