satisfied upon them; I will draw the sword, my hand shall destroy them." "The waters returned," says the historian, " and covered the chariots and the horsemen, and all the hosts of Pharaoh, that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them." "Thou didst blow with thy wind," says the song of Moses; "the sea covered them; they sank as lead in the mighty waters. Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?" In the 4th chapter of Judges is a plain narrative of the discomfiture and death of Sisera; and, in the next chapter, the same events are celebrated in the song of Deborah. In these examples the poetic spirit is exhibited, in the circumstances with which it clothes ideas that do not, in themselves, necessarily, excite the imagination, or move the heart deeply. It would be easy to multiply and vary the illustrations of the principles laid down in this chapter; but enough have been adduced to enable the reader to judge of the propriety of those principles, and to suggest other and, perhaps, more pertinent examples. The beautiful lectures of Montgomery on general literature will extend his acquaintance with the subject, and amply reward a careful perusal. I will only add an instance where the simplest expression of a natural sentiment is endued with that poetical power, which genius alone can exercise over the soul. When Lady Macbeth is represented, by Shakspeare, as waiting, near by, in anxious solicitude, the return of her husband from the murder of Duncan, she is alarmed by a noise within, and, in her fear lest the deed had not been done, exclaims: "Had he not resembled My father, as he slept, I had done 't." What a picture of humanity is suggested to the heart by this touching sentiment of filial piety yet blooming in the scorched and desolate bosom of this unnatural woman! ARTICLE VII. REVIEW OF PROFESSOR TAPPAN'S WORKS ON THE WILL. By Rev. George B. Cheever, Pastor of the Allen-street Presb. Church, New-York. EDITORIAL REMARKS. THE editors of the Repository have ever not only welcomed, but solicited, the free discussion of all biblical subjects and theological doctrines, whether fundamental, and essential to the Christian system, or merely secondary and explanatory. Of the latter class are the several theories which have been broached on the subject of the Will. These, in their tendencies, affect, more or less, the power of fundamental truths, and, on this account, possess a high relative importance. We have noticed the successive volumes of Professor Tappan on the Will, as they have appeared, and have commended them to our readers as worthy of a candid perusal. It has not been our intention, however, to indicate, by these notices, our own position in respect to his system as a whole. We have been willing to sit as learners at the feet of those who are better prepared than ourselves to search to the bottom a subject which, in all ages of the world, has so perplexed,and often bewildered,-the minds of the most profound and original thinkers. And we were willing to see the system of Edwards, so long and so extensively adopted in this country, by a sort of common consent,-again subjected to a new and thorough examination. But the reviewer of Edwards. could by no means expect to escape an equally searching review, from some friend of the system which he had so fearlessly assailed; and we have been disappointed that no such review has been offered for our pages. In the mean time the following article has been submitted; and, though it fails to express our own views, on several points, it possesses so many excellences, is so rich in imagery, so playful and attractive, and contains so many striking, pointed and just sayings about philosophy, as well as some important sentiments and positions on philosophy,—that we cannot find it in our hearts to deny our readers the pleasure we have derived from its perusal. We present it, therefore, as the opening of a discussion, which we trust will be resumed on our pages, by some other hand, at no distant day.—SR. ED. A Review of Edwards' Inquiry into the Freedom of the Will. By Henry Phillip Tappan. New-York: John S. Taylor. 1839. The Doctrine of the Will determined by an appeal to Consciousness. By Henry P. Tappan. New-York: Wiley and Putnam. 1840. The Doctrine of the Will applied to Moral Agency and Responsibility. By Henry P. Tappan. New-York: Wiley and Putnam. 1841. THE History of Philosophy is in truth a history of the love of wisdom, but not of its attainment. For the most part it describes merely the dark struggles either of minds unassisted by revelation, or of minds disregarding the light while surrounded by it, and continuing their speculations in the preferred darkness of old unenlightened nature. Of these two classes of intellects, the first have made the greatest advances in investigation, and the nearest approximations to the truth. The last have done little more than to fall back, by the light of Christianity, within the circle of the speculations of the former, and there continue to grope after phantasms. At the same time, in the grammar of metaphysical science, or the analysis and classification of the human faculties, and the observance of their operations, much advancement has been made, and method established; and thus metaphysics has come to wear the aspect of a regular and definite science, while as yet the speculations of many of its professors, instead of exhibiting the clearness of scientific knowledge, are full of darkness and incertitude. Assuming a superiority to Plato, and all the philosophical world of antiquity, and disregarding the light of Christianity, as inferior, on this subject, to that of reason, they have fallen behind both, and are travelling in a region, which has neither the obscure magnificence of the Platonic, nor the solidity and clearness of the Christian. Meantime the appearance of certainty and definiteness in what might be called the grammar of metaphysics, a grammar without books for the study of the language, has perhaps prevented advancement in the science by fostering a false satisfaction in the apparent determinateness and excellence of discoveries already made. At all events, metaphysical science has advanced slowly in comparison with the physical sciences; and systems of gross absurdity and infidelity have been broached, that in physical things would not have been endured for a moment. What they can touch, taste, handle, men are certain of; but all things that relate to the spiritual being, and to man's inward, real existence, are a terra incognita, and a mystery. The life of the soul is much sooner denied than that of the senses. The γνωθι σεαυτον has well been called a heaven-descended maxim; but how universally neglected! We know ourselves least; mere outward shows Our minds do store, That our souls, no more than our eyes, disclose Himself, knows more. DONNE. Nevertheless, we will not be discouraged. There is, after all, a better tendency. The polar inclination of the world towards cold and darkness has reached its extreme, and we are now verging to the culmination of warmth, light, and loveliness. Nature, by and by, will be beauty, and the laws and logic of the beautiful will be investigated by the soul. A change in the elements is taking place; its signs are not indistinguishable. The rays of the rising sun shoot above the horizon. We shall see the clouds rolled away, and the blue heavens shining. We shall see a light over all departments of the human intellect glorious to behold. It is high time for such advancement. With what amazing rapidity do men move forward in the sensible sciences! We shall soon be found studying the very entomology of the moon, while the wondrous recesses of our own spiritual being are almost as undiscovered as the solar systems of the milky way. "When will man learn," exclaims Mr. Dana, in one of the finest passages of his poetry, "When will man learn The outward by the inward to discern? Thy way down deep into the soul. The light, Shed in by God, shall open to thy sight Vast powers of being, filled with Life and God; And faculties come forth, and put to shame Thy vain and curious reasoning. Whence they came And thou, Self-awed in their mysterious presence, bow; Along its coming waves; and thou shalt see For far-sought truth within thy soul shall rise, These glorious visions, and the inward eyes to look at them, are reluctantly acknowledged, reluctantly exercised. Men sleep, dream, somnambulize in philosophic matters, but they do not work with their inward senses, in spiritual things, as they do with their outward senses in external things. When we were schoolboys, we used to busy ourselves with rolling snowballs, and building snow-houses. There is a great deal of this in philosophy; but these snow-houses are not practicable to live in. Nevertheless, a man of genius sets his ball in motion, and by and by it gets large, and other shoulders are put to it, and it takes up great layers of earth and sticks from the ground, as well as layers of snow; and when it can be rolled no farther, but rests, men make a wonder of it, and speculate about it, and historicise its composition, and dignify and magnify its importance; then warm weather comes, and it melts, and the residuum is nothing but plain mud. Every generation has its philosophic snowballs. Now if men's speculations, besides being as bootless, were as innocuous as boy's play, the forming of philosophic systems would be a harmless recreation for the intellect. But this business is like delving in quicksilver mines, and a man's soul grows lean and pale on the poison. "I tell you, a fellow that speculates is like a brute driven in a circle on a barren heath by an evil spirit, whilst fair green meadow lies everywhere around." It was hardly just in Goethe to put this admirable sentiment into the mouth of his sarcastic devil; it should have been the breath of serious, earnest feeling. Indeed, according to Milton, Mephistopheles did speak thus from experience, by having gotten so often involved in painful, thorny speculations in hell. There they reasoned high Of providence, foreknowledge, will and fate, |