But

the beginning, we know that it was not so. Then the simple but powerful preaching of the word' was sufficient. afterwards, external helps were employed in such a degree, as to suggest to the sceptical historian, Gibbon, the idea of accounting for the establishment of Christianity, exclusively by human means.

We can notice but a few more complaints of this dissatisfied writer, and those briefly. He is very much scandalized, that 'we should have our little theories on all human and divine things,' and particularly that even Poetry is no longer without a scientific exposition.' But wherefore should it be? Does the poet merely rave? Is his mind lawless in its wanderings? Or does it, according to Dr. Channing, obey higher laws than it transgresses? If s so, we can perceive no harm or absurdity in a 'scientific exposition.' Such an one has been given by the eloquent author just mentioned, in his remarks on the poetry of Milton; and a passage of more transcendent beauty is not to be found in our mother tongue.

our

Another cause of complaint with our author is, that first question with regard to any object is not, What is it? but How is it?' This is equivalent to saying, that it is the fashion of the present age not to analyze; and a suggestion wider of the fact could not easily be made. Every one knows that Chemistry, which more than any other science is the offspring and growth of this age, is one perpetual reiteration of the question, What is it? The author would find it difficult to name a substance to which Chemistry has not put this question, and received a satisfactory answer. But he would have us go still further, and waste our investigating energies upon fruitless inquiries into the essence of matter and mind. We know that there has been a strong propensity among men to press their discoveries to this verge; and that even Newton was so far beguiled by his wish to know,' as to speculate upon the nature of the cause of gravitation, after he had ascertained its laws. But we had supposed, that mankind were now generally agreed as to the inutility of thus invading the Deity's inscrutable mysteries. If the clear teachings of Lord Bacon on this subject were not sufficient, one would think that the practical reductio ad absurdum exhibited in the incompatible, yet equally plausible hypotheses of Berkeley and Hobbes, would be sufficient. One resolves every thing into matter, the other resolves every thing into mind; while the only satis

factory proposition, which both conclusively demonstrate is, that the resolution of such questions is beyond the capability of the human mind. Reason affords no clue to guide those who plunge into the labyrinths of mystic speculation.

On the whole, we have no wish to disguise the feeling of strong dissatisfaction, excited in us, by the article under consideration. We consider its tendency injurious, and its reasoning unsound. That it has some eloquent passages must be admitted, but when we hear distinguished philosophers spoken of as logic-mills,'—the religion of the age as a working for wages, our Bible societies as supported by fomenting of vanities, by puffing, intrigue, and chicane,'-and all descriptions of men from the cartwright up to the code-maker,' as mere 'mechanists;' when we further hear the grand secrets of necessity and free-will,'-'our mysterious relations to time and space,' and 'the deep, infinite harmonies of nature and man's soul,'-brought repeatedly forward under the most varied forms of statement, as the legitimate objects of philosophical inquiry, and the most illustrious of the living and the dead, men whom we never think of but as benefactors of our race, made the objects of satire and ridicule, because they have preferred the terra firma of mechanical philosophy to the unstable quagmire of mystic conjecture; we find it difficult not to regard the Essay rather as an effort of paradoxical ingenuity, the sporting of an adventurous imagination with settled opinions, than as a serious inquiry after truth.

Indeed the writer himself seems to think, towards the end, that he has gone too far; and deems it prudent, in contradiction, as it seems to us, to the assertion first quoted, as well as to the whole tenor of the article, to insert the following saving clause: It seems a well ascertained fact, that in all times, reckoning even from those of the Heraclides and Pelasgi, the happiness and greatness of mankind at large, have been continually progressive.' This is one of the few assertions in the article, in which we altogether agree with the author. We do entertain an unfaltering belief in the permanent and continued improvement of the human race, and we consider no small portion of it, whether in relation to the body or the mind, as the result of mechanical invention. It is true, that the progress has not always been regular and constant. In happy times it has been so rapid, as to fill the benevolent with inexpressible joy. But anon, clouds have gathered over the de

lightful prospect,-evil influences, but not mechanical, have operated, evil times have succeeded, and human nature has undergone a disastrous eclipse. But it has been only an eclipse, not an extinguishment of light. And frequent as these alternations have been, mankind are found to have been constant gainers. The flood has always been greater than the ebb. Each great billow of time has left men further onward than its predecessor. This could be proved, if necessary, by a thousand references. Darkness has indeed given a name to some ages, but light on the whole has immensely preponderated; and it is this conviction which nerves the heart and invigorates the arm of philanthropy. They who feel this divine impulse, know that the labors of kindred spirits in past ages have not been in vain. They see Atlantis, Utopia, and the Isles of the Blest, nearer than those who first descried them. These imaginary abodes of pure and happy beings, which have been conceived by the most ardent lovers of their kind, we delight to contemplate; for we regard them as types and shadows of a higher and better condition of human nature, towards which we are surely though slowly tending.

But let us not be misunderstood. The condition we speak of, is not one of perfection. This we neither believe in, nor hope for. Supposing it possible in the nature of things, it would be any thing but desirable. For with nothing left to achieve nor gain, existence would become empty and vapid. But if, with this explanation, our views should pass for visionary, we cannot help it. We cannot go back to the origin of mankind and trace them down to the present time, without believing it to be a part of the providence of God, that his creatures should be perpetually advancing. The first men must have been profoundly ignorant, except so far as the Supreme Being communicated with them directly. But with them commenced a series of inventions and discoveries, which have been going on, up to the present moment. Every day has beheld some addition to the general stock of information. When the exigency of the times has required a new truth to be revealed, it has been revealed. Men gifted beyond the ordinary lot, have been raised up for the purpose; witness Cadmus, Socrates, and the other sages of Greece, Cicero and the other sages of Rome, Columbus, Galileo, Bacon, Newton, and the other giant spirits of modern times. We cannot regard it as an abuse of language to call such men inspired, that is, pre

eminently endowed beyond all their contemporaries, and moved by the invisible agency of God, to enlighten the world on subjects, which had never till they spoke, occupied the minds of men. In other words, we believe that the appearance of such men, at the exact times when all things were ready for the disclosures they were to make, was not the result of accident, but the work of an overruling Providence. And if such has been the beneficent operation of Providence upon the minds of men in all past times,-if whenever a revelation was needed, He has communicated it, and in the exact measure in which it was needed, how can we, without irreverence, adopt any other conclusion, than that He, who changeth not, will still continue, through all future time, to make known through gifted men, as fast as the world is prepared to receive them, new truths from His exhaustless store?

A. H. Everett.

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ART. VI.-The Cherokee Case. 1. Opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States on an Application made by the Cherokee Indians for a Writ of Injunction against the State of Georgia, delivered by Mr. Chief Justice MARSHALL, at the January Term held at Washington, 1831.

2. Message from the President of the United States in compliance with a Resolution of the Senate, relative to the execution of the Act of March 30, 1802, to regulate Trade and Intercourse with the Indian Tribes, and to preserve Peace on the Frontiers, transmitted to the Senate on the 22d of February, 1831.

The proceedings of the Supreme Court of the United States, upon the application made by the Cherokee Indians for a writ of injunction against the State of Georgia, excited a deep and general interest throughout the country. This was naturally to be expected from the novelty of the case, the dignity of the parties, and the high importance of the principles in question. The scene wore in some degree the imposing majesty of those ancient debates in which the great father of Roman eloquence sustained before the Senate the rights of allied and dependent, but still sovereign princes, who had found themselves compelled to seek for protection and redress

from the justice of the mighty Republic. We may add, that the high and well-earned reputation of the Counsel retained by the Indians, added another point of resemblance to the parallel. In proportion to the interest felt in the subject, was the anxiety to learn the opinion of the Court, which was given by the Chief Justice, on the last day of the January term, and was shortly after published in the Cherokee Phoenix. We propose in the present article to submit to our readers a few observations upon this opinion; and shall afterwards examine very briefly the defence of the policy of the Executive Department of the Government in regard to the Indians, which is contained in the message transmitted by the President to the Senate on the 22d of February, in answer to a call for information on that subject. The opinion of the Court,-which, on account of its great importance, we copy entire,—is as follows.

'The Cherokee Nation vs. The State of Georgia. January Term, 1831.

'Opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States, delivered by Mr. Chief Justice Marshall, on a motion of the Cherokee nation for a writ of injunction and subpoena against the State of Georgia.

"This bill is brought by the Cherokee nation, praying an injunction to restrain the State of Georgia from the execution of certain laws of that State, which, as alleged, go directly to annihilate the Cherokees as a political society, and to seize, for the use of Georgia, the lands of the nation which have been assured to them by the United States in solemn treaties repeatedly made and still in force.

'If Courts were permitted to indulge their sympathies, a case better calculated to excite them can scarcely be imagined. A people once numerous, powerful, and truly independent; found by our ancestors in the quiet and uncontrolled possession of an ample domain, gradually sinking beneath our superior policy, our arts, and our arms, have yielded their lands by successive treaties, each of which contains a solemn guaranty of the residue, until they retain no more of their former extensive territory than is necessary to their comfortable subsistence. To preserve this remnant, the present application is made.

Before we can look into the merits of the case, a preliminary inquiry presents itself. Has this Court jurisdiction of the case?

The third article of the Constitution describes the extent of the judicial power. The second section closes an enumeration VOL. XXXIII.-No. 72.

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