arose from the digestion of strong doctrine; that very activity now
generated a new style of preaching, which may be termed the metaphysical
school. The days of _thaumaturgia_ were passed, and in place of
discussing demonology and temptation, an appetite for subtle dogma
prevailed. I doubt if Britain and Germany, with their combined
universities, could have equaled, during the last century, the New
England pulpit in mental acuteness or philosophical discrimination. A
reference to Edwards recalls mention among his followers of such names
as Smally, Bellamy, Emmons, and Hopkins. Those who listened to the
preaching of such men could not avoid becoming thinkers, and thought has
made our country what it is. Very possibly what is known as 'Yankee
ingenuity' arose from the thinking habits of careful sermon-hearers. A
man who could follow the subtle theories of the pulpit, could think out
the most elaborate machinery. Next to Jonathan Edwards, Dr. Emmons
possessed the most philosophical mind of the age. So severe and
invincible is his logic, that it is said that the New Haven lawyers
often sharpened their minds on Emmons' sermons. His scheme of making God
the author of sin may be considered one of the errors of a great mind. A
modern novelist has placed old Dr. Hopkins among the characters of a
romance. But however great may be the powers of Mrs. Stowe, it was quite
impossible for an æsthetic and poetic mind to grasp that bundle of
dried-up syllogisms which once occupied the Newport pulpit. Hopkins had
preached the church at Great Barrington empty, and that of Newport died
by lingering degrees. Only to think of that tall, ungainly form, the
head covered with a linen cap, stiff and white, coming forth like an
apparition once a week to the public gaze. We do not wonder at the
child's inquiry '_if it was God that stood up there_.' Hopkins' scheme
of 'indifferent affection' was a grand conception, but as unnatural as
grand: yet it showed an amazing boldness for a public teacher to lay
down as a postulate that a willingness to be damned was a condition of