he came upon the stage, and to the habits of men in public life, as justice demands. The rest let us forgive, when we look into those great mournful eyes, and gaze upon that face, so graved in every feature, with the marks of a thoughtful and repentant spirit, according to the representations taken of him, in the last years of his life. What the Spirit of God did for him, and with what results, is set down in that book which no mortal eye may read, but whose accumulating records will hereafter be spoken in the hearing of the universe. We only know that his early religious history was interesting; that he made a public profession of his faith in Christ, in early life; that he never withdrew from the orthodox connection; that for several years he attended upon Unitarian preaching in Boston; that he often communed with the Episcopal Church; that he desired to be buried according to Congregational usages, under the guidance of his parish minister; and that no profane or impure word was ever heard to fall from his lips. But whatever may be our speculations about his religious character as exhibited in daily life, there were many circumstances in the latter part of his sojourn on earth, which are fitted to inspire hope. We shall leave this point to the judgment of our readers, after giving an extract or two from a sermon by Rev. C. M. Butler, of Washington, and from a letter written by Dr. Jeffries, of Boston. Says Mr. Butler:

"He loved most that preaching which was plain, earnest, affectionate, personal and expository, rather than that which was general and discursive. His conversation was always understood by me to proceed upon the admission, on his part, of what are called the distinctive and evangelical truths of the Gospel. I have known his most emphatic approbation to have been expressed of sermons in which these truths were most distinctly presented.

"Mr. Webster was exceedingly fond of discoursing and conversing on religious subjects. I never remember to have visited him, when the circumstances admitted of it, that he did not enter upon the subject. I particularly remember a call which I made upon him on the third or fourth evening after the delivery of his great speech of the 7th of March, 1850. He was alone, and somewhat indisposed. But at once, and with great interest-apparently forgetful of public affairs, at a moment when most men would have been alive at every pore to know how their course would be responded to or approved-he entered upon a most interesting discussion of moral, philosophical and religious questions. Among other subjects, he dwelt much on the tendency of men to rest in Church, or services, or sacraments, or doctrines, or something else, for salvation and acceptance, except just that spiritual purity, and homage, and service which God demands, and he gave me a sketch of a series of sermons which might be preached from the text, God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.'”

The facts stated by his attending physician, Doctor Jeffries, will ever be read with the deepest interest. We put on permanent record all that we can find room for. Says the Doctor,

"I have not time, at so short a notice, to explain the circumstances and incidents of his sick chamber. I therefore send you only a few facts for your consideration I would observe that his epitaph has not as yet been printed.

and use.

If you analyze that remarkable embodiment of his thoughts, you will find a full expression of his faith under the teachings of the spirit. His reference to the atonement you will perceive by what followed my recital of the hymn. I have no doubt that he was an experimental Christian. May we not confidently hope that he who so often spoke with the truth and clearness of a prophet's vision, uttered under a Divine guidance those remarkable words, I shall be to-night in life, and joy and blessedness.'

"The few facts I have to present to you are as follows:

On leaving Mr. Webster for the night at half past eleven, on Saturday, Oct. 16, 1852, I asked him if I should repeat to him a hymn at parting, to which he gave a ready assent; when I repeated the hymn which begins,

There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel's veins,'

he gave a very serious attention to the recital, and at the close he said: Amen, amen, even so come Lord Jesus.' This was uttered with great solemnity. He afterwards asked me if I remembered the verse in one of Watt's hymns on the thought of dying at the foot of the cross, and repeated these lines with remarkable energy and feeling:

Should worlds conspire to drive me hence,
Moveless and firm this heart should lie,
Resolved, (for that's my last defence,)

If I must perish-here to die.'

"After this he said that he owed it to his fellow countrymen, to express his deep conviction of the divine inspiration of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and had embodied some thoughts which he gave to Mr. Edward Curtis.

"He repeated the text, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,' and then, what he had given to be inscribed upon his tombstone, which was as follows:

"Lord I believe, help Thou mine unbelief.'

"Philosophical argument, especially that drawn from the vastness of the Universe, in comparison with the apparent insignificance of this globe, has sometimes shaken my reason for the faith which is in me; but my heart has always assured and re-assured me, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ must be a Divine reality.

"The Sermon on the Mount cannot be a merely human production. This belief enters into the very depth of my conscience.

"The whole history of man proves it.

DANIEL WEBSTER.'

"He afterwards said that he wished also to leave, soniewhere, his testimony in favor of early piety; that he was familiar with all the great poets, Pope, Dryden, Cowper, Milton and others, but that the hymns of Watts, from his cradle hymns to his version of the Psalms, and other deeper hymns, were always uppermost in his mind and on his tongue; that he could repeat them faster than four scribes could write them down.

"He conveyed very strongly by his remarks, that his early religious, instruction and acquirements had always had the most profound and abiding influence upon

his mind and life.

"I was informed by Mrs. Webster, about a fortnight before his death, that he had been speaking to her of his case, and expressed the apprehension that it would terminate fatally; he then appeared to consider his preparation for the event, and clasping his hands he said, with deep emotion, I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.' "A short time before he became unable to express his thoughts, he appeared to be engaged in silent prayer, (as I often noticed his appearance to indicate during his sickness,) when he gave utterance to something-a few words of which were low and lost to me; that which followed was-but whatsoever I do, Almighty God, receive me to Thyself for Jesus Christ's sake.'-He also exclaimed, 'I shall be to-night in life, and joy, and blessedness.""

But all these scenes are over-all the great triumphs of intellectual exertion in full view of the public, and all those grander

struggles of the spiritual nature, in the privacy of home,—and we shall never again read any new orations of his; never be called to sigh over any fresh proof that he was fallible. He went down to his grave amid lamentations more wide and heartfelt, than have been called forth by the loss of any man since the news of Hamilton's death carried sadness through the land. And the closing incidents of his life found a simple, appropriate, and truly grand conclusion to his career. For months, even for two years, he had been growing feeble in body, (although his mind retained all its "natural force,") and such is the amiability of mankind that the weakness of age and sickness was attributed to intoxication, on the occasion when for the last time he met his friends in Fanueil Hall. It now appears that he actually rejected the advice of his medical friend, who urged him to take a glass of wine for that occasion, and made that address when it was with difficulty that he could walk without leaning his weight on a strong and friendly arm. The great struggle with himself in 1850, when he changed his course; the exhausting efforts he made to turn the public favor towards the compromise measures; the weight of years; the responsibilities of office,-all combined to weaken his iron frame. Then the alienation of friends was a bitter draught to one so formed for confidence and friendship. And last of all, when the result at Baltimore made it certain that he never could attain to the office which he was conscious of having adequate powers to fill with honor to his country; bitterer than all, when the ever selfish South, with unparalleled ingratitude, refused to support him, his strong heart broke. Let us not deny it, for he must have been less or more than man, to have escaped that fate. He came home to die. Boston strove, by a splendid ovation, to soothe his feelings; but it was of no avail. The whole pageant was aptly called the funeral of a living man. He was hastening to that land where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest. He knew that his days were numbered. To a friend from whom he parted in New York, when on his last journey to Marshfield, and who inquired, as he shut the door of the carriage: "When shall we see you in New York again?" he replied in solemn tones, "Never; never." He went home to put his house in order, and prepare to meet his God. And how serenely he passed away. He closed up his public business; he regulated his property; he made his will, to the satisfaction of his friends; he directed that the farmers of the neighborhood should be his bearers to the grave; then he was carried to the door to take a last look at his noble herd of oxen; retiring, he laid himself on his bed, no more to leave his chamber.

A wife,

an only surviving son, dear friends, and faithful household servants, gathered around, received parting words and Christian consolation, and then withdrew, shedding tears. He prayed to the God of his fathers, in the name of Christ, as he had done aforetime. He avowed himself a believer in the Bible; a sinner who needed mercy; a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth. He expressed a hope that he should soon be "in life, and joy, and blessedness." Then he entered the dark valley, saying: "The fact, the fact, is what I want; thy rod, thy rod, thy staff, thy staff," thus intimating that he was not then taken up with the beauty of words, but would lean on the strength of the Almighty. And as he stood on the confines of both worlds,-the earth receding-eternity opening-in complete self-possession-that voice once more rose high in the stillness of night, and rang through the mansion; "Life, death,—death, life! how curious it is." And then the broad chest sank. His spirit was with his God.

"So sinks the gale when storms are o'er;

So gently shuts the eye of day;

So dies a wave along the shore."

America has produced three men of the first order of mind. The first, on account of his public services, of his patriotism, and of his incorruptible character, is the great model of a hero and statesman. He sleeps in the shades of Mount Vernon, where the exile of other lands comes to rekindle the flame of liberty in his own bosom, on the banks of that Potomac, which, by its full volume of waters, and its ceaseless flow, emblems the vastness and the perpetuity of his fame. The second, by his sense, his imagination, his unsurpassed reasoning powers, his amazing insight, his peerless genius, and his saintly piety, has made every place of his abode a shrine. East Windsor, Northampton, Stockbridge and Princeton, are hallowed spots, since Edwards lived there. He lies beneath the waving branches of Nassau Hall, where the Christian scholar, from every clime, will long go on pilgrimage. The last reposes in the old Pilgrim grave-yard at Marshfield, which looks towards "the bay where the Mayflower lay," and fronts the ever-heaving ocean. Over his grave may ever be heard the mingled cadence of the farresounding sea, the mournful murmur of the pine forest, and the warbling of tuneful birds; and there, in coming generations, will his appreciating countrymen, from shore to shore, and the admirers of his intellectual greatness, from all lands, seek the burial-place of Webster.

LITERARY NOTICES.

Principles of Geology; or, the Modern Changes of the Earth and its Inhabitants, Considered as illustrative of Geology. By SIR CHARLES LYELL, M. A., F. R. S., Vice President of the Geological Society, London. New and entirely Revised Edition. Illustrated with Maps, Plates, and Wood cuts. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 200 Broadway. 1853. pp. 834.

A Manual of Elementary Geology; or, the Ancient Changes of the Earth and its Inhabitants, as illustrated by Geological Monuments. By THE SAME. Reprinted from the Fourth, and entirely Revised Edition. Illustrated with five hundred Wood cuts. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1853. pp. 512.

These two works properly go together. The one lays down the principles of Geological reasoning; the other applies those principles to Geological facts. The doctrine first advanced by Sir Charles Lyell, and most successfully established by him that the changes which have taken place on the earth within the historical period, are to be regarded as the continuation of the changes which have been wrought in the immense periods of the past-seems to place Geology upon the basis of a precise and exact science. In this respect, we have derived more satisfaction from the writings of this geologist than from any other writer. We have heretofore expressed our opinion of the value of the "Principles;"-and we need do no more now than say that the present volumes contain the latest researches of the author, and that the progress of discovery has in general tended to confirm his original views. We regard his writings as the best on this subject.

Speeches of John C. Calhoun; delivered in the House of Representatives, and in the Senate of the United States. Edited by RICHARD K. CRALLE. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 200 Broadway. 1853. pp. 652.

This volume contains, we are informed, all the speeches delivered by Mr. Calhoun in Congress, of any general interest-or rather all of which any reliable reports have been preserved. The first speech in the volume was delivered Dec. 12th, 1811, in the House; and the last Feb. 7th, 1837, in the Senate. Although Mr. Calhoun seems to have taken little care of his reputation as a speaker, there is still enough in these speeches to vindicate the high rank which has ever been assigned him as a logician and an orator. We wait for the publication of his entire works, before speaking more fully upon the Character and Services of Mr. Calhoun.

Philosophy of Sir William Hamilton, Bart. Professor of Logic and Metaphysics in Edinburgh University. Arranged and Edited by O. W. WIGHT, Translator of Cousin's "History of Modern Philosophy." New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1853. pp. 530.

Discussions on Philosophy and Literature, Education_and_University Reform. Chiefly from the Edinburgh Review: corrected, vindicated, enlarged, in Notes and Appendices. By Sir WILLIAM HAMILTON, Bart. With an Introductory Essay by Robert Turnbull, D. D. New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers. 1853. pp. 764.

We have placed these volumes together, though published by different houses, because they contain in part the same matter; and the reader will like to know how far they are the same. Sir William Hamilton's first publication in Metaphysics was a Review of Cousin's Cours de Philosophie, with especial reference to that philosopher's doctrine of the Infinito-Absolute, published in the Edinburgh Review in 1829; his next, a Review of Jouffroy's edition of Reid's Works, with reference to Brown's doctrine of Perception, published in the same Review, in 1830. We find no other publication on Metaphysical subjects till 1839, when an article appeared