tian meet foot to foot, argument to argument; and infidelity may be put down by these means. We are brought to a crisis; I grant that if all Christians have generous hearts, they have not all iron nerves. It is not every wise and good man that can meet such faces as have presented themselves before us this evening; but there are men in the world who have Christian hearts and iron nerves, who can feel as Christians, and argue as logicians, and can wield all the elements of moral and intellectual power, that can smite an infidel to the ground. While, therefore, we are called to meet them on this ground, we are not afraid. We remember that Christianity once endured a conflict more terrible than this. You have been reminded already, that Christianity formerly made her way to empire over the minds of men, through seas of blood; but the blood was all her own. pure and lovely in the union, shall be more so still, with the high additional perfection of continuing uninterrupted through the endless round of a blessed immortality. 2. As the marriage ring should be made of pure gold, which is the most pure or simple of all metals, so the marriage union, cemented by that impressive pledge given and received, should be pure in its origin, pure in its continuance, and so pure in all its motives, as to contradistinguish the contracting parties from all intimacies founded upon gross or carnal principles, and as nearly as possible resembling the love of Christ for His Spouse, the church, who so loved the church, that he gave himself for it. 3. As gold, of which the marriage ring should be made, is esteemed the most valuable of all metals, so the love and friendship implied in the marriage ring should ever be considered as infinitely more valuable than any other of which human nature is capable. 4. As gold is the most compact, or least porous, of all metals, so the marriage love and friendship should be so closely cement the kind and good affections of the parties, as to leave no possible aperture or opening for the introduction of any strange or forbidden affection. Each party should always be prepared to say of the other, While, then, she had nothing but truth, and benevolence, and zeal, and patience, and perseverance, to enable her to make way against racks, and gibbets, and swords, and fire, and blood; though she had phi-ed, by the blending into each other of all losophers arrayed against her, and some of those philosophers wore an imperial diadem; though she had them to contend with, she put them all down by the force of argument, and the evidence of divinity: she may now recur to her old method, without any fear of being vanquished. She is prepared for the field again, and if she must fight her way by the evidence of her truth, she can do it, though no arm of power be stretched out to strengthen her arguments by blows. With these impressions, I beg to move this second resolution. The reverend gentleman sat down, amidst universal applause. THE WEDDING RING. "Think well on it." Reasons for the use of the Wedding Ring in the Marriage Ceremony - By the Rev. George Montgomery Weet, Chaplain to the Bishop of Ohio. 1. As by turning a ring for ever, no end can be found, so the friendship cemented by marriage union should be endless and perpetual; not even broken off finally by the interruption of death, but the marriage party separating merely during the night of the grave, in sure and certain hope of meeting again on the following morning of a glorious resurrection, when all that was Thy loveliness my heart hath prepossest, And left no room for any other guest. 5. As gold, by the action of the most intense heat, even in a crucible, cannot lose any particle of its original weight and worth, but comes out of the crucible as heavy and valuable as when it was put in; losing nothing in consequence of the fiery ordeal, except whatever portion of dross or alloy may have been incorporated with the pure metal, so the most severe afflictions, intense troubles, and fiery persecutions, which may be the portion of the marriage parties, during some of the changes and chances of this mortal life, should never be able to deteriorate or take from the marriage union, any part of its intrinsic worth or beauty, but the parties should rise from the furnace of affliction, and dishonours of the grave, without having lost any thing, except the grosser particles of earth and sin, which may have unhappily attached themselves to the mystic union, that was intended to secure their felicity. 6. The marriage ring should be perfectly plain, that is, no chased, raised, or artificial work, should appear on its surface, implying that the marriage union should not be the result of any artifice on account of wealth, equipage, honours, or the undue influence of friends, but the PLAIN result of an honourable and religious affection between the contracting parties, and that GOD who first instituted the "holy estate of matrimony." 7. As gold is an iucorruptible metal, that is, if thrown into the mire, or embedded in the most impure soil, it will never become corrupt, corrode, or imbibe, one speck of rust or impurity; so should the marriage love and friendship, however it may sometimes be obliged to descend from the elevation of affluence into the deep valley of penury or distress, be doomed-"to waste its sweetness in the desert air,"-be incarcerated within the gloomy confines of the prison-cell, or associate with the poor, the mean, or the illiterate, still, like its incorruptible emblem, should it continue as bright and beautiful as ever. 8. As gold is the most ductile of all metals, so that an ounce can be beaten out to cover an acre of ground, or gild a finely attenuated thread to embrace the circumference of the world's surface, so should the result of the marriage union fulfil the original command, to increase, multiply, and cover the earth, with "the precious sons of Zion comparable to fine gold." 9. As the marriage ring exhibits nothing to imply pre-eminence of the one party over the other, notwithstanding that the word "obey" is applied to the lady rather than the gentleman, yet the gentleman should ever recollect, that as in forensic courts, especially courts of equity, the plaintiff must appear with what are called "clean hands;" so, before he can claim any right to command, or the wife be under obligation to obey, he must remember the test of his love and sincerity, which is given in Holy Scripture, viz. "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church:" but how did Christ prove his love for the church?-by dying for it. When a love, of which this is the model, predominates in the husband's heart, he can require no obedience from his wife, but she will feel it to be her honour, pride, and privilege to render. When a lady reads, marks, learns, and inwardly digests the foregoing, with all its implied suggestions and endearments, and then glances at the honoured finger which bears the pure insignia of such voluminous delights and serious responsibility; how inexpressibly happy she must feel, that she can be at all times, and under all circumstances, the bearer of so dear and portable a pledge of all that constitutes real terrestrial felicity, and she may often recur to the title or motto, and-"think well on it." "This alone is worth commending, Still beginning, never ending." Manchester, Nov. 19th, 1829. CAROLUS. ON READING.-NO. I. TO THE EDITOR, SIR.-A knowledge of the use of letters, whoever invented them, is the grandest acquisition to fallen incarnation, of which the art of man can boast; seeing they disseminate and perpetuate ideas, once conceived, without that incessant variation, so fatal to truth, to which, from a host of circumstances, the memory of man is ever liable. Books, however, are so rapidly increasing, and printing affords such facility to the dissemination of sentiment, bad as well as good, that reading may be made subservient to almost every purpose mental luxury can devise. Not a passion, not an appetite of the soul can be imagined, to which books will not, in some way or other, administer. Such being the case, if it meets your approbation, I purpose calling, in a series of short essays, the attention of your readers to this important subject; first warning them against various evils, and secondly pointing out certain advantages which result from a course of reading; in order that the good may be made their own, and the evil removed far away from their souls, Your obedient Servant, A CURSORY reader skims over the surface of a subject, and is struck only with prominent features or full-blown incidents, during his rapid passage from the commencement to the development of the historic fragment he engages to run over; and, unmindful of numerous beauties, as to dietion and manner, and a greater multitude of interesting notations as to men and things, hies forward to the end of the narration, and contents himself with a bare knowledge of the main facts recorded therein; like that alert summer emigrant, the swallow, which, over the water and over the earth, darts in every direction, without touching either, while its sole occupation is that of catching flies. What do these persons acquire by their reading? Food for vanity. They can boast how much they have devoured, just as a glutton or a drunkard can boast how much he has eaten or drunk without digestion. They are no wiser, no better than when they set out. The flies they have caught are not food for nourishment. A reader biased by a particular passion, no matter what, generally reads with the view of procuring food for his favourite propensity: he, therefore, chooses such books, and selects such parts of them, as minister thereto; disregarding almost every other notation, however wise, however interesting, or however useful, in any other respect. The affinity of congeniality seizes upon the favourite viand, and, with gluttonous ecstasy, gorges this to surfeiting; while a frightful vacuity pervades the soul, as to every other subject. A succession of such readings acts upon the mind like strong drink upon the vitals of the drunkard. Benumbed by the intoxicating power of the preceding dose, the succeeding stimulant must be stronger, in order to produce a sensation upon languishing vitality, overheated and debilitated by continued excess; and, as from weak mixtures of spirit and water, the drunkard increases the strength of his potations, until proof brandy itself is drunk alone, and even accounted not too ardent for the cravings of the sot; so the reading of a person under the influence of passion, must be less and less diluted with extraneous matter, until nothing will please but the clear ardent spirit of the passion itself. Wanton youth and libidinous age read, with increasing avidity, those luscious themes which minister to the baser passions; while within their frame, in unison with the theme, sensations of unhallowed delights debauch their spirits. Myriads, who once blushed as they read, although alone, have eventually familiarized the subject to their souls, by perpetuated recurrences to the same lustful ideas, until at length they have even gloried in what occasioned their former shame. Alas! for youth! While the fear of a tarnish to their fair reputation keeps them aloof from the abandoned multitude, too many indulge, in secret, in the unhallowed debauch of obscene reading; not sufficiently aware of the awful consequences; and, indeed, not even aware of that trite observation, "Shew me the company he keeps, and I will shew you the man!" or, what is precisely the same, "Shew me the books he reads, and I will shew you his character!" Is it possible the books which any man or any woman constantly reads, can be long kept a profound secret? Poetry, the heroes of which are debauchees and seducers, and the heroines strumpets, dignified with names high and pompous, and trimmed with sentiments specious and imposing, flaming with all the paraphernalia of royal, princely, or ducal dignity, and wearing the semblance of honesty and honour, with pretensions to integrity and worth above the greatest of the great of mankind, is one of those vehicles of seduction to the soul. Clothed in well-set terms, eloquent, yea, sublime, and decked with all the pearls and jewels of metaphor and simile, enticing to betray, delusive sentiment abounds in every page, irreligious, yea profane, all is false and hollow. This debauch leads down the infatuated spirit to the chambers of death, amidst the ecstasy of admiration! Alas! with the gorgeous hues of a deadly serpent are these enchanted away from truth; they view the destroyer, and yet are destroyed by him! Fuel to the flame of lust, and to the baseness of depravity, thus piled up, they erect a pyre, amidst which the soul is consumed. Prose, also, under the names of novels, romances, and tales, an endless labyrinth of lewdness and debauchery; clothing crime in robes of honesty, and guilt in garments of celestial hue; portraying life, not as it is or ever can be, but in inflated forms and colourings of the most florid glare, is twin-sister to such poetry; they alike consume their votaries by over excitement, and few who early enter their pavilions escape destruction. Blessed is the man who gives his youth to Jehovah; and equally so the woman: these early acquire a zest for superior reading; the Word of GOD-the revelation made by Him to man becomes their delight; and therein do they meditate continually. Instead of mental debauchery, theirs is the purity of devotional feeling— their reading leads up the soul to Him who purifies the heart, and enkindles that hallowed flame of love which is an earnest of, and terminates in, the ecstacy of glory. (To be continued.) AN ESSAY ON INSTINCT. IN its most general acceptation, instinct is a natural disposition, or sagacity, where-. with animals are endued; and by virtue whereof they are enabled to provide for themselves, and know what is good for them, and are determined to preserve and propagate their species. The term instinct, however, has been variously explained and defined. Instinct, acording to Dr. Reid, is a natural blind impulse to certain actions, without having any end in view, without deliberation, and very often without any conception of what we do; and he considers instinct as one species of the most mechanical principles of action, the other being habits. Arch. deacon Paley defines instinct to be "a propensity prior to experience, and independent of instruction."-volume iii. p. 177. An ingenious writer, of whose observations we avail ourselves in the compilation of this article, defines instinct to be a tendency implanted in the minds of animals, when under the influence of certain feelings or sensations, to perform spontaneously, unerringly, independently of all teaching and experience, and without any determinate view to consequences, certain actions necessary for the preservation of the individual and the continuation of the kind. Instinct in brutes bears some analogy to reason in men. There have been many systems adopted, to explain the principles which produce and direct the spontaneous actions of brute animals. Many of the ancient philosophers ascribed to brutes an understanding differing only in degree from that of man, and attributed their inferiority to the want of proper and sufficient bodily organs. This system has been very strenuously supported by M. Helvetius, de l'Esprit, tom. i. P. 2, &c. Among the moderns, the learned Cudworth endeavoured to explain the instinct of animals, by means of a certain plastic nature. Des Cartes thought that all the actions of brute animals might be explained by the simple laws of mechanism; and he considers them as machines totally devoid of life and sentiment, but so curiously constructed by the Creator, that the mere impressions of light, sound, and other external agents, on their organs, produced a series of motions in them, and caused them to execute those various operations, which had before been ascribed to an internal principle of life and spontaneity. But the actions and manners of animals, which are totally incompatible with the mere principles and laws of mechanism, evince the absurdity of this opinion. The dogma of Des Cartes is said to have been first introduced by Pherecydes, the master of Pythagoras; and though Des Cartes had the merit of developing and applying this hypothesis, the doctrine was before published by the Spaniard Pereira. M. Buffon adopts the opinion of Des Cartes in part, but grants brute animals life, and the faculty of distinguishing be tween pleasure and pain, together with a strong inclination to the former and aversion from the latter. By these inclinations and aversions he undertakes to account for all, even the most striking operations of animals; affirming, that, in consequence of impressions made on the brain by means of the sensitive organs, and by the re-action of the brain and nerves on the muscles, these machines acquire a motion conformable to the nature of the animal, and of the impressions of the different objects which act upon their organs, and excite desire or aversion. The pre-established harmony of Leibnitz has also been applied to explain the actions of brute animals. Others have considered the actions of animals as produced by the constant and immediate influence of the divine energy, directing all their inclinations and motions: such appears to have been the opinion of Mr. Addison, in the second volume of the Spectator. The late ingenious Hermann Samuel Reimar, professor of philosophy at Hamburgh, has enumerated and exposed these and other opinions, with regard to the instinct of animals, in his Observations Physiques, &c. published in two vols, 12mo. at Amsterdam and Paris, 1770: and, defining instinct, in the most comprehensive sense of the word, to be every natural inclination, accompanied with a power, in animals, to perform certain actions, he divides instincts into three parts. The first, which he calls mecha. nical instincts, belong to the body considered as an organized substance, and are exercised blindly and independently of the will of the animal. Such are those which produce the motion of the heart and lungs, the contraction and dilatation of the pupil, digestion, &c. This class of instincts is possessed in common both by men and brutes, and in some measure even by vegetables. The second class comprehends those which he terms representative instincts, which consist partly in the power of perceiving external objects by their present impression on the senses, and partly in the faculty of rendering the ideas of these objects present to the mind by the powers of imagination, or of memory, in a lax sense of the word. These are common to men and other animals, excepting that brutes possess only the faculty of imagination in common with us, and not that of memory, in the strict and proper sense of the word. Indeed, this author endeavours to prove, that the knowledge of brutes does not merely differ in : and not mechanical. This prevailing sen timent was altered a little by a wrong application of the principles of Locke. But the balance was soon afterwards restored to its former preponderance in behalf of instinctive principles, by the writings of lord Shaftesbury and Dr. Hutcheson; and still more particularly by those of Dr. Reid. Some authors, who, with Locke, reject innate notions and innate principles, both speculative and practical, allow that the mind acts sometimes instinctively ; others, who reject Locke's ideal theory altogether, detail a great number of instinctive principles of mind; whilst a third class of writers will have the actions, that have been generally denominated instinctive, to be either habitual, associated, or degree from that of man, but that it is of The wonderful effects produced by these instinctive appetites, are farther to be attributed to the exquisite mechanism in their bodily conformation, particularly in the structure of the various organs with which they execute their operations, and to the superior perfection and acuteness of their external senses, by which they are quickly and distinctly informed of those qualities of objects which most materially concern them. In order to account for the more curious and surprising operations of brute animals, M. Reimar adds two other principles, viz. 1st, an internal distinct perception of the precise power and proper use of their various bodily organs, together with an innate knowledge of the qualities of those objects around them in which they are interested; and, 2ndly, certain innate and determinate powers, and inclinations, impressed by the Author of nature, à priori, on the soul itself; by which they are arbitrarily, and without their own knowledge or consciousness, directed and irresistibly impelled to the performance of these various operations, which they execute with such unremitting industry and art. These determinate forces, which constitute the principal part of M. Reimar's system, are no where so visible and distinguishable as in that numerous set of instincts which he classes under the title of the industrious instincts of animals. The majority of philosophers, even in Des Cartes's time, maintained, that the actions of the brutes were mostly instinctive, Nor does the matter rest here: for some authors of a very modern date go so far even as to maintain that the word instinct is unphilosophical; since all that has been referred to this principle, whether in man or in the brutes, may be the result of experience, or of imitation. Some writers confound the actions that have been generally deemed instinctive with those that spring from reason; some with those that spring from mechanism; and others with such as spring from habit and association. But it is easy, we think, to distinguish them from each and all of these, by pointing out actions which differ from such as are called rational, habitual, or mechanical. An action is called rational when it is performed under the influence of a motive; that is, with a view to consequences: thus, to worship the Deity for having created us, for his goodness towards us, and that he may reward us hereafter, is a rational action. Some are of opinion that the motive, or the end we have in view in our rational actions, is the cause of these actions; but as we learn from experience that the human mind can act not only in opposition to the strongest external motive, but against all external motives whatever, properly so called, we cannot help thinking it more correct to call then simply inducements, and to consider the mind itself solely and properly as the cause. Mechanical actions also have a cause as well as those that are rational; namely, mechanism or organization. But this cause is not an end proposed, or a motive; neither is it an inward feeling, disposition, or sensation: thus a clock goes through its course of hours, minutes, and seconds, without a view to consequences, without spontaneity, and even without being able to check its own action. To |