mend a useful and excellent book. To make extracts would be easy. Striking passages might be repeated, in various kinds, at little trouble of searching. But we refrain, for the work itself will probably be in the hands of most of those who read this short notice. It contains at no long intervals sentences of rare beauty, by the side of which one is apt to draw his pencil, that he may recur to them again and again. We have seldom the fortune to find a book so tempting to quote. We have been acquainted with writers, who derive the power of their language from its diffusiveness and even flow. They never rise above, nor descend below, a certain line. They are effective, but it is in the whole, and not through its parts. They are warm and free, but without salient points. They are intensive, but devoid of any of the "white magic" of fancy. Their phrases are poetically colored, but no picture is produced. It is as if the stones of a mosaic were set gorgeously, but without any graphic design, into the shining wall. We have met with those of great merit and celebrity, from whose many volumes you would scarcely cull a single paragraph of remarkable eloquence, of eminent splendor or sweetness, to treasure up in a note-book or read aloud to a friend. Their clearness and ardor have in some instances gained them the fame of being masters of style, while in reality some of its most royal attributes have been wanting. Dr. Greenwood is not one of these. He is unequal in a way that we love to see. He is never low in his expression, but sometimes soars. He is never coarse and slovenly in his literary apparel, but now and then puts on his starry robe, as if ready to join the angels. "Sero redeat!"

We consider his seclusion from the active service of the ministry a loss to the pulpit. But we are glad that we can gather from his retirement such fruits as these of a former industry. We trust that they will not be sent forth in vain. We trust that the hope alluded to in the preface may be fully realized, "that the volume might do some service beyond the bounds of" his "parish." We trust that it will extend its influence beyond the bounds of the land, and be of good comfort to hearts that are divided by the salt sea and by many a wave of trouble. We trust that these "Sermons of Consolation" will be listened to in the audience of afflicted thoughts without number, and in thousands of lonely chambers to

which the voice and look of the preacher are wholly unknown. We trust that they will inspire in the souls of a multitude, whom none of us will ever see, the dispositions that we all require; animating them with those motives to resignation and faith, which they themselves breathe as the natural breath of their life.

N. L. F.

NOTICE OF THOMAS BARNARD WEST.

Ir has not been our practice to insert in the Miscellany obituary notices of any but clergymen, as we knew how apt such notices are to bestow indiscriminate praise, and have feared also that they might be multiplied beyond the capacity of our pages. But striking examples of the Christian character it must both gratify and benefit our readers to have brought within their knowledge. Such an example is presented in the sketch of him whose name is prefixed to this article, received by us from his friend and pastor, the minister of the North church in Salem. On the occasion of his death Dr. Brazer spoke of him in a discourse, from which an extract was afterwards given in the Salem Gazette. After alluding to services which for a long period he had rendered as Superintendent of the Sunday School of the Society with which he worshipped, Dr. Brazer proceeded as follows.

"Those of us who knew young WEST in this relation are well aware that he brought to our service a scrupulous fidelity, an entire conscientiousness of thought, word, and deed, a purity of intention, a singleness of aim, a directness of purpose, which distinguished him everywhere else. He has taught us, both teachers and pupils, effectually by his labors and his life, and is now teaching us a more solemn and emphatic lesson by his early death. Only the Sunday before the last he was with us here, and before the close of that same week he died. The subject of discussion then, as you may remember, was 'Inoperative truth,' but it had no especial application to him. He was no idle, nor intermittent, nor wandering hearer of the word. Few felt as he did the responsibleness that the simple reception of the truth involves. His manuscripts, which comprise volumes of abstracts of discourses delivered in this place, give full proof of this. But the results of his religious inquiries

were written on the more imperishable tablet of his heart, and beamed forth in the living manifestation of his daily walk. Of him, as of another pure spirit, it may be fitly said, 'the truth he loved enshrined itself within him.' He was stricken in opening manhood; amidst most faithful labors for others; amidst constant efforts for self-improvement; amidst earnest preparation for sacred duties; amidst alas! the filial and fraternal charities of family and home, which made him all but an idol there. And shall a lesson like this of the uncertainty of life, and of the strong necessity of an habitual preparation for death, be lost upon us? Shall it not teach these lessons with an impressiveness beyond all power of words?"

We now subjoin what has been sent us for the Miscellany.

ED. MISC.

He was born in the year 1815, and was therefore about twentyseven years old when he died. He was graduated at Harvard College in 1836, among the very first scholars of his class. His whole conduct and deportment at College were marked by that conscientiousness alluded to above, and which I have never seen surpassed by any one. His responsibility as a religious and an accountable being seemed to be ever present to his mind, and to guide him in the performance of the humblest duty. This is strikingly apparent from his private Diary, in which the history of every day, and almost of every conscious hour, is put down. It is still more affectingly manifested in a manuscript book of private prayers, written while he was a student at the University, which was found among his papers after his decease. Now that he has gone, as we trust, to higher duties, and to a nearer vision of the God and Saviour whom he sought on earth, I know not why we may not give a publicity to some of these, from which while here he would have recoiled. It may serve, yet further to justify our tender and affectionate respect for his memory, and excite the virtuous emulation of others, by showing the divine sources from which he derived his varied excellence.

Amongst other College distinctions, he received the highest honor at one of the Exhibitions. He thus refers to it in the following act of devotion, which I copy from his manuscript.

"MONDAY EVE. CAMBRIDGE, October 19th, 1835.

To-morrow is Exhibition, at which I am to take a leading part.

With what feelings then ought I to regard it? Ought I not to think of Him who gave me strength and ability to attain to this distinction? Ought I not to think that all I shall accomplish to-morrow will be under his superintending Providence? May it be my prayer that He would overlook my sins, and suffer me to give a little satisfaction and comfort to my anxious parents."

*

*

What a delightful fact it is in this young man's history, that on the eve of a festive occasion, and one, which, as some of us may remember, is of very engrossing interest, he should thus go into the retirement of his closet, and there chastening all vain thoughts and endeavoring to sanctify all his "feelings," humble himself before his God, refer to him all the praise of his worthily won "distinction," and ask for help of him, not from any selfish motive, but that he may "give a little satisfaction and comfort to his anxious parents." Is not this little incident in the College life of our young friend fraught with the true spirit of devoutness and filial piety?

His efforts, it appears, on this occasion were crowned with good success; and we find him immediately retiring from the congratulations of his friends, and all the exciting circumstances of the occasion, that he may go again to offer grateful praise to God, not only for success, but for a success that would bring "comfort" to his parents. This appears from the following extract.

"EXHIBITION DAY, October 20, 1835.

Thou, O God, hast permitted me to succeed in this day's attempt. I thank Thee. Give me strength, O Lord, to do thy will continually, and to thank Thee in that way which is most pleasing to Thee, in an obedience to thy precepts.

*

*

Thou hast given me opportunity to satisfy and comfort my anxious parents, who are deeply interested in my welfare. O Lord, give me power to please Thee and them, and may this day's success make me feel my obligation more, though it is now infinite."

It would be easy to multiply extracts of a similar kind from the manuscripts before us. But these may serve to show how habitually he lived in the conscious presence of his God, and how earn

estly and devoutly he referred every thing to His paternal love and

care.

After leaving College he took charge of an academy in Beverly, Essex County (Mass.) in which vocation he labored as long as he lived. Here, as elsewhere, he was punctiliously faithful to the discharge of every known duty. His views of the office of a teacher were high, and he spared no effort to realize them in his own person. He felt that the moral as well as the mental improvement of his pupils was intrusted, in no small degree, to his care; and considered, therefore, that the best learned lesson was only half learned, if its religious uses were not brought to bear upon the heart. As he was scrupulously strict in his own claims upon himself, so he expected and required a similar strictness on the part of his pupils. But in all his requirements he was so obviously guided by elevated principle, and so moved by a single regard for the improvement of those committed to his care, that he was obeyed not less from sentiments of respect and love than from a principle of duty.

Among the painful regrets occasioned by his early, and, as it must seem to us, his untimely departure from the world, is that he was taken from leisurely but constant studies which had ultimate reference to a preparation for the Gospel ministry of Reconciliation; and that the Church is thus deprived of one, whose whole being would have been given to her service in a pure and perfect choice. But while we thus mourn over the rupture of the tenderest and most sacred ties, we are sustained by a strong trust and a sure hope, that he has gone from duty to reward, from trial here, to those "mansions" of eternal rest and peace, which our Lord has gone to prepare for those who love him.

J. B.

THE NORTHAMPTON ASSOCIATION OF EDUCATION AND INDUSTRY AND COOPERATIVE LABOR.

THE Northampton "Community" is but little known. Its leaders have shrunk from any appearance before the world while their hands were not freed from the shackles of debt. Injurious