after? Why, John, if you were to spend every Sunday actually among the blessed spirits of heaven, you would be haunted by the thought of it all the week long, and after a while you would find no happiness in a day which was not spent in as devout a frame as any sabbath. Don't you think so?"

"To be sure," said Smith; "it could not be otherwise; that is clear enough. And I do not think I should be sorry if it happened

to me."

"For I suppose you are not satisfied with your present state," said David, in a tone of half question.

"How can I be?" John asked; "and yet I do not see how I can help it. What can a poor ignorant man like me do?"

"That brings us to the very point," said David. "If you could spend one day a week in the real heaven, you think you should have no difficulty; and I think so too. But as that is impossible, you must do the next best thing,-which is, to use the sabbath for the same end. It seems to me that this is precisely the design of it, and that it may have precisely this effect. It is intended to be a miniature heaven, a specimen of what shall be, an occasion for showing the contrast between a worldly and a divine life; and if you will so occupy the day as to get yourself fully into its spirit, and to taste the enjoyment of a serene and worshipping frame of mind, you will find yourself affected by it on Monday and Tuesday; all life will take a complexion from it; and the renewing of this state of soul every sabbath for months and years, will by and bye make it the settled state of your soul. So that at last you will live just as if you had really gone up to heaven once a week, and seen with your own eyes its glories."

“But you do not suppose that heaven is a mere place of rest and pious meditation, do you? It seems to me it must be something more; there must be something doing there."

"Yes, undoubtedly; but then, whatever is done must be in accord ance with a certain state of mind and heart. That state is essential to the happiness of heaven; neither the work of heaven can be done without it, nor its pleasure enjoyed. So that the important thing is, to get the soul into that state. When this is accomplished, the satisfaction and the activity will follow.-And this, I think, is the excellence of the sabbath. Six days we are to labor and do our work; we ought to do it in a religious spirit; and that we may be able so to do it, the seventh is made a holy day, which may send us back to our work refreshed and thoughtful."

"Just as Watts expresses it in one of his Hymns," said Jane, "when he says that public worship is like a little heaven below; and then he adds,

Nor all my pleasure, nor my play, 'Shall tempt me to forget this day.'

"But for my part, unhappily," said Smith, "I do not find Sunday so much like heaven; and I forget it almost as soon as it is over." "How happens that ?"

Smith said he could not account for it; he supposed it was so with most people; he could not find that Sunday had much influence on men during the week. This led to a good deal of discussion on the value and operation of Christian institutions, and the cause of their apparent inefficacy. A great many reasons were assigned, some very obvious, some very frivolous; but all taken together showed a quantity of obstructions on the part of society and of individuals, which made Jane say at last, that it was almost wonderful Christianity had any effect at all; for it seemed to be the business of men to counteract it as much as possible. "If they were to set themselves on purpose to destroy its impression," she said, "they could hardly invent surer means of doing it, than by the habits they at present indulge."

"There is a sad mistake in all this thing," said David; "and for aught I see, it is growing worse every day. Even those from whom you would least expect it, fall into the current and help promote the evil. It is only last week that Mr. Hertson, on returning from the city, was telling me of what took place there lately. A great party was given on Saturday evening, where were dancing and other amusements till after midnight. The street was crowded with carriages, and the noise and confusion interrupted the repose of the whole neighbourhood. And who do you suppose were guilty of this indecency? Who were they that committed this outrage on the feelings of the sober people of the city, and the established manners of the place? Why, you would suppose of course it could only be the merely frivolous and worldly, who hold in scorn all serious things. And so I said to Mr. Hertson. But no, he said there were present many persons of respectable standing, church-going people, who counted themselves good Christians, communicants, who professed to

love the institutions of religion and to be desirous of their good influences. There they were, desecrating the holy season by untimely revelry, disturbing the quiet of their more devout neighbours, and bringing a scandal on the cause of religion."

"But I dare say it was done thoughtlessly," said Smith; "I do not suppose they meant to do all this harm."

"Thoughtlessly!" cried David. "What right could they have to be thoughtless in so grave a matter? That is itself a sin in a case like this. To go to work deliberately, by a preparation of several days, to spend a whole night in unfitting themselves for public worship, and then to plead that they did not think of doing harm, is a ridiculous aggravation of the offence. It proves that they had no proper sense of the meaning and worth of the sabbath either to themselves or others. If they had, they would have cut off their right hands before they would have done what was so certain to unfit them for the right use of the next day. I should like to know how many of them staid away from church in consequence; how many slept at church; how many were thinking all church time of the pleasant or unpleasant occurrences of the evening, instead of worshiping God. I should like to know what was the state of the house in which the indecorum was perpetrated; and who was responsible for the waste of time and the ill example to the domestics and dependents. Mr. Hertson says, that he was told such things are not common; but it is clear, that whoever introduces or countenances them ought to be regarded as an enemy to the community in which he dwells, and an abettor of irreligion and sin."

"But we do not have such doings out here in the country."

"No, thank God, but if other bad fashions of town get into the country at last, this will too. And indeed I fear that we have not much to boast of. We do not throw away our holy opportunities in the same manner, but we are far from using them as we should. Even you, John, who are one of the quiet people, began with complaining that Saturday evening is a heavy time; and now you add that Sunday is not very profitable to you. And why? The only reason must be, that you misuse it. You do not make it a business to prepare for it as it approaches, and to make the most of it as it passes." John admitted that this was the case, and added that he should be very glad to be guided to the best methods. The conversation did not soon come to a close; but what its purport was, and what were its results, must be related at some other time. H. W. jr.

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

THE WORKS OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, containing several political and historical Tracts not included in any former edition, and many Letters official and private not hitherto published; with Notes and a Life of the Author. By Jared Sparks. In twelve volumes, 8vo. Boston Hilliard, Gray and Co., 1840.

We cannot within the limits of the Miscellany notice critically this publication in any way as it deserves, but we consider the fact of such a book being at length achieved, and making its appearance in palpable evidence of the fact, too signal an event, at least in our little world of letters, to pass wholly unobserved. Considering its subject, the range which the author and editor has taken, the materials he drew from and wrought up, and finally the ability and fidelity with which his long established character is a guarantee that the work must have been executed, we may safely say, that a monument has been here raised, not to the honor of a Boston man only, but of Boston itself, and of the whole republic. We cannot do less than congratulate the public accordingly, as we do the indefatigable biographer and historian, on the completion of this important portion of his labours. In regard to his materials, as well as the general interest and richness of the entire work, some notion may be formed by noticing even the mere arrangement which has been adopted by Mr. Sparks, viz:

1. Autobiography.

2. Essays on Religious and Moral Subjects and the Economy of Life.

3. Essays on General Politics, Commerce, and Political Economy. 4. Essays and Tracts, Historical and Political, before the American Revolution.

5. Political Papers during and after the American Revolution. 6. Letters and Papers on Electricity.

7. Letters and Papers on Philosophical Subjects.

Some original additions, the editor intimates in his preface. This seems really modest enough, when we come to ascertain that the

whole number of articles here published, which have not appeared in any former collection, including letters and miscellaneous pieces, amounts to about six hundred and fifty, and that upwards of four hundred and sixty of these have never before been printed. They consist of letters and other papers, written either by Franklin, or by some of the most distinguished of his correspondents. In the tables at the end of the tenth volume each of the pieces now printed for the first time is designated. Every American must congratulate himself, not only on the hands this great enterprise has fallen into and received justice from, but on another important circumstance hardly less fortunate the preservation of all these materials. Mr. Sparks has gathered them more or less from the most various quarters and parties, but it appears that the great mass of papers that accumulated in Franklin's hands while he was minister in France, as well as many others of an earlier date, have been in possession of the Fox family at Philadelphia, carefully preserved now for nearly fifty years, and unexamined, until they were submitted to inspection for the present purpose. We see it is stated also that the autobiography of Franklin, read so much and with so much interest heretofore, though first written in English, was first published in French; and not till about twenty years since, did the original make its appearance.

PRIZE ESSAYS ON A CONGRESS OF NATIONS, for the adjustment of International Disputes, and for the promotion of Universal Peace, without resort to Arms. With a sixth Essay, &c. Boston: Whipple & Damrell, for the American Peace Society.

pp. 706, 8vo.

1840.

Containing the substance With Original Thoughts

AN ESSAY ON A CONGRESS OF NATIONS, &c. of the Rejected Essays on that subject. and a Copious Appendix. By William Ladd. Boston: 1840. pp. 192, 8vo.

FEW handsomer volumes than this, we must say at the outset, have ever been published in Boston; and the contents are worthy of the type. They consist of Essays selected by a Committee of that