word "right" than many take the trouble to investigate. It is not simply the right of equality, a mere recognition of the fact that by nature we are constitutionally the same; but it is in the privileges it bestows, and the caste it gives to those who claim it, that it should be considered. As the conviction of similar advantages, both bodily and mental, gradually unfold themselves to the minds of men, do not thoughts arise within them which give birth to the desire of exercising the power and asserting the right they naturally suppose they possess, in common with others of their species? Does not the voice of liberty with magic influence speak to the heart, and infuse into the soul the delights of freedom of thought, of will, and of action? Do they not feel an ardent longing to possess a power in the state, to assist in directing the social machinery by which they are governed, either by their own personal co-operation, or in asserting the justice and aiding the development of their own opinions? Do not the sacred feelings of paternal affection, conjugal ties, and domestic felicity, agitate their hearts, and instil the heartfelt wish of participating in them to their fullest extent? These thoughts will arise in every intelligent man's mind. We cannot deny our fellow men the power of thinking; and the nobler sentiments of humanity will, in spite of corporeal degradation, exercise their influence on the sensibilities of their nature. To attempt, then, to repress these instincts, to nip them in the bud, just as they are beginning to give a greater nobility to the soul, and by an inhuman system of bondage to deprive man of the advantages belonging to his race, is to perpetrate an outrage and an injustice which reflect the greatest discredit not only upon those committing it, but on those who, by their senseless forbearance, still countenance it. It is an established law of nations to prevent the preponderance of might over right, that each mutually aid each other in resisting the encroachments of foreign enemies. This is chiefly carried out among the whites, and is now being enforced in the war with Turkey and Russia. But alas for the poor, oppressed negro! Has he no champion who can redeem him from slavery, from the tyranny and thraldom of superior power? Is there no sympathizing hand which can be stretched forth to effect his emancipation? We contend that every nation should unite in freeing the unhappy black from the miserable and degraded position in which selfishness and lust of power have placed him. All are personally interested in the cause. They know the disadvantages of slavery as applied to themselves, and they ought to feel for the miseries of those who have the misfortune to be under its unhallowed influence. But it may be objected that slaves are not of the same class of humanity, and moreover are, for the most part, of a different colour. We can conceive of no other plausible objection; and how atrocious a sentiment is this! True it is that man, throughout the world, though radically the same, differs in proportion to the circumstances in which he is placed. True it is that, whether it be in the cheerless wilds and trackless wastes of hyperborean regions, or in the genial climate and beauteous scenes of the sunny south, man is found of different colours, different habits and customs, and of various degrees of knowledge and refinement. True it is that the intellectual capacities of the white man are, for the most part, in higher cultivation than those of the untutored savages of central Africa, or the aboriginal inhabitants of America. But are they not constitutionally the same? Are they not possessed of the same powers of volition, of thought, and of the same immortality of soul? If they are characterized by these common attributes of humanity, then surely they are worthy of and have a right to take a place amongst the great nations of the earth; it is but reasonable to suppose that, with the same natural qualifications, they should be on an equality with, instead of holding an inferior position among, the rest of mankind. With unmistakeable evidence, then, of the identity of the members of the human race with each other; with the truth forcing itself upon us that every man is connected with his fellows by the holy link of brotherhood, how utterly subversive of all principles of justice, how depreciative of man is the execrable system of slavery! Nations, with an inconsistency only the more to be condemned as showing an inordinate selfishness of character, are continually trumpeting forth the blessings of the freedom they enjoy, and with one universal resolution sternly resist any innovation of that freedom. But they little think of the tens of thousands of their own race who are deprived of such advantages. Would that such a deplorable inertness and indifference could give way to the dictates of justice, even if the spirit of sympathy and benevolence were wanting. The humane heart must be filled with grief at the degradation of one unhappy class of men, must shudder at the unfortunate lot of those who, made in God's own image, and possessing that holy and noble endowment-the mind, are now repining over their sad condition, and mourning over their virtual isolation from civilized humanity. It may be, indeed, that under some circumstances the position of the slave is tolerably good; that in some cases the slave is even better provided for than he would be by his own exertions. But will this compensate for the loss of liberty, for violation of the sanctity of his domestic affections, and the privileges of his fellow-creatures? Ask an unadulterated son of humanity, who has basked at will in the gleam of God's sunshine, and who has roved in perfect freedom through the green fields and shady lanes of his country, his opinion of a life pent up amidst the crowded streets and unwholesome atmosphere of a populous city? He would say, "Give me back my former liberty; let me return to the loved scenes of my youth, that I may breathe the pure air of heaven, and derive health and enjoyment in the tranquillity and innocent pleasures of a pastoral abode." If, then, the confinement of a city is too much for one accustomed to greater freedom, how much more poignant must that slavery be which condemns myriads of beings, with the same consciousness of pain and torture as ourselves, to a round of laborious, unrewarded toil, which ceases only with life. Without directly arguing the unjustifiability of slavery in relation to scripture, the tendency of our previous remarks has been to show that its practice is diametrically opposed to the teachings of Christianity. One sentence alone in the whole scriptural record is sufficient to prove the affirmative side of the present question. "Do unto others as you would that they should do unto you" contains the most potent rebuke that can be offered to slavery. Yet one would think that there were no such command in existence, seeing how little it is adopted in the world. Would that it were more so, for in it lies the panacea for all social and political evils. Christianity thus loudly calls for the abolition of slavery. Man, however he may progress in science and knowledge, cannot improve in Christianity unless he set earnestly about removing the various blots on the civilization of the present age, of which slavery is the chief. How vain and ridiculous is the boasted refinement of the nineteenth century, when practices are encouraged which belong only to barbarous times! Let us seek rather to purge ourselves from the blemishes which yet stain our career, before we laud ourselves upon our progress towards that goal of perfection to which man seems ever hurrying. God requires this to be done. He without whom a sparrow falleth not to the ground, cannot see a portion of his earthly children groaning in abject servitude without His commiseration being excited, and His anger aroused. May heaven grant that the recognition of the great truth of universal brotherhood may soon be effected throughout the world. The persuasions of philanthropy have prevailed upon the continent of Europe; shall they not have a like influence across the Atlantic? We think they must; and America ultimately listen to the voice of reason, justice, and Christianity. Already we see in imagi nation the shackles of bondage falling from the poor; oppressed negroes. Already we hear the deafening shouts of thousands for their deliverance, as they raise a pæan to the Almighty, which, coming from the fulness of joy and gratitude, ascends like an holocaust to the throne of grace. G. F. In a lecture on China, delivered at Bolton the other day, Dr. Bowring said it had been calculated that if all the bricks, stones, and masonry of Great Britain were gathered together, they would not furnish materials enough for such a work as the Wall of China; and that all the buildings in London put together would not have made the towers and turrets which adorn it. The Essayist. "A thing of beauty is joy for ever: THE POET. Its loveliness increaseth.' ."-Keats. THE natural world conveys to the mind certain ideas of a spiritual nature. The glory of nature at sunrise, when the radiant orbs of heaven seem to retire into the secret abysses of immensity; when this earth, enveloped "in the glittering folds of heaven,"* vibrates with ten thousand harmonies,-at high noon, when the orb of day has reached the zenith, and the wide realms of sea and land beneath lie suffused in his brightest beams, at eve, when the world of light subsides again in the shades of night, and the "solemn voices" from the mysterious invisible steal over the soul, and the heavenly fires cast down their mild rays upon the darkened sphere, all these speak to our spirits of higher and divine glories! These are but the stepping-stones towards the celestial, placed between man immortal and God eternal! The mind becomes conversant with beauty through various media, according to the degree of perception enjoyed. Every aspect of nature presents beauty in innumerable degrees and forms. Whether the intelligent eye gazes on a bud or a blade of grass, an opening flower or spreading oak, a drop of dew or the great ocean, it beholds the beauteous manifestation of divine power, wisdom, and benevolence, blending in the highest harmony and perfection. Every pure and intelligent spirit may drink deeply of these ever-welling and redundant streams of divine beauty, and thus possess unnumbered joys for ever. Without thinking of entering fully into the question, What is the nature of beauty? we may consider its effects to be either particular or general. Particular beauty arises from the harmonious arrangement of certain attributes limited to a definite organization; as seen in a flower. General beauty is the effect produced by the assemblage of a variety of objects which of themselves are beauteous; as a landscape. It must, however, be remembered that an object is beautiful in dif * Ossian. ferent degrees to individual minds, according to the perceptive power of those individual mind. Concerning this the American Essayist says, "Not in nature, but in man, is all the beauty and worth he sees." Again, "Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not;" a sentiment as true, we think, as it is poetical. Beauty and poetry are ever allied, and the mind that perceives the one is a lover of the other; and to some extent a poet in thought, if not in diction. The high perception of beauty, natural or spiritual, causes a thrill of joy to pass through the soul, and give vent to its pathos and delight in rapturous and impassioned language. Nay, may we not say that to such a one nature is as the Paradise of God, wherein he hears "the still small voice" responding to his inquiries, and inspiring him with rapture, till at length knowledge, love, and joy, merge into aspiration and devotion? Every bud and leaf, breeze and sunbeam, are to him as worlds and fountains of beauty, in loveliness increasing: as he gazes, he is full of joy. The sun reflects the brightness and splendour of God upon him; he exults in its radiance as the shadow of the unseen infinite beauty. In the calm of night he beholds the glory and serenity that ever beam forth from encircling galaxies of stars, rolling on in their everlasting courses through the heavens. Nature to him is the pavilion of God, in which he lives, and beauty is the divine image on which he gazes. It is the type of heaven. While standing on these lower plains he, in spirit, directs his vision to the everlasting hills of the empyrean, upon whose starry heights he beholds the blessed ones. In the "great deep" he sees the emblem of that broad sea of peace and joy which flows from the Infinite Love. The harmonies of the universe are to him the first notes of that undying song which rends the heaven of heavens, and echoes for ever through the vast homes of the beatified, thrilling and inspiring the immortals. From *Emerson. the deep bosom of nature he brings images here but to one portion of the poem, as it of beauty, which express his thought and furnishes us with the most simple, yet submirror forth his passion for the great, the lime, answer to the great question, What is it true, and the beautiful. In thought and to be a poet? It is short and complete, and feeling he rises beyond the ken of his fellows, is of itself one of the fairest gems of modern and stands mid earth and heaven. He seems poesy. The opening line sets before us the to grasp the universe in the moments of his poet in the simplest, most beautiful, and inspiration, and, spanning the broad heavens, impressive attitude, an attitude which culls from every verdant orb some flower of brings to our recollection some of those great beauty, or wafts from some heavenly fire a names which we learned in youth and now spark to cast among the sons of toil and revere, David, the Hebrew psalmist; Homer, sorrow. Of him in the modern horoscope it the Greek bard; and Alfred, the Saxon waris written:-"The stars, keen glancing from rior king. The ancient bard bending o'er the immensities, send tidings to him; the his harp, striving to recall some melodious graves, silent with their dead, from the strain or heroic song, is a beautiful image of eternities. Deep calls for him unto deep.' "*the poet lost in deep and earnest thought, He sees a divine life and beauty in the buddings of spring, in the flowers of summer, in the fruits of autumn; and even in the cold, bleak days of winter he sees oft a resplendent bow depicted on the sparkling snow or the pointed icicle, and knows that He the beams of God's sun shine warmest. Among the poetic geniuses of the present day stand in marked pre-eminence the author of "The Roman," a production whose poetic beauty and magnificence of diction cannot, we think, be over-estimated. We speak with certain limitations when we say there are parts which remind us of the grandest portions of "Paradise Lost." We shall refer * Carlyle. : till at length, moved by the divine impulse, "Calm as the grand white cloud where thunders silent and solemn, in the soul-solitude of intense thought, he strives, "like a wrapt listener," "To catch Some far sound wandering in the depths of space, What an imposing scene follows the intense inspiration of the poet, as he exclaims, “I hear," and his eyes" gleam with vision!"— "See the triumphant minstrel in the dust To his own music!" From this we learn the true poet is originalthat the thoughts which he utters come from the depths of his spirit-that the "music" of his poesy is "his own." The true poet in this sense cannot utter the thoughts of other men, because the inspiration by which he speaks descends only upon the visions of his own soul: "The poet sweeps the strings and wakes, awe stricken, The sounds that never die.' And what are these "sounds that never die?" Are they not truths unseen, ungrasped by common men, that steal in upon the poet's soul as he thinks intensely on the past or present, it may be, till in vision he perceives the veil that hides the future, and, enraptured, utters prophetic truths? "I see the birthday in the imminent skies: In other words, the poet says, concerning To know it, woo it, wail for it, and stand, There is yet another feature, if we would behold the poet in his greatness and glory:"The good man hears The voice in which God speaks to men." Thus is the poet prepared to commune with The awful and unutterable meaning These, then, are the great elements which make the Poet: Intellect or deep penetration, originality of genius, thought, and expression, and piety, which adorns and directs the whole. Buckingham. E. W. S. BUILDING SOCIETIES: THEIR ORIGIN, CONSTITUTION, AND USES. No. I. THERE are some things which can be best described negatively: that is, by statements of what they are not, in order that we may better understand what they really are. Building Societies may be included in this class; and hence we approach them in the manner suggested by our opening remark. Building Societies, then, are not "Eldorados" of untold wealth; their directors have no magician's wand with which suddenly to raise up princely fortunes for those who previously had not a penny. Nor are their managers alchemists, capable of transmuting everything with which they come in contact into pure gold. Yet, properly constituted and managed, they are capable of conferring benefits more lasting than any of these. The popular notion regarding building societies has, until very recently, been highly erroneous. Expectations have been cherished, and promises relied on, which are as contrary to all the known principles of commercial investment as to common sense. The fault of this has rested, in a great measure, with the promoters of some of the earlier societies; not the first, for these were simple in their design and objects, but those which immediately followed, aud which were rendered attractive at the expense of safety, and consequently brought bitter disappointment not only to the promoters but to the public. In order to guard against repetition of such evils, the public should be supplied with correct information on these matters. They should know that the same system of £ s. d. appertains to building societies as to other commercial investments; although it is true with building societies these principles admit of great extension. They should also know something of the laws of compound interest, and should have an insight into the actual working, as well as the theoretical principles, of such societies, in order that they may better judge of what is practical and reasonable, and what is not. All this information will be attempted in the proper place. The theory of building societies is by no means difficult to be understood. With them, as with almost all other similar projects, combination is a main and essential feature. Combined power can ever accomplish results beyond the reach of individual effort, be those results good or bad. A number of persons being desirous of erecting or purchasing dwellings for themselves, or property for investment, combine together, and agree to pay a certain sum every month into one common fund, which fund is, from time to time, to be applied to the use of its founders, either by rotation or by ballot, as may be determined. Assuming that the fund is to be lent to the members in sums of not less than £200; that it is desired to make an advance of such a sum each month; and that each member has agreed to pay £1 per month, it is clear that 200 members would be required to carry out the objects of the society. But supposing there were not that number of persons to be found desirous of building or purchasing property, what is to be done? The aid of another class of persons must then be called in, viz., persons who are willing to contribute £1 per month to the general fund upon condition of having |