the middle of the fifteenth century; and that these causes produced the general spirit of the age, which would have sunk far deeper in the night of barbarism had it not been for the feeble influence of Christianity. To the influence of the Catholic faith, it is contended, we owe all that was excellent in the history of that era, a high-minded and ennobling spirit of chivalry. Of these theories a choice can be made. For ourselves, we prefer the latter. It is far more consistent with the habits of our reasoning to suppose, that the influences which always do produce barbarism and mental darkness, produced it then, than to distort our faculties so far as to believe that a religion, whose very essence is purity, could have been so far prostituted, under any circumstances, as to bring about such a state of things. We do not mean to say that the Church in this era was pure; we do not wish to deny that there have been ambitious popes and worldly priests. They were but men, and is it not far more reasonable to suppose, that they were infected by the general spirit of the age, than that they were the authors of this state of public feeling? We should recollect, too, that during this period, the Church was connected with the State, and doubtless, as has always been the case, the fruit of this unnatural union was highly injurious to both parties. In addition to this, when we call to mind the nature of the Christian doctrines, so humbling to pride, so abasing to self, we certainly cannot wonder that they should have exerted but a feeble influence over the men of the middle ages. It seems at least a most unnatural perversion to say, that the ministers of these doctrines should, by their general diffusion, have acquired an influence over the common mind, which could mould it at their will.

Many, who adopt the first theory to which we have referred, suppose that a persecuting spirit is a peculiar and cardinal doctrine of the Catholic creed. But to show that it was not the effect of these principles, but perfectly coincident with the spirit of the age, we have only to say, that the very same opinions on this subject were held by the early reformers. Luther and Calvin both. thought all Arminians should be put to death. Calvin acted out the principle, and John Knox boldly declared, "that the idolator" (i. e. the Catholic,) "should die the death." The martyrdoms of Servetus and Joanna Bocher, the sacking of the convents in England under Henry VIII, the very tolerant spirit which the Parliament of Great Britain have always shown towards dissenters are beautiful commentaries upon that comprehensive liberality of the Protestant religion, upon which men descant with so much self-complacency. Let such men read history, and they will find that Christianity under whatever form, whether Catholic or Protestant, has, like every other institution, imbibed the spirit of the existing age, and that its history has been to a great degree that of the era in which its influence was exerted.

Men are apt to look upon the Reformation, as upon some great battle-field, where principles which were hereafter to guide the human mind, were decided in a day. Nothing can be more fallacious than to ascribe to causes then actually existing, any great revolution. In fact, we do not clearly see that any new principlessave that the mass was idolatry, and transubstantiation an absurdity-can be ascribed exclusively to this era; and we suspect that if the early Reformers could hear themselves ranked as the vindicators of civil and religious liberty, they would repel the charge with sincere and honest indignation. In respect to one principle, at least, which we have referred to, that of toleration, it would be difficult to say whether Protestants or Catholics were at that time most zealous in disavowing it. The truth which forces itself upon our examination is this. Christianity, as such, has never inculcated the doctrines of political profligacy, spiritual despotism or unbounded immorality, which have been charged upon her visible Church. They are excrescences which the hand of civilization and reason have now removed; and it is absurd now to mistake the body for the essence, to lose sight of the spirit because it was once wrapped up in vile and polluting vestures. Men have not been wanting, it is true, in the zeal of sectarianism, to maintain that there are peculiarities about this form of Christianity which make it dangerous at all times to civil liberty; but their inferences result from a mistaken notion of its spirit, which to them seems always shrouded in the mysticism of the middle ages. The fact, that now, wherever perfect toleration exists, this form of faith is diffusing the best and purest influences on our fallen nature, must force every candid mind to the conclusion, that this sect stands upon a perfect equality with every other, and should be so regarded by the voice of reason and justice.

We are, as we have before hinted, not sufficiently advanced in theological studies to discourse learnedly upon the mental oppression under which Catholics have so long groaned. Religion being with every one a matter of choice, it seems to us a little strange, however, that men bear this yoke so quietly and so submissively. If it be believed, that the yoke is imposed upon them by their receiving creeds of human authority, they are in the selfsame condemnation with every Protestant sect; and in such good fellowship we are sure we can leave them, without the necessity of raising our voice to rescue their character from unworthy imputations.

The present, it may readily be conceived, is not a proper occasion to enter into a systematic defense of the peculiar doctrines of this proscribed sect. We have endeavored merely to present some general principles which may guide reflection on this subject, and infuse a spirit of candor into its investigation. In doing this we have followed the dictates of our own experience, and exhibited frankly the causes, which have converted in us a spirit of unbending intolerance to our present views of the subject.

We need not speak of the importance to us, as Americans, of looking with an eye of watchful distrust upon the dissemination of the seeds of religious rancor among our people. Yet we cannot conceive that man possessed of the proper feeling on this subject, who is willing to think hardly of his neighbor's opinions without a sufficient examination, and yet censure an exhibition of the spirit. We would far rather be a bigot from ignorance, than from an obstinate repugnance to any change in our opinions. In the name of Liberty, let not her sacred name be defamed in this her temple, by the denial among her votaries, of her cardinal and distinguishing excellence. Let every man examine for himself in a proper spirit; bearing with him the advice of the Roman sage as his motto, "Nil falsi audeat, nil veri non audeat dicere." "A fair field and no favor, and the right must prosper."

J.

Cavalier servientè of rogues, father of eleven children, citizen of the world in general, inhabitant of Goose-neck Hollow, G. N. H. L. M., etc. etc.

BY HIS EXECUTOR, APPLE TREE FILLPOT, ESQ.

A

I ALWAYS hated fine things; you never can touch them. new silk dress, an a la mode coat, and a biography of a very great man, are the greatest bugbears that ever demanded the curses of Balaam. High heeled boots and a strut, is, to my mind's eye, the plainest sign-board in the world, hung out in capitals: "Chambers in the attic to let; enquire at the tailor's." Rogues are generally, the tallest men in community-their heighth enabling them to look into the pockets and affairs of their neighbors. Even Dr. Johnson, pasteboard and buckram aristocrat as he was, was obliged to let out the truth when he confessed that it is in low life-at the bottom of the heap-that you meet with the standard of greatness. Demijohn Gosling was begotten, swathed, and suckled, as all the Goslings had been before him. "He certainly looks like his father," ejaculated Aunt Patsey, as she tucked up one side of his flannel case-a case that had been used eight times before for a similar purpose; "the same eyes”she looked at the father-"yes, and I do declare, the same family nose." Reader, do you know what family, prefixed to any feature, means? It is only an intimation, by one of the most flattering adjectives that ever took the arm of a noun, that providence has put an awkward label upon a particular string-line is aristocratic of creation. Imagine then for a family nose, a tin dipper, bent three times each way, and at length terminating in a moderate hook. Miss Glorianna Fitzgreaves Marvin, who lived in the large white house in the distance, dropped in from a morning call upon Miss Singleton. "Ah! how pretty the little thing looks it is so innocent, and it does look so like its mother." The fact is, that the gossiping Aunt Patsey and the romantic Miss Marvin, were neither wholly mistaken. The thing inherited the most awkward parts of both father and mother, looking, as it lay in the half-barrel, which originally holding "mackerel, No. 3," was now used to cradle the seedling Goslings, like some of those doughy representatives of men, that children often make upon Christmas eve as propitiatory offerings to the jolly Santa Claus. We would wish as veracious biographers, to render the likeness of Demijohn familiar to the world; no more to be mistaken in a bookseller's window or when stamped on medallion, than the physiognomies of Napoleon or La Fayette. The most charac

teristic feature which the world saw ushered into being, along with Demijohn, were two enormous ears. These "hanging ornaments and handsome volutes of the human capital," were expanded into a size, which bore the same proportion to the main building, that the wings of a modern house do to the intervenient part.

It may be well, on this head, to refute a calumny sometimes uttered by his enemies for all great men have their enemies—that the crown, from which radiated sundry long, black, sea-weed looking hairs, had been pushed out of its place by a sudden rise of the bump of firmness, which in a storm of conjugal wrath, appeared, like a promontory, to break off the waves. This libel, Demijohn believed, was got up by his political opponents about the time of a warm canvass to defeat his election; although Mr. Smith, who edited the "Goose-neck Hollow Emporium and Mercantile Intelligencer," assured a friend of his, that the three columns of editorial which appeared weekly, for a month before the election, "did not refer to the capital of that gentleman, and that whoever asserted it was as mendacious as he was malicious." The more natural apology for the current scandal is, that Mrs. Gosling, who went through the duties of barber upon the heads of her offspring, having naught but a pair of sheep-shears to perform her task, could not, by reason of the aforementioned ears, reach but one spot of the back part of the head; which spot being the extreme part of the occiput, formed a convenient nucleus, around which the hair naturally arranged itself.

Concerning the habiliments of Demijohn Gosling, we have but little to inform the world. He had no affectation of ton, and therefore expressed no preference for particular colors. The material of his pantaloons, usually corduroy, was too compact and substantial to need straps to draw out any knee curvatures. No plaited linen covered a breast, open to the inhabitants of Gooseneck Hollow. His shoes he always wore rounded at the points, behind which points there spread two feet, which the owner was wont to boast could not be surpassed for size in all his constabulate. These two circumstances, the area of his foot and his roundtoed shoes-Demijohn never wore boots-were sometimes of great service, enabling his customers to track his progress from place to place.

Young Demijohn, like most eminent officials, early evinced a predilection for the post to which his fellow citizens afterwards raised him. A constable's pole! it seemed to him the very wand of royalty. With what admiration did the little ragged urchins of the village follow the bearer of it, as, seated in his sulky, he flogged his venerable nag until he fairly volunteered a trot. Into what commotion did he throw those hereditary hangers-on of the tavern-those only representatives of true independence who can