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wonderful victory. (9.) "He attributes the progress of the Christian religion to the zeal of the Jews, to the doctrine of the immortality of the soul as stated by philosophers, to the miraculous powers claimed by the primitive church, to the virtues of the first Christians, and to the activity of the Christians in the government of the church." It will be observed by comparison with Mr Gibbon's language on a previous page, that the writer states but two of these causes, with any degree of correctness. In reference to the second, for example, the doctrine of immortality, Mr Gibbon argues as philosophy could only feebly point out the desire, the hope, or at the most the probability, of a future state, that "a divine revelation" was necessary.

The volume from which the above citations are made was published in New York in 1865, has passed through several editions, and been republished in London. If its statements of the history of opinion in other cases is no more accurate, of what value can it be?

Take another example of like kind. Thomas B. Shaw, B.A., Professor of English Literature in the Imperial Alexander Lyceum of St Petersburg, in his excellent work, "Outlines of English Literature," proves, in his notice of Gibbon, in more than one instance, that he had formed his judgment, rather from the opinions of others, than from an original examination of his writings. Thus he represents Gibbon as returning to England, shortly before the close of his life, induced by the death of Lord Sheffield, to console and counsel the widow. Of course he could never have read Gibbon's Memoirs of himself, nor his posthumous Miscellaneous Writings, published under the editorial supervision of this same Lord Sheffield. In the several American editions of Professor Shaw's work, which have been examined, this error is repeated. And it will probably be found that in the majority of cases, the unfavourable judgment respecting Gibbon has been taken at second hand, or even at third and fourth; and in this manner has been perpetuated, in literary history.

It may be asked, If Gibbon was not an infidel, why he did not, in so many words, deny the charge, and in full vindication of himself, employ his fine powers in defence of Christianity? So far as denying the charge is concerned, it might be said that he did this in his letters to Dr Watson, the only one of his assailants for whom he seems to have had any respect; but especially in the notice took of the bishop's Apology in his Vindication, where he distinctly says that the only question between them related, not to the first cause, nor to the existence of secondary causes, but merely

to the degree of influence to be attributed to those secondary causes in the propagation of Christianity.

After he had recovered from the first startling effect of the objections made to his history, he confesses to a feeling of indignation"; but he resolved, as he informs us, where his principles were concerned, to leave them to speak for themselves. To defend himself against the charge of infidelity, in the form made, would have been to acknowledge himself guilty of a most disreputable literary blunder, in having composed a work which required to be vindicated against such a charge. We have had an example, recently, of the indignant scorn with which a distinguished American writer of history repelled the charge, that he "despised American democracy," as "so pitiful a fabrication, that he blushed (I blush) while he denounced (I denounce) it." He refers to his writings for proof of his being a "fervent believer in American democracy," and says, "I scorn to dwell longer on the contemptible charge." So Mr Gibbon appears to have preferred that his contemporaries and posterity should judge him in respeet to the matter whereof he was called in question by what he had put on record, rather than by any reply he could make to the false accusations or misrepresentations, and special pleadings of his antagonists.

22. Conclusion-Morals of Gibbon.-The severest critics and reviewers of Mr Gibbon have never attempted to cast any reproach on his character as an amiable and upright man, nor to question the stainless purity of his morals. They admit that he was "affectionate and even piously attentive to relatives who could contribute little to his entertainment, and nothing to his emolument; that he was constant in unequal friendship, and greatful to fallen greatness; that he delighted in the conversation of chaste and accomplished women, and his correspondence with friends of his own sex was never tinctured with pruriency of imagination." It is not contended that he was a devout Christian; he may have been what some would denominate "a man of the world." He was devoted to literature and philosophy, and was ambitious of fame. But that he rejected Christianity remains to be proved. He sometimes gave utterance to expressions, which, taken by themselves, or viewed apart from other expressions, might be interpreted to wear a hostile aspect towards revealed religion. For example, when he speaks of Mr Joseph Milner, one of

*The Motley-Seward Correspondence, Nov. 21. 1866 and Dec. 11. 1867. † See "Quarterly Review," Vol. XVII., p. 387.

Unpublished Letters of Melancthon.

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his critics, as pronouncing "an anathema against all rational religion," and denouncing "natural Christians," we might be ready to say Mr Gibbon was a rationalist, which is but another name for infidel. But as we read on we discover his meaning: "The natural Christians, such as Mr Locke, who believe and interpret the Scriptures, are, in his [Mr Milner's] judgment, no better than profane infidels." The writings of Mr Locke had had great influence in his education, and he seems here clearly to wish to be classed with those Christians who, according to the religious and philosophical writings of Mr Locke, "believe and interpret the Scriptures."

Can a man who after fifty years of age writes memoirs of himself, in which he puts on record that from an early period of his life, he had acquiesced in the tenets of the Christian faith, and in whose voluminous writings cannot be found any counter-statement, nor anything clearly irreconcilable with this avowed belief, be regarded as an infidel, on the ground merely of an interpretation, which involves the supposition of an utter disregard by him of the laws of good writing?

Shall we needlessly, or by a process of laborious argument, find an enemy in one who holds so eminent a place in the world of letters?

EVE

ART. IX.-Unpublished Letters of Melancthon.

VERYTHING that dropped from the pen of the illustrious Melancthon, must be interesting to all the admirers of that most amiable, and at the same time accomplished and magnanimous reformer. Many of his letters have been preserved, and may be found in the Corpus Reformatorum. Recently, however, a collection of them, amounting to thirtyseven, was discovered by Dr Augustus Scheler, of Brussels, Librarian to the King of the Belgians, and published him, with explanatory notes, in a German periodical entitled Serapeum. We propose, in the present article, to give a selection from these letters, now translated for the first time into English from the Latin and German originals. Dr Scheler, in transmitting to us the numbers of the Serapeum which contains them, has kindly furnished us with a Preamble, giving

an account of his discovery of the collection, and authenticating the letters as those of the reformer. This Preamble we now prefix; and we do not consider it necessary to say more at present, in addition to what Dr Scheler has done, by way of comment on the letters themselves. We simply introduce them to the notice of our readers. Those omitted are, for the most part, brief and formal notes. None of the letters are of much intrinsic importance; but some of them are curiously illustrative of the pacific temper and loving heart of the reformer; while others (we might refer particularly to No. 13) throw light on his firmness and fidelity to principle.

Preamble by Dr Scheler.

Two years ago, I happened to be in the Royal Library of Brussels, when my friend, M. Ruelens, one of the wardens, shewed me, lying on the floor of a litter room, a precious acquisition which the Government had just authorised him to make for the Library. It consisted of a number of manuscripts which had belonged to the deceased Canon De Rom, Rector of the Roman Catholic University of Louvain, and Member of the Royal Academy of Belgium.

In hastily rummaging among these papers, I remarked a number of bundles filled with letters of Melancthon's, which my friend informed me were copies made at the end of last century by a theological professor of Louvain, Van de Velde (born in 1743, died in 1823), a man well known for his learning and his ultramontane zeal, and not less for his passion for books, and the precious library he acquired for himself. Observing the interest with which I regarded the fact of a collection of letters by Melancthon and other notable personages of the Reformation times having been made by a Roman Catholic doctor of the University of Louvain, M. Ruelens, offered me leave to take the whole of this part of De Rom's manuscripts with me, in order to examine it more minutely, and also to classify it.

It did not require me much time to perceive that I had before me the result of a literary exploration extending over many years, which had been undertaken in view of collecting all that could be found remaining in the German libraries in the way of unpublished letters by the great reformer. Professor Van de Velde had employed, with extraordinary zeal and patience, in this labour, the leisure time which had been forced upon him by his contests with the French civil authorities during the latter years of last century, and the early part of the present, on the subject of the privileges of the University

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of Louvain. As his papers were in perfect order, well labelled, well numbered, and furnished with indications as to the date and the place where they were written, it was not difficult to follow, as it were, step by step, the learned traveller in his scientific journey, and to point out the libraries which he had successively visited, and the manuscripts which he had inspected in them.

The result of this examination has been communicated to the Bibliographical Journal of Leipzig, entitled the Serapeum, where it appeared at the beginning of last year. But my task went beyond a simple enumeration or analysis of the copies made by the Rev. Canon Van de Velde; I was anxious to find out whether, after the immense labour which the editors of the Corpus Reformatorum, have imposed upon themselves, since his time, after the abundant harvest they have gathered in matter pertaining to Melancthon, there might not yet remain, in the field cultivated by Van de Velde, some interesting gleanings to be made.

At the moment in which I undertook the work of collating the papers of the Belgian Professor, with the ten volumes of Bretschneider, I saw, by the prolegomena of the Corpus (tome I., p. 87), that the great Saxon theologian was aware of the effort that had been made by Van de Velde to collect the unpublished letters of Melancthon, but his attempt to discover and make use of the materials thus gathered had proved fruitless. Finding himself thus under the necessity of doing without them, Bretschneider consoled himself in the supposition, that it was not very probable, "Se multa nova in hac sylloge habiturum fuisse." This circumstance stimulated my ardour, and, after some trouble, I had the satisfaction of being able to offer to the public thirty-seven letters which had escaped the editor of the Corpus and his fellow-labourers.

Whatever interest they may have, either for history in general, or for the biography of the great man who wrote them, or for theology, or general edification, I am persuaded that these papers, containing the remnant of a literary activity which is still held in veneration by serious-minded men of all parties, will be made welcome by the learned public. As they are still but little known, in spite of their publication in a German journal devoted to such specialities, I willingly avail myself of the kind offer made me by the editor of this Review, and I here present them anew, grouped according to their chronological order.

BRUXELLES, 15th August 1868

Dr AUG. SCHELER.