so utterly were they unknown during the principal part of the period now under consideration.

Some writers on this period have, indeed, represented the ideas introduced by the Aristotelian philosophy as the chief subjects of interest to the schoolmen. It is obvious, however, that this philosophy did not furnish either the excitement to the scientific interest which was awakened in the schoolmen, nor the materials about which this interest was employed. So far from this, the principles of the Aristotelian philosophy were applied by the schoolmen only to the form and arrangement of the doctrines of Christianity, which doctrines were the engrossing themes of their attention. Others have described the subjects of nominalism and realism as the great points of inquiry during the scholastic period. But these subjects, earnestly as they were discussed and controverted, possessed no interest to the schoolmen, except as they grew out of, or stood connected with, the doctrines of revealed religion. Upon these sacred themes were the chief energies of mind bestowed, undividedly and almost without remission, for many successive ages, throughout Christian Europe.

It is not to be understood from these remarks, as has sometimes been. represented, that the mind, during this period, was held in fetters by religion, and prevented by the shackles of Christian restraint from ranging through the Encyclopedia of knowledge. The fact is simply this. At a time, when, according to the common rate of progression in society, the barbarous plunderers of Europe would have felt only the wants of the savage life, some feeble degree of philosophic interest had been prematurely awakened among them, through the influence of Christianity. This interest was naturally confined at first to the objects by which it had been excited; and it was long before it acquired sufficient vigour and maturity to break for itself new paths into the then untrodden fields of secular knowledge; though not so long as it would have been, without the fostering influence of Christianity.

It will hardly need to be proved, that this exclusive devotion of the Scholastic philosophy to Christian theology must have prevented any considerable improvement in either. The perfection of philosophy consists in its being comprehensive of the simple elements in all the departments of

knowledge. How imperfect, then, must philosophy have remained, so long as it was confined to the elements of a single science, though by far the most rich and inviting of those open to its research! And as to theology, since it is truly cognate with the other sciences, though infinitely superiour to them, how could it be thoroughly understood, unless viewed in its existing relations! While the light of scientific illumination fell in a concentrated beam upon Religion alone, leaving surrounding objects in darkness, Religion itself could not have been so advantageously seen, as if that light had been more equably diffused over the adjacent realms of truth, revealing their mutual relations, and placing each in the reflected radiance of all the rest. Oh ! when will the time come, in which God, the object of divine science, shall be recognised by reason in the manifestations he makes of himself in the world, as well as in those contained in Revelation; and in which the world, (its material, its laws, its history,) the object of the human sciences, shall be referred to God as its first cause, its grand centre, and last end!

We might enlarge upon other causes, which prevented the schoolmen from attaining that thorough and systematic knowledge of religion after which they aimed; such as their servile dependence on the authority of the Fathers, their rigid adherence to the established formulas of theological expression, and their misapplication of the Aristotelian dialectics;-but this would lead us too far. Enough has been said to show the reasons of the glaring defects of the Scholastic philosophy, which have created so deep a prejudice against it, that it hardly receives credit for its real excellencies, or for the correctness and importance of its radical principle.

With regard to these unfavourable causes, it needs only to be farther remarked, that most of them took effect only near the termination of this period, and that the elder schoolmen were comparatively free from that servility of mind, that metaphysical subtlety, and dreadful aridity of style, which characterized their successors. The spirit of Scotus Erigena was as bold and unfettered, as that of Alfred, his contemporary. St. Anselm, too, the father of theology in England, and the monks of St. Victor, though faithful adherents of the doctrines of the Church, yet dealt

See especially the work of Anselm, Cur Deus homo?

freely with its established formulas of expression, and allowed differences of opinion within prescribed boundaries. It was the same at a somewhat later period in France. The imperfect theological writings of Abelard disclose something of the genius which has earned for him so high a reputation in the literary world; and above all, the works of St. Bernard, whose copious eloquence is so richly and sweetly expressive of the fervours of pious devotion, and the depths of mystic contemplation, belong to quite another class from the heavy productions of the later schoolmen, and disclaim all affinity with their harsh and soulless jargon. We may hence learn the errour of those, (and there are many such,) who regard logical subtlety, servile reliance on authority, and a barbarous style, which are only contingent and partial attendants of the scholastic philosophy, as its principal characteristics. This is judging of the whole by a small part.

As we now cast our eyes back from the point we have gained, we perceive that from the commencement of the Christian era to the seventeenth century, the grand current of philosophic thought and labour in Christendom ran entirely in a theological direction. We have made two periods; but they are rather different stages in the developement of the same general tendency of mind. The sacred bent of philosophy, which characterizes equally both of these periods, was particularly directed, according to circumstances, now to the overthrow of the anti-Christian systems which ruled the ancient world, now to the confutation of the heresies springing up within the bosom of the Church, now to the scientific arrangement and systematic construction of the doctrines of revelation. Still, it was the ideas introduced by Christianity, in some form, which ar rested and held the attention of philosophy for so many centuries. Hence Hahn, in his Manual, makes but one period from the commencement of the Christian era to 1624, which he describes as a period in which Reason took its proper place, as a learner at the feet of Revelation.*

*The authorities which the writer has consulted are principally Neander, Gieseler and Hahn, in the history of Christianity; Tenneman, Tiedeman and Ritter, in the history of Philosophy. He has understood from one who has attended Neander's course on the history of Christianity during the dark ages, that his estimate of the Scholastic philosophy is among the most interesting and satisfactory portions of his great work, and that he has there shown the same depth and clearness of thought, accuracy of discrimination, and power of apprehending the leading features of a complicated mass of materials, which have

Thus was the new philosophy of the Christian era like the primeval philosophy of the world, the daughter of religion. And as Reason had spent its first infancy in exploring the mystic creeds and rites of Paganism; so now, at its second birth, were its powers employed upon the doctrines and ordinances of Christianity. The devotion of reason to revelation during this whole period, was doubtless too exclusive, and the other sources of knowledge and departments of learning were unduly neglected. Still how much better. was even this exclusiveness, than that indifference to religion, or hostility to it,-that exclusive devotion to secular knowledge, which is, as we shall hereafter endeavour to show, the opposite and disgraceful extreme of the philosophy of our own times! For how insignificant in their import, and remote in their bearing upon our highest wants, are all the boasted disclosures of secular science, in comparison with the disclosures of divine Revelation! How empty are the cisterns of worldly knowledge, for which Philosophy has forsaken the living fountains of truth from which she formerly drank! How drear the desert, and arid are the sands over which she has taken her devious course from the sacred haunts and verdant enclosures of the temple, in which she once dwelt! Happy will be the hour, when famishing on the husks of worldly knowledge, this repentant prodigal shall remember the home of her youth, its overflowing plenty of heavenly food! When, finding no rest for the sole of her foot, this vagrant bird of wisdom shall plume her returning wing for the Ark of God from which she went out, bearing with her all the spoils which the unfruitful waters can afford, and again build her nest among the sheltering altars of Religion! Then will Philosophy, having gone the round of the earthly sciences, and possessed itself of all their stores, devote itself anew to the doctrines of Christianity, not blindly and exclusively as before, but having found the lesson of its own experience to accord with the great truth, uttered by one who was himself both philosopher and Christian, that "sacred and inspired divinity is the Sabbath and port of all men's labours and peregrinations."*

been already exhibited by him in his accounts of the Gnostic philosophy, and of the early Trinitarian and Pelagian controversies.

* Bacon's Advancement of Learning, Vol. II. p. 290, Montaguc's ed.

LITERARY NOTICES.

Hints designed to regulate the Intercourse of Christians. By W. B. Sprague, D. D., Pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church in Albany. Albany; printed by Packard & Van Benthuysen, 1834.

THE announcement of a work such as this title imports, and from an author so well known for the soundness, as well as the eminently practical nature of his writings, we are sure, will be acceptable. Perhaps no point of duty is so little studied, and is at the same time so immensely important, as the intercourse of Christians with each other, and with the world. While the press abounds with essays to guide the Christian in the other departments of duty, we have rarely, if ever, met with a work, which so exactly meets him in the every day walks of life, and with a kind and encouraging hand, points out the way in which all who will, may labour successfully for the advancement of the kingdom of Christ.

"We are never likely," says Dr. Sprague, "to gain any object for which we do not distinctly provide in our calculations and arrangements. A general intention of labouring for it, as opportunity may occur, and convenience dictate, will be almost sure to result in nothing; and it is precisely on this ground, as we have reason to believe, that the great mass of men are losing their souls. When we see a man with a definite object in his eye, pursuing distinct plans for the attainment of it, and moving forward in the execution of those plans, we expect that he will do something to purpose; and we look with confidence for a result proportioned to his efforts. He is in an attitude now to encounter obstacles; and to crucify a spirit of apathy in its earliest operations; and to bring to his aid other subordinate agencies, as opportunity may permit, or occasion require. He avoids on the one hand, the evil of those who work without a plan,-and on the other, of those who form a plan, and do nothing towards its execution. Precisely the same principle you must adopt, and the same course you must pursue, if you would find opportunities for Christian intercourse. You must make provision for such opportunities by incorporating them into the whole plan of your life; and you must not merely make provision for them, but must faithfully avail yourself of them, when they occur; and the more you do this, the more of practical system you have in this department of religious duty, the more will you value the privilege of this intercourse, the more fruitful in permanent blessings will it be to you."

The great value of Dr. Sprague's work is, that he has laid before us just that practical system which we need, and so adapted to the condition of all, that no Christian who reads it, can afterwards feel excused for apathy and indifference to this branch of duty. The author, in his own peculiarly happy manner, seems in this volume to enter into the very family of the reader, and while he wins attention by the gentleness and delicacy of his address, he carefully points out the errours which may heretofore have escaped attention, and urges with much force the deep responsibility of every individual Christian particularly, from the peculiar character of the age.

Believing this work calculated to be permanently and extensively useful, we can only hope it may become known as widely as it deserves. It cannot fail to be appreciated as one of the best practical works of the day.