thusiast, the hallucinations of a devotee, the rhapsodies of an inamorato. The writer seems to know that Episcopacy is the only form of church polity which had the sauction of Christ and his apostles, that its ministry is the only true ministry, and that it is the divinely constituted guardian of purity in devotion and purity in discipline, to the end of the dispensation! His language is: "The ancient, abiding, Apostolic Fold, which God's Christly Providence has preserved, through all corruptions and laxities to be, in its entire Catholic constitution, the ultimate witness to his Evangelic Truth, and an Ark of spiritual safety and order to his people." We have said within ourselves: "Alas for her fidelity in this great matter when, in the days of Charles and James and Elizabeth, she so shamed every principle of purity, both in doctrine and discipline, that the very godliest and best of her ministers and laymen were constrained to leave her ancient, abiding, Apostolic Fold,' and ultimately to flee across the cold and turbulent ocean to the wilderness, where, under the simple forms of Congregationalism, God's Christly Providence' so manifestly honored them as the restorers of pure doctrine and discipline, and has preserved these under the same simple forms for nearly two centuries and a half." Nay, God honored those men as the builders of a new civil empire, whose strong pillars have had their foundations in the doctrines preached by a Congregational ministry, and the discipline maintained by Congregational churches. We trust we have experienced all the gratification that should result from the large Christian charity which simple, apostolic Congregationalism breathes and inculcates, when we have seen among the pleasant pictures of New England, the modest Episcopal structure raising its spire in the vicinity of the more ample and numerous edifices consecrated to a simpler worship. But when the claim is set up, and pressed, and urged, with air of lofty assumption, here in Boston and New England, in the reserved column of a widely circulated daily newspaper, not one in a hundred of whose readers, as we suppose, is an Episcopalian, that the Episcopal church is the true Apostolic church, and her ministry the true apostolic ministry, to the exclusion of all other, we are amused, and say to ourselves : "Why, here is a very singular and very harmless hallucination! Here is a mind peculiarly constituted, evidently, and that must have had a peculiar history, and the end of whose peculiarities no one would venture to predict!"

We trust we have justified what may have seemed a trifling remark for so grave a subject at the beginning of this paper, that we have found entertainment in these harmless fancies recently promulged in the Episcopal column of the Daily Traveller. Often

and irresistibly, in reading them, have we been reminded of a woman named Sally, who lived in a little log cottage having a single small window, in the edge of a forest in the vicinity, when we were at college. The distance afforded a pleasant Saturday afternoon's walk to the students. Sally was the subject of a singular illusion, fancying her little cabin to be a fine mansion, in the midst of park and garden, and, as she retained still a sprightly wit and great volubility, with traces of the beauty that had distinguished her in her earlier days, it was at once amusing and sad to witness the enthusiasm with which she would descant on the varied decorations and beauties of her house and grounds, pointing, with eloquent gesture and soft, silken voice, to the broad avenues and grand shade trees, where we saw only stunted hemlocks and struggling birches amid tangled underbrush. But Sally never disparaged the dwellings of her neighbors.

In all gravity and sincerity we say, that, highly as we value Congregationalism, for its godly ministry, its scriptural doctrine, its purity of fellowship, its power to purge itself of all false doctrine and heresy, and not least, its undoubted primitive and apostolic origin; and much as we desire that all true disciples should enjoy the liberty wherewith Christ hath made his people free; we do, nevertheless, cherish a warm affection, and profess a fraternal fellowship, for all those ministers of the Gospel who are induced to prefer the Episcopal church. It has been our privilege and our pleasure, to co-operate with such in great Christian enterprises; we have visited them at their homes, and prayed with them in their studies. We have stood with them (on a week day) in the pulpits of their venerable churches, and heard from their lips expressions of regret that they were not permitted to introduce us there on the Sabbath; but never, in a single instance, did we hear from any one of those men of ample soul and godly spirit, churchinen born and churchmen bred, the faintest utterance resembling the airy fantasies which have now for some time past entertained the community, in the Episcopal column of the Daily Evening Traveller.

SOLDIERS' MONUMENTS AND RECEPTIONS. The receptions of welcome to our returning heroes of the army, are eminently proper and just. We owe it to ourselves, as an expression of our gratitude to them for saving our government's institutions and honor. We owe it also to them as having prevented the independence of the South, and so the restoration of an era of the dark ages. Ten or fifteen dollars a month, with some bounty in some cases, can not pay for doing such work. It is worth more than money can indicate or measure to

upon

be shot at three years or less, eat hard tack and bad pork, lie the ground, in the open air, and count days and months at Belle Isle and Andersonville.

They have a right to feel the grasping hand, hear the cheers, see the glad faces and loaded tables, and listen to the thankful, welcoming words of crowding hundreds and thousands.

So our fallen ones, who gave their lives for their country in the great rebellion, are entitled to the marble column and inscription, as a perpetual memorial, dedicated by prayer and by oration, setting forth their heroic spirit and deeds, and picturing the fields where they fell.

These monumental dedications and receptions have another most important place and use. For historic and patriotic purposes they are occasions for collecting, setting in order, and setting forth in print, the relations of their respective localities and communities to the war.

The leading addresses on such occasions embrace, or should embrace, the spirit of the place touching the war, the response to the calls for men, what was done privately and what by city and town authority for the volunteers, drafted men, and their families; how many and who went, an epitome of their campaigns, the battles they went through, who was wounded, when, where and how. Around each fallen soldier there should be gathered personal and family items of interest, an outline of the battle in which he fell, or some account of his hospital, prison or home days, if he closed them in either. So the roll of honor and the record of fame are made one, and serve for all the future.

Our communities need just this. It is the food of patriotism, the fuel of heroic fire. Such records make a town or city sure for any coming time of need. These names and deeds would prove as a spell to conjure with, if ever seventy-five, or three hundred thousand men should be again called for.

the very best ma

These local and honorable memorials will prove terial for our future historians of the rebellion, and the nation can not afford to leave them ungathered, unuttered and unprinted. Such items of the Revolution, saved from oblivion, were worth for us in the beginning of our late struggle a standing army to start with. The nation, that lets such memories die, can not live itself.

These occasions, therefore, should be made and used, as we are glad to see they are in some places already, both for the honor of our army, and for patriotic and governmental purposes. But the occa

sions when made, should be put into the hands of men, who will use them with labor and research for personal, local, biographical and

historical purposes. They should not be lost in a harangue, political and party speech, or recast sermon.

We never forgave an eminent scholar for once suffering a bi-centennial to slip away through his commonplaces. Two hundred years had labored to make his opportunity, and he squandered it on an old and thumbed manuscript, that might have served as well at a cattleshow, and had evidently done much duty somewhere, before it intruded on the sacred grounds of the pilgrim fathers.

We have before us, at this writing, an address at the dedication of a soldiers' monument, whose brief commemorative passages are patriotic generalities only; and whose body is a disquisition on the causes, spirit and issues of the war. The address alone would not inform the reader where the monument is, how many it commemorates, who they were, how many of them were killed, how many died in our hospitals, how many among rebels, how many at home; and how many widows and orphans mourn them; nor yet whether any of those dying on the field aided to turn the tide of a single battle, and fell amid the shouts of victory. That is, as a historical and commemorative address, it is worthless.

Every town and city should have one of these days, if not a monument; and the leading men should make it the day of this half-century. But to gain this, they must see to it that Hamlet is not left out of the play by the principal actors.

Several Book-Notices, and other matter, prepared for this number, are necessarily deferred until January.

ERRATA. On p. 338, 1. 25, for " Adam Clarke," read Samuel Clarke: p. 455, l. 17, for "laying," read lying: p. 521, line 20, for "council," read counsel.

INDEX.