GERALDINE, A TALE OF CONSCIENCE.

THIS novel is the narrative of a conversion gained to Papacy from

that party in the Church of England which practically pushes the right of private judgment to the very verge of independence, if not further. The heroine, Geraldine Carrington, is an heiress of family; she is possessed of beauty and talents, an affectionate disposition, an ardent mind, and a firmness of character, which enables her, like the martyrs of oh), to defy the suspicious wonder of the public, as welt as to subdue the feelings of love and the duties of filial obedience, when placed in opposition to the demands of conscience. In her early youth she was fed with the dry husks of routine religion ; but falling into the hands of an Esangelical governess, she was taught by her a more lively faith, and introduced to the prayer-meetings and other con- gregations of the faithful, as well within as without the pale of the Episcopal Church. With these Geraldine was at first satisfied and delighted; but as her years advanced and her mind ex- panded, her judgment, perhaps her taste, revolted from the biekerings, and bitterness, and presumptuous interpretations which arose in the serious society of Elverton and its vicinity. Shaken herself by inward doubts and the prevalence of sectarian discordance, she applied to the ministers ; but they differed from her, and from each other, and could only, as a last resource, recommend prayer for grace. " Perplexed in the extreme," and wearied with liberty, the young and fair theologian is anxious to repose upon authority ; and is casting her eye towards the quiet of an infallible church, when Hui action of the Tale of Con- science begins.

At the same time, her uncle, Dr. Sinclair, a dignitary of the Church and a Warden of a College, is on a visit at Carrington Hall ; and the cholera providentially raging at Elverton, a cordon sani-

taire is drawn round the mansion, which gives its inmates ample leisure. Of this Geraldine takes advantage to open her mind to her uncle ; who readily enough engages to prove that the Anglo- Episcopal is the true, pure, and Apostolical Church. He, how- ever, sinks sulkily befote the Confession and Absolution in the Visitation of the Sick, and other remains of the Romish Mass- book in our ritual ; and in endeavouring to deduce the uninter- rupted succession of the Visible Church of Christ through the Fathers and the Church of Rome whilst yet uncorrupted, he is overwhelmed by the "weight of historical evidence" that GIBBON could not "resist,"* and affords another instance of the "plain truth" of MILTON'S assertion- s, That when any of our men, of those that are wedded to antiquity, come to dispute with a Papist, and, leaving the Scriptures, put themselves without ap-

* The following extract from the historian's account of his own conversion to Catholicism, embraces in a few pregnant sentences an outline of the whole

of the traditional and historical arguments in favour of the Romish Church. Whilst abandoned to his own course of study by the "monks of Oxford," Gm- peal to the sentence of Synods and Councils, using in the cause of Sion the hired soldiery of revolted Israel, where they give the Romanists one buff, they re- ceive two counterbuffs."

But Dr. Sinclair is far from being the only controversial character of the tale. There is Katherine Graham, a Scottish girl, a friend of Geraldine, who forms a very natural and life- like representation of the national firmness and the indomitable spirit of the old Presbyterian Church ; but Geraldine's own ex. periences render her deaf to the Graham's defence of freedom. There is also Mr. Everard, an unsuccessful lover of the heroine's mother ; and a learned, amiable, but rather weak old gentleman, whose professed creed is the Established Church, whose leanings are all to the Romanists, and who indulges the Utopian dream of some day uniting the Romish and Anglican Churches, as well as of meshing the better portion of the Dissenters in a miraculous draught of fishes. During the debates with the Warden, Mr. Everard acts the part of a moderator all on one side; and when Dr. Sinclair has ordered his carriage and departed in dudgeon, he sug- gests the studies, solves the inquiries, and after a time supplies Geraldine with the Romanists' defences of their creed ; and "the ten-horned monster is transformed at their magic touch into the milk-white hind who must be loved as soon as she is seen." At this stage of the story, when its heroine is a de facto convert, the scene is shifted, and a more novel interest is introduced. Geraldine, with Miss Graham pays a visit to the liberal Lord Hungerford ; whose son, the Protestant Lord Ilervey, is an ardent and a half- favoured lover, and whose guests are of various sects, from the reserved and polished old Catholic lady, clinging to her church all the more fondly for its eclipse, and looking back upon the confiscation of the family estates with the patience and pride of a martyr, to the vulgar, bustling, self-satisfied fanatics, who perambulate the country "to lecture as they go," and who are shining lights at Exeter Hall, and are looked upon as little short of apostles in their respective cliques. This visit carries the controversy to the practices and secondary tenets of the Catho- lics, through old Lady Winefride, Everardo juvante, and to the secular history of Protestant persecutions and Catholic endurance, by means of private discussions and a public meet- ing, where the Evangelicals are encountered and overthrown by a priest, and a poor, noble-born, chivalrous young Catholic, Sir Eustace De Grey. At this palaver, Geraldine, to the watchful eye of Lord Hervey, discovers unequivocal signs of her love for Romanism, and what is almost as bad, great admiration for its advocate, Sir Eustace. In a subdued but powerful scene, Lord Hervey vainly attempts to reconvert his ladye love—as vainly to stipulate for the secret profession of her Romish belief; and the lovers part. A visit to Lady Winefride, a view of the Catholic worship in her private chapel, and a series of disquisitions with the family confessor, will enable any one to guess the spiritual con- clusion, but the worldly termination is huddled up unfinishedly.

A controversial novel may be considered in two points of view,— first, with regard to the fairness and truth of its arguments ; second, as to the manner in which they are presented to the reader. And upon this last point Geraldine is entitled to high praise. The pro- gress of the controversy follows a natural order, from the leading fundamental principles of the Romish Church, down to its points of discipline and practice. Life and interest are imparted to the controversy itself, by its being placed in the mouths of persons whose mode of argument and the points which they handle are consistent with their characters and worldly position. The drier matter and minuter statements are so managed as to stand almost isolated, and admit of skipping; variety and relief are imparted to the more general controversies, by the incidents which call them forth ; and whilst the higher object is steadily kept in view, an in- terest is excited in the fictitious narrative ; besides which, all the characters have considerable individuality and a portrait-like truth about them. We should say that Geraldine is not only, in its con- troversial parts, the result of an experience, but that many of its persons are drawn from actual life ; and we also opine, from the lightness and delicacy of pencilling, that the storied part is the work of a lady, though in the controversies she may have been aided by some clever confessor.

Eschewing the controversial and the graver passages, which do not well bear extraction, we will cull two or three pictures of a lighter kind, as specimens of the writer's powers.

SERIOUS PARTIES.

The existing plan amongst the pious families in Elverton and its neighbour' HON had been induced to read 'MIDDLETON'S Free Inquiry ; upon which he observes— 'rite elegance of style and freedom of argument were repelled by a shield of preju- dice. I still revered the character, or rather the names, of the saints and f ithers whom Dr. Middleton exposes., nor could he destroy my implicit belief, that the gift of mks. cabins powers was continued in the Church during the first four or live centuries of Christianity, But I was unable to resist the weight of historical evidence, that within the Same period most of the leading doctrines or Popery were already introduced in theory and practice; nor vas my conclusion absurd -that miracles are the test of truth, and that the church must be orthodox and pure Mitch was so often approved by the visible interposition of the Deity. The marvellous tales which are so boldly at. tested by the Ilasils and Chrysostoms, the Augustins and Jeromes, compelled me to embrace the superior merits of celibacy, the institution of the monastic life, the use of the sign of the cress, of holy oil, and even of images, the invocation of saints, the wor- ship of relics, the rudiments of purgatory in ptayers for the dead, and the tremendous mystery of the sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ, which insensibly swelled into the prodigy of transubstantiation. In these dispositions, and already more than half a convert, I formed an unlucky intimecy with it young gentleman of our collego. Walt a character less resolute, Mr_ Molesworth hail imbibed the same religious opinions; and some Popish books, I know not through what channel, were conveyed into his possession. I read, I applauded, I believed ; the English translation of two famous works of Ilossnet Bishop of Meaux, the Exposition of the Catholic Doctrine and, the History tf the Protestant Variations, achieved my conversion; !and I. surely fell uy.. noble hand. I have since examined the originals with a more discerning eye, and shall not hesitate to pronounce, that Bountet is indeed • mister of all the weapons of cote troVerty:' hoed, WAS to meet every Wednesday at the house of each in thin, and to invite clergyman of the place to attend arn lteately, io order to read and expound a a—h-sprer of the Bible, at the close of the evening, followed by an extempore prayer, and generally a hymn.

e And what preceded this said Mr. Eventual." rt oh, every thing in proper keeping ; sober conversation, and plenty of tea and tea.eakes." a What do you mean by sober conversation ? All those deep subjects which run so lightly off your tongue, and were settled in a trice by yourself and Miss Cooper, while they are approached with the profoundest awe by learned theologians—namely, those of ' Regeneration," Election, and so ou ? '

0 Exactly so," replined Geraldine ; blushing at the remembrance of her former flippancy and presumption. " 'file most awful points of doctrine were discussed by the youngest of my sex at these parties ; nor did this strike toe at the time as unseemly, except once, when, having at rived late one evening, an old lady politely made room for me by her, and, o ishiug to make my introduction ea ,y to the many who were strangers around me, said graciously and smilingly, while she headed me some tea, We were just speakitig, Miss Carrington, of the eternity of punishment in hell ; what is your view of the subject ? ' "

"Impossible! " cried Mr. Everard. "Not at all impossible," said Geraldine, "for this actually occurred ; and the eternity or non-eternity of the Divine wrath was a sixth point of disagreement in the Elverton world, which I forgot to mention."

44 Well " eighed Mr. Everard, " tell me about this last party, and then let us have done with these people for ever." 0 This last party," continued Geraldine, " was at the house of a lady, who during the slimmer months delighted in showing hospitality to those London preachers who hail benefited her soul during the winter and spring. And on this occasion she had secured, ta her great transport, the three most celebrated lions ' of the day. Benevolent and expansive in all her feelings, she debited that her country neighbours should partake in the religious excitemeot which gave herself such occupation ; and my friend Miss Graham WJS invited with nie to spend a long evening at the 'Grove. Poor Katherine had anticipated much pleasure from this long evening ;' but, unfortunately, we were separated soon after our entrance, and she was seated near some ladies who would not speak to her, because, as they afterwards confessed, they had mistaken her for 'another Miss Graham,' who was supposed to hold very alarming views on the doctrine of miraculous gifts.' I was conducted by Lady S.— to a place near the three celebrated preachers and divines who were endeavouring to feel happy and at their ease ; but my next neighbour informed me, in a whisper, that neither of them bad wished to meet the others. Two of them had been bosom friends, but had become estranged on the subject of the Apocryphal Books being disseminated by the Bible Society ; while the third reverend brother dreaded himself, and was dreaded by the others, on the awful subject of the humanity of Christ.' The conversation, therefore, between these talented and really pious men, was guarded and constrained. No spirit, no frankness, no eloquence. Fertunately, however, for theineelves and the listening assembly, the daring attempt of a Catholic priest to hire a room in Elverton for the pur- pose of a temporary chapel, was mentioned by one of the company. Instantly all brows were cleared ; the reverend trio looked coutidingly at each other; • the delusions, the dangers, the alarming increase of Popery, were so muny safety. valves for their own uncomfortable feelings, and the conversation became as animated as it wag friendly. I tistened to anecdote alter anecdote respecting public controversies, wheiem the Popish priest was always foiled in his sophistry by the spear of Protestant truth. Then followed some accounts of conversions to the 'truth' of even the priests themselves; and all wound up by nitro ies from Ireland of Popish delusion and of Popish cruelty, so well vouched for, and of such recent occurrence, that the amusement and excitement of the evening became quite inspiring."

BIBLE•READERS.

" Kate, Kate, tell me not that every Bible-reader knows the truth : I am weary of this repeated but unsatisfactory answer ; I have proved its hollowness. You know well the increased interest I took in religion three years ago; the confidence I placed in the body of professing Christians, both in this neigh- bourhood and in London, and the conspicuous part which, from my zeal and may position here' I was induced to take in the various religious associations set on foot. What have become uf those Bible.readers—those I most trusted ? One las ceased to pray, and now can only praise, being certain of salvation ; an- other has joined the Baptists, being dissatisfied with ' Infant Baptism ; ' and nay former excellent governess, and still dear friend, has become infatuated by the doetrinesof the ' Miraculous Gifts ; ' and has even been worked upon, by the phrensy of excitement, to utter those sounds which her party denominate the Unknown Tongue.' She has ceased to communicate with any of her former acquaintances, as being without the pale of the true Church, which has re- ceived baptism by the Holy Ghost ; but she still yearns after me with the feel- ings of a sister. I have received several letters from her ; and what, think you, is her constant entreaty ? That I will read the Bible, and nothing but the Bible; pointing out to me the chapter hitherto so neglected during centuries, and reserved for these latter days, to be brought to light by the perfected church. You know the chapter, Katherine; it is the fourteenth of Corinthians ; in which there is certainly most distinct mention mottle by the Apostle of those very gifts of the Spirit which, like the power of healing, the ltvingites contend

would never have n lost but through went of faith."

Till PROSPECTS OF Tilt PROTESTANT CHURCH.

"I overheard this Reverend Mr. P.—, in conversatiun one evening at a serious party at Lady Lucy Foster's, make some comments, which I uev r for- got. 4 The present state of the Protestant world,' said he, is one of curious contemplation to the philosopher, and one of deep anxiety and pain to the Chris. tian. Infidelity stalks over the land, and will persecute where it dare. The Romish apostacy was superstition and idolatry ; the Protestant apostaey is in- fidelity and anarchy. Each contains in its vital constitution the seeds of these corruptions and abuses. The Rooth!' persecutions have been dreadful, but the Infidel persecutions will be far worse ; inasmuch as an idolaterr feels himself responsible to his false god, and the Infidel is responsible to nothing. A God obscured is better than a God denied The Roman Catholic Church is right respecting the power of miraculous gifts in the Church of Christ. There is a constant misapprehension respecting the power and the exhibition of miracles. If miracles were needless, except in the revelation of a new dispen- sation, why did they continue in the Jewish Church after it was firmly esta- blished ? Can it be supposed that God would bestow his gifts less on the Christian than on the Jewish Church? Miracles are granted to a faithful church.' Much struck by these remarks, I requested to be introduced to this clergyman, to whom every one seemed to listen with as much attention as my- self; and from that evening Mr. P— became a frequent visiter in Berkeley Square. I had hitherto frequented the chapel in — Street, where I had always been interested and instructed, and where Mr. l'— had himself occa- sionally officiated ; but my new adviser now warned me against the dangerous doctrines that were gradually creeping in at M— Chapel, without being able, however, to fixfor me whither to go instead. For,' added he, 'the Evangeli- cal body is at present so infected with various heresies, that I know not where you would be safe." As a resident in Berkeley Square,' said I, my parish.. Church hi St. George's ; but all my religious friends assured me that, from the Rush Church party, I should hear nothing that could improve me." Very true,' replied Mr. p—; you would never hear the true gospel from any of the preachers at the great West-end churches. However, do not let this state

of things lead you into Dissent ; for, much as I may warn you against the

parties in the Church, I doubly warn you against the Dissentets. I have passed much of my life amongst them ; and you mass trust my experience, that their pride and arrogance are perfectly Autiehristian. No,' added he, ' the more intercourse I have held with the Dissenters, the less I have liked them : keep clear of them.'" " Ha!" cried the Warden, suddenly roused from a reverie; " a sensible man that : who was he? "

" The same man, my dear Sir, who assured me that I could never hear the true gospel from the preachers of the High Church."

Reverting to the other point of consideration, we may say that the controversy itself, as managed in Geraldine, requires a more thorough examination than we have either the means or the powers to bestow upon it. We will, however, briefly try to in- dicate some of its leading disingenuities and fallacies; leaving its doctrinal points and its lesser matters to appointed champions. And first, of its disingenuities. In all f cions where controversy is introduced, there is this temptation to the sophist—that the truth of a general rule may be insinuated from an individual instance, and an impression be conveyed by means of a well-wrought incident, which would not be ventured on in a formal proposition, where its fallacy would be instantly detected. Something of this dishonesty is visible in Geraldine. During the cholera visitation, a character is taken ill ; a pious clergyman is sent for, and is about to go; but his wife, terrified by the dread of costagion, remonstrates ; that fail- ing, she locks 1:Cin in the scrim and faints after he looks to the window. Another, who smuggles himself off unknown to his family, receives a confession, which he betrays to his lady, who blabs it to her gossips ; so that the reputation of the living be- comes the prey of an uncleared-up scandal. And this attempt to settle, by blinking, the question of the celibacy of the clergy, is not only sophistical, but foolish; for it exposes the Romanists to a tremendous retaliation. How would they feel if a Protestant were to lay his scene its Italy, or some other Roman Catholic country, and make the intrigues of the bachelor priesthood, not an incident in, but the subject of a tale ?

Turning to the fallacies, the whole story rests upon a gross one. The disquiet of Geraldine, as we have said, arises from the vaga- ries springing out of the exercise of the right of private judgment. Katherine Graham very sensibly argues, that the absurdities of individuals are merely the faolish abus.e of liberty by fools. But Geraldine persists in tracing the effects to the system. Yet if the sacred right of mental freedom, supported by the instinct of nature, the light of reason, the authority of Scripture, and the example of men at least as great as any that the Roinanists can produce, is to be lost through the fanaticism of the Elverton Evangelicals, bow would Papacy fare if tried by the conduct of its priests and profeisars in farmer times ? Language would fail in the attempt to characterize its intolerant and bloody persecutions from the death of the heretic PRISCILLIAN, (A. D. 385,) down to some very late outbreaks of the old leaven in the South of France —its corruptions, by the idle and heathenish ceremonies With which in the middle ages it disfigured to concealment even its own doc- trines, till the Theism of MAHOMET showed white against Popery —its arbitrary intermeddling with the secular authority, setting ruler against people or people against ruler, as best suited its temporal interests—the shackles it systematically endeavoured to impose upon philosophy and free investigation—and lastly, the private or professional crimes of its popes, its bishops, and its priests ! If liberal Protestants, considering that the character is modified by the times, discountenance the attempt to charge upon the system of Catholicism the former deeds of the Catholics,. though fortified by the long experience of nearly fifteen hundred years, it is not to be expected that we should succumb to the Infal- libility, for no better reason than because an enthusiastic young lady was disgusted with the doings of the Elverton folks.

The attempt to establish the divine authority of the Roman Ca- tholic Church is equally fallacious. No proof is offered, or indeed attempted, from reason or from Scripture. The High Church Warden is got to admit, that there must be a visible church de- scended from the Apostles ; and on his admission they "betake themselves with all speed to their old starting-hole of tradition, and that wild overgrown covert of antiquity ;" though the argu- ment is not with truth, but the weak point of the Church of England,—thus adding another instance to the old charge of casuistry; for the first position (against freedom) is a shirk, and this second position is an assumption.

No opportunity is lost (as will have been seen by our extracts) to attack the "Protestant variations." But if the much-vaunted unity of' the Roman Catholic Church were subjected to the close examination of a philosophical inquiry, it might turn out that the apparent unity was maintained by a real laxity. Can much greater differences be pointed out between the doctrines and prac- tices of the Reformed congregations, than exist, or have existed, be- tween the holyday dogmas asd the actual practices of the Roman- ists, with their pious frauds, their never-failing miracles, their local deviations in compliance with human ignorance and infirmity, the power conceded to their priests, of adaptation to national circum- stances or provincial character, and many other abuses (if you please)—but never directly repudiated, never corrected by the Church, yet "denied faintly" by Catholic casuits when arguing with Protestants ? It is indeed true that the essence of Catholicism is not controverted by the mass of its votaries—but for this ready reason, that, through their ignorance, they never reach it. The

Protestant, especially the non-prelatieal Protestant, is sharpened by the "competition of freedom?' His worship being stripped of all superstitious observances, of all external forms, and all sensual appeals, he is of necessity driven to examine th.e nature and evidences of his faith, and his belief becomes a sort of reason ; so that Protestant variations take u metaphysical or mystic tern. On the other hand, the Catholic flocks being forbidden to discuss the dogmas of their creed, are driven, by man's natural love of variety, into all the vagaries of superstition, for which the worship of saints and the claim to miraculous powers affords innumerable channels.

We could readily extend these observations to many pages ; and we did intend to offer some remarks upon the rationale of fasting, the monstrous excuse for persecution to death, (Vol. I. pages 221, 222,) and the false or at least doubtful reading put upon the First Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter xi. verse 27, as well as the general construction of the context; but we have already written enough, perhaps too much, for the generality of news- paper readers. It is hardly necessary to say that we entertain no illiberal no- tions on the subject of religion, or that we would censure no class of people for their doctrines (though unfavourable to the Romish Church as to a spiritual tyranny.) He will have turned over the pages of history to little purpose, who has not perceived that the Christian faith, though unchangeable in its essence, is clothed and modified by temporary circumstances. A church would be altegether useless which did not adapt insult to the mental character of its congiegation ; and the austere and simple faith that may suit the shrewd and cultivated minds of Britain, would have been tasteless and spiritless to

the Pagan vulgar of the primitive or to the Gothic barbarians of the darker ages; just as the broadly Catholic doctrines, which are suited to the fashionable chapel of Warwick Street, would be ill-adapted to the meridian of Mexico. Nor is this Protean cha- racter to be considered as derogatory, but the reverse. Religions of human invention, which spring out of a peculiar state of seciety, perish with the social system that produced them. Christianity, OH the other hand, possesses a vital principle, which enables it to

survive the changes of manners, ot' institutions, and of nations, and to adapt itself to every feeling of education or of habit. But it' we consider that the majority of both ministers unit worshippers are what their age makes them, naLdi less are see inclined to credit individuals with the virtues, or to charge upon them the crimes, which seem to flow from the theory of their religion. Whoever has used his observing and reflecting powers, must have noticed that these speculations have little diruct influence upoa life in the mass. The morality of men is formed by their dispositions, their dotnestic training, and their national and peculiar circumstances; and no one with common meleistauding will ever join with a certain .set of fanatics, and infer conduct from creed.