DEPARTURE OF ARTHUR. Three queens with crowns of gold— And loosed the shattered casque, and chafed his hands." 59 Tennyson. Thus rode Arthur away to the vales of Avalon, where his spirit still rests, we are told, waiting until it is time for him again to reign over us. And here we must break off; but in some sense, we hope, our task is done. We have shown how much there is in these legends which can teach us and delight us; and we claim for them, on that account, some share of attention. They deserve to be known, at least as well as those of Greece and Rome. We should rejoice to see them, purged to some extent from their accidental faults, again occupying a prominent position in education. They are not childish caricatures: they have a mighty power to invigorate our energies, and to purify our thoughts. The contemplation of superhuman holiness will lead us, by God's help, to keep ourselves pure from every unholy desire; the contemplation of invincible might will lead us to seek that strength of soul which not even a spiritual foe can overcome. The pleasure we take in these pictures of the past is a criterion of the measure in which we possess the same spirit ourselves. And if we glory as we should in these beacon-lights of bygone time, we shall be able, with far truer heroism, and far more ennobled strength, to steer our own course through the stormy floods of evil which meet us in the present and in the future. 60 ART. IV.-1. Evangelical Alliance Prize Essay on Infidelity : its Aspect, Causes, and Agencies. By the Rev. THOMAS PEARSON. People's Edition. Twelfth Thousand. Partridge and Co. 1854. 2. The Mormon's Own Book; or, Mormonism tried by its own Standards-Reason and Scripture. By T. W. P. TAYLDER. Dedicated to the London City Mission. Partridge and Co. 1855. 3. The Inner Life; its Nature, Relapse, and Recovery. By OCTAVIUS WINSLOW, D.D. Fourth Edition. 4. The Atonement; viewed Experimentally and Practically. By OCTAVIUS WINSLOW, D.D. Seventh Edition. 5. Logic; or, the Science of Inference. A systematic View of the Principles of Evidence, and the Methods of Inference in the various departments of Human Knowledge. By JOSEPH DEVEY. London: 1854. 6. A Vindication of Protestant Principles. By PHILELEUTHERUS ANGLICANUS. London: 1847. 7. Essays, Lectures, and Orations. By RALPH WALDO EMERSON. London: 1848. 8. The Elements of Individuality; a Series of Lectures. By WILLIAM MACALL. London: 1847. 9. The Gospel in Ezekiel. Illustrated in a Series of Discourses. By THOMAS GUTHRIE, D.D. Edinburgh: 1856. 10. Nuces Philosophica; or, the Philosophy of Things as developed from the Study of the Philosophy of Words. By EDWARD JOHNSON, Surgeon. London. THE controversies of the day have convinced us that no subject is more worthy of our attention than the use and abuse of religious words. All religious truth, as well as scientific and intellectual, is necessarily conveyed to the mind through words and phrases: these vary their meanings from age to age, till at length we are liable to be misled by what was formerly plain and intelligible. And not only so, but the habits of thought, the mental bias, the cultivation of the faculties, differ now from the habits, and bias, and cultivation of former times; so that man cannot receive, as unquestioned truth, what has been handed down from a venerable ancestry. In consequence of this gradual change in our habits of thought and of mental culture, the controversies of other days revive again in successive generations under new forms of expression. Ever since the writers of the REALISM AND NOMINALISM. 61 Tracts at Oxford began to impress their dogmas upon the students of systematic theology, they have met with some ardent followers, and many bitter opponents. And from the tendency of modern thought, from the keenness with which every expression and feeling is analysed and criticised, the same result will be repeated over and over again whenever a similar experiment is made. The Oxford theology of Pusey and Keble cannot possibly be received by the minds who are guided by that of Jowett and Stanley. This struggle, recommenced by these living champions of two opposite modes of thought, will doubtless be continued by their followers long after they are called to their rest. It existed many ages before they were born; it will be carried on as long as the minds of men are variously disciplined under opposite schools of theology. This fundamental difference between two opposite schools. of theology has been lately illustrated by the sympathies and antipathies manifested by the judgment on Archdeacon Denison. Those who are satisfied with it and those who are not range themselves under two heads, as distinct and as adverse as the Realists and the Nominalists of the dark ages. The archdeacon and his adherents are undisguised Realists; that is, they believe in some spiritual essence, in some way united with outward bodily substance. He distinctly states this in a letter to Mr. Gresley, dated so lately as Nov. 8th, 1856. "It has been forced upon men's minds," he states, "that the question at issue is the question of the real presence in the sacrament, by virtue of consecration of the elements, irrespective of the faith or want of faith of the receiver." This is clearly and plainly stated. "There is no concealment about it," he asserts, "it is the only object the existence of which supplies any intelligible account of the persevering efforts which they (i. e. his opponents) have made, and of their large sacrifices of time and money; it is patent upon the whole face of the proceedings; it is avowed explicitly over and over again in Mr. Goode's book; it is expressed in the judgment of the Court." We entirely agree with the assertions here made; the distinction is broad, and accurate, and correct. The Archdeacon advocates pure external realism, and from this we altogether dissent. That any spiritual essence is really united. to the elements in either sacrament we hold to be a philosophical fancy; and all phrases which seem in any way to countenance it demand a paraphrase to unlock their meaning. We are not about at present to enter at large upon the sacramental controversy: we have quoted this remarkable letter for the purpose of illustrating one phase of religious thought, which we deem inconsistent with the true principles of moral philosophy. When we hear it defended by able and learned divines, we consider their arguments as instances of the imposture of religious words, and we pass them by as utterly inconsistent with the moral constitution of man. The philosophical views in connexion with religious questions may be divided as follows:-first, external realism; secondly, false internal realism; thirdly, pure internal realism; and, fourthly, mere nominalism. Under the first head we include the scholastici of former ages- the learned expositors of the Church of Rome-and all the consistent followers of Pusey and Denison. Under the second head may be ranged all who treat "faith," "religion," "virtue," as if they had any separate existence independently of the mind of man. This test indicates many ardent preachers of popular divinity, many writers of our own Church, many followers of Wesley, and many of the bolder and more restless spirits of the Free Church of Scotland. In the course of our article we hope to show that the personification of abstract qualities becomes a constant source of fallacy, and tends to mislead both speakers and readers, and to involve them in endless labyrinths of useless verbiage. The third head,-pure internal realism, we maintain to be in accordance with the fundamental constitution of our inner nature; while the mere nominalism of Hobbes, and Hume, and Bentham is as cold and formal as it is philosophically unsatisfactory. As a cursory illustration of the phrases which we deem fallacious, we will extract a few from the discourses of Dr. Pusey, lately published, in reply to Mr. Jowett, on the atonement controversy. He entitles his second discourse" Real faith entire:" the very title suggesting the thought that "faith" is some isolated separate thing, which can be either entire or broken, either counterfeit or real. Dr. Pusey's writings are full of this false realism-he is always attributing to abstract qualities an outward sensible meaning. Whenever he uses faith as equivalent to "the faith," and defines it as some positive revelation from God to man, such ideas as those which abound in these two sermons have a definite meaning: but in all other cases his language affords an instance of false internal realism: for we are prepared to contend that "faith," as represented by many divines, is only a personification, and a fiction; that the expressions in THE EXETER PROTEST. 63 which the word is thus used are fallacious, and need translation into other phrases constructed upon a different philosophical principle. Let it not be said that the subject which we are about to discuss, is a mere speculation of ages gone by. It has a permanent and a practical interest for ourselves at the present moment. In our last number we asserted, that the partisans of the Archdeacon are "numerous, active, and zealous," "and that they comprise a considerable number of the dignitaries of the Church." (No. XII. p. 471). Since the last number of our Review was published, the public press has teemed with "memorials" and "addresses" proving this point, viz. that many of our influential Churchmen are external realists. As an instance we quote from a protest which is extensively circulated in the diocese of Exeter, and is very naturally addressed to its presiding prelate. The protestors feel "pain and difficulty," and approach their bishop for "spiritual counsel and advice." One reason why they feel thus distressed, they have expressed in the following language: "We believe, in particular, that the condemnation of the precise words of Bishop Andrewes, as to the Holy Eucharist, does (so far as the decision of such a court can) bring into jeopardy among us the true doctrine of the Church Catholic, and of the Church of England in particular, touching the real presence of Christ in that Sacrament." They also believe, "that at the very least it does deny the admissibility of those opinions which have ever been allowed to be held on this high and confessedly mysterious subject.” From this protest we learn first, that the Exeter subscribers to it believe in the real presence of Christ, not in the persons faithfully receiving the Holy Sacrament, but in the Sacrament itself. Secondly, they believe their opinion to be the true doctrine of the Church of England in particular, as well as of the Church Catholic. Now, in the present article, we are about to show, first, that this outward realism is philosophically false, and contrary to the true moral constitution of our nature; and, secondly, that the Church Catholic is an ambiguous phrase, and that, in very truth, it cannot be asserted of any doctrine of the Holy Eucharist, that it ever was, or now is, " Catholic." We are not about to enquire, whether such teaching is or is not to be found in the writings of our best divines, whether it may be justified by the Greek and Latin fathers, or whether unprecedented restrictions ought to be placed on the interpretations of the Articles, or whether an obsolete statute ought to be suddenly |