' he tells us in
another place, is 'simply that of the foremost man in all the world,'
though he 'soars far above "all principalities and powers"--above all
philosophies hitherto known--above all creeds hitherto propagated in his
name'--the true Christian doctrine, after having been hid from ages and
generations, being reserved to be disclosed, we presume, by Mr. Foxton.
His spiritualism, as usual with the whole school of our new Christian
infidels, is, of course, exquisitely refined,--but, unhappily, very
vague. He is full of talk of 'a deeep insight,'--of a 'faith not in dead
histories, but living realities--a revelation to our innermost nature.'
'The true seer,' he says, 'looking deep into causes, carries in his
heart the simple wisdom of God. The secret harmonies of Nature vibrate
on his ear, and her fair proportions reveal themselves to his eye. He
has a deep faith in the truth of God.' (P. 146.) 'The inspired man is
one whose outward life derives all its radiance from the light within
him. He walks through stony places by the light of his own soul, and
stumbles not. No human motive is present to such a mind in its highest
exultation--no love of praise--no desire of fame--no affection, no
passion mingles with the divine afflatus, which passes over without
ruffling the soul.' (P. 44.) And a great many fine phrases of the same
kind, equally innocent of all meaning.
____

* (Pp. 51--60.) We are hardly likely to yield to Mr. Foxton in our love
of Plato, for whom we have expressed, and that very recently, (April,
1848,) no stinted admiration: and what we have there affirmed we are by
no means disposed to retract,--that no ancient author has approached, in
the expression of ethical truth, so near to the maxims and sometimes the
very expressions, of the Gospel. Nevertheless, we as strongly affirm,
that he who contrasts (whatever the occasional sublimity of expression)
the faltering and often sceptical tone of Plato on religious subjects,
with the uniformity and decision of the Evangelical system,--his dark
notions in relation to God (candidly confessed) with the glorious
recognition of Him in the Gospel as 'our Father,'--his utterly absurd
application of his general principles of morals, in his most Utopian of
all Republics, with the broad, plain social ethics of Christianity,--the
tone of mournful familiarity (whatever his personal immunity) in
which he too often speaks of the saddest pollutions that ever degraded
human