114 



Monthly Review of Literature, 



[JULY, 



imagination, to heaven, but to aid in spread- 

 ing it, in reality, upon earth. The " king- 

 dom of heaven" was perpetually in his mouth 

 it was the eternal subject of his discourses. 

 What this kingdom of heaven then means, 

 forms the first grand division of the author's 

 inquiry. It is the reign of knowledge, vir- 

 tue, freedom, concord, order, and happiness ; 

 and we must frankly confess we have never 

 seen the matter so eloquently, and we may 

 say so philosophically developed. This is 

 a kingdom peculiar to no time or country. 

 The qualities which characterize it have al- 

 ways been visible, more or less, as long as man 

 has existed: they have even predominated, 

 in spite of the reign of darkness in all its 

 hateful forms. The appearance of Christ 

 was more to extend the limits of this king- 

 dom than to found it, and especially to con- 

 nect it with our after- existence. 



As Christians we are, perhaps, in an espe- 

 cial manner, subjects of this kingdom ; and 

 the author's next effort is directed to ascertain 

 what is the object proposed to us as subjects 

 of this kingdom. Heaven upon earth, and 

 heaven above the earth, are but two states, 

 two aspects of the same thing they are but 

 different evolutions of one universal scheme. 

 To talk of their interests, then, being in- 

 compatible, is idle, and the old and ineffective 

 representations are no longer receivable. A 

 new turn is given to the whole matter ; and 

 we no longer fly from the world, in terror of 

 corruption, but to it, for the purpose of pro- 

 moting, by all our energies, the extension of 

 God's kingdom in other words, to cultivate 

 and spread knowledge, virtue, freedom, and 

 felicity. Perfection, accordingly, is the ob- 

 ject proposed to us as the business and duty 

 of loyal subjects of this spiritual kingdom 

 the object to be steadily and heartily aimed 

 at ; not perfection in an absolute sense, for 

 such a notion is absurd, because impracti- 

 cable in fact; but rather, as the author ex- 

 presses it, perfecting; by which he means a 

 perpetual improving, without the p- ssibility 

 of exhausting the resources of improvement. 



Though partly implied in the preceding 

 division, the author's third effort is to inquire 

 into the best means of accomplishing the ob- 

 ject thus proposed to us as subjects of the 

 kingdom of heaven. These are to raise in 

 our minds to the highest the standard of ex- 

 cellence to encourage the most exalted no- 

 tions of moral beauty to take care that, in 

 thus elevating our standard, we do not get 

 into the regions of fancy, and lose sight of a 

 practical reference to the business of life to 

 keep a strict eye and close vigilance upon the 

 smaller duties to suffer nothing, in short, 

 to escape our own observance do nothing 

 by mere habit, but all with a view to the fur- 

 therance of the great interests of God's king- 

 dom. In his fourth division, he throws a 

 rapid glance over what he terms a good life 

 the life to be pursued, that is, ol' course, 

 by a subject of this kingdom, who has ascer- 

 tained his position and his point, and the best 

 means of accomplishing it. It consists of 



maxims and rules of a general cast, and for 

 general situations, without any minutiae, or 

 any attempt at individualizing. The differ- 

 ence between this and the preceding division 

 is that which is discernible between pointing 

 out the path which must be followed, and 

 giving such directions as will enable the per- 

 son who enters upon it to pursue it with 

 steadiness and success. 



We can do no more than give this bare 

 and most imperfect outline of the author's 

 views. Nothing short of copious extracts 

 could present an adequate notion of the large 

 and catholic views of the work the original 

 and independent conceptions the preterition 

 of technicalities the intensity of feeling the 

 fervour of eloquence, not flighty and flashy, 

 but full and argumentative and the deep 

 sincerity, and conviction that pervades every 

 page of these earnest effusions. The sharp 

 eyes of an orthodox divine will readily detect 

 a good deal of what sounds latitudinarily ; 

 but the author is obviously one who is little 

 inclined to respect artificial creeds and exclu- 

 sive articles : he looks for the spirit of the 

 question, and seems to have found it. The 

 writer is well read in German divines, espe- 

 cially of the school of Reinhard ; and has 

 successfully learnt, from Brown, to distrust 

 abstractions, and renounce superfluous di- 

 stinctions. 



The Executor's Account-Book. By John 

 H. Brady. - Mr. Brady is the author of two 

 very useful little books relative to the con- 

 struction of wills, and the execution of them. 

 The present publication contains a set of for- 

 mulae, constituting itself an account-book for 

 keeping the accounts of executorships in an 

 intelligible form,and what is of still greater im- 

 portance, in a form precise and specific enough 

 to satisfy the courts on the one hand, and 

 heirs and legatees on the other. The im- 

 portance of keeping such accounts with the 

 most scrupulous care, every body who has 

 had any concern with such matters must 

 feel at once ; and instances are not of rare 

 occurrence, where not only executors them- 

 selves, but their executors also, have been 

 involved in inextricable difficulties, proceed- 

 ing from a negligence in this respect. 



Leigh's Guide to the Lakes of Westmore- 

 land, Cumberland, and Lancashire Every 

 tourist finds a manual of this kind indis- 

 pensable in his route. It supplies, to a 

 thousand questions, answers which it is ex- 

 tremely difficult to obtain orally from the 

 most observant of our friends. Not to say 

 it must often happen, that those who can 

 furnish particulars are not always at hand 

 just when they are wanted ; whilst numbers 

 equally desirous of information, have no ac- 

 quaintance, with the requisite knowledge, to 

 apply to at all. But a local guide of this 

 kind supplies at once, all we want ; and more 

 completely, than on the most favourably sup- 

 positions, is likely to be gained from the re- 

 collections of friends and visitors ; and, more- 



