310, 
quite enter into the sotence of the thing, 
nor quite understand the editor, when he 
talks of the taste for autographs being no 
longer in its infancy—nor his anticipations of 
its further advance as a prevalent and even 
fashionable pursuit. The following remark 
was less puzzling :—‘ It (the collection) will 
also be a great assistance in reading, and, 
in some instances, in appropriating those 
annotations, which the learned of other days 
have so frequently left in the books which 
once constituted part of their ‘libraries.”’ 
The whole will be completed (perhaps is 
already completed) in ten monthly numbers, 
each containing five plates. 
The Last Days, by the Rev. Edward 
Irving, 1828.—Whatever be: the bent or 
the prejudice of the reader—whether he 
thinks Mr. Irving a fanatic or a quack— 
whether he be indisposed to theological 
reading, or leans to a party, or is bound up 
with one, or starts free of all—let him, for 
the sake of the sound stuff, which we assure 
him he will find, take up this volume of 
sermons—it will abundantly repay him, if 
he can be repaid by independence and. bold- 
ness of conception, by sagacity and depth 
of remark, .by generous and even liberal 
sentiments, by touches of great moral beauty, 
by flashes of lofty eloquence, and floods of 
vigorous writing. 
The author’s purpose is to establish his 
own interpretation of the prophetic declara- 
tions of the Scriptures. Our days, accord- 
ing to him, are the ‘ Last Days’—the pe- 
riods and characteristics of which, he con- 
tends, are generally mistaken. Every class 
of religionists, established or sectarian, are 
representing the present age as an improv- 
ing one—Christianity as extending—reli- 
gion as better understood, felt, and prac- 
tised, and, of course, approaching, and soon 
it may be, to the state of the Millenium— 
‘though they may not exactly use the term. 
Mr. Irving contests both the conclusion and 
the grounds of it. The ‘ Last Times,’ or 
© Days,’ are not synonymous with the Mil- 
lenium, but are destined to precede them. 
The characteristics, again, of the ‘ Last 
Times’ are not good, but bad. They are 
perilous times—for men shall be lovers of 
their own selves, covetors, boasters, proud, 
blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthank- 
ful, unholy, without natural affection, truce- 
breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, 
despisers of those that are good, traitors, 
heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure, 
more than lovers of God—having a form 
of godliness, but denying the power thereof. 
These characteristics, which the author 
carefully and ably specificates, it is the ob- 
ject of the volume to establish, as peculi- 
arly and pre-eminently marking the exist- 
ing state of society, in all classes, high and 
low, cleric and laic. Now, whatever we 
may think of the theory—whether we con- 
cern ourselves with his interpretation, or 
not—nine-tenths of the book is full of mat- 
Monthly Review of Literature, 
[ Marcu, 
ter of great pith and substance—quite in- 
dependently of the application he makes of. 
ft. Facts are facts; and he has clenched 
them with a firm grasp. He looks abroad 
upon society—especially on the middle 
classes—where, if there is more decorum, 
there is more sordid, grubbing, demoraliz- 
ing conduct—more vices degrading human 
qualities, than in any other, high or low— 
with a clear and comprehensive eye ; and 
denounces their obliquities with a courage 
and simplicity we have never seen equalled, 
and almost wonder to see tolerated, for his 
admirers and hearers are chiefly of these 
classes—the truth must be, they scarcely 
take him. _Worldliness is the game he 
delights to hunt down—and he detects it 
especially among religionists and the clergy ; 
and without mercy lays bare profession and 
ostentation wherever he finds them—as- 
sumption, pretension, thirst for gain, and 
selfishness—and a rich harvest he gathers, 
in the city and the court—the church and 
the chapel. He has no disguises ; he shews 
himself, his views, and his principles, with- 
out desire or attempt to conceal, or with- 
hold. Bigotted he undoubtedly is, though 
we employ the word unwillingly—for he is 
not so, in a thousand instances, where 
others, professing liberality, are habitually 
so: he cannot tolerate catholics, nor soci- 
nians—they are blasphemers; he cannot 
bear radicals, and especially, and we join 
him, newspaper-radicals ;- and he has the 
profoundest reverence, not hypocritically, 
but on principle, of power, and all that 
are in authority.. But he is an honest man, 
if ever there was one—no hypocrite could 
sustain the noble ‘tone—and we should as 
soon doubt Latimer himself. 
One of the characteristics on which he 
dilates is disobedience to parents—this he 
assigns, with every justice, to the ‘ relaxa- 
tion of discipline on the part of parents, 
or rather to the general dissolution, and 
breaking up of that most natural and most 
venerable relationship,’ of which he pro- 
duces, what he considers, four memorable 
signs. The first is, that the legislature has 
been forced to interfere with an enactment, 
in order to prevent the children of the labo- 
rious poor from being over-wrought, to the 
injury of their health and growth, a thing 
which, I suppose, says he, is unparalleled 
in the history of Christendom. The second, 
is the number of young men, who take up 
with young women in the same circum- 
stances, live in concubinage, form irregular 
marriages, or otherwise come together in a 
wicked, hasty, and inconsiderate manner, 
cast off their parents, and leave them to be 
supported by public charity—and why ? 
merely because ¢hey entwined no affections 
round their children’s hearts, who laboured 
not, who suffered not for them more than 
they could avoid. The third is the amaz- 
ing increase of juvenile depredations and 
felonies, not only in town, but over the 
whole country—a proof that children have 
