Such is the impression which Mr. Pattison's Essay is calculated to leave behind. That he had no wicked intention in writing it, no one who knows him could for an instant suppose: but _the effect_ of what he has done is certainly to set his reader adrift on a dreary sea of doubt. Discomfort and dissatisfaction, confusion and dismay, are the prevailing sentiments with which a religious mind, unfortified with learning, will rise from the perusal of the present Essay: while the irreligious man will study it with a sneer of ill-concealed satisfaction. The marks of Mr. Pattison's own better knowledge, (sufficiently evident to the quick eye of one who is aware of the writer's high theological attainments;)--the indications of a truer individual judgment, (discoverable throughout by one who _knows_ the author's private worth, and is himself happily in possession of the clue by which to escape from this tangled labyrinth:)--_these_ escape the common reader. To _him_, all is dreary doubt. I must perforce deal with Mr. Pattison's labours in a very summary manner. The chief complaint I have to make against him is that he has altogether omitted what, to you and to me, is the _most_ important feature of the century which he professes to describe,--namely, the vast amount of lofty Churchmanship, the unbroken Catholic tradition, which, with no small amount of general short-coming, is to be traced throughout the eighteenth century. To insinuate that the return to Catholic principles _began_ with the publication of the 'Tracts for the Times,' (p. 259,) in 1833, is simply to insinuate what is _not_ true. But Mr. Pattison does more than 'insinuate.' He states it openly. "In constructing _Catenæ Patrum_," (he says,) "the Anglican closes his list with Waterland or Brett, and leaps at once to 1833." (p. 255.)--Now, since Waterland _died_ in 1740 and Brett in 1743, it is clear that, (according to Mr. Pattison,) a hundred years and upwards have to be cleared _per saltum_: during which the lamp of Religion in these kingdoms had gone fairly out. But how stands the truth? At least _four_ "Catenæ Patrum" are given in the "Tracts for the Times[134];" _not one_ of which is closed with Waterland or Brett. On the contrary, in the two former Catenæ (beginning with Jewel and Hooker) the names of these supposed 'ultimi Romanorum' occur little more than _half way_!... "Les faits," therefore, (as usual with 'Essayists and Reviewers,')--"_les faits sont contraires_."--It would be enough to cite Bethell's 'General View of the Doctrine of Regeneration in Baptism,' which appeared in 1822; and Hugh James Rose's 'Discourses on the Commission and Duties of the Clergy,' which were preached in 1826. But the case against Mr. Pattison, as I shall presently shew, is abundantly stronger.