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THE

BOSTON QUARTERLY REVIEW.

JANUARY, 1840.

ART. I.-INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT.

I MUST beseech the good-natured public not to accuse me of trifling with them. When I declared, three months ago, that the publication of this journal was ended, I little thought that it would ever be resumed, much less under my editorial care. I wished for rest, and felt that I needed it; and I trust I shall be believed when I say that it is with unfeigned reluctance, that I reënter a career which I then flattered myself I had abandoned forever.

Why I have been induced to resume without delay the editorial labors, which I declared to be ended, does not concern the public. I have been assured that the work was doing good, and that it ought not to be discontinued. Some partisan prints have spoken harshly of it, since I announced its discontinuance, and this I have regarded as an indication that it was not altogether useless. The publisher has also thought it worth continuing under a business point of view, and as several distinguished literary friends, whose contri-' butions cannot fail to be a public benefit, have generously proffered me their assistance, I have concluded to go on with it, and do as well by it as my health and ability will permit.

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I resume this publication under circumstances somewhat different from those under which I commenced it. Before undertaking this Review, I had rendered myself, so far as known, not a little unpopular, by my association with the working-men's party, and my bold and uncompromising defence of the laboring classes. I was obliged to stand alone. Individuals, who enjoyed some reputation in the community, although entertaining views nearly coincident with my own, were chary of acknowledging the fact, and would have shrunk from recognising any periodical, which I should conduct, as their organ. There was no sect or party that would not have spurned my proffered assistance. I felt therefore that, in justice to others, I must make my Review the organ merely of my individual sentiments, so that, if my heresies should incur reproach, no one but myself would be obliged to share it, and if the publication failed, no one but myself would be affected by the disgrace which always accompanies an unsuccessful undertaking.

But I view the matter somewhat differently now. I do not now feel that I am alone, that the work to which I am devoted is in any sense peculiar to myself. They who share my views, I doubt not, are as willing to cooperate with me as with any one else. I will not now do them the injustice to think that they will regard a periodical, devoted to the cause they approve, as unworthy of support because I am its conductor. The Review therefore ceases to be merely the organ of an individual, and aspires to the broad and generous character, more befitting a literary periodical. Two years' experience has convinced me, that there is even reputation to be acquired by a bold and manly defence of the general principles this Review has put forth; and therefore I have no hesitation in stating clearly and distinctly its leading design, and in calling upon all those who approve it to give it a liberal support.

As heretofore this journal will be devoted to Religion, Philosophy, Politics, and general Literature. In

relation to all these subjects, it has fixed doctrines, which it will labor diligently to bring out and defend. What these doctrines are, may be collected from the two volumes already issued. But a few words by way of explanation, perhaps, will not be deemed impertinent by any class of readers.

The great idea, which constitutes the life and unity of the Review, is that of freedom. The Review is instituted for the purpose of carrying freedom into all subjects, and into all the relations of life. It approaches all subjects of thought with freedom; it holds nothing too sacred to be examined, and claims the right to reject whatever cannot abide the test of pure reason. But by freedom is not meant lawlessness. Man is under law, and under law it is his glory to remain, if the laws to which he is subjected be coincident with the decrees of Eternal Justice.

Into religion, as well as other matters, it carries the spirit of free inquiry. Religion is a great subject. Nothing does or can affect us more intimately. It ought then to be examined with freedom, though of course with an earnest and reverent spirit. It is only by submitting religion to the test of reason, in like manner as we do politics and natural science, that we can check infidelity, and recall the community to a firm and living faith in Christianity. In taking up this subject, my aim has long been, and I trust ever will be, not to lessen the authority of religion, nor to render it less awe-inspiring, but to infuse into its study the spirit of liberal science. I know from my own experience, that few things are more influential in stirring up hostility in the minds of youth against religion, than the misguided zeal of its friends, which would withdraw it from the free action of reason. There is a period in our lives, to say the least, when we would know why we believe, and when we protest with all the energy of our nature against all attempts to check free thought, and to chain us down to a cold, formal assent to doctrines, for the reasonableness of which there is nothing in our own experience to

vouch, and which must be accepted on an authority, the legitimacy of which we do not perceive. It is in vain, when we are in this state of protest, indignant at all intellectual restraint, to bid us not examine, but believe. Whoso would render religion a service, must begin by respecting the rights of the mind.

But as to the actual doctrines inculcated, saving the forms in which they may be clothed, I do not apprehend that they will differ essentially from what has been and is the universal faith of the Christian church. As we grow older, as we inquire more earnestly, and with a broader experience, into religious matters, we have a natural tendency to return to the simple faith of our childhood, and we become less and less inclined. to depart from commonly received opinions. We start in youth, strong in ourselves, exulting in our exuberant life, confident in our own resources, but destitute of experience. We have powerful intuitions, but no clear insight, no real understanding of the mysteries of our spiritual nature. We know not the world we carry about with us, and have no presentiment of the wants which will one day spring up in the unknown depths of the soul. The great doctrines of religion, which have been embraced in all ages, and in which religious people take so deep an interest, find then no echo in our experience. We have lived nothing which can interpret them and give them a significance. They are to us unmeaning. The interest taken in them appears to us affected, often a base hypocrisy, and the eulogistic terms in which they are spoken of, disgusting caut. But as we take our share in the rough and tumble of life, as we become torn by internal conflicts, worn out by the wars ever renewed between the flesh and the spirit, and convinced by repeated failures of our own insufficiency for ourselves, we begin to discover a significance in these hitherto rejected doctrines, and no longer laugh at the scholastic distinctions of " common grace,' " and "efficient grace." As our own experience becomes broad enough and deep enough, to disclose the psychological facts,

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