than this entire reprint. The "Thoughts" are as good,
for whatever is bad or trying in our times, as they were hundreds of
years ago; so that one might almost suspect the title of the book for an
invention, and consider many a passage in it to be new matter,
only--after the fashion of some who, in essay or story, try to
reproduce the ancients--skilfully put in the manner of the old
preacher. To all who would have religious comfort in the distractions of
present events we especially recommend this incomparable divine's truly
devout and thoughtful pages. None of our authors have succeeded so well
in providing for our own wants. The sea of our political agitations
might become smooth under the well-beaten oil which he pours out. The
divisions made by the sword to-day would heal with the use of his
prescriptions. Human nature never grows old; and America, in her Civil
War, is the former England over again now.

Sticklers for a style of conventional dignity and smooth decorum may
think to despatch Fuller's claims by denominating him a quaint writer.
This would be what is vulgarly called a snap-judgment indeed. His
quaintness never runs into superficial conceit, but embodies always a
deep and comprehensive wisdom. He insinuates truth with a friendly
indirectness, and banters us out of our folly with a foreign instance.
Plutarch or Montaigne is not more happy in historical parallels, for
personal reflection and sober application to actual duty. Never was
fancy more alert in the service of piety. His imagination is as luminous
as Sir Thomas Browne's, and, if less peculiar and original in its
combinations, rises into identity with more child-like and lofty
worship. Ever ready to fall on his knees, there is in his adoration no
touch of cant, or of that _other-worldliness_ which Coleridge complains
of as interfering with the pressing affairs and obligations of the
present. No pen ever drew a firmer boundary between sentiment and
sentimentality. But never was shrewd knowledge of this world so humane,
keen observation so kind, wit so tender, and humor so sanctified, united
with resolution by all means to teach and save mankind so invariably
strong.

While so much of our religious literature is a weak appeal to shallow
feeling and a gross affront to reason, it is refreshing to meet with an
author who helps us to obey the great precept of the Master, and put
_mind_ and _strength_, as well as heart and soul, into our love of God.
In