“The churches in the village undertook their periodical ‘revivals,’ which absorbed the interest of the community while they lasted.  It was not the usual season in Ptolemy for such agitations of the religious atmosphere,—­but the Methodist clergyman, a very zealous and impassioned speaker, having initiated the movement with great success, the other sects became alarmed lest he should sweep all the repentant sinners of the place into his own fold.  As soon as they could obtain help from Tiberius, the Baptists followed, and the Rev. Lemuel Styles was constrained to do likewise.  For a few days the latter regained the ground he had lost, and seemed about to distance his competitors.  Luckily for him,... the material for conversion, drawn upon from so many different quarters, was soon exhausted; but the rival churches stoutly held out, until convinced that neither had any further advantage to gain over the other.”

No one who has given to the religious phenomena of the day the smallest degree of intellectual and sympathetic attention can fail to pronounce this a gross and ill-bred caricature.  Ridicule is the legitimate weapon of Truth; but ridicule that strikes rudely and indiscriminately, wounding without benefiting, is not found in the hands of Christian courtesy.  We regret these blemishes, and such as these, the more because we are persuaded that the effects produced were not intended by the author.  We believe, not only from his previous reputation, but from the spirit of the book, which warms, deepens, and clarifies itself as it goes on, that he aimed only at results pure, healthful, and desirable.  It is by no design of his, that young feet, already wavering downward, will not be strengthened to pause, to turn, to steady themselves, but will rather be lured on by his words.  It is no purpose of his to make the crusts of Materialism harden still more hopelessly above the stifled soul.  He designs to ridicule only that which is ridiculous.  There are evidences of a purpose to relieve the darkness of his coloring in each instance by lines of light, but it is not made palpable enough for running readers.  He has seen the weakness that generally develops itself in, and the hypocrisy that almost invariably clings to the skirts of a great popular movement, and it is these alone which he aims to bring down.  In this he is right.  He errs in that his vision is neither clear nor broad.  He does not always wisely discriminate as to the nature or extent of the disease, or the effect of the remedy which he applies.  The cause of the difficulty has baffled his researches.  The people upon whom his strictures fall, and to whom strictures belong, will be inflamed, but they will not be enlightened; and they who do see the real nature of the movement, its bane as well as its blessing, and who are constantly laboring to separate the chaff from the wheat, will not be helped, but hindered, by his well-meant efforts.