itself, but the example which was set in delivering it, is well worthy of being contemplated by men in high places. The efforts of clergymen on such occasions lose no small part of the influence to which they are entitled, by being regarded as official; but when a distinguished layman steps forward, as Mr. Everett has here done, in defence of the Bible, all suspicion of self interest, in any form, ceases; and many a mind which would, at best, have opened reluctantly to the teachings of the pulpit or the voice of a clergyman, now finds itself in an unsuspecting, docile and attentive attitude. We do not wish to see laymen doing the appropriate and peculiar work of clergymen; but there is some ground on which intelligent laymen may render most important service to the cause of truth and righteousnes, and still keep within their own sphere. Of this we think Mr. Everett has, in this address, shown himself a fine example.

"There is another consideration of a practical nature, which I should be glad to offer to the meeting, if I have not exceeded my allowance of time. We all have pretty strong, and as I think, just impressions of the superiority of Christendom over the Mahometan, Hindoo and Pagan countries. Our civilization, I know, is still very imperfect, impaired by many a vice which disgrace our Christian nurture,-by many a woe which

'Appears a spot upon a vestal's robe,

The worse for what it soils.'

But when we compare the condition of things in Christendom with that which prevails in the countries just named, we find that all the evils which exist among us prevail there in a greater degree, while they are subject to innumerable others, so dreadful as to make us almost ready to think it were better for the mass of population, humanly speaking, if they had never been born. Well, now, Mr. Chairman, what maketh us to differ? I know of no final and sufficient cause but the different character of Christianity, and the religions which prevail in Turkey, Persia, India, China and the other semi-civilized or barbarous countries; and this difference, as far as I know, is accurately reflected in their sacred books respectively. I mean, Sir, that the Bible stands to the Koran and the Vedas in the same relation as that in which Christianity stands to Mahometanism, or Brahmanism, or Buddhism; or Christendom to Turkey, Hindoostan, or China.

"We should all, I believe, more fully appreciate the value of the Scriptures, if we compared them with other books assuming the character of sacred. Í have not done it so much as I wish I had; but one reason-a main one-has been, the extreme repulsiveness of those books which I have tried to read. I have several times in my life attempted to read the Koran. I have done so lately. I have approached it with a highly excited literary curiosity. I have felt a strong desire to penetrate this great mystery of the Arabian desert. As I have, in some quiet Turkish town, (for in the provincial Turkish towns there is little of the bustle of our western life,) listened at the close of day to the clear, calm voice of the muezzin, from the top of the graceful minaret, calling the faithful to evening prayer, as I have mused on the vicissitudes of all human things beneath the venerable dome of St. Sophia's, I have, I may say, longed to find some rational ground of sympathy between Christianity and Islam; but any thing more repulsive and uninviting than the Koran I have seldom attempted to peruse, even when taken up with these kindly feelings. And yet, Sir, you are well aware that it is not conceived in a spirit of hostility to the Old and New Testament, but recognizes them both as a divine revela

tion. With such portions of the sacred books of the Hindoos as have fallen in my way, the case is far worse. They contain, it is true, some elevated moral sentiments of an ascetic cast, and some strains inspired by a sense of the beauties of nature. But the mythological system contained in them is a tissue of monstrosities and absurdities, by turns so revolting and nauseous as to defy perusal, except from some strong motive of duty or of literary curiosity, which would prompt the investigation. I really believe that few things would do more to raise the Scriptures in our estimation, than to compare the Bible with the Koran and the Vedas. It is not a course of reading to be generally recommended. A portion of the books are scarce, and, as I have said, their contents eminently repulsive; but I will venture to say to those whose professional duty it is to maintain the sacred character of the Christian Scriptures, that I know of scarce any line of reading which might be taken up with greater advantage, for the purpose of fair comparison, than that of the sacred books, as they are called, of the Mahometans and Hindoos. "One word more, Sir, and I have done. It is sometimes objected to an indiscriminate distribution of the Bible, that it may be perverted, misunderstood, neglected and abused. And what means of improvement, what instrument of Christian benevolence, is not subject to the same drawback? The fault is in the mind of man, subject to error, to the blinding effect of passion, to the debasement of vice, in all that he does, and in all that is done for him. There are things in the Bible hard to be understood. And what is there, if we strive to go beyond the mere outside, which does not contain things hard to be understood? Even our exact sciences, constructed upon ideas which are the creation of our own minds, are full of difficulties. When we turn from revealed truth to the teachings of human speculatists on duty and morals, do we not encounter on the threshold those terrible problems of

'Providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate—
Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute,'

problems that have tasked the unaided understanding of man ever since he began to think and to reason? For myself, Sir, I am more and more inclined to believe that the truth is presented to us in the Bible in the form best adapted to the infinite variety of the character and talent, intellectual and moral, to which it is addressed. It is not such a Bible as the wit of man would have conceived; but it is such a one as the nature and wants of man called for. The acceptance it has found, alike in ancient and modern times, with the learned and the ignorant, the old and the young, the high and the low, the prosperous and the wretched, shows that it is really adapted in itself, not to one country, age, or class, but to man; that it speaks to the unchanging wants, and sorrows, and frailties, and aspirations of the human heart."

We cannot omit to say in concluding this article that these. volumes exhibit Mr. Everett as a model, we had almost said a prodigy, of industry. If these various speeches and orations had come from some individual whose life had been a scene of literary leisure, we should have considered them less remarkable; though even then, we should have said that the author had done enough to secure to himself imperishable honour. But when we remember that they are the productions of one, who has, during the whole time, occupied most important civil stations, having been charged with his country's highest interests both at home and abroad, we are constrained to think that they indicate a degree of industry and facility at labour, of which there is scarcely an example in a generation. We meet Mr. Everett here as the

accomplished scholar and the eloquent orator; but we meet him also in all his various public relations. It is Professor Everett, and Governor Everett, and President Everett, Mr. Everett the member of Congress and Mr. Everett the ambassador to the court of St. James, with whose literary productions we are so much delighted and edified; and we remember almost with amazement that, in connection with these splendid efforts, he has fulfilled with most scrupulous fidelity the duties connected with. the several posts of honour and influence which have been assigned to him. Herein he is an illustrious model for all young men who desire to work out for themselves an honourable destiny; for though they may not possess his vigour or versatility of talent, and may not aspire to his measure of usefulness or of fame, yet they may imitate him in the economical use of his time and the diligent culture of his powers, and thereby become the benefactors, if not the greater lights, of their generation.

ART. VI.—DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE.

The Architecture of Country Houses; including Designs for Cottages, Farm Houses, and Villas, with remarks on Interiors, Furniture, and the best modes of Warming and Ventilating. With three hundred and twenty Illustrations. By A. J. DOWNING, author of "Designs for Cottage Residences," "Hints to persons about building," &c. New York: D. Appleton & Co.1850. New Haven: T. H. Pease. 8vo. pp. 484.

It is only within comparatively a short period of time that the term Architecture has obtained a foothold in our general American vocabulary. Formerly we used to hear of house building and church building; now we hear of domestic and ecclesiastical architecture. What our fathers knew no other name for than 'meeting-houses' we speak of in these days as 'church edifices;' and the old 'homestead' is fast becoming supplanted by the 'villa' and the 'country seat.' The word buildings now refers to nothing but barns and shops and like structures. All else is Architecture.

This change of phraseology is not, however, the result of accident or caprice. It betokens a change of ideas and the uprising of new convictions in the community at large. It indicates an advance in thought and feeling from a lower to a higher stage of development. It signifies that as a people we are rising above the physical condition of infancy and crudeness, that we are growing older and acquiring with increasing age increasing cul

ture and worth. And especially is it a thing of welcome significance, when we find the term in question applied so generally as it now is to the domestic in distinction from the more public structures of a people. It shows that the many are inclined to think, as never before, that the body is more than meat, and that a human being needs something in a residence besides the facilities for eating and sleep, and a shelter from the heat and cold. It indicates that the notion is becoming more widely and practically accepted that man is not a mere animal endowed with five senses, but that he has also intellectual and spiritual faculties, in the due education and culture of which, life really consists as much as in the satisfaction of physical wants. It gives assurance that the domestic affections, the tastes, the pleasures of society, are getting a higher place in the estimation of men; in short that the home feeling, that anchor to all that is good and virtuous, has a deeper hold upon the hearts of the multitude. And it is because the home feeling is worth so much, because it is a tie so strong and lasting, to bind us to what is loveliest and best, that we deem it a good omen when a changing nomenclature indicates such a change in ideas and feelings as we have just alluded to.

We rejoice, therefore, at the multiplying evidence afforded that our people in this country are thinking more and thinking better of their dwellings, the structures within which so much of their life is passed and upon which the character and worth of that life so much depend. We are not disposed to magnify the importance of material things, much less to set them above or before things spiritual. Man is a spiritual being, and his spiritual wants and enjoyments are of the first and highest consequence, and if these are not recognized and provided for, it matters very little what are the wants or delights dependent upon his physical structure or the material world in which he has his being. Nevertheless, inasmuch as his spiritual nature is linked to a material structure, he is dependent upon it and upon the material universe with which it brings him into connection for the culture and development of his higher and spiritual part. The world of ideas, thoughts and feelings, is most intimately connected with the world of matter, and the former world will take its tone and shape very much from the latter. And as this is different in the case of every individual, so each one may be said to form to himself his ideal or spiritual world from the particular physical world in which he lives. While, therefore, the outward and material, influences from the beginning of existence the inward and immaterial, man has it also in his power to determine, in a measure certainly, what this influence shall be. The time comes when the spiritual reacts upon the material and asserts its inherent superiority. The time arrives when the mind instead of lying in a state of mere mechanical reception assumes an active

and voluntary condition in which it chooses, to some extent at least, what it will receive from the material world around it. By its own creative power, too, it begins to reënstamp its own ideas, modified and cultured by reflection and experience, upon the world without. It lays hold of the earth and its material forms and substances, and shapes them at its will. It bridges the mighty streams; it tunnels the mountains; it levels the hills and lifts up the valleys; it raises everywhere the structures which minister to its will and convenience and happiness; and so, really creates the physical world anew. Thus, mankind come to live in a better world from time to time. This world as a whole is now only in the lowest sense the same world that it was at the opening of the present century. It has indeed the same geological strata; it has the same great rivers and bays and oceans; the same Alpine peaks, the same wide deserts and the same enveloping atmosphere. But in respect to its bearing upon human life, in the large and general view, it is as if another world had come to take its place. And so, too, men have it in their power to change and are changing that smaller material world in which the domestic life of each one is led. From caves in the mountain side, and tents and huts of the rudest construction, they have come to dwell in structures better calculated to satisfy and cultivate the advancing ideas and tastes of advancing civilization and those inspired by the influence of religion. The importance of this home world is probably felt at the present day more deeply than ever before. The more enlightened portion of mankind are recognizing too, as never before, the value of that portion of life which is comprehended within the limits of infancy and childhood. They are discovering how much it has to do with all the after life, whether considered in its material and social relations to the present world or in its spiritual relations to the world to come. And they are seeing as they never have seen until now, how much the place of a child's residence has to do with a child's character. They are discovering herein the possibility of a better life even from the outset of existence than was once acknowledged or even suspected. Still, however, there is room for improvement and further progress. Few have yet fathomed the great problem of human life. Few understand it whether restricted to early or more mature age, whether in its connection with this world or a world to come. We are at best but making advances toward the full and complete truth. We are experimenting in the great laboratory of existence, and as the result of many failures and a partial success, are settling gradually the basis of a more perfect knowledge. Every discovery, therefore, should be welcomed, and every instrument of progress be laid hold of as a help to the grand ultimate attainment.