From the Philadelphian.

THE WAVERLY NOVELS.

"Out of the heart are the issues of life;" and the Christian who by experience has known its desperate wickedness, will guard himself against the corruptions of all evil communications. Of Novels in general (with some few exceptions) it may be said that their influence is mischievous, and the hours devoted to them have often been remembered in after years with tears. False views of men have often been taken for true, and thus, hopes have been excited which the real ities of maturer years have disappointed. The visions of youth are, of themselves, without such aids, too fanciful and extravagant ever to be realized. The Novels, however, of which we now speak, are

said to be of a tendency directly and decidedly irreligious, and if they authorize the remarks of a writer in the last number of the Magazine of the Reformed Dutch Church, from which we make the subjoined extract, the reading of them is neither "redeeming the time," nor "keeping the heart with all diligence."

"The irreligious tendency of those works excites the holy indignation of every sensible Christian. The heroine of one is a Jewess; and her piety on the basis of that system is quite divine. Another is a Romanist; and successfully persuades others that we should think and believe and worship as our fathers did, and that to renounce the cross which the Reformers renounced, is as mean, cowardly, and unprincipled, as it would be for a soldier to leave his post. Another heroine is a prelatic of the highest order; and calls the putting down of whiggism and butchery of the Christian patriots, steadfastness and loyalty to the crown. The devo tions of the noble minded Puritan, the true lover of his country; the prayers of the godly minister, the

sorrows of the martyr, are held up, in cold-blooded impiety, to the Scorn and disgust of men of taste! Practical religion, piety and zeal for the honour of Jesus Christ, are made the subject of most profane banter and ridicule. The revolting immorality and blasphemy of such canting bigots for the divine right of kings as Charles, and Clavers, and Danziel, are made gallant and high minded men. The disgusting rant of the Cavaliers and their drunken scenes are painted out with half approving terms; and their blasphemies, "hardly fit to be uttered in the court of hell," are carefully registered before the eyes of our youth. The pastor who would not sell his religion and his country for ease, or for gold, is a canting fanatic.

The dying scenes of the martyr, and his last throbs of agony for his religion and his country's liberty, are the workings of enthu siasm or insanity. While he praises, blesses, and talks mawkish sentimentalism over the soldiers of the murderous Clavers, falling gallantly on the field of glory. When a whig, in self-defence, slays the murderer of his children, or the defiler of his wife or daughter, it is murder. When a Clavers kills the whig, it is the act of a gallant officer of his most sacred majesty !— Such are the opinions and sentiments of the tories of Britain, from the days of Charles II. to this day; and in the Waverly Novels these feelings and sentiments are faithfully copied, and too carefully conveyed to us and to our children. And, all this, forsooth, is to be endured; and not only so, but drunken in by our youth, because the head that planned these works, and the heart that sent forth the witchery of them, has a hand that holds a pen that has no superior, and few, if any equals."

From the New-York Observer.

EXTENT OF UNITARIANISM IN THE UNITED STATES.

A writer in the Christian Examiner, a Unitarian Magazine published in Boston, gives the following statements of the extent to which Unitarianism has diffused itself in the different parts of the United States. His object appears to be to show that Unitarians, at present, have need of all their resources at home, and that it would be impolitic to engage in the work of converting the heathen.

Leaving Massachusetts, for the present, out of the question, let us take a glance at the condition of Unitarianism in other parts of our

country.

very

Beginning at Maine, we find one flourishing congregation in Portland. Two or three others are scattered through the State, small and unimportant, In NewHampshire the case is similar; one large society in Portsmouth, and here and there a small one, as in Keene and Amherst. In Vermont I am acquainted with but one avowedly anti-trinitarian society, and that is in Burlington. In Rhode-Island there is one. In Connecticut there is one, and quite a small one. In New-York, the gigantic State of New-York, there is one. In New-Jersey there is not one, that I know of. Princeton, like a kind of Rome, I suppose, awes heresy into nothingness. In Pennsylvania, there are two or three small ones, just strong enough to hold themselves together, and two or three more, hardly strong enough for that. In Ohio, not one. In Delaware, not one. In Maryland, one in the city of Baltimore, formerly in prosperity, now in ad

There are in several of these States congregations called Unitarian; and so far as their discarding the doctrine of the Trinity entitles them to the appellation, they deserve it. But they have little or no effective sympathy with us; they would rather, I believe, decline any co-operation with us: their teachers may be regarded as missionaries themselves among a semi-civilized people. But I am now ready to speak of the Unitarian resources of Massachusetts, where there is doubtless more Unitarian

ism than in any other part of the United States. Unitarian societies, more or less flourishing, exist in almost every county, growing more frequent as Boston is approached, the nucleus and head quarters of American Unitarianism. I am not aware of the exact number of these Societies, but am ready to confess, that if they could be brought to act on any point, they would be sufficiently numerous and wealthy to effect something of consequence Why then are they not brought to act on the subject of foreign missions? Is it because Unitarianism is, as the reviewer says it is, essentially cold? No; but the short answer is, because Unitarisnism is not heartily and intelligently embraced by one half of these societies, nor by one third of the members of the

other half. This is the chief reason of our seeming remissness.

I will mention another fact, which, at the same time that it will be another index to the extent of our resources, will give rise the question, where are our missionaries to the heathen to come from? There is but one institution at present in our country, for which we look for educated ministers of our persuasion. And what is the num ber of students in the theological institution in Cambridge? I have not the catalogue before me, but if my memory serves me, it is about thirty. And how many candidates for the ministry? about 10. Yes, about ten candidates, to supply the demands of the United States and the East Indies! ten candidates to fill our vacant pulpits at home, and diffuse Unitarian Christianity thro' the distant regions of the earth!

Extract from Mr. INGERSOL'S Discourse before the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 1823.

"The Roman Catholic Church grows as vigorously as any other in the soil and atmosphere of Ameri

ca.

From a mere mission in 1790 the Roman Catholic establishment in the United States has spread into an extended and imposing hirearchy; consisting of a metropolitan see and ten bishoprics, containing between eighty and a hundred churches, some of them the most costly and splended ecclesiastical edifices in the country, superintended by about one hundred and sixty clergymen. The remotest quarters of the U. S. are occupied by these flourishing establishments, from the chapels of Damascotti (in Maine) and at Boston, to those of St. Augustine in Florida, and St.Louis in Missouri. There are Catholic seminaries at Bardstown and Frankfort

in Kentucky, a Catholic clerical seminary in Missouri, Catholic colleges at St. Louis and N. Orleans, where there is likewise a Catholic Lancasterian school, two Catholic charity schools at Baltimore, two in the district of Columbia, a Catholic college in the District of Columbia, a Catholic seminary at Emmitsburg in Maryland, a Catholic free school and Orphan's Asylum in Philadelphia. These large contributions to education are not, however, highly respectable and cultivated as many of them are, the most remarkable characteristics of the American Roman Catholic church. It is a circumstance pregnant with reflections and results, that the Jesuits, since their sup pression in Europe, have been established in this country. In 1801, by a brief of Pope Pious the Seventh, this Society, with the concurrence of the Emperor Paul, was established in Russia under a General authorized to resume and follow the rule of St. Ignatius of Loyola; which power was extended in 1806, to the United States of America, with permission to preach, educate youth, administer the sacraments, &c. with the consent and approbation of the ordinary. In 1807, a noviciate was opened at Georgetown college in the District of Columbia, which continued to improve till 1814, when, being deemed sufficiently established, the congregation was formally organized by a papal bull. This society now consists of twenty-six fathers, ten scholastics in theology, seventeen scholarships in philosophy, rhetoric and belles lettres, fourteen scholastics in the noviciate, twenty-two lay-brothers out of, and four lay-brothers in, the noviciate; some of whom are dispersed throughout the U. States, occupied in missionary duties, and

the cure of souls. This statement is enough to prove the marvellous radication of the strongest fabrics of the Roman Catholic church in our soil. But the argument does not stop here. The oldest Catholic literary establishment in this country, is the Catholic college just mentioned, which was founded immediately after the revolution, by the incorporated Catholic clergy of Maryland, now capable of containing two hundred resident students, furnished with an extensive and choice library, a philosophical and chemical apparatus of the latest improvement, and professorships in the Greek, Latin, French and English languages, mathematies, moral and natural philosophy, rhetoric and belles lettres. This institution I have mentioned was put, in 1805, under the direction of the society of Jesuits and that nothing might be wanting to the strong relief in which the subject appears, the college thus governed was by act of Congress of the United States of America, raised to the rank of a University, and empowered to confer degrees in any of the faculties. Thus, since the suppression of the order of Jesuits, about the time of the origin of the American revolution, has that celebrated brotherhood of propagandists been restored in the United States, and its principai and most operative institution organized and elevated by an act of our national legislature.

In like manner, the Sulpitian Monks have been incorporated by act of the legislature of the State of Maryland, in administration of the Catholic seminary at Baltimore. Still more remains, however, to be made known for so silent and unobtrusive is religious progress, when neither announced nor enforced by political power, that it is

probable, that many of these curious details may be new to some of those who now hear them mentioned. Those religious houses and retreats, which have been rended from their ancient seats in so many parts of Europe-monasteries and convents are sprouting up and casting their uncultivated fragrance throughout the kindlier glebes and wilds of America. Even where corruption and abuse had exposed them to destruction, learn ing turned with sorrow from the abomination of their desolation, and charity wept over the downfall of her ancient fanes. But here, where corruption and abuse can hardly exist in self-supported religious institutions-what have we to apprehend from these chaste and pious nurseries of education and alms? What may we not hope, on the contrary, for the mind, on their consecration and extension? In the oldest religious house in America, that of the female Carmelites, near port Tobacco, in Maryland, the established number of inmates is always complete. The convent of St. Mary's, at Georgetown, in the district of Columbia, contains fifty nuns, having under their care a day school, at which upwards of a hundred poor girls are educated. The convent of the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph, incorporated by the legislature of Maryland, at Emmittsburg in that State, consists of fifty-nine sisters, including novices, with fifty two young ladies under their tuition, and upwards of forty poor children. A convent of Ursulines, at Boston, is yet in its infancy, consisting of a prioress, six sisters, and two novices, who undertake to instruct those committed to their charge in every polite accomplishment, in addition to the useful branches of female education. The Emmittsburg Sisters of