PROSPECTUS

OF

DR. CHALMERS' POSTHUMOUS WORKS,

EDITED BY THE REV. WILLIAM HANNA.

THE Works of Dr. Chalmers now proposed to be presented to the public, have been left by their lamented Author in a state of much greater preparedness for the press than is usual with posthumous publications. They differ also for the most part both in substance and in style from any of his previous productions. The greater portion of them are of a practical and devotional character, couched in the most familiar forms of expression, and divested of all formality of arrangement. In detail, they will consist of the following Compositions:

I. HORAE BIBLICAE QUOTIDIANAE.-Daily Scripture Readings, Commenced by the Author in October 1841, and continued till the time of his decease. A portion of Scripture, extending generally from ten to twenty verses, was read daily, and the reflections which it suggested were embodied in a few brief paragraphs. Dr. Chalmers' own description of the Work was, that it was composed of his first and readiest thoughts upon the passage coming daily under review. The READINGS-beginning with Genesis, are carried down to the end of Jeremiah.

II. HORAE BIBLICAE SABBATICAE.-Sabbath Meditations on the Holy Scriptures. Two chapters, one in the Old the other in the New Testament, were read each Sabbath, and those trains of meditative thought, passing frequently into ejaculatory prayer, which the reading of each chapter suggested, were committed to writing. This Work is mainly, though not exclusively, devotional. The Horæ Sabbaticæ begin with Genesis, and are continued down to the 2d Book of Kings. They embrace the whole of the New Testament.

III. THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTES.-In 1841, Dr. Chalmers commenced re-writing and re-moulding his Theological Lectures into the form of a complete and comprehensive Treatise on Systematic Divinity. To this Work all his leisure time was

given. None of his published writings received a larger, if so large a measure of the Author's care and thought in their preparation. He looked forward to it himself, when completed, as his largest and most matured contribution to the Science of Theology; and he has left it nearly in the state in which he designed to present it to public notice. IV. LECTURES ON BUTLER'S ANALOGY.-As not falling naturally into his Theological Institutes, Dr. Chalmers had contemplated issuing these Lectures as a separate publication, and for this purpose had commenced re-writing and re-modelling them. In this Work he had not made much progress; but it is hoped that the Lectures, as originally prepared and delivered, will not be found unworthy of public attention, though not having had the benefit of the Author's final revision for the press. V. DISCOURSES.-To these Works it is proposed to add a volume of hitherto unpublished Sermons-beginning with one of his earliest, and, at the time, most frequently used compositions for the pulpit and giving a series of others, composed at different successive periods in the course of his ministry.

The whole Series will extend to eight or at most, nine Volumes. The issue will be Quarterly, and the First Volume will appear on the 1st of November 1847.

Memoirs of the Life of Thomas Chalmers, D.D., LL.D.— That a Memoir of Dr. Chalmers may be prepared as speedily as possible, his Trustees have respectfully to request, that all who hold letters from him of any importance should favour them with copies. If it be more convenient to transmit the originals, the greatest care will be taken of them, and they will be returned with the least possible delay. All information will be acceptable which relates to any period or incident of Dr. Chalmers' life not likely otherwise to come to the knowledge of the Trustees. No public use will be made of any letter or information thus transmitted, without permission from the party supplying it.

Communications may be addressed to the Rev. W. Hanna, Churchhill, Morningside, Edinburgh.

We insert the preceding Prospectus because we presume our readers will be glad to receive the information it contains, and because we wish to call the attention of those among them who may have important letters from Dr. Chalmers, to the request contained in the notice of his forthcoming memoirs.

THE

PRINCETON REVIEW.

APRIL 1848.

No. II.

ART. I-1. The Poetical Works of S. T. Coleridge. Boston. Hilliard, Gray & Co. 1835.

2. Aids to Reflection by S. T. Coleridge, with a preliminary essay, and additional notes, by James Marsh, President of the University of Vermont. Burlington: Chauncey Goodrich.

1829.

3. The Friend: a series of essays to aid in the formation of fixed principles in politics, morals, and religion, with literary amusements interspersed. By S. T. Coleridge, Esq. Burlington: Chauncey Goodrich. 1831.

4. The Statesman's Manual, or the Bible the best guide to political skill and foresight: by S. T. Coleridge, Esq. Burlington: Chauncey Goodrich. 1832.

5. Biographia Literaria; or biographical sketches of my literary life and opinions. By S. T. Coleridge. Two volumes in one. New York: Leavitt, Lord, & Co. 1843.

6. On the Constitution of the Church and State according to the idea of each, by S. T. Coleridge, Esq., R. A., R. S. L. Second edition. London. Hurst, Ebance, & Co. 1830. 7. Specimens of the Table Talk of the late Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In two volumes. New York: Harper & Brothers.

1835.

8. The Literary Remains of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, collected and edited by Henry Nelson Coleridge, Esq., M. A., in four volumes. London: William Pickering. 1836.

9. The Life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, by James Gillman. Vol. I. London: William Pickering. 1838.

10. Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey. By Joseph Cottle. New York: Wiley & Putnam. 1847.

Or course our readers will not expect in any single article a critical review of this formidable catalogue of books. Nor is it our purpose to give a detailed and complete analysis of any single work in the list. The man who was the author of most of them, and whose life and character are delineated in the residue, was undeniably one of the most remarkable men of his time, whatever opinion may be formed of his merits or demerits. Nor can any one at all acquainted with the present state of literature, metaphysics or theology in Great Britain and especially in this country, doubt that he has left his impress upon them, and that his writings are now exerting, and are destined yet to exert a strong moulding influence upon many of the younger class of educated men among us. Indeed his biographer, Dr. Gillman observes (p. 165.) "The Western world seems to have better appreciated the works of Coleridge, than most of his countrymen in some parts of America, his writings are understood and highly valued." And his admiring and eloquent posthumous editor, exaggerates, only by putting a partial in the form of a general truth, when he says that the writings of his master have been "melted into the very heart of the rising literature of England and America."

What the character is of this influence thus wide, powerful and permanent upon so considerable a portion of these educated and intellectual classes, who in the end, shape and determine the prevailing opinions in the various ranks of society,-and for these almost exclusively Coleridge wrote-is still sharply contested. Many have been so charmed by the originality, the depth, the vigour, the density, the mingled truth, beauty and magnificence of some of his finer passages, that they are spellbound, wholly overmastered and enslaved by him. They are perfectly blind to the crudities and errors, by which his works are so seriously deformed. They think of him only to admire

and extol him. They indignantly resent all criticisms which take exceptions even to his grossest faults, and most palpable heresies. They revere him as a sort of oracle, whose all-penetrant mind saw through the universe, into the inmost penetralia of truth, and gave forth not merely the corruscations of genius, but the sure light of inspiration. And hence, no matter how absurd or preposterous any of his statements may be on their face, such will believe and ardently contend, that the absurdity is only seeming to his readers on account of their short-sightedness, and that, if they did but possess the author's "vision and faculty divine," they would see it to be truth sublimed into its purest essence, its most ideal and supersensuous form.

An equal if not larger number have not only justly recoiled from this blind and perilous idolatry, but have also suffered themselves to be repelled to the contrary extreme, which if less perilous, is scarcely less blind. Affrighted by the shadowy mysticism, the abysmal transcendentalism, the occasional leaven now of rationalism, now of ritualism, and other unfortunate idiosyncracies, with which his writings are more or less disfigured, they put them all under the law of absolute, indiscriminate, unrelent ing reprobation. They pronounce them not only unprofitable but dangerous. They condemn the temperate, discriminating, independent mastery of his writings, as well as the being mastered by them. The only course of safety, they think, lies in total abstinence. Putting him in the same category with Hegel, Strauss et id genus omne, their motto is, Procul, O procul, este profani.

While between these two extremes, there are all shades of thinking and feeling, we also will undertake to show our opinion. On the one hand, we call no man, and least of all Coleridge, master. On the other hand, we believe that the cause of truth and religion will be best promoted by giving to all their due, and especially by a candid appreciation of the real merits of any author, who is taking strong hold of the minds of any worthy and respectable class of men. If that blind admiration of him, which swallows and pretends and honestly strives, to digest, the shell as well as the kernel, ought to be repudiated as most foolish and mischievous; on the other hand, nothing so tends to kindle and inflame it, as that equally blind prejudice and denunciation, which refusing to see and acknowledge his eminent, conspicuous and undeniable excellencies, declare all his works no better than