all tongues. Through it, hand in hand with the glorious beam of education, which is now commissioned to illumine the cot of poverty, the veriest son of indigence is instructed to adore his God: nay, even the unenlightened inhabitant of countries the most remote from civilization, now, perhaps, in the hour of dismay and death, pressing his Bible to his heart, breathes a prayer for the prosperity of that country, whose precious gift has taught him to draw his consolations from "another and a better world."

Availing ourselves of this inestimable liberty of the press; viewing with concern the extension of error, and seeing no other probable way of arresting its progress; after many and long deliberations, we venture our "MONTHLY CORRESPONDENT" before the Public Tribunal; its name implying that it is principally intended as a vehicle for the opinions of men of genius and experience, superior to our own, which we shall think cheaply purchased with all the expense and pains our work has cost us. Fully aware of our own incompetency to decide on

matters that appear to be scarcely within the level of the highest mortal understandings, we have hesitated at the task; yet, with becoming boldness, shall not be afraid to publish from time to time all such disquisitions and exemplifications for investigating this science as may conduce to the great moral end proposed.

Some of us have been informed, by men whose talents the world, as well as ourselves, have long known and admired, of the boldness of our design; of the impossibility of carrying such an undertaking into effect, without incurring the disapprobation of many of our fellowlabourers in the world of literature. We have been told of the silent shaking of the friendly head; of the look composed of grief and pity, that wounds far more deeply than the united sneers of folly, insolence, and scorn together. We have been told how little chance we have of obtaining the elucidations of those scientific minds that alone can give our work the stamp of respectability; they having generally treated our leading subject as too ridiculous to be worth a second thought; to which we answer

We conceive the importance of

that tends to clear the source of

any attempt any doctrine

practised and believed by a large portion of society, as deserving to be acknowledged; particularly if a considerable part of that society be composed of a sex, who, while scattering roses in our path, more acutely feel the disappointments, the sorrows, and the sufferings of life. In fact, whatever doctrine the smallest part of a community sanctions and gives credence to, will gradually extend its circumference; and the more it is involved in obscurity, or, what is worse, in error, of the more general consequence it must become; the crime (or to soften it, say folly), therefore, in men of ability is, not in any attempt to enlighten and to purify, but in their contemptuous silence. Will it not be allowed that the most sublime human capacity has its boundary affixed? Who is there, then, seeing "through every link of nature's chain," her omnipotent Maker has created a predisposing cause for each effect, that can, with reason entirely on his side, utterly condemn and disbelieve a science, the whole intention of which is to explore those

matters that appear to be scarcely within the level of the highest mortal understandings, we have hesitated at the task; yet, with becoming boldness, shall not be afraid to publish from time to time all such disquisitions and exemplifications for investigating this science as may conduce to the great moral end proposed.

Some of us have been informed, by men whose talents the world, as well as ourselves, have long known and admired, of the boldness of our design; of the impossibility of carrying such an undertaking into effect, without incurring the disapprobation of many of our fellowlabourers in the world of literature. We have been told of the silent shaking of the friendly head; of the look composed of grief and pity, that wounds far more deeply than the united sneers of folly, insolence, and scorn together. We have been told how little chance we have of obtaining the elucidations of those scientific minds that alone can give our work the stamp of respectability; they having generally treated our leading subject as too ridiculous to be worth a second thought; to which we answer—

We conceive the importance of any attempt that tends to clear the source of any doctrine practised and believed by a large portion of society, as deserving to be acknowledged; particularly if a considerable part of that society be composed of a sex, who, while scattering roses in our path, more acutely feel the disappointments, the sorrows, and the sufferings of life. In fact, whatever doctrine the smallest part of a community sanctions and gives credence to, will gradually extend its circumference; and the more it is involved in obscurity, or, what is worse, in error, of the more general consequence it must become; the crime (or to soften it, say folly), therefore, in men of ability is, not in any attempt to enlighten and to purify, but in their contemptuous silence. Will it not be allowed that the most sublime human capacity has its boundary affixed? Who is there, then, seeing" through every link of nature's chain," her omnipotent Maker has created a predisposing cause for each effect, that can, with reason entirely on his side, utterly condemn and disbelieve a science, the whole intention of which is to explore those