ment.

This engages me to publish this present declaration, to inform all who are in posts in my empire, from the prince to the simple magistrate, to inquire carefully after persons of merit for my service. Such, for instance, as know the world perfectly well; others who have a thorough understanding of all affairs relating to the State; but above all, such as have resolution and honesty enough to inform me fully of what they think amiss in my conduct."

The author concludes that "the certainty of attaining rank and wealth in the State, merely through personal qualifications, stimulates the whole nation to healthful exertions, thus diffusing prosperity throughout it, and multiplying its powers to a great extent."

The following quotation is from Mencius. "Those who wrangle and fight for territory and fill the wastes with dead bodies, and who fight for cities so as to fill the cities with dead bodies, may be said to lead [men] on the earth to eat human flesh. Death is not a sufficient punishment for such crimes. Those, then, who delight in war, deserve the highest punishment."

The family of the king, lineal descendants of Confucius, are still numerous, and have just claims to be considered the oldest and most noble family in the world. "Confucius never pretended to any superhuman powers, or intelligence with superior beings; was neither a fanatic nor an impostor, but simply a moral philosopher and a statesman, and his doctrines have obtained their present great authority merely because they are generally sound.""

The author thinks infanticide is not much more common in China than in England; but lying is a vice almost universal.

5.- Theodore Parker's, neu-unitarischen Predigers zu Boston, Untersuchungen über Religion; aus dem Englischen übersetzt und mit einem Vorwort begleitet. Von HEINRICH WOLF, Archidiaconus an St. Nicholai in Kiel. Kiel: Karl Schröder und Comp. 1848. 1 vol. 8vo. pp. xxvi and 374.

THIS is a translation of Mr. Parker's Discourse of Matters pertaining to Religion, and is executed with extraordinary diligence, success, and beauty. In the preface the translator says, there has never been a period of so much movement of thought in the religious world since the Reformation, as now. He doubts whether the age of the Reformation itself was so rich as ours in religious developments. But it is still the old controversy between the One Religion and the various Theologies. The victory is certain, but the question is, How can it be achieved with the least cost? The old forms of theological belief are no longer tenable. The Reformation was a great advance, but not the end of progress. It

broke the chains of tradition, fell back on the Bible, and allowed entire freedom in the criticism and exposition of that. We have now to confess that the standard measure of religious truth is not to be found in the Bible, but in Reason and Conscience. The reformers were not advanced enough to accomplish that work. If we are to go no further than they went we may complain that the first step was taken; for what avails it to declare the soul free, and then insist on entire uniformity of theological belief? That can only be accomplished by fettering the soul. Men may create silence and call it peace, but the man who feels the fetters calls it sullen-Death.

He gives a brief account of the rise of the Unitarian sect in Europe, and thinks it was they who most clearly understood the fundamental principle of the Reformation, have most faithfully represented it in the ages, and have continually endeavoured to bring themselves and the world into a clearer consciousness thereof. He cannot understand how Francke could have said "The Socinians are the only Christian sect which have no seed of Regeneration in them." To an unprejudiced eye they are eminently the representatives of the Protestant Idea.

He touches briefly the history of the Socini and their followers, and says that at Siebenbürgen there are at present one hundred and four Unitarian parishes, one hundred and twenty clergymen, and about forty thousand souls; then follows an account of Unitarianism in England and America, taken mainly from the writings of Drs. Baird and Lamson. He thinks that in America the Unitarians have latterly been somewhat untrue to their first principles, and have neglected their high vocation. He mentions the distinguished men in America who have once been Unitarian preachers and have since left that calling, considering their action as an important sign of the times.

6.- An American Dictionary of the English Language, &c., &c., by Noah Webster, LL. D., &c., &c. Revised and Enlarged, by Chauncey A. Goodrich, &c., &c. Springfield. 1848. 1 vol. 4to. pp. LXXXIV and 1368.

WE would have copied the whole title, but had not space to insert more than a brief notice of the work itself, and thought it better to omit part of the title than the whole of the notice.

This new edition contains all the matter of the former edition of Webster's Dictionary, in 2 vols, 4to., with additions by his sonin-law, the editor. It is a work of great research and learning,a work of great value. No pains seem to have been spared to render the dictionary accurate and complete. The words relating

to various arts and professions have been examined by eminent men to whose special studies such words apply. An attempt is made to give all the words in common use, and all that are found in such writers as Bacon, Spenser, and Shakspeare. American words, also, have a place in the dictionary, though they are few in number. Some alterations have been made in the orthography of Dr. Webster, but perhaps not enough to satisfy the demands of a classic English reader. With all the gratitude we feel to Dr. Webster for his great services to all departments of English lexicography, we must confess that he has tended somewhat to vulgarize the tongue in some of his changes of the orthography. We could wish he had not been quite so obstinate in his adhesion to an opinion once formed and expressed.

The introductory furniture of the dictionary is abundant and valuable. The etymologies are sometimes extraordinarily felicitous, sometimes a little far-fetched. We could wish to see a few more words relating to the ritual of the Roman and English churches, which an American often meets with both in ancient and modern writers, but which none of the common dictionaries help him to understand. The tables of proper names, Hebrew, classic, and modern, with their pronunciation, are exceedingly serviceable. We cannot hope Dr. Webster will be followed in all respects, but we are sure he has done a great service to all who speak the English tongue, and are happy to see the proof of his widening usefulness and increasing reputation which this new edition of his great work affords.

7.- Revolutionary Services and Civil Life of General William Hull, prepared from his manuscripts by his daughter, MRS. MARIA CAMPBELL; together with the History of the Campaign of 1812 and surrender of the Port of Detroit; by his grandson, JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. New York. 1848. 1 vol. 8vo. pp. xv and 482.

THE first part of this work, relating to the Revolutionary services of General Hull, is a valuable contribution to American history, reflecting honor on the early life of the General. But the second part is the more important, inasmuch as it entirely exculpates General Hull from the charges so long and so often brought against him, and, as it has long seemed to us, unjustly. This history has only confirmed the impressions made on us years ago by the report of the trial of the General,-that he was entirely innocent of the offences charged on him; that the failure of his expedition and the fall of Detroit were not to be charged to him. The work is written throughout with good temper, with evident

freedom from all party spirit, with clearness and simplicity, and as it should be, by a grandson-with mingled reverence and affection. Yet, while General Hull is defended, it became unavoidable that his detractors should be spoken of. Doubtless we shall hear

from them, and the whole matter will probably be thoroughly sifted anew, the old charges reiterated, and the old battle fought over again.

8. A Letter to the People of the United States, touching the Matter of Slavery. By THEODORE PARKER. Boston: J. Munroe & Co. 1848. pp. 120.

[The following communication has been handed to us as a note on the part of the work relating to the effects of Slavery on industry.]

"The aggregate annual earnings" of the free and slave states, stated in dollars, give no proximate idea whatever of the comparative wealth which a free and a slave population respectively produce; and for this reason:

The labor which it costs to produce a commodity, - and not its market price at a particular time, is the measure of its value, as wealth, judging generally. The market price of a commodity, at a given time, will depend mainly upon the greater or less quantity in the market, at that time, relatively to the demand. Thus, a commodity which has cost but one hour's labor may, owing to the scarcity of the article at a particular time, bring as much in the market as another commodity that has cost ten hours' labor. This shows why the productions of the South, when estimated in money, at their present market price, approximate in value to those of the North. The South enjoys a monopoly for some of its most important productions; and not producing enough to supply the demand, obtains a high price for what has really cost but little labor; and its "aggregate earnings," estimated in money, make a somewhat tolerable comparison with those of the North. Yet it is probable that the population of the North, with its superior diligence, energy, skill, implements, and machinery, perform ten, twenty, or thirty times as much labor, and therefore produce ten, twenty, or thirty times as much wealth (judging wealth by its true general standard,) as that of the South, man for But the North, by its labor, produces such an abundance of its peculiar commodities, and sells them subject to so severe a competition from abroad, that their market value is reduced, and "their aggregate" value, measured by money, makes no fair comparison with the aggregate value of the commodities of the South, which are produced in but small quantities, and sold with all the advantages of monopoly in their favor.

man.

If the South performed as much labor as the North, man for

man, its productions would be much more various, and yet so much more abundant, as to be reduced in price. It would thereby add ten or twenty fold more than now, to the aggregate wealth of the world, although the nominal value, in money, might be little or nothing greater than that of their present productions.

A necessary consequence of the present state of things is, that when the North and the South make an exchange of productions, of the same nominal value, the North gives the South ten or twenty times as much wealth - or the product of ten or twenty times as much labor-as the South gives in return.

When the North sells to the South a yard of cotton in exchange for a pound of tobacco, she gives to the South an article of wealth, which its slave labor, if educated only by the masters, with no aid or instruction from free laborers, would probably never have been able to produce. A community consisting solely of slaves and slave-holders, if cut off from the rest of the world, would probably never bring the mechanic arts to that degree of perfection that would enable them to manufacture a yard of our cheap cotton. These things illustrate, in some measure, how little in comparison a slave population if placed in the same circumstances as a free one would contribute to the aggregate wealth of the world. They show also that our slave states in reality give comparatively little in exchange for what they receive, when they make exchanges with the free states.

[We learn from the best authority that there are not in the state of Connecticut ten adults born in that state and unable to read and write; of the 536 persons reported in the census as ignorant to that degree, almost all are Irishmen. This fact makes the educational difference between Connecticut and South Carolina still more enormous than before.-T. P.]

9.-Essays, Lectures, and Orations, by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

"Thus deeply drinking in the soul of things,

We shall be wise perforce."

London: William S. Orr & Co. 1848. 1 vol. 18mo. pp. XII and 364.

THIS is a piratical reprint of nearly all the published prose writings of Mr. Emerson. The volume contains a preface entitled "Emerson and his Writings;" the first volume of his Essays, his essay called "Nature," sketches or reports of three lectures on the Times, and four Orations; namely, the Addresses delivered before the Divinity School; before the Mechanic Apprentices' Library Association; before the Phi Beta Kappa Society; and before the Adelphi in Waterville College.