the opening glories of Christianity-so the Jews have preserved the most ancient historic records, and given us the most ancient specimens of literature. Their learned men, from first to last, have been those whose duty it was to expound the law, and read the prophets in the synagogues on the sabbath days, and who had more or less to do with the religious affairs of the nation. Many of the productions which have flowed from the pens of ancient Jewish authors exhibit much critical research, and the mind in a very high state of cultivation. The Old Testament part of the Bible, the most ancient record of human events found in any language, was originated and preserved through the instrumentality of the Jews; and, to say nothing about its theology, is by far the most learned book in the world.

How shall we account for all this? Not surely by supposing them to have possessed a superior grade of intellect? Of this they never gave evidence; but by reference to the wonder-working power of that religion whose author is God, and whose motives and inspirations are so well adapted to develop the powers of intellect, and induce all kinds of useful improvement.

Let us now glance at the influence of religion upon letters under the perfect dispensation of Christianity. The age in which the gospel was introduced was one of superior intelligence, at least among a certain class, and in certain places, as Athens, Jerusalem, and at Rome. It seems indeed that God had chosen this period of intelligence for the development of the perfect gospel system, that it might show its power to abide the test of critical investigation, and rise superior to all other systems which had for ages received the respect and veneration of the most intelligent and refined. And it not only passed unscathed the ordeal of this scrutiny, but achieved its mighty victories in the most populous and refined cities in the world, thus vindicating its claims to the attention of the best informed, while it condescended to instruct the most ignorant. Though the first instruments employed in its propagation were mostly poor and illiterate, that the excellency of the power might be seen to be of God, and not of man, yet Christianity soon began to assert her right to employ the advantages of science in her cause, and prove herself adapted to elevate its character, and promote its extension.

It is true Gibbon speaks of the decline of letters in the first century; but this, admitting the fact, had nothing to do with Christianity, as it had as yet but a limited influence in the Roman empire. The causes which concurred to produce this result had been secretly and effectually at work, and the empire tending to this issue with a sure and certain aim, a long time before the Christian religion had obtained sufficient influence in the Roman empire to affect its literary character; and these causes were entirely independent of the existence of Christianity; and at the same time it may be fairly doubted whether they had the same amount of influence over the Christian as over the heathen population. While over the empire, as a whole, political confusion reigned, and the various forms of dissipation had displaced a taste for literary pursuits, enervated the mind, and introduced the shades of the night of ignorance, the Christian religion was throwing her heavenly shield around some portions, rolling back the tide of corruption, and furnishing new inducements for the cultivation of the mind, and the advancement of science. While

the empire, as a whole, might have been declining in letters, and this downward motion becoming more and more rapid, it is certain this was not the case to the same extent with the Christian communities. The church at this time numbered many of the most enlightened among her communicants, while the brilliant talents and literary achievements of many of her public teachers would have done honor to any cause or any age. In the first century schools were established by the Christians for the instruction of children, and seminaries for the more advanced, where especially those intended for the ministry were taught both human and divine erudition.

Clemens, Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin Martyr, Clement Alexandrinus, and Tertullian, held a conspicuous rank among the learned men of that day, and were celebrated ministers and bishops of the Christian church. They labored assiduously to promote both literature and religion; to some of whom the classical scholar is indebted for num. berless fragments of Greek authors, which would have been entirely lost but for the literary zeal and industry of these Christian ministers. If from this time science did not advance in the church with rapid step, it at least maintained its ground until that unhallowed and unnatural union was effected between the church and state, which was so calamitous both to learning and religion. But the question may be asked here, If religion is the Alma Mater of science, why did not religion prove the salvation of the empire, check the decline of letters, and turn the tide of literary prosperity? We answer, 1. Religion had formed an alliance destructive of her purity and power, a flood of corruption rolled in upon the church, the clergy became vicious, and piety almost obsolete. The medicine before so efficacious had lost its power to heal, by being mixed with drugs of a counteracting character. 2. The declining motion of the Roman empire had become too accelerated to be arrested; the causes had operated too long to be removed; the disease had become too inveterate to admit of a cure, however powerful and efficacious the remedy. Hence, while religion lost much by the union, learning appeared to reap no advantage. The pure light of evangelical truth was almost wholly obscured; and if the sun of science did not entirely set, it shone with a faint and declining lustre.

During that long and dreary period, appropriately styled the dark ages, in which the decline of pure religion had left the unreplenished lamp of science to burn low in its socket, few professed to be either the admirers or patrons of learning; yet there were a few who labored to keep the taper burning, though it might have been with a feeble and flickering ray. And who were they? They were Christians, and Christian ministers, who had not defiled their garments; who were not so deeply involved in the ignorance and profligacy of the age as to lose entirely the true spirit of religion, and be incapable of appreciating the blessings of science.

But it was especially in the retreats of the monasteries, and by the fostering care of the monks, that the light of science was kept burning during the continuance of this dreadful night. Theodolphus, Bartholomew, Etherius, and Paulinus, were among those who paid some attention to literature under the patronage and protection of Charlemagne, in spite of the universal ignorance with which they were surrounded.

And thus the little that remained of religion was instrumental in preserving the little remains of science, until the glorious dawn of the Reformation.

Then a new and glorious era commences in the religious and literary world. Luther, whose mind was enlightened with both human and divine knowledge, starts out from his retreat, being aroused to action by the prevalence of ignorance, and vice, and error. He speaks-yea, he thunders-and the world wakes from its sleep of a thousand years. Having discovered the actual condition of things, his first effort was to break off the chains of spiritual despotism, and reform the church both in faith and practice; which being effected, one of the glorious results which immediately followed was the revival of letters. This revival of letters is to be regarded as the immediate result of the Reformation. There may have been some faint desires expressed, and some feeble efforts made, for the revival of both religion and learning in the preceding century, but it was only when the fetters of spiritual tyranny were sundered, and religion led the way, that the sun of science revealed his glorious light, and dissipated the darkness of ignorance! To say that reformation in the church did not produce a reformation in the literary world is to talk nonsense; to deny the relation between cause and effect, and leave that glo. rious event unaccounted for. It is to say that the sluices being opened, and the fountains purified, the streams will not flow in their accustomed channels; or the clouds being dispersed, the sun will not unfold his orient beams.

Not a small evidence of the favorable influence of religion upon the advancement of science is found in the fact, that since the revival of pure religion the most celebrated authors in every department of literature, whose works the scholar now possesses, and which will be transmitted as a rich legacy to succeeding generations, were Christians at least in theory, and many of them men of eminent piety. To give a list of their names would consume much of the time allotted to this lecture. We need but mention Bishops Hall, Usher, Stillingfleet, and Butler, in theology; Bacon, Newton, and Johnson in philosophy and polite literature; Rollin, Mosheim, and Prideaux in history; and Milton and Young in poetry. And where do we find greater names than these? These authors will be remembered with gratitude, and their productions remain as monuments of their genius until the last syllable of earth's history shall be recorded.

We pretend not to deny that writers of considerable celebrity appeared who were not Christians, and were even the professed enemies of Christianity. This was the case with Hume, Gibbon, Voltaire, and some others; but it is impossible to say what would have been the character of their productions, or whether they would have existed at all as authors, but for the influence of Christianity. Though they professed to hate Christianity, they were nevertheless living under its influence: many of them had received a religious education; all were more or less indebted to the influence of religion for their qualifications as authors, and for the qualifications out of which they constructed the monuments of their genius. By the influence of Christianity, character, as to refinement and literature, had been given to the age, and the facilities for improvement greatly multiplied, of the benefit of which

they availed themselves; and being furnished with qualifications by the agency of religion, with singular ingratitude they turned the force of their talents against her, like the impious son who has been nourished and supported by the assiduous attention of an excellent mother, but repays her kindness with desertion and positive abuse. Religion has very much contributed to exalt the character of poetry. Here again we must refer to the Bible as furnishing the most lofty specimens of poetry. Where else do we find thought so bold, language so sublime, figures so well chosen and grand, or fire that flashes with so much vividness? Strip poetry of the inspirations of religion, and it is no longer poetry. The measure of the verse, the clatter of words, and the jingle of the rhyme may remain, but the soul and spirit no longer exist. What excellence or interest would remain to the poems of Homer or Vir. gil but for the connection they have with the religion of their country, and the doings of their gods? It is this which gives them their sublimity and fire; it is this which gives such overpowering majesty to the poems of Milton and Young, and such incomparable sweetness and irresistible eloquence to the numbers of Pollok. This fact has been acknowledged by poets who neither in theory nor practice have recognized the force of religious obligation. As if conscious of the. superior inspiration of the sacred muse, they have frequently courted her influence, and when they have touched the sacred lyre, though with unhallowed hands, they have seemed to be sustained by an inspiration nobler than their own.

In conclusion, let us inquire who now are the patrons of sciencewhat great source is it from which education receives its protection and encouragement? Do you say it is a liberal and enlightened government? We add, Christianity has rendered that government liberal and enlightened. Do you say the public mind appreciates the benefits of education, and that this circumstance secures patronage for the cause of science? We add, it is the influence of religion which has produced this favorable state of public feeling. But to answer this question more directly, we say the Christian world is education's great patron-not the infidel or heathen, but the Christian world. That there are learned infidels and heathens we pretend not to deny; but their peculiar creeds, if creeds they have, render them too selfish to institute measures for the general diffusion of intelligence. This is the appropriate work of the Christian world in general, and of the church in particular. By her influence, directly or indirectly, nearly all the literary institutions now in operation in the civilized world have been brought into being, and are now supported, guarded, and controlled. If governments have, by their liberality and protection, contributed to extend the blessings of science, or if their provisions have prepared the way for the diffusion of education among all classes of the population, Christianity has been the inducing cause; and where her influence is most felt, there these institutions are most valued and best supported; and there these provisions are received with the greatest approbation, and attended to with the most promptness and success.

As the influence of the Christian religion is most powerfully felt in America and Europe, so it is there we are to look for the most liberal and enlightened forms of government, and for the greatest amount of

science and general intelligence. He who makes the comparison between America and some parts of Europe, and Asia, and Africa, cannot fail to perceive the marked difference. To what is this difference to be attributed? Egotism would perhaps say, to a superiority of mind. But this is a conclusion which the past history of our race, and existing facts, by no means warrant. It is the Christian religion which gives us those blessings that elevate us so high above those nations who are destitute of her influence ;—it is the Christian religion which, rising upon us like the genial warmth of summer, has quickened moral and literary vegetation, and replenished Europe and America with talents, virtues, and exploits, which have made them a paradise, the delight and wonder of the world. Annihilate the Bible, extinguish the light of evangelical truth, and overturn the institutions of Christianity, and moral and intellectual night, with their thickribbed darkness, would sit brooding over the world.

For the Methodist Magazine and Quarterly Review.

AN EPITOME OF HUMAN ORGANIZATION,

Being the substance of a popular Lecture delivered in New-York, Albany, Troy, &c., before Young Men's Literary Associations, in 1839.

BY DAVID M. REESE, A. M., M D., OF NEW-YORK,

Professor of the Theory and Practice of Physic in the Albany Medical College.

HUMAN anatomy, or that science which discloses to man his own strucure, reveals the mysteries of his own intricate and complicated organization, is one in which every individual of our race has a direct and immediate interest. It is a species of the genus self-knowledge which should be acquired first in the order of time, because it is of invaluable importance to every human being, and because it may be attained earlier in life, and to a greater extent, than any other form of self-knowledge. By a natural and consecutive order, an acquaintance with our physical natures might advantageously precede the investigation of our intellectual organization, and if these were both acquired, in some tolerable degree, we should then be adequately prepared for cultivating and improving our moral and social being, with the best possible advantage to ourselves and our fellow creatures.

To inspire you with a just conception of the value of this study, and to enable you to appreciate what may follow in its commendation, I propose to present you with an epitome of human anatomy, a bare outline of which is all that the time and the occasion will allow of this extensive science. For obvious reasons I design to avoid the use of all technicalities, and proceed briefly to name the different structures which enter into the organization of every human body. And, first, of the BONES.

It is probable that all of you have seen a human skeleton, or at least its pictorial representation. In the adult human skeleton, if complete, there are two hundred and fifty-two separate and distinct bones. I say in the adult; for in infancy there are many more, several VOL. XI.-Oct., 1840.

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