leaving to those who knew him a treasure of recollections, too precious to be expressed in any way, but in thankful and humble endeavours to follow after those good things, which he had so abundantly received and so faithfully kept. His conviction of the dangerousness of novel opinions, and of the extreme importance of the doctrines connected with the visible Church, seemed to increase as he grew older; and one of the latest sentiments which he is remembered to have uttered on that subject was, "that he had quite left off calling our Church the establishment,” a phrase, as he seemed to think, tending too much to disguise its real claims. He was buried in the south chancel of Worcester Cathedral. His father had died in 1819, three days after his own marriage. His revered mother survived him four years; she died Aug. 29th, 1838, at the age of seventynine. He was himself when he died not quite fifty-seven years old. His children were four sons and six daughters, of whom all but two daughters survive. The present volume consists entirely of pieces which Mr. Davison had published at various times; and which it seemed advisable to collect and republish, both in respect to his valued memory, and for the sake of those high interests to which his pen and his life were devoted. Nothing hitherto unpublished appears in it; and a few pieces, chiefly of an earlier date, have been omitted in obedience to his known wish, that they should pass into oblivion. The collection is rather of a miscellaneous character; but it will be found to be arranged somewhat in the follow ing order: first, what relates to Theology, including the remarks on Baptismal Regeneration; next, discussions on Education; for to that head may be referred the papers on the Edinburgh Review and on Mr. Edgeworth; lastly, those which are more or less Political: not using that word in any party or ephemeral sense, but applying it to his reasonings on public morals, as affected by the Criminal Laws of a country, by its Institutions for the relief of the Poor, and by its mode of carrying into effect discoveries in (what is called) Political Economy. In all these subjects it is particularly satisfactory to notice the testimony which is borne against certain errors, of which we seem to be reaping the fruit: when he wrote, they were comparatively inactive and harmless. Such are the idolizing of temporal and mechanical, in comparison of sacred and moral knowledge, as the main ingredient of education;—the measuring all things by visible utility; inordinate favour to convicted criminals ;-unsparing severity in suddenly withdrawing boons, unwise perhaps, as at first granted, from the poor of the country;—and a hard, inconsiderate way of carrying out theories of public wealth, admitted to be abstractedly just, but not always possible to be suddenly realized without violating both justice and benevolence. His protest against this last error (or should it rather be called "crime?") is contained in the Letter to Mr. Canning on the Silk Trade. Though the immediate occasion has passed away, yet it seemed right to preserve that publication as a memorial, not only of his acuteness and diligence in acquainting himself with matters apparently far out of his way, but still more, of his deep, uncompromising, generous care for the Poor. But most especially it seems desirable to draw attention to the manner in which the Treatise on Primitive Sacrifice states the claims of true Natural Religion, as against certain views too common in modern Theology. As to the main argument of the work now referred to, without wishing to express an opinion of it one way or the other, it may be right to observe, that it is clearly misapprehended by those who represent it as disputing altogether the Divine Origin of all Sacrifice. Its conclusions amount to this :-that Sacrifices, Eucharistical and Penitentiary, might be, and probably were, of Human origin, though presently sanctioned by Divine approbation; but that the idea of Expiatory Sacrifice was clearly supernatural. Certain portions of the argument may admit of difference of opinion; but that his general conclusion is such as has been now stated, must be plain to any one diligently reading his Treatise, and is affirmed only because it has met with so much misapprehension in opposite quarters. The Treatise is printed from a copy which he had himself corrected, though not finally, with a view to a fresh edition. The notes thus added have generally been marked with brackets, and should have been so throughout. It will be observed that many of them are references to the Fathers, to the study of whose works he found himself drawn more and more in the later years of his theological reading. Acknowledgments are especially due to the Proprietor of the Quarterly Review, for the very handsome manner in which he has allowed the reprint of the four articles from that Journal, which form so considerable a portion of this volume. It may not be unsuitable to conclude this preface with a few lines, which shew with what power and delicacy he could have practised poetical composition. They are monumental lines, in memory of one very dear to him, and are engraven on a tablet in the south chancel of Worcester Cathedral, close to the spot where his own remains rest : "If heavenly flow'rs might bloom unharm'd on earth, And gales of Eden still their balm bestow, Thy gentle virtues rich in purest worth "Lov'd daughter, sister, friend :-we saw awhile Thy meek ey'd modesty which lov'd the shade, Thy faithfulness which knew nor change, nor guile, Thy heart, like incense, on GOD's Altar laid. "But HE whose SPIRIT breathes the air Divine, |