aye, licentiousness of discussion,--and tolerating the expression of almost any opinions,--_except those of Essayists and Reviewers_:--how shall the Church of England fail to adopt 'the bulwarks of the faith' for one of her current phrases? how not, many a time, deem 'dangerous to Christianity' the speculations of her sons?... Nay, polemics _must_ prevail; if only because, in a certain place, the Divine Speaker already quoted foretells the partial, (if not the _entire_,) obscuration even of true Doctrine, in that pathetic exclamation of His,--"When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find the faith upon the Earth[137]?" ... In the face of all this, it is to confuse and mystify the ordinary reader to draw such a picture of the last century as Mr. Pattison has drawn here. As dismal a view might be easily taken of the first, of the second, of the third, of the fourth, of the fifth century. What Mr. Newman once designated as "ancient, holy, and happy times," might very easily indeed be so exhibited as to seem times of confusion and discord, blasphemy and rebuke. A discouraging picture might be drawn, (I suppose,) of every age of the Church's history. But in, and by itself, it would never be quite a _true_ picture. For to the eye of Faith there is ever to be descried, amid the hurly-burly of the storm, the Ark of CHRIST'S Church floating peacefully over the troubled waters, and making steadily for that Heavenly haven "where it would be." ... Yes, there is ever some blessed trace discoverable, that this Life of ours is watched over by One whose Name is Love; whether we con the chequered page of History, Ecclesiastical or Civil; or summon to our aid the story of our own narrow experience. From the fierce and fiery opposition, Good is ever found to have resulted; and _that_ Good was _abiding_. Out of the weary conflict ever has issued Peace; and _that_ Peace was of the kind which 'passeth all understanding;' a Peace which the world cannot give,--no, nor take away. There are abundant traces that in all that has happened to the Church of CHRIST, from first to last, there has been a purpose and a plan!... No one knows this better than Mr. Pattison. No man in Oxford could have drawn out what I have been saying into a convincing reality, better than he, had he yielded to the instincts of a good heart, and directed his fine abilities to their lawful scope.