THE GALLERY OF PORTRAITS.

NO. IV.

THE REV. THOMAS CHALMERS, D,D., PROFESSOR OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS.

These are the men, my noble liege we want-
Men full of energy and public spirit,

To act as well as talk-to view the world
Spread wide her numerous vacant fields,
Inviting prompt and persevering industry,
Where'er the seeds of virtue can be sown,
And fruits of blessedness and joy be reap'd.
IMITATIONS OF SHAKSPEARE.

THE Scottish Kirk has been deservedly styled, as an established church, the purest in existence. Its doctrines are uncorrupt, its discipline professes to be founded on that of the apostles; and its ceremonies are few and simple, and more in accordance with the spirit of Christianity, than the gaudy pomp of Rome, or the subdued, but still imposing worship of the church of England. The poverty of the kirk has also contributed to keep out of it the idle and mercenary priest; hence its doctrines have been preached by its ministers with fidelity and zeal, and there has been trained up for its service a race of men whose simplicity of character and devotion to God have recommended the doctrines they taught. This has given them great power in forming the manners of the people, and to their influence, and to the diffusion of education amongst all classes, we attribute that absence of crime, and of those demoralizing scenes which are too frequently witnessed in England. It is, however, true, that the faithful discharge of the pastoral duties in Scotland leave the minister but little time to cultivate other studies, or to amuse thei magition by the delights of literary enterprise. There are, however, names connected with the kirk which shed a lustre on the country which gave them birth, and on the communion to which they belonged; and if they are not able to produce any who can bear an individual comparison with Taylor, South, Chillingworth, Barrow, Hooker, or Clarke, yet in their collective capacity they have no reason to blush, while such men as Robertson, Blair, Campbell, Erskine, and others equally eminent are found within the pale of the kirk. Nor do we think the kirk would be found a whit behind her rival, if the comparison were confined to

our own times, for there are men belonging to it esteemed for their general learning, their eloquence, and the literary fame which they have acquired by their works, which would fairly weigh down the ornaments of the English church. Assuredly no man in the latter is at all equal to the reverend Doctor, who is the subject of the present article.

Although Dr. Chalmers has quitted the pulpit for the chair of Moral Philosophy, we prefer considering him as a preacher rather than a professor, because almost all his reputation has been acquired in the former capacity, and the chief of his works consists of sermons. We are, however, glad to hear, that although the Doctor has resigned the formal charge of any congregation, he has not declined preaching, but that he is ever ready to plead the cause of God and of man, at the call of duty.

The appearance of Dr. Chalmers in the pulpit is very striking to an acute observer. His face and forehead are large, and stiff as marble when in repose; his eyes are small, and of a light colour, and appear generally half closed, as if in a dreary mood, except when they are lit up with uncommon brilliancy by the enthusiasm of the orator, when he has fairly interested himself and his hearers in some sublime and intrancing subject drawn from Holy Writ. Then, his face appears to beam with intelligence, and every feature aids in making an impression on the hearer.

Phrenologically considered, the head of Dr. Chalmers affords a fine subject for contemplation. His forehead is much broader across the eye-brows than any we ever met with, denoting great strength of mathematical calculation; and above this, there is the arch of imagination, spreading out in as fine a style as the busts of our first poets; while, to crown the whole, the organ of veneration and love is fully expanded, exhibiting a power and variety of genius seldom united in one man. It is impossible to study his face without perceiving the stamp and impress of genius; but it is when he is labouring at the end of his discourse to give utterance to his mighty conceptions, that you catch the inspiration of his power, and feel that you are in the presence of one of the "master spirits of the age."

His voice is weak and harsh, his action inelegant, and in many instances inappropriate, and his pronunciation

broadly national, so that he often puzzles English hearers who are not acquainted with the idioms of Scotland: Other defects he has, which, if they were attached to a man of less talent, would certainly be a bar to his success; but the intellectual superiority of Dr. Chalmers triumphs over all the defects of nature, and converts positive faults into something like negative attractions.

Nay, some like him the better for his peculiarities, and we have heard, that there are men who, destitute of his talent, have sought to obtain reputation by the imitation of his faults.

No one, however, who heard the commencement of worship by the doctor for the first time, would think of what was in store. He begins in a low and almost drawling tone, and advances on from sentence to sentence without making scarcely any impression, but, he rises by degrees, and you begin to feel an interest, which at last is so strong, as completely to absorb all attention.

It is then you remark the triumph of genius over the deficiencies of nature, and feel intensely the mighty power which commands, and fully rewards your attention.

The intellectual power of the doctor is, however, best shewn in his triumph over the defects of nature, in the absence of all art, in the simplicity and sincerity of his manner, and in his laying hold of the passions as well as the mind, and carrying all along with him in his argument. He does this more by the originality of his ideas by the richness, strength, and beauty of his language, and by his great argumentative faculties, than by any little attention to the graces of action, or the rules of art. Nor is he merely a dry reasoner on abstract doctrines, he possesses (independently of his beautiful language) a force of imagination, a variety of illustration, and a combination of all the powers necessary to constitute a great orator. He certainly has, and that in a large measure, the acumen and logic which distinguish the Scottish divines, combined with the imaginative powers and vivacity of the French preachers.

The style of the doctor, is like his preaching, highly original, it is entirely unlike that of any other writer, and might be said to abound with faults, which a mere proser would avoid, but, it is strong, nervous, and eminently calculated to express the doctor's ideas.

It certainly abounds with particles, and the sentences are sometimes too long, but, we do not think it could be mended. An imitator, without the Doctor's genius, would render it ridiculous, but no one possessing any judgment, can fail in appreciating its beauty.

The prayers of the doctor are very devotional. There is in them, certainly, a latitude of expression, and sometimes an amplitude of imagery, which startles the sober ears of those who have been accustomed to more tame and listless petitions. But the unction of the spirit, which the doctor evidently possesses, leads the delighted hearer on from one scene of glory to another, until he has almost forgotten that he is a denizen of earth, and still surrounded by sin and infirmity. We do not know of any preacher in the present day who seem so to annihilate the distance between heaven and earth, who, as it were, lifts up the veil which covers the celestial glory, and lets the unclouded visions of God fall upon his hearers' gaze. Standing in the full assurance of faith, and pleading the covenant engagements made by God with his people, the doctor wrestles like Jacob; his language and his manner, then, remind the hearer of the sublime description of the poet of methodism:

In vain thou strugglest to get free,
I never will unloose my hold,
Art thou the man that died for me?
The secret of thy love unfold;
Wrestling, I will not let thee go

"Till I thy name, thy nature know. Many, perhaps, are the sermons weekly preached by men far inferior to the doctor in genius or knowledge, which are more nicely constructed according to the rules of art: nay, there may be some whose arguments are better arranged, whose periods are more exquisitely rounded, and whose style is on the whole more chaste than the doctor's, but they want the soul which pervades his discourses: they need that living animating principle which warms the heart and cheers the christian on his daily road; in a word, they require not only more fire and genius, but more spirituality and unction from above. It is this which produces an effect so strong and irresistible in the doctor's appeal, and which we hope is as lasting as it is deep.

We regretted much, in common with every friend to religion, when we heard of the doctor's removal from Glasgow. We thought of the moral effect which his

presence had upon the active citizens of that money-getting place. We heard of the deep veneration of his flock for their pastor; we heard also of the institutions he had formed or promoted, and the schemes of benevolence which he had set on foot in that city. We saw him directing the current of men's thoughts from the gold which perisheth to the unperishable riches of eternal glory. We heard of his powers being employed in giving a romantic tinge to the every day occurrences of life, and by advocating the claims of the heathen, inducing the merchant in his country house to think over the scenes of glory which are to succeed the full development of the gospel. But when we recollected that he was going not to retire to idleness, but to preside over the young, and form the morals and direct the genius of the rising age, we found our regrets considerably diminished, and we thought he had exchanged one sphere of usefulness for another equally important, and more enlarged. In this we were not mistaken; his fame instantly drew to the University of St. Andrew's a larger number of students than were ever before known, anxious to partake of the benefit of that instruction which his profound knowledge of morals, of philosophy, and of christianity combined, so eminently qualified him to impart. And the grateful approbation of his students fully proves that his talents have not been misdirected, nor his time misapplied. Here he is seen in all the simplicity and energy of his character:

In his allotted home a genuine priest,
The shepherd of his flock; or, as a king
Is styled, when most affectionately praised,
The father of his people.

The publications of the doctor are so various, and on such dissimilar subjects, that it becomes almost impossible for us to enumerate them in this article, which has now exceeded our usual limits: but this is, fortunately for us, unnecessary, their popularity having placed them in the hands of almost every person. The chief of them are Evidences of Christianity,-Sermons preached in the Tron Church, and at St. John's, Glasgow, -Christianity viewed in connection with modern Astronomy,-Christian and civic Economy of large Towns,-besides a great many Single Sermons, Speeches, Tracts, Prefaces to books,-Articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia,-and Contributions to some of the Periodical Magazines and Papers published in Glasgow.

It is however to be hoped, the doctor will employ his seasons of academical leisure in the production of some standard work, on christian morals, which will supply the defects and make up for the deficiency of others, and totally supersede Paley's Moral Philosophy, as that is a work very deficient in principle, and consequently dangerous to place in the hands of a young inquirer after truth.

Since writing the above, the eloquent Speech of Dr. Chalmers on the Catholic Question, delivered at a meeting at Edinburgh, has appeared. We cannot resist giving some extracts from it, although we do not pledge ourselves for the accuracy of the Report:

:

Dr. Chalmers said, 'I came here today in the spirit of devotedness to the holy cause of Protestantism; for in the proposed emancipation of Papists I see for Protestants a still greater and more glorious emancipation. The truth is, that these disabilities have hung as a dead weight around the Protestant cause for more than a century. They have enlisted in opposition to it some of the most unconquerable principles of nature resentment because of injury, and the pride of adherents to a suffering cause. They have transformed the whole nature of the contest, and by so doing, they have rooted and given tenfold obstinacy to error.They have given to our side the hateful aspect of tyranny, while on theirs we behold a generous and high-minded resistance to what they deem to be oppression. They have transformed a nation of heretics into a nation of heroes. We could have refuted and shamed the heretic out of his errors, but we cannot bring down the hero from his altitude; and thus it is, that from the first introduction of this heterogeneous element into the question, the cause of truth has gone backward. It has ever since been met by the unyielding defiance of a people irritated but not crushed, under a sense of indignity; and this notable expedient for keeping down the popery of Ireland, has only compressed it into a firmness, and closed it into a phalanx, which, till opened up by emancipation, we shall find to be impenetrable. Gentlemen would draw arguments from history against us, but there is one passage in history which they never can dispose of. How comes it that Protestantism made such triumphant progress in these realms when it had pains and penalties to struggle with? and how came this progress

to be arrested from the moment it laid on these pains and penalties in turn? What have all the enactments of the statute book done for the cause of Protestantism in Ireland? and how is that, when single-handed truth walked through our island with the might and prowess of a conqueror, so soon as she was propped by the authority of the state, and the armour of intolerance was given to her, the brilliant career of her victories was ended? It was when she took up the carnal, and laid down the spiritual weapon; it was then that strength went out of her. She was struck with impotency on the instant, that from a warfare of principle it became a warfare of politics. What other instruments do we read of in the New Testament for the defence and propagation of the Faith, but the word of God, and the Spirit of God? How does the apostle explain the principle of its triumphs in that age when truth was so mighty to the pulling down of strongholds? It was because the weapons of this warfare were not carnal.

He con

fined himself to the use of spiritual weapons, the only ones by which to assail the strongholds either of Popery or Paganism. The kingdom of God, which is not of this world, refuses to be indebted for its advancement to any other. Reason, and scripture, and prayer-these compose, or ought to compose, the whole armoury of Protestantism; and it is by these alone that the battles of the Faith can be successfully fought. It is not because I hold Popery to be innocent, that I want the removal of these disabilities; but because I hold, that if these were taken out of the way, she would be tenfold more assailable. It is not because I am indifferent to the good of Protestantism, that I want to displace these artificial crutches from under her, but because I want that (freed from every symptom of decrepitude and decay) she should stand forth in her own native strength, and make manifest to all men how firm a support she has on the goodness of her cause, and on the basis of her orderly and well laid arguments. It is because I count so much, (and will any Protestant here say, that I count too much?) on her bible, and her evidences, and the blessing of God upon her churches, and the force of her resistless appeals to the conscience and the understandings of men; it is because of her strength and sufficiency in these that I

would disclaim the aids of the statute book, and own no dependence or obligation whatever on a system of intolerance. These were enough for her in the days of her sufferings, and should be more than enough for her in the days of her comparative safety. It is not by our fears and our false alarms that we do honour to Protestantism, A far more befitting honour to the great cause is the homage of our confidence; for what Sheridan said of the liberty of the press, admits of most emphatic application to this religion of truth and liberty. 'Give,' says that orator, I give to Ministers a corrupt House of Commons; give them a pliant and a servile House of Lords: give them the keys of the Treasury and the patronage of the Crown; and give me the liberty of the press, and with this mighty engine I will overthrow the fabric of corruption, and establish upon its ruins the rights and privileges of the people.' like manner, give the Catholics of Ireland their emancipation; give them a seat in the Parliament of their country; give them a free and equal participation in the politics of the realm; give them a place at the right ear of Majesty, and a voice in his councils; and give me the circulation of the Bible; and with this mighty engine I will overthrow the tyranny of AntiChrist, and establish the fair and original form of Christianity on its ruins.”

In

REWARD OF FLATTERY.-The Emperor being at St. Cloud, M. Denon, inspector of medals, who was desirous of presenting those which he had struck in commemoration of the achievements of the memorable campaign of Austerlitz, was introduced. The series commenced with the departure of the army from the camp at Boulonge, on its march to the Rhine. The first represented on one side, the bust of Napoleon, and on the other a French eagle holding an English lion. "What does this mean?" said Napoleon. Sire," said M. Denon, "it is the French eagle stifling with his talons the lion, which is one of the attributes of the arms of England." I was seized with admiration, when I saw Napoleon throw the golden medal with violence to the end of the chamber, saying to M. Denon, "Vile flatterer! how dare you say that the French eagle stifles the English lion? I cannot launch upon the sea a single petty fishing boat, but she is captured by the English. It is, in reality, the lion that stifles the French eagle. Cast the medal into the foundry, and never bring me such another!"-Anecdotes of the French Court, by M. Beausset.