Man's, 2. God's. It is very refreshing to find a volume of sermons so bright, so original, so profound and beautiful as these. Somebody says the day of reading sermons is over-though not the day of preaching them. These are sermons which would command readers in any age- and still more in this, when sectarian dulness and flexible ethics are about all that one looks for in the desk. We have found in this volume nothing in the least degree sectarian, all is large and liberal; there is piety without silliness, wisdom without conceit, and humanity with no mawkish sentimentalism. We can only say to the author, Send us more.

6.

Washington and his Generals; or, Legends of the Revolu tion. By GEORGE LIPPARD, Author of Ladye Annabel, The Quaker City, Blanche of Brandywine, Herbert Tracy, The Nazarene, or the last of the Washingtons, &c. With an Introductory Essay by REV. C. CHAUNCEY BURR. Philadelphia. 1847. 8vo. pp. XXVIII and 538.

In this work and the others from the same pen, we discover traces of a man of superior abilities; of a noble and generous nature. But he seems ill at ease, stung, perhaps, by misfortune, or by neglect, by seeing the wrongs of the world, and the men who fatten upon those wrongs. He writes often from an inferior motive, yet always in the interest of mankind, showing a ready sympathy with justice, mercy, and unaffected trust in God. He does not seem at peace with himself or with the world. There are many things in his works which we are sorry to see, for his many excellences show the ability to do better things. Some day we shall hope for a work better than his terrible paintings of crime and sin in "The Quaker City." But he never makes vice lovely. The monster certainly has a "frightful mien," yet the moral effect of such a book as that is more than questionable to

us.

We can understand how Schiller could write his "Robbers," easier than we can read the play a second time; and are not pleased to see an able man writing from such an impulse. Even "The Quaker City" has scenes of great power and unexceptionable excellence.

The Legends of the Revolution extend over but a small part of the whole war, and relate mainly to the battle of Germantown, the life of Benedict Arnold, the battle of Brandywine, and the declaration of Independence. It contains many fine scenes, though the descriptions are too full, and the phraseology too intense, to suit a classic taste.

7.- Narrative of an Exploratory Visit to each of the Consular Cities of China and to the Islands of Hong-Kong and Chusan, in behalf of the Church Missionary Society, in the years 1844, 1845, 1846. By the REV. GEORGE SMITH, M. A., of Magdalen Hall, Oxford, and late missionary to China. London. 1847. 8vo. pp. XXIV and 532.

MR. Smith visited Canton "to ascertain the precise nature of local facilities for Missionary enterprise," and "to procure a native teacher of the mandarin or court dialect." The book is marked by ignorance, conceit, and bigotry, and contains but little information of any value to the general reader. Mr. Smith conversed with a Parsee on religious subjects, and, desirous of overwhelming the heathen, "singling out especially an emaciated form of infant suffering, we once asked him how on any other hypothesis than that of the entrance of sin into the world and the fall of man, he could regard misery at so early an age as compatible with the infinite benevolence of the Creator. He seemed to feel the force of the argument; but endeavoured to evade it by suddenly asking us how it was there were so many sects of Christians."

One day Mr. Smith visited a Budhist: the priests came up and "intimated their desire" that he "would give them tobacco." "We made known to them," adds the author, "that we had no such gift for them, but offered them some copies of the Epistle to the Ephesians, and a tract, entitled 'The Way of Eternal Blessedness."" One Chinaman told him that since the war with England the Chinese "were more disinclined than formerly to listen to Christian doctrine; thinking that if Englishmen were Christians it could not be a good religion which permitted them to be so insolent and mischievous." Another said, "Perhaps this English doctrine may be very good; but we wish that you would try it first on the English themselves, for they are wicked men; when this doctrine has made them better, then come and speak to us." "My Chinese boy more than once on the voyage, [to Shanghai in a vessel carrying seven hundred and fifty boxes of opium, valued at about $750,000] asked me whether I knew there was opium on board, and what I should say in reply to the Chinese, if, after hearing me speak to them about... Jesus' doctrines,' they should ask why I had come in a ship that brought opium, of which so many of his countrymen ate and perished." The missionary does not tell us how he "evaded" these remarks. He gives rather a tame picture of the opium-ships, and a much mitigated statement of the effect of the drug. On the other hand, he exaggerates the number of cases of infanticide: "out of four daughters poor men generally murdered two, and sometimes even three."

8.

The True Story of my Life; a Sketch by Hans Christian Andersen. Translated by MARY HOWITT. Boston: James Munroe & Co. 1847. 12mo. pp. VIII and 298.

THIS is a simple and unaffected little autobiography. It is full of delicate little touches of nature, not without a good-humored satire. The occasional notices of the distinguished men of the time such as Thorwaldsen, Oehlenschlager, Grimm, Goethe, and others enhance the variety and liveliness of the story. Andersen was once troubled by a swarm of critics, and thus writes of them. "The newspaper criticism in Copenhagen was infinitely stupid. It was set down as an exaggeration, that I could have seen the whole round blue globe of the moon in Smyrna, at the time of the new moon. That was called fancy and extravagance, which there any one sees who can open his eyes."— p. 157. He was not wholly above such criticism, but "felt a desire to flagellate such wet dogs, who come into our rooms and lay themselves down in the best place in them."- p. 158. He everywhere gives indications of a warm, humane, generous heart-though possessed of no very lofty poetic imagination. His little stories for children have a certain grace and charmingness about them, which can only come from a man's experience combined with a childlike simplicity.

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Views of Christian Nurture and subjects adjacent thereto. By HORACE BUSHNELL. Hartford. 1847. 12mo. pp. 252.

THIS volume contains two discourses on Christian nurture, designed to show, that if you educate the religious nature of a child the child will commonly turn out a religious man, without needing to go through the process of transformation in a "revival." The child is "to grow up a Christian," and at last will be a Christian grown up, not a Christian made up. He thinks with Baxter, that "education is as properly a means of grace as preaching." Then follows an argument for "Discourses on Christian Nurture," a tract originally "addressed to the publishing committee of the Massachusetts Sabbath School Society," who had printed his discourses and then suppressed them. The argument is sharp and convincing, but, considering the weakness of the persons addressed, perhaps a little too hard and cutting.

Then comes a paper on the "Spiritual economy of Revivals;" another, entitled "Growth, not Conquest, the true Method of Christian Progress;" a third, called "The Organic Unity of the Family;" a fourth, on "The Scene of the Pentecost and the Christian Parish," and a "Note," defending himself against cer

tain misrepresentations. We need scarcely say that Dr. Bushnell is pastor of a church in Hartford, Conn., of what is commonly called the Orthodox denomination, nor that at this day he is one of the brightest ornaments of that denomination itself. He is what may be called a "liberal Christian," holding fast to his own theory, but allowing other men to do the same for themselves. In this book, and in the numerous sermons he has published, we find talents of a high order united with a genuine Christian piety. His style is fresh and vigorous, original, always manly and often eloquent. The appearance of such a man-and he is not alone in his denomination—is a cheering sign of the times. It remains, however, to be shown, whether his denomination will tolerate such freedom of thought and speech as he claims to exercise. To him it is of no consequence how they decide, but of much to themselves.

10.- The Gospel of To-day: a Discourse delivered at the Ordination of T. W. Higginson as Minister of the First Religious Society in Newburyport, Mass., Sept. 15th, 1847, by WILLIAM HENRY CHANNING; together with the Charge, Right-hand of Fellowship, and Address to the People. Boston. 1847. pp. 64.

MR. Channing says, "Infinite love is the primal source of life; oneness with God and good spirits the real immortality; disinterestedness the sufficing joy; goodness the only way to heaven," but still the peculiar signs of the times require a "gospel for today" as well as for ever. All the tendencies of the age converge to one end. The tendencies of Piety are revivalism, naturalism, catholicism; of Philanthropy, social reforms, educational plans, and religious charities; of Politics, liberalism, legitimacy, political economy. "The whole age is sweeping onward towards the era of combined order." And in the very thought of that—" of society organized according to divine law-is revealed a prophecy of unspeakable grandeur." All things point towards perfect society. He does not describe perfect society, but announces four fundamental Truths, the corner-stones of this Temple of Unity;" namely, 'God is Love;' Nature is the symbol of the Eternal Being;'Humanity is one-one in its physical, social, spiritual life.' 'The Law of order for humanity, among all nations, within each nation, between individuals, is, once and for ever, Love.' The anticipation of perfect society is not visionary; this appears from the character of God, from man's modes of existence-psychical, social, spiritual-and his position between nature below and heaven above. All things are leading us onward to "oneness with man, with nature, and with God." The discourse is marked by the well-known characteristics of the distinguished author; by human

ity, piety, by rare and beautiful eloquence. The other addresses are likewise of a high order, and entirely free from bigotry and sectarianism. Mr. Higginson-like his ancestor in 1629, the first minister ordained in New England-was ordained without help or hindrance from any "ecclesiastical council."

11.

Modern Painters. Third Edition. London: Smith, Elder, & Co. 1846. 2 vols. imp. 8vo. pp. 422 and 217. (The first volume reprinted by Wiley & Putnam. New York. 1847.)

We hope to be able at some future time to lay before our readers an extended examination of this remarkable book. Meanwhile, a mere passing notice might seem superfluous, as it appears to have already made its own way. Nevertheless, as this work seems to us not less important to the unartistic lover of Nature than to the painter or connoisseur-and as these sheets may perchance fall into the hands of some one who has not heard it praised, we cannot refrain from making a few extracts.

This book, which at present consists of two volumes, but of which we are promised a third volume, with illustrations, originated, as the preface tells us, "in indignation at the shallow and false criticism of the periodicals of the day on the works of the great living artist [J. M. W. Turner] to whom it principally refers." Its purpose "is to demonstrate the utter falseness both of the facts and principles, the imperfection of material, and error of arrangement," on which the so-called "ideal" landscapes of the old painters are based; "and to insist on the necessity, as well as the dignity, of an earnest, faithful, living, study of Nature as she is, rejecting with abhorrence all that man has ever done to alter and modify her." The old landscapists, he thinks, "had neither love of Nature, nor feeling of her beauty; they looked for her coldest and most commonplace effects, because they were easiest to imitate;" "the deception of the senses was the great and first end of all their art." The modern English painters, on the contrary, and particularly Turner, according to him, "have looked at Nature with totally different eyes; seeking not for what is easiest to imitate, but for what is most important to tell."

Whether Mr. Turner and his countrymen deserve the high relative rank here given them, we have in this country few facilities for judging: probably few will admit the justice of all he says on this point, and we may trace here, perhaps, some injurious effects of the circumstances under which the book, or at least the first part of it, was written.

But this we conceive to be altogether a minor question. The NO. I.

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