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2.- Prison Life and Reflections, or, a Narrative of the Arrest, Trial, Conviction, Imprisonment, Treatment, Observations, Reflections, and Deliverance, of Work, Burr, and Thompson. who suffered an unjust and cruel imprisonment in the Missouri Penitentiary, for attempting to aid some slaves to liberty. Three parts in one volume. By GEORGE THOMPSON, one of the prisoners. Oberlin: Printed by James M. Fitch. 1847. 12mo. pp. XVI and 417.

THE above title is sufficiently descriptive of the work.

3.- The Characteristics of the Present Age. By JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE. Translated from the German by WILLIAM SMITH. London: John Chapman. 1847. 12mo. pp. XVI

and 271.

Two years ago Mr. Smith translated another work of Fichte, "The Nature of the Scholar," to which he prefixed a short but beautiful memoir of its author, and last year Mrs. Percy Sinnett translated his "Destination of Man." Fichte thus is likely to become well known to English readers. The present volume contains seventeen lectures on the following subjects: Idea of universal history; a general and minute delineation of the present age and its scientific condition; the Life according to Reason; earlier conditions of the scientific or literary world, and its ideal condition; Mysticism as a phenomenon of the present age; the origin and limits of History; the absolute form and historical development of the State; Influence of Christianity on the State; Development of the State in modern Europe; Public Morality and Public Religion of the present age; Conclusion. He promises also to translate Fichte's "Doctrine of Religion," the ablest and most celebrated of all his works. The translation is more free than literal.

4.- A Vindication of Protestant Principles. By Phileleutherus Anglicanus. Nihil tam tectum est, quod non sit detegendum, non semper pendebit inter latrones Christus: resurget aliquando crucifixa veritas. London: John W. Parker. 1847. pp. XVI and 194.

8vo.

THIS is the work of some man who has read much amongst philosophical and theological writers, and has thought much. He thinks William of Ockham originated the Protestant principles; that Luther and Bucer were not the main springs of the Reforma

tion in England, but the revival of letters and the influence of Melancthon. The articles of the English church have a "comprehensive Protestantism." However, he admits errors in the church establishment, but thinks the Puritans mainly to be blamed for their existence. The most important feature of the book is the author's opposition to all worship of the Bible. He considers that Strauss has overthrown rationalism on the one hand, and verbal inspiration on the other; at the same time he thinks "the Scriptures deliver an authoritative message from God to man, in regard to all matters of essential and religious truth, therein set forth," and thinks the gradual development of religious truth was terminated by the final revelation of the gospel. After a good deal of good-humored discussion and learned talk, he comes to the conclusion, "that it is the duty of all rational men, who are subjects of the British crown, to enter the widely-spread portals of the national church, which allows full scope for the free exercise of the privilege" of reading the Scriptures, "and treats with enlightened tolerance every unimportant modification of religious sentiments." He "cannot understand why any one who acquiesces in the judicial authority of the Lord Chancellor should object to the ecclesiastical supremacy of the Archbishop of Canterbury." The author has but a poor appreciation of the doctrine of the Trinity.

5.

Endeavours after the Christian Life. Discourses by JAMES MARTINEAU. Vol. II. London. 1847. 12mo. pp. XII and 349.

THE first volume of the "Endeavours" was published in 1843, and has been republished and extensively read in America. This work is thus worthily dedicated: "To Rev. John Hamilton Thom, this volume, the expression of a heart enlarged by his friendship and often aided by his wisdom, is dedicated, in memory of many labors lightened by partnership, purposes invigorated by sympathy, and the vicissitudes of years balanced by constancy of affection." This volume contains twenty-one sermons, with the following titles: Where is thy God? The Sorrow with downward Look; The Shadow of Death; Great Hopes for great Souls; Lo! God is here; Christian Self-consciousness; The unclouded Heart; Help Thou mine Unbelief; Having, Doing, and Being; The Freeman of Christ; The Good Soldier of Jesus Christ; The Realm of Order; The Christian Doctrine of Merit; The Child's Thought; Looking up and Lifting up; The Christian Timeview; The Family in Heaven and Earth; The Single and the Evil Eye; The Seven Sleepers; The Sphere of Silence-1.

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 Revolution. 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 66 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.

9

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

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